Hailey, It Happens - Sound In The Signals Interview
Under The Brilliant Lights officially came out January 28. Can you tell me a little about the writing and recording process of the album?
Chris – The writing process found us trying a slightly different method than before. We basically wrote the skeletons of 20 songs to pool between this and a future full-length and then we selected the six songs that would make the best EP, while bridging what we did on Aurora with where we wanted to go in the future. We wanted the transition to be a bit less jarring. Our general writing process was the same though. Usually Bobby will come to me with a verse or a verse and a chorus of a song, mostly arranged. From there, we’ll meticulously tweak, re-arrange, add, and figure out where to go next. Then he’ll write more of the song, and we repeat that process. Then we basically call dibs on who writes lyrics for which song. Haha. The fun thing about this EP was we wrote one song, “52nd Street Surrender” together from start to finish in one long session, which led to a very different vibe than all the other songs on the record.
As far as the recording, we went to a new producer, Scott Riebling for this one. We still wrote, recorded and arranged all the instrumentals ourselves, and then went into the studio to record vocals and have Scott take all these raw elements of the songs and fashion them into a finished product. On some songs, he made really radical changes that greatly improved the songs. On others, his really wonderful ear for mixing really made the song pop. But the thing Scott brought to the EP the most was being on the same page with us about the record sounding natural. The record is less insistent in cramming every spare second full of hooks, and Scott recognized how to use all that space without losing atmosphere.
When I listen to the new album it seems like you guys have grown as writers since the first album. What changed as far as writing style and ability this time around for you guys?
Chris – Speaking just for myself, I feel like I grew immensely as a singer in between releases. A big part of that growth was the studio time for Aurora. That kind of repetition and precision was something I hadn’t fully experienced previously, and it was a catalyst for me to have more vocal control, but also more comfort and confidence that I didn’t have to oversing anything to be a good singer and impress anyone. I could just deliver a vocal that suited the songs. As far as our writing style, we tried to be a bit less insistent than we were with our pop music on Aurora. We didn’t need to fill every single moment with a vocal or layer three instrumental hooks into every part of every song. Sometimes a single keyboard sound and a vocal was more than enough to convey the feeling, and that restraint was new to us. So emphasizing subtlety and a more natural feel were important goals in our writing.
I mentioned it in my review that this new EP seems to draw influence from some of the new R&B artists like The Weeknd and Frank Ocean. I know you e-mailed me and said you were influenced some by those artists. What about that particular style interested you and why did you decide to incorporate some of those elements on your new EP?
Bob - I love the atmosphere and simplicity of the arrangement on the early The Weeknd tracks. His music has the tendency to rely heavily on the vocals to keep the listener interested. I really wanted to open up the space musically on this release and allow Chris more room for his melodies. I wanted the focus to be less on some in your face melody from a synth and more on our lyrics/Chris' vocals.
I've read a bunch of comments online and people seem to really be praising the EP artwork. Who did the artwork and why did you guys decide to use it for this release?
Bob - Christopher Santoro at Santoro Design did the artwork for the EP. With our last two releases Chris and I had very distinct ideas on how we wanted the artwork to come out but we decided for this release we wanted the designer to produce the artwork with little to no direction from us. So, Santoro listened to the songs and presented three different covers and we both agreed on the current art. I think that he nailed it and I don't believe either of us could imagine anything better.
To anyone who has never heard your music could you pick a track off your album and a track off your new EP as two that fans should check out first?
Chris – I’d definitely say they should listen to “Aurora” from Aurora. That song still feels like the most fully-realized thing we’ve written. It fully encapsulates everything we were going for with that record. I might have to go with “Emerald” for Under the Brilliant Lights, if only because it almost shows the same kind of song, only with our new approach. They’re both “ballads”, but “Emerald” is big on open musical spaces and a more natural vocal approach that we wanted to emphasize on the EP
Your album, Aurora, come out on vinyl through Collective Confusion. Any chance the new EP will see a vinyl release?
Chris – We haven’t really discussed the prospect with anyone yet, but we’d be open to the idea if the situation arose. Mike from Collective Confusion is a wonderful, supportive guy and we were so grateful to work with him on releasing Aurora. Being able to hold up an album I’d made on vinyl was a surreal and wonderful moment.
What's been one of your favorite moments up to this point you've had in the band?
Bob - My favorite moment up to this point has been the release of this album. Our first release was in 2009 and now here we are five years later continuing to put out music. As we got older, I was afraid that life would get too busy for us spend the time to write and record but this album is proof that even with full time jobs we can continue put out new music.
I guess that about wraps it up. Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else you would like to add?
We would like to thank everyone that has supported us in any way and we hope to continue to bring you new music for as long as we can.
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