"Music For Everyone:" John Nolan Interview

"MUSIC FOR EVERYONE"
an interview with JOHN NOLAN
from TAKING BACK SUNDAY

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cover art was designed and donated by artist David Foarde (Instagram: @DavidFoarde)

Music has always been a space for expression and creative thought. Music for Everyone, a compilation album created by many incredible artists, is set to do just that by creating an album that counteracts the discrimination of today. All proceeds from this compilation will go to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in hopes to shed light on unconstitutional acts still going on today. John Nolan (Taking Back Sunday) has organized this wonderful compilation and is here to talk to us more about it and their summer tour!

DANIELLE: Hey John! Can you tell us a little about the compilation as a whole?

JOHN NOLAN: I had the idea to do a benefit comp for the ACLU shortly after the election. Originally I was just going to contact some friends in bands and put it together myself. As I talked to people about it more of them wanted to help out. My friend Mike, from Collective Confusion got involved, then Taking Back Sunday's manager Jillian and then Sub City records. They all helped make this into something much bigger and better than I imagined. 

D:  ACLU has such a huge impact on our society today; how is it working towards such an incredible cause?

JN: It's been really exciting to do something to contribute to what the ACLU is doing. And to be able to do it by getting people together to put out new music has been a lot of fun. 

D: A lot of artists have come together for this, how has that been? Everyone seems so involved.

JN: When you look at the list of bands on the comp it's amazing. There are so many great artists and it's really diverse musically as well. It's been unbelievable to see everyone coming together for a common cause. 

D: What can you tell us about your involvement and passion for ACLU and what they stand for?

JN: I've been following the ACLU and contributing to them for years. I really appreciated what they were doing during the Obama administration. They were fighting them on issues that a lot of people on the left wouldn't acknowledge. It was that commitment to a cause rather than a political party that drew me to them. When Trump won the election I knew their fight was going to become even more important and more difficult. 

D: How have the reactions been from fans so far?

JN: It's been really positive. I actually haven't gotten any negative feedback from anyone yet. 

D: How do you feel that the compilation as a whole is different than let’s say, voicing your opinions over social media?

JN: There's the saying that actions speak louder than words. It's kind of a cliche but it's true. Everyone involved in this compilation is taking action. That's going to have more of a positive and lasting effect than all of us just giving our opinions on social media. 

D: I think a lot of people today are scared to voice their opinions because of a lot of backlash; what advice would you have for people who want to be more involved?

JN: I'd say find a way to take action. Find organizations that work for causes you believe in and get involved. Look into what's happening in politics at a local level and go support and vote for the candidates you believe in. 

D: If you could pick one or two songs off the compilation for people to really pay attention to, what would they be and why?

JN: Man, it's really hard to single out one or two songs. There are so many great ones. If I have to pick though, I'd say Seasons Greetings From Ferguson by Dave Haus and Both Ways by Kevin Devine. There's a lot to unpack in the lyrics to both of those songs. The statements they make are really powerful and profound. 

D:  Being a band for so many years, I’m sure you have found your favorite spots to tour. What would those be and why?

JN: New York City has always been on of my favorite places to play. We started out on Long Island and some of our first big shows were in Manhattan. There are a lot of good memories for us there and it still feels like coming home. The city also just has such a unique and amazing energy to it so being out and about before and after the show is always great. 

D: You have fans from all over screaming your lyrics; is it still surreal to you to hear them all? How does that feel to see everyone singing along?

JN: It's not as surreal as it used to be but it's always amazing. To be able to experience that every night on a tour makes me feel so incredibly lucky. 

D: Finally, how can people get the compilation?! I know plenty of us will be running out to grab it!

JN: The best way to support the ACLU is to buy the comp! You can also check it out on Spotify. Thanks! 

Music for Everyone has so many different feelings and emotions towards it; everyone will be able to connect and attach to one song. One of my personal favorites while listening has definitely been “Birdless Cage” by The Republic of Wolves. Go buy it and check it out! Also, don’t forget to check out Taking Back Sunday on tour this summer!

BONUS COMMENTARY:

D: What does this compilation mean to you? 

JONO: With the division and uncertainty of our country, it's urgent that artists use our voices to bring people back together. This compilation lets us use our art and reach to raise awareness of music fans who normally wouldn't be involved in politics or charity. I hope it has a snowball effect and more and more people start getting involved to make us treat people like people again.

D: How excited are you to be apart of it?

J: I'm very excited not only to be affiliated with so many great musicians, but the cause itself. I'm a firm believer of the ACLU and they've shown several times even in the last few months that they can win against injustice and inequality. This is important and I love that Baggage gets to be involved. 

TRACKLIST: 

1. Anti-Flag - Buried The Shame (DEMO) 01:47
2. Chris Farren - Always 01:58
3. Taking Back Sunday - Just A Man 03:36
4. Potty Mouth - Twisted 02:56
5. Travis Hayes - Honest Man (Live At Nu-Tone) 03:44
6. Gift Of Gab (ft. Taking Back Sunday) - When Justice Comes 02:37
7. Kevin Devine - Both Ways (Acoustic) 02:58
8. Dave Hause - Season's Greetings From Ferguson 03:14
9. Allison Weiss - Break My Heart 02:41
10. Brett Newski - I'm Paranoid 02:43
11. Brendan Kelly And The Wandering Birds - Boardin' USA 02:10
12. Anthony Green - Spanish Moss 03:30
13. James Dewees & John Nolan - Believe In Me 03:28
14. Frank Iero - Getting Into Heaven Can Be Hell 02:04
15. Modern Chemistry - The OverThinker 03:24
16. Baggage - Half Full 04:05
17. Secret Space - Point Of Change 02:57
18. Jared Hart - Heads Or Tails 04:02
19. Cameron Boucher - sinn 02:09
20. Dead Heavens - Straight Outta Blindness 03:36
21. The Republic Of Wolves - Birdless Cage 05:32
22. Answering Machine - City Of Glass 02:38
23. Cassino - Corvette 05:14
24. Rationale - Space Angela 02:58
25. Gravel Kings - American Skies 03:50
26. Sleep On It - Memorial Day 04:32
27. Lolo - The Day After Tomorrow 05:27

BUY THE COMPILATION HERE! 

or listen on SPOTIFY

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Image courtesy of ACLU website.

Visit www.musicforeveryone.us for more information about the bands and read about their decision to support the ACLU. 

Interview by Danielle Limon

Sondre Lerche: Artist Interview

SONDRE LERCHE:
artist interview

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Image courtesy of Tell All Your Friends PR 

REPORTING BY
DANIELLE LIMON

Norwegian born artist Sondre Lerche has been quickly working his way to the top with his eight albums and indie-pop/jazz style. His music has explored completely different genres in each album and created a wave of popularity after composing the majority of the music for the film Dan in Real Life. His newest album, Pleasure, recently dropped and he’s here to talk about the album and his exciting new tour! Let’s see what he has to say...

Danielle Limon: First, let’s talk about you! Would you mind telling our readers a little bit about yourself and how you came across your love for music?
SL: Music has been my only passion since I was four. Certain chords and melodies would just give me a certain intoxicating feeling, that I quickly became obsessed with trying to recreate. 

DL: Eight studio albums later, what made Pleasure stand out from all the rest?
SL: Pleasure is quite careless, bombastic and erotic, which may separate it from most of my previous stuff, but it's still some kind of pop music.

DL: If you could pick two absolute favorites from the album, what would they be and why?
SL: Soft Feelings was the last song I wrote for the album, I really hoped that might be the opener, so I was thrilled when the recording came out so well, and it felt like the opener I had been looking for. It's the mission statement of Pleasure. I wanted the album to end on a soft pillow, with some hope of transitioning onwards from this limbo-like existence, all of which Baby Come To Me seemed to offer. That one's cool.

DL: What made you want to explore so many different genres in your music?
SL: It's no big deal, it's just like appetite - if you eat a lot of spinach, you're gonna want something different after a while. And different needs and new vocabularies develop for the music, it just happens naturally, it's not some decision really. I like a lot of stuff, and it seeps into my process after a while.

DL: How was writing music for such an amazing film like Dan In Real Life?
SL: Great experience, learnt a lot and got to work with so many talented, resourceful people. The director was a fan and brought me in, so it was really very lucky for me. 

DL: Can you give us a little hint as to what this album is all about and the story it tells?
SL: It's a record that's both carless and confused. It lives on the surface, in the moment, and can't quite transition.

DL: How is tour life been so far? Any exciting secrets you can give us?
SL: Well, the other night I almost twisted my ankle dancing with the audience during the encore. Most nights end in a communal techno party. The tour has been fun and intense - my two Norwegian musicians we denied work visas by the US government four days before the tour was set to starts, so I came very close to canceling. But my drummer Dave Heilman saved the day, and found two last minute replacements who learned the set in a day and dove into the Pleasure. 

DL: What is something you want your fans to take away after every show?
SL: Pure joy and excitement. I'd like people to walk away thinking "what was THAT". 

DL: Who would you absolutely love to tour with if given the chance?
SL: Anderson Paak 

DL: Who are some of the biggest people who have influenced your sound and writing style?
SL: Cole Porter, Fiona Apple and George Michael.

DL: You’ve toured all over; what are some of your favorite places to tour and experience your
fans?
SL: My fans bring me scented candles cause my band and I made a 38 episode instagram series about scented candles on tour recently, that's on YouTube. That's always cool. It's always great coming to the west coast. LA is fast becoming my favorite place to hang. Hoping to spend more time there in the future.

DL: Finally, what is something you would like to say to your fans before you go?!
SL: Thanks for listening and keeping an open mind. I love what we have. 

Lerche is currently on his U.S. tour, singing, and enchanting his fans with his music. Don’t miss out on a chance to see Lerche on tour and completely blow your mind! 

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Image courtesy of Tell All Your Friends PR 

REMAINING
US TOUR DATES:

05/04 Los Angeles CA - Troubadour
05/05 Anaheim CA - The Parish at House of Blues
05/06 Phoenix AZ - The Crescent Ballroom
05/10 Austin TX - Antone’s
05/11 Houston TX - White Oak Music Hall
05/12 Dallas TX - Club Dada
05/13 New Orleans LA - One Eyed Jacks

LISTEN TO SONDRE LERCHE on
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CHECK OUT HIS SOCIAL MEDIAS:

TWITTER, FACEBOOK, & INSTAGRAM! 

The Nearly Deads: ARTIST TO WATCH

THE NEARLY DEADS: single "My Evil Ways"

With an EP (Revenge of The Nearly Deads!) shortly on the way, The Nearly Deads have released a hit single titled “My Evil Ways." This power anthem sounds very much like a mix of strong frontwomen Hayley Williams (Paramore) and Jenna McDougall (Tonight Alive), with a hint of old inspirations of heavier rock. Lead, Theresa Jeane, has impeccable, powerhouse vocals that show in this song about staying true to yourself, no matter how odd or crazy your own ways me be. Members Steven Tobi (lead guitar), Kevin Koelsch (bass), Javier Garza Jr. (rhythm guitar), and Josh Perrone (drums) have used their instrumental backing to really set a premise for this song; the music fits perfectly with the lyrics. To me, what The Nearly Deads have produced shows a lot of excitement for the new EP as well as showing off a song that will be an incredible hit at all live shows. To all fans of The Nearly Deads (or as they call themselves, zombienation) I’m sure you already have this song on loop, but I know we can agree that we both infinitely look forward to hearing the rest of this new EP launching May 26th. 

Image courtesy of TheNearlyDeads.com

don't miss a beat, keep up with
THE NEARLY DEADS on

TWITTER, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, + more! 

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Image: REVENGE! of The Nearly Deads; new EP artwork. Courtesy of their Facebook page.

DONT FORGET:

REVENGE OF THE NEARLY DEADS!

OUT MAY 26TH, 2017! 

REPORTING BY
DANIELLE LIMON

Descartes a Kant: Artist Interview

DESCARTES A KANT

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Descartes a Kant, image courtesy of Secret Service PR

REPORTING BY
DANIELLE LIMON
 

Quickly making their way into the United States, Descartes a Kant continues to surprise everyone with their unique musical tones. Originally from Mexico, the band has reached thousands internationally. The band is made up of Sandrushka Petrova, Dafne Carballo, Ana Cristina Morelos, Memo Ibarra, Jorge Chávez, and Andro Muñoz, all working together to mix their love for rock n' roll and their culture into one project. Sharing a connection to the culture they were raised in, I was more than excited to hear what they had to say about the new album...

Danielle: What was the writing process like for Victims of Love Propaganda? 
Memo Ibarra (bass/synth):  It was a very personal and intense experience, and it was months of research within the subject of modern relationships and the evolution of them. It was also the first time we kind of wrote with a deadline, so that made the whole process very different from the previous recordings. Plus, this was the first time we conceived an album with the current line up, so it has some involvement from other members in the writing, unlike the previous albums.

D: How has your culture brought a big influence into not only this album, but your previous albums and works as well? 
M: Although musically it might not have influenced the sound of Descartes a Kant’s music directly, Mexican culture has definitely has influenced our band in several aspects since it’s a part of our daily lives. The fact that we have this kind of a band in a country like this is a challenge, since is totally unusual for the scene, so the struggle that we face everyday is definitely a part of what constitutes all of our art including albums and live shows. There is also a big influence from the United States culture since our front-woman Sandrushka was born and raised until age 7 in California, and most of the band grew up listening to alternative rock music from the US like Nirvana, The Pixies, Sonic Youth, Beastie Boys, Dresden Dolls, etc and punk rock bands like Dead Kennedys, Fugazi, etc.

D: Your new label, Cleopatra Records, is releasing the album outside of Mexico, how does that feel?! 
M: It feels like a great accomplishment for us, since it’s the first time one of our albums is released outside Mexico, so we are extremely happy and thrilled for it. But also, we see this as a responsibility and a challenge, we are taking it as a great opportunity to get to do more work in the US, since we feel like our band has done pretty well over there and have had great feedback in the shows we’ve done there.
 

D: What do you want the fans to take away from this album? 
M: We have always been fond of the idea of letting people take our art and vision and make it their own. Having said that, we like to think of this as a somewhat different break-up album from the ones we have heard in the past, so we basically expect weird and corky people to find it useful, haha

D: The second song off the album, “Motion Picture Dream Boy,” is already out and is so unique in sound and visuals; does this give a clue to the feel of the new album? It kind of does, it’s like the beginning of the hole theme; visually, you get an introduction of the characters and a glimpse of what’s to come in their relationship. It’s the crush part of it. And sound wise, I would be lying if I said it gave a clue, since all the songs have their own thing going, it’s very diverse genre-wise, as all of our albums have been, but maybe sonically you can start to feel the vibes of the direction we took in terms of production.

D: You have described the album as an “emotional porn album,” can you expand on that meaning? 
M: We use that phrase as a reference, meaning it’s like displaying someone taking their insides and guts out for the rest to watch.

D: How does your album artwork add to this play on a “modern love relationship”? 
M: The interior artwork is a representation of the female (and main) character’s notes and photos of her past relationship, and how she goes back and tears some stuff apart and writes some heartbreak phrases… it’s like a diary with some collage stuff. The cover art we think it’s pretty clear and strong in its message: A couple kissing with anti-gas masks that represent the current state of relationships, like not realizing the toxic part of it.

D: Was working with Steve Albini intimidating when knowing the talent he has worked with (i.e. Nirvana, Pixies, Breeders)? 
M: I think the intimidating part came the weeks or months before the recording, because we really are huge admirers of his and those particular bands, and some of us are even fans of some of his less known recordings; also, being a band used to tons of post-production detailing and hundreds of layers and tracks we were obviously worried about recording in tape for the first time, but I think the moment we met him and talked we were relieved to see he was a really nice person and he really made us feel very comfortable at all times during the process.

D: This is your third album, how was growing as a band been along all the years of hard work? 
M: To say we have learned a lot from the past two albums experiences would be an understatement, throughout these 10+ years we have lived together, literally in the same house the six of us lived together for 3 years, have gotten to know what it is to tour in places like Russia, Brazil, Spain, USA, Costa Rica, Colombia, etc.. sometimes sleeping all in the same room, sometimes in fancy hotels and sometimes in the floors of houses, so we basically could say this is like a long-term relationship with 5 other persons instead of 1. We’ve basically grown up together. 

D: How would you set this album aside from the other two? 
M: This one is more in-your-face with the lyrics, and we think it kind of has the intensity and power from the first album with some of the ambitious arrangement work of the second album. It can also be set aside from the previous ones because it deepens into a more direct and everyday subject like love. Also it has a lot of synth oriented sounds in the guitars.

D: The name you have chosen for your band, Descartes a Kant, refers to two strong philosophers. Has that influenced your band and the different sounds within your albums and in what ways? 
M: In the first album Paper Dolls it might have, since our songs at the time were style-shifting bipolar-schizophrenic pieces of less than 2 minutes, so we always made the analogy with Descartes and Kant: two completely opposite lines of thought within the same period of time, similar to our songs.

D: What made you decide on this particular name for your band? 
M: Sandrushka, the band’s founder, was looking for a band name while reading a book on modern philosophy, where the chapter “De Descartes a Kant” caught her eye. She found it a great analogy for the band’s music proposal at the time, and also thought it sounded better than the rest of the names on the list!

D: What have you noticed is different when playing a festival versus your own headlining tour? 
M: For a band like us, festivals seem odd. Don’t get me wrong, we love playing festivals cause it allows us to expose our music to a great quantity of people, but being a band that is sort of a theater play, we work so well when we can interact with the audience. Also, having a punk background, we have always loved to play the really small shows when we have the crowd in our faces. It’s a tricky thing, because doing the show that we currently want to do, and all the production it implies, it’s getting near impossible to do the small venue thing anymore. But we get around, we find ways.

D: Speaking of tour, we know you are set to play your own shows soon, how has the process been for that especially when adding in the new songs you are about to release? 
M: It’s been exhausting and fun at the same time. We take the live aspects very seriously, and we treat the stage with utmost respect, so preparing the new show has come with long days of work involving pre-production, new choreographies, scenery, visuals, lighting design plus the rehearsal of the live version of the new songs.

D: Your shows are known for bringing people completely out of their element; will this tour bring just as much if not more to the imagination for the fans? 

M: Definitely, although that question will be up to the fans, but what we can tell you is we definitely will continue with our pursuit of making a different experience for the audience each show, and we will give 110% of ourselves every time as we have always done.

D: Are there any exciting or possible surprises for the fans to look out for on tour? 
M: Lots of them, we are taking our set to other levels in terms of theatrics, even more so than with Il Visore Lunatique. You can expect a hole new universe full of the unexpected.

D: What places are you most anxious to visit? 
M: We would love to tour other places in USA besides the ones that we have done some times in the past (California, Texas and Chicago) like the East Coast, for example. Also, we are excited for touring Europe properly, since we’ve only done it sporadically.  

After speaking with Memo and researching live shows from this incredibly unique band, I highly suggest giving this fantastic band a listen and going to a show. Who knows, we may just run into each other in the crowd! Descartes a Kant has shown that they deserve to be heard all over the world and their new album, Victims of Love Propaganda, drops May 12, 2017. You can catch me being one of the firsts to listen.

DONT FORGET:
Victims of Love Propaganda
comes out May 12th, 2017

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VICTIMS OF PROPAGANDA - DESCARTES A KANT, image courtesy of Secret Service PR

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