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.

Sacramento’s Far Comes Home

By Mark Lore | Photos by Jeff Gros

They say you always want to go out on top. If that’s the case, then Sacramento’s Far did everything right. In the mid-’90s Sacramento was on the radar as bands like Cake and Deftones were signing to majors (remember those days?), while post-hardcore was bubbling underneath the city’s surface.

Far soon followed. After a pair of indie releases (1992’s Listening Game and Quick in ’94), the band signed with Epic/Immortal and released Tin Cans With Strings to You in 1996, in the process amassing a dedicated following. Hell, you know the story. Far released its best record in 1998—Water & Solutions—an album that harnessed punk, post-hardcore and even pop (?!) into 41 flawless minutes”¦then called it quits.

“I’m happy we stopped after Water”¦,” says vocalist/guitarist Jonah Matranga. “It was a good balance of all of our personalities.”

Those personalities have fueled various projects over the years—Matranga with his own project, Onelinedrawing, and bands like New End Original and Gratitude. Guitarist Shaun Lopez fronted The Revolution Smile. Drummer Chris Robyn and bassist John Gutenberger went on to form the more pop-oriented Milwaukee, while Gutenberger later formed Two Sheds with his wife, Caitlin.

But it always comes back to Water & Solutions—an album that a decade’s-worth of bands would nefariously hold close to their pained little hearts. In fact, Far might be one of the few bands that actually gained popularity after it broke up.

While it was surprising to hear that in November Far, after a decade apart, was planning on playing a few shows in the U.K., it’s been no surprise that the band’s recent reformation has been met with such unadulterated glee. But the members of Far have kept it loose and stress-free—they re-emerged under the moniker Hot Little Pony, recorded a cover of Ginuwine’s 1996 hit “Pony” (yes, Ginuwine), and are now gearing up for their homecoming show at the Empire on Jan. 15.

Submerge caught up with Matranga and Lopez, who filled us in on the not-so-elaborate Hot Little Pony marketing scheme, what the future holds, and why they don’t want to be blamed for Fall Out Boy.

The music climate has changed quite a bit in the last 10 years. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Shaun Lopez: It’s good for us, because we’re in a unique position in being able to go out on tour and be self-sufficient, and be able to make a little money on top of that. I feel for new bands starting up right now because it is tough out there. Record deals being offered to young new bands are not so great; they’re almost better off doing it on their own. For us it’s been OK. Luckily we’re in a position that we do have fans that are pretty dedicated—it’s something we’re very thankful for and very surprised.

Whose idea was it to start playing together again?
SL: It came close when we did the re-release of Water & Solutions [in 2004]. It never came to, and I think in all honesty it probably wasn’t the right time and it wasn’t for the right reasons. Chris [Robyn] and I had been talking about it off and on and then Jonah called me about a year ago and brought the idea of just showing up at a club and playing. I liked the idea of playing again, but I wanted to do it more professionally and go out on a tour.
Jonah Matranga: He always tries to be more professional than me; I’m always the guy that wants to go out and just bang it out. And he’s like, “No dude, gotta rehearse; make it good.” So we balance each other out that way.

There was this semi-elaborate scheme with the Hot Little Pony concept. Whose idea was that? And who decided to record a Ginuwine song?
JM: What looks complex from the outside is just us fucking around on the inside. We wanted to play a couple of shows, and I just really wanted to take the hype away from it because a) I don’t like it, and b) I wanted us to be as unstressed as possible. I think our friend Jeff jokingly thought of the name Hot Little Pony. And we just all laughed when he said it and thought, “Ah that would be really fucking funny.” “Pony” is a tune that we’d always play before shows back in the day. And it’s just a simple song, and so Shaun and Chris laid it down [in Los Angeles] and I came down and sang it. Shaun added his magic dust to it. I don’t know, it just came out; it was a fun, very quick thing.

Now you have your homecoming show in Sacramento. Is that going to be a gauge of whether this continues?
JM: I think it’s all a gauge. There’s nothing official on the books, but there’s a lot being talked about. I think we’re all just trying to take it as it comes. The first two Hot Little Pony shows were like, “OK, can we do this well?” Because it was really important to all of us to not go up there and suck. And then we did the L.A. shows and thought we pretty much ripped it. Then we thought, “OK, can we tour together? Can we not drive each other insane?” The whole “Pony” thing has definitely thrown it into a different gear. We’ve never had any sort of radio play like this so we’ll sort of look at that and see what that means, if anything.

Any shows beyond Sacramento?
JM: Just Sacto. We’re very excited about that. It’s a big enough show where I think it will be fun and exciting, but it still feels like home. We got some friends’ bands on there. I feel pretty sure that more shows will happen, but we have nothing on the books. And then we’re looking at trying to do a little recording together, see what happens with that. My particular take is just trying to do a couple of covers that suggest where we came from as a band. I’m very reticent to do original songs. I don’t want to do an original song just to have a new song, and have it not be as good as the old shit. Because all of our favorite old bands do that and it blows.

Water & Solutions has been touted as your masterpiece. Does that put more pressure on you to record?
SL: I realize that no matter what we do, people are always going to love that record. That’s going to be the record.
JM: Yeah, but some people, frankly, like Tin Cans“¦ more, which I don’t understand. That’s the thing with putting out records”¦I don’t get to control what other people think. But for me, there’s no pressure with people, there’s just pressure for me… I just want to know it kicks ass. We could put something out as good as Nevermind, and people will still be like, “Yeah, you know, I kinda like ‘Bury White.'” But I would just want to feel in myself that it came from an inspired place, and that I could go out with confidence and play it live and feel as strong as I do playing “Bury White” or “Mother Mary” or “Man Overboard.” Those songs, I just feel good playing them. And I don’t feel good playing them because I’m used to them; I feel good because they’re good, and they’re good 10 years later.

Far has influenced a style of music that is looked down on, although you sound nothing like those bands. Do you guys think about that?
JM: I’ve been asked that question a gazillion times in interviews, and my stock answer that sort of makes me laugh, that I totally believe is: I don’t blame Led Zeppelin for Whitesnake and I don’t want to be blamed for Fall Out Boy. We just came around trying to play rock ‘n’ roll that was less dressed up and more human, and mixing heavy shit and more anthemic shit we liked from big rock with this sort of humble, straight in-your-face element of punk. A lot of bands at the time were doing that. And as it happened, when that sort of caught on, there were a lot of bands that traded in their leopard jeans and whatever else the fuck for horn rims and tight pants. They took all the cheap parts and tried to make money off of it, and forgot the important part, which was the humanness of it.

You’ve all changed as people in the last 10 years. How is Far different today than it was in ’98?
JM: The funny thing is that we’ve all changed as people, but the personality balance still to me is working out relatively similarly. I think Shaun and I are better at recognizing that we’re different people, and talking it through, which rules.
SL: Yeah, the communication is much better. In the past a lot of the problem was that when shit would piss people off, they wouldn’t say anything.
JM: It feels good now to come in with a little more time to breathe. And I do think we’ve all, through our individual experiences, learned a little about how important it is to clear the air before shit gets crazy.

Being in a band is like being in a relationship “¦
JM: I liken it to a relationship where the sex is really good, but everything else is weird [laughs]. To me that’s the closest analogy I could come up with without sounding creepy.