H(enry) A(nderson): And we're back. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a real treat for you. Live in the studio right now is BandStand. I'm here with singer and guitarist Gail Black and percussionist Eddie Lincoln. Gail and Eddie, welcome, welcome!
G(ail) B(lack) and E(ddie) L(incoln) together: Thank you, Mr. Anderson.
HA: Wow, its a pleasure to have you guys back in the studio.
GB: We're glad to be back here. We missed you guys...
HA: Well, let's get right into it. You guys have new music out.
EL: Yes, the new record, "StageDive". It's great. Some of our best work, no doubt.
HA: It's been a while...
GB: Seven years since the last one came out. Yeah...
HA: So you all were on hiatus for all that time?
GB: Well, there was some other stuff going on during that time, and we decided that we needed a break. Eddie was playing with [Kaliburg's] Goat's Beard, and I was doing art, yoga, just chilling... We were on the road for so long, and I just needed a break.
EL: We decided that we weren't breaking up, just taking time off from BandStand...
HA: So what brought you all back together?
GB: We weren't really ever apart, of course. Eddie would call me every week, I'd go to see his band, and everything. It was cool. I just didn't really want to be the one on the stage for a while, you know?
EL: Yeah, I mean, we've been writing and working together all this time. Several songs on Goat's Beard's album were written by Gailly.
GB: ... been kinda behind the scenes for a while, yeah.
HA: But you guys eventually decided to go back into the studio...
GB: Well, clearly. (all laugh)
HA: Alright. Well, let's play some music from your new Album, ARC's "StageDive", and then we'll catch back up after the song. This is Stranger, from BandStand.
Break
HA: That was Stranger, from BandStand, and you're listening to KRTVN Channel 2. If you're just tuning in. We're here with BandStand live in the Studio. So, this record is different than your earlier stuff, which was more kind of upbeat, more for the masses.
GB: Yeah, this record, we really kind of wanted to stretch out a bit, and try to really make music which kind of stood out...
EL: Yeah, from what's on the radio now, you know?
HA: What do you mean?
EL: Well, I mean, Channel 2 is pretty good, but a lot of it is older. More for older listeners. Channel 11 is really blowing up now, and... well...
HA: The pop station, right...
GB: Yeah, its kinda shite, you know? A lot of it is pretty canned.
HA: How do you mean?
GB: Canned, phoned in. Its just some cute girl or some boy band singing to some producer created beat, isn't it? It's asinine.
HA: Wow, well, you know the kids like it.
GB: Eh, what do kids know? Look: I think Madysin is a good looking woman, and she is certainly the Original in this country, but you all gave her artist of the year and she doesn't even play the guitar?
HA: I can't justify her success.
EL: She's got great marketing...
HA: Well, let's talk about your record. Tell us a little about it.
EL: Alright. Well, Gailly and I have been writing it for about four years. We came up with material for three albums, and decided to pick eight of the best ones. Then, in April, I think of last year?
GB: Yeah, April. it was early April, back when all that fog was in town for like three weeks...
EL: Yeah, so we called up ARC and then because we wanted to get out of Kaliburg, and were headed to Sulari anyway, and was like "We want to record this record."
GB: Yeah, they were totally cool with us, and were like "You guys want to do it in the capital or where?" And we were like "We're headed to Sulari anyway." So they hooked us up with Jess Michaels as engineer, and Deano Fuentes, who did music direction. Deano wanted to get us Val Jackson to produce it, but after talking with her, we were like "Val, we loved your work on that Gulf Stream record last year, but I think we need to just do this our self," and she was totally cool with that.
HA: So you all just went to it?
EL: Yeah, we recorded the synths in like two days, guitars and drums in another two days, and vocals and overdubs were done in a single day. We had Jess work with us in post production, and we had a master in under two weeks. Fastest we ever recorded a record!
HA: That's amazing. And ARC was cool with it the whole time?
EL: Yeah, they were cooler than working with our old label at KMI.
GB: I wish these guys were around for our first record. I think we barely covered our advance in the first year. it was nuts.
HA: So you basically just speed recorded this record. I mean, it sounds great.
EL: Thanks, mate. But I mean, there was a lot of other stuff too.
HA: What do you mean?
GB: Since we didn't take an advance, we had rented this studio for a whole month. So while we were mastering the album, we also were rearranging the songs, to make an analog version, which we put out online at the same time. And we had some producers come in and remix a few of the tracks.
HA: What? I didn't hear anything about all that.
EL: (laughs) You gotta do your homework, man. Look. Can I spin one of the remixes?
HA: Sure, What the hell... What do you got here?
EL: Check this out, it's the remix of the title song, StageDive. Done by DJ Radon, from Yoshimi. It's pretty dope.
HA: Alright, well, let's hear it. Here's StageDive, from BandStand's new Album, here on KRTVN Radio 2.
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HA: You're listening to KRTVN Radio 2 and we're here with Kaliburg Alt Rockers BandStand, who have just released their 4th Studio Album, and their first in seven years. So, tell us about the music on this record.
GB: Well, it definitely talks about a lot of the kind of things you see when you get inside your own head for a long time, you know?
EL: The themes we explored were somewhat different than the stuff our fans are used to. Certainly more mature, compared to the earlier albums.
HA: I notice that, definitely darker...
GB: We gotta be the dark to the pop princesses' light, you know, bring balance to the scene.
HA: The music is pretty heavily electronic, more than your older music.
EL: We played with some sequencers, but note for note, you will find that we probably have as much digital instrumentation, as we do the analog stuff.
GB: I hear a lot of influences of our older stuff in today's pop, so we needed to go a different way with the music, though. Lots of minor keys and stuff, this time matching the kind of darker more introspective lyrics with a darker grittier sound.
HA: But I wouldn't call this record depressing or anything. I mean, there are times when you gradually transition from the synthesized minimalism to full on alternative, within the same song and just let it rock.
GB: I've found that we can play with relative quiet in the music too. Our other stuff was so heavily layered, and it was pretty baroque. This record was much more stripped down.
EL: There were a lot of disco and what you might call popular, audience oriented influences on our earlier records. But in this one, we wanted to play with dynamics within the songs themselves.
HA: This is one criticism which has been leveled against the record. It's not as coherent as your earlier records, sonic aesthetic wise.
GB: Well, that's fair. It's not exactly a concept album.
EL: We had a lot of fun making it, to be honest, whatever our critics say about how it sounds...
GB: ... kinda cathartic... Yeah, we had fun. And at this point, in our careers, that's really what it is about.
EL: ... plus, it sounds different from the new music that is is on the radio now.
HA: Will you all be going to FOMAT?
GB: No.
HA: Any Reason? it is the biggest music event coming up this year...
EL: (pauses) well, to be honest, most of that music is not...
GB: It's not our taste. We'll leave it at that.
HA: We'll leave it at that. Let's play one more track off BandStand's new album, "StageDive", which you can get in any record store in the Republic, as well as on any of the streaming services, and so forth. Thank you guys for coming in, and it is great to hear your music again.
GB: Thanks, Comrade. We had a lot of fun!
HA: Here's BandStand with a track from their New Album. The song is called "A&R."
EL: This is the analog recording from the Sulari Version!
HA: Ahh, well, here is A&R, by BandStand, the Analog Version, on KRTVN Radio 2.
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