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| Hint: Have a band you'd like to see interviewed? Tell us. | Inside AP.net
| | First off, introduce yourselves and tell us what you do in Lydia?
L-my name is Loren Brinton and I play drums for Lydia.
S- I am Steven McGraw and I play guitar, organ and spacey tape loops.
So, the full-length "This December, It's One More and I'm Free" is set to come out September 27th, Are you guys pretty psyched to have it finally be out?
L-yea for sure, making it happen has been an extremely long process. We had alot of problems with studios and opting to make it a full length instead of an ep. But we are stoked for sure, we've been touring for 2 months on our year and half old demo that we give away for free, we're pretty over that cd and ready for this one.
S- It's a relief to have what we spent so much time working towards finally being out to the public. Leighton and I stressed like no other over this, almost at each other’s throats at times, so to sit back and have it done is extremely nice.
What is the name with the title of the album?
L-This December; it's one more and I’m free"
Also, the artwork is done by the amazing designer Jason Oda. How did you guys go about getting hooked up with him?
L- We love Oda! hmm lets see, I believe Jared from ap somehow found our demos on purevolume like a year ago and liked it, so he posted some stuff on the site and oda heard it and seemed to be pretty into a few of the songs. We won the atticus thing a few months later, and I sent him the song "smile, you've won" to check out. He liked it and asked if he could do the layout for our next release. Which we graciously accepted. I think his style fits our music very well.
Did you have anything that inspired the writing of this album?
L-Behind anything good there is inspiration. Musically for me, I was kind of stagnant at the time of recording, I’ve never been really into other drummers, or even solo musicians, I am alot more interested to see what a band can do as a whole than what a drummer can do in a drum solo or a guitar player likewise. So going into recording this album, I knew I just wanted to make something we could all be proud of, and I think we did that.
S-I just wanted to make something that one could listen to without skipping songs, like all the albums that I love. The current state of music could also be another inspiration...
What was the whole recording process like for you guys?
L-Oh man, quite a disaster. For legal matters we cant really mention the name of the studio we did the first part of the album in, but it was bad. Since we produced the album on our own, (Leighton and Steve), we would go into the studio and have a different engineer almost every day who on most days had no idea what was going on. The vocals were tracked too loud, guitars sounded like hell; I could go on for days. We decided to call our good friend and local super producer Cory Spotts to see if he would be down to work with us and see if we could salvage what we had recorded of the album. He accepted and it was on! A few weeks later we went and retracked all guitars, some vocals and everything else that was ruined in the disaster studio. Spent 2 weeks mixing and piecing together the record and it was off to mastering. I apologize for sounding bitter. It was an extremely stressful 4 months.
S-Terrible! I'm a peaceful man but from the studio bullshit to retracking to juggling the last four months of high school and a job it drove me to the edge. Leighton and I produced everything and we were like what the hell, we know exactly how we want this to sound but these deadbeat studio guys are standing in the way of our vision for this album, so that was just unnecessary stress. Enough of that though.
Now, didn't you guys win an Atticus contest a while ago?
L- yea, about a year ago our friend entered that same demo in a contest to open for sum 41 and a possibility to contribute a song to new dragging the lake compilation. We ended up winning both the statewide round and nationwide one as well which was pretty crazy, we got extremely lucky.
What have they done to help you guys since the contest?
Brendan and everyone else at Atticus have been amazing to us since day one and have treated us so well. We did the song for dragging the lake and I kept in touch with Brendan for a while, and as soon as we finished the album I sent it to him. We talked a few days later and he really liked it, and he told me he wanted to make us a part of the actual roster of atticus bands, so we got a profile on their site next to some amazing bands. We just filmed a segment for their next DVD project and will be doing an exclusive song for the next dragging the lake comp. I’m pretty sure they supply 90 percent of my wardrobe; they hook it up for sure. We feel super lucky to be involved with them
The band is from Arizona. I have alot of friends and fond memories of the music scene down there. How has the music scene been like for you guys?
L-The music scene in Arizona is pretty amazing, I guess I kind of took it for granted before we went on tour, then we would play places and the bands would be like blown away if 100 kids came. So many kids go to shows in Arizona, it’s so crazy, and we are really lucky to have such an amazing scene. The bands coming out of Arizona are so good right now! We are all super good friends and everyone is doing really well, bands like the stiletto formal, Awake and alert, goodbyetomorrow. Scary kids scaring kids, and before Braille, which are all awesome.
Do you like that lame band The Stiletto Formal?
L-Stiletto is our best friends, and AMAZING band at that, we love touring with them, and I don’t know if they like us as much as we like them though, ha-ha. Really though, we have more fun with stiletto than any other band, I don’t even know how much money I have lost playing blackjack with them.
S- Hey-yo! I love Lamp.
Lydia is out on tour right now, what has the tour been like so far?
L-the tour has been super good actually, its our second tour and is a little over 3 weeks, all west coast dates. We play the last show tonight in Vegas then we get to go home for a few weeks to promote for our cd release then back out for another month with the stiletto formal and goodbyetomorrow. So be sure to look out for that tour!
Any crazy tour stories that you would like to share?
L- Oh man, sooo many crazy stories! Our bass player Evan shot this guy in new Mexico like last month I think, maybe it was this month, I cant remember. He now has a warrant out for his arrest in 7 states. Ha-ha I’m kidding, it seems like I’ve been asked this question like 20 times and we really aren’t that crazy of a band. We are all 18 and 19 so that kind of eliminates allot of things right off the bat. We do have allot of fun though, i'm sure there is something crazy, I just cant think of it right now.... ha.
S- I can't mention them but they happen.
So growing up, what was some music influences?
L - I grew up listening to whatever my parents listened to which was like jams Taylor, Cat Stevens, The Steve miller band and so many other bands until I was about 12, then I really got into hip hop for a few years. I came across bands like the ataris and the get up kids, which got me super, stoked, because I could actually relate to the music, unlike hip hop. Don’t get me wrong though, I can still flow like crazy. Ha. I guess I had the same evolving of taste as everyone else did, just maybe in a little different order.
S- My dad played Floyd when I was in the crib and was always blasting Queen and Stevie Ray Vaughn. I think that explains enough for me. Oh and Leighton and I saw the Ataris at least eight times in three years. Punk was aight for a while there.
What are your top 5 favorite albums of all time?
L-ohh man are you really asking that question. These are just my current top 5 within the past few years. I need to put more thought into it to make it "all time"
1-Radiohead-Kid A
2-Cursive-the ugly organ
3-jimmy eat world-Clarity
4-Built to spill-there's nothing wrong with love
5-Big L-The big picture
S-No such thing but here is what's up for the moment.
1-Pink Floyd "Animals". or maybe DSOTM. or maybe it's Wish You Were Here. Floyd man.
2.Led Zeppelin III.
3.The Mars Volta "Frances the Mute". Doesn't mean I don't love "Deloused" though.
4.Jimmy Eat World "Clarity"
5.Jimi Hendrix "Electric Ladyland". Have you ever been?
The album is being released on Hour Zero, what is your relationship with the label?
L-ahh yes, hourzero. Tim Harmon, which is practically the 6th member of our band, owns and runs hourzero records. Tim is putting out our album as our manager, Label, and good friend. It is a really good place for us to be right now, he wants nothing but the best for our band.
If the moon was made out of spare ribs.. would you eat it?
L-Oh man, spare ribs sound so amazing, you don’t even know what it is like to eat fast food for 3 and half weeks straight, i'm pretty sure I just stopped eating a few days ago.
So, I guess that’s about all the questions I have for you guys. Is there any shout outs or any last words that you would like to say to all the fans and readers out there in absolutepunk.net land?
L-Yes! We wouldn’t be the incredibly small band we are today without the help from our amazing friends and fans. Tim Harmon, Brendan Atticus, Jared Kaufman, Jason Tate, Jason Oda, Sue Marcus, You, Brandon! We love everyone. |
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Displaying posts 1 - 5 of 5. |
12:55 PM on 09/10/05 | yummmm........spare ribs. | | |
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01:07 PM on 09/10/05 | steven is one of the nicest guys ive ever met. lydia is wonderful, 480 represent | | |
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12:19 PM on 09/15/05 | Damnit! Lydia didn't drop a line that they're gonna be in our upcoming poetry/lyric book. Still got love for them though. Great interview | | |
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10:36 AM on 10/06/05 | loren, you've had some crazy times on tour, don't liiiiie!
in pinetop you were dancing in your underwear with three other boys, and in flagstaff... well i don't really remember flagstaff that well.
at least steve admits to crazy stuff happening. | | |
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