Driven Far Off

The latest on the indie, alternative, and rock music scene including news, music, contest, interviews, and more. Best described as your favorite place to find new bands.

Thrice Interview – September 5th, 2008

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I had my doubts when Thrice repeatedly changed the schedulued time just hours before the interview at Pipeline Cafe in Honolulu, HI, but was shocked when I found out why: lead vocalist Dustin Kensrue had something come up but was cooperating as much as possible so he would not have to cancel on Driven Far Off. It’s not often that a band will work around their schedule for a little interview like Thrice did, and I was pleased to see that after ten years the band still has a tremendous amount of dedication to their fans and music.

Special thanks to Katy Hardy at Vagrant Records and to Damon, the very accommodating tour manager

– What is the story behind the name Thrice?

Dustin: It was an old inside joke when a bunch of us were still in high school, not really any major significance. Someone said it once and then we all used to say it. Then we needed a band name and defecto, that was it.

– How did the band form?

D: I knew Teppei from school, and then he knew Eddie from skating, and Riley is Eddie’s brother so it just kind of all linked through. We started playing back in ’98 and we’ve just been slowly moving along, making records, playing shows.

– What is the process for writing the music and lyrics?

D: Music–we all collaborate and every song seems to be different; how it forms, whether it’s someone’s idea and then we go and jam on it, or someone has a full demo and we deconstruct that. As far as lyrics, I write all of the lyrics and I’ll have just a little idea of something, and I’ll write it down and kind of play with it and eventually build that song off of that, then go back and re-edit and re-edit until I’m happy with it.

– If you could choose one song off of your albums to broadcast to everyone in the world, what would song would you pick?

D: We all really like the song The Earth Will Shake, on Vheissu–though that might not be a good choice for the world because there is some screaming involved–but it’s a pretty unique song; it’s got a good groove to it.

– Do you string an intentional theme throughout all of your lyrics?

D: No, but after I’m done with records I can go back and see themes running through it, but it’s not something that I was trying to do; it usually just happens over stuff I’m dealing with at the time. I just try to write stuff that feels honest to me at the time. Even if you’d rather write something else, I think when you are honest about where you are at, it just comes out. Even when the songs are dark, I want there to be a point to that darkness, either it’s a point that needs to be looked at, or it’s there to contrast something good.

– What artists or individuals have been influential to you and the band from the start?

D: I grew up listening to the Beatles a ton, so I think that has always been the bedrock of my musical understanding, and as a group I think Radiohead has been a large influence for us. We all love their music and I’d say that they are probably collectively our favorite band, but also they’ve made some interesting choices in their career. They have made sure what they wanted to do and have been successful doing it; it’s something to admire.

– Are you trying to accomplish anything through the fame that you have?

D: Oh I don’t think I have much fame…but hopefully not get more fame [laughs]. I don’t know, anytime you’re in any kind of spotlight it’s good to try and use it for something positive. We did various stuff with it for charities for each record, and we try to use the pedestal to get people involved in more things or at least knowledgeable about certain things that are happening.

– Have there ever been any times when you have just wanted to quit?

D: Yes. It’s hard being away from family and it’s frustrating not being able to pursue some other things, like you’re just not home long enough to go to school at all or work in a job. There are a lot of frustrations with that stuff, but I love doing it despite all of the hard stuff.

– Do you still get nervous before shows?

D: No, but random occasions I get nervous. Like I played a song for my wife’s graduation from nursing school, and I was super nervous. It’s just a weird formal setting, so weird stuff like that I’ll get nervous about.

– What do you guys do in your free time?

D: I have a little daughter, so I don’t have much free time anymore, but I just write music and hang out with her and my wife. Teppei has a little boy now, so he does that and he tries to do a little recording on the side; Eddie surfs and rides his bike; and Riley plays his sports and does a blog.

– The majority of new bands seem to be in their late “˜teens and early twenties, while you guys are nearing your thirties. Do you feel that your age gives you advantage or does it even affect the music?

D: The way it seems like popular music is going, I don’t think it is an advantage, but having been around for a while we have some people who have been with us for a long time. I don’t think we are going to appeal to new up and coming audiences unless they have an older sibling or something that had introduced them. It seems like the younger generations are focused on the new thing that’s happening that coincides with whatever fad is happening at the time.

– What can we expect to see from you guys in the upcoming years?

D: Some more music–but I don’t know what it’s going to sound like! We’re getting ready to start sharing ideas and getting ready for whatever our next recording project is going to be. I’m excited about it; there’s definitely stuff in the air.

Camera Can’t Lie Interview – June 21st, 2008

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When the interview plans fell through, Camera Can’t Lie graciously offered to conduct an interview with me anyway. I was able to chat with singer/guitarist Eric, and pianist Tim about their growing popularity and aspirations before they played Bash on the Farm in Garner, IA.

I want to thank Eric and Tim for talking with me and making this interview possible.

~ How did you get started in Camera Can’t Lie?

E: Tim and I had been playing for about four years in different bands, and this band started up last March with the addition of two new guys from the Twin Cities area in Minneapolis. Then our high school friend that had been playing bass with us, Kyle, joined. That’s how the five piece Camera Can’t Lie kind of started.

~ The band’s fan base has grown considerably since it first started. Has that popularity affected you guys at all?

T: Nothing has really changed and we definitely aren’t famous yet, but we’re still just taking it one step at a time. Being signed isn’t the end of the race. There’s plenty more to do and we still have a lot of work ahead of us.

~ How does it feel to have recently signed with a major label like Atlantic Records?

E: It’s really surreal. It’s a dream come true basically. We feel very blessed and we’re not taking this for granted. We’re certainly happy to get there and now we will hopefully see a lot more progress.

~ What goals pertaining to music have you set to accomplish within the next few years?

E: We’re going to put out a new record, and I guess as a musician and song writer, my number one goal would be to create an album that is timeless. An album that someone can put on and listen to all the way through, from track 1 to track 12, and become something that speaks to them and becomes the soundtrack to their life.

~ As the main songwriter, what is your process for writing the lyrics and melodies?

E: There’s like two different processes; sometimes I’ll be journaling and have something that’s in my heart and I want to say, and that sparks a lyric or an idea for a song, but most of the time I write a song I write the melody and then the lyrics come after. I like to write about experiences that other people have, people that are close to me, because my life is kind of boring and uneventful. I just want to be a voice for other people.

~ What theme would you say runs throughout all of your music?

E: I guess to sum it up would be a theme of hope. There’s so much evil in the world but eventually we hope that with our passion we can achieve something. You can change the world just by showing kindness and love.

~ Do you face any difficulties that come with being in a band?

E: Oh there are tons. People think that it’s really glamorous, but it’s not always. I want to do nothing but play music, and getting on stage is the best feeling I’ve ever experienced in my life, but spending six or eight hours in a van everyday, cramped and eating Taco Bell and Burger King and sleeping on people’s floor is difficult. There are guys that have long distance relationships and I think that relationship can be one of the hardest to maintain while being in a band. We sacrifice a lot to get up and go wherever we’re needed and I spend a lot of time away from home. I miss my family and have to bail on a lot of things, and that sucks, but fortunately there are people in my life that have been very understanding and supportive enough where they know that you still care about them and they would rather you be doing your dreams than sitting at home and playing it safe. We’re taking chances and putting ourselves on the line, and we just feel so blessed. We’re very lucky.

~ For first time listeners of Camera Can’t Lie, what song would you suggest they listen to first and why?

E: Losing You, it’s a song off of our EP last year, and it will be on our new record as well. It’s a song that means a lot to me personally, and it keeps us in check. We’re no one; we’re just some blessed boys. Even after signing with a major record label, nothing has really changed. We’re still the same people, and that song is about not losing sight of that, not losing sight of who you are. Next song I would go with is Dakota. Dakota’s a ballad and we’re a rock band, but it seems to be a fan favorite and it will also be on the new record.

~ Have you met anyone that has acted differently around you solely because you are in a band?

E: Yeah, it happens. It’s kind of weird, we signed the deal and you kind of see three different types of people: There are the people that truly loved you before and support you, it didn’t matter if you were famous or not; people who were your friends and you thought they were your friends and they are no longer, they think you sold out or don’t see you; and the people that want to be your friend all of a sudden and your like, “Dude, I would have been your friend three months ago.” We really don’t feel like we have changed at all, we just feel blessed. We don’t take it for granted and we’re still all about the fans.

~ Did you always aspire to be in a band?

E: When I was a kid I wanted to be a professional baseball player, but once I hit high school I just wanted to write songs and play music. My family is very musical; my mom was a piano and vocal major in college, so I started piano lessons at a very early age. Tim has been playing piano since he has been four, so he and I both wanted this career from the beginning. We weren’t really in it to settle for anything less.

~ Any advice you would like to share with Driven Far Off readers?

E: Take chances and follow your dreams. If you have a passion and you’re willing to make sacrifices and take the punches, stick with it. It doesn’t matter what the situation is financially, where your location is growing up, because everything can be overcome if you have enough drive. Meet as many nice people as you can and make as many friends as you can and just enjoy it along the way.

Cobra Starship Interview – June 13th, 2008

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After braving a flood and grid-lock traffic that caused them to arrive two hours late to their concert, Cobra Starship still found time to conduct an interview with Driven Far Off. I was lucky enough to sit down with the genial and articulate guitar and keyboard player, Ryland Blackinton (far left in picture), at the Picador in Iowa City, IA, and ask him a few questions.

A huge thanks goes out to Kelly McWilliam of Atlantic Records, Dan Lipski, and Ryland Blackinton for making this interview happen.

– How did you and the others get involved in the band?

R: Alex and I went to high school together in Florida, and we had our own band together that Gabe came to see a couple of times on a recommendation from his old drummer Rob Hitt, who lives downstairs from Alex, and he asked us to join.

– Did you always aspire to be in a band, or when did it become a goal?

R: It just happened by accident. I’ve always been a musician, but I never wanted to be in a band professionally. I never really thought it was very practical or realistic-I still don’t-but somehow it worked out. So I’m just very fortunate and I feel very thankful that it has worked out for me thus far. I always wanted to be an actor; I wanted to do movies.

– You guys released your most recent album, ¡Viva La Cobra!, at the end of last year. How does that album differ from the previous one?

R: The record before was one that Gabe did by himself with some producers, and even though there were some really good songs on that one, he was working under a deadline and had to do it very quickly. We, however, were able to spend a lot of time on tour as a band writing ¡Viva La Cobra!, and I think the songs are little bit more diverse, and there’s a wider spectrum on the album in terms of the sound of the songs, which sounds different to me.

– What is the process for writing the lyrics and melodies?

R: Gabe does the lyrics for the most part and melodies, and we split up the duties for the music amongst us.

– Who or where do you draw your inspiration from?

R: Other music inspires me. I like Ratatat a lot, and for writing and stuff as well we’re really influenced by Chromeo and Justice and Cassius; bands like that. We’re big fans of that kind of music so that’s usually a reference point for us.

– What is the main theme running throughout your music?

R: Well, we like to have a lot of fun when we play, so we try to make songs that will be fun for us to play on stage, so I guess fun would be the theme. We take into consideration what it’s going to be like to play songs live when we write them, and that’s a big part of our edict in terms of song writing.

– Your music reaches out to a wide audience; do you ever have any fans that surprise you in terms of their demographics?

R: Yeah, absolutely. Last night a 46 year old couple wanted an autograph on a t-shirt, and I thought that was really cool. I think it’s interesting the way that obviously young kids like it, but also their moms like to like, work out to it and be like, “I was on the treadmill for two hours listening to your record, and I loved it!” If our music helps you lose a few pounds, I think that’s pretty cool too; stay in shape. That’s what we do.

– What emotions do you hope the band’s music evokes in fans?

R: A sort of frivolity; we hope that they feel like it’s not too serious, because we don’t take it too seriously. So hopefully if someone’s having a really emotionally heavy, serious week, they can listen to something really fluffy and lighthearted like our music and it will maybe give them new perspective. Maybe they will forget their problems for a little while, hopefully. That’s ambitious, but maybe.

– Are you working on any side projects currently?

R:  Yeah, Alex and I are in a band called This is Ivy League.

– Do you find it difficult to divide the time between both bands?

R: Yeah, it can be tough, but we’ve already been able to have two releases; we just released a record in April. The only thing that we’re not able to do, unfortunately, is tour as extensively with Ivy League as we do with Cobra, but it hasn’t been a hindrance thus far. We know that eventually we will have an opportunity to tour, and when we do, we will.

– Who came up with the Cobra fangs up gang sign?

R: It was Gabe. Gabe had the bright idea of having some sort of a gang sign that lets everybody know that they are a member. It catches on because it’s good to have a signal, I think. It’s like Jay-Z’s “throw your diamonds up” type of thing, except not that gangsta, sorry. That’s where the idea came from though.

– Music-wise, what do you hope to accomplish within the next few years.

R: Just to continue to make music and continue to tour is really a blessing to me and to the rest of us as well. I don’t think we have any real solid goals; we’re not trying to take over the world. We’re just trying to continue to write music that is fun and people can dance to and it’s catching on. We’ve been openers for a lot of other bands, and to see their fans come and become our fans is a really cool thing. So hopefully just to continue to make fans and to continue to tour.

– What do you find the most challenging aspect of being on tour?

R: I like to shower a lot; I love hygiene. I like to smell nice; not be too greasy. So that’s a problem because we don’t have opportunities to shower very often, and sometimes we play a show and it’s hot, and you’re sweating, and you just have to deal with it. It’s really gross. I also bore pretty easily. There’s a lot of downtime, and sometimes I just get really anxious. So that’s the only tough thing for me, but I just got some gear and a new computer-my new Mac-and that’s keeping me pretty occupied.

– Is it difficult being in small living quarters with the same people everyday?

R: It’s not difficult; it can get dicey sometimes. You can put two of the best friends ever in a room for three months without giving them the chance to go anywhere else, and there’s probably going to be some menial conflicts, nothing too serious, but every once in a while we just need to do our own thing. We all get along really well; we’ve never had any big fights.

– Is there anything else you would like to add?

R: I was going to give a shout out for all the people that got flooded today. On the way in we got to see all of the devastation and how bad the flooding really was, we’d heard about it on the news but we didn’t really get the scope of it until we were stuck in traffic. I just want to say that everyone that had property damage, and people at the venue here that had to go and help their parents bail water out, my family is from New Orleans and they had to go do stuff like that, so my heart goes out to them. I hope that everything is reconstructed quickly and everything is cleaned up. We might get stuck here tonight, so we may be getting on our water boots, get some floaties, and helping people out.

Minus Six Interview – June 6th, 2008

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A pop rock band with a saxophone instead of a guitar? When I found out that Minus Six was playing near me, I jumped at the chance to interview them. I was lucky enough to talk to the band over dinner at the Riverhouse Bar & Grill in Moline, IL, where the sweet small-town guys told me just how the unique group came to be.

I would like to thank the band for taking the time to make this interview possible.

– For the record, can you state your name and specific part you play in the band?

Kevin: My name’s Kevin Carton and I play piano and sing for Minus Six.

Matt: I’m Matt Sivertsen and I play all the saxophones as well as the EWI, Electric Wind Instrument.

Kameron: Kameron Rummans, bass guitar and backup vocals.

Rob: Rob Baner, drums.

– How did each of you get into music?

Matt: Started playing saxophone in 5th grade, and got really interested in high school with saxophones in particular and rock bands like Dave Matthews Band, who I really admired because they had a saxophone player. Then I got quite a bit into jazz as well, and was a saxophone performance major at the University of Illinois, and then got with these guys, these spirited young musicians, and now I just aspire to be in a rock band while incorporating a saxophone.

Kevin: From the time I was an infant my mom said that I would sing inside the cradle, so I guess you could say it’s been in my blood ever since I was born, and I guess my whole life has been aimed toward becoming the best musician I can be. I started piano lessons in second grade, and I haven’t looked back since I’ve started. I love what I’m doing and it’s awesome because I’ve gotten to make three new brothers along the way.

Kameron: I started singing professionally when I was nine years old in a boys’ choir, and I started playing bass guitar my eighth grade year of school, and influenced by Kevin Carton, I struck the urge to pick up that instrument and help him and his music endeavors.

Rob: I started playing drums back in fifth grade, when I was about eleven, and I’ve been playing ever since with any kind of ensemble I can get my hands on. I’ve been playing with these guys now for about three years, and it’s been awesome.

– What is unique about Minus Six?

Matt: Definitely unique in that we don’t have a guitar for being a pop rock band, and that’s kind of the first thing we sat around and talked about, like five years ago, trying to incorporate a piano based rock group. Most rock groups don’t have that and don’t have a sax and don’t not have guitars. Hence the name Minus Six, for the six string guitar absence.

– Is it difficult playing without a guitar in the band?

Kameron: No, our rhythm instrument comes from the piano, and the drums and the bass fill in as the rhythm section. I think the three of us together solidify what we are doing as musicians under vocals and lead instruments. I don’t think the guitar is missed much.

Rob: I don’t think it’s difficult, I think it provides us with the opportunity to get our sound base a little different and get a unique sound and test some new areas that don’t necessarily get hit that often in this genre.

– You released your third album, Hidden Deep in the Green (2007), last year. What can you tell us about the first two albums and how they differ from the most recent?

Kevin: I think the most obvious change in the most recent album compared to the last two albums is that our drummer Rob appears on the album for the first time with the band, and that alone has made the band 100% better because Rob is so good at keeping the rhythm. Not only that, but he makes the music really come alive and makes a visual. I guess what I am most proud of in the third CD is it’s a lot more visual, where you can almost close your eyes and go into your own world and experience that. The new album is more written from life experiences; from childhood to love and heartache. We do try to stay away from writing a lot of love songs on the new CD, so we also have songs about the end of the world, and peace, and how the world should come together because right now there is so much shit going on.

Matt: Our third album, Deep in the Green, was an opportunity to work on a little higher level for over week in a recording studio with a higher budget, we worked with a producer named Joe Hand down in Nashville. Our other two projects were much lower budget, so Deep in the Green was definitely one we spent a lot of time on with the writing and the production of it. Now this summer we are going to progressively start working on our fourth CD as a band, but also our second bigger budget CD. It’s been a fun ride.

– Is the band your main focus right now or are you each working on separate side projects?

Kameron: I think we are all musicians just striving to play. Minus Six is a big commitment for all of us, but some of us at different parts of our lives played jazz ensembles at school, or got together with friends just to jam, but this is a big commitment for us.

Matt: Yeah, I would say musically the focus is definitely Minus Six. I mean, I have a day job and these guys are all in school, so we have the Monday through Friday stuff, but we definitely play every weekend, and Friday and Saturday we really commit to playing. Pretty much anything else that we do have come up would be secondary.

– Music-wise what do you guys hope to accomplish in the next few years?

Rob: Right now we are really focusing on playing as much as possible wherever we can to give everyone a chance to hear us. But I think in the next few years our goal is to really take this as far as we can and get as much exposure as we can and get more material going.

– What bands or albums do you usually use for inspiration and why?

Kevin: I would have to say that my favorite bands are Ben Folds 5, Dave Mathews Band, and The Beatles. I think the biggest inspirations for the most recent writings would be The Beatles’ really melodic melodies and the Dave Mathews Band’s bizarre attempt at making really diverse songs that really don’t sound the same at all. At the same time, I think we are trying to move in a direction of trying to start something new with the music, in that we are incorporating almost a broadway-esque style into the songs. With that, we can take the music and tell stories and make longer songs, so that like I was saying with our last CD being visual, our next CD can be ten times more visual because we’re adding that plot to the songs. It’s like a mini movie in your head where you can shut your eyes and see it through the music. But everything from classical music to jazz really influences Minus Six because I think that we all try to listen to as much music as we can so that we can pull from different ideas and really hit all of the areas we find entertaining.

Matt: Yeah, we draw from every genre possible and I think Rob was a huge catalyst for that happening. He’s a drummer that can draw from anywhere and anything, versus a drummer that may just be rock genre based. So I really feel that Rob’s capabilities allow us to then have no boundaries and make the fans listen really well and incorporate the instruments and pull off a lot of different things. Like Kevin says, it makes it very visual.

– What does each of you like to do in your free time? Any hobbies?

Matt: What free time?

Kevin: I like to do a variety of activities. Writing the music for Minus Six is a big thing that I love to do with my free time. I go to school and I have a job, but when it all comes down to me having time to do whatever I want to do is walk to the piano and try to write out a new melody or new lyrics. If I’m not doing that, I like to hang out with friends and party and have a good time like any other college student.

Matt: Pretty much just run, work, and try to stay in shape. Minus Six pretty much encompasses a lot of my free time for sure, but I do have a Border Collie that keeps me busy too, playing with him.

Kameron: Hobbies? Yes. I have hobbies. My hobbies include playing music, of course, and I guess I’m a closet videogame nerd. I hang out with my fiancé a lot, and played football for a long time and did sports, but I don’t do that as much anymore.

– Are there any plans for music videos in the near future?

Kevin: I think right now we are focused on spreading our word, but not through professional music videos, more through videos like on YouTube, where it shows crowd participation and the high energy level on stage. I think that says more about us as a band at this stage, as opposed to trying to make a really artsy music video when we don’t have any kind of budget to do so, so it would probably come off looking not very professional. Right now if we do take any videos of the band, it’s at live shows and then putting them on YouTube to try to spread the word that way.

– For fans that are listening to Minus Six for the first time, what song would you suggest they listen to first?

Rob: I would say Anchorage would be a good song to start with, because I knew that’s what everyone else was going to say and I think it’s a neat tune. I also suggest that everybody give the CD one total listen down, because I think there is one song that will reach out to different people and I think that would be a cool way to find the song you like.

– What do you hope listeners take away from your music?

Kevin: We hope that our music makes people feel.

– Do you think the music community will accept you guys or will you need to prove yourselves a bit more because you have grown up in a small Illinois town?

Kevin: The longer I play, the more I question that because we’re trying to develop a new thing, like going with the Broadway rock style, and trying to incorporate longer songs with crazy plots. Personally, I know we all dig it, and we are excited to see people’s reactions to it, but I think we are so excited because we have no idea how people are going to react to it. So if we end up making a new CD and it doesn’t catch on because the songs are way too Broadway and out there, I think that we may then need to think about changing the way we write the music. For right now though, we are excited to see people’s reactions because it is different. In general, at live shows it seems to be catching on fairly quickly, and people like to dance. I don’t know if that’s because of the energy or our songs, but I’d like to think it’s a mixture of both.

Kameron: I think what every kind of music one would listen to, in like a big city or for someone else to accept us, is one thing, but I think people could definitely accept us as musicians individually and as a group together. Whether they like us as a group, they definitely acknowledge the fact that we do take a lot of pride in the way we play all our instruments.

– So have you guys already started working on your fourth CD? Have you done anything differently than before?

Rob: We have some new material that we are working on, and we have a lot more ideas that we’re still tossing around, not sure what’s going to happen yet. I’d say the one big characteristic of what we’re trying to do now is we’re trying to be adventurous and we’re trying to lead the listener on a journey, and take them somewhere. Where that is though, we’re not sure yet, but we want it to be somewhere.

– Currently the band is with M6 Records, but do you hope to someday sign with a major record label?

Matt: I don’t know, I think it depends because things are changing so fast. Right now record labels just aren’t what they used to be. Certainly, having advertising and exposure power would be nice, but we also know that a lot of times those things can be so short focused that they may be able to get one song out, and that’s where we’ve seen a lot of bands come and go, with just one tune. I think we’d rather do the leg work of getting true fans who go through our whole sets of music, and not just try and channel one hit tune. We would rather build it up from the bottom to get that core exposure. It was kind of cool because we started with high schools, but then what happened was all of the kids went away to college, and they go to all of these regional colleges, so that helped us jump to the next level. We are trying to branch out and play that college circuit, and we just hope it goes off to the next level. There are plenty of bands that have done it without record labels, and it might be a good thing eventually, but it’s not a hindrance now.

– What has been a difficulty that you have worked to overcome throughout the making of the band?

Kameron: I think the hardest thing is that all of us take a lot of pride in our talent, and with all of us in day jobs and college it’s hard for us to practice together. So we have to rely a lot on individual practice time and have confidence in the other people and their abilities to stay tight, because it kind of sucks not being able to practice on a regular basis together.

Matt: The toughest is anytime we’re in a new marketplace, because you can’t expect to go to a totally new venue, in a totally new town, and just have all of these people come out. You have to find the right spots where there are going to people out there already or maybe have another band that has a draw. It’s kind of frustrating because you get into the areas where you have a really good following, but at new places you have to start all over and it can take three to four shows to get back. Usually we get a good enough response so that it fills up pretty quick, but it does suck starting over at a new place where you have to branch out.

– Is there anything else you would like to add?

Matt: As far as our resources go,
Website: www.minussix.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/minussix
E-mail: minussix@mchsi.com

And our songs are on iTunes as well as all other download sites.

The Birthday Massacre Interview – May 23, 2008

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On May 23, 2008, I had the chance to sit down and have a chat with Chibi, the front woman of the band The Birthday Massacre. This interview was conducted backstage at the Regency Grand Ballroom in San Francisco before their show with Mindless Self Indulgence and London After Midnight. I’d like to thank Chibi from The Birthday Massacre, Jack Suarez, and Gary Strack at Reybee for helping make this interview possible. Driven Far Off and I really appreciate all your help.

State your name and position in the band.

My name is Chibi and I am the singer for The Birthday Massacre.

How has your tour been with MSI?

It’s been really good. We haven’t gone out with a larger band in awhile; we’ve always done sort of our own headling thing. So it’s kind of interesting going on earlier in the night and having a short set, which is really nice, because usually we play for an hour every night and with this it’s nice and shorter and they’re really good people.

Have there been any personal highlights for the band during the tour?

Honestly, we were really surprised when we went to El Paso because we’ve never played there before and it’s really kind of far out and I guess a lot of bands don’t go out there and we were thinking it would probably be a smaller show but, it was nice surprise to see a ton of fans. It’s been really good and I guess there’s also the word on the street that sometimes Mindless Self Indulgence fans are so passionate about them that a lot of times their opening bands get a bad response, because everybody just wants Mindless Self Indulgence, but we’ve been really happy that some of our fans have come out too and the crowd has been really good.

So what are the bands’ personal influences?

All of us are all inspired by very different things, we all like horror movies, video games, and we all listened to different types of music growing up. Everything like Pantera to Nine Inch Nails to like Madonna. I’m really into Edward Gory, who is this kind of dark artist, so I really like that stuff and I really like the singer from Concrete Blond, Johnette Napolitano. I think she’s a really good vocalist; I try to be like her.

So what’s the best part of being on tour?

Oh gosh. Probably just getting to see different cities. We don’t really get to experience very much of the different cities, but it is nice. If we have an off day somewhere we can get out and do things, so that’s kind of nice, but I mean it is work and there’s a lot of sitting around, waiting around, and then getting ready for the show and waiting for the show and getting on the bus. It can get in kind of a routine, where you don’t know what city you’re in, but when we have a day off, we can walk around. That kind of thing is exciting and fun.

As far as the music business goes, what do you think about it?

I think everybody is a little bit worried about the state of music. You know you want people to come to shows and want people to buy the merchandise and buy the albums, and there’s just so much on the internet now as well. But when you’re kind of starting out that kind of thing is great, because you just want to get your music out there, but then it gets to the point where we have to tour. So how do we generate income for tour and then people say gas prices are so high that less people are going to shows, so it’s kind of everything that is wearing out the business side of it right now, but you try to forget about that and just play shows.

What inspired you to play music in the first place?

Honestly, being in a band never even occurred to me when we were younger. When I entered college and I met Rainbow (we were in the same art program together) we just started recording cover songs for fun. It was less expensive than going out to the bar all the time and a way to kind of have fun. So we we’re like let’s put a band together and none of us had really been in bands before either. It was just kind of a fun idea, something to do to hang out with your friends.

So where did you get your band name in the first place?

The thing with the music was that we wanted to put contrasts together like heavy guitars and keyboard melodies. So it was kind of contrasting, so we thought the name reflected the sound like birthday: fun, happy with massacre which is kind of opposite.

What is the message you’re trying to present to your fans?

What we always wanted to do is sort of harkening back to memories and childhood and sort of writing songs that come together into sort of a diary, so people could read them and could relate to their own lives. Also by using old sounds from the 80s and stuff, so people could be like it kind of sounds familiar, but it’s new. Sort of like bringing the past into things and trying to come up with something new. I don’t know if that’s a message, but that’s what we are trying to do.

So how do you describe your sound?

I don’t know again just mixing the different sounds like how could you take a cute female vocal and put it with a guitar and not have it sound cliché, because there’s bands that do that and it’s a girl singer and it’s really heavy. Trying to be unique, but trying to mix together metal and girl vocals and keyboard melodies and stuff like that.

What’s one thing people don’t know about you?

I’m a huge nerd. Actually I’m sure people totally probably know that. I also like to knit a lot like on the tour bus everyone’s like it must be like a big party on the tour bus.

So has knitting helped you get your mind off things?

Yes, it’s very relaxing because it can be very stressful on the road, because you’re tired and hungry and you haven’t had a shower in a week. So I can either freak out and get really stressed out and want to go home or I can sit here and work on this cute little blanket I’m making.

So how’s the tour experience being a woman, is it different?

Yeah, you know I think it really is I mean sometimes people can still have this old world mentality like guys “herr herr are in bands it’s boys time and chick are chicks and all this crap” and its like “get out of here” like were in a band, their band (Mindless Self Indulgence) has two girls in it, you know what I mean there’s so many bands now with girls in it. Also even things like privacy issues like the guys will just kind of quickly jump into their boxers and get dressed and I’m getting changed in the back lounge. I have learned to do everything really fast and everyone thinks that like because I’m the girl in the band that I would take forever to do my make-up and I’m going to tell you they are so much worse than me, well not all of them but a couple of the guys are.

How did you get the band together?

Well a bunch of us met when we were in college in art school, Rainbow and me met there and he grew up with Mike our guitar player, so they already knew each other, when they were kids and that’s kind of how the original line-up got together. Basically just all going to the same school and over the years we’ve switched out members here and there, it’s always been friends though. We’ve always just gotten somebody we know to kind of jump in. Our bass player now was our original drummer, so he used to play drums and seven years later he comes back on bass, but it’s nice though. We at least know who we’re dealing with and it’s not like it’s this new guy, he’s weird, and it’s always people that we know.

So what about those mustaches?

Oh god. We were in Austin and we had the day off, so we just went shopping and none of us have a lot of money, so obviously the thing to do is to buy fake mustaches. I think I bought a slushee that was my big expenditure, but yeah next thing you know everybody’s walking around with a mustache. Jimmy from Mindless Self Indulgence drew on a mustache and Kitty their drummer was walking around with a mustache and I was like “oh my god,” it’s the kind of thing though that is funny for a few hours, then finally Rainbow would walk in with his mustache and it’s not funny anymore. Because I just saw that earlier so it’s like “aww,” but I’m sure they will have resurgence in a few days. That’s another thing tour is good for recycling gags, give it six weeks and they’ll be wearing the mustaches again.

Do you play any practical tricks on each other?

Sometimes yeah actually yesterday I got our tour manager Jack and we got him to go into this scientology church that we accidentally went into. It was this museum and it was all a scientology thing, but we didn’t know that when we went in. So we came back to the bus and we said “you guys got to check this out, it’s amazing you got to go there.” So they came back and were like “you sent us to a scientology church, that’s great.” So that kind of thing, but you got to not step on each others toes on tour too, because a lot people are tired or grumpy and if you’re like “herr herr” with silly string sometimes somebody’s not into it, so you have to be careful.

So is there any last words you may have?

Just thank you so much for the interview, we really appreciate it. And we’ll see you at the show.

To see photos from The Birthday Massacre show, please click here to go to Driven Far Off’s photos section.

Say Anything Interview – April 16th, 2008

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Say Anything

I had the chance to interview Say Anything’s Parker, Coby, Alex and Jake before their show at Pipeline Cafe in Honolulu, HI, where they discussed everything from music to marriage, along with their goals for the future. This incredibly outgoing band truly did say anything, and showed their dedication to their fans as well as their music. Make sure to catch Say Anything playing in a show near you!

A huge thanks goes to Sheri Ladner of RCA music group, Kyle Gebhart, Josh, and of course, the guys of Say Anything, for making this interview possible.

– How did Say Anything come to be the band that it is today?

Coby: Say Anything started a long time ago, like 9 years ago, when Max was in 10th grade and I was in 9th. We met at Jewish summer camp, and we have been playing together ever since. Everyone that’s in the band now, we met on tour after high school when we were touring with an old lineup that wasn’t good. We met Alex when we were touring with his band, Lance’s Hero. We met Parker at a train station, randomly, on the way to our manager’s wedding, and we were like, “Hey do you want to play in our band? We’ve got this guy from Lucky Seven who might play, but we’d rather have you.” We met Jeff and Jake, the twins, when we were on tour, and a year later we asked them to join the band after our two guitar players quit. We’ve had this lineup now for like two years and two months.

– Where did the name Say Anything come from?

Alex: From the movie

C: Yeah…It’s definitely from the movie.

– Have there been any major changes since your first album?

C: The first being Is A Real Boy? Well, that record was mostly just Max, me on the drums, and some vocals, but everyone since then has been added to the roster. Like Alex plays base on the new record and everything. It’s just a whole new lineup, basically a whole new band. We’ve signed a major label since then, so definitely a lot has changed.

Parker: This current configuration started when Is A Real Boy got re-released on J Records. It had been out on Doghouse for a while.

– What do you want your listeners to feel when they hear your music?

A: I don’t write the lyrics, and about as far as I go is writing the base for the song, but vicariously through Max, I’d like the listeners to be influenced and inspired to create art of their own through music or whatever in an honest and passionate way. There are a lot of bands out there now a days that are possibly writing music for the wrong reasons. I view Max as a really passionate and honest performer, and that’s at least what I’d like kids to feel.

– Is there a theme that runs throughout your lyrics or music?

A: I’d just say that the general theme is autobiography. Like I listen to a song, and it is a song about something that we were all there for or heard stories about. It’s all biographical, at least from how I view it.

C: The thing that is different from the first record is like, I was there for some of it, but I wasn’t at the same time. We weren’t on tour yet and Max is a year older than me so he was in college while I was still in high school and we were kind of apart while he was writing the songs for the first record. But the second record he wrote most of it on tour and a lot of it is like experiences that happened to him when we started touring and when it finished it was basically about his first ever girlfriend that lasted like two years. I never thought about it, I’m just thinking about it right now, but since it’s a double record, one record for each year I guess? Makes sense in a weird way, kind of? But like, with the songs, we have been through it. The song, We Killed It, is about being on a cruise. We were there when he tried to book the cruise, and kept canceling it because his girlfriend was crazy and didn’t want to go on it with him, and they finally came back and he wrote the song on the cruise. So when we play that song we know what he went through, and when we play it live, we can’t ever feel exactly what he felt, but it’s metaphorical enough and not to the point where we could make it our own, live with our own instruments and stuff. You know what I mean?

P: I absolutely concur.

– What’s the hardest thing about being on tour?

A: Sound check’s pretty fucking hard! The hardest thing about being on tour is the instability. Basically, the space you can call yours, is about a small rectangular box, sort of like a coffin, with a mattress and a curtain. That’s your space. You’re literally living in a really really really small tiny tiny apartment that’s like a hallway, and sharing a communal space with 11 people. So you kind of get used to it and it’s cool. You just have to find those times when you need your solitude and walk off somewhere or just find the balance. Although there are the hard times, there are also the amazing times like when you find that amazing Thai place down the street. There is a lot of great stuff too, but that’s what I would say is hard.

C: It’s one of those things where you can’t really complain because you’re on tour and you’re on a bus, and everyone would love to do that, and say, “Wow I wish I were on tour,” and they come on the bus and say, “Wow this is amazing,” but then they are like, “I could never do it.” You have to be that kind of person to put in the back of you’re mind that you’re on tour and living out what you want to do, but this is what you have to do to do it. Yeah you have your bunk, but you can go to the venues and look around and it’s a new thing everyday. It’s stable and unstable at the same time. It’s stable in the fact that everyday is the same, like every day you have set time. By four o’clock you have sound check and by nine o’clock you go on stage. Then you go to your bus and chill out and do whatever you want to do. But at the same time, everyday is not stable because it’s a different city and you don’t know what’s around you, and it’s totally unfamiliar. There are new people everyday and new surprises, like someone coming out from your history that you don’t want to be there…and it’s fucking terrible…and you’re forced to just hang with that girl…

A: Another thing I wanted to add is that when you’re sick, it’s really hard. Because you don’t have your girlfriend or wife to make you soup or get you medicine-

C: -you’re in the same coffin and you can’t sleep on the couch or anything, and you have the same sheets and the same pillow-

A: -it’s just rough when you’re sick.

P: Another thing that’s crazy is you just get on this schedule that only exists with people in bands. You go to bed at the most insane hours and you just sleep twice as long as you normally do and then wake up in the afternoon.

– Who have been your biggest influences?

P:  Mine are all over the board. I guess I will always be influenced by the stuff that got me into music, which was early 90’s rock, like Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and all that kind of stuff. Then it kind of branched from there, going backwards, and I liked stuff like 80’s new wave music, stuff that is kind of silly and party music because I am always playing such aggressive music. Everything though. I like the Beatles, and all good song writers. All the classics.

C: When I started out listening, it was like Green Day-the first rock band I ever got into-which pretty much got me into music, because I used to listen to Broadway stuff when I was little.

P: I didn’t know that.

C: Oh yeah; Oliver, Les Miserables, that’s my favorite. I have videos of me singing from when I was two with a stick like Oliver and dancing. But drumming-wise it was Dave Grohl, Travis Barker was a really big influence on me for a couple of years, Taylor Hawkins, Keith Moon, Spencer Peterson, and Justin Green’s a really good drummer too.

A: I am currently very influenced and inspired by David Bazan of Pedro the Lion who has been an influence in my life ever since I listened to Control front to back. Some people who influenced my early on in my life were Bush, Nirvana, Dave Grohl in general is just an amazing musician whether he’s singing or on the drums.

– What’s the craziest thing you guys have done on tour?

C: I got into a personal long-term battle with the guitarist of Dashboard. He still hates me. I won’t go into it, but if he reads this, he hates me.

P: Ok. The craziest thing was: one time, our bus driver showed up 15 minutes late to bus call.

Jake: Hi, this is Jake… just live the dream.

P: That’s lame. Jake, what’s the craziest thing you’ve seen on tour?

J: Probably the craziest thing I have seen on tour is, I walked into the bus, it was just casual, and I had had a couple drinks. Next thing I know, my brother and parker are fucking. No I’m just kidding, I’m just kidding. I’ve seen some crazy shit on tour though. Am I allowed to cuss on this? Ok, well there was this really funny thing that happened last tour. Our-I’ll keep his name quiet at this point-he had hooked up with a girl and they are just hanging out on the front lounge, just chilling, and I overheard him say “Hey, who’s on your phone?” And she goes, “Oh that’s my boyfriend,” and I was like, wow, that’s really gnarly, and he was drunk so he didn’t care, but I was like, wow, that’s kind of crazy, that girl has been on our bus all night and has a boyfriend. But then she leaves and I’m like, wow, she left her phone here. And she had in her phone, as her boyfriend’s name, asshole. So I had to call asshole and get him to come back and get her phone. He had just picked her up from our bus. It was pretty gnarly. But either way, that’s a really crazy story. It’s kind of weird right? That’s all.

– Do you guys have groupies or anyone that follow you around?

J: We have a weird crowd. We actually have this cult following, they are part of this clan, not the KKK, it’s the SAK, and it’s really weird. But for all you guys that don’t know about the SAK it’s the Say Anything Klan, and they weird this face makeup, like armor makeup, like our record, you know what I’m talking about? In Our Defense, and they are like an army. So the SAK are crazy, dude. Last time, I met a dude from SAK and he came up to me, gave me this bracelet, and told me never to take it off. So I took it off. He told me if I took it off I was going to have bad luck for the rest of my life. Of course, I have. No, I’m just kidding, he never gave me a bracelet. It’s just like, a club. It’s not a clan at all. Clan just makes it sound really bad and racist, and our fans aren’t bad and racist…

C: Jake. The battery is going to like die. Groupies? Okay. Honestly, there are no like groupies that are like, oh hey you’ve come to fuck us. But we have girls that we know and they come hang out and whatever happens happens, and they are nice; they bring us cookies and milk sometimes. Or we go to Detroit and they take us out to sushi. It’s all nice and a good time no matter what.

J: Ok this is serious. Groupie-wise. There’s this girl, and she’s not a groupie, she’s just friends with us, and she was on our bus, and there was another band that was playing in town that night, and that guy decides to come on our bus and hang out for the night. We were chilling and I was drinking, and I got two drinks down, which by then I’m pretty tipsy, but I felt like I was going to throw up. So I was talking to one of the dudes from another band, and I was like, man I’m going to throw up. Then I noticed the guy had walked away from me, and the next thing I know, Ben from Biffy Clyro was like, “There’s a blue thing in your drink.” So obviously that guy was trying to get with the girl that was on our bus by putting the thing in my drink. He’s from another band, but I’ll keep that name unannounced.

– Are there any hobbies you enjoy other than dealing with music?

A: I like to read and play chess.

C: After this whole tour, I’m going to start riding a bike a lot. I don’t know how to ride a bike, I never learned. I was really fat growing up, and I was like, fuck the outside world. Sit at home, watch basketball games, and eat spaghetti. But when I get home I’m going to learn how to ride a two-wheeler, ride down to the beach with my girlfriend. We’re going to go all out, it’s going to be nuts.

P: I like playing video games a lot. I love them, I buy all the new ones. I also surf.

– Are there any other long term goals that you are working to accomplish?

C: I basically want my life to end up like I want to own a condo or a house out here, rent it out-

A: Is this new?

C: -This is what I want. This is from today. From me coming out here and loving it. I want to get married eventually, be successful in music, maybe real estate on the side, maybe own a couple things. I want to do some shit. I want to own a house out here and lease it out during winter, and all the shitty months. I would come out here during the summer, because I would live in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, maybe West Hollywood. I don’t know, Daddy’s got big plans. Then I want to have an apartment in NY. Upper West side probably, and I could lease that out when I’m not there also. And I would love to own an airplane. Maybe not fly it, but have a Coby Linder airlines, it would be great. But one of my dreams came true on this tour; I got my own signature drumstick, and that was one of my goals in life. I would also like to be Parker’s friend for a while. Like, after the band. After our 5threcord, when we have our big blowout and we all go away. Like after Van Halen and they all hate each other, I’m down to hate other people in the band, but I’d like for Parker and I to be cool.

P: Thanks Coby. For me, I don’t want to get married. For a long time, a long time. At least into the second half of my life, maybe even the third trimester of my life is when I will get married and enjoy that. At least until I am 40, which is early for me.

A: So you’re not going to have kids?

P: I don’t know. But check this out, I’m also getting more into this goal of not living in the same place for more than a year. Just keep going on the move. If I live in New York, I’m going to Kansas. If I’m living in Kansas, I’ll move to Canada. If I go to Canada, I’ll come to Hawaii.

C: I want to reiterate one thing. One thing about my long-term goals is how Parker said he doesn’t want to get married for a while, and I don’t either. I’m 22, maybe I want to get married when I’m 25. I told myself that if I’m with a girlfriend when I’m 28, ill start thinking about it. So probably when I’m 29 or 30.

P: I’m an Aquarius, I just turned 27, and I’m the oldest member of the band, and it’s very hard for me to hear some of my younger members of the band talk like that and set such big goals, because I just feel that when he reaches that echelon of 25 years old, the quarter century club, I feel like he will be in a much different place, and I wish he would just reevaluate those statements and play it by ear.

C: We are in America, you have to think big to be big. Daddy’s 22 years right now, and if he thinks he can get married at 28, he’ll think it. If God says, “Oh hey, you’re 25 and your girlfriend you’ve been with since 21 has broken up with you,” then I will reevaluate things. But for right now, this is my longest relationship I’ve been in, it’s been over a year, and I love her. She’s with me in Hawaii right now and we are having a great time. If I am with her when I’m 28, I might spring for a ring. I don’t know. I hope to be married by 30.

A: Here’s the thing. Parker, you’re telling Coby to reevaluate his statements of hoping to be married at a certain age, but the thing is, he set a goal, and he hopes to accomplish it. It’s just about meeting the right person. You will know if you are to be married or not.

C: I think Parker’s thing is he thought he met the right person and it didn’t pan out. Like Daisy says on Rock of Love 2, sometimes life throws you a curveball.

A: Parker would you say you feel a little bit jaded from your last relationship?

P: Yes and no. You just can’t be sure about that stuff. Anything can happen, and you just don’t know.

A: Coming from a married 22 year old, I couldn’t be happier knowing that I’m going to have a 2 year anniversary this summer because I met someone who I wanted to be married to and am going to grow with them in life. That’s how I view it.

C: There’s give and take for everything, it just depends on the person. I can’t say that I’ll be married by 28. I’d like to be, but I can’t say that I will be. I recently lost a lot of weight, and who knows if I’ll go out on the town and find a really cute girl when I’m 24, who’s all into me because I’m really skinny and I shave my chest. I mean, who knows.

P: She might not just be a cute girl though. You’re going to meet someone that will mentally challenge you and change your whole thing.

– Do you guys have anything going on business-wise besides Say Anything?

P: I have a side project, www.myspace.com/iandtheuniverse

C: Me and Max have a project with Chris and Dave of Saves the Day, you will hear about it soon.

A: I own a record label, Gnome Records, and I have a side project that is just my name, Alexander T. Kent, and I’m going on tour of the west coast, May 8-May 17, if you’re interested.

Neurosonic Interview

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Neurosonic

Awhile ago I had a chance to sit down and have a chat with lead singer and guitarist Jason Darr of Neurosonic to talk about the music business today and his band. This interview was conducted January 29, 2008 at Slim’s, San Francisco on the first date on their tour with Puddle Of Mudd. I would like to thank Jason Darr for his time and Sarah Cunningham of Susan Blonde Inc. and those at Bodog for making this interview possible. You guys were all amazing and I really appreciate everything you did.

Where did you get your name, Neurosonic?
Originally we had a whole ridiculous list of names it’s always really really hard to pick a name that isn’t already trademarked. So we started to think about actually combining words or making up words. So we thought well musically we wanted to portray this idea of how people react, the shock of when you hear something great. Music or you know whatever. So neurology being the brain waves and sonic being the audio, Neurosonic. Kind of a combine effort between me, some people at the label, and our management. We heard it and knew it was right.

Do you like Bodog, because I heard you went on the battle of the bands with them?
We did a whole tour with them as the contest was happening we were making appearances and I actually did a lot of the soundtracks for the TV show, it was just a lot of fun. Making music for other people is always good.

What is one thing most people don’t know of about you?
If they haven’t seen us live they have no idea what this band is about. So once they see us love it will all becomes clear.

What is the message you’re trying to convey to your fans?
Honesty. The whole celebrity thing, which is a completely new lifestyle seems to be popping out of the ground.

I know you like bashing Ashlee Simpson a lot, am I right?
Well that’s a lot of fun. But I feel as a artist I just want to write music that is honest to me and I don’t want to feel bad for anything and I don’t want to not have the answer to any questions people ask me. Hey what’s that song about? I want to be able to actually feel what that song is about. Not go well it’s about this girl that broke my heart when I was 18 blah blah blah. There’s too much of the crap going around.

How has the internet helped you?
We’ve got a great great team that works in our viral department. We’re all very active on there personally which is really excruciating, because were like a hundred pages behind in our messages. It’s a really big effort on our part to keep that maintained, it’s difficult. But I think if you have a real presence online, people will appreciate that. So many artists have hired people for obvious reasons, because they get to a certain point in their career that they can’t do it. We’re going try to last as long as we can and reach as many people as possible.

Other than music what are your other passions?
Music.

What do you think of the music business today, because it’s changed so much?
In one way it’s absolutely frightening, because as a business it’s crashing. Without financing it can’t survive and it won’t. The thing that is really really cool of the music business now is that it’s getting back to the single age you know like when The Beatles were popping out singles, you know what I mean. It makes people a lot more honest because they can’t just write one good song and expect people to buy their record.

What about all the illegal downloading?
Well yeah, roll with it or die. The dinosaurs all died.

You sure?
Oh yeah.

What are you looking forward to most, being the first day on tour?
The second day, the first day is always horrendous, nothing goes as planned. The nice part of starting at a place like San Francisco, which is great. Is that were staying at a real nice hotel, which is great, but we have to drive all the way to Portland tomorrow. Which sucks.

So what are your musical influences?
A lot of things I mean if you were to crack open my ipod you’d probably laugh. There’s everything from Eminem to Korn to Slipnot to The Beatles to Madonna, Prince, Ravi Shankar, Zebrahead, Good Charlotte, The Used, My Chemical Romance it just goes on, I’d list about everything.

If you could tour with any band, who would you tour with?
I don’t know I’ve always been really excited to be on the tour that I’m on.

Puddle Of Mudd and Tyler Read.
Some great bands, good company.

Is there anything else that you want to tell us about your album Drama Queen?
It’s fantastic and if you don’t buy it you’re missing out.

You also described that album as a very “you” album and a gift to yourself?
Yeah, it was a very selfish record I was fortunate to be signed to a label like Bodog, they allowed me to go in and make the record I wanted to make. They had some creative input when I asked for it, because the head of my record company is a really talented musician, so I turned to him for a lot advice for some of the songs. But, they were really supportive in letting me make a great record. They wrote the check and said here you go. That’s as good as it gets.

If there was something you wanted say to your fans what would it be?
Hello. Come to our show, buy a CD, and if you survive those two thing then we’re laughing.

Saves The Day Interview – October 12th, 2007

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Saves The Day Interview - October 12th, 2007

This Saves The Day interview took place on October 12, 2007 in Richmond, VA. The interview was first started on the third floor of Alley Katz, but due to the noise, was taken outside the venue. I would like to thank David for taking the time to do the interview and being such a nice, easygoing person. It’s refreshing to see a great band that is doing everything for the right reasons. Make sure to go to one of their shows whenever they are in your area. Also make sure to pick up “Under The Boards” on October 30th and get ready to be blown away.

– State your name and position in the band.

My name is David Soloway, I play guitar and sing back up.

– Give a brief history of the band and the original goal for starting the band.

It’s hard to give a brief history, haha. Briefly, Chris and I started playing music together with some of our old friends a long time ago, in 1996, 95ish. And we’re still doing it. We have a lot of fun, we’ve made a lot of records. That’s about as brief as I could be.

What was the original idea for starting the band?

Oh man. Well, We were just kind of the kids in high school that didn’t really have a whole lot of friends and we found each other and like, you know the drill. Why does anyone start a band? They need somewhere to belong and they can’t really find it. Maybe they don’t get on the fucking football team or whatever. We found each other and there just happen to be the right number of kids to play in a band together. That’s pretty much how it happened.

-Why the decision to do an acoustic tour right before the new record comes out?

There are a lot of reasons why we did that. I say the biggest reason is that Chris and I have been playing music together for more than 10 years now and we’ve never done anything like this, just the two of us. We’ve had so many people, as I’m sure you’re aware, come and play in the band and leave. It’s been over 10 people in as many years come through the band. It just kind of seemed like the right idea to kind of like, re-center the whole thing, you know? It’s not that we don’t love playing as a full band, but we saw it as a way to really get back with our fans, which is what it’s all about in the first place. To be able to play smaller venues and do this kind of slightly more intimate thing, be able to play some songs that we haven’t played in a long time, like some of the mellower songs on some of the records that we really love but it didn’t really fit into a rock set necessarily.

And then also to reconnect with each other on a musical level on stage, as opposed to the writing process, which we will do together, and the recording process, but that shit gets really tense sometimes and it’s a lot of hard work. Sometimes at the end of the day, we’ll hang out for a while, like play Halo or whatever, but sometimes you just want to go to bed. So it’s been nice to get back in a van for the first time in a while and just chill out, you know? It’s been a long time. So I think those are the two main reasons right there.

Do you think it’s going to have an effect on the new record since the tour ends a day before it’s released?

Yeah, you know, I don’t know. I didn’t really think too hard about that. We don’t really;.like obviously we care greatly about how this record does like any record, but we’re much more interested in the big picture. We’ve been through the high points and through the low points and we’ve done it all again. We really have a lot of faith in the fact that if we really just follow what it seems to be right for us to do, regardless of what whether it seems like it’s a smart business decision or whatever, then it’s all going to work out for the best in the long run and that’s the goal. We would love to have a radio hit and like whatever, but we’re not going to give anybody a hand job to get it to happen, you know? That’s just not us.

– What are the pros and cons of doing an acoustic tour, as opposed to a regular tour? Which do you prefer?

Well let’s see. I say the biggest difference is just, we don’t have volume on our side with this acoustic thing and we kind of have to really be good. Like if I’m not singing on key, you hear it, you know, that kind of thing. If the guitar is out of tone, you really hear it. So that was one of the other motivations to do the tour, it’s a nice challenge. Like we actually have to really play well, not to say that I don’t think we usually sound good because I think we are a pretty fucking tight band especially with Manny and Durijah now, but it’s a nice challenge. So that’s a pro and a con. A lot of these shows are selling out kind of quick, I don’t know how this one is doing or did. You know there are a lot of kids that couldn’t come that wanted to come, so the smaller rooms I guess have their pros a cons as well. But really, I think it’s all a good thing. Just like we’ve never made the same record twice, we’re just trying to do as much different shit as possible and that’s just fun for us.

– How do you think fans will respond to the new record, musically and lyrically?

Well let’s see. I can say this is probably one of our most diverse records. A lot of people that have heard it, have you heard it yet?

No. I haven’t gotten it in the mail and I don’t download music.

Yeah, I don’t even know if it’s available. Have you seen it?

No, I haven’t seen it anywhere.

Yeah, I don’t think it’s leaked yet, not that I mind if you did. There are a lot of people that we’ve played it for that have said that it feels really long by the time it’s all done. And it is the longest record we’ve ever done, but only by a minute and a half. It’s still like 36 minutes or something like that, so it’s not a long album by any means. But there is a certain diversity of music and sort of lyrical content or what have you that does kind of;it’s dense, I guess I could say. But then all that said, some of the catchiest shit I think Chris has ever written is on this, some of the best hooks I’ve heard him come up with. There are some songs that we wrote way back right after “In Reverie” came out that are on this record. Some stuff that we wrote for “Sound The Alarm” that didn’t end up on that record for a number of different reasons, but ended up on this record. But it all fit in to this greater storyline that we’ve been working on that began with “Sound The Alarm” is continuing with this one, which we call our Empire Strikes Back, just to make it simple. Then we’ll end with the album that we are already a third of a way into writing that is going to be called “Daybreak”.

When is that going to be released?

We hope to have that one out in about a year from now. I think we’ll probably start recording it like early summer next year like we did with this one and get it out. Who knows, maybe it will be October 30th again.

– If all the feedback for the new record were negative, how would that affect your own opinion on the record?

Well, not much to be honest. We’ve learned enough at this point that at the end of the day, if we are happy with it… we have to be happy with it before we say it’s done.

Yeah, you can’t support something that you aren’t fully happy with.

Exactly. And beyond that, I’m not going to say it wouldn’t suck if all of our diehard fans, with whom we do not exist without, hated it. If they all hated it, we’ll be fucked. That would really be bad.

Then yet again, if you lose all those, there could always be a new group of people that will love it.

Who knows. I can’t say for certain, but I’m sure that every time we put out a new record some kids don’t like it and they are like “Ah! Screw those guys, I like when they did XYZ.” But then there are some new kids that are like “I didn’t like that one but I like this one.” So whatever, really at the end of the day, musically speaking, we are primarily out to satisfy our own creative motivation. Once we have done that, then the record is done. And then anything else that happens is out of our hands. All we can do is tour and do interviews and do whatever we can do to try to let people know that we have a record. And then we just hope that at the very least;the thing I would say is that we are not a first listen band. In some songs we are, but for the most part, you need to hear these song a couple of times. I think that is true with most music. I think it is especially true with us. You have to give it some time.

There have been a lot of records that when I first listen to them I am not really into them. And then I pick it up a month later or whatever, and I’m like “Wow, this is really good.”

Yeah exactly, that’s true for me too. I’ll listen to something once and I’m like “Ah, later with that.” Even I should know better, but even me, I’m in a band, I go through it, I am on the other end of it. And still I react the same as the prissy fan that is like “Man, I want it to sound like this!”

-What is your opinion on bands that evolve musically throughout the years and bands that keep a similar sound on each record?

Um, whatever makes it work for you. There are some bands that just have a thing and they do it really really well. They can make an entire career and be completely satisfied sticking with the specific sound. And there are other bands that are different. It’s whatever gets you going. So long as the guys in the band are;. the only thing I really object to is when anyone makes a musical decision that is based on something other than music.

Yeah, like labels and what people want.

What people want, what’s cool right now, what’s whatever. That’s when things start getting polluted. The unfortunate result;the thing that this is all about, as far as I’m concerned;I love our older fans, like I know that even any of our fans that are in college or out of college or however old they may be. I’m 29 and I remember very clearly how much music meant to me, music still means a great deal to me. But I remember specifically the emotional reaction I had when I was 14, 15, 16 years old. It was like life saving back then. The thing that really bums me out is that there are bands that will do this kind of thing I’m talking about, where you kind of write what you think is cool and you don’t put your heart into it. And then a bunch of kids who are looking for something to grab on to, they might notice it because someone decided to put a lot of money behind it and try to sell it, you know? I will never begin to go naming names, but I don’t need to. And then what ends up happening is these kids have a lot of heartfelt emotions and they are trying to attach these emotions to something that isn”t necessary real. And that’s sad to me.

And not even the band backs it up. They are just doing it because that’s what the record label tells them or whatever is popular.

Exactly, exactly. Whatever it is, you know? And that’s their prerogative too. I can’t say that I fault them for it, I just wish it didn’t happen. Because it would be a simple thing for there just to be awesome, honest, heartfelt music out there. There is plenty of it, and there is plenty of it that no one will ever hear.

And that’s the best kind. You listen to a record, you can tell by the way the person sings it or whatever, that they are really into it.

Exactly.

You actually hear the emotion put into the song and you are like “Wow, this person put everything they have into it” and then you start appreciating it more

– Is it more important to have meaningful lyrics that relate to people or lyrics that are vaguely put together and have no true meaning?

That question answers itself. At the end of the day, all lyrics have some meaning whether they were intended or not. You can find meaning in anything. I mean, there is meaning in this fucking plank of wood we are sitting on. But, you know?

– If the band decided to call it quits in a couple of years, where do you see yourself ending up afterwards and what would you take away from the experience?

First off, I don’t think that is ever going to happen because we are having such a great time doing this. In many ways, we feel that we just now hit our stride. But I am just really into knowing a lot about the world, like I try reading the newspaper a whole lot. I wouldn’t mind going back to college some day, I don’t know what I would study. I love biology, I love bird watching, and I love all sorts of things. I don’t know, go save the whales or something like that. Lots of things, lots of different things. I would never stop playing music, that’s for sure.

What would you take away from Saves The Day?

I guess the thing I take away from it the most is this is the first thing in my life that I’ve ever stuck with. You go through high school and you try all these different things out, different subjects, different girlfriends, different whatever. When it stops working for you, you kind of move on. I’ve been doing this now for about 10 years. There have been plenty of times throughout the process where I didn’t feel like I had the energy to keep going with it. I just told myself, “Look dude, just stick with it. You have something to learn here.” And I did and then I did learn something and then I had a new reason to be in the band. It’s a lot about learning that I have more willpower than I ever thought I did. Learning a lot about what honesty will bring you if you are true to it.

– What is your opinion on the music industry and Radiohead’s decision to release their record online and let fans decide the price they pay?

On the music industry like where we are in this scene or in general, the whole industry?

In general.

Oh ok, let’s see. I’ll answer that question first. The industry is the business end of things, it’s not called the music business because those guys like sit around and listen to records all day. It’s called the music business because they like to sell records all day. We wouldn’t be here without them, that’s the truth of the matter. So I’m real happy they’re there. I’m real happy that there are guys out there that like music enough to at least;the kind of guys that are good at selling things, which I don’t claim to be, I claim to be good at playing things, you know? That’s what I do, so it’s good to have someone out there that are good at selling things that want to sell what it is that we’ve got. Cause otherwise no one is necessary going to know about it. That’s the reality of it, you know? If there wasn’t a music business, we’ll all have day jobs too and we wouldn’t be able to put all our time into this and it wouldn’t necessarily be as good as a result.

Now all that said, those guys get real wrapped up in themselves sometimes. Especially right now with all these major record labels folding and record sales tanking and downloads getting more popular. There is a lot of scrambling going on right now. I’m very excited to see when and what the change will be because something is going to change. I read a quote of Rick Rubin, Rich Rubin is at Columbia right now, they hired him as co-president just cause he knows what good music is, he doesn’t claim to be an executive. There is an article about him in the New York Times Magazine about a month and a half ago, did you read it?

No.

Well anyways, it’s worth checking out. You can find it in the New York Times archive probably online. He said something;ah;what was it; something to the effect of, either the labels are going to figure out how to do this right on their own or we’re all going to get bought by Microsoft and Apple because those guys know how to sell things. They know how to do it, they know where the figures are, they know what to do. They are all ready to do it, all they are doing is waiting for the price of labels to go down low enough to buy them up. And they will because most….when we signed with DreamWorks back in the day, in large part because they didn’t have shareholders. They were a huge record label, but they were still technically an independent company. At a certain point these shareholders are going to go “You know what, we don’t like these profits we’re seeing. Time to sell the company.” And then who knows what is going to happen.

On the Radiohead end of things, I wish to death that Saves The Day could afford to do that, but the fact of the matter is we can’t. Radiohead is fucking huge.

Have you listen to the record?

Yeah, a bunch of times. It’s great.

Yeah, it’s incredible.

It’s really good. I’m really happy that they are taking that leap and from what I’ve heard, it’s paid off since they have that $80 deluxe package thing and they already sold out of it. They are still making money doing what they are doing.

It’s just the fact that they are doing it and people are still willing to pay. It shows that people are actually willing to pay.

Have people been contributing? Do you know?

Yeah, they have been. I’ve read on websites and forum of people that have paid like $20 for it.

That’s awesome.

It’s just the fact that they are getting the attention out there and people are choosing to pay. That just shows the dedication a lot of people have out there for music.

And in theory, in a perfect world, we’ll all get to give our records away and somehow still be able to be a full time band. I would love that to happen. It doesn’t work that way right now. Saves The Day, we need our measly $1.50 or $2.00 we get from what we’ve recouped. That’s the thing, no one should kid themselves into thinking a band like us is getting rich off of this. That’s just not true. I’m homeless. That’s just not by choice, well probably by choice since I’m touring a lot of the time. I can’t really afford an apartment and you know, I’m happy with that because I’m doing what I love to do.

– If you had to revolve the next record on one issue or topic, which one would it be and why?

A whole record?

Yeah.

Like write a record on a specific topic?

Yeah, just revolve the lyrically content and the musically feeling of it.

Well that’s actually what we are doing right now, that’s actually what we’ve always been doing. Chris has written every word that has ever been in any song and it’s always been about nothing more than his struggle to be alive, just like anyone else. These are universal emotions and I think that’s part of what people are attracted to about our band. So that’s my answer. The everyday holy shit like, “What will I do? What is this, you know? How do I deal with this? How do I deal with that? This thing makes me feel weird, what does that mean? Where do I go with it?”

Questioning things and not falling into the whole system of “Ok, well this person said it so I’m just going to believe it.” You have to suspect everything.

Yeah, exactly. It’s all about exploring that independent mindedness thing.

– How would you describe each record and how do you think the band has evolved from when the band first started to present day?

First and foremost, we’ve all gotten better at our instruments. Learned more chords, learned different scales, learned different ways to structure a song. Learned different methods of writing a song. Sometimes we’ll start a song with a riff and sometimes we’ll start a song with a melody and sometime we’ll start a song with a lyric. Just generally evolving, you know? Developing our palette just like a painter might learn to mix colors better as he got older.

– What is your opinion about bands focusing their lyrics on religion/politics? Should it be done in moderation, not at all, or in heavy doses?

That reminds me of;have you seen;what is it called;it’s called like “No Direction Home” I think, the Bob Dylan documentary that Martin Scorsese did.

No I haven’t.

You should check it out, it’s on PBS every once in a while. I don’t know if you are a Dylan fan or whatever. But “Blowing in the Wind” and songs like that, people picked him as the political poster child in the folk world for this whole counterculture movement and civil rights. Like, that was the song. He never has claimed to be a political guy, he’s like “I don’t know what you guys are talking about!”

So that said, some bands care a lot about politics, I personally care a lot about politics, but we’re not a political band. I mean, Chris and I were just talking about this today on the drive down here. We feel very strongly that there is something you can sort of get from music that in the end might really lend itself towards developing your strong sense of politics or spirituality or whatever. And really what it is about is accepting yourself. That’s the big challenge. Like, where does war come from? Where does people arguing in the Senate chamber come from? It comes from people going like “Ah I can’t look at this ugly mole on my face. I’m going to point out your mole!” If everyone could just go “Alright, I have a fucking mole!” That’s just the way it is, I think there would be a lot more happiness in the world.

I think the bands that do the whole political approach correctly, in a sense, are the ones that don’t really claim to do it. There are a lot of bands out there that are like “We’re a political band.” And I think they use that for marketing to connect with people that are into that kind of thing. The ones that are actually doing it and are doing it because that’s what they’re into or speak about;you ask if they are a political band and they say “Not really.”

Exactly.

I think there are so many things out there that people use as marketing tools.

Yeah, and in theory, in a perfect world, the politicians would do that too. They would just talk about what they felt strongly about talking about and everything would be great. But that isn’t what happens unfortunately. They have to get reelected and blah blah blah. Whatever, we’re not even going to get into that cause that’s not the name of the game here.

– Which moment in the band’s history did you realize that this is what you want to be doing?

It was in the weeks and months after we had a really bad van wreck, back in 2000. I kind of, almost died cause I was touring in a van and trying to make it. Talk about perspectives, you know? We kept going. We got back in the van only like a week later, my face was still broken open and we kept playing shows. Every single night I go out and there and like, “Oh, wow! I guess I must really love this.” Because I just didn’t run with my tail between my legs and go home back to my parents’ house or go back to college. There must be a reason. Ever since then, that’s the daily process for me. None of us in this band are taking this for granted. One iota, we are very mindful of what it is we are doing and why we’re doing it and what the goals are. And the fact that, if we’re not really committed to doing this, like truly committed, then we shouldn’t be here. We should step out of the way and let one of the thousands of other bands that are committed to doing it but aren’t getting the exposure that they probably deserve take our place. And I think every band should do that.

Which moment pushed you to doubt being in the band?

There was a long time after “In Reverie” came out, not to say that no one liked that record because I know lots of people liked it. We still sold plenty of copies of it and we were very proud of it and we still are very proud of it. There was a long time where Chris had some real bad writer’s block, there was nothing new coming out. And there was just a lot of waiting going on, a lot of “What are we doing? Oh man, this is dragging on and on.” And it was kind of getting to the point for me where, thankfully it all turned around. Chris and I had a strong enough connection as friends first. I mean I got passed my point where I’m like “Look dude, the band must continue, we gotta write a record.” That kind of thing. Once that part had worn off, which it did at a certain point, I could be like “I love this guy. He’s my friend, he’s going through a really hard time.” He took it harder than the rest of us. They’re his word. He’s always been dealt the brunt of whatever antagonism, whatever criticism. I get to kind of stand off to the side a little bit. It’s hitting him every time and every time anything comes out. And I kind of got to remind myself of that, “I need to help this guy. I need to do what I can do.” But that was it. There was a long time like while we writing “Sound The Alarm”, while we were recording it even, where I was just like, “I really want to get this record done. I am committed to getting this record done, but I don’t know for certain where I’m going with it.” But thankfully it all worked out and here we still are, two years later.

Yeah, it’s tough. When I write…I’m currently writing a book.

Oh cool. What is it about?

I’ll let you know after the interview. There are times when I’m writing and I feel like I can’t come up with anything new. So I start doubting myself. When I am writing something, I want to make it the best thing I could write. I get so critical of myself.

Let me give you the advice that changed everything for us. It was the moment when, I don’t remember exactly who suggested it. I think Chris was reading, actually Chris was reading a book, I don’t know if it was a writer, well obviously it’s a writer that wrote the book. But it was some book about the writing process, I think it must have been a novelist or maybe a poet, I can’t remember if it was a he or she. But he or she said something to the effect of when you’re feeling like you don’t have anything good to write, the worst thing you can do is try to wait for something to come. You’ve got to be willing to write crap. You’ve got to be willing to write it and look at it and go “You know, that’s crap, but at least I wrote something.”

Yeah, and then you can go back and change it and edit it.

Yeah, or maybe you are just going to write crap for like 6 months. But if you are full of crap, you have to get the crap out to get before you get down to the good stuff. It’s like that whole cold diamond metaphor.

– When looking at other bands, what things do they do that anger you and what makes you support them?

Well, any band that has integrity. Any band that is being true to what they believe in, I will always respect no matter what it is. I don’t care if they are a bunch of Nazis, not that I support that, but if they feel really strongly in white supremacy, then God bless them for going for it.

As long as they are sticking to what they believe in.

Exactly, exactly. You know, I’ll say that music is about music. We all spend money on taking good pictures of ourselves and making expensive videos every once in a while when we can afford to do it because that’s part of how you get the music out there. I get a little bummed out when I see bands relying too heavily on the image of what a rock band is. At the same time, image is incredibly important. This is based on a certain degree of younger people wanting to emulate these guys. We’re on a stage, I get it the whole thing.

At least have an honest image.

Yeah. At least be true to it and don’t bank on it, bank on your songs.

– In one hundred years, do you think a new style of music would evolve and what would be different about music in general?

Oh my god, so much is going to be different in 100 years, I couldn’t even begin to answer that question. When we were mastering the record, we mastered “Under The Boards” with this guy, he’s been in the business forever. He does the Rolling Stones records, he does Tom Petty, he does all, you know, people that have been around forever. He was kind of joking with us and he kind of spun around in his chair in the middle of doing his thing, and he’s like “So are you guys ready to start writing ringtones or what?” You know, that’s the next step. We’re not even going to be writing songs sometime, we’re going to be writing hooks and then people are going to be listening to them in between phone calls. And that’s already happening. We’ll see where it goes, but music is music, like songs will change.

Way back in the day, rock songs were 2 and a half minutes long because that is all you could fit on a little 45. That’s it and if you wanted to fit anymore then it wasn’t going to sound good. And then when we started getting LPs, LPs were about 30 minutes long because that’s all you could fit on two sides of an LP, if you wanted to sound halfway decent. If you wanted to put more music on, then you were going to lose a bunch of fidelity. So people started making double LPs and then the CD came out. What happened? People started making 70-minute albums because they can sometimes, not saying everyone did it, we didn’t. But it’s all changing constantly. What I’m trying to get to is with the internet, with storage being such a simple thing now, information storage, you know? Now with these two terabyte hard drives, that are like $500 or whatever. It’s amazing how fast this shit is changing. And the medium will like it always has been, the medium will dictate the change.

It’s like, way back when the Triborough Bridge was built in New York City, they built this bridge and they were like “Alright. We are going to spend a lot of money on this bridge. Let’s make it extra big because that way we won’t have to build another bridge.” You know what happened? They build the bridge and did all the mapping, they did all their research and they were like “Alright we built this bridge, it’ll be 20 years before we have to build another one.” They built the bridge and within a year, there were traffic jams on that bridge, just because they built it that big. So that is how it works.

I always wonder about different times and how there was always a new genre that emerged. So I am just thinking of what is going to be the next thing. I’ve thought about it and I listen to a lot of different kinds of music out there, and I wonder about what is going to be next. There was a time when people didn’t know what rock was and then it came out. I’m just trying to think about what is going to be next and what is it going to sound like.

Yeah, the sky is the limit, you know? I’m not even going to try and speculate. Everything will happen at some point. That’s for sure.

– Anything else you want the readers to know?

Our record is out October 30th and we hope you like it. We like it. We’ll be on tour, the whole band, the beginning of next year. You know, that’s it. Listen to good music, avoid the bad stuff.