No Dice - Sound In The Signals Interview
For anyone who hasn't heard of your band can you tell me how you guys got together and what got you interested in music?
Travis - Dylan, Tanner, and Noah were in a band together in high school, and after things didn’t work out with that, they wanted to start a new project. We all played baseball together growing up and went to the same high school. When I was at college my freshman year they asked me to sing for their new band. I hopped on and we started playing some shows as No Dice. At the beginning of 2015, we met Drew because he worked with Noah. We realized he was an awesome guy and a guitarist, so we added him on rhythm guitar and I went to strictly singing. We all like similar bands and picked up different instruments growing up. We figured we could try writing some songs for fun and it turned into something we want to do as a career.
You just released your new EP The Words You Never Said. Can you tell me a little about the recording process of the EP and how long you worked on the EP writing and recording?
Travis - We recorded with Micah Powers at Birdseye Audio in Gahanna, Ohio. These songs were written over the last 2 years, and the entire recording process took about 5 months, from pre-proing songs to getting our masters back. It was our first time working with Micah, and we were so happy with how everything turned out. He’s an very talented engineer who’s extremely passionate about what he does, and the entire experience was awesome.
I think the EP starts strong with the song "Thanks Jake". Why did you decide to start the EP with this song and what was the songwriting process like for this song in particular?
Travis - We thought that song should go first because it’s very high energy and set’s the tone for the rest of the EP. We wanted a strong song to grab people’s attention and hopefully get them to listen to the rest of the songs. I wrote this song in my dorm room at school 2 years ago. It was the oldest written song on the EP.
I'm a big fan of the artwork and I really like the empty suitcase in the middle of this deserted road. Who came up with the idea for it and where exactly did you take the photo at?
Drew - The photo was actually taken by our friend Rosa a long time ago. We had some issues with time restraints before the album was to release and we ended up looking back through some of her work. We found that photo and realized it fit very well with our idea and the feel of the album.
Is there any special meaning behind the artwork?
Travis - Lyrically, this album talks a lot about relationships. Not just romantic relationships, but relationships with friends, family, anyone. People come into our lives and people leave. We thought the empty suitcase was a good visual representation of these themes.
You guys list a ton of artists you like and and are influenced by. Most of them are classic pop/punk artists like The Story So Far, All Time Low, Blink-182, and Knuckle Puck. When you were recording the EP what did you both draw from and find inspiration from when thinking about the past and present artists?
Travis - The “pop-punk sound” has changed a lot over the last 2 decades. We like what we consider the original pop-punk sound (Blink 182, Green Day, Sum 41) but we also are into this new wave of pop-punk. For this EP, we sort of tried to blend the two, old and new, and try and create a sound of our own.
You shot a music video for "270" What was the video shoot like and why did you pick that song as the lead single off the new EP?
Dylan- “270” is a personal song to all of us because it is about growing up in our hometown. That was a factor in deciding to make it a single. We felt it was catchy and a good representation of what the entire EP is all about. The video took place while we were recording the EP and taking promotional photos. We just wanted to have fun with the video and give a raw, unscripted look into what we have been working on in recent months.
Drew Hiles directed the video. Why did you decide to go with him to direct and what did you guys want to make sure you accomplished with the visual and how you presented your band?
Drew - The video started out just as a studio update video. We ended up getting so much footage between the studio shoots and the random video that was taken during on of our promo shoots that we decided to take the footage and turn it into a full music video. We wanted to make the video a fun and energetic interpretation of us being ourselves and all the work we put in to the album over the few months of recording.
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?
Drew - Thanks for talking with us and you can check out our music on Spotify, iTunes, and many more!
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