BAND: The Audition
INTERVIEWER: Kelly Engle (kelly@bandvibe.com)
INTERVIEWEE: Danny Stevens of The Audition
DATE OF INTERVIEW: 05.28.07
BAND MEMBERS:
Ryan O'Connor - Drums
Joe Lussa - Bass
Seth Johnson - Guitar
Timmy Klepek - Guitar
Danny Stevens - Vocals
BV: Considering that your band is featured on the recently released Punk Goes Acoustic Two CD what are your feelings on being a part of an acoustic project and was it hard to modify your original song?
Danny: It was cool. It was an honor to be chosen. Since one of the first ones came out I always thought it would be so cool to be on one of those. It was just an honor to actually do something like that; that you know people will be interested in. To change our song it wasn’t hard at all. We just put a acoustic guitar and it stayed the same. We just did a little bit of extra things to spice it up. We added some electric guitar in there, keyboard, and piano, and stuff. It was a lot of fun actually to tweak one of our songs like that. It took about a day in the studio.
BV: What got you to this place in your career of headlining your own tour?
Danny: Touring our asses off. We’ve been on the road for basically two years straight. We went to the UK, then we went to Australia, and then we came back and did Bamboozle, and did another festival in the UK. We were just all over the place. We don’t have any time off and I think that really helps. People like seeing bands. People like going to shows. They like hearing. People today have such short attention spans that you need to be out on the road. There’s so many bands that they can go see. You’ve gotta make them want to come see you. Touring your ass off is a good thing for a band.
BV: What was it like on the West Coast Winter Tour with Jack’s Mannequin?
Danny: It was excellent. It was awesome. The shows were so big. Those guys are such nice dudes. They actually came to our show in LA two nights ago. Those were the biggest shows we’d ever played. It was the biggest tour, the biggest market that we’d ever done. We did all A markets, the major cities around the country. It was just an awesome experience. That’s what we want to achieve. We want to be a band that can do that; that can tour like that. When he (Andrew McMahon) was in Something Corporate they toured their asses off. What happens is you tour your ass off and then as soon as you build a fan base like he has you don’t have to tour as often. I mean when was the last time you saw Jimmy Eat World? You can like tour when you want to which is a nice thing after so many years because it’s hard. It’s not easy to be out here as much as everybody thinks it’s “the life” or whatever. It’s definitely fun and it’s definitely what I want to do, but it’s not easy. I’m sick
right now and I won’t get better probably for another two weeks. You can’t rest. There’s no time.
BV: What do you think about playing on the West Coast?
Danny: I love it. I looovvee being out here man. I love the weather. I love the food. I love the people. Everything about here; I would love to move out here, San Diego especially. This was the first city that I ever came to when I was in California and just fell in love with it. We were here for like three days. It was so much fun. I love it out here.
BV: What first inspired you to get into music?
Danny: I have no idea. I was in seventh grade and for whatever reason, I didn’t listen to music, I just wanted to play guitar. I had never seen anyone play guitar like for real. I was like twelve and I started doing my chores around the house and stuff. I saved up like 300 dollars, bought a guitar, and just started playing. I found kids at my school to start playing in bands with. It finally just led me to here. I never listened to music and I just got into it somehow, a stroke from God I guess.
BV: How does your writing process go?
Danny: The first record was kind of different. I actually joined the band a little later, when all the music was done. I came in and Ryan and I sat down and wrote everything else, wrote the lyrics and the melodies. We were really pressed for time to write it. I have a bunch of lyrics written all over the place. Basically, they make the skeleton of the song with the music and the structure of it. Then I come in, and sit down, and listen to it. For this next record I’m actually going to record everything. Then I’m going to listen to it on my I Pod or CD or something and then write about that and really take time to write. Because when we wrote the last record it was me and Ryan sitting with an acoustic guitar every night just writing. Now I’ll be able to listen to the song, feel what it does to me, and then write about that. I thought that was a cool idea to write a song about how the music makes you feel. I’m gonna try and do that and see how it works. It sounds difficult. We’ll have to see.
BV: What’s the best part about making music for a living?
Danny: Just doing something that you love, that you’re passionate about. I mean I love music. I love being able to make it and have other people love it too. It’s fulfilling, self-fulfilling.
BV: When can your fans expect a new CD?
Danny: Early ’08. We’re gonna take some time off. We actually have 3 and a half months off of touring when we’re gonna record the new record.
BV: How’d you come up with your band name?
Danny: There’s two answers for this actually. The cool answer is it’s an older Chinese horror film. The uncool answer is, before I was in the band, they had an old name that they didn’t like so they wanted to trash it. They were sitting around one day trying to come up with names and they were finally like well what do we do when we’re playing shows, we’re auditioning for fans. It wasn’t that simple but that’s how it came about.
BV: How would you describe your music to someone who had never heard it?
Danny: Fun pop rock, but it’s more aggressive than that. It’s more meaningful and it’s more ear catching. It’s more interesting than a normal pop rock band.
BV: What do you do when you’re not touring?
Danny: Go home to Detroit, play hockey, hopefully go out on the lake, hang out, and relax. I’m really excited to go home for a bit. I want to see my bed.
BV: What inspired you to write your biggest song “Don’t Be So Hard”?
Danny: That’s actually a song about not being home. It’s the song about the conversation of me leaving home.
BV: Where do you see your band in the future?
Danny: Phoenix, Arizona tomorrow. Hopefully we can tour enough and gain enough fans to where we can do this for a living and not have to struggle. Hopefully we can just make it a career and be able to live normal lives. That’s every musician’s dream to be able to make a living off of what they do, anybody’s dream to make a living off of what they love. That’s what we’re striving for. We’re putting in the hard work now and hopefully it pays off.
BV: What do you wish someone would have told you when you were first starting out?
Danny: For one be patient. Don’t try to rush things. Always enjoy where you are. Always go try to see things in which city you’re in. We didn’t really do that too much when we first started. We’re really busy now and we want to see things. I wish someone would have told me that. Just to experience it when there’s ten people at a show. I mean it matters but it really doesn’t. Just go out and see where you are and like really love it. Be yourself no matter what, because we’ve seen a lot of bands that try to be people that they’re not. We’ve always stuck true to ourselves, no matter who it is.
BV: What’s your favorite song to play live?
Danny: “Approach The Bench” which is number four on our album, either that or “Don’t Be So Hard” because those are the two songs on the set that people go ballistic to which is cool.
BV: What would you like to say to your fans at Bandvibe?
Danny: If you ever come out to a show don’t hesitate to come say hello to us. We love that. We always like hanging out with people.
For more information on The Audition, log onto:
+http://www.theauditionrocks.com/
+http://www.myspace.com/theaudition
|
