(Damn) This Desert Air
"We vibe on instinct, versus concept" How did the band form?
We've all played together in separate bands over the years and after over a decade of sharing the stage, we were all close. We built the band from the view point of friends getting together to create music first, then think about "a plan" later. We began our jams in one of our guitarists' basement in New Brunswick, (New Jersey) and enjoyed what we started to create together, so we kept writing. At that point, the initial 5 of us were myself (Craig Cirinelli), Ti Kreck, John Kohler, James Tsaptsinos and Tim Cuccolo. Early in our writing stages and before making our initial recording plans, Tim opted out, so we brought Brandon Tsaptsinos on board, James' brother. Soon after we began recording our debut 4-song EP. Not too long after, we were met with another spot to fill as James took advantage of a career move in his personal life, and we called our good friend Shawn Reams to see if he was interested. We were fans of his writing in his previous band, and the chemistry clicked. Finally able and eager, we booked our first few shows, leading into approximately 2 years with this line-up and began the recording sessions for our 2nd release. Brandon decided to move on (he literally moved half-way across America), so we brought in another guy we've loved as a friend for years, Alf Bartone. Our last personnel change (and where the line-up completes now), was when John decided to leave for a career choice of his own and we found a kindred spirit in Mike Wolff soon after. No one likes to lose members and go through growing pains as such, yet ours happened to work out in a genuine way. We didn't need to go through isolated moments of strangers joining the band (for them or us), or extensive searches that wore us down. We've graced one another with friendships forging the foundations first.
How was the recording of "Distance Waits"?
We wrote and recorded "Distance Waits" ourselves internally, with our guitarist Shawn Reams at the board. He has a studio within a guitar shop he operates and we took weekly sessions up to his studio to track our parts, spread out over a few months. With the liberty of keeping the tracking to ourselves, there was no pressure of time. Once we felt solid about everything we laid down, we transferred the tracks down to Nashville, into the hands of Brian Virtue, who worked with our drummer previously. He's an intense producer/mixing engineer. He took a liking to us and really killed the mix in the best of ways. We asked Brian to mix our recently released track on the "Songs of Farewell and Departure: A Tribute To HUM" album [Pop Up Records], and he will be mixing our next release as well.
What was the concept behind the EP?
There really isn't a concept to "Distance Waits". It's music that feels close to home, home being us personally. Both lyrically and instrumentally, not to sound cliche (yet I suppose it will), we write from the soul without an agenda and don't really put too much thought into creating a certain sound, or batch of songs for that matter. We vibe on instinct, versus concept.
At the moment you're recording new material. How does it differ from your previous release? What can we expect from this new material?
This question... Ha-ha. How does one answer this without pulling all the cliche's out? In lieu of making grandstanding statements, I'll just relay we're very proud of it so far. This question comes at a time of drum, bass and guitar tracks being 90% complete. We're in the week of beginning vocals, so I'm up at bat. A few more weeks and we may be able to hear it more objectively, yet "objective" is always harder for the band itself. Each note played has a history to it, as if you're listening from the inside out of every note. Simply put, we feel good about these songs. We feel something new, so there's a growth and a purity within us where it matters.
Design & Interview: Rick Words: Craig Cirinelli Photos courtesy of (Damn) This Desert Air
"Distance Waits" is now available for purchase on iTunes. Visit their Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/damnthisdesertair And their record labels: http://www.popuprecords.com http://koirecords.com http://www.bastardized.net