Short Answers - Sound In The Signals Interview
For those unfamiliar with your band can you tell me a little about how you guys got together and what got you interested in music?
Sean Garnsey: Matt & I met prior to attending college together through our school’s “Class of 2014” facebook page. We were both pretty active on a few threads and Matt reached out after he noticed that we listened to a lot of the same bands and were in the same major. We spent two years talking about how cool it would be to start a punk band but never acted on it. Then in Summer 2012 we went on a four-day show roadtrip to see a bunch of acts up and down the California coast, on our way back we were on an adrenaline high and decided right there that we had to do something about it. When we got back to my place we immediately started working on songs and have been going at it ever since.
You recently went from a two piece to a four piece. What is it like adding two new members to the band and what impact will it have on the music and live show?
Matt Rice : To be totally honest, we haven’t yet done a whole lot as a full band because Sean’s up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and we’re all really busy with life. It’s honestly still kind of weird to think of us as a “band,” because at this point, all we’ve done is record music. But our good friends Anthony and Trevor who are joining us on bass and drums (respectively) are great, experienced musicians, so it’s really exciting to have that taking shape. As far as impact, it’s really different going from Sean and I writing everything, to having our friends play it with their own styles. Anthony and Trevor both have really different musical backgrounds, so it’s cool to hear them do stuff with our music that never would’ve happened were it still just us playing it. Up until this point, everything was written entirely by Sean and me, but I think it’ll be cool to throw in some new influences in the future.
Your new album This Is a Perfect Place is due out soon. What was the recording process like for the album and how long have you guys been working on it?
MR: We’ve been working on the album for about a year and a half now, I think, in between school and life. We’re always writing songs, but I think that’s about how long we’ve been doing it with an album in mind. Just about all the recording was done in my room. We’ve always liked doing things ourselves just because it’s fun and relaxed, and we learn a lot from it. We also had some good input from a few of our friends, and even had them record a little bit, so that was awesome.
Near the end, we ended up having to do a lot remotely - Sean would send me demos and vocal tracks, and I’d mix them in. It was a cool experience working with a full-length’s worth of songs as opposed to the EPs we’ve done, and working with the knowledge we’ve gained since we last recorded. And we knew how much better we wanted these songs to be compared to our past work, so we’ve spent a lot more time nitpicking, rewriting, and sending demos back and forth. It’s a different dynamic from our previous stuff, but we’re really happy with it.
The artwork for the album really stuck out to me. It almost has a sort of Saves The Day Stay What You Are kind of vibe. Is the artwork a photo you specifically shot for the cover or was is just taken? Why did you decide to use it for the album artwork?
SG: The artwork from the album has a fun story behind it. The photos were taken by myself during our freshman year, and at the time we had no idea that we’d come back and use it for an album. Two good friends of mine decided to go out on a spontaneous hike to blow off steam (I was having some girl troubles, my other friend had his birthday the next day but all his plans were falling through, and our other friend [the girl featured on the cover] was free and wanted an adventure). I grabbed my camera and we headed off -- that day turned out to be a really special day, because it was the one day in our entire four years that we had a flash hailstorm and within 10 minutes the whole mountain was covered in hail. A few years later when we were sitting down and playing with the title, This Is a Perfect Place, we stumbled upon that photo and latched onto it. The album cover is before the storm actually hit, but our booklet is going to feature the whole event in sequence.
I think at this point you've released three songs from the album. I really liked "Letdown," it has such a great vibe. Can you tell me a little about the songwriting process for that song in particular and what the inspiration for it was?
MR: Thank you! That was the first song I wrote for the album, and the one that kind of set the theme for the rest of it. When I got to college, I knew from the get-go that I might have a hard time fitting in. Our school isn’t the most diverse place; people come from similar backgrounds and have similar interests, and I felt like I didn’t fit what everyone else was into. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, and I really disliked a lot of the people I constantly found myself around. I guess I was also just being an angsty 18-year-old, looking for a reason to be upset, but my first six months or so of college were kind of a rough transition. But it’s not a song that’s really directed at any one person. It was more about thinking, “this is not what I expected, but I got myself into this, and I’m going to have to make the best of it.” A note-to-self, I guess you could say.
As for writing it, the song was really built off the first few lines. At that point I just had a bunch of chunks of lyrics (I almost never finish one thing at a time), all kind of along the same theme, so it really pieced itself together into this account of my freshman year. With Letdown written, it kind of just made sense that the rest of the album would be about those experiences throughout college.
Do you have a personal favorite song off the album that you are excited for people to hear and why?
MR: For me, probably “Always Remembered As,” the last song Sean wrote for the album. We spent a lot of time picking it apart in the beginning and splitting up the vocal parts, and I really love how it came out. I think it’s a great representation of the idea that we had when we started out with Short Answers, but we were just able to execute it better this time around.
SG: And for me it’s “Redwood Seeds”, which Matt wrote. We’ve kind of agreed that it’s our album’s grower (no pun intended), but I think that it really does a great job of showing what we’re capable of. The song really went through a cool evolution from a really sweet riff to a “best of all worlds” track that’s technical, catchy, and lyrically thoughtful.
Clear Minded Records is releasing the album. What made you decide to go with them?
MR: I’ve known Kaden Valdivieso for a while now - he’s from the next town over from my hometown. We played some shows together in high school and hung out a lot at other shows. He’s always been at it with one project or another, and it just happened that when Clear Minded Clothing started picking up, he asked us if we wanted to work with him on CMR. We love pretty much everything DIY, and Kaden and Heather do absolutely incredible work with CMC/CMR, so it was really a no-brainer to work with friends who are also doing something they love.
Outside of the digital release are there any plans for a cassette or vinyl pressing of the album?
MR: There will be a cassette release shortly after the digital release! More details on that to come.
What do you guys have lined up for the rest of 2014 and what are your plans for 2015?
MR: Our only real plans for the rest of the year were to finish up the album (after pushing it back as many times as we have - life gets in the way), and I graduate in December. After that, it’s up in the air. The plan is to pick up where we left off with practice in the new year, and we’ll see where it goes from there. Either way, we’re also always writing, so who knows - we may get another EP together sooner than later.
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?
SG: Thanks for taking the time to reach out to us! We hope you enjoy the album and we’d love to hear thoughts, critiques, etc from our listeners.
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