Cliffhanger - Sound In The Signals Interview
For those who aren't familiar with your band can you tell me how you guys got together and what got you interested in music?
CLIFFHANGER is a band composed of 5 guys who’ve been friends for over 10+ years. We all played in bands together growing up, but us 5 have never been in a band together until CLIFFHANGER. Mike C and Mike L asked Ray, Dan, and Brian on board after the departure of two previous members since we wanted to play music with our friends and people we knew we could count on.
Various older pop punk bands like blink-182, AFI, New Found Glory, and Hit The Lights got all of us interested in playing in a band. Some of us played in hardcore bands and some of us played in pop punk bands. We’re not afraid to get a little heavy here and there, but we play music that we enjoy listening to and playing. We’re always striving to try and make a good song better.
Your new EP Cut The Ties came out not too long ago. What was the recording process like for the EP and do you have a favorite song off the EP or one you though came out the best?
That’s correct. We released Cut The Ties in mid-January of this year. The recording process for Cut The Ties was very similar to Just Ignite (our debut EP), but we had a few hiccups along the way. We recorded both Eps at Downbeat Studio with Michael Govaere (ex-Every Avenue) and we start with the drums, then bass, guitars, and vocals. Just when we wrapped everything up, our old singer quit so we went back into the studio to redo vocals with Ray (who was playing bass). It was a pretty swift transition, but we didn’t rush anything because we wanted to release music we were proud of. We spent several months writing these five songs.
Ray – I like Under Attack because it shows our diversity and I had a fun time doing the vocals at the end of the song.
Brian – I like Boom. Roasted. the most because it’s fun to play on bass.
Mike C - I’m incredible happy with all the songs on Cut The Ties. There are parts I love in each song. For example, I love the lyrics on Under Attack and I love the harmonizing guitars on Halfway Through. If I have to choose just one song, it’d be Halfway Through. We had No Anchor come up from Florida to record a music video for that song. I was working on that song for quite some time and I’m very excited with how it turned out.
Mike L – My favorite song is Halfway Through! I feel like it turned out the best from start to finish and I feel that it epitomizes our sound thus far. I feel like it’s easy to relate to lyrically and I just like it!
Dan – Boom. Roasted. because it was the first song that I wrote lead guitar parts for CLIFFHANGER, and it was the first one I wrote in a long time.
Cut The Ties is your sophomore EP. Your debut EP Just Ignite was released in 2013. Between that first EP to this current EP how did you guys evolve as songwriters and what are maybe some new things you tried when you started working on Cut The Ties?
Even though Cut The Ties is our sophomore EP, it feels like a debut EP to us because we have a slightly adjusted lineup and everyone had input for these songs. For example, Dan would listen to the rhythm guitar tracks that Mike C had and he would come back next practice with a killer lead part over it, while Ray took over vocals and gave us a fresher sound. Just Ignite seemed more like a little tease to give a sneak peek of what we are about, but with new members writing and contributing to Cut The Ties, it really adds an extra element to our music.
We started working on Cut The Ties shortly after finishing Just Ignite because we needed more songs to have a set for a live show. Some songs stuck, and some died. We wanted to try and have a more modern sound for this EP as opposed to a more classic sound on Just Ignite. Dan was a perfect fit for this because his lead guitar parts nailed it. Ray’s vocal range was incredible and it gave our music an extra edge.
I really like the first song on the EP "Under Attack". Why did you decide to put it as the first song and in particular what was the song writing process like for the song?
Thank you. We had many discussions over the track listing. Some of us wanted Under Attack song first and some of us wanted it last. We felt it was a very strong song, mixed well, and if people were to listen to just the first song off Cut The Ties, we wanted it to be Under Attack and didn’t want to risk putting it last and having people not listen to it.
The writing process for this song was very cohesive. It was the first song we wrote with input from all the members. We each had a different idea for the ending breakdown and you can hear three different parts to it to accommodate everyone’s preference. We had ideas on rhythms and leads. We made the chanting part up a day or two before the studio. We’re constantly working on our songs to see if there’s something more appealing to listen to than what we wrote.
You guys have some pretty creative song titles on your new EP. I see a Meet The Parents reference, etc... How do you come up with the titles for your songs?
That’s right, Focker. In CLIFFHANGER, we write all the music first, and then add lyrics/vocals last and make adjustments to the music once we add in the lyrics. It could be weeks or months before we actually add lyrics to a song to actually get a title that is represented of the lyrics, so we come up with filler titles instead of “New Song” because before you know it, we have 4 new songs we’re working on and you can confuse them. We really liked “I Have Nipples, Greg. Can You Milk Me?” so we decided to keep it. We felt it was fitting for a fast punk song on the EP.
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?
Thank you so much for taking the time to interview us and thank you to everyone who has taken the time to get to know our band a little bit more. We like to build relationships with our fans so make sure you reach out to us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook (links below). You can find us on iTunes, Spotify, and any digital music retailer. We also have physical CDs and shirts available on our Bandcamp.
http://cliffhangerpoppunk.bandcamp.com
www.instagram.com/cliffhangerpoppunk | www.facebook.com/cliffhangerpoppunk | www.twitter.com/cliffhangerpunk
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