07.03.08

It’s not for the cock, it’s for the chat

Posted in Artists, G-Town at 9:25 am by Gavin Williams

 

 As an American band what’s it like doing gigs in the UK? How do they generally compare to gigs in the USA with crowds etc?
The UK is a hard place to tour. i’m sure you’ve heard that before from many U.S bands, but it’s true. It’s expensive, bad food, hard to find accomodation, etc.. the crowds are much more tame compared to the US and parts of Europe. People rarely dance or seem to have much fun. All this makes it hard for a band to play good shows and exert all their energy, it weighs heavy on the spirits. Though we love England! We will always play there whenever we can. i just hope people loosen up in the UK, stop worring about their looks and have fun sooner rather than later. I also hope the disco beat/indie dance punk thing dies a fast and hard, horrible death. It’s plauging the u.k.

 What do you think of the current music scene, there seems to be a lot of hyped bands around who are the next big thing one minute and then completely gone or hated the next. Why do you think this is and how do you think Awesome Color fit in with all of that?
Awesome Color is not a hype or hip band. We don’t fit in anywhere. I hope to have a long career in music by working out our own niche, playing good shows and gaining one fan at a time.
it’s a shame people’s attention span is so small and it seems peoiple are told what to like, whats cool, especialy in the UK.

To me, there seems to be a lot of retro influences in the band’s sound. You’ve got quite a psychedelic, fast American rock sort of sound which while is reminiscent of the past, doesn’t rip off anyone. Would you agree and who are your main influences?
Yeah we are influenced by a lot of old music. We listen to old reggae, jazz, blues, country, rock. Also a lot of old and new experimental noise and 80’s 90’s skateboard rock.
We play what we play because it’s natural. Our songs pour out fast and are not givin much forethought. We have not set any boundries and could very easily end up sounding nothing like how we started at any givin point. Right now, I think we sound like Michigan and the reflections of our experiences growing up in such a great lake state.

How did you start as a band? How long have you been together? As a band, you seem to have carved out a particular sound pretty well, any secrets behind that as it often takes bands quite a long time before they really seem to get anywhere?
We’ve been togetehr a little over three years. We were friends from Michigan, living in New York and decided to jam, not start a band mind you, but some friends from the band Usaisamonster asked us to play a show so we came up with some songs and a name and went from there. Kinda by accident and people kept asking us to play, shows got better and better, etc.. our secret is not a secret, it’s on our sleeves, it’s honesty! It’s fun! And it can be heard and seen in our music and on our faces when we play. We are not pretentious or too cool or too fasionable or too concerned in any way and you can tell that when you see us. Sadly most bands don’t have that, they try too hard, are mixed up in the wrong ideals.

 On the recent tour you had a pretty varied bunch of support bands (when I saw you it was Nephu Huzzband, You Judas and Fight Like Apes), what do you think of these bands and did you have much/any input on who played with you on the tour?
Unfortunatly we don’t have any choice in who we play with on tour (yet!), the promoters get local support or regional. In England, it can be pretty bad or anywhere for that matter. The line up you saw was great! We hope to play with a more varied array of artists from noise experimental to soul, psych, rock, etc . . . for our own sanity.

 What’s the funniest/strangest thing that’s happened to you since forming a band?
Becoming friends with Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr and a larger family of heavy heads. It’s pretty strange to be thrown into that mix, surrounded by people you love and respect and our influenced by heavily. We have played with some amazing bands, it’s mind blowing if i was to make a list . . .it’s just incredible. But yeah, too many strange stories form the road. lot’s of friends made all over the states and Europe. Great heads and beautiful people all over taking us into their homes and lives. A world wide bro network in the making.
 What plans do you have in the next few months?
Playing a show in NYC in July and September, taking August off, then touring the states in September/October and Europe/UK in November and December. We’re recording the 3rd album somewhere in between touring and finishing the writing for that over the next couple of weeks.

 How do you work as a songwriting unit? Do you all bring ideas to the table or is it a bit more egotystical or tyrannical? Do songs develop quite a bit as time goes on or do you write something and then stick to it rather than develop it?
i write the words, melodies and guitar parts. Michael writes the bass parts and Allsion writes the drum parts. We just jam on stuff for long periods of time in our sweaty practice space and usually finish the songs at gigs and on the road. We keep it loose and i always change parts and lyrics. No rules!

To end, as a sort of desert island discs type thing, what would you describe as the most important album 5 albums to you ever?
This is hard but just off the top of my head and what i’m way into right now -
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Chronicles vol 1
Devo - New Traditonalists
Parliament - Osmium
Sly and the Family Stone - Theres a Riot Going On
Neil Young - Zuma

 Thanks a lot and good luck for the future.

Thanks man.

www.myspace.com/awesomecolor

Eyes of Light

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