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| ::Interviews:: |
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| review & interview content, as well as web site graphics & design, copywrite 2003-2004 Euphonia Online. use of materials granted only with reasonable purposes. |
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| interviewed by robby sumner |
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| Interview with Travis and Tyler October 28th, 2004 |
Travis Hill - Vocals, Guitar Tyler Hill - Guitar, Vocals Kyle Keating - Bass Jeremy Price - Drums |
| E: So guys, your music is definitely something worth listening to... what do you think there is to say about it and what elements led to its creation as a sound? Tyler: It's creation is the result of two or so years of "growth" I guess you could say. Compared to our first set of material, the stuff you're hearing now is a lot more mature. Personally, I�ve been getting into a lot more... "emo/indie." Not so popular stuff the past year or so, and we've just grown up as musicians and learned to think in different ways about song structures and all that funky jazz. Travis: Yeah, I would definitely say for our more recent material, we have put a lot more time into writing. We try to go through as many options as possible with our song structure and try to stray away from anything that we consider typical as far as our own sound goes. If we did something one way in one song, I always like to change it up in the next. Also, lyrically, on a few of the newer songs I re-wrote the lyrics/melodies sometimes four times before I thought it was right for the song. Because we write the music first, it�s hard to get the melodies right the first time. E: Do you consider yourselves at a very early stage of what will be an extensive development? Tyler: I wouldn't say the earliest, more like the next to earliest, but I guess that would still be and early stage, so yes. But like I mentioned earlier, I really feel like our music has grown exponentially since our first release and definitely since Trav and I started writing music together I�m eager to see how the new material we're working on will turn out. Travis: I agree with Ty. E: Have you been finding time to get a lot of material written? Travis: As a band, no. Tyler: As a full band, no... Once school starts our practice time is really limited which really sucks, but individually I�ve had a good bit of time on my hand to work on some material to show to the rest of the guys when we actually do get a chance to all get together. Travis: It�s been frustrating not being able to get a lot of practice time as a band, but I think Ty has been really holding us together pretty well. He�s a total riff machine... on weekends... Tyler: I am ze riffenator... okay, that was dumb. Travis: We spend a good bit of time getting those riffs together into actual parts. I'll jam with him with some drum ideas and then move over to guitar and attempt to shred, but that usually fails Tyler: Well, you might not shred that great, but you slice pretty well. E: Do you think the band has particular strong parts you like to show? Travis: Jeremy has really good upper-body strength, and Kyle has incredible abs. Tyler: *Laughs* I don't really think we are superb in any specific area alone, but as a whole, I think we've got a pretty solid sound. Travis: I don�t think we're a band that shreds super hard. None of us are really super awesome at our instruments, so I think we rely on our ability to write songs. I think if we had to pick a strong part of our band, it would be songwriting, even though it�s not really where want to be at all so far. E: Would you say you've spent more time developing your recorded sound or your live performance? Travis: That�s tough. Tyler: I�d say... live performance, based on the fact that our recorded sound is essentially our live sound. In the studio, our recordings are pretty raw--drums, bass, two guitars, vocals--we don't put a ton of extra guitars or a bunch of different instruments. So what you hear is what you get, in a sense. As far as actual performance goes, we do put some time in arranging our set lists and trying to throw in some tricks here and there, but they're usually dumb, funny stuff. For instance one time, we have a pause in one song, so when we hit that pause every one froze while Jeremy got up and got a drink of water. Travis: Yeah, like one time at practice. Kyle tossed his bass over his shoulder and busted a ceiling tile in our practice space. He almost died. The tile came down and put a huge gash in his fore head and then he choked on graham crackers. It was awesome. Tyler: *Laughs* I have to mention this too... at one show, we got a big green ball and said "whoever has this ball at the end of this song gets a free CD " and tossed the ball out to the crowd. It got pretty intense... It was awesome. E: Have you been seeing a steady fanbase? Tyler: Yeah... it's always awesome when people IM me, and are like "you don't know me, but your band rocks." That's the best feeling in the world. Travis: No, we don�t play enough shows. We have had a lot of conflicts recently with show dates that are becoming pretty frequent. Hopefully, that will change in the next few months. However, since we have put some of our new songs up on PureVolume, we have since a considerable increase. I guess Tyler and I need to have a fight about this one. Tyler: Granted, it's still in the building stages... *Laughs* I�d say that our fanbase has been steady, it just isn't as big as we'd like it to be, but since we put up our new stuff, we've gotten a lot more attention. E: Are you a band that started off always playing original material? Travis: Yeah. Tyler: Yeah, we've done maybe two covers in the past, I think. We always have these great ideas to cover really funny songs like "Hero" by Enrique Inglesias, or however you spell it, but we never seem get around to it. E: Ever dedicate songs to any special ladies? Tyler: Mom. Travis: No, but I'm sure as soon as Kyle --Our bassist is single just so everyone knows--gets a girlfriend, he will dedicate every song we have to her. Tyler: *Laughs* Our bassist single. Yeah. E: Well thanks a lot, and I wish you guys a ton of success. Tyler: No problem. Thanks for the opportunity. Travis: Thanks man, and thanks for the opportunity. |