popwreckoning

Gearing up for a summer tour in support of their new album Hell Is What You Make It on July 12, Breathe Carolina is ready to showcase some fun dance-floor anthems.

The Rockstar Presents The Scream It Like You Mean It Tour will kick off on July 15 in Seattle, WA at El Corazon, heading across North America and finishing with a homecoming show for the band in Denver, CO. Direct support comes from Chiodos, as well as I See Stars, The Color Morale, Tek-One, and The Air I Breathe.

The band’s new album was recorded with producers Ian Kirkpatrick (Plain White T’s, Neon Trees) and Matt Squire (Panic At The Disco, 3OH!3, All Time Low) and is featured as one of Alternative Press’ 100 Most Anticipated Albums of 2011.

Visit their site here to listen to a clip of “Wooly” from the new album.

And check out their official website www.HellIsWhatYouMakeIt.com for a complete list of tour dates that trek all across the U.S.

Since they were the “soundtrack of your summer”, the guys in Boys Like Girls don’t want you to forget about them as the head into the studio over the winter. So for now, check out this interview with guitarist, Paul DiGiovanni, where he talks about life, recording and the group’s new DVD:

Bethany, PopWreckoning: Let’s jump right in. You guys just released a DVD with some live music and behind the scene stuff of you guys on tour. Why did you decide to do that and why should people check that out?
Paul DiGiovanni, Boys Like Girls: The reason that we wanted to do that was to give kids and fans kind of an insight into what we were like as a band and what we were like as people. We’ve been touring for awhile and our record’s been out for awhile and we have a ton of kids that come out to the shows to see us and listen to the CD in their cars, but they don’t really know who the four of us are, what we’re all about and what we’re really like. So we just wanted to show kids what we’re like as real people and what we do behind the scenes and just how we’re normal everyday people.
It’s also to give a recording of one of our most important shows that we’ve ever played. It was a sold out show at home in Boston that we’re just really proud of, so, all those things wrapped into one.

PW: So what is the craziest tour experience that you’ve guys ever had? Do people get to see that on the DVD?
PD: Our director came out with us for two weeks on the road, stayed with us and followed us everywhere we went and did everything we did with us, but with a camera. So we got a ton of random things that go on: funny things and just little problems we had and stuff like that, so that’s really cool. But, one of our biggest accomplishments ever was that we played on this summer tour, this headlining tour we just did with Good Charlotte, we played a show at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, Massachusetts and it’s like 7,500 people or something like that and we sold it out. We over sold it and it was the biggest sold out show they’ve ever had there. And that’s the place that we all four grew up, going to see shows whenever somebody was playing there, so that’s like one of the biggest accomplishments ever for us. That’s what the DVD show is, so it was great to put that on there.

PW: Oh, that’s really cool then. So what are some of the bands you guys grew up with? Who would you have seen there?
PD: All kinds of stuff. The Get Up Kids. Jimmy Eat World. You know, bands from when we were a little younger learning our instruments. We all did the whole classic rock thing, of course, what else? Just all that new, well when that old emo thing came in, like all the 90s rock like Nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots, everything. Which is really cool because the four of us listen to different kinds of things, which helps us sound different as a band.

PW: So are you excited by the Get Up Kids Reunion?
PD:Oh my God, I’m so excited. I was just on their MySpace watching videos from the show they just played and I can’t wait to go see them next year.
PW: Yeah? I actually was just at that show.
PD: You were? No way.
PW: Some of those videos on their MySpace are actually mine.
PD: Are you serious? Oh my God. I’m freaking jealous of you.
PW: Aw, don’t be, that’s like the one cool thing we get in the Midwest.
PD: That’s awesome. I would have loved to have been there.
PW: Yeah, well Spring’s not too far away, but we digress. Sorry to get us so off topic.
PD: That’s OK.

PW: You guys called the DVD Read Between the Lines. Why’d you pick that title?
PD: That’s one of our lyrics and at the same time while watching the DVD, kind of read between the lines. Take it all in and understand just who we are. Take that from the DVD. Like I said, the whole point of it is learning who we are as people and just understanding more about the band and the stuff behind it.

PW: What’s your favorite song to perform live?
PD:On this last record, I’d probably say “Great Escape” because that was our biggest song off our record. We’d always play it last. The kids just went absolutely crazy every time we’d play that song and it would be so late at night. That was definitely my favorite.

PW: On that song, “Great Escape”, you guys had a couple of versions of it. You had the demo that you originally released and it got you a lot of attention. Then you had the album version. Did you ever get any problems from fans wanting to hear one version over the other?
PD: Way in the beginning when all we had was that first crappy demo version on PureVolume. When the record came out in the beginning we had some who would say stuff, but the record’s been out for so long and people have, not really forgotten about the old one, but recognize this as the real version of the song. Nothing too bad, just some stuff at the beginning and a few people said stuff. Whenever you’re used to one thing and then you have a new version that comes out, you kind of just like to hang on to the old. That’s just kind of human nature. Nothing too bad, just typical.

PW: So you guys are working on some new material now, right?
PD: Yeah, we are.
PW: Will you guys mess with releasing demos again then or will people just have to wait for the album?
PD: Yeah, once we get anything final and done for the record, we’ll probably get a couple of singles up on PureVolume and all that, just the same way we did it last time. So kids can hear it first and people can have the music.

PW: What’s your songwriting process? It seems like you guys are always on tour. Do you have much time to write new songs?
PD: Yeah, we’re always on tour, but that also makes it easier because that means that we’re always together with a guitar on the bus. We always have an hour everyday to sound check for the most part. We’ve had a ton of time on the road to write and we have a ton of things recorded for the new record already from live demos on the bus or sound check. Then, what we’re doing right now, is take this month to just kind of organize everything, talk about what we’re going to do and then after the holidays we’re going to go into the studios with everything we’ve done so far. We’ll take like 30 or 40 songs and just whittle them down and make the final record from them.

PW: Will you be working with Matt Squire again?
PD: That’s something that we’re going to take this month to talk about. We haven’t really thought about anything like that. We don’t know who we’re going to work with or what we’re going to do. We’re just focusing on the music and songs right now, which is the most important part. We’re just doing that now and then in the next month or so we’ll have everything figured out and we’ll let everyone know.

PW: You guys are a little more seasoned now then you were when you released your self-titled. How has that changed the direction of your music?
PD: Martin [Johnson] has always written his vocals on real life experiences, so he’ll just take that to the next level probably with different things that we’ve experienced in the past few years with being homesick and in a new place everyday. It’s just a continuation of his life. Musically, we’ve just gotten smarter and a lot tighter and better together. So that’s going to show through on the record.

PW: How about contributors and guest artists? You guys have a lot of friends in the music world and in the past a few Boston artists like Bleu have worked with you on the last record. Would you do that again?
PD: I don’t know. I think that’s something to think about a little later on. We’re going to finalize these ideas right now and then when we have a steady ground to stand on we can actually think about working with other people and trying to get some guest vocals in there, but we’ll do that later on. Right now we’re just trying to get a solid ground.

PW: I know you guys toured with Metro Station and you’re pretty good friends. Were you friends before the tour or after? It seems like you have a lot of stuff on your MySpace page and website supporting them.
PD: We met them a few months before that tour and started a relationship by crossing paths and hanging out a bit. Once that tour happened, we got to be pretty good friends and hung out all the time. Whenever you’re on tour with bands, I mean, sometimes some bands don’t get along for whatever reason or keep to themselves, but we like to have relationships with all the bands we tour with and we definitely had a good relationship with them and are friends.

PW: When you guys broke into mainstream, I noticed there was a little bit of a whiplash, like one day you had Absolute Punk listing you “Artist of the Day” one day, but then the next people were like, “Oh, they’re too pop sounding.” How do you deal with that or does that not even phase you?
PD: You can’t really let that phase you. People always want to hate and find reasons to hate and make up rumors, stuff like that. You just need to know that. We write our music not just for ourselves but the fans. We’ve had a couple of years to just show everybody that we spin out a good track and you have to ignore the negative. Especially on sites like that you have kids who are just unhappy unless it is indie folk with no record label. Every thing’s going to get hated on and it’s stupid and there’s not a lot of logic to it for that stuff.

PW: MTV really helped you guys out in breaking into mainstream by being on “TRL” a lot. How do you feel about that show ending?
PD: It’s pretty sad. We all watched the last week of it and it kind of sucks because that’s just a memory all had growing up. I don’t remember the beginning. I don’t remember before it. I just remember running home from high school and that was the cool thing to do. Everyone watched it and talked about it and it had the biggest acts. It was the biggest thing in music and on TV, so that’s sad that it’s coming to an end.
One of my favorite memories with this band is the first time that we played “Great Escape” on “TRL” for the first time a couple of years ago. It was one of the most surreal things in the world. To just see it end kind of sucks for everyone really.
PW: Do you think that will affect where people get music videos?
PD: I don’t know. I think part of this whole situation is just how much the internet has just taken over music in general. That’s kind of how people get them. If somebody wanted to watch a video six or seven years ago, you’d put it on TV and watch “TRL”, but now you just type it into YouTube whenever you want, so, I think that had something to do with it. The internet is just the big deal in music right now.

PW: Going off about the internet, I’ve noticed that you guys have one of the most interactive band websites that I’ve ever seen and it’s practically like it’s own Facebook. Did you guys have any part in that design?
PD: We did. It took awhile to get our page and it had just redirected people to our MySpace page when we were figuring it. We talked to a few different web companies to get one that was interactive like that and you could get a profile sort of like myspace, but all about the band. The fans can go to the forums and blogs. We can post updates on it and they can post updates on it. We can all communicate and keep in touch. We can answer questions about the shows and all that stuff.
It’s a cool way because you can have a band website with a picture and a few songs and it can be boring, but the fact that kids can go to this page and pick a name and be a part of it is a really cool thing for them.

PW: What’s the most shocking thing on your iTunes playlist?
PD: Shocking? I downloaded the new Taylor Swift record last night. John [Keefe], our drummer, actually played on a song on that record. So I got it to check that out and she’s pretty awesome.

PW: So is there anything you’re really looking forward to for the new year or last month of 2008?
PD: Music-wise?
PW: Yeah, music unless there’s something else?
PD: Yeah, I’m kind of excited to be at home for the first time in a couple of years and to hang out with my friends and family and all that stuff. to just kind of wind down and take it easy. We’re all just going to be clearing our minds and getting ready to do this record, which is going to be such a big project for us. So that’s the one thing that’s on all our minds right now.
PW: Yeah, you have seriously one of the busiest tour schedules that I’ve seen for a band.
PD: Ha, I agree with you. We go pretty crazy.
PW: Yes, very intense. Well, that’s all I have. Anything else you think our readers should know?
PD: We’re doing this record soon and putting a single out as soon as we can, so hopefully everyone checks it out and enjoys it.
PW: Sounds good. Thank you and have a great Thanksgiving. Enjoy your time off.

Boys Like Girls: website | myspace

Here’s the second installment with Straylight Run‘s drummer, Will Noon. In this part we talk about the band’s new EP, a member’s departure and literature. If you missed the first installment, check it out here.

Bethany, PopWreckoning: OK, so let’s talk about your EP, Un Mas Dos. What’s your songwriting process? Does John [Nolan] do lyrics first and then you lay down the beats or do you and Shaun [Cooper] contribute to the lyrics at all?
Will Noon, Straylight Run: Well, we definitely do the lyrics as 100% John. How we’ve done it in the past is if John was doing a song, he wrote the lyrics. If Michelle [DaRosa] was doing a song, she was writing the lyrics. I think they might help each other out a little bit because they grew up so close and were brother and sister in a band, but for the most part whoever is singing the song, we want them to have the most direct connection with the song to try to convey that to a group of people or an audience through a recording.
As far as the songwriting process, it was pretty similar to what we’ve done in the past where John will have an idea and put it together. That general idea may sound pretty dissimilar to what the final product is, but he’ll show it to us and try to explain to us kind of the idea of the choralical music. Then Shaun and I will try to contribute more on a rhythmic level. We’ll work out tempos and keys and instances like that to kind of help shape the song.
John’s a great songwriter, so there isn’t much that we’ll be able to do to improve the lyrics and the melody. So there’s a core of the song that Shaun and I help develop into more of a what you would consider a proper song. Then we go into a studio and spend a few days just writing the songs and fleshing them out. Actually our producer, Matt Squire, had a lot of great input as far as intros and things like that. He brought that outside perspective. I mean we had been writing these songs and working on them and getting really into it, but he kind of stood back from afar and said, “Hey. I know you guys have these details here and there and it’s all awesome, but maybe it needs something like this.”
He’d say, “You might need a bridge to break up that last chorus.” We’d be too close to it to really assess that, so that’s where we’ll really start experimenting, taking a song apart and rewriting it a little bit. We’d restructure it and realize there were things that could be done. He had a really great impact on those songs in the final stages.

PW: You guys also have some really great artwork for the EP. Who came up with the idea for the photo-collage-type thing.
WN: Originally, it was my idea. I sort of wanted to a photo project type thing. It was originally supposed to be sort of the thing where people do the three fingers up, I was going to do it all in sort of that brown sepia tone image. It was sort of cool because the point was to have the hand as the focus because everyone that puts up their three fingers has a very similar looking hand and I wanted to get people from all walks of life, skin colors, ages and blah, blah, blah to do it. Then there’d be a dissimilarity between all the different people and backgrounds, but then there’d be the unifying force in their hands being in the foreground, so there’d be that unifying factor.
It sort of grew from there because collectively we felt it might be a little stale or dry as far as how it wouldn’t be that interesting if it was all one color and all the same sort of image. So we started to expand on that theory and started to look through pictures that were completely unrelated and started to pull out the image with the three theme built into it. Then we started taking pictures along the way. When you start thinking about something, it’s funny because it seems like you start finding it everywhere. So as soon as we started thinking about pictures with threes in them, we’d see three of something and be like let’s grab a picture of that. So, that’s sort of how the idea evolved for the artwork.
PW: But the photography was all your own?
WN: Yeah, it was John, Shaun and myself taking a bunch of pictures. John’s wife took a bunch of pictures as well. A friend of theirs and some of our friends who were photographers or people who were with us at the time would help us out taking pictures.

PW: Aside from great album art, you’ve also had some really cool videos. Are there any other videos in the works right now?
WN: Yeah, actually, our director Travis Kopach, he did the last videos for us: the “Big Shot” video where we were in a tank of water and the “Soon, We’ll Be Living in the Future” video where we all sort of packing everything into suitcases. We approached him and said we were releasing the EP on our own, but wanted to do a video for it for an online sort of thing. We weren’t really too interested in MTV or Fuse being that we were just releasing this EP ourselves, so it’s a smaller scale. He was really excited about it. He actually wanted to try and do a video for all three songs and he actually came out on the road of us. We were just filming in odd locations, putting together whatever we could.
We stopped on this little island in Maryland where we had to take a little ferry out because there were no vehicles, cars or trucks on this island. There were about 50 families that lived there. It’s called Smith Island. We did some filming there in broken down piers and abandoned houses. It was really cool. We traveled south from there to Savannah, Georgia, which is gorgeous. We filmed some stuff on a farm down there. Then we were in New Orleans and some random places along the way. So there will be videos, but we’re just working on them.
I think that either November or December, we’ll have our first video out. Then late December or January we’ll have the second one out.

PW: Which song did you do the travel thing for?
WN: We actually have the videos in the work for all three songs. Yeah, the plan was to do all three, but we only had a limited amount of time. We basically got everything we needed, but we don’t want to short change any one of the songs. There might be more work to be done on the third track. I think that by early next year, January or February, we’ll probably have all three videos up and ready to go.
PW: That will be cool.
WN: Yeah, we tried to do that on our last full-length, but we weren’t able to it because the label situation got out of hand and like I said we didn’t feel like we were being supported and we didn’t feel comfortable in that relationship, so it kind of impeded our process. Something we’d like to try and do is have a visual representation of each song.

PW: I have noticed that you guys do a lot for your fans whether it be more material or more access to what’s going on your lives, why do you find it important to reach out to fans? Are fans pretty receptive to the different things you’ve tried?
WN: I think in general it is pretty important to try and keep that relationship open and direct. Especially nowadays, I think that things move really fast, which is why we have this goal of releasing multiple EPs throughout the course of the year so that we can musically have a direct sort of connection with our fans.
It’s one thing to do a meet and greet at shows or have an email list or messages through myspace, email or websites. We actually recently got a phone number that people can call us and leave us messages, which is pretty cool, but all those things are sort of secondary to the relationship that we’d like to have with them through music. So by releasing multiple EPs throughout the year, we’re hoping to sort of close the gap to where we’re excited about music and they’re excited about music.
It usually takes a long time for us to write songs and record a full-length record and for it to come out. By the time people hear it and get to know those songs and come see us live, it might be a year or two years later. So, with these EPs, we’re able to write songs, record them and release them very quickly so that by the time we get on tour, it is only a few months and we’re still really excited to play these songs, while they are fresh and new for us. We’re hoping that the energy for us is translated and felt and that there’s that connection between us and our fans. This way we’re all excited about the same thing, at the same time.

PW: Have you ever had a crazy fan encounter?
WN: Not really. Honestly, most of our fans are pretty intelligent and respectful. I don’t know. They’re all pretty normal.
PW: That’s good.
WN: Yeah, they do cool things. Sometimes we’ll get cookies or a book and then we’ll talk politics or books or religion or something. I think it’s very mature. I think we have a mature audience.
PW: Very good. Have they been pretty receptive to just the three of you guys without Michelle?
WN: There’s always people or people that have told us that they miss Michelle and well, we do, too. That’s really the only response that we can come up with, but for the most part, everyone’s been great. More often than not, I hear people that are surprised. We had a security guy the other day in Denver that was like, “Man, I haven’t seen you guys in awhile, but I can’t believe how great it sounded and there’s only three of you. I felt like there should have been six people on that stage with how much sound.” So, little things like that are awesome.
Like I said, we’re getting really great feedback about the energy level that we’re able to achieve. The most common thing is like the fullness of sound.

PW: Is it overwhelming to divide up Michelle’s parts between you guys?
WN: It is only a little bit for John because we tried to rework some of the songs and focus to try to strip them down, which is something that we’ve always had to do. Our first few records, even when we had four and sometimes even five on stage, we could never really play all the parts that we had recorded. When we go into the studio we like to flesh out a song and fill it in with whatever instrumentation we may see necessary at the time, which isn’t always possible to recreate live, so we just continue to do that with the three of us.
We try to strip things down to the core elements that we feel are necessary or important. For John he has to sing and try to play piano as well as guitar on a lot of songs. He’ll switch back and forth over the course of one song and he’ll go back and forth from verse to chorus with piano on the verse and then moving to guitar on the chorus. I think he’s a little stressed out, but he’s doing a really good job.
I think that’s one of the things that has allowed us to make that impression on people. We’re taking the most important parts, sections, of each song and presenting those the best way that we can.

PW: So are you content with just the three, or are there plans to find somebody to pick up Michelle’s parts?
WN: I think that we pretty much don’t have an interest in replacing Michelle. We don’t think that’s a.) possible or b.) something that we’d even want to do.
I think it’s a respect thing. We wouldn’t necessarily think of it as a replacement, but like in the past where we’ve needed to tour with a fifth member to help us play additional keyboard and piano parts, additional guitar or any extra parts, I think we may need a fourth person on some tours to help with that as well. But again, everything has been going really well as a three piece, so there’s a chance that we might keep stripping things down even more into the core elements of the song and that might be the future of the band.

PW: You guys have covered a lot of artists from Bob Dylan to Joanna Newsom, are there any other artists that you plan on covering in the future or that you’d personally like to cover?
WN: I’m sure things will come up. It’s something that we have done and we actually recently, on our last tour and this one as well, with our group size, we’ve been doing a Nirvana cover. It’s one of the bands that all three of us has grown up with and had a pretty big impression on us as musicians and they’ve had a pretty big impact on our lives. The fact that we’re a three piece we thought it’d be fun to pay homage to another great three piece that we all liked.
In the future, I’m not sure who it will be, but things always turn up. Like you said from Bob Dylan to Joanna Newsom and John’s been doing random covers like Radiohead to Neutral Milk Hotel.

PW: On the EP where you did cover Bob Dylan, Prepare to Be Wrong, you guys did show some political concerns. What do you think of the current election and with this being an election year, do you think you’ll be doing anymore political songs?
WN: We released that at a time when it was certainly important and there were a lot of things going on. That was something that was important at that point to us, but unfortunately I don’t think that we can do too much more than that EP’s slightly political tinge as far as life in general.
We just randomly met a soldier who had been to Iraq who told us, well he had actually bought tickets for the show, while he was in Iraq, but he told us about it. It was pretty awesome to talk to him and get his experiences and his take on politics—what directly concerned him and what he had seen and how that made him worry about his own safety. I think we’re pretty far removed so we can say we want to see change and we want to bring our troops back, but to talk to somebody who is living what we talked about was pretty impressive.

PW: My last question for you: you mentioned you like to read a lot and your band name comes from a science fiction novel, what books are you currently reading or what would you recommend?
WN: I actually just reread the book Ismael by Daniel Quinn. It was the second time I had read it and it’s a phenomenal book. I would definitely would recommend it. I started reading that and now I’m reading a new Ayn Rand book colled For the New Intellectual.
I would recommend Ayn Rand, but I don’t know if I’d recommend this book in particular. I think I’d recommend Anthem or The Fountainhead, more so than this book. Those are both great books and this was more of a philosophical sort of doctrine. It’s not objectivism, which is the philosophy that she develops, but it is sort of a journal or persuasive sort of writing rather than a novel, which makes it a little harder and a little dryer. So if anybody were to start reading Ayn Rand, I’d recommend Anthem or The Fountainhead.
PW: Do the other guys read as much as you?
WN: Yeah, we all read a decent amount. I mean, we’re in a van and on tour, so there’s so much time to kill. When I’m at home, I feel like I’m too busy or feel the need to take the time, but in a van it sort of forces you to just sort of open a book and start going.

PW: Very cool. That’s all I have for you. Thanks for talking with me.
WN: You’re welcome.

Straylight Run: website | myspace | show review | interview with: pt. I

Cute Is What We Aim For is a band originating out of Buffalo, New York and formed by Shaant Hacikyan and Jeff Czum in 2005. Joined by bassist Fred Cimato and drummer Tom Falcone the group was soon signed to the record label Fueled By Ramen. The band made most of their fame from online magazines, including a major feature on absolutepunk.net which ended in quite a bit of controversy since the website’s founder was then seen openly belittling the band on the website’s message boards.

The band seems to have a good following of drama (as well as a very good sized fan base, of course). Their first record was criticized for their use of auto-tune, which producer Matt Squire and Hacikyan admitted to using. Rumors of plagiarism flew around, but all of those were denied. More drama sprouted durning the time where Cimato had left the band for the first time to be replaced by Jack Marin (previously of October Fall), major tension was seen between the lead singer and the bassist and there are more than enough rumors still going around about the exact reason as to why Marin let the band.

Despite all of the band changes and line ups they’ve had over the years, Hacikyan says they’ve now finally become really content with a line up and that they’re thankful to have made it through everything they have drama-wise as a band. The current line up includes original members Hacikyan, Czum and Falcone. The band is completed now by bassist Dave Melillo.

I was a little worried about Rotation because there was so much hype from Shaant about it being so much more ‘grown-up’ than The Same Old Blood Rush… I won’t lie; I was a little afraid it might have been another Pretty. Odd incident where it was a little too forced and came out not so great on most of the tracks. But apparently Cute actually knows how to write grown-up lyrics without throwing away who your band was and trying to needlessly reinvent yourself.

It certainly isn’t the same whiney teenager lyrics, as promised, though if you liked their first CD, you’ll most likely still like this one. They knew how to be different enough to grow, but the same enough to keep your attention. Over all the CD was very well done, the lyrics are just as catchy and so are the beats. The wait and hype for this CD was definitely worth it if you ask me and I recommend picking it up if you’re into their sort of music.

Tracklisting:
01. Practice Makes Perfect
02. Doctor
03. Navigate Me
04. Loser
05. Do What You Do
06. Hollywood
07. Safe Ride
08. The Lock Down Denial
09. Marriage to Millions
10. Miss Sobriety
11. Time
12. Hidden Track

Cute Is What We Aim For: website | myspace
Fueled By Ramen: website

Written by: Hanna Marie