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| Junior Varsity, The - 06.22.07 | What is your name and role in the band?
Nick: My name is Nick Dodson and I play keyboard, sing backing vocals and play saxophone when neccessary.
Andy: And I'm Andy Wildrick, I play guitar and help create songs.
Your new album is going to be released in less than week. Do you find yourself more excited for this CD to come out than you were for Wide Eyed?
Nick: Honestly, yes. A lot of very frustrating things happened while we were in the studio recording Wide Eyed. Not to mention when we went into record, we were very under prepared. All of us have the utmost faith in this new album. I personally love every song on this record. It's like having a kid I'm proud of and wanting to show him off to everyone.
How did the writing and recording process differ from your last release to this one?
Andy: On the last release, we mostly jammed in a room together and banged out songs. I think its hard to create well thought out and structured ideas when you're in an environment such as that...at least consistently. Many of our more popular songs were created in that manner...but for every 1 song that works with that method, there's probably 4 that don't. On this record we seemed to break up the work a little bit. Sometimes Chris and Asa would write songs just the two of them.."Wunderdrug" and "St. Louis" are good examples of this. Sometimes Asa and me wrote songs together..."The Sky" and "Cinematographic" are good examples of this. And some songs were written with everyone bringing forth large musical contributions..."The Greatest and "Under The Radar" are fine examples of this.
What was the inspiration behind the horns and "extra" music on Cinematographic, and who did it?
Nick: We really wanted to have a stand out track on the record that wouldn't sound like anything else we had ever done. Seeing as the song has more of a swing feel to it and I went to college for saxophone for a few years we figured why not add some sax? So we did and it turned out even better than I could ever have imagined that it would. As some may know I originally joined the band on saxophone. I had been wanting to incorporate it into a song if possible and finally got the chance.
What influences you guys the most while writing and recording new music?
Andy: The constant desire to keep reaching for something better and better drives us, I feel, to keep writing. We might write 3 choruses before one feels right, musically. The Great Compromise was a vast improvement to our original EP, Wide Eyed was a vast improvement on that and Cinematographic is another vast improvement. I feel like the change is obvious and appealing. If i thought our records were going the opposite direction I might not get as much joy out of it anymore. As long as each record feels better than the last, the drive stays strong.
What was it like having Kenny Vasoli record vocals for "Wunderdrug?"
Nick: It was a blast!! Kenny is quite a rad guy. We met him a few summers ago at warped tour and gave him a cd. About 6 months later we got asked to play a holiday show with Starting Line in Philly. And he has been supportive of us ever since. Needless to say we were very excited to have him come record and hang out. We are very fortunate to have met him and had him be apart of our best record to date.
If you were to have anyone contribute guest vocals on your next album, who would it be and why?
Nick: Cedric from Mars Volta has a pretty incredible voice. That would be a blast to have had him done the vocals for one of our more prog rock songs "The Greatest."
Your artwork for the new album is pretty awesome. What's the story behind choosing it and who made it?
Nick: Funny story. One day I was sitting on the computer and got an IM from a 17 year old dude from Australia. His name was Jake Rolfe and he asked if we'd be interested in having him design some shirts for us. I asked for his portfolio and was absolutely blown away. I asked him if he'd be down with doing the art for our record and he got hard to work. We asked him to go out on a limb and that the sky was the limit with creativity. We also asked him to incorporate the album title into the art if possible and he really hit the nail on the head for us. The video may be even more eccentric...
What is your opinion on albums leaking in advance? Do you think it helps more than it hurts for bands of your size?
Andy: I don't think it plays a large role in what becomes of TJV or this album. It leaked 2 weeks before and was mostly on oink where you can see how many times it had been downloaded and it isnt a vastly significant number. Kids have been singing along to new songs at shows recently though, which is always cool...no matter how they heard the songs. We're in this to bring kids to shows and entertain them. We sold like 30,000 copies of our last couple releases and we didn't see a major impact from it...Having packed shows is more beneficial than selling truckloads of records...at least to us.
Do you feel that your album has the potential to make it into the mainstream? Is that something that your band wants to achieve?
It is not something we would be opposed to in all honesty. We keep striving to better the band and the music we create and it would be cool if people did take more notice but that can't be a focus. In this day and age, bands like The Shins and The Arcade Fire are on mainstream radio and I do believe they are opening doors for bands that don't want to sound like the monotony that mostly fills the airwaves. We still have a stronghold on the belief that if you are going to create music you should take your influences and use them to make something of artistic value and uniqueness. We would have a better shot at mainstream success if we strayed from that mentality and I think we are conscious of that fact and just won't give in.
What would you say is the song that you are the most proud of making in your band and why?
Andy: As a full band, I love the title track. I think, as musicians, we all used our skills in that song to our full potential and make it sound easy. I am also glad Memory Made Easy made the record. I like that it has nothing to do with being a single, has no words, but remains emotionally charged and the feelings that went into making the piece of music come across. I think its an unexpected thing for us to do and demonstrates a different side of our musical world.
What are your future tour plans? Any this Summer?
We're going to do a couple weeks with Hopesfall in July on the east coast, a string of dates with As Cities Burn (still slightly tentative) at some point, then a few weeks with Bedlight for Blue Eyes, Permanant Me, and Scenes From a Movie. Theres a certain fall tour that would be a dream come true for us at this point.
Any last words for the readers of this interview?
Andy: If you come out to a show, you will be entertained and we will be the most grateful human beings in the world to you just for watching us. If you pick up our new album, you will undoubtedly find music on it that will move you. Especially if you are reading this interview. We're kids just like most of you and we put our hearts and lives into this record. All things we have done or experienced in the past have ultimately led us to the creation of Cinematographic and it will enthrall you. |
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Displaying posts 1 - 10 of 10. |
12:50 PM on 06/22/07 | As Cities Burn? Wow, awesome.
Great album. | | |
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01:18 PM on 06/22/07 | great interview. I enjoyed it! | | |
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08:00 PM on 06/22/07 | tour datesssssssssssssssssssssssss | | |
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05:49 PM on 06/23/07 | I'm older than you so listen up! Awesome artwork? I beg to differ. | | |
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06:02 PM on 06/23/07 | Originally Posted by bloodsucker Awesome artwork? I beg to differ. |
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08:09 PM on 06/23/07 | Originally Posted by Joe DeAndrea |
:-D | | |
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10:56 PM on 06/24/07 | cool, im stoked for this new cd | | |
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02:10 PM on 06/30/07 | Originally Posted by Tom GoodingWhat's the fall tour? |
its big. but not confirmed yet. | | |
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