Life Lessons - Sound In The Signals Interview
For people who aren't familiar with your band can you tell me how you guys got together and got into music?
Kaden: I first met Andrew at a show we played together with our old bands. We kept in touch, and when I was looking for something new I hit him up. I found Chris from a friend through Facebook, and we starting playing together from there. We played a while that way, until Andrew left to study overseas. We had a few fill-ins, and eventually found our guitarists Josh and Ian from bands we'd played with before. Ian left recently, but we're looking for a new guitarist, and are still looking forward to the future.
Your EP you released this year, Need To Know, shows some big progression from your 2013 demo 337 Words I Still Mean. What kind of progression do you as a band think you made on this new EP and what influenced those progressions?
When we wrote 377 Words I Still Mean, it was just Chris, Andrew and I. We didn't really know what kind of music we wanted to play, we were just writing songs. After Andrew went overseas, we all made the conscious effort to focus more on our writing style. Even though Need To Know was written with Chris and I here at home and Andrew gone, we still feel like it was a step closer to what we wanted. We learned a lot during that time, and I think it shows. Our newer writing has also been changed a lot with the addition of new guitarists, and we love what we've been working on. We're heavily influenced by bands like Taking Back Sunday and Crucial Dudes, and we really hope that bleeds through. We try to make a mix of all the music we enjoy.
I really like the song "Spit It Out" off the new EP. I'm a big fan of the guitar work on the song and the intensity of the vocals. Can you tell me a little about the writing and recording process of the song?
That song is probably our collective favorite for sure. About half of the lead work on that song was actually contributed by our friend Josh Tassinari, who was filling in at the time. After we came out of the studio, “Spit It Out” was a completely different song than what we went in with it as. Vocally, I really wanted to hit home with the intensity and rawness of the vocals, and I hope I did an okay job at that. It was a really fun song to record, and definitely a crowd favorite.
The cover artwork for Need To Know is really neat. How did you come up with the artwork and what is the meaning or inspiration for it?
When we were working on pushing out the EP, none of us could come up with an idea. I was talking to the designer of the EP art, Braden Crumly, about what I wanted to convey. I told him I had these old pictures of the girl the EP is primarily about (moving on, missing what we had, and the mistakes we both made). He thought it would be a great idea to just use the pictures in frames, so we went with it. All of the framed pictures on the cover are pictures of us from my past. Our faces are all slightly scratched out, but I still hoped that it would convey a sense of honesty and directness. I tried not to disguise the fact that this EP is directly about what we went through.
One thing I like about Need To Know is that you have an acoustic track on the album and it's placed in the middle of the EP. A lot of bands have the EP track at the end of their EP or album. What made you guys decide to put it in the middle?
We felt like the song Need To Know was a fitting closer. We thought it would be cooler just to sit the acoustic track in the middle, kind of like a break between each half of the EP.
You were recently featured on the Long Drive Records fall sampler. How did you guys get the opportunity and what made you want to be on it?
We haven't had much exposure to the northeast area of the country. Long Drive is from Pennsylvania, and when they posted a status via Facebook about the sampler, we emailed them and they hooked us up. Dave Standridge is a good guy who works hard, so you should check out Long Drive Records and This is Pop Punk Promotions. It was definitely cool to be included, and we'd love to play with some of the other bands on it soon.
You guys are from OKC what's the scene like there? What are some advantages and disadvantages about being located there?
The scene here is really active. There are a ton of people always starting new bands and playing shows. There are good shows every week, and I think we all take it for granted sometimes. If you've never been, you should definitely check out a show here.
If you had to recommend one song for someone to check out that has never heard of your band what song would you pick and why?
"Spit It Out". We think it is the best example of the direction we're heading in as a band, and it's really fast paced and energetic.
What all do you coming up for the remainder of 2014 and what are some of your plans for 2015?
We haven't really said too much yet, but we'll be on the road in December and January. We'll be covering a few states up north, so anyone reading this article should come check us out. We plan on recording our next release next spring, and couldn't be more excited about the music we're writing. We were just recently featured on Property of Zack, so check that out!
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