PreachElectric: Could you introduce yourselves, please?
Joel Kanitz: I am Jo-el, and I sing.
Ryan Gose: My name’s Ryan and I play drums, and we play in a band called This Century.

PE: How has the tour been going so far?
Joel: Amazing!
Ryan: Splendid!
Joel: Splenda! It’s been awesome, nothing but good times, the best tour that we’ve ever been on, for sure, because… I mean, we’ve known The Maine for quite a while now, and Austin Gibbs, who’s also on the tour. So it doesn’t really feel like your normal tour where you have to meet the bands and try and become friends and lie and say you like the same bands as them, or secretly steal their catering…
Ryan: Yeah, we actually do like the same bands. And the fans are incredible. The Maine’s crowd is amazing, and they actually seem to like us and are they’re very receptive to our music.

PE: So do you think you’ve acquired a lot of new fans while you’ve been on this tour?
Both: Definitely.
Joel: I think a lot of these kids have heard of the band because The Maine have talked about us before, but they’ve never really taken the time to check us out. Now us being here playing shows for them… I think it kind of gives them that extra, you know, little nudge.
Ryan: Yeah, totally.

PE: Speaking of The Maine, they’ve recently released a new album, [Black & White]. What do you think of it?
Joel: I love it.
Ryan: I think it’s awesome.
Joel: I love it. I don’t want to say I like it better than their first one – I liked their first one – but this one it has a more mature sound. It’s more up my alley.  A lot of it has a classic rock feel, which is really cool.

PE: What have you been doing to keep busy on your days off?
Joel: We had a day off in Boston yesterday. We went clubbin’, you know. We learned a little bit about the people in Boston.
Ryan: We saw a man do 40 pushups in 25 seconds.
Joel: I bet this guy that he couldn’t do 40 one-handed pushups in under 30 seconds, and he was like, “All right, give me five bucks if I do it.” He did it so I had to give him five bucks. I remember saying like, “Dude you should fight someone. I bet you could fight anyone.”

PE: If you were a character in the movie Inception, what would your totem be?
Joel: I know exactly what mine would be.
Ryan: Mine would be… Why don’t you go first?
Joel: My totem would be my stuffed animal that I’ve had since I was a baby. And you know how they get beat up and kind of worn down? It just has this specific feel to it… Yeah, mine would probably be the stuffed animal.
Ryan: I just remembered, probably my favorite item of all time that I keep in my safe deposit box is a 1992 Pogs slammer. It was given to me by my great grandfather.
Joel: Passed down from generation to generation?
Ryan: Yeah.
Joel: They were big on Pogs during the Great Depression.
Ryan: It’s made out of platinum and I can’t let it leave me. That would be it. Yep, Pogs slammer.

PE: What’s one of the places you’ve always wanted to travel, or tour, even?
Joel: Australia. Sydney, Australia.
Ryan: Japan.
PE: Do you think you’ll get a chance to go there?
Joel: Yeah!
Ryan: Without a doubt.
Joel: I think we’re pretty determined to get there.
PE: Do you know of any fans that you have there?
Joel: Yeah, we have a good grip of Japan fans, and Australian fans, too, and New Zealand, I know.
Ryan: You can’t even hold them all in your hand.
Joel: Yeah, we definitely have fans in both countries.

PE: Do you have any guilty pleasure music, or music that you might be a little bit ashamed to admit to having on your iPod?
Joel: The song playing right now. (Indicates “Shake It” by Metro Station, and begins singing off-rhyhtm). Shake it, shake it, shake it!
(Both begin singing.)
Joel: Oh wow. I don’t even know if I have any guilty pleasure bands anymore. I’m pretty open about what I’m listening to. I used to have guilty pleasure bands like Nsync, but I mean, I jam Nsync every once in a while, a little Backstreet Boys. I appreciate a good pop song.
Ryan: Yeah, I don’t have anything that I think would be guilty pleasure music. I mean, I like a lot of different music.
Joel: You name it, I probably like it.
Ryan: Or hate it, actually.
Joel: Ryan’s really big on Bowling For Soup; he really likes that band.
Ryan: Yeah, the first time I heard that band…
Joel: Yeah, they’ve just got it all. They’ve got the sound, the look, everything.
Ryan: They’ve got the girls.
Joel: Yeah!
Ryan: Yeah. Who’s Bowling For Soup?
(Both laugh.)

PE: If you woke up one morning to find the world in an apocalyptic, zombie-infested state, what would you do?
Joel: Oh wow. Uhm…
Ryan: Plane to a deserted island. I would have to… I wouldn’t know how to fly a plane, so actually I would have to take a boat. But I figure if I can like… Oh, I would go to an island with a small population, so they…
Joel: How fast are these zombies that we’re talkin’ about? Like normal, your standard zombie that kinda walks slow? Oh, uh, well I mean, I guess if it was like, if I was like, walking around the city, you know, and all of a sudden I saw zombies, I think it would be by foot, and then I’d probably head home and try and figure out a game plan, with maybe helicopter somewhere?
Ryan: I’d pull a Bill Murray and uh, paint my face like a zombie, go golfing, just pretend like I’m a zombie when I walk around with them.
Joel: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Nice!

PE: You recently released a new single called “Hopeful Romantic.” Could you tell us a little bit about it?
Joel: Yes! We are hopeful romantics. We’re all just a bunch of hopeful romantics. But the story behind it is, uhm, it was a guitar riff that Sean had and like a little falsetto-y kind of melody, and then we kind of put it on the back burner for a little while. We went in to record – which, by the way, we probably wrote about 80 songs and threw ‘em all away – and we finally got to the studio and Hopeful Romantic, that riff, came back and we dug it, and our producer dug it and we decided to kind of work on that song and develop it and it became a really fun, quirky, flirty little song, and we’re really happy with the way it came out.

PE: You could say that the “scene,” for lack of a better term – whatever “scene” you would put yourself in –
Joel: (laughing) I would say, grindcore, metal, hip-hop, country…
PE: So, this music scene has blown up quite a bit in the past couple of years. How do you set yourselves apart and stay grounded?
Joel: We started out kind of a grassroots band. I mean it was more about musicianship over, you know, just what we look like and neon pants and stuff like that just wasn’t our thing. And we started out as a sort of jazzy band, so we still have a little bit of that element.
Ryan: We’re always trying to find new, interesting ways to present a song and Sean’s really big on trying new sounds and riffs, guitar riffs, and stuff, and it just kind of opens up…
Joel: Yeah, we’re constantly trying new, crazy ideas, even if they’re not good. We still try, and I think that kind of shines into the music. Hopefully that sets us apart. I’m not sure if it’s enough, but I hope it does.

PE: What social networking sites do you like/use the most to keep in touch with your fans?
Joel: I love Twitter. I LOVE Twitter. I am tweet crazy, honestly. I thought it was stupid at first, but…
Ryan: I recently started telling fans to come to a website I like to use called eHarmony. It’s a great way to meet people.
Joel: Ryan just goes on dates with all our fans.
Ryan: I’m big on Facebook, Formspring, and Twitter.
Joel: (laughing) Those are the three Fs! We do MySpace, too, just because you’ve got your music player on there, and it’s just something you can’t get anywhere else. Tumblr is another huge one. Reblogging and all that stuff is great. Our fans love to do that.
Ryan: We’re REALLY big on Yahoo.com.
Joel: We’re really big on MSN, the front page of MSN. We’re on there a lot. CNN, the news… (Laughing) We’re trying to figure out Facebook. We’re still new to the Facebook band thing.
Ryan: Oh, wait! Also, on tour, one thing we’re doing is, since we’re not home to look in our P.O. boxes for letters, we have a mailbox that we keep on our merch table where fans can give us letters.
Joel: Yeah, we have pieces of paper on our merch table and a pen, and they can just write up a letter right there, or they can write it ahead of time and drop it in the box and then we literally scan it and respond on Tumblr. And then people can actually read the hand-written letter and then read our response.

PE: If you were in charge for the lineup of your dream tour, which bands would it consist of?
Ryan: The Killers, Third Eye Blind, and us would be my dream tour.
Joel: I would love that. If it was John Mayer, The Killers, Third Eye Blind, and us… Oh my gosh, I could die happy.
Ryan: After the tour I’d probably kill myself because my life would just go downhill from there.
Joel: No, it would be awesome to just be on that tour. I’m surprised we didn’t say The Beatles. The Beatles would be awesome just to see the insanity that went on at their concerts.

PE: If you could pick any decade, aside from the current one, to live in, which would it be?
Joel: The 70s. Actually, no, I would say the 40s.
Ryan: Do I maintain my current knowledge? ‘Cause I’m gonna go back like, hundreds of years. I’m gonna be a king.
Joel: I wanna be a pharaoh. A pharaoh would be cool.
Ryan: I’m gonna say nineteen… nineteen… Actually, I like this decade.
Joel: I think that the 40s were cool, and then the 70s. 1944 era would be good, I think.
Ryan: Real smart, Joel.
Joel: What?
Ryan: World War II, man!
Joel: That’s why I wanna live there.
(Both laugh.)

PE: What are your plans for after this tour?
Joel: We’re probably gonna take a band hiatus and kind of just search for our inner peace.
Ryan: We’re gonna go to India and do some soul searching, but after that we’re gonna be going on a fall tour, which we’re gonna announce probably around the end of this tour. We’re gonna release another new song from our album, and the album.
Joel: Yeah, tour, record. Tour at the end of this year. We haven’t picked an official release date yet but it will be coming, I would say, in a couple months. Possible music video, maybe?
Ryan: There’s gonna be a ton of new stuff.
Joel: A lot of new stuff. And the India thing isn’t happening.
Ryan: Oh, really? It got cancelled? I’m bummed out.

PE: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Ryan: Oh yeah, interesting fact about the band: our guitar player Sean is petrified of birds. He is so scared of birds.
Joel: Yeah. He has this insane fear, he has an insane phobia of birds, which I don’t even know what that’s called.
Ryan: Birdaphobia.
Joel: I know there’s a different word, like…
Ryan: Birdphelia.
Joel: I don’t know, I can’t remember, a phobia of birds. So if fans could bring bird Beanie Babies, or bird sculptures, or stuffed animals or pictures to Sean -
Ryan: We’re trying to get him out of his fear.
Joel: Other than that, new record, new stuff. Check out our MySpace. Keep up with us, ‘cause we’re pumping out a lot of new stuff.

Keep up with This Century:
www.myspace.com/ThisCentury
www.twitter.com/ThisCentury
www.thiscenturyband.tumblr.com
www.thiscenturymailbox.tumblr.com

Interview and photos by Kaitlin Higgins

]]> http://www.preachelectric.net/2010/08/24/this-century-interview/feed/ 0 http://www.preachelectric.net/2010/06/15/moving-mountains-interview/ http://www.preachelectric.net/2010/06/15/moving-mountains-interview/#comments Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:47:42 +0000 Kaitlin Higgins http://www.preachelectric.net/?p=1152

Before the second show of their tour supporting Polar Bear Club, Greg Dunn, vocalist and guitarist of Purchase, New York-based band Moving Mountains, took time to talk to Preach Electric.

This is the second night of the Polar Bear Club tour. How has it been so far?

It’s been fun. It’s been our first tour since November, so it’s a little daunting but it’s been cool. It’s exciting for us to be on tour with Polar Bear Club ‘cause we’ve been trying to set that up for months now. It’s cool, all the bands are cool, it’s kind of like a diverse group of bands that should be fun.

You’ve said that you’re pulling out more songs from Pneuma for this tour, so how do you go about deciding which songs to play?

Uhm, well we tried, we kind of did it. We just kind of asked everyone. This is probably the last tour that we’ll do where we’ll play songs off that record just because we’ll have a new record and we’ll play that. But we sort of just asked people and then figured out which songs we could really play. We’re not really a good band.

You’ve had the opportunity to tour more of the US recently. Is there anywhere that you haven’t hit that you’d most like to play?

Yeah, I want to play in Nashville, which we wanted to play on this tour but it didn’t work out. That’s a tough question, but I think Nashville’s the first place that comes to mind. Florida would be cool, just because it’s Florida and it would be nice to hang out there. But it terms of like, music history, I think I’d want to play in Nashville.

Being a student, how have you balanced school and touring?

Uh, I don’t, really. I’m enrolled in college. I go for music, for recording. I don’t really go to class much. It depends. For me it’s not that hard because the school isn’t that demanding. But it’s sometimes stressful. Once in a while I have to take a gen. ed., like this year I had to take a class about personal and social relationships and how to be a good boyfriend, so that kind of sucks. But no, it’s easy. If I was going to school for history or literature, it would be tough. Like our guitar player goes for literature and I don’t know how he does it. But yeah, it’s easy; it’s not that hard. It’s been weird living a double life, but… If I had my way, I wouldn’t be going to school, but you sort of have to.

What are your plans for after this tour when it ends at the end of this month?

We come home, we have a week off, then we start recording a new record immediately. We really want to get that finished, so that’s our immediate plan.

How far along is the album?

It’s like ninety percent written, like a skeleton of the songs is about ninety percent written but for us the songs really flesh out when we record them. It’s pretty much there. It’s done, almost completely; we just have to record it.

I read in another interview that the new songs are less post-rock and a little more post-hardcore than your previous releases so where do the two influences come from?

We listen to a lot of that. Well when we first started the band we listened to a lot of that post-rock stuff, like we were really into Appleseed Cast, Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, Hammock. That’s sort of where our initial following came from, those instrumental rock bands. We also listen to, I don’t know, Poison the Well and, you know, Thrice, and bands that are much heavier. The new record still sounds very much like something we would do. It’s not crazy different. It still sounds like a Moving Mountains record.

Like on Pneuma and Foreword, are there going to be trombone parts, and more alternate instrumentation like that?

Definitely. That was like one of the things that we always try to do in our music is sort of incorporate instrumentation that isn’t always heard in mainstream hardcore bands or music, whatever you want to say. We’re actually having, which I’m really excited about, actual players on this record. On the older stuff it was sort of me programming fake instruments and stuff but this time around we have like, a real cellist.

As a band, you’re fairly active in communicating with listeners through social networking and at shows. Which social networking site do you think is most useful in staying in touch?

Most effective? Probably Facebook, just because I don’t know, maybe there isn’t another site to take over it, like when Facebook destroyed MySpace. Facebook is definitely the most powerful. It’s like real people as opposed to comedians and porn stars on MySpace, or you get spam all the time and you’re like, “I don’t know who this person is.” Facebook is cool because I’m not friends with fans through the Moving Mountains Facebook.   Like Gregory Dunn, my personal Facebook is friends with our actual fans and I can actually talk to people, which I think is so cool.

What would you say has been the most gratifying experience you’ve had with a listener?

With a listener? Wow, that’s hard. I mean, we get e-mails all the time from people saying how music has sort of changed their lives and it’s sort of a thing that you can’t completely take in. You hear it, you understand that your music has affected someone, but it doesn’t really sink in. It’s hard to really grasp. I find the craziest feeling’s when a lot of people in the Armed Forces, I feel like I’ve met a lot of those dudes, who are like, “your music is so impactful.” That always affects me the most, for some reason.

When you’re not recording and finishing up the album, do you have any touring plans for the rest of the year?

Uhm, no… It’s hard, like, we’ve gotten the offers to do tours, and there’s certainly the idea of tours, but our main priority is just to go home, write a record, and if it takes us four months to record then we would need four months. Obviously we hope that doesn’t happen. Once we’re done with the record then we’re gonna start figuring out touring stuff. Ideally, in a perfect world, we would do the record in July and August and just be on the road the rest of the year.

-

Although Dunn had remarked earlier, looking at the line winding around the venue, that it didn’t appear as if there were any “post-rock kids” in attendance, there were at least a few Moving Mountains fans scattered throughout the audience.  As promised, Moving Mountains’ set was fairly heavy on material off of their first release, including “Cover the Roots/Lower the Stems,” “Aphelion,” and “8105.”  The latter song in particular incited excitement amongst the Moving Mountains fans in the crowd, it being what one could consider to be a signature MovMou song, yet one that the band has rarely performed.  Off of their 2008-released EP Foreword “With One’s Heart in One’s Mouth” and “Light & Shapes” were played.  The band also played a yet to be titled new song that they debuted during their Bamboozle set last month.  Its more fast-paced and “harder” qualities have led to it being compared to the previously mentioned “Lights & Shapes.”  The song certainly causes one to anticipate the release of Moving Mountains’ upcoming album, for which no official details have been released.

Interview conducted by Jenna Korus
Photograph by Kaitlin Higgins

After a show on the ‘Bout Damn Time Tour, Anarbor guitarist Mike Kitlas spoke with PreachElectric.net about the band’s upcoming release, future tour plans, and how they scored a sweet deal with Scooby Doo.

“This is our first tour where we feel like we’re on a rock tour,” admits Anarbor guitarist Mike Kitlas, leaning against a wall outside of the Ottobar, a somewhat small, yet well-patronized, venue on the outskirts of Baltimore.   “There’s some awesome bands and we’re lucky to be sharing the stage with them,” he continues, referring to the fellow bands on the ‘Bout Damn Time Tour: The Bigger Lights, The Audition, and This Providence.

It’s not difficult to see why the Phoenix, Arizona-based band is excited to finally be a part of a real “rock tour,” especially once they divulge a few details about their history and music.

Anarbor, comprised of Kitlas, vocalist/bassist Slade Echeverria, guitarist Adam Juwig, and drummer Greg Garrity, formed in 2003, when all of the members were about thirteen years old.  In its seven years of existence, the band has never seen a single lineup change (a great feat for most bands these days, it seems), which “helps with the chemistry of the band,” Kitlas explains. “We build off of each other, which is great for the writing experience, and we all know each other so well that it’s easier for all of us to get along. When you’re stuck with somebody on thirteen hour car rides and you’re not friends, it kind of sucks.”

When the band members aren’t stuck on such long, grueling trips, they’re busy making music – real music.  “We do not use any sort of tracks with our music, or any sort of sampling,” the guitarist states proudly of the band’s sound, one that he describes as being rock ‘n roll or alternative rock.  Drawing from some older, as well as recent, musical influences that range from Steve Miller to the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Taking Back Sunday, Anarbor takes on quite a rock ‘n roll attitude when it comes to their own music and the way they perform it.

“Everything you see or hear on stage is us playing it, and there’s no auto tune on our vocals. We like to come through exactly how our record sounds. We’re gonna sound like shit or play it right; there’s no in between,” Kitlas promises, adding with a laugh that they play instruments, not iPods (although he admittedly has “that Ke$ha song about brushing Jack Daniels on your teeth” on his own iPod).

Lyrically, the band backs its music with words of family, friends, and several aspects of growing up and getting out of high school. “You experience so much growing up and we’re all taking that in.  We’re traveling and spending the prime time of our lives in a different state every day,” Kitlas says. Something about the way in which he describes his current life expresses that he wouldn’t trade it for anything, and who’s to blame him?

Anarbor have quite a few impressive accomplishments under the belts, and a few more up their sleeves.  They’ve already released two EPs, including The Natural Way, for which one fan had a road sign, emblazoned with the title, created. “I thought that was really awesome,” reminisces Kitlas with an appreciative grin.   The second EP, Free Your Mind, is an “aggressive, full force, in your face” release featuring the song “Always Dirty, Never Clean,” which is Kitlas’ favorite song to play live because it exemplifies “what we really stand for as a band.” Also on Free Your Mind is “You and I,” a track that has its own exciting story.

“Warner Brothers approached us and said, ‘We really like your material and we’d really like you to do a song and a video for our Scooby Doo movie,’” tells Kitlas. The band went on to record a song that is representative of pals Shaggy and Scooby, though not necessarily from the perspective of a man and his dog. “[They didn’t] want it to be about a dog and a guy, so we were like, ‘How about a guy and a girl?’ and they said, ‘Great, we love the idea,’ so we all sat down and wrote the song together.”

As far as future plans go, the band is currently awaiting the fast-approaching release of their debut full-length album, The Words You Don’t Swallow. When asked about the record, Kitlas spoke at length about his excitement and the importance of diversity amongst the songs:

“We named it [The Words You Don’t Swallow] because we didn’t hold anything back. We really said everything we wanted and we really tried to make a first album where you don’t have to skip songs because one sounds like another. We have slow songs, we have fast songs; it’s everything we’ve always wanted to put out. It’s similar to our album Free Your Mind because it’s sort of an extension, like we had more room to grow, and more time for everything.”

Shortly after the April 20^th release of their new album, Anarbor will head to the UK and Japan on the Give It a Name and Beyond the Blue tours, respectively, which makes Mike Kitlas as nervous as it excites him. “I never thought we’d be going to either of those places,” he revealed. “We’re going there in less than a month and I’m kind of scared.”

With barely enough time in between tours for this self-proclaimed “avid dog park goer” to spend time at home with his dog Diesel, Anarbor will then head out to spend their summer on this year’s entire Warped Tour.  And what’s a guy to do for two months without his best pal?

“I like to read, it helps the lyrics a lot when writing,” Mike says of his hobbies.  “I recently read Scarred, which is about the singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I really got into that; it was a really good book. I’m a big movie guy, too.  I really like Silence of the Lambs, it’s one of my favorites movies ever.”

Beyond books, movies, and spending time with his dog, Kitlas was able to turn his favorite hobby into a career.

“Music is how we all met and got together. It’s something that has been our hobby our entire lives.”

Interview and photo by Kaitlin Higgins

]]> http://www.preachelectric.net/2010/04/14/anarbor-interview/feed/ 0 http://www.preachelectric.net/2010/03/30/brighten-be-human/ http://www.preachelectric.net/2010/03/30/brighten-be-human/#comments Wed, 31 Mar 2010 03:30:27 +0000 Kaitlin Higgins http://www.preachelectric.net/?p=998

Ever since Justin Richards joined the ranks of A Rocket To the Moon, many people seemed to hold their breath and internally (or presumably in many cases, externally) cry, “But what about Brighten!?” Never ones to disappoint, the trio of Californian golden boys – brothers Justin and Jimmy Richards, along with Alex Draper – have finally blessed us with their newest EP, Be Human.

The EP opens with the soft, breezy song “Where We Belong,” whose sound is perhaps similar to that of some of the material on A Rocket to the Moon’s album, with its acoustic twang. Lyrically, the song is drenched in admiration and a bit of smitten devotion, generally typical of the band’s style. The second song, “Without You,” continues the theme of love and affection while tying in hints of dependence and self-consciousness.  The music on this track, however, steers away from the direction of its predecessor by abandoning the acoustic feel for a more powerful, involved sound.

From there, the album volleys back to the smooth, delicate sounds of the song “While The Fire Was Out.”  The song features guest vocals from Hailee Coppage, who is currently working on her own release, and relies on mellow guitars and a focus on light percussion for an almost vintage feel.  Since the EP’s release a week ago, this song in particular has seemed to garner a rather hefty amount of positive attention. The fourth track on Be Human, “That Girl,” picks the tempo and excitement back up with its catchy chorus that hails praise to a girl who wears “a sundress in the back yard in February.”

The EP’s title track starts with a steady, swaying beat and eventually breaks into a beat that might be considered by some to have a subtle ethnic flare with its direction and use of instruments.  The last forty-five or so seconds of this particular song have the interesting capability of leaving the listener with a feeling of assurance and a promise of something better or – you guessed it – love. After that driving cadence, however, the band slips into a melancholy sort of slumber on the final song, “I Lost Her,” whose title is all telling.  Quite the opposite from the majority of the EP’s material, this track brings the mood to the level of lost love and despair.  Parallel to the lyrics, the song drifts musically and pauses at times, though all within a steady, meaningful pulse.  But out of this loss and hopelessness eventually comes a new hope of determination, subtly allowing Be Human to end on a positive note, albeit not quite as positive as its beginning.

While keeping a grasp on those same old, elusive, untouchable qualities that make Brighten who they are, Be Human manages to branch out in order to include some new flares and ideas.  So at the end of the day, whether you’re feeling energized and happy, mellow and serene, or a little bit down in the dumps, Be Human may be a good place to start if you’re looking for a musical companion.  And whether you’re spending a day sticking your feet in the warm sand or you’re stuck staring out your rain-streaked window, Brighten’s tunes are almost guaranteed to be your perfect match.

Be Human was released on March 23^rd and is available for sale in its digital form on iTunes and Amazon. Oh, and were you wondering about that great album art? Thought so. For this one, the band opted to use a picture of Justin and Jimmy’s grandfather and great grandfather to create an incredibly simple, yet extraordinarily fitting, cover.

If you’re new to the Brighten side of things, be sure to check out their previous releases, King vs. Queen and Early Love, as well as the compilation of Justin’s solo music.

Review by Kaitlin Higgins

Norah Jones is arguably one of the most popular contemporary jazz-influenced musicians, a title that she reflects with ease on her most recent album, The Fall (Blue Note, 17 November 2009).  Jacquire King, who has also worked with the likes of Kings of Leon and Modest Mouse, produced the album, which features musical collaboration with artists such as Ryan Adams.  The Fall debuted at an impressive number three on the Billboard 200 and sold 180,000 copies within a week of its release.  If you’re still wondering why, aside from these technicalities, this album may very well deserve a chance in your musical library, read on.

With an overall jazz tone, The Fall is an incredibly mellow, soulful album that opens with the first single, “Chasing Pirates,” and continues through to the second song, “Even Though,” both soft, simple tracks devoid of much vocal enthusiasm.  Both numbers, however, contain firm beats and rhythmic selections.

As the album progresses, the slightly mysterious sound of “Light as a Feather,” the song on which Ryan Adams collaborated, showcases Jones’s vocal range much better than the previous songs, and then follows “Young Blood,” a track that finally pulls away from the beginning of the album with a more upbeat, acoustic guitar-driven feel.  Further on in the album, the fifth track, “I Wouldn’t Need You” reverts to similarities of the first few tracks, while “Waiting” emits a nature of longing, such as the title suggests.  The following track, “It’s Gonna Be” takes a surprising turn from its predecessor with strength and excitement, featuring an impressive rhythm section, sharp guitars, and a much wider vocal range.

The next two tracks, “You’ve Ruined Me” and “Back to Manhattan” are both simple, piano-laced tunes packed with emotion and slight, but definite, hints of melancholy, but their successor, “Stuck,” improves the mood by adding power to the slew of songs.

The album’s last three tracks vary widely, with “December” being somewhat monotonous and unmemorable.  “Tell Yer Mama,” though, ties in an interesting rhythm that is different from the rest of the album, and even highlights some folksy twangs.  Finally, the last song, “Man of the Hour” functions incredibly well as an album closer, with a cute, quirky feel and fun lyrics.

Overall, The Fall is an album definitely worth looking into, especially if you’re looking to expand your musical library beyond those same-old sounds of pop-punk.  So sit back, perhaps grab some tea, and soak in the modern jazzy tunes from Norah Jones.

Winning tracks:  “Young Blood,” “It’s Gonna Be,” “Stuck,” and “Man Of the Hour.” Songs from The Fall can be streamed on www.norahjones.com or www.myspace.com/norahjones.

Review by Kaitlin Higgins

On September 7^th, bassist Jeremy Butler and lead vocalist/guitarist/pianist Ryan Kirkman of Between the Trees sat down for an interview at Baltimore’s Ottobar during their run on the AbsolutePunk.Net Next Favorite Band Tour.

PreachElectric: It’s only a few days into the tour, but how is it going so far?

Jeremy Butler: It’s going real good. Every place has been pretty cool; the kids have been really good and the weather’s been good. All the bands are really cool so obviously we can’t really expect anything more. Yeah, it’s been great.

Ryan Kirkman: It’s been good!

PE: How was the recording experience for Spain? Was it a lot different than or similar to recording The Story and the Song?

Jeremy: It was actually way different. We only had about six songs doing The Story and The Song. We had six songs finished and ready to go and then we went into the studio and we had to write six or seven more, or even eight more within a matter of like, three or four weeks. And we had never been forced to write like that. But for this record, we actually had you know, like, twenty to thirty songs already finished, ready to go, and we could just take our time in the studio. Recording Spain was just a lot more relaxed and chill and just kind of, whatever we got done, we got done, and if we were happy with it we’d keep it and if not we’d do it again.  It was a lot less rushed and more relaxed.

PE: What are some of the differences in sound between your albums?

Jeremy: I think [Spain] is a lot less synth-driven.  On this album, there’s actually… I think there’s five or six piano songs and the other half is just straight guitar, and on the last album there were two piano songs and mainly heavy guitars and synth, so I think it’s just a lot more mature, if you want to call it that, because obviously we’ve grown up. We wrote that when we were seventeen or eighteen and we’re twenty-one, twenty-two now so it’s definitely going to be different as we’ve toured and seen different musical styles. It’s definitely more mature, maybe a little bit more mainstream, maybe a little more appealing to a wider crowd than the last one.

PE: Where do you draw a lot of inspiration from, both musically and aside from music?

Jeremy: We always say we draw inspiration from life, and obviously everyday things. But we don’t usually tend to write about situations or things that we haven’t experienced ourselves because it’s hard to write an effective or good song that way.

Ryan: Third-party experiences.

Jeremy: Yeah, there have also been third-party experiences where we’ve talked to the person who’s been through it.

Ryan: We get close with that person.

Jeremy: Right. But as far as musical inspiration… I mean we love what’s out there now – stuff like The Fray, Copeland, All-American Rejects, stuff like that. We love those kinds of genres of music, but then we also love listening to Ryan Adams or The Beatles every once in a while, just to kind of get some old-school roots going. What else, what else? Some Buddy Holly…

Ryan: I really like… There’s a guy in Nashville named David Condos. He helped me a lot. I get a lot of inspiration from him, musically and vocally. When it came to recording the vocals for the album, it really inspired the way I sing my falsettos. We grew up on bands like Copeland…

Jeremy: Jimmy Eat World..

Ryan: Yeah, Jimmy Eat World. So falsettos, as far as Copeland goes, are really pretty, and you’re like, “Oh, it’s really great.” And it’s really cool and it’s a good falsetto but as far as sort of growing, David Condos has this voice that’s like a… I don’t know.

Jeremy: Angel?

Ryan: Jeff Buckley or, you know, something fierce [laughs]. Yeah, David Condos is who I’d put down as being an inspiration for me.

PE: How is your relationship with your fans?

Ryan: We’re like best friends.

Jeremy: Yeah, best friends. It’s pretty personal. I think we’ve always kind of prided ourselves on trying to do everything all the big bands don’t, I guess. And we’ll continue to do these as we gain a few more fans every once in a while. We try to respond to all of our MySpace messages. It doesn’t always happen because it starts to get overwhelming, but we definitely sit at the merch table until everyone’s gone and we always do that kind of stuff. I think it shows, in response, online when we ask people to promote something and it’s just an overwhelming response. I feel like we kind of give to the fans, and they give back. It’s a cool relationship.

PE: This is a really typical question, but what are some of the best and worst things about being in a band?

Jeremy: We’ll start with the best, which is pretty much…

Ryan: It’s a really cool job.

Jeremy: It’s a cool job. To get paid to play music is really sweet. You’re in a different city every night. I’ve seen a lot of the world, which is pretty cool and I’m still young and I think a lot of people can’t really say that so it’s pretty cool to have that.  I get to meet new people. All that stuff is cool and fun. And the worst parts, I mean, you’re away from home, away from family and friends. You don’t  really get to live a normal life, per se. You kind of lose friends, you leave them on the road and stop talking to people, and get back a month later and time doesn’t stop.

Ryan: It feels like it does.

Jeremy: Yeah. That kind of stuff sucks really bad. But other than that, it’s a pretty sweet job.

PE: Since you’re on tour all of the time, what are some of the best or most interesting places you’ve seen?

Jeremy: Oh, best or most interesting?

Ryan: The Gorge in Washington was awesome.

Jeremy: The Gorge in Washington. We got to see Stonehenge, or Stonehedge. I don’t know which one it is.

PE: Stonehenge? In England?

Jeremy: Hedge or hinge?

PE: Henge, like H-E-N-G-E.

Jeremy: Right, Stonehenge! Right, oh, that makes sense. I thought it was a hedge, like a hedge of bushes. But we saw that in England. I don’t know, what else is cool that we’ve seen?

Ryan: We’ve been to some historic places, other than Stonehenge, that were cool. Like, we played in the Beatles’ home venue. Our home venue is The Backbooth or The Social.

Jeremy: We didn’t play there.

Ryan: Or we didn’t get to play, we went there. We got to have a beer there, in Liverpool.

Jeremy: We see some pretty gnarly wrecks on the road, which is kind of…

Ryan: Scary.

Jeremy: Fun, but sad at the same time.

Ryan: And scary. We were driving once and there was a trailer and his back tire blew out and he went from the far left lane all the way across to the right and went into a ditch. It was pretty intense. It was like four cars in front of us.

Jeremy: It was pretty crazy.

Ryan: I don’t know, I think that’s it. I got to see snow for the first time when we went on tour. Yeah, stuff like that. It was fun.

PE: So opposite that, what are the best parts of your hometown?

Jeremy: I know where I’m at all the time, for the most part. Family’s there, I don’t know. You got anything?

Ryan: I mean, it’s home. Who wouldn’t like their home?

Jeremy: You got your own bed. I do like hotel beds, though.

Ryan: Well that’s why you bought one!

Jeremy: I did. Yeah, I kind of bought a similar bed to the hotel that we stayed at.

Ryan: Jeremy was recently married, and he had a bed that was handed down to him and it got snatched out from underneath him. So he and his wife had to go and get a new bed, so they chose to get one just like the Marriot ones we stay in on the road. And now he sleeps like a baby.

Jeremy: I do!

PE: Well, congratulations on your marriage!

Jeremy: Thank you, I appreciate it.

PE: You’re welcome. So, have you ever had any embarrassing moments on stage?

Ryan: We were at Cornerstone, or something like that, and it rained really, really bad so the stage was all wet. And I don’t know if you’ve ever seen us live, but we move around a little bit, and at one point I was at the front of the stage and started to back up and I put my feet together to stop backing up and I just kept sliding and went straight down onto my knees. That was awesome. Not so awesome…

Jeremy: One of our old guitar players… I don’t know if you’re familiar with the first record… But we were playing “Words” and there’s a part that says, “falling down,” and surprisingly enough, he flipped backwards over his amp as we were playing, “falling down.”

Ryan: He went to back up and throw his guitar up in the air and he didn’t realize how close his amp was so he just hit it with his feet and…

Jeremy: Toppled backwards.

Ryan: He just toppled over.

Jeremy: That was embarrassing. Ryan’s called cities the wrong city before, I think, once or twice. I don’t talk, so I don’t have to do stuff like that.

Ryan: It was in… Where was it?

Jeremy: Detroit?

Ryan: It was in Detroit. And I called it…

Jeremy: That’s typical, though. There’s a commercial that does that. I don’t know what you called it, but you called it something different. That’s it.

Ryan: Nothing super-embarrassing. Yet.

PE: Your band is heavily involved in the organization To Write Love On Her Arms. How did you get so involved, and how has your journey with them been?

Ryan: I met Rene probably two years prior to any kind of To Write Love thing. Rene Yohe is who To Write Love was kind of started for and after about two years of kind of feeling like I was the only person who knew about her or knew what she was talking to me about and being the person that was carrying the burden, I felt like it got to be too much. So I talked to the guys and I talked to a couple of different other people that are friends of ours. We ended up deciding that she needed to go into rehab and when we got her into rehab, they told her that she had to detox for six days, I think it was, prior to going into rehab and while she was in detox one of the people we introduced her to was Jamie Tworkowski, who ended up writing To Write Love On Her Arms based upon those four days and getting to know her. So we’ve been there from the beginning and it’s been cool to be a part of all of the lives that have really been helped through it and a lot of the different organizations that have come on board with it and just to see the growth and see people we look up to helping out and getting behind it. It’s cool. I don’t think we get as much – which we’re fine with – recognition as the Switchfoots and the Paramores where everyone’s like, “They are so awesome, because they know all about To Write Love.” I think it’s just awesome that they use themselves as a billboard for it, which is really cool, because we’re still working at becoming billboards. We’ve been there from the beginning, but it’s cool to meet those people who have a common interest, a common goal.

PE: What are your ambitions for the band?

Ryan: I want it to stay my career. It is now, but I want it to be a successful career. Have families…

Jeremy: We would love to get to the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth record, for sure. Have families, play in big places with lots of people.

Ryan: Do reunion tours in twenty years.

Jeremy: Yeah, stuff like that. I don’t want to have to go get a normal job ever, ever, ever, ever again.

Ryan: That’s an easy question. You could answer that one. “What are your goals?” I just want to stay right about here [laughs]. I wanna struggle, I wanna struggle badly.

PE: All right, do you want to do some ‘Would You Rathers…’?

Ryan: I would love to.

PE: Would you rather be 4’1” or 7’9”?

Both: 7’9”.

PE: Would you rather eat a bar of soap or drink a bottle of dishwashing liquid?

Jeremy: Drink a bottle of dishwashing liquid.

Ryan: Eat a bottle of soap. I’ll eat a bottle of soap [laughs].

Jeremy: I think it would be tough to chew, where if I opened my throat and just swallowed the dishwashing liquid…

Ryan: Just let it go! Wait, how big of a bottle is it?

Jeremy: A small bottle, right?

PE: I don’t know. Equivalent to the size of a bar of soap.

Ryan: Oh, okay. I’ll do that then. I immediately thought it was like, the humongous bottle.

Jeremy: But if you’ve ever seen Little Rascals, you get to burp bubbles.

Ryan: It’s true. You do get to burp bubbles.

PE: Would you rather have a beautiful home and an ugly car or an ugly home and a beautiful car?

Both: Beautiful home.

PE: Would you rather find true love or one million dollars?

Both: True love.

PE: Would you rather have sand in your shorts or water in your ear?

Jeremy: Water in my ear.

Ryan: Sand in my shorts. Because sand in my shorts I can definitely wash out. Water in the ear is permanent.

Jeremy: She didn’t say it was permanent.

Ryan: Is it permanent?

Jeremy: Yes. Say yes.

PE: I don’t know. Yes.

Ryan: Oh. Water in the ear. But that affects our ears, which we need for our careers, which rhymes.

Jeremy: But sand affects other things…

Ryan: But she said sand in your shorts. That doesn’t mean it’s in every little crevice! Why don’t you just take your shorts off? She didn’t say sand on your skin.

Jeremy: That’s true.

Ryan: Ha! Sand in the shorts. It can be in the pockets [laughs]!

Jeremy: You got me.

PE: Would you rather forget your sunscreen or forget your sunglasses?

Ryan: I’d rather forget my sunscreen.

Jeremy: You’d be burnt to a… Do we have umbrellas?

PE: No.

Ryan: You can always find shade.

Jeremy: Yeah, that’s true. I’m forgettin’ my sunscreen. I don’t wear it, anyway!

Ryan: Exactly!

PE: Would you rather run a mile or give a speech?

Ryan: Run a mile.

Jeremy: How many people are there?

Ryan: We’re so ridiculous. She doesn’t want these details and we’re like, “Hmm.” Yeah, we can run a mile. I wanna do both at the same time.

Jeremy: What [laughs]? Give a speech while you run a mile?

Ryan: The crowd has to follow me, that’s the only catch. You just stop doing the speech halfway through because they’re all like, [imitates people breathing heavily]. I actually had stage fright for the first year and a half, two years. I never looked at one person in the crowd.

Jeremy: We had to carry extra sets of underwear and jeans because he would just…

Ryan: [laughing] You’re such a liar!

Jeremy: We’d have to stop midway and change.

Ryan: Musical break, guys, musical break!

PE: Would you rather be an actor or a director?

Jeremy: [points to Ryan] Actor. [points to himself] Director. Done.

PE: Would you rather skip Christmas for a year or skip your birthday for a year?

Both: Birthday.

Ryan: At Christmas you get more presents.

Jeremy: My birthday is Christmas. I was born like a week before, so they usually get combined. So I get more presents on Christmas, and more expensive ones. What about you?

Ryan: I just would rather skip my birthday.

PE: Is there anything else you want to add?

Ryan: We just won the MTV2 Freshman… Sorry, MTVu. What we won was MTV2.

Jeremy: Make sure you go buy the record, please come to the tour.

Ryan: Please buy our record!

Photo and interview by Kaitlin Higgins