Wes' Interview with "Burn Your Ears"

Hi. My name is Kai and im writing for the german webzine www.burnyourears.de

1. Please introduce yourself and your band to our readers.

Wes: My names Wes Fareas. I’m the singer and guitar player of the band. The others are Bobby Gibbs on drums and Jeremy Fareas on bass.


2. Whats the story behind NAME? How did you guys meet and did you know from the start, what kind of Music you wanted to play?

Wes: Our bass player, Jeremy, and I are brothers, so we’ve been playing music together for as long as we can both remember. I met Bobby freshmen year of high school. He was literally the first person I met at the school and in the town. From there, we go to talking about music, found a lot of share influences, decided to jam one day. I brought up my brother played bass, brought him out, and the rest is, as they say, history.


3. Whats the story behind your bandname? Getting tired of being asked that question?

Wes: With that band name comes the acceptance that we’re going to have to explain its origin more times then we could possibly imagine, haha… Anyways, I had the name for a long time. I was sitting on it with plans to use it at some point. After our high school bands dissipated, we formed with the original members, being us 3. We had toyed with names that would’ve made sense to our state of mind. It took a lot of trial and error, but when the name “name” was thrown into the mix, it just made to much sense to not have that be our moniker.


4. Did you ever feel the need that maybe more band members would be needed? You guys do such crazy shit as a three-piece…

Wes: We have mostly been a 4 piece throughout the bands career up until the record was recorded. We liked the aesthetic of it being a bare bones approach. But after going through more guitar players then we’d like to admit, I just took the responsibility into my own hands. I had a lot to do with the writing and arranging anyways, so it wasn’t that big of a change for me. The live aesthetic is definitely a different feel, but I enjoy it.


5. How come, you guys mix hardcore and Metal with Blues or Jazz? Does that happen organically or do you try to mix different styles on purpose?

Wes: It happens very organically. We never set out to make anything “out there”. It was never an intention to re invent the wheel, by any, means. We were very young when we started this band, mind you, so we weren’t aware of what was happening outside our realm. We just enjoyed different styles of music and thought ‘why not incorporate everything we’ve enjoyed listening to?’. Even the more straight forward bands we enjoyed always had a very wide sound. Heavy to soft and what not. It was just incredibly natural. As times went on, we kind of toned that experimentation into what you hear today.


6. You guys are on a german label and as far as myspace goes you seem to like war from a harlots mouth and the oceon. Ever been on tour here?

Wes: Not yet, we definitely plan to. We haven’t had the fortune of playing with WFAHM yet, but we did do some dates with The Ocean and they blew me away. A refreshing aggressive band for this day and age of stagnant heavy music.


7. There are some parts on the record, where its sounds, as if you guys had little problem, screaming the vocals. Did you ever think about getting a vocalist for live-gigs, that’s doesn’t have to play instruments at the same time?

Wes: I honestly don’t know which parts you’re referring to. To be honest, the screaming parts on the record were incredibly easy to track in the studio. The difficult parts were the clean vocals. We had spent a lot of time recording an organic record musically, that it slightly cut into my vocal tracking time. I felt slightly rushed in that process and definitely wish I had a bit more time. Next time we record, we’re making it a point to have sufficient amount of time to track all forms of vocals. Live though, I have managed to pull off guitars and vocals at the same time without problem.


8. Lets Play with your lyrics: Taken from “Dave Mustaine” : with Songs would you kill the world?

Wes: The central meaning behind that line is that music as an unrelenting power that people often underestimate. It truly has capabilities of destroying the world if it felt fit to. It’s just a line to show my appreciation for the art form, the language, the almost “other worldly” entity that is music.


9. Taken from “Avaler LÓcean”: In which city do you wanna die or be buried?

Wes: I don’t know what you’re talking about actually, haha. I literally don’t even use the word “city”. So, to answer your question… I don’t know, haha… The song is about someone falling in love with the ocean and eventually finding ruin in it instead of comfort. So, I guess I’d like to be swallowed by the ocean.


10. Taken from “Charmer”: What are your most “glorious failures”?

Wes: The line isn’t referring to my personal failures. Its referring to the sordid state of music and bands that have been popping up everywhere. When I say “you young cowards… you glorious failures” I’m directly and openly saying most bands are flat out fucking cowards. So many bands nowadays are afraid to do what they want musically. They fear criticism and adaptation and rely on what is “in” at the moment. It’s definitely the angriest song I’ve ever written and by far one of my favorites on the album. The lyrics are way more direct then most of the lyrics on the record. But, it’s also nothing to unique. I’m just another writer projection his disgust.


11. Can you explain the Cover to me?

Wes: The album in itself is basically a funeral for music. A tounge-in-cheek reference to the current state of the music industry. The cover just reinforces that concept. We wanted to show a somewhat obsolete instrument outside of orchestral/classical music. By adding the spine to it, we shows a more organic reference to music and it’s decay. We chose a light color scheme because we’re personally getting tired of metal records always having to be “dark and brooding”. It also shows another somewhat sarcastic trait in our personalities by showing there is a way to make an aggressive record with a dark, in nature, theme without it being straight black with fire on the cover.



12. Famous Last Words?

Wes: Thank you for taking the time to talk to me about the record. Hopefully you enjoy it and hopefully so do the readers. If you haven’t purchased “Internet Killed The Audio Star” today, give something new a chance and pick it up off Itunes, Amazon or your local record store. It’s released in both North America and Europe, so there isn’t any reason as to why you can’t find it. It’s an honest record written and recorded by 3 guys who are head over heels in love with music. A record made for true music appreciators and supporters. Also, keep in touch with us through all our forms of networking. Myspace.com/name, Facebook.com/nameband, Twitter.com/name. Check back with us and find a date near you. Cheers.


Thank you for your time and your answers
Best of luck with the record

Wes: Thank you


Kai / www.burnyourears.de