Egypt Central Review

 On Saturday, June 25^th, I had the chance to see Egypt Central perform at the Black Sheep in Colorado Springs.  The Black Sheep is a small but well-established venue with the grunge feel of a punk rocker’s basement[b1] .  It was, unfortunately, not as full as it should have been considering the energy and sound of the artists it was hosting.  The crowd was mostly young and very enthusiastic; they were dressed in their rock concert best, black skinny jeans and pyramid stud belts.  They crowded around the front of the stage, giving the impression of a much fuller house than there truly was and several times during the course of the night, encouraged by the musicians, began loosely packed mosh pits.

            Three bands preceded Egypt Central’s performance.  All of them had similar, nu-metal sounds.  Aesthetic Delirium opened the show.  They’re a young local band and clearly have somewhat of a following.  Girls in the audience cheered loudly when drummer, Angel Perez, strolled onto the stage and stripped off his shirt before sitting down.  Aesthetic Delirium's guitarists, Nathon [b2] Otteson and Jaime Nelson, with Keith Kutach on bass[b3] , were brilliant.  They cranked out screeching guitar riffs with the ease; contorting their long, lanky bodies into the dramatic stances that make rock concerts so much fun[b4]  to watch.  The guitar performance was made all the more impressive by the fact that Otteson is missing two of the fingers on his left hand. Sydney Le, who does lead vocals, has a flexible voice that can croon melodically and growl raggedly.  Aesthetic Delirium was a fun band to watch and their sound, although clearly still developing, has a lot of potential.

            Candlelight Red, a new band of veteran musicians, followed Aesthetic Delirium.  Although none of the performances were particularly weak, I found Candlelight Red to be the least compelling band of the night.  Their music was good, it had powerful melodies and a strong, loud baseline, but thestage presence of the band members never seemed particularly in tune with each other.  Whereas Aesthetic Delirium’s guitarists and singer roved the stage, occasionally all coming to the edge to head bang in unison against the heavy beat of the drums, Candlelight Red’s musicians all stayed to their own specific part of the stage.  They jumped around a bit, particularly bassist Adam Zimmer and drummer Josh Hetrick, who played most of the set with a rather manic grin plastered on his face, but the performance somehow never felt particularly genuine[b5] .

            The night’s third act, Abused Romance, more than made up for Candlelight Red’s rather lackluster showing, despite some struggles lead singer and guitarist Meir Yaniv had with his mic and the beginning of the set.  Yaniv and second guitarist Amit Ofir played together with all the unspoken companionship that Candlelight Red lacked.  Abused Romance probably had the most melodic sound of the bands that performed.  Their guitars were a little lighter, their rhythms occasionally a little slower.,  Although with the amps cranked up and Roy Chen pounding on the drums like mad, their sound didn’t stray far from the chest rattling tone of the night[b6] .  Abused Romance’s songs seem to cover mostly, well, for lack of a better term, abused romance[b7] .  The songs they did, which were mostly from their new album, “Shine,” seem to involve tears, betrayal, and heartbreak.  It’s a theme that fits the band’s alternately hard and soft sound.

            When Egypt Central took the stage, the mosh pit that had been haphazardly starting and stopping took on new life.  Egypt Central’s sound is very listener friendly.  Its melodies are compelling without being overly catchy [b8] and the band’s lyrics have the sort of wistful rebellion that calls to mind bands like Social Distortion or Good Riddance. The title track of the band’s new album, “White Rabbit,” reads as a defiant stance against a more powerful and unjust world.  It’s a message that echoes throughout Egypt Central’s music and is further emphasized by front man John Falls’ stage presence.  Falls is a simultaneously aggressive and empathetic performer, and he has voice that ranges from tight and angry to ragged and idealistic.  Perhaps the best example of this can be seen can be seen in the contrast between two songs from the “White Rabbit.”  “Kick Ass,” which Egypt Central opened with, begins with the heavy drum line and guitar riffs almost reminiscent of a country song but quickly moved into a more heavy rock sound.  The song is a classic get on your feet and rock out anthem, with the lyrics “Stand up, get your hands up, are you ready to kick ass.”  The tone of “Kick Ass” contrasts strongly with the more world-weary, but sadly hopeful sadness of  “Dying to Leave,” which showcases Falls’ compelling voice as the song begs “It you’re dying to leave, and walk out on me, stand up and say it to my face.”

            Egypt Central combined the stage presence of rock stars with the intimacy of a small band.   There were moments when the stage seemed too big for the four person band.  Blake Allison, on the drums, set a gripping beat, but he was so far back on the stage that his performance was swallowed by the space between him and the rest of the band.  Guitarist Jeff James played the entire of the concert shirtless, leaping occasionally onto a table set at the back of the stage, but again, he sometimes seemed isolated.  The true standout was Joey Chicago, Egypt Central’s bassist.  Chicago had an incredibly charismatic stage presence and totally owned the space.  Maybe it was the pink mohawk

            Ultimately, though, Egypt Central’s performance was thrilling.  Their melodic, almost anthemic, hard rock style and their sympathetic lyrics are just plain good to listen to.  There’s nothing quite like a good rock concert.  Just the feel of it, when you can feel the vibration from the amps in your chest and see the sweat on a guitarist’s face, when the audience and the band are head banging in unison, that’s when you know it’s real rock concert.  Seriously, there’s really nothing like it and Egypt Central totally pulled it off.

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~Penelope Morgan

John Fall Interview

I got a chance to sit down with John Falls, the lead singer of Egypt Central, about an hour before they performed at the Black Sheep in Colorado Springs on June 25^th.  Falls comes off as a down to earth, well-spoken guy and he has just a slight southern accent.  Most of Egypt Central hails from Memphis Tennessee, where the band got their start.  They’ve been together nine years come this August and it’s been a long road.  In 2002 when the band first formed, they were scouted for a record deal after playing just eight shows.  However, shortly after they recorded, the recording company collapsed and Egypt Central got dropped.   After years of working their way back up, and finally signing with Fat Lady Chords, Egypt Central has released their second album, “White Rabbit”.

The Concert Scene:  Speaking of the record, I love concept albums.  How did you come up with that concept?  I think it’s just fascinating.  I love your album.

John Falls:  I’m going to break your heart, right now.  It’s not actually a concept record at all.  Everything… the songs were written first.  They’re all different events that actually happened to us.

TCS:  Really?  They seem tied together so much into this sort of overall narrative.  To me, at least.

JF:  Well, that was the awesome thing that kind of happened.  We found…we all love movies, we all love comics, we all love all that stuff.  So, we like to connect the dots.  And after white rabbit was done and it was picked to be the title track, and you know, we were starting to look at artwork and stuff like that, we decided to create this character which is Fatty Arbuckle and really tell this story of this evil character.  We’ve been through everything in this industry and just crazy stuff in life and we were like “This would be a fun way to connect the dots for the fans.  And then it just happened to work out that because we write about things that are real life, it is a story.  So that’s why if flows so well, because it’s exactly what we’ve experienced, you know from record one to record two.  It’s not like, “Hey lets write a song about…frickin’ –going to a strip club.”  Not that there’s anything wrong with that…I mean, I’m sure that- like, what we write about, really happened.  And we told the stories and they’re all different stories.  That’s what it is, is that they’re all just different chapters and it has a way to connect.  Joey’s an amazing lyricist man, and I think that’s a testament to that; the fact that people can connect the dots.  And we haven’t even put the comic out yet.  We’re just working on it now.  We’ve got some of it in the album and released some of them through like, Revolver, stuff like that. But now, it’s like; people are connecting it on their own.  This is definitely…

TCS:  It’s just such a cool idea.  So how did your sound develop?

JF:  Well Joey and Blake came from jam band style.  And they had a lot of funk and a lot of groove, and a lot of different elements than what your run of the mill rock band does.  So, when you start putting people with different influences and different likes and you know, one guy sees the band being like this and another guy sees the band being like that, most of the time they can’t coexist.  And in this scenario everybody just kind of got in there and did that.  Does their thing to and puts it all in one pot and thank God it doesn’t taste like shit, when it’s done.  Because there’s definitely a recipe for disaster when you do that.  And I would say with the new record, the sound just- I think there was a much clearer angle of who we are, what we do live, and capturing that along with the songwriting ability of the band.  You know, all in one, with Joey always writing and Blake between the first record and the second really started to become a songwriter and a producer and Jeff’s always been able to play anything on a freaking guitar- it makes me want to throw up.  And, you know, it’s just like, everyone grew naturally.  I mean, you stick to your craft.  It’s just like any other job.  I mean if you’re a mechanic and you just start changing oil everyday and you don’t do the rest of it, you’ll start to slouch.  Your knowledge will start to deplete and you won’t be as good at certain stuff as you were.  But if you stay active in every aspect of being a mechanic you’re going to be like the world’s best mechanic after a while.  And we always look at it like that.  We strive to be the best.  And we truly believe that we can make changes to music, make changes to people’s lives and bring something that actually has substance back to music.

TCS:  So with you personally, you said you started out making a career change, but how was music involved in your life before that?

JF:  Music was always an escape for me, since I was a kid.  I grew up in state’s custody like, state’s home.  I tried foster care for a while but I was like, “No-this isn’t going to work,” so I would do stupid stuff like try to burn the house down or something like that.  Don’t recommend that.  No, I didn’t actually go that far.  But I just didn’t want to be there and removed me fairly quickly and put me back into different places. Different institutions and stuff like that.  Anywhere they can put you, wilderness camps…I just bounced around a lot.  Music was just always kind of like a way to get away from what the reality of my life was as a kid.  Being an abused child and things like that.  And I just always found solace in good music.  Things that make you feel stuff.  I didn’t go, “there’s this style that I like,” I mean, I might go from a country song to an old R&B song to a metal song to singer/songwriter stuff.  It didn’t really matter, I mean, I just like really good music and I think that that’s the disconnect to with some people who are just like “It’s gotta be this way, it’s gotta be that way.  This is all I’ll listen to.”  And it’s like, “You’re such a close minded idiot you don’t realize that there’s so much music out there.”  And music is supposed to make you feel something.  It’s supposed to change the way that you feel when you hear it or it’s supposed to intensify the emotion that you experiencing to being with.  It’s part of our soul.  It’s got so many different angles and branches to it that can do different things for you.  And I think for me it helped me get through a lot as a kid and then as I got older, you know I always loved to sing, like driving in my car, you know I would just jam out and stuff.  And then, you know, I was always hearing the new stuff that was coming out because I ran clubs.  Different ones, I mean, I ran nightclubs, restaurants, strip clubs.  I was just in the bar and the food industry for a long time so I got exposed to a lot of stuff that I might not normally listen to on a day-to-day basis if you were just in control of your own ipod.  Some things I wish I wasn’t exposed to, but it really became unbelievably special to me when we started this band.  To be able to be with the guys that I’m in the band with and all be brothers and all be doing this together for such a long time…they influenced me so much.  I mean, I was like “I’m not listening to that, that’s junk.”  I was so close minded, still myself even.  That’s why I can call you an idiot for being close-minded, because I was an idiot myself.  And then I realized that, that’s part of what’s awesome about it, is that there really is no barriers.  You can do whatever you want to with music.  It’s a freedom, it’s an outlet to release any emotion that you’re having and I know that not everybody has the ability to sit down and write a song and get what’s on their chest off or sometimes they just can’t find the words to put pen to paper and get it all out and I think that’s one of the other elements of Egypt Central, is that- we’ll be your voice, we’ll say what you need to say.  We’re going to take every negative thing that we can find in our lives and we’re going to put a positive spin on it and we’re going to do that for you because you might not be able to do that for yourself.

TCS:  What do you see, exactly, your message as being?

JF:  Just that… the example that I like to use is that life’s like a people mover at the airport.  But you’re on the wrong side, so it’s always moving backwards.  So, when you’re at a dead sprint, you’re making small movement forward in life.  And that’s life.  It comes in small increments and you have to move forward.  You have to keep a positive attitude no matter what life throws at you because life throws shitty stuff at everyone.  It doesn’t do anyone any favors; you have to do it yourself.  You can’t think that the issues that you’re going through hold different weight or are at a higher magnitude than the person next to you because you never know what the person next to you is going through or what they’ve been through.  I know, being a kid, I have people come up all the time talking about my childhood to me and they’re like, “I’m so sorry about what happened to you, you know, it’s so awesome that you’re doing this” and I’m like “Don’t ever feel sorry for me, I love the life that I had.”  I feel sorry for the kid who had parents that were married and then in the middle of high school found out that Mommy’s got a boyfriend and Daddy’s got three kids over here across town.  I never had anything to loose so I mean, I’m doing pretty good considering where I cam from.  I mean, I’m not dead so that’s an instant win for me.  But that’s the attitude that you have to have, it’s that life’s gonna throw you curveballs and it’s gonna rain on your parade and there’s nothing that you can do about it except find something to learn from within that.  And you can find something positive, even if it’s just learning that that sucks.  Even if that’s all you can take away from it, it still is something that can be learned from it.  And then you just keep moving, because the second that you stand still in life, that people mover- you think that you’re just standing there taking a deep breath and a pause to collect yourself.  The problem is that the whole time that’s happening life’s sucking you backwards.  The whole time you’re moving backwards and you gotta just put your head down and keep moving forward and not let life control you.  You make your own decisions and your own choices, no matter how bad it is.  And if you can’t find a way then we definitely are the band for you.  Come to a show, hang out, wait for the show to be over, walk up to our merch table- we stay there until everybody leaves and we’ll gladly talk to you about whatever’s going on in your life.

TCS:  Cool, thank you.

JF:  Thank you.

Take it to 88

            The weather outside was warm and sticky the night of June 29^th, so I looked forward to a nice cool atmosphere for a concert at The Zodiac (http://www.facebook.com/zodiacbar). The information I had listed the concert at 8:00 pm, so I showed up just after the appointed concert beginning time.

            Unfortunately, the venue was not as pleasantly cool as I had hoped and I learned that the bands would not start their sets for another hour or hour and a half. That hour/hour and a half turned into two hours when the opening band finally began.

            I waited patiently for Take It To Eighty Eight to take the stage in the near empty venue. The Field, The Ocean kicked off their set with ferocity. The next band did not introduce themselves and were not on the bill. Even though most members of the second band seemed almost too passive and nonchalant, I couldn't stop watching their drummer. He was hard-hitting and incredibly passionate.

            After what seemed like hours, and actually was, Take It To Eight Eight stepped up on stage. In order to fully appreciate the band, one must learn about the band's roots.

            The band consists of Tedd Arcuri on guitar, Leo Okamura on guitar, Sabato Enrico on bass, Josh Mahan on vocals, and Nathan Rodriguez on drums.

            “We actually met as part of a church group,” Take It To Eighty Eight's drummer Nate said.

            During my research, I was curious where the name Take It To Eighty Eight came from.

            “We chose the name as a reference to the Back To The Future movies,” bassist Sabato said. “But where we're going, you don't need roads.”

            The band has many musical influences including Blink 182 and some of the more obscure bands coming up today. Surprisingly, no one band member writes the lyrics for their songs.

            “Everyone pitches in to write the lyrics,” Josh said. “Except Sabato. He doesn't do shit.”

            Their Colorado Springs show was Take It To Eighty Eight's first show back in Colorado after a west coast swing. Life on the road isn't nearly as glamorous, though, as one might think.

            “Everyone had a lot of fun on the tour,” Nate said. “It was hours upon hours of spending time with some good friends.”

            “The only issue was that some people want to sleep in the van and others want to listen to music while on the road,” Tedd said. “The problem is that the speakers were in the back and that's where people wanted to sleep.”

            Like any good road trip, there were some incidents along the way that the band will never forget.

            “There was a woman in Oregon outside of a Taco Bell who complained that the restaurant was poisoning her,” Sabato said. “The problem is that the only thing she was carrying with her was a Bible and a jar of urine.”

            Two years ago, Take It To Eighty Eight released their EP entitled Call More Dudes. Their new EP, entitled Renegade Ways, is now available on their Facebook page (www.facebook.com/takeitto88).       

            This brings me back to the live performance. It is an odd thing to hear at a band's concert, even jokingly, how much they devalue their music.

            “This is how much we don't care about our music,” Josh yelled at one point in the show. “You can go download it for free on our Facebook page. We're just giving it away!”

            The band did put on a good performance regardless of the small audience consisting mainly of their friends. When I was listening to their music on Facebook and Myspace, Take It To Eight Eight definitely sounded a bit more pop punk than their live show. For example, “Stable Cruising” almost sounds like it could be a single from popular band Mayday Parade.

            During their live performance, however, the band kicked it up a notch and went for a much more hardcore sound. All of the music for the show was spot-on with plenty of energy and intensity.

            The problem I had is that it was incredibly difficult to hear and understand the lyrics to the songs being performed. Since I only had about two days to enjoy Take It To Eighty Eight's songs, I was far from an expert on lyrics for their songs. For me, words to songs are almost as important as the music itself. Whether it was the low volume of the vocals or the relentless pursuit to be hardcore, I was hardly able to discern any lyrics to the songs.

            Overall, I would say that the show was a fun experience. It was a pity that the crowd was so sparse, possibly from the fact that it was am 18+ show rather than their typical all-ages shows. If some of the technical aspects of the show had been better, it would have been a great experience. And I left with some words of wisdom to live by.

            “You can measure an eye by the size of a baseball, but you can only throw a deer carcass so far,” Josh said.

~David Shaver

Theconcertscene.com

Last Savior of God

The Last Savior of God is a melodic death metal band from Colorado Springs, CO. They have only been together for a year and a half and they are already beginning to dominate the local metal scene. I sat down with the band in Sunshine Studios right before their show and talked to them about the band, their performances and their plans for the future.

Do you guys want to give us a little bit of band history?

Dylan: Well, the band started back in February of 2010, and I had just left this band Breathe the Abyss and our drummer at the time, Dominique Fresquez, had just left Mourn the Martyr, which we had actually quit, like the same night. We had a show together and we both quit, like, that same night. We had talked about getting something together, and finally we got something together and started getting members. Then we had a bit of a falling back a little while later and then we got our new members. we got Sean and we got Chad. We had D.J. for a while and he was part of our lineup of original members and we’ve been playing shows and all that kind of sh*t.

DJ: Yeah, we came out in early August, and thats when we played our first show, and really we’ve just been trying to climb the ladder and just trying to push forward.

What are your biggest inspirations?

Dylan: Um... White Chapel, Steve Vai, Children of Bodom, uh... f*ck, there’s so many of them, it’s rediculous.

DJ: I’d have to go Lamb of God, Impending Doom, and probably White Chapel. That’s one of my favorite’s too.

Sean: I’m more of a prog rock guy. My biggest influence is Dream Theater, Symphony X, and then the heavier stuff like White Chapel, Winds of Plague...

Dylan: Oh yeah, I forgot that one!

Sean: Chimaera was a big one for me.

Dylan: F*ck, you guys are making my answers look inadequate

Chad: I’m more old school, like Pantera, like f*cking, Sepultura, But I listen to f*cking all the new sh*t too, I love f*cking Winds of Plague and all that sh*t too.

Dylan: And definitely a big influence for our music was pornos. [Everyone bursts out laughing but Dylan manages to keep a straight face] And I write all of our music, so what I’ll do is I’ll jack off right before I write something.

DJ: Actually both of our guitar players do write, so Chad writes a lot of material too.

Dylan: But chad just doesn’t watch a lot of porn anymore, man, he’s old.

DJ: It’s definitely worked out that we all have our different influences and stuff, but put the four of us up on stage and give us instruments, and there really seems to be something special there. Very good chemistry.

What made you guys decide to get a dedicated vocalist?

Dylan: [Laughing] Well, we had one, but then he quit.

Yeah, I met him at a show just a couple of nights ago.

Dylan: Oh, you’re talking about that vocalist!

DJ: Well, we won’t go into much detail.

Dylan: Yeah, long story short, he and my manager are two different people, and they’re both arrogant and hot-headed as f*ck, and it just went downhill from there.

[To Dylan] So, you’re back to doing vocals then?

Dylan: Yeah, I’m back to doing vocals.

DJ: So we’ll say at least for tonight it’s the four originals, and we’ll go up there and do our thing like we have been for a year and a half.

As far as melodic death metal goes, there really aren’t that many melodeath bands in the area, so how do you guys feel the fan base is for that?

Dylan: Well, the fact is, that it is slowly coming to us. Like, other bands, like Try Redemption and Alabaster Morgue and stuff like that, they’ve been doing this for years and that’s why they can pull so many people, and you know, like high school bands, they’re still in high school, they can bring a lot of friends. But we’ve been out of high school, I mean at least I have for at least a year, and Chad’s been out of high school since we were playing with Tonka toys.

DJ: What we’re saying is that we’ve been successful so far, and we’re still climbing that ladder to where it’s not just inviting our friends, it’s that we’re meeting people and selling tickets to people that we’ve never met before and they’re coming to shows, and we’re learning their names, and we’re building a fan base that’s not with people we went to school with or we work with or anything like that, it’s building a fan base with someone we’ve never met, but they’re gonna come and support us and watch our shows.

Dylan: And it’s definitely promote, promote, promote. You always want to bring that new person, like ‘Oh, my friend told me about you guys so I might as well check you out and sh*t.’ You’ve gotta work hard to build a fan base and that’s what we do. We are one of the hardest working bands you will find around here.

DJ: True dat!

Dylan: All I do all day is play guitar, be on facebook, jack off, promote, and play guitar some more. I’m a big advocate of masturbation.

DJ: [Laughing] That’s our Dylan.

When you guys are playing shows what would you guys say your favorite kind of venue is? Bigger ones, smaller ones, this kind of thing at Sunshine, or what?

DJ: I would say that I like the bigger venues and stuff like that. For some reason, like Union Station, take that one for instance, it’s a smaller stage and it just feels like there’s more interaction with the crowd because you’re a little bit closer to them and I don’t think you can get that at a bigger stage. But really it just depends on the night and the energy in the room.

Dylan: Well, the big thing is... Well, I like playing here [Sunshine Studios] because there’s more room to crawl rather than just standing still, but I also like playing stages with bigger sounds too, like for instance, The Black Sheep, that place has a killer sound, but there’s just no place to walk or do anything. But here, I have all the room I want to, you know, like walk around, punch people in the face, you know, all that sh*t.

Sean: Like, Union Station. That always feels like it has a real good vibe to it.

DJ: Yeah, every venue has a different energy in it.

Dylan: I’ve got to say, Union Station was our favorite one.

DJ: We definitely like playing here too though. And it’s not always about the energy that’s there, it’s about the energy that you’re going to bring too.

So what are you guys doing right now as far as writing new material? Are you trying to find another dedicated vocalist for that or are you just planning on continuing to write like this or what?

Dylan: Well, right now we’re in a bit of a mixup between vocalists and stuff. We have no idea what the f*ck we’re doing with that. New stuff, we are playing Foothills Gutfest in July, so we plan on bringing all that brutal stuff because we’re going to be, like, the lightest band there.

DJ: There’s gonna be a bunch of grindcore stuff and death metal bands, where we’ve got that more melodic side. At the end of the night you can go home and go to bed telling yourself that what it all comes down to is metal, but with that more melodic side, we’re going to have to bring out more of the death metal side in our writing and stuff like that.

Chad: As far as new material, what we’ve really got to do is just start putting it out there.

Dylan: Yeah, I have like 15 songs in the works right now.

DJ: Yeah, so we’ve got a bunch of new material right now that we’ve just got to get fixed up.

What are your plans for the future? Are you going to try to get a record deal, try to tour, or what?

Dylan: My dream is to go all the way.

DJ: I think we all want to do that.

Dylan: I actually got into music by playing video games one day and I heard a Korn song in a f*cking video game and sh*t. The next day I stopped playing video games, grew out my hair, started singing, sucked at singing, and started playing guitar and sh*t and ever since then, it’s all been about this dream of me playing at Mayhem and everybody watching me instead of me having to watch some other f*ckface band. Not that they’re bad or anything but it’s just one of those things where it’s like ‘Well, they’re there and I’m here, and I wish I was there.’ So it’s more of envy. I said f*ckface but you know, I hope I can say f*ck. [laughing] Can I say f*ck?

Yeah, haha we have to censor it but it doesn’t really matter.

Dylan: Oh okay, f*ck f*ck f*ck f*ck. [Everyone laughs]

DJ: I think our biggest thing is that we’ve grown pretty well I think, especially in the Colorado Springs area and the Pueblo area, but one thing we haven’t done is expanded up to Denver, so we definitely want to go up there and take that by storm. You know, to conquer the world, you have to conquer your city first. So yeah, that’s our ultimate goal but there’s a lot of steps we’re going to have to take to get there. We will definitely take them as we can.

Dylan: We’ve conquered Pueblo, which was a kick-a** scene by the way.

Do you guys have any advice for metal bands just starting out, or just any musicians in general?

DJ: Well, I got some. In the recent scene, everyone, they’re together for a couple of months, then they break up, they die. I’ll tell you what. If you really want to be serious about it, like our manager told us, be together for at least six months, Don’t go out there until you have a solid 45 minutes of material, and I mean solid. It needs to be tight, it needs to be planned, there’s no reason to rush out there with 15 minutes of material and you just learned it last week and you’ve been together for 2 months. That’s just set to fail. That would be my advice.

Dylan: My advice, well, I’ve got a couple of things to say. First and foremost is don’t do drugs. If you’re going to be the person to do drugs, don’t let it consolidate your career, like do it a little bit on the side, be able to control it, and all that sh*t. Second, know how to play your instrument before you go out there. You don’t want to look like a jack*ss. If you’re in high school you’re definitely in the plus, but once you’re out of high school, just realize that your fan base is going to go away quick, because you’re not going to talk to all those people you were in high school with. And the scene is, how would you say it, like, critiquative. They will hear, like, two seconds of your music and will be like ‘Ah, that band sucks.’ So you’ve got to put on a really good show for people to think, like, ‘Oh, that band’s kick-a**. Like DJ said, we went out there with a 45 minute set and we were pumped so we went f*cking crazy on stage. We’re like the new Try Redemption in Colorado Springs, all we do is jump around and act stupid on stage, but people tend to enjoy it, so that’s what we do.

Sean: Just a lot of perseverance. That would be my advice. Just keep at it, go, get frustrated. I mean, there’s gonna be frustration no matter what, but you cannot let it get to you. Like it took a f*cking year and a half for us to finally, like--

DJ: [Laughing] Have a blowout! It never got physical...

Sean: But yeah, it was a pretty heated thing, but now we’re ready to just f*cking kick a** in there.

DJ: Yeah, but we’re a good band. It took us like five minutes and we’re back in there slappin’ each other in the a** saying ‘good game’ and all that.

Sean: Exactly. Just perseverance. You just can’t let things get to you and you’ve just got to keep going.

Chad: For me, good advice, you just have to know what direction, like there’s so many different genres of music, you’ve just got to know what kind of music you want to play and all that. I mean, there’s always some experimenting and mixing certain genres but usually you want to pick something and go with that. You’ve got to know what you want to play and play what you want to play pretty much.

Dylan: Another thing I’ve got to say is don’t go out there thinking somebody is going to pick you while you’re playing a show. You can’t be like that, you’ve got to work hard. That’s the biggest think right there, is work. And it is f*cking rough work.

DJ: It is. It’s tiring.

Dylan: It’s tiring, it’s stressful, and it takes up your day. You get home from work any you’re like ‘Oh, I’m just going to relax.’ No. You have to work at it then too. That’s all of the advice I can think of off the top of my head. After I masturbate I can probably think of more. [Everyone laughs]

Well that’s all of the questions I’ve got. Do you guys have any closing thoughts or messages for fans or anything?

Dylan: Steve Vai rules and Last Savior of God’s going to kick your a**, and you guys get ready for it because we’re coming out with a storm and it’s gonna shoot some lightening down at you.

DJ: What he said. We’re locked, cocked and ready to rock. We have been and we’re going to keep going. You’re going to see the name around for a long time. I’ll guarantee that.

Chad: Yeah, keep an eye out for Last Savior, man. We ain’t goin’ nowhere.

DJ: Ain’t going nowhere but up!

Dylan: Next time you guys see us, well, we’ll either be playing a local show [the rest of the band starts laughing] or, if you hang out for a while, and you’re like, ‘Well, I’m going to see these bands or whatever’ then we’ll probably be, like, Metallica status by then, you know, like, b*tching out Lars Ulrich for being a f*ckface and a d*uchebag for making downloads illegal.

DJ: [When everybody’s done laughing] our main point is that LSoG’s here to stay!

Sean: To all the fans, thanks for all the support.

Dylan: Yeah! Keep ‘em coming!

Chad: Tell all your friends how cool we are.

Dylan: [Flexing his biceps] Tell them to come see the gun show!

You can keep up-to-date on The Last Savior of God’s upcoming shows, get in touch with the band and listen to music on their Facebook page. If you ever get the opportunity, make sure you check these guys out, because this is one band that is definitely going somewhere in the near future.

-Duncan Mandeville

Theconcertscene.com

Doubtful Sound Interview

Doubtful Sound is the solo project of Michael Thigpen. He plays acoustic folk rock/pop and he kicked off his UK tour with a show at a small local venue called The Speedtrap. The place was packed with family, friends, and even some people just passing by who happened to like the music. With just his voice and his mandolin, or ‘Mandy Lynn’ as he called her, Michael captivated the entire audience with his energetic performance. At one point he even unplugged and went to sit on a table right in the middle of the audience. I was given the opportunity to interview him about his music, performances and his upcoming tour of the UK.

How did you first get into playing music?

Oh my goodness, I don’t even remember. I think I was eleven or twelve years old and my dad wanted to play guitar. He was like ‘I wanna play guitar’ so we got him one for fathers day. We got him like a $100 pawn shop one and we had this computer program, and he and I both just kind of picked it up at the same time and about six months later he quit and I just kept going with it. I still have that guitar, the nice red pawn shop guitar and I was playing that at shows for the longest time but then people were like ‘Dude, get something better’ so I did and it just kept evolving from there. I started playing in churches and things like that because that was an opportunity where I could just go play in front of people, which is really what you need to do. I played with little worship and church bands and things like that. It’s not initially what I wanted, but it was just a way to work in. I started working on electric guitar and taking guitar lessons and getting really into the metal stuff. It just kind of grew and evolved. I wanted more than anything to have a band and be able to do that. It just never happened and I was just getting so frustrated waiting, so I started writing music based more on the style that I could either do entirely by myself, and it’s a little limited to how much you can do, you can go the electronica route which I found out I wasn’t very good at, or you can go backwards, back in time and look in the folk direction, like where people come from. There’s that standard acoustic style that everyone thinks, like Ben Lee or whatever and I’m just not into that at all so I was just really looking for something I was into. When I started this, it was basically an Idea to try to find out what folk music is, because I really had no idea, and I still don’t really. I know a little bit where it comes from. But the more I look at it, I think it’s even more broad of a genre than pop or rock and roll because it had all the different stuff from all over the world. There’s a lot of history behind it too. You can always take something from somewhere and that’s the fun part about it.

So, you started on guitar, but what made you start playing on all of these other instruments?

Boredom. [laughs] I have a really short attention span, I always have, but I think that’s really helped me to do all of these different things. Kinda like ADD or whatever, my old boss when I was working at a bike shop was like ‘Dude, your mind’s not here, you’re going on all these different tangents.’ But I was just curious on how these different things work and how you approach things from different angles and things like that. I just kept playing guitar on just a normal acoustic. Eventually I got the resonator guitar, which has that steel body, just because I wanted something a little bit of a different. I was getting more and more bored and uninspired and I was just looking for a different direction to take. When you just pick up these instruments and just try and figure out how they play, you find so much more inspiration and you can have songs just come out because it’s a new and fresh approach. Really it’s like going to another country and starting over

What artists would you say have inspired you the most?

When I first got started playing music at like fourteen, it was all of the Christian rock and metal bands and things like that. P.O.D. was my favorite band all the way through middle school and high school. But when I started going more in this direction, I was really into Death Cab for Cutie and Coldplay and Explosions in the Sky at the time. I was watching an interview of Ben Gibbard where people were asking him what he listens to and he said ‘I’ve been listening to this Scottish band called Frightened Rabbit’ and I thought if this guy is listening to it, I mean it’s freakin’ Ben Gibbard, these guys must be good, so I checked them out and sure enough they completely blew my mind. My mind was completely changed at that point. They had that perfect meshing of that Scottish folk and pop sound at the same time that they were an indie rock band in every essence but they have so much Scottish background. Not quite like Flogging Molly, like you might think of that, but it’s just this really intense Scottish voice with this thick, heavy accent. It’s just a beautiful thing and from there I just discovered so many bands because of it like Bon Iver, and Mumford and Sons of course, Johnny Flame, Paleo, and it’s just been a blast. That’s part of the fun and what inspires me, just discovering new music, finding new influences. Things that you can take in that will at some point or another come out in your songs.

With all of the different elements of your music pulled from so many genres, how would you categorize your music?

I’ve been trying to figure that out for the longest time. And I’ve known that from the beginning, like I said, I’ve been trying to figure out what folk music is and things even if that doesn’t necessarily mean doing folk music myself. I mean, I describe it as folk pop just because that’s probably as broad and vague as you can get. You can play pretty much anything and it could still maybe sort of fit in there. I ask so many other bands that. Like, I saw Mimicking Birds at the Black Sheep and asked them ‘Well, what genre are you guys?’ and they were stoned out of their mind or something they were just like ‘I don’t know. Just whateverrrr...’ [laughs] It’s about writing whatever the heck you want to write, you know what I mean?

So, you mentioned that you were only taking your mandolin on your next tour for traveling purposes. How did you go about simplifying all of your songs down to the point that it was just you and your mandolin?

Well, a lot of it was just having to think about it this past semester, because I started just playing this and toying with the idea of trying to book shows in England and around January, I was just like ‘Well, what if I only brought my mandolin? That would be so much easier to carry around.’ And, you know, you’ve been to Europe and things like that, you always wish you had brought less and packed less. I was already planning around January so I just really started to strip down my sets and work on them from a total basic level. I play solo and I have for a while. I’ve played with other musicians and bands and things like that, but I’d always tend to bring more, and I’ve actually just started getting lazy, like, before I would have this big mix station, and two other guitars in addition to my resonator and my mandolin, and my big Marshall amp and everything like that and occasionally you just get lazy, like ‘I don’t want to bring all that.’ So I wanted to do something a little basic so I started doing all my sets from January until now, I do about one show a month is what I usually do, just trying to strip them down and think from a ground level, which has been very liberating actually. It’s a lot less of a hassle to get all the instruments to gigs and things like that. It was just forcing me to think what can I do, what should I do with just these very basic two instruments right here. Now it’s even more basic than that. I normally had a guitar with me too and what you heard last night was even more basic than that. It just really forced me to get to know an instrument, like a particular person, you know, like one girl instead of a bunch of different girls more shallow. Once I get back from the UK though I plan on bringing all of the other stuff back. I think it will be a little more fresh because I decided to work for a base for a while.

After hearing your song Somebody Else about wishing you were born in another country I bet you’re pretty excited about this tour you’re going on.

Oh my gosh, I’m so excited about it. This was my last semester of college, I just graduated from UCCS, which I’m glad to be done with. The entire time I was like ‘I don’t want to be doing bio-chem right now, I want to be in England!’ It was good motivation too though like ‘Dude, it’s almost over, just one more semester, study really hard, and you’re about to leave the country. It’s all gonna work out.’ That song, It was actually written from sarcasm more than anything else but it was sort of taken from the idea, I don’t know if you’re familiar with C.S. Lewis, but he was saying that ‘If I can’t find a place for myself in this world, It’s because I was meant for another world.’ And that’s basically where the idea of wanting to be born in another country came from, but it’s about wanting to get out and travel really, because I do tend to feel like that sometimes, like ‘Why couldn’t I have been born here, it’s so much cooler than us’

So, I take it you have done a lot of traveling then?

I have.

Do you think all of the diversity of the music and cultures affected your sound or the way you write music?

I’d like to think so. It’s an eye opener all in all, no matter how you look at it. My parents took my brother and I to Italy when I was eight years old and that was really the first time we did an out of country thing. It was much more expensive than the way we go about it now, but ever since then we, I don’t know, I guess we’ve just gotten really hooked on it. I definitely think I try to get in the habit of writing songs when I’m in other countries because it’s just a totally different environment, so it will have a totally different personality to it. The very first song on the set [the night before], I wrote that on a little bit of down time in Costa Rica. It just kinda came out. I try to make it happen. I would love to model a little bit after Beirut and his style because that’s exactly what he did. He moved I think to France, but he just got all of his influence and it just came to him and his music sounds so worldly but so indie at the same time. So, I’d say I like to think so. That’s what I try for. Maybe it’s just that inspiration you get from traveling, just that feel of being away from home and everything like that. It’s an experience you never want to forget, so you can at least try to write about it, you know what I mean? I definitely think it’s been a big inspiration.

Now that you’ve graduated from college, do you think that you are going to try to do a lot more of this kind of a thing?

Absolutely. I was always planning on doing this until I died, you know what I mean? I figure I will always have time for it. Now that I’m done with college and everything I’m just trying to figure out what’s gonna happen next. Right now I’m filling out thousands it feels like of applications for jobs and for grad schools and things like that. I’m planning on going on professionally but I’ve never had trouble doing music and, like, school at the same time. I’m good at multi-tasking like that so nothing got stopped. But I plan on traveling and making music both until I die so I don’t see how that’s ever going to stop or ever going to change. Probably because I’m doing it right now and if I was to get out, like some people I know keep saying ‘Yeah, I’m gonna start booking more shows. I’ll get to it.’ and they keep saying they’ll get to it but they never do it. If you’re actually doing it, it gives you that idea that you’re going to do it more, and if you don’t drop the ball you will just keep momentum going and keep doing it. Once you have a little momentum it gets easier. I plan on doing many more tours after this. I really want to do Europe next because they are a lot easier on letting touring bands in without a work visa or anything.

At your show last night, you seemed to have a lot of fun in that really small venue with a bunch of family and friends around. Do you prefer that to a larger venue?

Absolutely. I don’t have much experience playing larger shows. The largest I’ve played at was the Black Sheep, and I played a decently packed show there, but something about it just feels more fun and intimate. I feel like since they know me a little better I can get away with a little more and just try to have fun. Which I try do do even when I don’t know anyone else, but at least with them I know I can get away with it instead of just guessing. I do still try to have as much fun even if I don’t know anyone else. But a venue like that is just the perfect size. Just the kind of people they bring in, being among friends who love you and care about you. It’s an interesting time of life so it’s good to have them there. Of course, my grad party was yesterday right before that so a lot of them just went over to The Speedtrap. It was just a great time. That is my favorite kind of show right there.

Is that the type of venue you are doing in the UK?

I’ll find out when I get there. I know the names of these places and I’ve seen pictures but that’s really all I know. Mainly just a lot of bars and things like that. A lot of these bars will have music club nights, like jam nights or whatever. One night I’m a featured guest at an open mic called Take the Stage at this place called The Basement in York which is kind of like a theatre but it’s a specific open mic. But they have me as a guest at a thing like that, and some other places that just have music like seven nights a week you don’t have to worry about drawing a crowd because there’s crowds there and things like that. I think The Basement’s going to be a little bit bigger and I think some will be about the same size. I honestly have no idea and that’s also what I’m excited about. That’s half the fun right there of not knowing what to expect when you go in like ‘Oh, well that was fun.’ Even if it goes totally, totally crappy, you can still brag about it.

Well that’s about everything. Do you have any closing comments you want to make? Like messages for fans or advice from your experience for aspiring musicians?

I’ll tell you the advice I’ve been told by musicians that I keep talking to because I try to ask that at every single show. In one way or another they’re just like ‘Dude, just keep pushing and practicing.” and all of that persistence will pay off eventually. This good friend of mine, his name’s Joe Ziegler, he plays in a band called Leftmore, and it’s exactly like this, just totally acoustic. He’s basically a wandering minstrel or nomad. That’s what he does for a career which is the coolest thing ever. He will be here for like a week or two and he’ll just be like ‘Hey, man, we should catch up.’ so I’ll go to his show at The Black Sheep or whatever and ask him where he’s going and it’s just ‘Oh, I’m going on tour again.’ That’s his full time job which I think is so cool. The thing he told me though was to rock out to the max at every single show because you never know who’s going to be in the audience and I just think that’s an incredible attitude to have. You don’t even have to rock out or go crazy or whatever, just every single show you have should be the most important show of your life. And just take it completely seriously. A couple of years ago I saw this band Paper Route, and they’ve done tours with Paramore since, so they’re doing pretty well, but at the time at The Black Sheep, there were like twenty people there and a local band opened for them who were just super awkward and shy, and I didn’t enjoy it because they weren’t enjoying themselves and you usually have to do that first. Then Paper Route came out and they played this show for four-hundred people for that twenty person crowd. It was actually incredible. That’s the part I take seriously. Play a four-hundred person show at every single show and make the most out of everything that you do because, like I said, you never know who’s going to be in that crowd. And I’ve talked to guys who are just like ‘Yeah, I don’t let the size of the crowd affect me anymore.’ I know people who have played shows for, like, one person, and you just have to give that one person a really special show, and that’s important to me. Just take it seriously like that and make the most of everything. Try not to get discouraged because people do. My bandmates did at the time. It was just a little too much for them. But this stuff pays off, and it’s all about living life, having fun, and making other people have fun.

Doubtful Sound will be writing new material and playing many more shows after the UK tour. Be sure to check out Doubtful Sound’s website at doubtfulsoundtunes.com. You can find tour dates, music, and even follow Michael’s tour in the UK on the ‘Tour Adventure’ page which he will be updating regularly.

~Duncan Mandeville
The Eneny

Theconcertscene.com

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