E: James, you sing for Burning Rosewood... how well do you think your style blends with the instrumental abilities of the rest of the group?
James: Well, I've always tried to work with the guys on blending things out. Most of the time we just work out for each other--The vocals and music, one for the other. It's never really been an issue of ability, just style. Somehow we always find a way to click.
E: Has the band been together long?
James: That all depends on what you mean by 'the band' and 'long.' Joe, Mitch, and I have been playing together since January 2004, but with member changes, a name change, and a handful of changes with our direction, I'd say the Burning Rosewood that's here now has been together since November 2004.
E: Do you feel pretty confident with the band's current style?
James: Right now our focus is finding out what fits us best musically, and trying to figure out where we can go with it. Every band needs its own sound. It's like a fingerprint. We want to be different--people will notice it in our live shows these days. We could go from playing an intimate acoustic song to a powerful and intense full band song, then to a chilled out song with a clean guitar and some light drums. We just want to make a place for ourselves and be respected for our music and our differences. Respect is something I personally want to see us earn. I guess one big point I want to add is that nothing we have released so far is a very good example of where we are going. We have a few cards up our sleeves and for the time being, we will just hold face. And the other point I'd like to add is that no matter what the next few songs sound like, we will change somehow before we finish writing them, and then we will be ready to start writing again. So really, all I can say is that no matter where we sit right now in the terms of style, I'm confident in it today, but tomorrow we might decide to mix things up a little, and I'll be more confident in that change. We are always 'confident' in ourselves as a band. It's like a growing process.
E: Have you had a good idea of where you wanted to get since you started?
James: I guess personally, I've always wanted us to break new ground. Start doing things people haven't heard before, or use something old and let them hear it in a whole new way. I mean, you have bands like Say Anything that's just taking the music we all listen to and setting a new standard for all of us. One day we want to raise the bar. It would be great to hear people that we respect telling us how much they appreciate our music and what it's doing. I guess we want our music to do something. I've wanted that from day one.
E: What sort of help have you been getting so far?
James: I mean, there is so much talent coming out of everywhere these days. There are great minds hard at work everyday making new music. But the thing is, no one wants a copy of a band that's doing it right now. It's just a watered down version of what you've already got. We've recently retired all of our 2000 and up CDs and have started listening to bands anywhere from the 1920's to the 1980's. There are so many creative songwriters that came before our time, and when we can't figure out exactly what to do, we draw from them for inspiration. But if you want to look at 'help' from a different point of view, no one helps us to want this more then the kids that fill up local venues to come see us play. Those are the people we're doing this for. We've always said that, and we've always meant it.
E: Was it easy to develop your live performance abilities?
James: I guess half of our live show has come natural to us, but none of us we're perfect. Not hardly. The other half of whatever it is we have has just come with time, and fixing little niches here and there. It's becoming so clich�, but when they get excited, we get excited. We really do. We feed off their energy and we let them feed off ours. Our live show is something we've always taken pride in, and we're constantly looking to find something else we can offer the crowd. We just get into it and trust that we're doing it right. We just want it to be as much fun for them as it is for us.
E: Has the band mostly been going as you had hoped?
James: The band has by far surpassed any of my expectations. If someone told me in August that we'd be this far today, I'd have laughed at them. But we've made big jumps recently. I think it's because we've all gotten rid of most of the doubt or second-guessing that comes with the career choice, and we've decided that this is what we want no matter what. We've made huge sacrifices and those sacrifices have lead to big jumps. Now, I'm always expecting more. I'll never be content with where we are, but in retrospect, I'm proud of where we've gotten in the last few months, and even more proud of where we're going.
E: Have the past few weeks been good ones for the group?
James: The past few weeks have been really interesting. I recently dropped out of High school and quit my job, Joe left college and his job, and the rest of the guys are jobless and on break from college. We practice nine hours a day, seven days a week, and we love it. The neighbors don't, but we do. We've had around ten visits from the cops in the last few weeks. But it's just been great. We've tightened everything up, started writing new music, and recording demos for a label that shall remain nameless for the time being. It hasn't been perfect. Spending nine frustrating hours a day with the same people can wear on your nerves a little, but we've been fine, no problems so far. It's just been great.
E: So have you gotten out of Maryland much for touring?
James: Well like I said, things didn't really pick up for us until right after the Summer, so we never really had a great opportunity to pack up and go. On top of that, we really spent most of the summer writing, and ended the summer deciding to change a member and make a big change in our style. So right after that we started writing again. We'd love to get on the road and start playing out of state, but that will come with time. Right now we are more then happy playing for all these awesome kids in Maryland. The scene here just recently exploded, and it's been an exciting year.
E: Well hey, best of luck in the future. Thanks for taking the time to chat.
James: Thank you man, I really enjoyed it. Thanks for taking some of your time to help us out. |
