Was music an important part of your childhood?
Some of my first memories were the smells of my Dad making pancakes in the kitchen while playing me old Cat Stevens LP's. Before I could even walk, I was well versed in James Taylor, Cat Stevens, Fleetwood Mac and a bevy of other great music. Even though I never seemed to be naturally gifted at music, my parents were very supportive, giving me voice lessons and letting me try out an assortment of instrument lessons.
What are some of the groups or individuals that you culled your sound from?
This is an incredibly difficult question, but I'll try and narrow it down. First and foremost, Ryan Adams has been my favorite musician for a VERY long time. Others include: Whiskeytown, Counting Crows, Tupac, The Honeydogs, Cat Stevens, David Wilcox, Bob Dylan, Nas, Sigur Ros, Outkast, Ben Harper, Lil Wayne, Kid Cudi, M. Ward, She and Him, Chip tha Ripper, Prince, MGMT, Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, Spoon, Aesop Rock, Cage, U-N-I, Beck, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Hold Steady, Belle and Sebastian, Gucci Mane, Damien Rice, Shwayze, Duncan Shiek, RJD2, Mos Def, Black Star, Talib Kweli, Mastodon, U2, The Knux...the list goes on and on and on....
What local musicians are you interested in?
The list is too long to cover completely but some of the individuals that I look up to and admire would include: Dessa Darling, a wonderful woman with an incredible talent for words and an even greater patience with a certain music nerd asking her a ton of questions. Adam Levy of the Honeydogs, I have been a fan since I began playing guitar, and the fact that he was so gracious as to play on MY record and laugh with us the whole way, was a dream come true. St. Paul Slim, an amazing wordsmith who shared kind words and advice with us, while also dropping a ridiculously dope verse, is an all around stand up guy. Joe Christenson and the rest of White Light Riot, while I went to high school with these guys, it is amazing to see the success that they have had, they deserve every single accolade that they recieve. Some of the nicest guys you could ever meet. Muja Messiah, Real Spit Rick and Dodi Phy: These guys showed us love when nobody was interested in listening to a single song of ours. We will forever be grateful. Maria Isa, while I haven't gotten the chance to chat with her in person, her beautiful "fist in the air" demeanor and attitude that is present in her music, is something that we aspire to everyday.
What happens during the recording process?
I usually bring in a melody, some rhythmic ideas or a fully fledged demo and then Taylor aka Nerve and I bandy about some thematic ideas. The great thing about working with Nerve is that I can toss out some really personal subjects and he is completely willing to go along with them. As you might notice on the record, most of the tracks were about heartbreak and personal loss. Anywho, after tossing lyrical and melodic ideas back and forth, we immediately lay the track down to make sure that we can capture whatever we really dug about the track at the time. We have close to two hundred unreleased songs at the moment because of this process. We wanted to release only the ones that really felt like they could, not only have a place in OUR music collections, but in other's as well.
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