As Tall As Lions

As Tall As Lions' van broke down and they had to miss the Minneapolis date of the tour, but vocalist Dan Nigro was kind enough to do a phone interview with me anyways. We talked about their new, critically acclaimed self-titled album and some exclusive info about upcoming tours and a new EP.

Curt Baker: Well, first of all thanks for doing this.

Dan Nigro: No problem man

CB: Since the website is on the Minneapolis scene I have to ask the obligatory question; what do you think of the city and its venues?

DN: Well to be honest we’ve only played in Minneapolis three times. We played the Triple Rock Club twice and we’ve played the Quest once. What’s the smaller room in the Quest?

CB: The Ascot Room.

DN: Yeah, we played there once as well. Those were the three times in Minneapolis and I have to say the Triple Rock Club was phenomenal. The guy that does the sound there, I forget his name, he’s a really nice guy, he’s always hooked us up, he’s always been kind, and always given us good sound and hooked us up with our monitors. And the food there is obviously amazing and they always have a surplus of drink tickets. It’s a pretty great experience every time we play there.

CB: What does the name As Tall As Lions mean? Is there a story behind that?

DN: I guess there’s a story behind every band name you know? Whether it’s simple or complicated. It was a phrase that Saen had come up with, Saen being our guitarist, and I had seen it in something he had written online, I can’t remember where I saw it whether being in a journal post or message boards, I can’t remember. Well, somehow I saw the name and was like, “That would be a really cool name for our band,” and asked if he could give it to us because it was a phrase that he had come up with. He said that he liked it as well and we chose it as our band name.

CB: How do you feel about your new self-titled album and the response you’ve gotten in regards to it.

DN: We’re very happy with it. We spent the last seven months writing the record and two months recording it. We were very meticulous when it came down to the song writing process and the detail that came into every song, every chord progression, and every melody that was chosen, every drum beat that was written. Everybody had to be very excited about everything or it wasn’t allowed to fly. So we were happy with the way it came out, our producers were amazing. Mike Watts and Keith Hagler were incredible to work with. They had a really good dynamic together in the studio. Although we were working 12 hour days it was always very relaxed. There was no pressure, like stress in terms of people getting down on each other. It was very free-spirited atmosphere. A lot of times it was trial and error with mic set-ups or placements or different approaches to singing or different guitar tones to every song. It was a great experience, we’re happy with the way it came out. We’re overwhelmed with the positive stuff we’ve been getting in the press about it because obviously our first record didn’t really get that great of reviews and this one seems to be getting pretty great reviews across the board. Obviously there’s gonna be the bad review here and there but I think that comes with every album you know?

CB: That’s actually why I looked into you because I read a review on AP.net I think and they just loved it so I figured I better check you guys out.

DN: Well, there you go. For the first time ever have I had faith in reviews to have someone be turned on to a band because of it. Like with our first record when we got a bad review we were like, “Oh, it’s alright it’s just a bad review, people are going to go out and listen to it themselves.” But, now we get e-mails all the time that say, “Hey man I read your review in this magazine or this website and I went out and bought your record and I loved it.” It's like, "Wow, you actually did that?" That’s kinda crazy.

CB: Did you approach the recording of this album differently than Lafcadio?

DN: Yeah, it was very different. Just in terms of technically and in terms of the way we recorded things. On the first record it was very much drums, bass, then guitar, then pianos. It was very “this after that after that” type of recording. With this record we did all the drums and the bass in four days. Then after that we did it song after song. Like we’d say, “Ok, it’s Tuesday, we need to work on Ghosts of York.” So we’d bring in some amps and go track guitar, piano, then vocals, so we where always in the vibe of the song. We never felt like we were really taking ourselves out of the song, we were lworking on it for the whole day and you get immersed in it and you tend to get more stuff for that song. It was a good process in that sense. It was a much more relaxed feel. On the first album the vocal takes were very rigid. It was more about perfectly being in tune at all times and on the new record it was more about getting the right feeling on the songs. On the first record we would spend hour upon hour on a vocal a track, whereas there were certain tracks on this record where I went in there, did a couple takes and that was it. It was like, “Ok that take you were perfectly on key, but on this take you were flat on one note, but we can use it because the feeling was better on this take.” It was a lot more about the vibes that were going on with this record.

CB: I’ve heard that you haven’t had formal voice training, is that true?

DN: I had voice training for a few months but it wasn’t anything that I feel I took anything from. Not because of the professionals that I went to. More so because of my attitude towards music at the time. When I went to voice instructors it was like four or five years ago and at the time I didn’t take my singing very seriously. I took vocal lessons when I was like 18 and I had three different instructors and each one of them was for like one or two lessons. And most of them were like, “You don’t take this very seriously, singing is a very serious thing,” and I didn’t take it seriously and I didn’t practice my scales and warm-up exercises. It wasn’t until the last year or two that..once we started touring and I started losing my voice at shows and listening back to tapes and hearing me hit flats all the time I was like, “Wow, I really need to work on this.”

CB: Yeah, well your voice is one of the most praised things on the album and it really surprises me that you didn’t have a lot of vocal training.

DN: Yeah, definitely nothing to make me a better or worse singer.

CB: You guys are from New York, but you don’t really sound like a New York band. Where did you get your sound, what were the influences?

DN: Everybody in the band listens to different music. Obviously people compare us to British bands all the time and I think that’s correct in a certain sense. Like obviously every musician out there listens to Radiohead. We listen to a lot of Elbow, Bjork, or Broken Social Scene. We listen to a lot of old stuff like obviously The Beatles, Led Zepplin, Neil Young, and Bob Dylan. We’re very influenced by older rock and folk music. And there’s a lot of soul actually influenced in the music. There’s a lot of Marvin Gaye played in the van, there’s a lot of Curtis Mayfield played in the van. Cliff our drummer is obsessed with Alicia Keys. So we listen to a lot of older hip-hop whether it be the Roots or A Tribe Called Quest. Not just your standard rock influences I don’t think.

CB: I think the album kind of has a dream-like feel to it, my roommate is always saying it’s the perfect nap album. I mean not to...

DN: Perfect nap album! Haha, I didn’t take any offense. Actually we get a lot of comments from people at shows that say like, “I fall asleep to your record every night.”

CB: Was that a conscious decision? Like the vibe of the album?

DN: Yeah I think a lot of the music we listen to is very flowy and dreamy. And obviously you’re influenced a lot by what you listen to and who you hang out with. Most of the guys in the band are really mellow people, no one in the band is really a partier. Obviously that go out and drink and have fun, but we’re not the type that go out to parties every night and be stupid. We’re not the most social people most of the time. So I guess it’s more of an extension of our attitudes.

CB: I would say the main theme of the album is love, I don’t know how you feel about that..

DN: Yeah, I think….I’m trying to refrain from clichés but if you think that is the theme, then you’d be correct. Whether it be the positive or negative aspects of it. Obviously every human goes through the natural emotional rollercoaster of being happy and sad. And we definitely through that rollercoaster ride while we wrote this record and it definitely comes across when you listen to it.

CB: So were the lyrics mainly autobiographical on the album?

DN: No actually. I only write part of the lyrics. We have a funny lyric writing process in our band. I will write most of the melodies, but I don’t write down lyrics right away for the song because if I sit down to write them down I over think it and I’m never happy with anything I write and I just drive myself crazy. So, for this record I would make up a melody and would sing the melody and whatever lyrics I would come up with I would sing it and demo it out then show our guitarist and he would go back and listen to the melodies and lyrics I had written. Then he would go back, like over the course of the months when we wrote the record, and he would write down what he really liked about them or would write stories around the lyrics or on some songs he would completely change everything I had written, lyric-wise, and that’s the way we write songs. So some songs are autobiographical about situations like definitely when I was initially writing them out and some are autobiographical for Saen’s part and then some of the other lyrics are just complete made-up stories. It varies from song to song.

CB: What do you guys have coming up? Any more tours?

DN: Well, we’re done with this bar tour on November 17^th. Then we start up on a tour with a band called Under The Influence of Giants.

CB: My roommate just freaked out when you said that.

DN: Oh really? Haha, well it’s only going to be ten days and it’s not coming to Minneapolis so I’m sorry. We’re doing about ten days with them along the east coast and then Texas and then I think we’re gonna head home for a few days. We’re gonna take off December, I think we have about a week of shows planned for December like a couple of headlining shows then we’re gonna do a big Christmas show in our hometown. We haven’t Long Island since August so it will have been about six months at that point. Then we’re looking into options, we have a couple of invites and submissions for tours starting in late January, early February. Nothing is for sure yet, we’re just figuring out our tentative schedule. We just recorded a four song EP that we don’t know what we’re gonna do with. It’s one original Chrismas song we wrote, a cover of “Oh, Holy Night,” a cover of “Across The Universe,” by the Beatles, and we did a remake of the single “Love,” more of a trip hop remix. We're trying to think of a way to release it, we might release the song separately, we might release them together. We haven’t decided yet.

Building a Better ____ (Interview)

Here is my interview I did with Park when they were in town on Monday on June's recent tour. Go out and get their new album Building A Better ____, I promise you'll love it if you like things in the vein of Minus the Bear and Armor For Sleep.

Curt Baker: First of all thanks for doing this

Ladd: No problem

CB: You guys just released Building A Better ____, blank, fill in the blank, I don’t know. How do you even say that? Do you just say Building A Better?

L: Yeah. Usually we just say Building

CB: Okay. Anyways, are you guys happy with how it turned out and the response you’ve gotten so far?

L: Mhm. I think that the only problems I had with it is I didn’t finish a couple songs on it. I just got the lazy bug and didn’t follow through with it because it was supposed to be a longer album because the previous two had ten songs on it. There was such a gap between It Won’t Snow and the new record and I wanted to put more songs on it and it just didn’t happen. So that’s the only problem I have with it. I think it sounds….we’re really happy with how it sounded.

CB: What’s the meaning behind the title? It Won’t Snow Where You’re Going is pretty self-explanatory but, Buiding A Better ____ is..

L: Well, I was trying to find a name for it and I was asking these guys, “What about this,” “No,” and “How about this,” “No,” and uh..I thought of Building A Better Pirate and I just though it was funny because it didn’t mean anything. So we went ahead with that title and everyone we told it to didn’t like the pirate part. So I sort of took that part out actually it was Alex’s idea to take that part out and put in the noun part so people could put in whatever they wanted in there so we don’t get shit.

CB: Did you approach the writing of this album differently than your previous recordings?

L: Um yeah..a little…I wanted it to be a little bit more cut and dry, it wasn’t as riffy as the other two. But, Justin had kinda not helped as much with the songwriting aspect of it just because he was busy with other things..he was kind of not wanting to do the band anymore. I was a little happier I guess, I was in a better emotional place.

CB: While your lyrics can be classified as decidedly emo, your music definitely has a more complex and layered sound that steps outside the genre. Was this a conscious decision or just what came out when you started the band?

L: I think it just happened. When Justin, Miles, and Timmy and I originally got together we were really bad at righting songs with..i dunno..there were like 13 parts to a song so we had to like learn and I think it was really hard for me..I think it was really hard for me and Miles to learn how to do that because we were the ones trying to put all these parts in it and we had to settle down and just be like “Whoa,” and approach it from a different way. But, I think it just kinda happened by itself it was never a conscious thing.

Miles: It’s definitely that Ladd is writing more songs now, not just parts. Like before it was just we’d write a part and someone else would write a part and we’d just try to put all these parts together and try to make a song.

L: Yeah we’d have to try to tie that all together

M: And we’re like “How do we make this part go to this part,” and now it’s more song oriented. I mean Ladd always writes a few songs like usually like almost half the songs on his own and then the band kinda comes together and writes another five or however many songs it is. Ladd always tends to like the ones the band writes as a whole better and we tend to like the ones he writes better. So that’s why its always half and half but like it works out I think because then all the songs don’t sound the same it helps space things out and makes the record more listenable as a whole.

L: I think, back to the question you asked before, in regards to the writing on it, I think we approached it as more as, “Hey what’s right for the song,” not “How can we show off on our abilities,” or whatnot. It’s what works best for the song, you know what’s the best way to approach this song. If that made any sense. Fuckin ostrich fuckin a donkey.

Alex: I know what you meant

CB: (laughs) Okay, well you guys have a lot of intense songs like “Mississippi Burning” that are really personal. Do they still have an impact on you when you play them live? I mean because they’re really personal and mean a lot to you?

M: We haven’t played that one live yet. So…

L: It’s a tricky devil.

M: But I think “Dear Sweet Impaler” is pretty similar for you know for the last album and its feeling and emotion in it and every night we play it I’m always into it no matter what kind of show it is. And I think we like probably feel the same way about “Mississippi Burning” as soon as we play it. But, I mean every time I listen to it, it gives me the chills just knowing what it’s about I mean I’ve heard that from a lot of people who kind of know the story and the situation. It’s kinda freaky you know? It’s messed up to think about.

CB: Where do you get motivation for your lyrics are they all necessarily things that happen to you or are some fictional or..

L: For the most part yeah. But on this album I tried to…like I said I wasn’t upset about too many things. There were a couple things that happened that inspired some songs but providing that “Mississippi Burning” was something that didn’t happen to me that I don’t know how it feels to have that happen to you…that was extremely hard to write. There wasn’t very many fictionalized songs on it there all like all things that happened to my life or pertained to my life so I didn’t really approach it any different way.

CB: You guys have a pretty intense sound, which now it seems in the scene you have to scream if you’re gonna have an intense sound. What do you feel about how the genre is leaning towards that because I feel like when you guys can still be really into it and have a really…not heavy..but you know what I mean it’s just really emotional, really intense. But, you don’t feel the need to scream on every track and how do you feel about how the genre seems to be going in that direction.

L: I think it’s more intense when you don’t scream. Like when you actually dial it down to the very bottom notch and like barely sing you know, like almost like a whisper. I think that’s more intense than screaming. I think that’s just…you know..screaming’s cool every now and a then but I think some bands use it because they see other people doing it and…it’s just lack of talent I thinkg some times.

M: They just don’t know else what to do anybody can do that

L: I would always use that as a last resort. Like, “Ugh I can’t think of anything just fucking scream.” And I think we’ve only got one song…one or two songs where we really scream.

M: Yeah, it’s definitely not screaming like it was on It Won’t Snow and even that was very kind of like..we used it very slim, we kept it to a minimum because we don’t want to be a “screamo” band and even with those few songs people were like, “Oh, Park’s going screamo now.” It’s like whatever.

L: I think there are very few bands that can pull off the screaming thing

CB: Well the thing is, it’s not gonna be around in five years.

L: Right, no, I don’t think it’s gonna be around in two years.

M: It’s pretty much done.

L: I think it’s gonna go out pretty quick.

CB: What’s up with “Olly olly oxen free,” in “Hide and Seek” why did you…

L: You don’t know what “Olly olly oxen free,” is?

CB: Well yeah I know what it is just why did you decide to put that in the song, it’s just really random.

L: I don’t know…

CB: I mean the first time I listened to the record I was like, “Wow, that’s awesome,” but “Wow, where the hell did that come from?”

L: I don’t know, I was sitting in his (Miles’) basement writing it and I was just like..I was trying to figure out..when I write sometimes I try to figure out…you know I’m always sitting there counting syllables in words you know like (claps) “Hap-py peo-ple,” you know like “I need five syllables not four syllables.” That just fit and it fit what I was trying to say so it just went in there. It thought it was stupid when I did it I was like, “This is really beyond gay.” But if everyone else likes it then that’s cool and I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on it.

CB: Yeah first time I heard it I was like “Wow,” but I really liked it.

L: I think it’s spelt wrong in the CD thing, it’s supposed to be um..I can’t remember..I looked it up online and it’s spelled fucked up.

CB: Yeah I looked it up online too actually they had O-L-L-Y then oxen..like an oxen.

L: Yeah, I didn’t do it like that..I did like Muhammad Ali. (laughs)

Aaron: They know what you mean.

CB: Alright, what further support do you have planned for the album, like upcoming tours..

Alex: I thought you said “sport” at first, but support..

M: Yeah me too, I was like “Hockey!” We’ll probably do a sweet table tennis tour then maybe a backyard pool volleyball tournament. But, other than that I think we’re just gonna have a DVD come out and tour around that next year and hopefully keep touring next year and I don’t know just continue this cycle of writing songs.

CB: Alright, you guys have played Minneapolis right?

M: Yeah

L: We’ve never played in a place like this place (Varsity Theater).

M: We played the Quest though, that was pretty nice.

L: Oh, I forgot we played the Quest.

M: We played the Quest and we played the Ascot Room.

CB: Ok, well what I was going to ask is this whole blog that I run is on the Minneapolis scene so I kind of have to ask an obligatory question. And I was just wondering what you think of the city and the venues here. Other than it’s cold, that’s the most frequent answer I get.

M: Really? As long as the venue’s not cold. Last night it was so damn cold inside the venue.

L: We’ve always been treated really nicely in Minneapolis

M: Yeah, we played at the CD Warehouse right down the street, a long time ago with The Higher, and then we played the Quest with (Hed) pe.

L: That was awesome dude.

M: (Hed) pe and Noise Ratchet then we played the Ascot Room with Moneen and Braid and Recover which was pretty sweet. And I think we played there one other time, but we’ve always had really good shows, we don’t get up here a ton, I guess we played Warped Tour in Minneapolis too.

L: We’ve played outside of Minneapolis haven’t we?

M: Uh…oh yeah..there used to be a café like Fireball or espresso café or something. Yeah we’ve played there several times to. But, we’ve always had decent kids come out and support us, but it’s just hard to route a tour up here sometimes. Even though it’s only eight hours away from where we live it’s still hard to work out.

CB: Okay, and what are your favorite cities to play and venues…I mean obviously Chicago…

M: No, we don’t really play Chicago, we play the suburbs but we haven’t had a show in Chicago in three or four years.

L: Anaheim is really good.

M: Yeah, Chain Reaction is awesome. San Francisco.

L: San Francisco is cool. Seattle, I like playing in Seattle a lot.

Aaron: Albuquerque.

Alex: I like El Paso.

M: El Paso is definitely dirty but awesome.

CB: How about bands to tour with…any bands in particular…

L: Right now we’re playing with Tyler Read and they’re a lot of fun.

Alan: Tyler Read is awesome dude.

M: They’re like our new favorite band. We haven’t toured with Moneen in a long time but they were always like our buddies for a long time. Um…I don’t know there’s a lot of good bands but..

L: It’s hard to single them out.

M: Not that we would get the opportunity to tour with them..but whatever.

CB: And what are you guys listening to now, what do you recommend, what should all the cool kids be listening to?

L: ABBA. I’m serious.

Alex: The Cranberries?

M: We listened to the Cranberries today, Imogen Heap, whatever it is.

L: That Frou Frou whatever that shit you always listen to is…

M: Yeah, that’s pretty good. Well, same sound.

CB: Well Frou Frou is Imogen Heap’s full band project.

M: Oh, I did not know that. That makes sense, thanks for that educational..thing. Uh..what else do we listen to. I listen to Near Missile a lot they’re a smaller band but they have some really good songs.

Aaron: I listen to headphones..

M: Headphones? Umbrellas, is that what you like?

L: Is that that one you showed me?

CB: What are your guys’ influences?

L: (whispers) Metallica. That’s the reason I started playing guitar dude.

M: Why’d you say it like that?

CB: He was trying to be intense..you have to be quiet to be more intense.

L: Well I like Jawbreaker and Sunny Day Real Estate really influenced me a lot to be in a band and just writing and everything. Braid, I love Braid, awesome.

Alan: MXPX definitely dude.

M: I think Alex is gonna say Blink 182.

Alex: I was, I love Blink.

M: The first punk band I got into was like No Doubt probably, I saw them on the box and was like, Gwen Stefani is hot and Adrian Young is a good drummer. So, I was into ska for a while then just kinda got into other stuff after that.

CB: Let’s see..any tour stories you’d like to share..any good ones?

Aaron: Food fight? Or when you almost got shot? Either that or food fight.

M: The food fight is more..that’s a good one. We were on tour with One Way Letter and we stopped at a gas station and we go to the gas station and was like, “Oh what band are you guys in?” He gave us a bunch of stuff because he was like “Oh, I don’t need any of this stuff,” so he gave us like a bunch of lunchables that had expired and like sodas we had all this stuff. And they called us and were like, “Where you guys at?” and we’re like, “Oh, we’re like at exit whatever.” So they were right behind us we’re like, “Alright sweet.” So we come up and are like, “Hey roll down the window,” and I had eaten like most of this ice cream but there was still a lot in there, it was melting, it was summertime so it was definitely melting. So he rolled the window down and he had manual, so it’s not like he could do it very fast and I just take this thing of ice cream and I’m in the back seat, he’s in the front and I take my right hand and just throw it and it hits him right in the face. So then we’re throwing lunchables and I had said, “Oh I’m gonna throw shit at you guys,” and we had this chili…so I take it and it lands right on their window and they got all serious and called us and were like, “What did you throw on our window…..” So that was pretty funny.

Cue The Interview

Hey, I talked to Cue The Doves' lead guitarist and supporting vocalist Jon Berndtson about Cue The Doves' new EP, The End of Spaceflight, his past with The Beautiful Mistake, and the future of Cue The Doves. Look for their new EP soon and for a little preview head over to their myspace and listen to "Anaphalaxis."

Curt Baker: Well, first of all thanks for doing this

Jon Berndtson: No problem man, it's a pleasure to do this with you man. It's good to know that people are so supportive of the music scene in the Twin Cities. Not just the pop bands, but every genre. So thank you for doin what you guys do over there, Cue The Doves loves MPLS scene.

CB: Haha. Ok first of all, you have a new EP, The End of Spaceflight, coming out soon and you guys made some changes to your sound for it. Would you care to discuss what you guys did differently and why?

JB: You honestly think it's different?

CB: Yes I do, it’s a lot more straightforward than Architectures of the Atmosphere.

JB: Well, it's good that you observe it that way. I'd say...in a technical sense...I completely agree with you. It's not like we got together in the practice space and said, "You know what, we need to write something that's going to catch on." I think a lot of the problem was that Architectures was such a weird time for us as a band. We went through a lot of member changes, and the lineup we have now is very consistent and understands the direction that Ryan and I have always wanted to go. It's basically the way the band should have been in the first place, not just members but the way the music is developing. I guess our approach was to not hold back. We wanted to do something that kept our signature...the atmospheric stuff...but bring in the elements that we all love, and that's heavy music.

CB: How do you feel about Architectures, I mean it got good reviews, a 4 in Alternative Press Magazine, but were you happy with it as a band?

JB: Well...yes, I'm very proud of everything we've done, because Cue The Doves has always been about heart. It's always been about something that we feel, and we've never really necessarily worried about what other people have thought about it. I think Architectures was a good start for us, but I think we're definitely becoming more refined. This time around, the band is really involved with helping me shape the music. In the past, I just demoed the stuff in my room on my loop pedal, and just showed up at practice with full songs. I still do that to an extent, but the musicians we have now I completely trust with assisting and giving advice towards arrangement. It's more Cue The Doves now then it was then.

CB: Have you guys been speaking with any labels recently or are you waiting to see the reaction the EP gets?

JB: Label interest has kind of been scarce. We released AOTA on a local label, Dead Letter Records. Our deal with them is up in March, but it's pretty much finished now just because the label is kind of on a hiatus. We've been talking to a couple of labels that showed interest off of AOTA, but I think we're just waiting to see what happens once the EP is released and to see the reaction.

CB: You guys have a weird obsession with aliens, can you explain that?

JB: That's hilarious. I guess the best way to explain the whole "science fiction" vibe is to be completely honest and say we're all geeks. We all were geeks in some shape or form in high school and growing up. We liked playing video games and reading books. All of us have been into science fiction type movies and books for a long time. When Ryan and I started the band over three years ago, we just decided that we wanted to incorporate science fiction as a way to show imagery to what the lyrics actually mean. It just allows us to be more creative, it's almost like we're writing our own book, but there is actual meaning behind everything we're writing, not just aliens and ufos.

CB: Definitely, it just adds another layer to the obvious meanings behind the songs.

JB: Exactly, I think people would be actually very surprised if they knew the true meaning behind all the songs, but that's the best part about it...we leave it open for interpretation.

CB: Ok, since this blog is on the Minneapolis scene, I have to ask the obligitory questions. What are your favorite Minneapolis venues and your favorite bands to play with?

JB: We definitely love playing the Triple Rock Social Club. It's always a great time, and the people who run it are amazing. I’d say my new favorite venue is the Toybox. I think it's a good thing for this city to have a venue that parents can drop their kids off and feel safe doing so at. It allows for all sorts of ages to come out to shows and check out bands. We get along with a lot of the Minneapolis bands, but I think the ones we bro down with (not just at shows, but as friends) are This Is Morning, Lies In The Effort (we share a space with both of those bands), The Aesthetic, Gloria, Small Towns Burn A Little Slower, Declare This An Emergency, Write This Down, Chaplan, and Red Fox Grey Fox. There are so many we could list, but I think that there is definitely a camaraderie or "family" between us, This Is Morning, Lies In The Effort, The Aesthetic, and Gloria. We all end up showing up at each others shows and supporting one another. It's definitely great. I think everyone should definitely check out the new Red Fox Grey Fox stuff, I actually produced it as well. They're an amazing band.

CB: Well, as it is well known, you were in the San Diego based band The Beautiful Mistake, why did you decide to leave?

JB: First things first, The Beautiful Mistake was a huge part of my life. A lot of people seem to think that when I left, it ended on bad terms. When I left the band, the only people left in the band were myself and Josh, the singer. Josh and I still talk on a regular basis, and we've even talked about having him do some guest vocals on some future Cue The Doves stuff. That's neither here nor there, but the main reason I left was because of my grandmother and mother being diagnosed with cancer around the time that the other guys quit the band. Josh and I talked about having me move to guitar, but once my family stuff hit, I just needed to be home. I remember many of days when I was coming to the decision, that I felt as if I couldn't even tell the difference between up and down. A lot of the Cue The Doves material, vocally for me at least, is about how I dealt with my depression problems when I was in California. It's not that the band was all together negative, it was one of the best experiences of my life, but it was time for me to leave. One piece of advice to anyone in a band that wants to make it is realize that family and friends are more important than a band. A band does not last forever...and if you treat the band as your family and friend, and no one else like that, you'll learn quick what it's like to have your life take a spin for the worst.

CB: Well back to Doves, what are your plans for the future?

JB: As of right now, our last shows are coming up this month. We're taking off a couple of months from local shows to work entirely on a new record. As of right now, I have about five new songs in the works and our plan is to hopefully have 15 to 20 done to choose from by Christmas, depending on everyone's schedules. It's not to say that we won't be playing ANY shows, but we're just really burned out on playing around here. We need to focus on the writing process. We've been playing nonstop for months locally and doing as much regional stuff as we can. Our plan is to just get the new EP out and get kids excited about the maturation. With that being said, I'd expect to see everyone from the TC area to try to make it out to our show on the 25th of this month with Kaddisfly (amazing), The Spirit of ‘76, Red Fox Grey Fox, and Empires.
It's a very diverse bill and we're trying to mix it up a bit and do something different. We'll be playing a lot of the material off the new EP, and possibly one or two newer songs that we've been articulating for the past month or so. It's also been consuming because we've been trying to get Andy Sanford, our new bassist, up to speed. I think the time off will be good, and will really help in the creative process. I'm super excited for it.

CB: Awesome, well that’s all I’ve got, anything else you’d like to say?

JB: I guess I just want to say thanks to all the friends we've made through this band locally. We're definitely the odd band out around these parts...I don't even know one band I could remotely compare us to around here, and at times that can be very intimidating. I just appreciate the open minded people who have stuck with us, and have continued to support us over the past several years to help us get to where Cue The Doves is now. We love all of you.

Prepare The Masses: The A Change of Pace Interview

I interviewed Torry Jasper, singer of Phoenix natives A Change of Pace, at their show this past Sunday at Station 4. We talked about their newest record Prepare The Masses, their changes musically, The Beatles reunion tour, and even had a Dashboard Confessional sing-a-long afterwards. Enjoy.

Curt Baker: Since this blog is on the Minneapolis music scene, what do you think of the city and how have your shows here gone in the past?

Torry Jasper: It’s cold, haha. Warped tour was really good for us here, we met some really cool people. We played in the Ascot Room for the Myspace Tour with Greeley Estates, My American Heart, and The Confession. Hawthorne Heights sold out the room below so we were playing shows at like the same time, but it was still a good show.

CB: You guys just released a new album Prepare the Masses, what is the reaction you have gotten so far, and how do you feel about the album?

TJ: I really think it’s been awesome. It’s good, it feels like we’ve gone away from the screamo and it feels good and have reacted well to it. Even if they didn’t we still would have gone along with it. It’s good to know you can change your ideals and people will still go along with it. It just gives a chance to broaden our fanbase.

CB: One major difference I noticed between Prepare the Masses and An Offer You Can’t Refuse is that while it was poppy, An Offer You Can’t Refuse had more of an edge, even breakdowns. Why did you decide to change this?

TJ: I think we wrote our last album in terms that we wanted to be a part of a scene and we wrote this album to first please us aesthetically and also to please the fans you know?

CB: How has it been being on Immortal Records with bands like Scary Kids Scaring Kids and such?

TJ: It’s awesome. I like everyone over there, they’re really hard workers. I mean it’s a label things are always hard but you know they’ve done a good job, they’ve worked really hard and made everything possible for us.

CB: I was looking at your tour schedule and you guys are playing pretty much day in day out. How has being on the road so much been?

TJ: Right now it’s kinda like getting back in to the game. With An Offer You Can’t Refuse we tour pretty much straight then we took 5 to 6 months off to record our new record. Now we’re back on and just getting on our feet you know? It’s kinda tough getting back on there but soon we’ll be back again as good as ever. We love touring, this is what we love, this is all we got. This is what we were born to do. We make it work. None of us are going to school, I know Johnny’s not going to school he’s too dumb.

Johnny Abdullah: I'm too smart!

CB: How much do you think touring on the Warped Tour has helped you? TJ: I think our first time was a lot more beneficial than the last time. Just the fact that the main bands in 2005 were Fall Out Boy, Hawthorne Heights, Senses Fail, bands more keen towards our genre. This year was harder because there were bands like The Casualties, NOFX, more punk bands like that. So it was harder, but I mean Warped Tour can never do anything bad for you, you work hard at it and you get what you want out of it

CB: A lot of people think Warped Tour is one big party, but it’s pretty tough doing that.

TJ: It’s so hard. Especially when we played almost every California date and it was hot for the most part, we played Arizona too and it was bad.

CB: Any good tour stories you’d like to share?

TJ: Yeah I’ve got one for ya. We were in California and we have some friends and we all went to a bar and they bought us this thing called the blackout. It’s basically a steel bucket with a handle and it’s filled with 27 different types of alcohol and pineapple juice. We all went to town on it and finished it in 25 minutes. Then on the way back to our hotel me and Johnny prank called people, making complete asses out of ourselves. And then later I was still trashed and I woke up completely not coherent and started pissing on everything.

JA: You pissed on our gear, you pissed on my leg.

TJ: Not one of my better days. It’s called the blackout because you pretty much blackout.

CB: What are your favorite cities to play in?

TJ:First and foremost Phoenix, Tempe, just Phoenix metropolitain area. Out of state, Texas is always good for us. What’s a good city boys?

JA: Chicago. What’s that place in Delaware?

TJ: Whatever, just Delaware man. There’s a lot of random places. We played Madison a few days ago it was fucking awesome. They were louder than us for the most part.

CB: Who are your favorite bands to tour with?

TJ: Greeley Estates because we’ve toured with them so many times and they’re just awesome guys. And honestly Showbread, they were just such nice guys. Lorene Drive, Classic Crime, love those guys. I feel bad, we’ve been on so many tours it’s hard to pick out bands.

CB: Who are your major influences?

TJ: Mine vocally and lyrically, I’ve always been a really big fan of Sting and The Police and Elton John and things like that you know. It’s just the stuff I grew up on, my mom was just into easy listening. I’ve been getting in to The Smiths now and Morrisey. Musically I think we’re more influenced by New Found Glory and Taking Back Sunday you know guys like that. Blink 182 first band I ever fell in love with, which is why I think this record went into a different direction because we wanted to write a rock record not a screamo record.

CB: What cd’s are you listening to now, well obviously The Smiths, but what else?

TJ: Yeah, I’ve been listening a lot of that. I can never put down Death Cab for Cutie, I always listen to that, every cd is just amazing. But, my ipod just broke so I try to steal other people’s ipods to listen to music. Whenever I’m home and my cd player is broken or whatever I just try to find a classic rock station and listen to that, you know Zeppelin, ZZ Top and stuff.

CB: In “How To Rape A Country” there are some pretty intense depictions of war, does any of this have any deeper meaning, or is it a strictly anti-war song?

TJ: You know I think that song, it’s not necessarily anti war, it’s just war is not a good thing man. It’s not against Iraq, it’s not against Bush. It’s just war is never a good thing man. People are dying, people are getting shot man, it’s never a good thing. I’m not gonna say it was the wrong thing, I mean personally I think it was the wrong thing, but I’m not gonna say that. I don’t know where he was at, what choices he had to make. I try to be as open minded as possible with politics.

CB: Most of your lyrics are pretty intense, do you get your ideas from events that happen to you, or are you inspired by other things?

TJ: An Offer You Can’t Refuse was based basically around my friends and their lives and I was writing about was what I was seeing from the outside. And on Prepare The Masses it’s more what was happening to me, it’s a lot more personal.

CB: You guys recently shot a video for “Shoot From The Hip,” what is the symbolism behind the video?

TJ: It’s basically jus Darwin’s theory, survival of the fittest that was going on in that song. It’s just what was in the video, the best is gonna win and come out on top.

CB: What are your plans for the future?

TJ: In the future we are going on tour with Alexisonfire and Moneen and from there we’ll be going on a reunion tour with The Beatles, just kidding. And then we’ll be staying down south in the winter because we want to stay out of the snow, like Texas and California and shit. We don’t know who we’re going out with. Then we’ll be going out again in the spring, but just check the myspace stay on top of that shit.

The Not-So-Ordinary Life: Kevin Skaff of Four Letter Lie Interview

Here is my interview with Kevin Skaff of Victory Records band Four Letter Lie. Their debut full-length Let Your Body Take Over drops on October 31st...spooky. But seriously, if you don't pick it up, all of your myspace friends will be deleted.

Curt Baker: Well first thanks for doing this.

Kevin Skaff: No problem.

CB: Ok..let’s talk about the new record Let Your Body Take Over. First of all, why was it delayed until October?

KS: Our record was finished June 30th and was slated to come out on August 22nd which is a super fast turn around. Another band on Victory (On the Last Day) had a finished record that was coming out on Halloween so Victory just switched the two dates so that we could get good promotion and not be so rushed and the other band wouldn’t have to wait so long for their release.

CB: That makes a lot of sense. So far I've heard good things about the record, are you guys happy with it?

KS: We are all super happy with it. We definitely worked with all the right people for it and it really was just a band with some producers, no middle man pre production, no co-songwriters. It’s raw emotion from the band and the producers really knew how to bring out the best of us.

CB: How did the recording process change this time around? How much more were you able to do with the backing of Victory as opposed to doing it on your own?

KS: We have never recorded a full length before. It has always just been us going into the studio with friends to record a few songs here and there. We finally wanted to make ourselves better by getting into a real studio with a good producer to see if we were capable of making great sounding music that could stand with the best of them. This was actually our first REAL studio experience and none of it would have happened without Victory.

CB: How has being with Victory been so far?

KS: Victory has been great. They are good to us and everyone on the staff is amazing. We just recently got to hang out with a lot of them and that is something that doesn’t happen with some labels. Knowing who you’re working with on a personal level is great and we're super glad to be on their roster.

CB: How do you feel about Hawthorne Heights recent accusations that Victory hasn't paid royalties to them or Taking Back Sunday?

KS: It's all part of theirs’ and Victory's business. I don't really see myself getting my head around it too much.

CB: Now obviously you guys have done a lot of touring recently which contributed to your signing with Victory, how has that been?

KS: Touring is the best part about being in a band. Meeting new people, seeing new places, and living in a van with 4 or 5 of your best friends! One constant party. And we rarely ever fight, it’s pretty amazing.

KS: We like to be on the road constantly

CB: What are your favorite cities and venues to play?

KS: I really like the House of Bricks in Des Moines, Iowa and the Chain Reaction in Anaheim, California. The atmospheres and the sound in those places are incredible.

CB: How about favorite local venues? You guys used to hit up the old Toybox quite frequently.

KS: Yes now we hit up the new Toybox frequently. Andy is a good friend of ours and he always puts on great shows. Another good place to play is the Triple Rock. Great venue + drink tickets = awesome.

CB: Who are your favorite bands to play with? Locally and touring.

KS: Locally (this could get me in trouble if I forget someone) definitely With Dead Hands Rising, Everest, Crashing By Design, Gloria, The Semester, and Death Sentence. Touring I always have a good time with An Airbag to Save My Life (IA), For Your Eyes Only (IL), Glory of This (everywhere), Novella and Westcott (MO)

CB: How was playing at Warped and Taste of Chaos? How much do you think that helped you guys?

KS: The first Taste of Chaos was a big boost for us. We were still kind of new and that was a huge contest to win. Things started getting bigger from there. Playing Warped was funny because we just showed up and got on a week of Warped Tour, kind of just the right place at the right time. But that helped us meet a ton of new people in different states and we still hang out with most of them when we get out on tour.

CB: Any tour stories you would like to share?

KS: Umm we keep those under wraps, haha. But it usually consists of drinking, partying, and tornadoes.

CB: Sounds good. I'm sure the readers can use their imagination.

KS: I'm sure they will.

CB: Although touring is as you said a "constant party" what is the worst part of it? Does it ever get old?

KS: Sometimes you get home sick. You can't wait to get home. But then you’re home and you can't wait to leave again. But the worst part of tour is not having a comfy bed, home cooked meals, and never showering

CB: There is one local bill I’m surprised you're not on, Sharkfest at Underwater Adventures in the Mall of America. You guys should see if you can play there, give the kids a chance to "swim with the sharks"?

KS: This is true. There’s a strange obsession with sharks going on right now with us and Dead to Fall. Hopefully sharks take over the world soon enough.

CB: Haha agreed. Anyways, both you and Brian do vocals, who is the main lyricist? Or do you collaborate?

KS: We collaborate on a ton of stuff. When I first joined the band he wrote everything and he taught me a lot on how to release through writing, and ever since we have been writing together.

CB: What influences you lyrically? Things that happen to both of you or things you’ve seen happen to people?

KS: A lot of it is personal experience, but there are also stories that never happened to us but we think a lot of people go through. It helps more listeners relate to songs and gives them a voice so to say.

CB: Definitely. Now how does the writing process go? Do you have one main songwriter that usually will write a part and you build off of that?

KS: It usually is a song that I will be working on for a while on guitar. I’ll bring it to practice structured in some way and then John, Connor, and Derek finish it up with their parts and we polish it at a ton of practices to make it the way we all want it. No matter how stressed it makes us.

CB: You guys are definitely a hard working group of guys that bust their ass for their band. Is there any advice you would give other bands hoping to get signed?

KS: Don't break up, the longer you’re around the better. And play any show you can.

CB: Who are your guys’ influences musically?

KS: I was influenced by classic rock legends. Then somehow got into this genre called metal and hardcore. The rest of them were already into metal and hardcore so I had to get used to their styles but it all just kind of clicked.

CB: If you guys could play a show with anyone who would it be, what would be the ultimate line-up?

KS: Me personally, I would have to say Every Time I Die, Codeseven, and Def Leppard.

CB: Haha, that would be absolutely nuts.

KS: You better believe it.

CB: What are your goals for the future, especially the new record?

KS: To make a name for ourselves. This is our debut and we just want to be a settled band. We’re gonna tour our asses off for this record and we wanna meet everyone.

CB: A reader of the blog wanted me to ask what's up with the sleeveless flannel?

KS: It’s the only article of clothing that makes you totally awesome.

CB: Haha good answer

KS: Haha for sure.

CB: Another reader question, how did you decide to be more involved in the vocals?

KS: It was just a natural change. Nobody really said "You should sing more," it just kind of happened.

CB: And another, they asked, "I, as well as several other people, have noticed that during “Let's Call It A Night", you stopped singing the, "tonight, tonight, tonight" part of the song, or only sings part of it, or someone else comes up to sing it. Is there a reason for that?"

KS: Haha. There’s no reason. It’s probably because it’s a good sing along and I’m feeling the crowd. Or I’m just tired and don’t have enough breath to sing it. Haha. Nobody’s perfect.

CB: Ok, we'll see how these next reader questions go, they're quick.

CB: Do you like Justin Timberlake?

KS: He’s the greatest.

CB: Do you play a lot of Guitar Hero?

KS: Haha DUH.

KS: Challenge me I dare you.

CB: Is the new single about the girl from 8th and Ocean?

KS: Haha yes, I love Britt.

CB: And the last, do you really hope to bring back those white V-neck t-shirts?

KS: Viva la V-neck (aka the v-neck never went out of style, they just don’t realize it yet).

CB: Haha good call. You're so fashionable.

KS: I do what I can. Gotta love GQ am I right?

CB: Of course.

CB: Well, that's all I've got. Any last words?

KS: I don’t want to die

KS: Haha.

It's A Fever, Catch It: The Semester Interview

photo by Yvonne

My interview with Pat Brown from The Semester is finally here. We talked on aim while The Semester drove home from Chicago and Pat fought bad service on his sidekick. I want to thank Pat again for doing this and for being a really rad guy.

Curt Baker: Well, first of all Iwant to thank you for doing this.

Pat Brown: Yea anytime man

CB: First, let's talk about the new cd, Happy Endings and New Beginnings. How do you feel about it, are all of you pleased with how it turned out?

PB: Yea were very happy with how it turned out. It was a very last minute descision to put out a full length, and we're especially happy with how things played out in such a small time frame. We've also gotten some great feedback about it, so I am happy

CB: Did anything change during the recording process this time around?

PB: I changed and re-wrote a lot of vocal patterns and lyrics to the new songs on the record in the studio as I was layin down the tracks. Other than that, everyone knew exactly what they needed to do and when they needed to come in and do it.

CB: Well you guys obviously did. Speaking of vocal patterns, a fan wanted me to ask whether or not the growl during the "OONNN" in "Is That Bad?" was done on purpose, or it just happened and you decided to leave it there?

PB: Well I did it on the first take on accident, and I almost decided to take it out and redo that part, but Eric heard it and was like "Dude no keep it in man!" and I was like alright, so it stayed in! Haha

CB: Haha thats awesome, it's actually one of my favorite parts of the cd, seriously.

PB: Haha that's awesome man, thank you very much.

CB: Is there any special symbolism behind the album's title New Beginnings and Happy Endings?

PB: Yes there is actually. Eric and Pukes thought of the name. Around the time we were writing for the cd, it was a really rough time for us, a lot of stuff was going wrong for our band and we were all really really bummed about certain things, and putting out the cd was kind of like a "new beginning" for us. And hopefully a happy ending will come from it.

CB: Is there a story behind the title "Who Needs Reverse When You're In a Gang?"

PB: Haha yes. We were leaving for December tour, and Ray gets in the van to start driving at my dads house at 8 a.m., and he puts the van into reverse, but for some reason, the reverse didn't work, it was broken. And Pukes said "Dude we should probly get that fixed" and Ray goes "Who needs reverse when your in a gang?" And we all thought it was funny so we decided to name a song that.

CB: That's awesome. And what about "Dont You Dare Close Your Eyes?" Is that from Aladdin? That's the first thing I thought.

PB: You're a genious! That's exactly where its from. Haha. After we recorded the song, Eric mentioned that the song reminded him of being on a magic carpet ride so we named it after an Aladdin line.

CB: I dont know if you knew, but you guys were in smartpunk.com's top 100 a few weeks ago, ahead of Cartel's Chroma and Hellogoodbye's pre-order. How do you feel about that?

PB: I feel very good about it, it was a huge suprise. Eric called me and he was like "Dude were in the 40s in the top 100 on smartpunk!" and I thought he was kidding. It's very cool that that many people ordered the cd in the opening weeks

CB: Since this album is obviously doing so well, what about labels? I know you guys have been in talks, but why have you waited?

PB: We don't want to sell ourselves short with a record deal, we want something that will benefit us in the future, and if you continue to build your fan base nationally and get as popular as you possibly can independently, it will make your band worth a lot more to labels than if you don't tour and just record demos in your hometown. Were just building what we have as much as we can independently until the right thing comes, and when/if it does, we will take it

CB: You guys have obviously been touring a lot lately in order to do exactly what you just said, how has that been?

PB: It’s been amazing, especially in the last 2 months since New Beginnings and Happy Endings has been out. We were on the west coast all of July, and the east coast all August, in those 2 months we sold 1,000 cds at those shows, so were definitely excited about that. Tour is the best thing an independent band can do, its so good for exposure and gaining popularity, and on top of all that, its basically like a 2 month long sleepover/party with 5 of your best friends, so ya can't go wrong

CB: Where is your favorite place to tour east/west coast? Midwest?

PB: On the east, DEFINITLEY Long Island, New York, Richmond, Virginia, and Baltimore, Maryland. We have strong fan bases in those areas, so the shows are always very fun. As far as the west goes, I'd have to say Salt Lake City, Utah is my favorite. Midwest, Minnesota of course.

CB: What are your favorite venues, Minneapolis and elsewhere.

PB: In Minneapolis, HANDS DOWN the toybox. It's run by really good people, it's in a convenient location, and it treats bands like royalty. Andy is a saint. As far as out of state, my favorite venue is in Richmond, Virginia, its called Alley Katz. It’s the Quest of Virginia. It’s got the same set up, a big stage, and a balcony above and what not.

CB: Awesome...oh Jonny from Cue The Doves says hi and that you should have sang on their demos.

PB: Tell him I say yo and I'm glad he's back

CB: Back to touring, you guys have a new van. How has it been treatin ya?

PB: It's great. We named it Jaws because its blue and grey and reminds us of a shark.

CB: Haha nice. Do you have any particular touring stories youd like to share? Give me your worst.

PB: Oh wow, this is a bad one. So we decided we needed a new van when we were driving overnight from LA to MN at the end of our July west coast tour 2006. We were driving, and its 2 a.m., and our muffler no joke falls out of our van, and we pull over, and our merch guy Will ties it up to the bottom of our van with string. So we're driving and 2 hours later, it happens again. SO, we pull up to this hills have eyes style gas station in Nevada, and this woman with a mullet was working, to make a long story short she was a huge prick, so Will being very angry at this woman, sneaks in to the gas station auto shop and steals a saw. We ended up sawing off the muffler at 6 a.m. on the side of the freeway. Then we proceeded to get stuck in a national forest fire in Utah later that day. It was the drive from hell. We didn't sleep for like 40 hours.

CB: Ouch. You guys are troopers though, I'm sure you made it. You played a show at The Garage after driving all night from Omaha once I remember.

PB: Haha yes we did. We're road warriors man, we love it.

CB: Does tour ever get old though?

PB: Yea of course I miss my family and my bed, but touring doesn't really ever get old, when your on tour it's kinda like you're in a fantasy world where you have no rules and nothing but yourselves.

CB: Who are your favorite bands to play with? Touring and at home.

PB: At home, definitely Small Towns Burn A Little Slower, Four Letter Lie, Gloria, The Drive Back, and Crashing By Design. We’re all very good friends, so it's fun to get to play with them. As far as out of town bands, a band from LA called Enblessin, Race The Sun from Virginia, and Patent Pending from Long Island, New York

CB: Do you or any of your bandmates have any pre-show rituals?

PB: Ummmmmmm not so much. Just the usual, Jason warms up with a click and his sticks on a table or a chair or something, and I just kinda pace around, but other than that we just get up and play.

CB: If you could play with any bands who would they be? Your all-star line-up.

PB: If we had the choice, we would want to open for Saves The Day, Copeland, Circa Survive, Minus The Bear, and The Deftones. Each of those bands is one of our individual favorite bands, so to play with them would make all 5 of us happy haha.

CB: While we're on the topic of influences, what are your influences lyrically? A lot of your songs seem to be about strained relationships. Are these from your own experiences or just things you’ve seen happen to people?

PB: All our songs are about things that have happened to me, or how I feel about certain things. Songs on the new record range from being about a strained relationship, to being in the moment with someone, to hating the way that people are. I just write about what I feel that exact moment

CB: Another fan question, what are the most memorable things fans have done for you?

PB: Definitely the people that let us stay at their houses and buy us food and rent movies and stuff, that is unbelievable and so much fun. Or one girl made us brownies and brought it to us before a show, that was awesome also

CB: Love for food is universal, especially brownies

PB: Definitley man.

CB: Well, any thing else you would like to say?

PB: Yes there is

PB: That was one of the best interviews I've done. Very good questions. Most of the people I get interviewed by ask me bland questions that don't give me much room to give interesting answers to. So good work!

CB: Awesome, thanks a ton man. Oh, one last thing, my girlfriend wants me to tell you you have very nice teeth.

PB: Haha oh thank you.

CB: Well, thanks again for the interview, you're a totally rad guy. I'll see you at your next show?

PB: Yea for sure