By Joey | No Comments
Last updated: Tuesday, May 5, 2009

You can catch SYN live at Blackey’s in Seneca SC on May 8th 2009!!!!

1. Where do you both hail from and a little about yourselves?

Charlene: I’ve lived in Greenville for the past 6 years, but I was born in CO, grew up in HI,Lived in OR and CO again for a bit before moving here. I’m not incredibly well rounded as far as interests go, I love music and animals.

Daniel: I’m from Seneca, SC — so not too far away. I enjoy walks in the park and… just kidding! I’m kind of just an average guy, just substitute a love of music for a love of sports. I’m also a big fan of videogames, but lately the games that are coming out are kind of disappointing and get old after a while - maybe I’m just growing up? I’m also a huge fan of The Office and.. that’s really about it. Oh yeah, I really enjoy good movies. And by good movie, I mean along the lines of 28 Days Later or There Will Be Blood.. not Summer Action Flick #23 (although I am looking forward to Terminator:Salvation).

2. How involved are you in the whole process from start to finish? Meaning do you write, perform, produce, market, etc.

Charlene: Definitely completely involved in the whole process. My artist friend, Nicole Toro, did the album cover for Access: Denied. Daniel and I both contributed to the press kit artwork. I make the colorful graphics. We both write, perform, and record. Our mastering was outsourced at ECR. I’m actually making fliers for our upcoming shows right now.

Daniel: That’s kind of a tricky question for me. I entered the band rather late, so a lot of material was already there for me–I just had to learn the guitar parts. Other songs, like The Robot Song and Endless Hall, didn’t have established guitar parts, so I was able to create completely new melodies, butit’s still kind of different from being part of the writing process from the beginning. But we are working on some new material.

It’s in the very early stages, but its already apparent that’s it going to be much more balanced in terms of creative ideas. I really respect and enjoy Charlene’s writing style, so I can’t wait for her to make my ideas sound like something worth listening to, haha. But, going back to the first project, I was very involved with Recreate the World. That song wasn’t as complete as the rest when I joined, so I got to put my two cents in on things like when certain instruments should come in to create certain dynamics and, obviously, I got to write my own guitar parts.As far as performance.. I perform, haha. Guess there’s not really much else to say about that. I just play my guitar parts, but maybe in the future I’ll play some synths, piano, or whatever when necessary.

As for marketing, Charlene does a great job with that. It’s kind of funny because I’m about to graduate from Clemson with a degree in marketing, so it seems like I should really be in charge there. But Charlene is just really great at networking and has great initiative. She’s doing everything right by the books, but I suppose it’s a little hard to compare marketing for a band with business to business marketing, eh?

3. Where would you say you pull inspiration from (not bands)?

Charlene: I’m inspired to inspire others. I mostly lean toward writing empowering lyrics that encourage people to not just go through situations, but grow through them.

Daniel: It’s kind of weird, but because I deal primarily with music and no sort of lyrical content, my inspiration comes from things like new sounds or software.. For instance, a really cool softsynth is likely to inspire an idea for a melody or serve as a starting point for an entire song. Things like music theory can also inspire me. Finding as many ways as possible to incorporate “wrong notes” using music theory usually gets me pretty excited–or writing in a crazy time signature (so far my craziest was 13/8.. And the time I layered a 5/4 rhythm over a 4/4 rhythm.. that was fun).

4. If you could open for 2 bands who would they be?

Charlene: NIN and Ladytron

Daniel: It would definitely make a lot of sense to open for a band like Ladytron. We’re electronic and we have a female singer, so it would make a great fit as far as genre and fans are concerned. I’d also love to open for Muse, but that’s solely to have a chance to meet them in person. I love that band.

5. What do you think would be the perfect venue for you to play? I honestly don’t have a specific venue in mind as being perfect.

Charlene: As long as there are people to play for who enjoy our music, then I’m happy.

Daniel: Hmm.. I can’t really say for sure. I’ve only been to a handful myself. I will say though, in general, it’s important for us to establish really close connections with our fans, so smaller, cozier venues are probably best for now.

6. How instrumental do you feel the internet is for today’s up and coming artists?

Charlene: It’s a virtual double edged sword. It’s a fantastic medium to network as you have access to billions of people world wide. However, since it is so easily accessible, it severely waters down the vast pool of musicians. There are so many bands online that people get jaded and it can be a real challenge to get peoples’ attention. I feel like because of this it is even more important to play out live and build your fan base that way.

Daniel: It’s weird; we were talking about this just the other day. The internet is obviously an essential tool to help artists reach their fans and stay in touch. But it’s also getting out of hand with the lack of quality control and the infinite amount of bands on the web today. I feel like some musicians think, “As long as we have a Myspace page or website, people will find us and we’ll succeed.” But the truth is, building meaningful relationships with those virtual fans is still necessary and by no means a substitute for forming relationships with fans in person. I guess I’m saying, you have to have some presence on the internet, but not because it makes it easier or equals success. It’s just a new prerequisite for being a band.

7. We can’t ignore where we are geographically, so with that, what would be your pitch to have people that are unfamiliar with your music to come see you perform.

Charlene: We’re kind of like bacon ice cream. When you hear about, you’re like, dude, that’s just weird. But then you think, well, bacon is the candy of meats, so you give it a try. And it’s actually a surprisingly delicious treat with a distinct and sophisticated flavor only bacon can provide. Here is a link to the recipe for it:http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/theclog/2008/10/06/a-double-scoop-of-the-meat-flavor-please/

Daniel: Very true; the majority of people here don’t listen to electronic music. However, I hear phrases like, “I’m tired of  the radio,” more often these days. I think some people are ready for something new, but they don’t know what. So, at the very least, they can give us a shot, right? It’s different, but it’s goodmusic. We put on a good show and you can even sort of dance to some of the songs. I mean, surely someone out there wants to dance to something besides rap.

8. Given that your music is highly electronic in nature how intense is the creative process for a new song? Would you say that it is a totally different process than perhaps a rock band’s process?

Charlene: The creative process I don’t feel is any more or less intense than the process of another typeof band, it’s just a little different in some ways. The first difference is that we don’tget together and “jam” on ideas, we’ll email ideas back and forth to one another until the songis complete. We decide if the song will transfer well in a live setting, and then decide which partswill be played by who, and then program the other parts to play on the sequencers on a trigger type system.

Daniel: Actually, I would say the writing process simply varies from band to band. For instance, in another electronic band, the writing process might be completely different from how Charlene and I write music. It’s all about how different people go about creating music. I do tend to write a little bit differently when I’m composing electronic music by myself, though — it’s a bunch of looping, repeating, tweaking sounds, overlapping certain parts, subtracting certain parts, etc.

It’s really easy to play the “Producer” role and try out a bunch of different arrangements because of the copy/paste structure of software. Whereas if I were recording a guitar song by myself, it would be more free flowing… improvisational in nature.But,at the same time, I could imagine an electronic band jamming a bunch of electronic sounds and tweaking them after a take, and I could imagine a band that copies and pastes different takes after a recording using software.I guess what I’m getting at is, there’s a tendency to act differently depending on the genre, but it’s not like electronic has to be a certain way and a “live band” has to be a certain way.Looking back..

Maybe the easiest answer to your question might have just been, “Yes.” Haha.As far as intensity of song creation.. I say that’s always the same. No matter what genre of music a person is making, it’s always going to be extremely difficult and exhausting to make it the best possible song it can be. It’s going to take a lot of time and effort either way.

9. What instruments/tools/gear do you use and recommend? I use a combination of vintage and new synths.

Charlene: I feel like they both have their place and I wouldn’t be able to recommend just new or vintage. I like the vintage synths for their “look” and the vintage sounds. The new synths are better for recording and easier to program since most come with software and are USB/midi. I prefer the vintage synths for live application because they have that unique retro futuristic look, and are easier to manipulate in a live setting since they weren’t designed to hook up to software.

Daniel: I use the Line 6 Vetta HD II for all my guitar sounds and effects. It’s really an incredible device. It’s all digital, but sounds great. It has over 80 different amp models and several really cool effects that help define my SYN sound. On the software side, I’ve played around with demos of Native Instruments products. They make extremely good products, and I’ll probably end up purchasing Batter 3 and maybe Absynth at some point.

10. How do you achieve such a multi-faceted sound with only two people, or is that where Frank Diva comes into play?

Charlene: LOL, Frank is a cardboard robot I built to be our guitarist when Seven Year Night was myself, a drummer, and a bassist. We played shows with the guitar track mixed in with the samples/sequences, and we sat Frank on Stage with a guitar hero controller strapped on him and his hands velcroed to the guitar. As hokey as that idea seemed, Frank turned out to be very popular.

People made me promise that I would still bring him even though SYN is under a different formant and now has a live guitarist. The key element to Seven Year Night’s sound is layering, there may be only two of us, but we incorporate a lot of synths/eqiupment/effects in our live shows.

Daniel: It’s true, we can only perform so many elements live, so we’re very grateful for Frank Diva!

11. What is your best and worst experience playing live and what did you take from the experiences?

Charlene: My worst experience playing live was when the stage monitors completely failed for the first 4 songs or so into the set. All of my synth outputs were running directly into the house PA, so on stage all we heard were the acoustic drums, and the bass out of the bass cabinet. Thankfully the drummer was working with a click track, so we weren’t off with the programming. I could vaguely make out the synth and the vocals as they bounced off the far wall and back.

It was pretty weird singing to music I couldn’t hear, as well as not being able to really even hear my singing. What I learned from that is to not rely on the house PA to run my outputs to directly, so I bought a keyboard mixing amp. I also learned that Seven Year Night sounds pretty funny with only drums and bass.My best experience playing live was actually at Ground Zero. It’s a great place to develop a loyal and supportive fan base. Mick and the staff there are all super nice as well, we always had a great time playing there.

Daniel: Honestly, I’ve only played a handful of live shows in my life–maybe about ten. They’ve all been good experiences as far as I’m concerned–nothing differentiating enough to separate a best from worst. I got a free meal once for doing a jazz gig with a friend at a restaurant; I guess that was my favorite experience before SYN.

12. Would you find it offensive or flattering to be asked to do tracks for a movie?

Charlene: Even if it were a terrible movie, or maybe just grossly inappropriate, I’d still be flattered.I may not agree to it, but I’d still be flattered that they considered us.

Daniel: I’d love to do tracks for a movie. It would be challenging in a good way, I think. On the one hand, you have the source for inspiration right in front of you, but you also have to find a way to match it with your own creative approach.

13. Last questions.. Since it is Earth Day.. Paper, Plastic or Re-useable Tote?

Charlene: I don’t like paper bags because the jagged edges scratch my arms when I reach in them. I reuse or recycle any plastic bags that I get and the Re-useable totes are usually pretty cute.

Daniel: Re-useable tote sounds like the safest answer–I’ll go with that.

Interview Question By: Joey Stubblefield (SurfAnderson.com)
To have YOUR BAND Interviewed contact Joey - Joey@SurfAnderson.com / 864-356-1195

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