Can you start out by introducing yourselves for ForTheSound.com?
Ben: [testing into microphone] LAAA.
Well. My name tag says Poppa Giorgio. But my real name is Ben and I play keyboards.
My name is Pat. Brown. And I play guitar and sing.
My name’s Nate and I play bass guitar.
My name’s Chris and I play the drums.
My name is Kieren and I play the guitar.
Could you tell us a bit about how you formed Sing It Loud?
Pat: Yes. Well we were all in previous Minneapolis bands that had like an okay amount of popularity in the area. And like Me, Ben and Kieren were all just kind of hanging out one night, at Kieren’s old band’s show actually, and we were like, hey if our bands ever break up or if something bad happens we should, like the three of us, start a band. And that is pretty much, exactly, what happened and then we started this band.
When and where did you guys play your first show together?
Pat: We played our first show actually it was in, Deluth. And I believe it was like, July 7th? Or July 12th?
14th maybe?
Ben: No 14th was First Avenue maybe.
Pat: Oh Right.Pat: But we played in Deluth and like, headlined this show. I think there was only like 20 people there, or 30 people there maybe. But it was still a lot of fun.
I thought there were a lot of people there?
No. Really? No…
[shakes head, yes…]
Well okay. There were 100 people there [Laughing]
How would you describe your sound to someone that hasn’t heard you before?
Ben: Booty shakin’ punk rawk!
Yeah brah!
Your full-length is out now, what can fans expect?
Chris: …Goodness.
[Laughter]
Pat: It’s got 11 songs on it. Four of them are on our current EP, are on our full length. One of the songs has guest vocals from All Time Low’s singer Alex Gaskarth and Motion City Soundtrack’s singer Justin Pierre. I don’t know, it is a really fun album. We’ve worked really hard on it and we hope that everyone likes it.
Do you think it’s, well you already mentioned that the songs from the EP are on it, but other than that, do you think your sound has changed at all from the EP to the full length?
Pat: Ummm. Well. Not necessarily form our EP that’s out now, but from our first EP. A lot of the songs, like some of the songs that were on our album were written by like, pretty much just me and Kieren right when the band was starting. But a lot of the songs on the album, we all got to collaborate on. So those, it definitely has a lot more diversity and it is a lot cooler for all of us since we all got to collaborate on a lot of the songs. So that definitely changes the feel of it a little. For the better.
You guys worked with Josh Cain, right? What was that like?
Pat: Yes. It was amazing. It was unreal. Because, you know, we all grew up in the Minneapolis area, except Chris, and uh, we all grew up being Motion City Soundtrack superfans so getting the opportunity to work with him and to have Justin on our album too, is just, a total honor.
Can you guys describe your writing process?
Pat: Alright. Pretty much, me and Kieren come up with the basic song ideas. And me and Kieren write all the lyrics. So we’ll come to the table with an idea and we’ll all sit and collaborate and everyone will bring things to the table so it is pretty safe to say that it is a 20-20-20-20-20 process.
You have any specific points of inspiration for this album?
Pat: I think, we…
Kieren: EX-GIRLFRIENDS.
Pat: Haha yeah, I’d say mine and Kieren’s ex-girlfriends. We pretty much wrote every song about
-Skanks.
Them. Haha yeah.
And about how they sucked.
Pat: They sucked. And we definitely pull influences like, our band is definitely influenced heavily by the [All-American] Rejects, and The Starting Line, Motion City Soundtrack, and The Early November. So we definitely pulled influences from those bands also.
What’s your favorite thing about being on tour?
Pat: Definitely getting to hang out with the other bands is like my personal favorite part.
Nate: We love getting to sit and chat to all the lovely people that come out to the shows. It’s a good time. OH Ben has one.
Ben: We have this thing going on right now with the band Cash Cash, a little road war. And while we’re driving down the highway late at night we throw, you know, just really disgusting things at them…bottles of pee, smoothies, and kind of whoever has the best hit all across the windshield is pretty much the winner. And they doused us with some Buffalo sauce the other night while our van was parked and they are gonna get fucked tonight.
Kieren: YEAH. Don’t tell them!
Ben: We had a $30 budget at Target for getting things to get on them the last night.
What is your least favorite thing about touring?
Ben: Load in!
Pat: Yeah definitely loading in, and probably since we’re…oh yeah and loading out is probably worse than loading in…but all of us we’re all getting sick and I’m just getting over it. And one of the worst parts of getting sick is that you never get better because you sit in the van, and you have to push your body to the limit every night like playing shows and you don’t get very much sleep. And you eat terribly also, like fast food twice a day.
What are some tour necessities?
Why won’t we all say our necessity.
Nate: Sprite – a twelve pack of sprite!
Chris: Shaving cream.
Kieren: Clean undies.
Pat: Listerine mouth wash. Or Scope, actually. I use Scope.
Ben: Ummmm. Chocolate teddy grahams!
Do you guys have any favorite places to play?
Pat: Well, definitely, at home is our favorite place to play. Minneapolis. And we also have a lot of fun playing in Pennsylvania because we have really, really cool crowds in Pennysylvania.
What are some bands you are currently listening to?
Pat: Right now, I’ve been non-stop listening to the Valencia album. And like, we’re on tour with them too so I hear them play every night. That’s probably my most listened to right now.
Ben: Right now, for me, Paramore, the old CD and the new. And…John Mayer.
Nate: The Jonas Brothers – old album and new!
Chris: I listen to the new Ace Enders a lot.
Kieren: The new Dragonforce record annnd Def Leppard’s greatest hits.
What are your favorite foods on tour?
Ben: I like to eat. A lot. – BK [Burger King] chicken fries actually. Are probably top, top 5 I’d say.
Pat: I’ve recently been on a health binge since I’ve been sick a lot. So I’ve been enjoying lots of salads.
Nate: My favorite food is starburst.
Chris: I enjoy the BK tendercrisp.
Kieren: Ummm, I don’t know. That’s a tough one. What do I eat a lot? You guys know more than I do.
All: Double cheeseburger.
Kieren: Noooo, I’m kind of over that…I like Arby’s…a lot…and Applebees. Anything with b’s in them haha.
How do you think that the tough economy is effecting the music industry right now?
Pat: Definitely with gas prices and um, album sales also since the whole downloading thing you know. It’s a lot harder for artists to make money off of their albums but I think that a big problem that a lot of bands and record labels have these days is that they get really bummed out on the economic changes and stuff like that but we try and do our best to embrace the changes and just kind of look at it be like, this sucks but…let’s make it cool. You know?
Try to find ways to make it benefit.
Yeah, yeah. We don’t get bummed out about it.
How do you think that the online distribution sites like SmartPunk and iTunes are changing the way that the music industry does business, in terms of like, physical CD stores versus, now online stores?
Kieren you want to answer that one?
Kieren: Umm.
Pat: I’m confused by the question that’s why-
Kieren: No! haha it’s okay. Basically what is happening is all the CDs are gonna go bye-bye and everyone is going to go buy digital CDs. Ben has something to add, so here he is haha
Ben: I think that, you know, iTunes and SmartPunk and everything is good because it kind of, it is helping bridge the gap of illegal downloading. People that don’t want to go out and buy a physical copy but they want the mp3 and are okay playing a dollar for a song rather than free so it is helping hold the record, bringing it all to the middle-ground.
Is there anything else you would like to add or tell to your fans and friends at ForTheSound.com?
Pat: We’d like to thank em for coming out to these Valencia shows –they’ve been awesome and make sure everyone buys our album and come check us out on the Cobra Starship tour, we’re hitting every major city in the United States pretty much.
Ben: AND VOTE.
Pat: Yeah, please vote.
For Obama.
Vote Obama.
Obama!
Alright, that’s it!
Thank you!
Thanks to Austin Griswold at Epitaph for helping to set up this interview.
Interview by: Kaila Rovine
Interview date: September 21st, 2008
Promo Photo Credit: Roberto Chamorro
