Get an Earection!

Hey everyone,

Not sure who all is still around, but I hope the past few months have been great to you. So my last update was mid-April and it's now mid-July. Where did I go? Well, at the time, school had begun to weigh on me with a lot of projects, so GAE just was not fitting into my schedule. Around the same time, the band I had joined, Call It Fiction, began playing more shows and gearing up for tour. Then the school year ended and I had about a week off.

During that week, I thought about you all dearly, and I still do. There are so many records I wanted and want to share with you all that I have been jamming. But, that week passed and tour began. I spent most of the past few months on tour, and on my off time I was trying to make a little money and generally relax. I simply didn't have my focus here. I also got a great writing opportunity that came about.

In early June, Mike Shea of Alternative Press asked me to write a piece for him while I was at the letlive. show (great band, check them out), and I gladly obliged. Since then, most of my focus has been working on new ideas for them and touring. In fact, I leave for another short tour tomorrow. I'm really excited to be working with Alternative Press and hope to see my career there flourish more, so this has taken quite a back seat. I do miss reviewing records, and may pick it up here again, but it's hard at this point when bigger and better opportunities are on my plate.

So what's the plan for GAE? I guess nothing. The space will stay open and I may write something, but look for my work on Alt Press mainly. Here are my first two articles I did for them:

My First Tour: Call it Fiction

Please Stop: Five Annoying Social-Media Tendencies Bands Should Avoid

I'm working on several more for them right now, plus my first band feature. It's exciting times for me as a writer, and without GAE, none of this would have happened. This place will always be my home, and you will all be my best friends and supporters, even if we've never spoke. I couldn't be more grateful for this time we've had, and don't think that it's over here. Just...slowing down until I get myself comfortable again. I'd appreciate it if you kept GAE bookmarked for old times sake and gave me a follow on twitter: twitter.com/matrocksteady. Let's hang out online sometime. I hang out on Turntable.fm a lot lately, so hope to see you around. I miss you all. Keep it real.

-matrocksteady

Having gained a lot of momentum off of their 2009 EP, The Complexity of Light, the boys in Children of Nova are gearing up to record their follow-up, debut full-length. Hear about it and so much more below. Be sure to find them on Facebook to check out their tunes.

Hey guys, thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for me. What's going on in your camp? Anything exciting going on in your lives?
Right now we’re busy writing material for our upcoming debut full-length. We’re really excited to get our new songs out to our fans, as well as those who would not consider themselves fans of ours. We’re also working on a music video with our good friends in Mega64 for a song off our EP. A lot people requested we do one, so we figured it would be a nice treat as we transition from our EP, to our debut full-length.

In June, you guys will be entering the studio to record your debut full-length. Is everything written? What can you details can you reveal about the record?
As of right now, we’ve got about 10 songs nearly complete. Of course, nothing is complete until it’s recorded – so we’re sure those will change a little. We’ve got a handful of other ideas we’re working on as well. Ideally we’d like to have 10-12 songs on the album – and we’ll probably enter the studio with 15, and narrow it down from there. We want to be certain we’re releasing our strongest and most diverse songs. What we can reveal about this record is that you can expect to hear something you may not expect out of us. We have gotten a lot of feedback from our EP, both good and bad, and we have grown as individuals and as a band and we think our songs will show that.

The Complexity of Light had a very focused narrative and theme. Will the next record be as conceptual as this lyrically?
We did enjoy having the narrative aspect on the EP but it always reflected very real issues and influences in our lives and we feel this record will give listeners the best of both worlds.

You chose to record with Kris Crummett of Interlace Audio up in Portland who is known for his work on famous post-hardcore acts such as Dance Gavin Dance, Closure in Moscow and Tides of Man. What made you choose him as the producer and how is the relationship building as the recording date nears? What makes him the right producer for this next record?
He was recommended to us by our good friend Jeff Serafine (Hollywood Underground) and when we looked into his work we were very excited to work with him. We were lucky to work with Brian Grider on our EP, and we couldn’t say enough good things about that experience – but we wanted to put ourselves in a different situation this time around. One of the main reasons was Kris, along with Stephan Hawkes (they’ll be working on our project together) have worked with some of the best up-and-coming bands and we felt our style would fit nicely with the work they’ve already done. We were also attracted to Interlace because of the location, Portland. We wanted to remove ourselves from our everyday environment and comforts. Having the option to live in studio while recording in a completely distant home from where we’re at now really appealed to us. We’ve sent our demos up to the boys at Interlace and they’ve had the chance to listen to them and seem to be excited about it. We have only spoken a few times regarding the recording process and that’s really it. What makes this the right fit is they’re new to us, they’ve recorded some really great sounding records, and from what we hear they’re gifted in the area of pulling the unexpected out of bands.

A big part of this process has been your Kickstarter, which is still a website in its infancy itself. How did the idea of using Kickstarter come about and what has the process been like using it and promoting through it? You have already met your goal. How does that feel?
We heard of Kickstarter from our friend Derek of Mega64. We told him about the high cost of recording and he quickly responded by telling us a friend of his got his whole short film funded by using kickstarter, we were on board immediately. The process has gone smoother than we could’ve ever expected. We are trying to promote the site without being annoying, or sound like we’re begging as much as possible and so far we think we are doing ok. We are all amazed and motivated by already meeting our goal in such a short amount of time. We feel supported and excited to get this record out to those who are anxiously awaiting it.

Along with Kickstarter, Bandcamp is another independent website that focuses on the sale of music. These two sites are becoming a big deal to independent musicians as the industry continues to crumble. As tools for independent artists to run their own careers become more widely accepted, how do you, as a band, use them to your advantage?
We’re very happy such websites exist! We can’t wait to get our music up on Bandcamp. As soon as we have our new record done and the artwork to with it we’ll be proud members of Bandcamp, as well as happy veterans of Kickstarter. We’ll use Bandcamp to be a part of this independent movement and hopefully reach new ears. Our main goal w/ social networking sites, whether those, or any of the others – is to connect with our fans, or as we say, our family. It’s great to have an open line of communication with the people that care most about our music and band.

With such a generally bleak outlook for the music industry, what's your view on its future as a musician? How do you plan to sustain yourselves as professionals financially, but keep your integrity?
Our view on the future is to stay true to ourselves and continue to be conscious of our goals and what’s been successful for us up to this point and building off that. We are going to continue to work hard and build our fan base and hope that we get proper support. None of us picture ourselves one day on cribs showing off our variety of cars but we hope that we have enough stability to have a crib even if that means renting, which it probably does. Luckily you can’t torrent Rockband songs as far as we know so hopefully that will stand strong and continue to grow.

Do you guys play your own songs on Rock Band?
Yes. Are we any good? No.

If you could have a super power, what would it be and why?
Teo: The power that lets me traverse into space.
Nick: Multi-Dimensional Travel.
Pozzi: Non-consequential Time Travel (anything I do would have no effect on the past or future).
Mario: Superman’s powers minus the tights.
Colin: The power to become any animal at anytime… because everyone wants a gorilla or tiger to talk to now and then.

Beyond being in Children of Nova, what do you like to do? Musicians are often lifted to a pedestal, but you're still humans. What do you do with your free time?
We spend a lot of time at work, and rehearsing. Outside of that we still kick it a lot with each other quite a bit. We’re pretty regular when it comes to our free time. We like to go to movies, eat epic food, get outside and hike, draw and paint, read books, work on puzzles, hang with friends – anything really. We’re easily amused and just try to have a good time no matter what.

After recording the record, what's the plan from there? What does the next year or so look like for Children of Nova?
Getting back on the road! We self-booked an entire national tour this last year, and we’re prepared to do that again.

That's all I've got for you. Any last words you want everyone to hear? Thank you so much for your time and I can't wait for the record to come out.
In closing we just want to say thank you – to you, and everyone and anyone that’s become a part of this family. We’re excited for what the future holds, and eager to get there. Onward and upward!

Hell yeah! The wonderful gentlemen in progressive post-hardcore act A Lot Like Birds have signed to Doghouse and are now managed by The Artery Foundation.

Signing to Doghouse felt like an out of left field choice, but I'm stoked they didn't pick a super predictable label (eh hem, Rise Records, eh hem).

Hopeless Records pop-punk "saviors" released the title of their new record title along with the album artwork. It's titled Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing and will be released June 14th. Check out a new interview here.

And! A new song here! It's titled "Local Man Ruins Everything."

Well, looks like Jonny is out. Read the exclusive piece over on Alternative Press now.

This was definitely expected, to say the least.