ROCKWiRED MAGAZiNE SEPTEMBER 2012 – ROCKWiRED.COM PAGE 1 ROCKWiRED MAGAZiNE SEPTEMBER 2012 – ROCKWiRED.COM PAGE 2 ROCKWiRED MAGAZiNE SEPTEMBER 2012 – ROCKWiRED.COM PAGE 3 ROCKWiRED MAGAZiNE SEPTEMBER 2012 – ROCKWiRED.COM PAGE 4 ROCKWiRED MAGAZiNE VOYEUR is an amazing CD. Now that it's out there for producer named ERIC LILAVOIS with CROWN CITY people to listen to how do you feel about the finished RECORDING. He was great but that was part oft his deal work? that we were doing with a major label which was kind of I'm happiest with the recording here than I ever been slow and not wholly satisfying so we decided to record it with anything before this CD. I think we've always ourselves which was something we never had done before struggled to record and get it to what we want it to and in the beginning it was something that we were really sound like or how we intimidated by. The think we sound and possibility of failure in right now I feel like this producing our own is the closest that AT THE CONTROLS music was we've ever gotten and A.J. JACKSON OF SAiNT MOTEL intimidating. After they a lot of that comes experience with the form the fact that TALKS TO ROCKWIRED ABOUT THEiR label we were like we've begun lets just see if we can producing ourselves. BRAND CD VOYEUR do this ourselves. I feel That was definitely a CALLiNG THE SHOTS THiS TIME like that has been the big change for us but biggest change for us. in the end it was AROUND iN TERMS OF PRODUCTiON Half of the album is something that was a produced by SAINT very good thing for us. AND MAKiNG THE MUSiC THAT THEY MOTEL and half of it is HEAR iN THEiR HEADS produced by ERIC Other than the length LILAVOIS. It's kind of a what is the primary mixture difference between this one and And with the FORPLAY back in experience of at least 2009? half producing a CD, I think how confident are you This album has a lot of guys in going forward new instruments on it form this point on? and a lot of different This is definitely what music influences. we'll be doing in the FORPLAY was pretty future. Well I guess i much guitars and we can't say definitely. stopped ourselves We've had a great there and with this experience doing it. album we took things we've already begun a step further. If we recording new music wanted to have some for a new wave of stuff of our friends come and as far as over and play horns producing goes, we've then we did that. The kind of got a system guy who mixed the CD down now which works had a big tympani in his garage so we mixed t up. We for us. Its a gradual process from where we can start had the luxury of experimentation recording from our rehearsal studio and then build the o we actually got to try some things that we probably song in our recording studioand then go back and forth wouldn't have been able to try before because we were and bring things in as they come up and then bring in the at the mercy of studio time. drums at a friends studio in the valley. We just keep adding things on and experimenting with different sounds. So you guys are really going at it on your own and Another thing is that theses songs were recorded in our damn the torpedoes. apartments and our bathrooms. We like the dirtier sound It's a combination of things. It is mostly self produced. because the sound is getting bigger and the recording is Actually it's more like half and half. We worked with a getting more dirty so it balances out a little bit. SEPTEMBER 2012 – ROCKWiRED.COM PAGE 5 ROCKWiRED MAGAZiNE How do you guys go about it? And have there been any reactions to this CD that Because we are able to record and produce the songs have surprised you or that you didn't expect? ourselves, it's a little bit different now. Before we started It's just coming out now so I haven't heard anything too producing ourselves songs were written primarily on an crazy. Some of the comparisons that have been made acoustic guitar but now the songs are becoming more have been a little interesting - comparisons that I never piano based or keyboard based. Usually I come up with a would've thought of. Someone said that it was a folky kind general idea and bring it to the band and we try to flesh it of album and I don't hear anything folky about the album. out together and we end up with a song. Lyrics are an There is a pretty interesting spectrum of people who ongoing process for us. I'll be singing gibberish trying to get have been enjoying the CD which is pretty cool This is the a melody in place and some of the gibberish gets turned kind of music that we wanted to make and we enjoy it into actual words and from there we try to find a concept and it's not really a part of some super hot trend at the for the song. moment. It's all about the songwriting and making the best songs With that being said, what songs off of VOYEUR stand that we can possibly make out for you he most and why? That's kind of tough because its the newer songs that are Talk about the genesis of this band. How did it all get the freshest for me. 1997 was the last song that we started? finished right before we started mixing. BENNY GOODMAN We all started in film school at Chapman University in was also one of the last ones that we worked on and we Orange, California. I met AARON right when he started had started to add certain elements to these songs in the college and throughout college we met DAX who was mixing process. I like all of the songs on the record. I think sushi chef nearby and GREG who was going to school is kind of a nice balance. When you go through the entire nearby. We were all in different bands at that point and album from side a to side b it's a nice little journey. It's the members of our bands kept changing eventually the consistent but it's all slightly different at the same time. line up was solidified enough to where we became SAINT VOYEUR is the bar and inside the bar are all of the stories MOTEL. that you encounter and those stories are the songs but they are all happy within the context of that location. What drew you to music in the beginning? For me it was a pretty unique situation. I took piano I t may be too soon to ask this question but what's next lessons as a kid for many years and I hated it. I hated for the band musically? rehearsing and I hated doing recitals and competitions We want to take this album as far as we can and then do and I hated practicing songs. It wasn't something that I some touring as well as some videos an then more music. enjoyed doing. It was something that was forced upon We sort of have our situation figured out with that. We're me. It's something that your parents want you to learn. writing new music for the next chapter. I feel like VOYEUR One day when my piano teacher came to the house I kind is the bridge between FORPLAY and whatever is going to of hid from herand the teacher was really offended. She happen next was nice old lady - well maybe I shouldn't say nice she was actually a very stern old lady and she asked my What would you like people to come away with after mom "Does he not like playing piano?" and my mom said they've heard this album? "No, he plays everyday!" so the teacher asked what I I guess don't worry to hard about trying to classify the played and what I used to play was a bunch of nonsense sound or what genre that you feel the music is a member really The teacher realized that I enjoyed playing the of . It's music that we think is fun It's escapist music - music instrument I just didn't enjoy playing the same song over that represents where we want to be rather than where and over again. That was when I started songwriting. we are. Instead of going over the same pieces at recitals she nurtured the songs that I was writing. She would help me to come up with different patterns and different songwriting techniques. From there it was was really fun and I started playing with songs in music class. That was how it began for me and it is something that I've been doing ever since Talk about the songwriting process within this band. SEPTEMBER 2012 – ROCKWiRED.COM PAGE 6 ROCKWiRED MAGAZiNE SEPTEMBER 2012 – ROCKWiRED.COM PAGE 7 ROCKWiRED MAGAZiNE SEPTEMBER 2012 – ROCKWiRED.COM PAGE 8 ROCKWiRED MAGAZiNE CRASH STREET KIDS have a great new CD. Now that it but if they don't get it then it is pretty easy to rip us apart it's out there for people to listen to how do you feel just because of the way we look or just because of what we about the finished work? do.