Power, Corruption and Lies with Stereospread - An Interview

                                        

E através da fanpage do TBTCI no facebook, chegou até mim o Stereospread, eletrodark, tecnopop, o ponto é que ouvindo o novissimo EP The Ghost & The Grave, é inevitável não voltar 20 anos atrás, e reviver os clássicos Human League, Heaven 17, New Order e voltar a escuridão dos 80´s nos porões do Satã, Rose Bom Bom e outros, é fato que Attic ou Black and Blue ou qualquer uma do EP, seria hit de qualquer uma dessas casas.

James o cara por detrás do Stereospread e o TBTCI armaram uma daquelas entrevistas que chega com os dois pés no peito, repleta de synths e loops, srs, dance, dance dance com Stereospread.

***** Interview with Stereospread *****

Q. When Stereospread starts, tell us about the history...
J. Sara and I met online through a mutual producer we knew. started out pretty innocent but there was a real attraction there- not even sexual at first. we were both pretty close to experts on recording technologies /compositional methods/etc. Then it blossomed from there during a few skype sessions between us and our producer friend; eventually we were on more and more with just each other. then one day we admitted our feelings for each other. Then i hopped on a bus for what should have been a week and never left. lol

Sara - James and I started talking within a mutual producer friend’s comment on Facebook. We really hit it off virtually and the three of us Skyped and pretty soon, James and I were Skyping with each other all the time. Next thing we knew, we cobbled together money for James to come to NC and we’ve been together ever since. STEREOSPREAD pretty much started as soon as James and I got together. It took us a while to come up with the name of the band. We even entertained the name “Chromaelux” for a while until we realized how horrendous that was. I even designed a logo for it that we still want to sell to a paint manufacturer someday.

Clark. I'd just graduated highschool, and looking to get into a band quickly, I put an ad on craigslist. James and Sara contacted me, we met, and it really just went from there.

Q: Who are your influences?
J. halou, peter gabriel, archive, bel canto, massive attack, royksopp, air, m83, junke xl, bt, la floa maldita, sasha, portishead, etc

Sara - There are many. I was reared on Classic rock. At 12 I was wailing along to Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, Springsteen etc. I got into grunge rock in the 90’s as a teenager and definitely took some vocal pointers from Staley, Vedder, and Cornell. I got into classical, jazz and blues in high school and into college as a trumpet player and that carried over to vocals. My biggest vocal influences there are Sarah Vaughan, Eva Cassidy, and Eileen Farrell. As I came around to electronic music in the past few years, I’m revisiting the styles of classic and contemporary pop singers. James really got me into Anneli Drecker and Bollywood singers also, so I’m really all over the map. I definitely study other singers’ techniques, and I always prefer singers with great natural rhythm.

Clark. Muse, Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes, Justice, Rage Against the Machine, Queen,

Q. Made a list of 5 albuns of all time…
J. bel canto - shimmering warm and bright
deer tracks - the archer trilogy pt 2
archive - controlling crowds pt I-III
portishead - roseland nyc live
sasha - xpander


Sara - Gosh hard question.
Rumors by Fleetwood Mac
Quiet Kenny by Kenny Dorham
Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen
Lateralus by Tool
And most recently Odd Blood by Yeasayer

Clark. Muse "Black Holes and Revelations"
Justice "Cross" ,
Arctic Monkeys "Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not"
Beach Boys "Pet Sounds"
Rage Against the Machine "Rage Against The Machine"

Q. How do you fell playing alive?
J. i think we all dig playing live for different reasons. for me, i love the feel of the crowd- hearing them sing along to our songs.... something life changing about it :) the rush you get from the crowd.... inspires you to try harder and play better.

Sara - That where it’s at! We’re planning a tour in 2013, and I can’t wait to bring the songs to life! It’s definitely a rush to be out on stage.

Clark - I love playing live, It's my favorite part of being in a band. Wanting to be on stage is what got me into drumming originally.

Q. How do you describe Stereospread sounds?
J. it's hard to describe a sound that changes from song to song, album to album- personally, i'd say that it's sara's voice that unites everything and gives it solidity.

we have written all sorts of music- imagine a genre and we've probably tried it in the studio :) but to answer your question. it's a pop sentimentality that governs what we release- we try to mix a large part of ourselves into each and every song- So I guess in a roundabout way I can describe our sound as a couple in love- dealing with trials and tribulations, ups and downs- knowing some days might be sad, others might be beautiful but through the thick and thin, you get there together. never apart.

Sara - I would say we are definitely electropop. Some songs lean towards harder electro while others are definitely straight ahead dance pop. What’s different about us is how we treat vocals like an instrument, and James’ unique production style treats sound like painting - you get textures and shimmer and it all comes together to form this beautiful, colorful whole. If we ever have to change the vocals in a song, it basically means redoing the song because we resample bits and pieces and build them into the sonic structure of the song.

                                     
Q: Tell us about the process of recording ?
J. Sara or I usually start- if it's her doing it then she'll come up with chords, then we'll work around those until we've got something great- if it's me starting then i'll usually start with a beat and bass line and together we'll go from there.

while writing, we're also mixing as we go and figuring out lyrics/vocal melodies all at the same time. she masters all our material. i mix most of it :) the line of producer does get crossed here and there as we'll come to verbal blows over this or that part, etc. but through the conflict we'll reach something great.

Sara uses logic to record her vocals while I use reason 100% now. used studio one, ableton and mulab a LOT but the cpu usage in each is not that good and for what we want, we don't want to wait forever for a patch to load or for some audio thing to be figured out, etc. we need easy fast access to every technique/idea at hand- no offense to the daw manufacturers we just mentioned. the melodyne integration in studio one is second to none, for sure. we just have a lot of ideas and need to get them down Quickly. know what i mean? need to be able to mix/write/master/etc all at once if necessary without any speed hump and definitely without any daw crashing or skipping audio when you add a plugin! anyways- so yes, she'll record/comp her vocals into logic- and we'll write the music and mix in reason. this last album was almost all done in reason- a few bits here and there were done in studio one and mulab. we love to try all sorts of effects on our songs- if we ever released a demo of back to earth, for instance---- people would flip out. lol 200 tracks. 4 to 10 effects on each. pure and utter overkill!

Sara - it differs per song, but we each have our strengths. I tend to write most of the vocal melodies and lyrics, whereas James produces. We always begin with the music first and I fit the vocal melodies into it. I’m more comfortable with chords and song structures, and James is far superior with production, leads, and beats. We definitely cross over into each other’s “territory” from time to time, but that’s how it generally splits. We tend to split the vocal editing 50/50. Some songs, I’ll give James a chord progression or two, then he’ll write music based on it. Then I’ll come up with vocals and lyrics. For the bulk of a track’s construction I leave him alone, and he tends to leave me alone with the mic to record vocals. Then I usually nitpick him to death on the final mix. When he’s nearly to the point of searching for a sharp object to stab me with, I know we’re getting close to perfection. LOL

Clark - Recording, the drums at least, tends to happen really quickly. Typically we'll all sit down and James and Sara will show me a song or idea they've been working on. I"ll show them a few ideas, we'll play through the song a few times, then I'll give recording it a go. For the drums, we typically record the song in pieces, taking the best versions of each one and putting them together for the best sound.

Q. Which new bands do you recommended?
J. deer tracks. this band is seriously going places!

Sara - I definitely think Purity Ring has a unique sound. I’m looking forward to see where they take it with their next album. I love me some Chromeo too. I love how they capture a vintage vibe with the whole production. SBTRKT is a big up-and-comer also. Great stuff!

Q: Which bands you love to made a cover version?
J. honeythief by Halou - amazing band that should have been MUCH larger~!

Sara - I’d have to say “Cosmic Love” by Florence + The Machine is a song I wish I’d written.

Clark - I'd really love to do a cover of Justice's "Genesis" It's a really heavy instrumental track that I just can't stop listening too.

Q: What´s the plans for future....
J. we are doing a promotion for FANATTAC that'll be coming out soon- the album is called "the heart and the thief"- look for it! it's going to be HUGE- fanattac is on it's way to being one of the biggest newcomers on the market! a GREAT place for artists and listeners- we were completely blown away by how nice their team were. seriously, we are not a huge group yet they treated us so respectfully and listened to our thoughts and acted on them.... never had an experience like that in my life.... just amazing people..

we are also releasing a remix cd for "all my life" - we had this big remix contest and tons of people signed up - so yeah, we had this one winner and were going to release a single with it and the original only....but we decided to release the best runner-up remixes including his for the remix cd- so you should be able to find that one out soon- should be around 10 to 12 songs total :) also, our first ep "the ghost and the grave" came out on our website and will be online everywhere by january :)

we're going to be working on tracks with our good friend Venn Diagram- (he's got a new record coming out on Filter!) - also tracks with King George VIII (just signed him to our new label- heart and thief) jadugara, robert anselmi (amazing sound designer and creator of reason 101), some desperate glory (one of the runner-ups in our remix contest for "all my life"), timothy ezekiel bell (we played a show with this guy as the opener- imagine sbtrkt but a LOT catchier!), navi retlav (truely ingenious writer and one of the best refill designers out there- asides from 3rd floor sound, of course!), adam Ditroia and so many more it's almost insane!

Sara. I’m deferring to James to answer this one.

Clark - Keep playing and getting the music out there as much as we can. Hopefully we'll reach the stadiums someday.

Q: Any parting words?
Clark - Live long and prosper

J . thank you for this opportunity. we are honoured to be interviewed by the blog that celebrates itself.
Our art by the way, is done by the AMAZING Shane Gallagher - you need to check him out!
http://www.shanegallagherdesign.com/

Thank you also to Andrew Clark - the radio dj that gave us a big chance by promoting us on his radio show - http://andrewonthenet.com/ - you should all check it out but be warned, he's VERY honest which we think is one of his best traits.

our websites are-
www.facebook.com/stereospread
www.soundcloud.com/stereospread
www.heartandthief.com
www.stereospread.com

the links of those we mentioned-
King George VIII - www.heartandthief.com
jadugara - http://soundcloud.com/jadugara
robert anselmi - http://www.reason101.net/
some desperate glory - http://soundcloud.com/somedesperateglory
timothy ezekiel bell - http://www.purevolume.com/theezekielexperience
navi retlav - http://naviretlav.com/refill
3rd floor - http://www.3rdfloorsound.com/
adam ditroia - http://adamditroia.com/

Sara. We appreciate your time! We hope your readers will love the music, and we hope they’ll come over and visit us on Facebook or Twitter. I kind of think of our Facebook page as a virtual lounge where our friends and fans can hang out with us and talk music, art, or whatever else. James and I are often in the same room here at our house talking with folks on Facebook. So, come visit with us! We’d love to get to know you!
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Thanks Stereospread