Ok, I am so excited for this interview with one of the biggest emo bands at the moment i’d say. Keeping up to date with the band is drummer Steven. Enjoy. xx
Hello to you, The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die. How’re you guys doing?
I have a nasty toothache that I hope goes away soon, but I think collectively we’re all doing well… We’ve just recently moved into a new practice space, have been catching up on mailorder, and have been preparing for a pretty massive tour that starts later this week. Oh and our Debut LP is mixed and mastered. Things have been good.
I’m guessing you probably hate this question. However I’m going to proceed and get it out the way earlier rather than later. For people that don’t know, who came up with your band name and why was it chosen?
The name was just a bad joke taken too far. It’s meant to be a rip on post-rock song titles. We’re all stubborn though, so we’ll never shorten it or change it any way.
Would you like to explain your line up arrangement? Do you have more people playing on the record than you do at live shows?
Our line-up currently is eight members.
Derrick Shanholtzer-Dvorak, Katie Shanholtzer-Dvorak, Greg Horbal, Chris Teti, David F Bello, Josh Cyr, Julia Peters, and Steven K Buttery.
We added a lot of extra things to this new record, including cello, and we liked the sound so much that we asked Julia to do the band full time.
We’re trying to sound as much like the record as possible.
So, your last full release was in October 2011. That’s a relatively long time ago. However, if you could rejog your memories and explain how the recording process was for that split LP with Deer Leap? Was it an enjoyable experience, very stressful or something else?
As far as I can remember the recording process for the Deer Leap split was a breeze, especially in comparison to this recent recording session. Ryan Stack at Format Audio in Haverhill Massachusetts is an absolute delight to work with.
I can’t imagine song writing to be easy with your band. I’m in a band with 3 people and we find it hard quite a lot! Could you tell me how song writing works for you guys?
The hardest thing about being in this band is coordinating 8 schedules for a rehearsal time. But we try and do one night a week, and sometimes two. As for the writing process, we just play riffs together and make structures for songs. It really is a group based writing process, instead of having one main song writer.
Do you have any plans for a new release any time soon? I know that myself as well as many others are hoping the answer is yes.
We have a four way split coming out soon through Topshelf Records and Run For Cover Records. The other bands on this split are Code Orange Kids, Tigers Jaw, and Self Defense Family. We also have our debut LP coming out this summer, also through Topshelf Records. We have more releases planned for this year, and have started writing LP2.
You’ve been playing shows with Hostage Calm and Turnover recently how has that been? Any brilliant/funny stories to share & any other great shows you’ve played/stories to share?
We’ve been fortunate enough to play with a lot of bands that we love… Hostage Calm and Turnover are great people, and great bands… I’m really looking forward to touring with them in April, I’m sure a lot of great memories will be made.
Ok, Topshelf Records in the last couple of days put up pretty much every record on their bandcamp for free download. Your split with Deep Leap was one of them! What’s your opinion on them doing that and has it brought you a lot of new fans to the table?
Letting most of their discography go for free was a brilliant idea, and I’m sure that because of it more physical records were sold in the aftermath of it. I’m sure a decent amount of people decided to check us out based on the free download, and that’s great, thanks!
We’ve talked a little about Topshelf Records in the last question, but we’re not done, I have never heard a bad thing said about them, ever. Do you enjoy being signed to the label and are they as great as they seem?
Kevin and Seth at Topshelf Records are the nicest people on the planet. The other really cool thing about Topshelf is that their releases are consistently good, they’re starting to get a very devoted fan base that will try out any new band signed to it, based solely on the Topshelf name.
There’s one thing I love about Formlessness and the Deer Leap split one after the other is the link between “Victim Kin Seek Suit” and “Bread For Brett” with the lyrics “Where are you? And where have you run to?”. Can you explain why you made the link between the two releases in this way?
The re-use of lyrics extends deeper than those two examples. The new LP references a lot of earlier work, and even references itself at points. It’s really just a way to have our discography feel like a complete singular work, instead of a series of releases.
Who would you say your biggest influences are?
The 8 of us in TWIABP have a very wide span of influences, based on what we grew up listening to. I grew up listening to weird noise, Josh likes J-Pop a lot, Chris was into metalcore, and I think Greg still only listens to Ska and Mr. Bungle. Recently I’ve been into the Microphones (and Mount Eerie) and Gonjasufi.
Do you have anything big planned for 2013 that we might like to know about?
Current plans are a short tour with Finch in March, a tour with Hostage Calm and Turnover in April, a full US in May / June, hopefully Europe in the early fall, and then an east coast thing down to Fest in Florida in October.
Where would you like to see TWIABP&IANLATD by the end of 2013?
Winning a grammy.
This is the part of this where you recommend to the readers any bands/labels/artists/zines that you might want to share…
Listen to Deer Leap, The Act Of Estimating As Worthless, Do Make Say Think, and Mr. Bungle.
Ok, so! Last question. If you could tour with any 4 bands to any 4 locations; who would it be, where would you go and why?
We would love to tour with mewithoutYou, Mount Eerie, Arab on Radar, and Mr. Bungle. The only location appropriate for that line-up would be space.
Thanks for this guys! I hope you all the best in your future endevours. xx
Thanks!
Check out TWIABP&IANLATD at:
Bandcamp, Facebook & Tumblr
Mega Steve.
