INTERVIEW: Jovian

matrocksteady — Interview @ 3/15/2011 10:10:00 AM


As a smaller act, Jovian's debut EP, Lazers, made some waves in the post-hardcore scene back in 2009. Shortly after it's release, the band broke up. Well, they have returned with new members, new music, and a new drive. Check out their interview below to hear about what's been going on in their world since then and where they're headed. And give them nothing less than a warm welcome back and look out for their new EP coming soon!

Matthew@GAE: Hey guys, nice to be in contact. How are you all doing today? Anything exciting in your lives?
We're doing great, thanks for asking! Just getting very excited about the release of our EP.

Matthew@GAE:Could you introduce the names and positions of everyone in the band for us and who is new to the Jovian line-up since you guys were last around?
Colin and Nick formed the original Jovian in 2007, then Colin left to pursue other musical endeavors and Caleb and Boogie joined Jovian to for the recording of Lazers. Then Colin came back to Jovian, along with Kyle, and we start writing songs again. So the current line-up is Caleb (Vocals), Boogie (Bass/Vocals), Colin (Guitar), Kyle (Drums), and Nick (Guitar).

Matthew@GAE:It seems you fell off the face of the earth after 2009's EP, Lazers, was released. What's the story there? What was the process like getting new members and starting the process of being a band all over again?
Yea, after the release of Lazers, we scheduled a CD-release show. Nick was running high-school track at the time, and ended up making it to the state championship, which happened to fall on the same day as the CD-release show. Nick then had a decision to either cancel the CD-release show or miss the last and biggest event of his high-school career. Everyone completely understood if Nick wanted to cancel the CD-release show, except one band member, and from there things kind of just fell apart pieces at a time.

After Jovian ended, Nick, Colin and Boogie kept playing music for a couple months around Louisville, but it was never anything serious and didn't last very long. So nobody was really doing anything musically for a while, until Caleb and Nick got together to work on some demos. Boogie joined back up on bass and took singing duties. Nick, Caleb, and Boogie recorded an early demo version of Time Bomb, and then Nick asked Colin if he wanted to come back and play guitar. He brought his friend Kyle that he went to school with and we began jamming and writing new material. With this new line-up, we knew we had something going so we stuck together, continued to write music, and now we're finally back and ready to release this EP!

Matthew@GAE:A huge part of your notoriety was your ex-vocalist, Seth, sounding like Jonny Craig, and his reputation seemed to also follow in that general direction. What was the split with him like?
All we can say is only positive things have happened in this band since the split.

Matthew@GAE:What was the writing process like in comparison to Lazers?
Lazers was basically just a bunch of songs Nick wrote, and now it is a collective effort.

Matthew@GAE:When and where did you go record at and how did that process go for you guys? How long were you guys recording?
We went to Earlygrayce studios in Louisville, Kentucky to record with Jordan Haynes. We recorded over the span of a few weeks, and being in the studio for that amount of time really helped us make everything turn out the way we wanted it to.

Matthew@GAE:Lazers' lyrics were all over the place, especially on the screams. How does Carnivore compare and what are some of the themes?
The process was a lot more personal for Carnivore, and had a lot to do with many of the things that were going on in our lives, the fears we have about growing up, things that everyone goes through. It has a lot of metaphors, so nobody should take Caleb's lyrics about eating people literally.

Matthew@GAE:How did writing the lyrics and vocal lines go? Did you two work together to come up with cohesive themes and structures, or were they done separately?
Since Caleb and Boogie live in different states, most of the lyrics were sent back and forth via messages and texts, and were compiled into cohesive ideas. Then, when we all got together Caleb and Boogie would work on the vocal melodies together. We recorded demo versions of the songs to send to Caleb so that he could work on them at home and send them back to us. It's an interesting process, but it works for us.

Matthew@GAE:How did the name and artwork for the record come about?
We thought that "carnivore" summed up the overall feel of the album, and it's also the name of the title track on the EP, in which a main lyric states, "Run for your lives, the Carnivore has arrived," and it just had a good ring to it. The artwork was done by David Carpenter, a long time friend of the band (who also did the artwork for the Lazers EP), and we gave him free reign to do what he wanted. He listened to our demos that we sent and let that influence his artwork. We are super pleased with everything that he's done.

Matthew@GAE:What are your live shows like now? Are you guys still playing Lazers material, or are you focusing on a completely fresh start as a band?
Well, our first show back was Sold Out! It was a really amazing feeling to come back into the game with such a receptive crowd. We aren't playing any Lazers material, but we have thought about it. We're just focused on making our live show something that people can be a part of, and it's definitely a lot more put together, almost professional if you will, than it used to be.

Matthew@GAE:What's the official release date of the EP? What's the plan from there?
The physical copy of the seven-song EP and the full artwork is set to release on March 29th, but you can get 5 mp3 tracks from the EP for free (or donation) on our bandcamp at:
http://jovianmusic.bandcamp.com ...from there we will be playing shows around our region, and we're trying to get a summer tour in the works.

Matthew@GAE:That's all I've got for you, any other words you'd like to add? Thanks for your time and looking forward to more work from you in the future.
Thanks for taking the time to interview us. We've got a lot of things planned in 2011 that we're looking forward to as well!

2 comments:

  1. Chrisarox — March 15, 2011 2:12 PM

    great interview! i really enjoyed lazers so im looking forward to hearing new material from these guys!

  2. matrocksteady — March 15, 2011 2:14 PM

    Thanks for keeping up with GAE, Chris. You've been around FOREVER, and I"m glad you've stuck with me through all my bullshit.

    And these guys are super awesome. You can snag 5 songs off Carnivore on bandcamp for free. I'll be putting up a review later today or tomorrow.