Wall of Sound continua e continuará sendo a diretriz para quem tem como icones J&MC e MBV, este é o caso dos americanos do Is It Is, ruido branco do inicio ao fim de seu debut Hollyhocks, uma ode as guitarras altas e dissonantes, vocais soterrados e aquela receita que eu e você tanto gostamos.
Para o Is It Is ela é a base de sustentação para mesclar glam clássico e jogar purpurinas em meio ao feedback das guitarras, o tom blasé cai com uma luva para as canções e as torna mais sexys e estridentes, aqui a devoção ao MBV não é o Loveless mas sim o Ins´t Anything, o que os diferencia de maciça maioria dos seguidores de Mr. Shields, logicamente que o TBTCI enaltece essa postura e não a toa o Is It Is tem tido alta rodagem na vitrola vermelha.
E o contato entre Is It Is e TBTCI era inevitável, mas dia menos dia iria acontecer, e já que aconteceu, vamos pegar a história através de James Capps o dono da barulheira sexy e estridente, e tirem as crianças da sala, a festa apenas esta começando.
The drummer (Justin Brooks) and I (James Capps) began playing together several years ago in a band. I had just moved back from Europe and they needed an extra guitarist. We liked playing together and decided to work on some of my material. I had known our bass player (Jack Hammack) for over 10 years. Us three got together over a period of a few months and worked out the record. We decided that we wanted to have an album ready to go before we played our first show. We released the album March 1 and played our first show March 2 in St. Louis, MO. I have done original music in various bands for the past 10 years. This is my first attempt as the principal songwriter.
2. Who are your influences?
I think the biggest one would be My Bloody Valentine. The idea of loud guitars with quieter vocals. We get compared to a lot of 90's bands which I think is pretty accurate. The Beatles are an influence for everything.
3. Make a list of 5 albums of all time....
As of right now in no particular order:
David Bowie- Ziggy Stardust
My Bloody Valentine- Isn't Anything
Fleetwood Mac- Rumours
The Cure- Seventeen Seconds
T-Rex- The Slider
4. How do you feel playing live?
I love everything about playing live. The anticipation and then the act and then the release and come down afterwards. It's almost like a drug. Especially when the sound is right and you are in the middle of it. Time sort of stands still. It is one of those pure moments of existence where you think of nothing. One of the only times my brain shuts off and I just do.
5. How do you describe your sound?
Dream-Rock
6. Tell us about the process of recording.
For Hollyhocks we rehearsed the album as a single piece over and over and over again. We started recording by doing the drums. I played along with Justin on a scratch track. After all the drums were done we added the bass. I remember we did the bass really late at night. I think we got done at like 5 am. Next were the guitars. We layered many different tracks of guitar together. Different guitars and different amps. For the most part all the parts were all accounted for before recording, but there are a few moments of improvisation. After that were the vocals. I took the mixes home and did all the vocals alone on my computer. This helped a lot because singing really makes you feel self-concsious. So to be comfortable and able to do it when the moment strikes I think made for a better end result. Next was mixing which took a few weeks of listening to the songs over and over again. Luckily the guy who recorded us (Josh Thomas) knows what he is doing and knew what we were going for. We couldn't have done it without him.
7. What represents the shoegazer classic era to the band?
I'm not really sure. The big thing for me is the volume of the vocals. I cannot stand to hear music where the vocals stand above everything else. From what I understand vocals are the first thing people listen to. But for me it is the last.
8. Which new bands do you recommend?
There's a really cool band out of Chicago called Panda Riot that I like a lot. We played with this band called Captions in Santa Barbara that blew me away. It's really amazing how much great music there is out there.
9. Which bands do you love to cover?
We played a few Dinosaur Jr. songs at practice but we have yet to cover anything at an actual show. I thought it would be cool to do a cover of Prince's "Little Red Corvette". We try to keep our sets pretty short so we tend to just do our songs.
10. What's the plans for the future?
We have another album written but not recorded. I assume we will do that fairly soon. Mostly try to tour and expose as many people as we can to our music. Hopefully find a label that can help do that.
11. Any parting words?
Sue is not fine. She is damaged and insane.
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Thanks James