This Century Interview with Joel and Ryan

Photo By Laura Means. To view these rest of the photos from the show, please visit http://tinyurl.com/themainethiscentury

This band hailing from Arizona can be seen on tour with The Maine currently, and with Hey Monday and Cartel this Fall. Go and check them out and definitely buy their summer sampler. Their sound is leans towards pop-rock. Their newest single off of their new album has them leaning more towards alt/indie rock with clean vocals with a very catchy rhythmic feel. I had a chance to speak briefly with Joel(leadvocals/guitar) and Ryan(drums), about their recently recorded album...

How has the tour been going so far?

Joel: The tour has been going amazing. I would say that a good majority of the shows have been sold out, if not close. Its just kind of like hanging out with friends,cause we know all of the dudes in the Maine and we know Austin Gibbs. We are all Arizona buddies, so it is probably the easiest tour that we have been on.
So the EP you guys are promoting is the "Hopeful Romantic Sampler." Are the songs from this EP a preview of what's to come on the full-length?
Joel: Yeah, we just mad a record from April to the beginning of July, and we knew that our record wasn't going to be out in time because we had a stuff that we needed to straighten out. So we wanted to give kids something to listen to and give them a sneak preview of what was coming, I guess. So we decided to hurry up and finish "Hopeful Romantic" and throw that one on, so that they could hear at least one song from the album. Then we did a "b-side," called "Young Love" and a fan favorite "No Way Out." Just kind of give them a little taste of what's to come.
When are you shooting for the new album to come out?
Joel: We are shooting for the end of this year, but we don't have an official release date yet. I will probably be November or December.
It this your first full-length?
Joel: Yeah, this is going to be our first full-length.
How did the writing and recording process pan out for you guys?
Joel: This experience was a little bit different,and it was a lot more collaborative. With Ep's we had done before, especially our first one, a lot of the songs were written by Sean and Ryan. It wasn't usually all of us together. It wasn't a full band collaboration. With this record, almost every song were all together in the room. Sean would start with a skeleton, or Alex would have an idea and then we would all have our input and would shape the song as we would go. Then we would demo the song in our producer's house, right after we were done writing them. It was a lot more fun, laid back. Our producer, Tim Pagnotta(Sugarcult), has done the whole recording thing before and he is just a really laid back kind of guy.\
Who were some of the big influences on this album for you guys? Anyone you were specifically listening to when you were writing/recording the album?
Joel: Yeah I would say we looked to bands like the strokes, a lot of Brit-pop bands for some of piano stuff. Ryan?
Ryan: The Killers, Phoneix, just a lot of bands that are way cooler than we are.
Joel: I guess any bands we jam with influence us in some way.
What about in the past?
Joel: We went through a couple of different stages.
Ryan: Yeah, we went through an Earth, Wind and Fire stage and we had an R&B stage.
Joel: Yeah, we had a funk EP where we were listening to too much Earth, Wind and Fire and it really bled through in the music. But its cool.
Ryan: It still sounded like us, just dressed a little different.
How important do you find social networking for an artist.
Ryan: Its a nessecity these days.
Joel: Yeah, especially with how much music has gone viral now and kids are really buying records.
Ryan: Its not like kids go to a show, not knowing who the artist is and discovering bands that way. Its all online.
Joel: I guess it has its ups and its downs. I guess one of the biggest ups is, we just played in Canada and we had a good group of kids singing along with our songs. When I was growing up, I like to buy the physical record. Just getting your hands on the artwork and kind of seeing what the artist saying and what they wanted you to envision when you listened to their music. Iw would say there are more ups than downs.
Perfect day, windows down in the car, what are you listening to?
Ryan: Peter Gabriel(laughs).
Joel: I would definitely say the Strokes.
Ryan: If it was a perfect day, I would probably be listening Empire of the Sun.
Joel: Yeah the Strokes is just nice feel good music.
What about on a terrbile day, windows up?
Joel: Slipknot(Laughs). Bright eyes
Ryan: Maybe Coldplay?
Joel: John Mayer, maybe?
What is next for you guys?
Joel: After this tour, we are hanging out then going out on a fall tour.
Ryan: Also, we are going to be releasing another song from the album. We are goiung to have a bunch of videos come out.
Joel: We'll have another secret song come out, too.
Ryan: Just trying to keep everyone pleased until the new record comes out!