Hey guys, cheers for the interview! First of all, introduce yourselves, and answer this burning question: why did you name yourselves Name?
What's up man, this is Bobby the drummer. You know my favourite thing about the fact that our name is simply "Name" is that it doesn't confine us to any musical limitations whatsoever. When you read it it's not gonna remind you of gore metal or pop-punk or anything. That's sort of its main purpose, to keep things less about gimmicks and more about art.
How would you describe your music, and how would you say it fits into the current metal scene?
We generally describe our music as simply "heavy music." And music doesn't have to be metal to be heavy. Obviously we incorporate a great deal of screaming and hi-gain, but that's really just one side to us. Everything we do, we do for the most part with extreme intensity, even if it's ambient or a jazz piece. That's more what we mean by "heavy". In regard to how we fit into the current metal scene, I don't really think we've even been looking at things in terms of particular "scenes." We've had the privilege of sharing the stage with a lot of awesome bands, and not all of them were metal bands. Because of the variety on our record, we've been able to adjust our set list as necessary for the type of tour it is. Now that I'm thinking about it, perhaps the metal scene may be the most welcoming of our music because they are of course more tolerant of things like screaming and more elaborate time signatures. So to answer your question, I suppose it, well, fits nicely??................?.............8=è
How did you arrive at where you are now - what sort of bands did you play in before Name, and how did they lay the ground work for Name?
The 3 of us have actually been playing music together on and off for 10 years. Jeremy and I spent a huge portion of our teenage years studying jazz and really focusing on trying to soak in as many styles as possible on our respective instruments. We've also all been in so many different types of bands growing up, including grunge, acid rock, fusion, etc. Kinda hard to take all of that and make something boring haha
What have been your biggest inspirations for what you do? The review I did picked out everything from Dillinger Escape Plan to Jaco Pastorius...
Just really everyone and everything we've ever seen and heard in our lives. DEP and Jaco were definitely big for some of us. But it's hard to list people because of course you listen to so much music in your life that it's difficult to determine which artist inspired what particular action for you. So I guess I'll just say "life" is our biggest inspiration..too cliché? Fuck...
How much of a challenge is it to write your songs? You really do seem to push yourselves as musicians and songwriters...is that something you keep in your consciousness for when you write?
I actually wasn't even in the band when many of those songs were beginning to take shape. But once we have the basic skeleton to work with (usually consisting of guitar riffs and lyrics), the 3 of us get together and really just do whatever the hell we want with it. Of course we push ourselves, but not awkwardly. We don't tell ourselves that we need to keep the bar up, because if you're a real musician, you're ALWAYS growing. You stop growing when you die. I'll probably be writing my best stuff when I'm in my 90's. You're damn right I just said that. BOOSH.
Onto to your album... There are some very interesting song titles there, but the album title "Internet Killed the Audio Star" suggests an overarching theme on the changing nature of the music business. What is your take on how the internet is changing the way bands operate?
I think the internet has made it so much easier for an artist to be heard. Many bands have been discovered and experienced great success from just internet promotion. But it's of course forcing the bigwigs to change their tactics as well. The days of signing that golden record contract and going platinum are coming to an end. This is of course due to illegal downloading, which is sorta the tounge-n-cheek meaning behind the album title. People aren't buying records anymore. It's more about the live show now than it ever has been, which is awesome for us because that's always been our bread and butter. Nowadays if you want to make music your career, you HAVE to tour. A LOT. The albums that you make are now simply promotion for your live show. But hey, just don't suck live and it won't be a problem ;)
Was it a difficult process recording "Internet Killed the Audio Star"? You had a relatively long gestation period of 4 years - was it difficult to keep focus during this time, or was it necessary for the music?
I think a little of both. One major reason it took so long was that Name went through so many members over the past 4 years, myself included. I've been in and out of this band 4 times for various reasons. In fact the musical chemistry between the 3 of us may have been a major reason for the delay of this record, because I kept leaving, ironically after each recording session I did with them. The record would've sounded awkward if it was me on a few tracks and some other drummer on some other tracks and so on. But that's just from my perspective. I can't speak for them but I know that some of the tracks were written recently, which means that they wouldn't have been on the record if it weren't for the delay, whatever the cause was.
How do you find the reaction from audiences when you're playing live?
The feedback we've been getting has been incredibly positive. People are far more open to the variety on the record than we could've ever hoped.
This'll be the last question, so thank you for your time. Now the album's out almost everywhere - and hopefully being bought by everyone - what's next for Name?
We intend to tour behind this record for a long time. We may release an EP later this year or early next year. But we wanna put the majority of our effort into promoting the hell out of this record, so see ya on the road!
Steve Jones
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