-Interview- The Beauty In Her Eyes (2/19/14)

The Beauty In Her Eyes
www.facebook.com/thebeautyinhereyesmetal
From: Bloomington, IL
Sounds like: Progressive Metalcore



1.How did the band come together and form? Who thought of the name “The Beauty In Her Eyes” and is there any meaning behind it?

Justin Forrest and Mikahl Sturdivant started The Beauty in her Eyes. Trying to start a legitimate project, they looked to Craigslist to find a guitarist who is Harrison Irwin. Mikahl later asked his friend, Keenan Hollywood, to play bass for a while in the band. Mikahl knew Alex Colter through mutual friends and asked him to play drums. Later, Alex Thoman was added to play bass for The Beauty in Her Eyes. Mikahl came up with the name after brainstorming different names and it eventually stuck. He named it that for personal reasons.


2. What do you want listeners to take away from your music?

We want our listeners to feel what we felt during the writing process and what we feel when we play. We want them to feel all the emotion we've twisted into each song we play.


3. How would you describe your music to the average listener?

Our music has a dark metalcore vibe infused with the bouncy ambient sound of djent, with a heartfelt twist in every song.


4. What can people expect from your live show?

People can expect a highly emotional, energetic feel to every show we play. We pour our hearts into every song, and take great pride in our musical capabilities on and off the stage.


5. Who are three bands you'd like to tour with?

If we could set up a dream tour, it would be with: Northlane, Motionless in White, and Reflections because they are some of our influences in our writing process.


6. Any crazy show stories?

One time we played with Capture the Crown at our local venue in Bloomington, IL, and we played 3 minutes over our set, and the touring bands' manager that was playing after us came out right after our set and started throwing our gear off the stage, stepped on our guitarists glasses, and yelled at us for a bit. It was super embarrassing but it made for a great story!


7. What's your take on the current state of metalcore?

Metalcore seems to have been dying out recently, especially in our area. We would love to see metalcore make a comeback. Hopefully we can help that push a little bit in the coming years.


8. What's the current music scene like there in Illinois both locally and state wide?

The metal scene in our local area, and state wide is virtually dead. We have shady promoters, sketchy venues, and not very many supporters. We have supporters on our social media sites, but we don't see them at shows.


9. What's your take on legal/illegal music downloading?

We don't care how you listen to us, just as long as our name is getting thrown out there. We actually have our debut release on YouTube, and on facebook. All that matters is you guys hearing what we have to offer.


10. What's next for The Beauty In Her Eyes?

We are in the process of releasing our second EP. It is due early this summer. Touring, and getting to meet new people.


11. Any shoutouts?

Shout Outs to our friends, families, Brad Tuttle (Recording Engineer/Producer), our boys in Kissing Candice, Slaughter Camp, and Made From Myths, and all of our fans who have helped us out thus far. Thank you so much.

-Interview- Sinicle (2/14/14)

Sinicle
www.facebook.com/sinicle
From: Reno, NV
Sounds like: Hard Rock/Metal



1.How did the band come together and form? Who thought of the name “Sinicle” and is there any meaning behind it?

The band started in the small humble town of Reno Nevada by three teens with a passion for music and a dream bigger than themselves. After building a great following and honing performance skills playing house parties and local shows the band decided to move to Hollywood to get their music degrees and further our opportunities.

The band name is a funny thing because I (drew) specifically remember coming up with the name along side an old friend of mine. I told the other two in the band that Sinicle would be a good name for the band. They didn't agree. Then a few weeks later after a day at high school a peer asked us what our band name was and the others replied Sinicle. I was confused and thought they didn't want that name! The story some how got shaky and if you ask the other two in the band they claim to have been looking up random words in the dictionary and came across Sinicle. I don't know how this can be true because for one, being a 14 year old kid I did not know the meaning of cynical, NOR the correct way to spell it! Like the game telephone I guess!


2. What do you want listeners to take away from your music?

As an artist the goal is always to emotionally move some one. To relate, to impact, for that to be "Some one's jam." As a starving musicians we rely on that to hopefully make such an impact to support and purchase the music.


3. How would you describe your music to the average listener?

A grey area between Rock and Metal. Groove and melody are very important to us.


4. What can people expect from your live show?

Energy! I want to open up my soul and grab yours!! Our live show has always been one of our strong points and I believe that has to due with how long we've known each other and all of our live performance experience in sweaty basements to big stages.


5. Who are three bands you’d like to tour with?

Black Sabbath, duh. System of a Down


6. Any crazy show stories?

Shit used to get crazy back in the house party days. One of my personal favorites is being the last party before we left to LA and I was throwing up while playing, the crowd thought it was the best thing ever. More recently we've had Rock N Roll Jesus at our shows, drunk girls stealing the mic half naked, sound guys doing coke on mixing board, all types of fun. Oh or the time a band in Reno accused us of stealing their equipment because we stole the show. They put it up on their social media, thanks for the publicity guys!!! The more we see the less suprised we are!


7. What’s your take on the current state of hard rock?

The dinosaurs are growing old (yet still taking revenue) and the indies are starting a movement. There hasn't been a whole lot of "GREAT" music lately but there is some good music. Once these dinosaurs who we all grew up on go extinct, people will be forced to pay attention to the underground movement and the fans who stay current on music will be the "told ya so!"s With today's internet exposure, the options are unlimited.


8. What’s the current music scene like there in Nevada both locally and state wide?

Hollywood is a crazy place because every one is some one or trying to be some one. People are only going to come out to your show if it is truly worth checking out. In Reno, people come to the show for the experience. It is funny because in Hollywood there is no consumer, no fan, but opportunities in this town are invaluable. On the other hand in Reno you have a great local scene between bands, fans and promoters but no one to really conduct every one and guide them.


9. What’s your take on legal/illegal music downloading?

We grew up in the middle of the Napster blow up. Essentially we helped destroy physical sales, downloading albums and being exposed to so much music. But today, it is harder to download music illegally and people can just stream what ever they want. I think the music industry is ahead of the consumer at this point and in theory download sales are great but what they really prove is that the person who bought that sale actually believes in you, because if they didn't and just wanted the music itself, they would download it illegally. There is still value in a physical item and people like that but first they need to love your product, this is why free downloads are important especially for newer bands that people haven't heard.


10. What’s next for Sinicle?

Feeding our souls by continuing to write, record, distribute and perform for the rest of our lives. Our latest release Still in Mind is considered some of our best work yet, we hope you agree!


11. Any shoutouts?

Huge shout out to all of the Sinicle Fam .

-Interview- Bestfriends (2/12/14)

Bestfriends
www.thisisbestfriends.com
From: Chicago, IL
Sounds like: Indie Pop



1. How did you guys get together and form?

We've known each other since preschool. There's pictures of us dressed as ghost busters and ninjas together. After playing in numerous bands post-highschool, and getting into writing and producing for other artists, we decided to find our own voice and make our own music. That is the condensed as hell story of Bestfriends.


2. Last year you guys played SXSW, how was it? Any plans to do it this year?

Last years SXSW was pretty rad. We played 3 shows in 5 hours and really tested our road and patience skills. We're passing on doing it this year. Lots of great things can come from that festival but we feel our energies are going to be better spent elsewhere; so when we return in 2015 things will be ever more rewarding for us and our fans.


3. The EP has been out for a little while now, how has the response been to it thus far?

If the response was anything less than stellar we wouldn't have been able to continue on to making this new record, shooting new music videos, and launching our most coordinated effort to date as Bestfriends ;) plus we eat haters.


4. What is your favorite track to play live? Why?

Currently it's straight up all the songs from the new record. We've been pushing ourselves musically and technically with our albums and live show to make it more challenging, and thus, more rewarding.


5. The single "Just Goodbye" has a Bee Gees vibe to it. Who are some of your influences?

The biggest are the late 70's and early 80's in general. From pop to funk to disco to rock, that era had some of the best technical performers and downright amazing songwriting abilities. And of course how popular dance was as well. It was also the first emergence of electronic instruments being widely used in popular music. We listen to a ton of modern music as well, our roots as band dudes is in pop punk, but anything with a nasty bass performance or excellent hook will get us tapping our toes. Plus Robin Gibb's face.


6. You guys have a cover of the Robyn track "Hang With Me", why did you guys pick that song to cover?

Because that is one of our absolute favorite albums of the last 5 years. She's a true pop star. And we both had bowl cuts before.


7. What's been your most memorable show moment as a group?

Well this one time, we stayed up waaay past midnight.... no really though. This is always a tough question to answer because any show were people are having fun and dancing or getting into the performance, we take extremely to heart. We also kinda have a James Brown approach to our "most" or "best" anything: it's yet to come.


8. What have you been listening to lately?

The new Haim and Chvrches records. Been digging into Zapp and George Clinton lately, that nasty shit that is directly responsible for Dr Dre creating the G-Funk movement and thus unleashing Lord Illest aka Snoop Doggy Dog.


9. What's next for Bestfriends?

Well if you made it this far you kinda know! New Bestfriends New Bestfriends New Bestfriends.


10. Any shout outs?

Shouts to Mike and From the Depths. Making your top 5 of standout acts from SXSW made our top 5.


Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)