RTS: So I know you guys are recording a new album. How is that going?
Valencia: Its good, were actually at the studio right now. Brendan and JD are in the middle of tracking guitars. Usually later in the day at night we’ll track vocals to just balance the time. It’s been pretty awesome so far. We’ve been working with Mark Tombino and Carlos De La Garza. Were really excited to do the record with Mark because he’s done some of our favorite records. Working with Carlos has been an awesome experience because he’s pushed us to be the best musicians we can.
RTS: I was wondering if you could tell me if you have an idea on when the album is coming out or have you guys thought of a title yet?
Valencia: We haven’t settled on a title yet, but were thinking early fall. We’ll be finished here in a few weeks, and by then it will be just enough time to have it ready by then.
RTS: I actually found this out a couple days ago. Your fans can go on Ustream and watch you guys record the album.
Valencia: Yea! We don’t do it everyday, but once a week or every couple weeks when were pretty excited on what’s going on. We want to give people a look inside the actual recording process. That’s always something we always wanted to see with our favorite band. It just seemed like a cool thing to let kids see how things go down.
RTS: Earlier this year, your original drummer Max left the band, how has his replacement Dan been fitting in with the band?
Valencia: He’s been great man. He’s kind of humble about this stuff. We meant Dan because he taught Max how to play drums. When we were younger like 5 or 6 years ago, when we were all in different bands, Max played drums in a band where Dan played guitar and sang. When that band dissolved, Max joined Valencia and Dan started a new band. When Max told us he was leaving, we didn’t really think about asking Dan because he was in another band. So it was kind of they toured, but Dan was sitting at home wanting to do something more. Brendan called him asking him for some advice on using the Logic Recording Interface. While he was asking him about that, Brendan said, “Max didn’t tell you he was going to leave.” Pretty much, right away Dan was like “when are we going to jam.” We kind of just started working on a bunch of songs, and its been going really well ever since.
RTS: You guys recently decided to go back I-Surrender Records. What where some of the reasons behind that?
Valencia: What was going on with Columbia is that our deal was over a period of time. And that period of time had gone up. We thought that we would be better off at a different label. We fell that we operate at best when we have the most control over everything. We were hoping to go to some place smaller again. When we had been out of the contract, we talked to Rob from I-Surrender and he was like “we would love to put out your record again.” And we’ve been back with them ever since.
RTS: Your Last record was on Columbia Records, which is a major. What was your experience being on a major label even though it was for a short period of time?
Valencia: It was good. It was interesting to have the number of people working for our band. Because the label that we were on before and the label which were on now, its just a couple of people. Columbia had a person to just deal with our website, and another person to help plan and market a tour. It was kind of weird to have that many people involve, but it was also really cool. It was defiantly an interesting experience to say the least.
RTS: I know you guys are going to Japan later this month, what are your future touring plans?
Valencia: Right now we haven’t really talked much about touring. We’ve just been focusing on finishing the record and making it the best one we could ever do. Once we get done with that and figure out when it’s going to come out, we’ll figure touring out.
RTS: You guys played a couple shows with Blink 182 this past summer. How was playing in front of such a large audience?
Valencia: It was pretty crazy. The audience thing, we’ve never played to a crowd that big. We did a show with them in Vegas, which was the first night of the tour. There were about 4,000 people at the show, which was small compared to the rest of the tour. That was a pretty big jump for us considering we were playing in front of 500 kids before that. Towards the end of that tour when a couple bands had to drop off because Blink had to reschedule some dates, we were asked to play with them again. The shows were in amphitheaters. We played the Smart punk stage at Warped Tour, and that’s in the amphitheater but it’s defiantly not the same experience. Everyone going to the Blink show is going to be in the amphitheater. So there were 15,000 people in front of us. We’ve never had an experience like that before. It was amazing and crazy at the same time. I was super nervous when we started but once we got in the grove of playing in a room that big, it felt pretty natural.
RTS: Blink 182 is one of my favorite bands. I was really stoked for you guys when I heard you guys were on a couple shows with them.
Valencia: Yea man, its crazy. When I was in 5th grade, I bought Dude Ranch. I’ve always loved that band and their one of the reasons I’ve been going along in this scene that I’m in. To be able to get to play on with them was pretty awesome.
0 Comments
You can be the first one to leave a comment.