Friday, December 24, 2010
Saturday, December 11, 2010
We Are The Union (Part I)
Signed to Paper + Plastick records, Detroit natives We Are The Union are a band breaking out of the current musical mold of Myspace scenesters and Facebook hipsters, by creating their own unique style. These guys have a mixture of influence from ska to pop punk, and even hardcore. Check out this interview with trombonist/vocalist Matt Belanger and bassist/vocalist Brandon Benson as the two discuss the current state of ska music, playing with The Suicide Machines, and working with Matt Allison.
WATU is heavily ska influenced, who are some of your favorite ska bands?
Matt: Less Than Jake and Rx Bandits, but honestly we don’t listen to ska bands that much anymore. Back in the day we used to listen to everything from Reel Big Fish to Mustard Plug. Reed and I were in a total third wave sounding band when we were in high school, we’d do The Aquabats and Mustard Plug covers. Now the only stuff that gets spun on the regular is Rx Bandits or this band Sonic Boom Six from the UK, who are a really dope, up and coming band. We still listen to everything else once in awhile though.
You don’t hear about many ska influenced bands these days, what’s your input on the current ska scene?
Brandon: The current ska scene is kind of inexistent, but there are still high school bands that play ska and still play the same Mustard Plug Songs.
Matt: Yeah, there are bands that do the ska covers that Reed and I used to play.
Brandon: Plus, there are a few bands in the UK that still play ska and they’re a little bit more popular than they are in the states. Ska bands that used to do really well in the 90s in the states do really well overseas now. For example, we’re doing a Less Than Jake tour in the fall and there are a ton of pre-sold tickets, so it should be a pretty good tour.
Matt: It’s like all the bands that were big when it was big are still around, but there’s nobody up and coming doing that style of music that are hitting the road really hard and getting attention.
Brandon: Aside from Fatter Than Albert, who were good friends of ours for a long time, and they are still one of my favorite ska related bands. They put on an amazing live show. And there are The Flaming Tsunamis and A Billion Ernies, who we still play shows with.
Matt: There are tons of bands in the self-contained scene almost. There’s a bunch of bands that are younger who are touring occasionally and doing stuff with the style, but for the most part there hasn’t been anybody that came out and crossed over from that self-contained indie/ska scene to being on a tour or even on a label. Everybody assumes if you’re in a ska band it’s going to be goofy and songs about my dog and pizza, there’s a stigma about ska music. The Aquabats and Reel Big Fish are the top two reasons, even though those bands are great, why no one takes it seriously anymore. They’re doing their thing and it’s tight, but people grab onto the goofy aspect of it and that’s their picture of the whole scene. A lot of people just aren’t into it and even if you do ska mixed with something else, sometimes they automatically write you off because of the stigma.
Brandon: We spent a lot of time getting out of that scene, getting people to see that we’re not just a ska band.
Matt: Not even getting out of it, just getting people to...
Brandon: To listen!
Matt: And to get...
Brandon: The fact that there is a point to this.
Matt: Exactly! To get that there is a point and that this is actually legit and cool, and serious! Well, relatively serious.
Speaking of ska influence, what was your experience like playing with The Suicide Machines at their reunion show in your hometown?
Brandon: Dude, that was probably one of my top five favorite shows of all time.
Matt: Definitely.
Brandon: That place was so packed, they didn’t have any fans on and it was dripping from the ceiling. Everybody was so anxious for that show.
Matt: It was oversold like three-hundred tickets. It was the first announced show they had done since the band broke up and it was a huge fucking deal.
Brandon: And I got to play!
Matt: Yeah, and Jason Navarro asked me to play trombone with them on a couple songs, which I hope I didn’t fuck up too bad!
Brandon: No dude, it sounded great!
Matt: They had all kinds of great things to say. They played our cd release, it was like a secret show back in March and they did like five songs. Then at the reunion show Jason Navarro gets on the mic and is like “This band is like the new Detroit ska/punk band. We’re old and we’re not doing it seriously anymore, but We Are The Union is fucking awesome and we’re passing the torch to them.” I would never go so far as to put ourselves anywhere on the same level as The Suicide Machines because that’s like the first real show I think I ever went to. That band is so completely untouchable in my mind.
Brandon: It’s like a childhood dream realized. The Suicide Machines were always one of my favorite bands as a kid, so to hear something like that from one of my idols back in the day was a really cool thing for me to be a part of.
Matt: And the fact that they are from Detroit too, I mean I’m an equally huge fan of other ska/punk bands we listen to, but that was a band from our general area that went out and did that style of music. I don’t know how you define success but as far as inspiring other people, they inspired us to go do that shit. It was totally unreal to play with them five years after I thought I’d never see them play again.
WATU tours with everyone and play shows with every kind of genre from ska to hardcore, do you want to back up this claim and explain the importance of touring?
Brandon: In my book, in order to gain any respect from the community you have to spend some time on the road and hit the streets with your music. Sell your music, play your music, that’s the only way to really get anywhere. And the internet just changed the entire music industry as a whole, the internet helps bands get out tour date information, rather than just word of mouth or flyers.
Matt: We booked whole tours on myspace, just messaging random people.
Brandon: That’s how we started out, messaging random people!
Matt: Punk and ska don’t have mainstream visibility anymore, like bands don’t get recognized in the scene anymore for selling a shit ton of records or having videos on MTV, because MTV doesn’t fucking play videos anymore and nobody sells records anymore. So the only way anyone will pay attention to you is if you go out there on the road and get in front of them.
Brandon: Touring is all about making friends, it’s all about talking to people and making connections, that’s one of the most important things a band can do. Hanging out with bands and it doesn’t matter how bad your band is or how much the other bands don’t like your music, if you hang out with them and mesh with them, and become friends...
Matt: Well, I don’t know if it doesn’t matter 100%....but it makes a huge difference to network and know people in the industry. Really for us it’s been kind of cool because like you said, we tour with all sorts of different bands, because there are a handful of bands that exist in our sub-sub-sub genre and most of them only tour a handful of times. So if we’re trying to go out and hit the road all the time we’re just gonna have to tour with punk bands, or pop/punk bands, or hardcore bands. It’s kind of liberating in a way to be the band that no one is gonna be stoked on right off the bat, there’s no hype-machine like that for ska bands. It’s almost better, people have no preconceived notions for what you’re going to sound like at all, except for what Reel Big Fish sounds like, and then you go out there and play. I think most of them are surprised at the kind of music we’re playing and get stoke on it.
Brandon: That’s why it’s good we’re on a tour with a band like Strung Out because they’ve been around for a long time and they have diehard fans that come to all of their shows and we try to appeal to some of those guys, hopefully.
We Are The Union (Part II)
WATU lyrics “We’re just being who we are and you can’t take that away”, almost sound like an anthem for the band. With that in mind, what’s your main goal as a band?
Brandon: I would say my goal in this band is to be able to play music the way I want and maintain a healthy and happy lifestyle, in whatever form that takes.
Matt: When you start playing music everybody is like “Man, I wanna fucking ride on a bus to all the shows and fly on my private jet, I want to make a living making music.” Everybody wants to make it huge playing music but because of the way the music industry is, and the relation punk music has with the industry, it’s not necessarily possible to do that. I think the band is on the same page with what Brandon said, we can keep doing this as long as we physically can and get home to have enough money to pay the phone bill. We all work and have jobs, we don’t sit around and you know, eat fucking caviar or whatever because we make so much money touring. We bust our asses when we’re on the road and we go home and bust our asses at work. Our goal is to be able to keep doing this as long as we can and have just enough money to get to the next place. I just wanna go play to kids every night and have a blast, and show people our music.
What was your personal experience like working with Matt Allison who produced your latest release Great Leaps Forward?
Matt: He’s just like the best dude ever. He’s recorded all these bands that we all have listened to for years and years, and all the records that he’s ever done are huge. I remember the first record we did was right after This Sinking Ship came out by Smoke or Fire which Matt produced, and I spun that every single day while we were recording. I remember before I went to record vocals, I was wondering around the woods outside the studio listening to that on my ipod while screaming the words to it out in the middle of nowhere, like warming myself up. Then we got into the studio to work with Matt and he’s super cool, he has all these fucking stories and has met everybody in every band you’ve ever heard of. He has all these awesome stories about just throwing down with The Lawrence Arms, Alkaline Trio, and Less Than Jake. He would work from noon to midnight and then leave the studio for a minute and come back with a case of beer, then he’d sit there in the studio and just tell amazing stories. It was like having...a punk rock dad!
If you could pick only one song for someone to listen to by WATU, what would it be?
Matt: Everybody in the band will probably tell you something different.
Brandon: Yeah, because honestly there are some people that are more tired of our first record than others. I would say our classic song is “This Is My Life (And It’s Ending One Minute At A Time)”, but not necessary my favorite.
Matt: That’s a good mix though, it has ska parts and the pop parts, and these fast beat parts.
Brandon: I wish we could redo that record, just record it all with current members.
Matt: That’s the hardest, its like all the songs are your kids. I’m going to make a horrible analogy now, but maybe like the first time you weren’t really that good at raising kids and so you just love them for what they are, but then you look back and go “Man, I would have done a couple things differently.”
Brandon: It’s just that we’ve grown since then and we see all the mistakes that we’ve made, well mistakes in our book.
Matt: I don't think you’ll find a musician that is ever completely, 100% satisfied with anything they’ve done. You always do stuff and the moment you leave the studio you’re always like “I wish I had one more take to do that part.” I think we are just focused on the next thing, that’s the attitude that is necessary. Every month, every week, every day, we’re just constantly growing as fans of music and musicians in trying to incorporate new and different shit into what we’re doing. To answer the original question though, I would say “Rearranging Deck Chairs On The Titanic” or “What We Have Here, Is A Failure To Communicate”, a good mix of pop and fast parts but also technical.
I heard WATU wants to play the next Vans Warped Tour, which seems to pull both positive and negative outlooks from bands. What’s your perspective on Warped Tour?
Matt: I would love to play Warped Tour next year because it’s just a huge, awesome experience. There are a variety of bands on Warped Tour, you have these older main-stage bands for the punk scene and new stuff, and then stuff people wouldn’t even consider punk. It brings out the wide variety of people and this huge variety of bands. People call it “punk rock summer camp” all the time, and I think that’s the most accurate. It’s just total fun.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Man Overboard
This interview can also be found on the National Underground website HERE
Straight out of South Jersey, Man Overboard is jumping into the music scene with their catchy lyrics and fun-loving attitudes. Newly signed to Rise Records, these guys are proving they are more than just a small town band. Don't worry though, these guys are still down-to-earth Jersey boys. Check out this interview with Justin Collier and Nik Bruzzese from Man Overboard as they discuss heartbreak, touring around the world, and Beyoncé.
How long have you been a band?
Nik: That’s a hard question! We started in August ’08.
Best part about growing up in New Jersey?
Justin: Diners.
Nik: Diners?
Justin: Oh yeah...Wawa!
Nik: Definitely Wawa. And Dunkin’ Donuts, plus the weather is beautiful.
Justin: We got the shore, Wawa, diners, and pizza.
Nik: And Atlantic City!
If you could pick just one song for someone to listen to, what would it be?
Nik: I’d probably choose “Montrose”, it’s like my favorite song.
Justin: And I think that portrays us well. It’s got a lot going on.
You guys are currently on tour with Fireworks on the All I Have Left To Offer Is This Tour, how has your experience been so far?
Justin: It’s cool, we’re good friends with Transit and I was already friends with Fireworks and some of the Swellers guys. Everyone is good friends on this tour, so it’s cool to hang out.
Nik: When the tour is over I’m going to severely miss being around everyone. It’s been so much fun. It’s like everyday you don’t have to worry about being bored. Everyone is cool as hell, I love everyone.
Justin: Good times!
Best part about being on this tour?
Justin: Not having a real job. Not being in school or working!
Nik: It’s cool because you don’t have to answer to anyone. I wake up and I go “Fuck the world!” Basically we play songs to kids who like them and we’re like “Holy fuck, how did that happen?”
There’s a lot of talk that you guys are going to “blow up” in the music scene. And after this tour there is Japan, then Europe/UK. As a band from a small town in Jersey, what’s your thought process like to the attention and new experiences you’re getting?
Nik: I feel like it hasn’t even hit me yet. I’m still on cloud 9 from people singing our songs.
Justin: We just think it’s cool that we can go to places like San Francisco and kids know our songs.
Nik: It’s just crazy, when we first started touring it was with Transit and we shared a green van. So it was all of us and all of our friends, and just packed to the brim. We were just hanging out and partying our asses off, and that was fine with us. And now it’s like we’re going to Europe with Transit and we’re like “What is happening, are people liking us?!”
Justin: So, I’m 21 and Lacy from Transit is 19, and we met 3 years ago...
Nik: Longer than that, like 5 years.
Justin: Well...a really long time ago when he was still in high school and now we’re going to Europe together. It’s surreal.
Nik: It’s like when do we have to wake up? Because I’m chill, I’m having fun.
Your latest album is Real Talk, which seems to revolve a lot around relationships. What was the inspiration for that record?
Nik: Broken heart syndrome. Zac wrote a lot of it and then we just take it and try to figure out how we want it to sound. We all bounce off each other really well.
Justin: Zac gets mad at girls a lot too.
Nik: Yeah, we all got fucked over when we were younger. We still probably are. Honestly, me and Zac have no lives, and Zac has been writing songs forever.
Was there a message you guys were trying to get across?
Nik: It was basically just telling people what’s good and saying what happened, like if you relate to this then maybe you’ll like it.
Justin: It’s just about making music that people know is true.
Nik: Like if somebody sees it from one of our prospectives, then it might help somebody get through some shit. I know a lot of people have been saying it’s been helping them out, so that’s cool.
If you were the product of two bands joining together, what would those two bands be?
Nik: Alright, Limp Bizkit.
Justin: And Aerosmith.
Nik: Not Aerosmith. Definitely Limp Bizkit, and then Papa Roach.
Justin: Ehhh...
Nik: I would say Limp Bizkit and 311.
Justin: Yeah, 311!
Nik: Justin doesn’t like 311.
Justin: I love 311!
Nik: This is off topic, but we actually tweeted P-Nut, the bass player of 311 and he tweeted back. I was like....speechless!
Justin: He said “Much luck to the next Gen Rockers.”
Nik: The Next Generation of Rockers, and I was like fuck yeah!
Who would you love to collaborate with?
Nik: I would love to collaborate with Chris Conley, that would be insane. And Steven Tyler.
Justin: Joe Perry.
Nik: Definitely Chris Conley though.
Favorite Saves the Day song?
Justin: “A Dragon In D Flat”
Nik: I was gonna say that! It’s the sickest song.
Would you rather cover Lady Gaga or Beyoncé?
Justin: Lady Gaga.
Nik: Beyoncé! Come on, son!
Justin: Nope, Lady Gaga. Bad Romance.
Nik: Get out of here. Beyoncé, you’re not ready for this jelly. (starts singing) “I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly.”
Justin: Is that what she says?
Nik: Yeah! My body’s too bootylicious. I’d definitely make it work.
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