rev
2005-01-03 09:52
2005-01-03 09:52
1) The album was a while in the making. Why the long wait?
After HPK was released we were pretty single minded about playing as many shows as possible to promote it. Unfortunately that didn't leave a whole lot of time for us to be working on writing the next record, and after a year of this, it was apparent that we had to get cracking on the new material. The other side is that we aren't the quickest writers around and we had to find some focus for the new record. It resulted in a number of songs being thrown out that weren't moving in the direction that we wanted for Necessary Evil.
2) The sound of the new album is a bit more raw than the debut, which I thought had a major label vibe all around. Why the different approach?
That's 180 degrees from what we felt when we finished this record. Horsepower Kills is really the sound of the band recorded live with minimal overdubs. None of us were happy with certain aspects of the record and the way it was recorded so we made the decision to take a much closer look at ALL the sounds on Necessary Evil and make sure that it was 100% what we wanted. All the guitar tones, drums and bass were scrutinized closely before and after tracking to make sure it was what we wanted for each song. The other difference that may have contributed to the change is that HPK was recorded on 2" tape while Necessary Evil is all digital. We also wanted to move a bit beyond the bar band thing that was so evident on HPK. With two new guys in the band and our history, we just moved on.
3) You redid "Glass Eye." What was the idea behind that?
We never felt like that song did not have a fair shake on the first record due to it's being recorded late in the drum sessions on HPK. The tempo ramps up to "unmanageable" pretty quick and we just wanted to give the song the punch that it deserved. It was probably the strongest song on HPK so it seemed like a good idea to give it another shot. That decision also fueled what eventually became the general musical direction for Necessary Evil.
4) You included a promo video on your last disc. Any chances of getting another one together for, say, net streaming?
It's all about having a budget and time. Rodney O'Byrne Thanklessly put the last video together for cheap and it was a big plus. The downside is that you can't ask for work like that for free. If anyone wants to send us a check though, we are ready to shoot it!
5) You seem to have expanded your vocal assault on this one. Something more epic in many of the songs. Was this a conscious effort?
With the new material I was able to do much more on this record. If you're signing over a three minute song with massive guitars and lighting fast tempos, there's just not much more room for anything but barking. Necessary Evil is somewhat diverse as compared to HPK. It has a few of the old HPK-like tunes such as Fame Whore, Super Glue and Mach Five Child but it also has the bigger epic tracks like All American God, One Away and Seven Ways From Sunday. Further, with the new guys, we were able to pull off a few songs that were more metal influenced like Slow Crawl, The Crusher and Glass Eye.
6) When Horsepower Kills was released, their seemed to be some flickers of grunge left in the market and I heard some smart grunge influence on the album. This one seems to have a larger, more over the top sound. Are you attempting to get away from it?
I don't think anyone ever intentionally says, "I think I'll write a grunge song now" and if they do they are probably an asshole. We've always tried to keep our influences apparent in the music and I think we shared some of them with the bands that were labeled grunge. The idea that sparked the band in the beginning and remains to this day, is to incorporate the groovier bits of 70s and 80s hard rock and add a bunch of arena rock feel, then a pinch of punk rock attitude to see what comes out the other end. The only intentional thing we did with Necessary Evil was to give each song its own treatment. The tones that worked best for each song are the tones you hear on the record. There's a lot more variety of sounds involved than there were on HPK which is basically the same sound for the entire record.
7) What would you say the differences are between Necessary Evil and the last one, if we haven't discussed it already?
Almost everything is different on this record. It would have sucked to just write HPK all over again. Other than basic characteristics like guitar driven, in-your-face rock, even some of the musicians are different. It's heavier, darker and much more put together. The songs have much more developed vocal melodies and bigger guitar parts all sitting on a tighter, thumping rhythm section. Sonically it makes HPK sound like a basement tape!
8) You guys tend to tour more than many indie bands. What kind of acts do you play with? I ask because I could see you playing with metal, alt and punk bands depending on the show!
We've always wanted to be inclusive and absolutely reject the very exclusive attitude that you get from a lot of bands or scenes. We play with rock, metal, and punk bands all the time. I don't know if we always fit in, but there's no reason not to try. Underride is a band that doesn't give a fuck what you look like as long as you want to show up and have a rock and roll party!
9) I was blown away by the professional approach you guys took on your debut. You did a much better job at packaging and what not than many major indies. Especially the video for "Glass Eye." Necessary Evil also has some fine songs. Very strong. Have you pursued any labels or are you content going your own route?
As much we like hanging out at the bar, we don't wanna live in one the rest of our lives. Would we like tour around the world in a bus playing big shows in front of huge crowds of new fans? Hell yes! If something comes along we'll certainly consider it but the music industry is so fucked up right now, I'd be surprised if a label took interest. I think I bought less than 10 rock records this year. They just don't put out what I'm buying which is part of the reason why I like what Underride is cooking up. You can't buy this shit at Wal-Mart. You need to go down the street to your dealer... Brian Coles!
10) You guys were pretty open with mp3s on your debut but I see you are more comfortable with streaming tracks now. Has your perception of mp3s changed in regard to promotion?
We still distribute MP3's on our promotional discs, but for mass consumption off the web site we are using WEED, kind of a homebrew DRM that allows a listener three plays before it asks you to purchase it. Not that we're being bitches, but I would like to encourage anyone who digs the record to purchase it, and after three listens you pretty well know if it's crap or not, right? Check out the technology at www.weedshare.com. Oh yeah, and buy our record at www.amazon.com!
11) What's in the near and distant future for Underride?
We're going to play as many rock shows as possible to support Necessary Evil. This time around we're starting much earlier on writing new material too. There's no stopping the basic game plan though, drink alcohol, play some rock, meet new people, write the best songs we know how to and promote the worldwide rock and roll party!
12) Thanks again, by the way, for being on our comp. The feedback on it has been awesome overall. I wish you guys the best!
Rock on! Your website is awesome and we were happy that you asked us to be on the compilation CD. Electric Basement rocks straight from hell!
After HPK was released we were pretty single minded about playing as many shows as possible to promote it. Unfortunately that didn't leave a whole lot of time for us to be working on writing the next record, and after a year of this, it was apparent that we had to get cracking on the new material. The other side is that we aren't the quickest writers around and we had to find some focus for the new record. It resulted in a number of songs being thrown out that weren't moving in the direction that we wanted for Necessary Evil.
2) The sound of the new album is a bit more raw than the debut, which I thought had a major label vibe all around. Why the different approach?
That's 180 degrees from what we felt when we finished this record. Horsepower Kills is really the sound of the band recorded live with minimal overdubs. None of us were happy with certain aspects of the record and the way it was recorded so we made the decision to take a much closer look at ALL the sounds on Necessary Evil and make sure that it was 100% what we wanted. All the guitar tones, drums and bass were scrutinized closely before and after tracking to make sure it was what we wanted for each song. The other difference that may have contributed to the change is that HPK was recorded on 2" tape while Necessary Evil is all digital. We also wanted to move a bit beyond the bar band thing that was so evident on HPK. With two new guys in the band and our history, we just moved on.
3) You redid "Glass Eye." What was the idea behind that?
We never felt like that song did not have a fair shake on the first record due to it's being recorded late in the drum sessions on HPK. The tempo ramps up to "unmanageable" pretty quick and we just wanted to give the song the punch that it deserved. It was probably the strongest song on HPK so it seemed like a good idea to give it another shot. That decision also fueled what eventually became the general musical direction for Necessary Evil.
4) You included a promo video on your last disc. Any chances of getting another one together for, say, net streaming?
It's all about having a budget and time. Rodney O'Byrne Thanklessly put the last video together for cheap and it was a big plus. The downside is that you can't ask for work like that for free. If anyone wants to send us a check though, we are ready to shoot it!
5) You seem to have expanded your vocal assault on this one. Something more epic in many of the songs. Was this a conscious effort?
With the new material I was able to do much more on this record. If you're signing over a three minute song with massive guitars and lighting fast tempos, there's just not much more room for anything but barking. Necessary Evil is somewhat diverse as compared to HPK. It has a few of the old HPK-like tunes such as Fame Whore, Super Glue and Mach Five Child but it also has the bigger epic tracks like All American God, One Away and Seven Ways From Sunday. Further, with the new guys, we were able to pull off a few songs that were more metal influenced like Slow Crawl, The Crusher and Glass Eye.
6) When Horsepower Kills was released, their seemed to be some flickers of grunge left in the market and I heard some smart grunge influence on the album. This one seems to have a larger, more over the top sound. Are you attempting to get away from it?
I don't think anyone ever intentionally says, "I think I'll write a grunge song now" and if they do they are probably an asshole. We've always tried to keep our influences apparent in the music and I think we shared some of them with the bands that were labeled grunge. The idea that sparked the band in the beginning and remains to this day, is to incorporate the groovier bits of 70s and 80s hard rock and add a bunch of arena rock feel, then a pinch of punk rock attitude to see what comes out the other end. The only intentional thing we did with Necessary Evil was to give each song its own treatment. The tones that worked best for each song are the tones you hear on the record. There's a lot more variety of sounds involved than there were on HPK which is basically the same sound for the entire record.
7) What would you say the differences are between Necessary Evil and the last one, if we haven't discussed it already?
Almost everything is different on this record. It would have sucked to just write HPK all over again. Other than basic characteristics like guitar driven, in-your-face rock, even some of the musicians are different. It's heavier, darker and much more put together. The songs have much more developed vocal melodies and bigger guitar parts all sitting on a tighter, thumping rhythm section. Sonically it makes HPK sound like a basement tape!
8) You guys tend to tour more than many indie bands. What kind of acts do you play with? I ask because I could see you playing with metal, alt and punk bands depending on the show!
We've always wanted to be inclusive and absolutely reject the very exclusive attitude that you get from a lot of bands or scenes. We play with rock, metal, and punk bands all the time. I don't know if we always fit in, but there's no reason not to try. Underride is a band that doesn't give a fuck what you look like as long as you want to show up and have a rock and roll party!
9) I was blown away by the professional approach you guys took on your debut. You did a much better job at packaging and what not than many major indies. Especially the video for "Glass Eye." Necessary Evil also has some fine songs. Very strong. Have you pursued any labels or are you content going your own route?
As much we like hanging out at the bar, we don't wanna live in one the rest of our lives. Would we like tour around the world in a bus playing big shows in front of huge crowds of new fans? Hell yes! If something comes along we'll certainly consider it but the music industry is so fucked up right now, I'd be surprised if a label took interest. I think I bought less than 10 rock records this year. They just don't put out what I'm buying which is part of the reason why I like what Underride is cooking up. You can't buy this shit at Wal-Mart. You need to go down the street to your dealer... Brian Coles!
10) You guys were pretty open with mp3s on your debut but I see you are more comfortable with streaming tracks now. Has your perception of mp3s changed in regard to promotion?
We still distribute MP3's on our promotional discs, but for mass consumption off the web site we are using WEED, kind of a homebrew DRM that allows a listener three plays before it asks you to purchase it. Not that we're being bitches, but I would like to encourage anyone who digs the record to purchase it, and after three listens you pretty well know if it's crap or not, right? Check out the technology at www.weedshare.com. Oh yeah, and buy our record at www.amazon.com!
11) What's in the near and distant future for Underride?
We're going to play as many rock shows as possible to support Necessary Evil. This time around we're starting much earlier on writing new material too. There's no stopping the basic game plan though, drink alcohol, play some rock, meet new people, write the best songs we know how to and promote the worldwide rock and roll party!
12) Thanks again, by the way, for being on our comp. The feedback on it has been awesome overall. I wish you guys the best!
Rock on! Your website is awesome and we were happy that you asked us to be on the compilation CD. Electric Basement rocks straight from hell!