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Betterment Lion Cub The Small Cities Candy Hearts The World Is A Beautiful Place... Lifted Bells
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Betterment - Cameron Harrison What made you want to start playing music? My best friend and I were both twelve and I had both recently been getting into a whole slew of new music and we decided that we should start a band together. It took a while to actually find people who played other instruments, but we ended up playing our first show right before I started high school, so that was cool. What role does music currently play in your life? Currently, music acts as an outlet for me and a way to connect with other people. I like being able to play relatable music while being able to express myself in the way that I love most. I really want to keep playing music as long as I am able to. It makes me a lot happier. Music has the ability to be connected to events in the past. What song or album, when heard, reminds you of a significant event in your life? The Promise Ring’s Wood/Water brings back this really vivid memory of my winter break during my freshman year of high school. At my dad’s house, we would always open up all of the windows and doors and let the cool air blow throughout the house. Whenever the song “Bread and Coffee” comes on, I am instantly brought back to sitting in my room, listening to that song. What is one song you will always put on a mixtape and why? “I Want To Go To the Beach” by Algernon Cadwallader. That song just makes me really happy, so I like to throw it on in middle of really long mixes that I make for long car rides. Your hard drive crashes, your vinyl melts in a heatwave, and someone steals all your CDs and cassettes, what album do you buy back first? If it was going to be a CD, it would either have to be I Do Perceive by Owen, Nothing Feels Good by The Promise Ring, or The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths. If it happened to be a record though, it would definitely have to be More Songs by Grown Ups, because that is probably the most incredible sounding record that I own. The bass tone on it is so killer. It literally sounds like they set it up in my room and just let it go. What have you learned through your experiences playing music? Playing in bands with people just because you’re friends with them isn’t always the best idea. Just like how working or living with your friends can take a toll on your friendship, playing in a band can too.
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Lion Cub - Chad Jewett What made you want to start playing music? I’ve just always loved music. When you hear a perfect song you just want to try to do that. That’s really the only way to describe it, I think. What role does music currently play in your life? The same role it has always played really; I still get excited waiting for a record I ordered to come in the mail. There are still songs and albums that just blow me away. Music has the ability to be connected to events in the past. What song or album, when heard, reminds you of a significant event in your life? Modest Mouse, Good News For People Who Love Bad News. The spring and summer that that album came out my friends and I would just listen to it non-stop. It was warm enough to have the windows down, to listen to it on the front lawn, to have it really be part of the air. Especially those first three songs, “The World At Large,” “Float On,” and “The Ocean Breathes Salty;” we would have something new to say about them every time. It was just love at first listen. What is one song you will always put on a mixtape and why? The Temptations, “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg”. It is just an elemental pop song and the greatest vocal performance of all time. You can’t help but just feel great whenever that song comes on. It has everything a song needs in under three minutes. Your hard drive crashes, your vinyl melts in a heatwave, and someone steals all your CDs and cassettes, what album do you buy back first? This is a very tough one. I’m tempted to go with Good News by Modest Mouse again, but I think I will have to pick Lifted by Bright Eyes, not because it’s necessarily my favorite album of all time, but because it really contains everything. Those songs just cover so much ground, so many different kinds of sounds and really one of the great albums about American youth, and it’s another album that I found at just the right age to have it make such a huge impact on me. It’s really a brilliant record. What have you learned through your experiences playing music? That we can really be at our best when we’re in a basement watching a band we love and really listening to each other.
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The Small Cities - ,EIF "JORNSON What made you want to start playing music? I don’t really recall it being a conscious decision or something I put much thought into, really. I grew up surrounded by music. Singing the high harmonies to the folk songs my parents played; being entranced by watching my dad practice his cello. Music was always just ‘there’. If I had to pin down a moment when I became a ‘musician’, it was probably when I first saw the Gibson SG that my dad still had from the 70s. I knew I had to learn how to play it. That guitar was just so badass. What role does music currently play in your life? Well, it depends on context I guess. Music is a constant in my life and I doubt I’m unique in this respect. When the creative process is flowing and a new song is taking shape, music is absolute bliss. When writers block sets in, music really pisses me off. When I hear something new that blows my mind, music is discovery. When I’m depressed, music empathizes. And on and on and on... Music has the ability to be connected to events in the past. What song or album, when heard, reminds you of a significant event in your life? For some reason the first thing that comes to mind is ‘Satisfied Mind’. I can’t remember the name of the guy who wrote the song at the moment, but I do remember hearing he died on stage while performing, which is really quite unbelievable given what that song is about. Anyway, I had just arrived home from the funeral of a friend who had committed suicide. It was extremely tough, because I’d known him since he was young. I put iTunes on shuffle and Jeff Buckley’s cover of ‘Satisfied Mind’ came on. I really love the song and it had always been a comforting one for me, but in that setting it was exactly the opposite. I knew that the song did not apply here, and it was extremely jarring. The whole experience was really strange and hammered home just how powerful music is. A change in context like that can completely flip the meaning of a song on its head. What is one song you will always put on a mixtape and why? I guess I’d say Stevie Wonder “Superstition”. If that song doesn’t make you at least bob your head, you have no soul. It’s a good “music zombie” test. Your hard drive crashes, your vinyl melts in a heatwave, and someone steals all your CDs and cassettes, what album do you buy back first? That sounds awful. I’d probably rush out to buy Elliott Smith’s Either/Or. I’m assuming in this doomsday scenario it’d be raining outside, right? ‘Cause that would be perfect. What have you learned through your experiences playing music? To keep on playing music until I cannot.
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Candy Hearts- Mariel Loveland What made you want to start playing music? I’m pretty sure the first time I really fell in love with music was when I bought New Found Glory’s Sticks and Stones in 8th grade. To me, those songs were (and are) perfect, but at that time I dreamed about someone writing songs like that about me rather than making them myself (still waiting). A year or two later I discovered Bright Eyes and his music and lyrics were so beautiful but simply written; it was just him and a guitar. His music made writing seem like a more attainable goal to me. I thought that maybe if all you needed was a voice, a guitar and the knowledge of three chords to write something as beautiful as he wrote, maybe it was something I could do. So I tried it out. What role does music currently play in your life? Music is really...it’s everything! I’ve forgone a steady job and normal life (at least for right now) to focus on this and mostly, my days are spent driving myself insane over writing songs, listening to music, talking about music, planning tours or records or (when I’m at work) thinking about when I’ll be finished so I can work on making music. Music has the ability to be connected to events in the past. What song or album, when heard, reminds you of a significant event in your life? There are so many songs and albums I could talk about, and music reminding you of things is a double edged sword. Sometimes it reminds you of wonderful things and sometimes, not so great things. P.S. Eliot’s “Hail Mary” always reminds me of last summer, without fail -- riding the sweaty subways and fixing my hair in the window’s reflection. I always get that same feeling in my gut that’s hard to explain. The feeling of a new relationship I guess and that sort of nervousness that comes along with it. What is one song you will always put on a mixtape and why? I will always put “This is a Fire Door Never Leave Open” by The Weakerthans on every mix from now until eternity, because I think it’s the one song that completely captures how not lonely being lonely can feel when you share it with someone else. Honestly, I just don’t think anyone will ever write a better song than that song. It crushes me. Your hard drive crashes, your vinyl melts in a heatwave, and someone steals all your CDs and cassettes, what album do you buy back first? Left and Leaving by The Weakerthans. Hands down. Everyone should have this record. What have you learned through your experiences playing music? I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned you can tame anxiety by jumping in head first. I’ve learned that there will always be someone who I think is more talented and someone who I think is worse. I’ve also learned that showering every day is overrated and the smallest success can make people act like complete idiots, but the biggest successes can make people humble, generous and nice. Also, check engine lights are utterly useless.
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The World Is A Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid To Die - Greg Horbal What made you want to start playing music? I’m not sure how it is for everyone else, but I had always wanted to be in a band since I was a little kid. I would watch the Blues Brothers with my dad over and over again and imagine playing on stage. I really didn’t start getting engaged with music on a really personally level until I was like 13 or so when I started listening to the radio a lot. I think I started to fantasize about the idea highly during this period. I remember my friend Ryan claiming he was going to teach me how to play bass so we could start a band, but he never did. When I got to high school another friend had just given up playing bass because he had started playing the guitar. He let me borrow it and I started teaching myself. I put a LOT of time into it. It was just fun. Who would have known that this would dominate the most important parts of my life now? What role does music currently play in your life? Music is everything. I’m working a desk job, but it’s what I think about all day. Records, shows, writing, touring. I get home, and I am either at practice, or booking tours for TWIABP or a few other bands that I work with. Music has the ability to be connected to events in the past. What song or album, when heard, reminds you of a significant event in your life? The first thing that comes to mind is this song “Mountain Smashers” by a band called By Surprise. I had just gotten their LP a few days after my good friend had passed away. I had to lock myself in the library at the University of Connecticut to prepare for the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, which I had already failed once (and I would fail again). On top of this I was having some serious girl issues too. My head was a serious mess, and although I wouldn’t say that that album really pushed through all the terrible things going around, when I listen to it now it brings me back to that time in my life. What is one song you will always put on a mixtape and why? The song I would always put on a mix tape would be “Gold Star for Robot Boy” by Guided by Voices. The hooks are huge, the production is shit, and the song is wonderful. Your hard drive crashes, your vinyl melts in a heatwave, and someone steals all your CDs and cassettes, what album do you buy back first? I’ve actually lost two hard drives in the last year! It’s been the worst. I’ve had to start my digital collection from scratch twice. I don’t think I have one essential album, but the first things I usually seek out are Jawbreakers Bivouac, the I Hate Myself/Twelve Hour Turn Split, Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane over the Sea and Hostage Calm’s S/T. What have you learned through your experiences playing music? There have been so many lessons I’ve learned through playing music and in bands. I can’t even write it all down. I don’t know what kind of person I would be if I didn’t do this.
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Lifted Belles - Joel Coan, Matt Jordan, Owen Mallon and Matthew Frank What made you want to start playing music? Owen: When I was 16, my friend asked me to come with him to the Metro in Chicago to see a few bands I had never heard of before (Pelican, Red Sparrows, Russian Circles, & Breather Resist). The quiet bass line for Breather Resist’s “Loose Lipped Error” started when we walked in, and out of fucking nowhere, they kicked on a huge wall of blinding lights built in to their cabs with probably some of the most punishing guitar tones I’ve still ever heard. It was the first time I’d ever really listened to hardcore or anything for that matter that wasn’t “Cheese Burger’s In Paradise” in my dad’s car and it really floored me; I guess Jimmy Buffet is hardcore in a different way? What role does music currently play in your life? Owen: In Lifted Bells, we all play/played in a lot of different bands. Joel, played drums in the Felix Culpa and is currently working on a solo record for a project called Thereafter; Matt Jordan plays drums in Cut Teeth and guitar in Stay Ahead of the Weather with me; Doyle played, sang/riffed in Grown Ups and is working on some what-will-be-awesome solo stuff; Matt Frank played in Loose Lips Sink Ships and is working on a new band called Their / They’re / There; and I play bass in Noumenon and Stay Ahead of the Weather as well. We also have a studio in the basement of StayAhouse where Matt Jordan and I live, so there are always bands coming in and out of our place. Everything is always pretty loud. Music has the ability to be connected to events in the past. What song or album, when heard, reminds you of a significant event in your life? Joel: Any time I hear “How It Feels To Be Something On” by Sunny Day Real Estate it immediately takes me back to 1998 and the Shopko parking lot where I first heard it. That record had a huge impact on the way I heard music. Such an amazing blend of melody/atmosphere almost eerie at times, not the typical rock record I was used to hearing. It doesn’t really relate to a significant event, but more a period of time. Kind of the beginning stages of me realizing what music really meant to me and how much I wanted to be a part of it. What is one song you will always put on a mixtape and why? Matt F: Grandaddy’s “A.M. 180” because it is the greatest song of all time, or anything on Torture Garden by Naked City because I make terrible mixtapes.
Your hard drive crashes, your vinyl melts in a heatwave, and someone steals all your CDs and cassettes, what album do you buy back first? Matt F: I couldn’t narrow it down to one album… Also based on the usual irresponsible record shopping sprees I go on, I’d most likely pick up several things: Steve Reich Music For 18 Musicians Tripping Daisy Jesus Hits Like The Atom Bomb Weezer Pinkerton Ghosts and Vodka Precious Blood Shudder To Think Pony Express Record What have you learned through your experiences playing music? Matt J: The most important thing I’ve learned through music is that anything you accomplish or are awarded is a direct reflection of the amount of work you put into it; in order for that thing, whatever it may be (painting, recording, playing guitar, competitive moped racing, whatever!), to be at all meaningful or truly gratifying, your result has to be a direct reflection of that work, or else your “success” is empty and without passion, and the gratification you receive from anything you did for any other reason will never feel right. In other words, do shit because you want to, not just because everybody else is, and if you truly want something, you won’t mind working your ass off for it.