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How
did you guys get started as a band?
We
started about four years ago. I originally wasn't
in the band, it was the line-up we have now, the
two Josh's, Sean, and this guy, Dave. After about
five months, they started to record their first
four song demo, (which later got released as an
EP). But the day before recording started, they
kicked Dave out.
I
found out about them over the internet because I
talked to the singer, Josh, on this music message
board we were both on. Eventually, I wanted to try
out for the band after Josh brought it up.
I
heard some of their stuff and got into it. I think
it was on Mother's Day, they ended up having a show,
and I flew out to California. I sold my computer
to pay for my plane ticket. I remember seeing them
and I knew that these were the guys I was going
to be playing with.
I
ended up going back home and I thought about it
before moving to California and joining the band.
We
went through about three or four different drummers.
Josh Quesada, the guy with us now, was also our
original drummer. He quit once he got married around
the time we just got started, before we started
touring.
We
had Armin come in, our drummer that played on Light
a Match. He quit the band after our tour with Hopesfall
and Every time I die about a year and a half ago.
Then, we had a tour set up with Planes Mistaken
for Stars, another tour with Fallboy and another
tour with Brand New so we had a fill in drummer
for those tours.
After
that, we had this guy Dan who's from Portland come
down and try out for the band. He was in the band
while we were writing the new album, This Is Who
You Are. He talked a lot of crap about us behind
our backs so we ended up kicking him out of the
band the day before pre-production for the record,
and that is when Josh came back.
What
made you decide to bring Josh back into the band?
Well,
when Josh was in the band originally, we were more
of just a band than really close friends. It was
weird; we were all changing and growing up. After
Josh quit, he started coming to shows with his wife
and our friendships got really close; especially
with him and Sean, our lead guitar player, because
they live in the same city.
So we ended up talking around the time before we
kicked out Dan. I remember, our singer Josh was
getting married on November 1st and Josh came and
I was like, "Hey, so I heard you might want
to be in the band…" I was like "well,
just be ready because your phone might end up ringing
one day."
It
ended up working out in the end. It's cool, he's
in the band; the tables have turned over time.
What
is the significance of the name, The Beautiful Mistake?
Our
singer got it from an E.E. Cummings poem called
"Of Him and Me." The name doesn't necessarily
have a meaning, it just sounded cool. Everyone always
ends up coming up with some kind of meaning all
the time, and we always get asked about it and we
are all just like, whatever.
What
kind of influences helped to bring this new album
together?
I'd
say our biggest influence is U2. It kind of goes
down from there, a bunch of different bands like
our singer, Josh, really likes Morrissey and The
Smiths and I think it comes out in the new CD. My
favorite band of all time is Failure, and I'm really
into bands like that, and Helmet, so that brings
that element in. Josh, our drummer, is really into
U2 and The Cure. It ended up coming together and
that is what pretty much makes our sound. It's good
because we work together as a band, not even with
the music but with the lyrics, we all contribute
to help write the lyrics, so it ends up making up
our sound in a lot of ways.
In
comparison to Light a Match, what kind of different
approach did you take for This Is Who You Are?
Light
a Match was written about three years ago so as
time goes on you age and you mature and you start
to figure out what influences you want to bring
out and experiment because you start to listen to
tons of different music. I think with this new album,
we just sat down and we were like okay, these need
to be ten solid songs that we are behind because
we have to play them every night. I think that was
the problem in the past, we would write songs and
recorded them. There wasn't a bunch of ideas, we
would just write a song and record it, that's it.
Then we realized, wow, we need to play these live,
we have to be behind them because we we're the ones
who have to get in front of people and be confident
behind them. I think it was being more refined and
mature with the new album then the old album.
Did
you ever feel you had to give up creative control
in the studio?
No
because in the end, we helped produce the album;
but the producers did give their feedback. They
definitely pushed us in a different element then
what we've been used to in the past with recording;
they were really big on making the lyrics appeal
to people, like from someone who is 10 years old
to someone who is 30, being able to relate to everything.
I think that was the one thing that really pushed,
being able to look at it in that sense.
What
was it like working with Michael Rosen and Tone?
They're
cool; they are definitely very opinionated guys.
I guess they don't settle, they are the kind of
guys that go through a million different things
until it is actually recorded, mixed and on the
CD to give to mastering labs. They are very picky;
they always have something to change.
I
remember when I went up to mix the album with the
producers; we worked on one song for like 8 hours.
And for me, I've been playing songs for these guys
and spent time to record it and now I have to sit
here for 8 hours and listen to them record the songs.
How
is tour going?
It's
awesome, it's definitely more than we expected.
We're not really a headlining band so this is our
first time trying that. Some nights it's not a lot
of people, on average it's maybe 150-200 people,
which is more than we expected. Not all the bands
are really well known. It's been really good though,
I'm excited. It definitely opened up doors for us
in the future.
After
this we are doing a co-headlining tour with this
band Spitalfield and then after that we are actually
doing a week of shows with Andrew W.K.
It
ended up working out in the end, just putting in
the time and effort ends up rubbing off to other
people.
What
is your favorite song off the new album?
I
like all of them but if I had to pick one, I would
say probably be the title track, This Is Who You
Are, just because it's about what we've all gone
through, being in a band together. It's very personal,
to all of us, so I'd say that one. Not only just
listening to it but playing it live is definitely
one of my favorites.
What
are you listening to right now?
Uhm,
I'm trying to think of newer stuff… I'm really
burned out on a lot of new music because it seems
like everything in the indie world sounds exactly
the same. I think some of the newer stuff I've been
stoped on is this band, Matchbox Romance, I really
like them. I've been talking to them over e-mail
because they really want to tour with us but I just
got their CD at Skate and Surf, when we played there.
I'm really into them and at Skate and Surf we got
to see Cave-in, that's one of our favorite bands,
and they ended up giving me this demo with a bunch
of new songs so I've been listening to that a lot
lately. There is tons of different stuff, I'm really
into this band that just got signed to Equal Visions
called Code Seven, I really like those guys a lot,
I think a lot of people will dig them once their
record gets out.
Of
course, I like of a lot of bands on this tour like
Emery, I'm a fan of them, and the AKA's, I love
that band.
If
you could tour with anyone, who would you pick?
Well,
the first time I saw Andrew W.K. I was like, if
we could ever tour with that guy, it would be amazing,
so we are doing that. It is always something else;
I remember when we first started we were like, it'd
be awesome to tour with Further Seems Forever and
then we did that. It'd be awesome to tour with Hopesfall,
we did that, it'd be awesome to tour with Brand
New, we did that, and now we get to tour with Andrew
W.K.
I
think all time favorite would have to be, bands
that used to be together, like Failure, Hum, or
I'd say it'd be awesome to tour with U2. I don't
know if that will happen [laugh], but you can have
dreams.
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