Sacramento post-hardcore band A Lot Like Birds are set to tour in Europe this February, and although the guys are beyond stoked for their first trip overseas, their routing schedule looks brutal. They’ve got 23 shows scheduled in as many days! They’re hitting the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Hungary, Ukraine and more.
“We have never done anything like it!” said Michael Franzino, the bands composer/guitarist.
“I feel for my vocalists and dread my ‘bang overs,’” he said, referring of course to the way one’s neck and body feel the morning after a gig full of head bangin’ and stage divin’.
It could be worse, though, they’ve hired a driver and the trips between shows will be relatively short. On top of that, they’re traveling in a Sprinter that has bunks, although co-vocalist Cory Lockwood doesn’t think they’ll need them much.
“It’s a little depressing that we won’t have any vacation time to scout around a new continent,” Lockwood said, “But we just don’t plan on sleeping much.”
He continued with, “Besides the obvious excitement of any trip overseas, I think we’re all really excited to explore a fan base that we’ve watched grow over time but have never really been able to experience firsthand. I want to see if they move more, how large the turnouts are and I want to hear how our music impacts them.”
To view the entire tour schedule and to hear some tunes from their past two albums (2009’s self-release Plan B and 2011’s Conversation Piece, out on Doghouse Records), visit http://www.facebook.com/ALotLikeBirds or http://alotlikebirdsband.tumblr.com/. The group plans on entering the studio this spring with engineer Kris Crummett at Interlace Audio in Portland, Ore. (he did Conversation Piece) to record a new album that will be released on Equal Vision Records, the band’s current home.
“This record is going to be banananuts,” Franzino said. “We are really expanding on the strengths of our past two records effectively, at least what I perceive those to be. We won’t know the beast completely until we make the journey home from Kris’ studio.”
With Their Debut EP for Equal Vision Records, Mozart Season Gets Down to Business
Movies–especially great love stories–end when the characters realize their love for one another. But really, isn’t that the beginning of the story? With roughly five years under its belt, Sacramento post-hardcore band Mozart Season has had a career that is practically cinematic in its ups and downs: extended breaks, members coming and going–it hasn’t been the smoothest ride. But through it all, the band’s founding members, including frontman Nate Richardson, managed to keep the banner of Mozart Season flying at full mast and play to an avid (and downright rabid) local fan base. In June, the band announced that they had signed with Equal Vision Records, a name of great renown in the punk/hardcore scene. The Albany, N.Y.-based label has been home to Coheed and Cambria, Circa Survive and H2O, and now boasts a lineup that includes Pierce the Veil and Chiodos among others.
“I’ve always been working toward this,” says Mozart Season bass player Troy Cooper, a member of the band since November 2008. Cooper was handpicked to take the mantle of bass player by his predecessor, Richardson’s older brother Nick. Cooper is still very appreciative of the opportunity he was given and able to run with. “To join Mozart Season with people I was friends with and play the music I enjoy and sign to the label I’ve wanted to sign with since I was a kid is crazy and lucky,” he says.
A fairytale ending? Actually, it’s just the beginning of the story.
The band announced the signing to Equal Vision with a quick blast on Twitter. “We are very excited to annnounce [sic] that we have signed with Equal Vision Records!” the post read. The day before, the band hinted that they’d be letting fans in on “the greatest secret we’ve ever kept.” But this great news wasn’t as immediate as Twitter’s 140 characters might have you believe. The band traveled a long road to work up to that announcement.
“We officially signed two months ago,” Cooper explains. “We’ve been working on the album and getting all the artwork together. The whole preparation for the announcement took a long time.”
In fact, Mozart Season had been in touch with Equal Vision for a long time prior, but the band’s first attempt to get the label’s attention fell through.
“What initially happened is that when we hit up Equal Vision, we talked to one of their regular A&R guys, and we just lost touch with him,” Richardson says. But, according to Richardson, the band pushed on undaunted, and soon it was Equal Vision that came calling after them.
“We just kept touring and doing our thing and then Equal Vision hit us back up, so that’s what got us excited as far as them pursuing us,” he says. “From there, it was really easy to get in touch with them. They were open and honest about our contract, what they wanted and expected out of us, and we had the same policy with them. It was a good fit. We felt real comfortable with them from the start.”
Mozart Season’s relationship with Equal Vision took a serious step in December 2009 when label manager Daniel Sandshaw traveled to Sacramento to see the band play.
“We met with him, had dinner with him and talked with him about the label and got to know him better,” Cooper says. But even though he may have always wanted to be a part of the Equal Vision family, Cooper and the band didn’t jump to any decisions as far as picking a label goes. He says he was also realistic about what signing to a label actually meant.
“When Equal Vision offered us a deal, we talked to our friends in bands that were signed about the perks, the pros and cons, the reality of what being signed is–which isn’t everything everyone thinks it is,” Cooper says. “You don’t get thousands of dollars thrown at you, and you don’t rocket to the top. Everything is still about working hard and building a name for yourself.”
With the label deal sorted out, Mozart Season focused on the real work–putting together their debut for Equal Vision. After some discussion between the band and the label, it was decided to release an EP, Nightmares (due out July 20, 2010), that would comprise old and new songs. Three songs (“Look Mom, I’m on TV,” “Saint Peter” and “Ankle Deep Ocean”) were taken from the band’s previous effort, the independently released 2009 EP Apotheosis, with the remaining three being new material.
“These three songs we felt were not only the standout three of Apotheosis, but also the songs that fit the theme of the Nightmares EP–just chaos and being scared of the future and the past,” Richardson says.
The songs chosen from Apotheosis were not tweaked or re-recorded for Nightmares. Cooper says that Equal Vision “really liked” Apotheosis, and wanted to bring its songs to a wider audience.
“We’ve sold a lot of copies of that EP [Apotheosis] on iTunes and hard copies, but on a grand scale, so many people have yet to hear those songs,” Cooper says.
There was even talk of just re-releasing the old EP under the new label, but Cooper calls the decision to mix old and new material the “middle ground” between the two ideas.
“We released [Apotheosis] a year and a half ago now…in January 2009, so we’ve been playing those songs for a while,” Cooper says. “We’ve been promoting that and putting that out for a while. We had these new songs written, and we were planning to record a new EP even if we were unsigned this time this year.
“Our sound has progressed so much over the last year of the band playing together, mostly because this is our first time we’ve had a good amount of time to write with each other, with some of the new members,” he goes on to say. “We wanted to just show the progression we’ve made.”
This progression sounds like an absolute explosion with Nightmares’ opening track “Famous Last Words (You’re Nothing Without Me).” The furious fretwork of guitarists Sam Trux and Benton Christensen fuel Richardson’s vocal fire as heavy verses give way to catchy, melodic choruses. Richardson’s performance shows remarkable versatility morphing from abrasive hollering to something sweetly sonorous. The vocalist says the pop influence in some of the band’s newer songs wasn’t necessarily intentional. However, he does credit the EP’s engineer, Jay Trammell, with guidance toward that direction.
“That’s just what came out,” Richardson says. “I’m flattered that you said it’s catchy. I’m stoked, but that wasn’t what I was going for. Jay definitely helped shape that with me.”
“We wanted to write a song that has a lot of heavier parts to it, but wasn’t generic,” Cooper says of “Famous Last Words.” “We don’t try to overcomplicate stuff too much.”
Unfortunately, outside complications affected the recording process of Nightmares. One drummer left to get ready for marriage and another, Joseph Arrington from Utah-based band Riots of Eighty, stepped in to record the drums for the album. Luke Allen (formerly of Consider the Thief) has since replaced Arrington as Mozart Season’s permanent drummer. Luckily, Equal Vision was very understanding of the band’s predicament.
“They were really supportive and at that point, just working with the four core members: Benton, myself, Troy and Sam,” Richardson says. “Once we brought Luke on board, they were super stoked about his history with Consider the Thief and his drumming ability. They wanted us to take our time and find someone we’d be happy working with for a long time.” Richardson goes on to say that Allen is the best drummer Mozart Season has had. “He’s the shit. He rules, and you can put that in writing.”
Though they’re both pleased with their band signing to a prominent indie, both Richardson and Cooper realize that the real work starts now.
“We’ve been jamming and playing local shows and small tours for the last five years–five years for me anyway,” Richardson says. “A lot of people think that’s the first step, but really that’s the hobby aspect of what a music career is, and now we’re at the beginning. We finally have what we need to get the songs out there and blow up.”
Armed with a new EP, label and a strong work ethic, it would seem Mozart Season has what it needs in place for a blockbuster ending.
Nightmares will be available in stores and on iTunes July 20. On the same day, the band will meet up with the No Bummer Summer Tour alongside Gwen Stacy, Lower Definition and A City Serene. The tour will travel around the Western United States and end in Camarillo, Calif., at Rock City Studios on Aug. 2.
Circa Survive branches out on Blue Sky Noise
When Philadelphia-based rock band Circa Survive began writing in late 2008 for what would become their third full-length album, the group was at a rather uncertain point in their career. Not only had their contract with longtime allies Equal Vision Records come to an end, but the group would also undergo a management change, further adding to their incalculable future. “There was this time where literally we were just floating in space writing songs for a record and had no idea where it would land,” remembered guitarist Colin Frangicetto of the unsettling feeling. “There was a huge question mark hanging over everybody’s head,” he said.
That question mark would hover for a lot longer than Circa Survive expected as the process of finding a new label to call home dragged on and on. “We just thought we would go meet with some people, take a couple of weeks to figure it out and sign, and it’d be over with,” said Frangicetto. Months passed and still no deal had been inked–all the while, that question mark was growing in size and weighing heavy on their shoulders, adding to the already intense amount of pressure that the band members had put on themselves to create a record they were truly proud of. Anthony Green, the band’s illustrious lead singer, was particularly overwhelmed and frustrated from trying to live up to his own expectations and had a complete mental breakdown halfway through the writing process. “He saw himself teetering off and kind of losing his grip on his own sanity and he just kind of needed to take a break,” admitted Frangicetto. With the support of his friends, family and band mates, Green checked himself into a mental hospital where he spent some time regrouping his thoughts and sense of balance.
“He’s a unique spirit, and as far as this kind of stuff goes he’s very sensitive,” explained Frangicetto. “It just wasn’t a huge shock that he needed to go somewhere and get help. I’ve felt myself close to that point, so it wasn’t this horrible thing where I was like, ‘Oh fuck, he’s going to quit the band.’”
When Green returned from his time away, regrouped and ready to jump back into the creative process, the band continued writing music together every day in a cottage-like house that bordered a stream and a nature preserve that they called “The Creek House.” They explored avenues of songwriting they never had before, searching for a perfect formula. For the first time in the history of the band, members other than Green contributed lyrics and vocal melodies on Blue Sky Noise; Frangicetto contributed to “I Felt Free” and “Imaginary Enemy,” and guitarist Brendan Ekstrom collaborated on “Frozen Creek” and the album’s first single, “Get Out.”
“I’ve always written songs but nothing that I would ever try to make a Circa song,” Frangiecetto said. “Then I just had a couple things pop out of me when Anthony was away that I really thought I could hear him singing. When he came back, I presented the songs to him, and he was just in love with two of the ideas.”
This new collaborative and communicative approach was revolutionary for the band and helped them achieve their goal of creating a completely different record than their previous releases, 2005’s Juturna and 2007’s On Letting Go, both of which were produced by the same engineer, Brian McTernan. Frangicetto pointed out that Circa Survive’s past efforts are much less dynamic than Blue Sky Noise, having been comprised mostly of intense songs with dual lead guitars, soaring vocals and pounding rhythms. “We listen back to On Letting Go and Juturna and it takes 50 minutes before you have a breath,” said Frangicetto.
So for Blue Sky Noise, Circa Survive enlisted some new help, three-time Grammy winning producer David Bottrill (Tool, Muse, King Crimson) and mixer Rich Costey (Interpol, Mars Volta, Rage Against the Machine), and decided to include some new elements that they’d always wanted to in order to attain an entirely new sound: a broader vocal range for Green to explore; plenty of acoustic guitars to provide space and quieter, more intimate dynamics; slide guitar to give a twangy, organic feel and upbeat rhythms to put off more pop sensibility.
“We wanted to make a progressive record, but at the end of the day, at least for me, art is about communication,” said Frangicetto. “When you’re making a super progressive record and you’re not making any attempt to really communicate, it’s basically like talking through a wall. You’re basically like, ‘All right, you’re going to pick up on some of the shit that I’m saying, but I really don’t care if you hear me or not.’”
With Blue Sky Noise, Circa Survive strived to knock that wall down and speak directly to people. In doing so, the band created a cohesive, dynamic record that when listened to in its entirety feels like reading a book; everything has been meticulously planned out and is in its right place, creating a seamless flow from start to finish. “The art of the record is dying and we’re aware of it,” said Frangicetto. “But we knew that right now we still had the chance to make a cohesive front-to-back album that you can listen to the way that we listened to our favorite records as kids.”
Blue Sky Noise was released on April 20 on Atlantic Records, making this Circa Survive’s major label debut. With the support of a global company comes larger opportunities; for example, when Submerge spoke to Frangicetto, he and the rest of the band were in the United Kingdom playing a string of three free shows just because they could, and another paid one in Germany because they had never been there. The band also recently made their national television debut on Last Call with Carson Daly and they’re currently on tour with Coheed and Cambria; all of these are massive milestones in Circa Survive’s career no doubt, but not all the credit should go to the fact that they are now on a major label, said Frangicetto. “We talk to our label, our manager, and people that are working for us and they are just like, ‘This record makes our job a million times easier.’ So I guess the question really becomes, is it the label or is it the record?”
Catch Circa Survive performing material off Blue Sky Noise along with some older tunes at the University Union Ballroom at Sacramento State on Thursday, May 6 (sans Coheed and Cambria). The show starts at 7:30 p.m. and is $10 for students and $15 general admission.
