Hailing
from such a big music city like Nashville, Tennessee, how has the city
influenced your work?
Being
a progressive rock band has proven to be a challenge in Nashville. It has forced us to really think hard
about our live performances and our music. There are many great bands in this town that play roughly if
not the exact same style to each other.
With that in mind, we came up, through trial and error, with this
amalgamation of progressive and alternative rock. We are aware that this is can be a very acquired taste. It makes it difficult to win fans
trying to be different but we manage to make progress in this town as well as
in other places that we have played.
The best thing to do, especially in Nashville, is talk to people about
this ‘new thing’ we are doing and play our souls out at shows. This, in turn, makes us better players
and performers and inspires us to work out new ideas for people.
That
said, there are many other jewels of Nashville that are truly amazing to be
aware of. Being a Belmont
undergraduate student has opened my eyes to a world of musicians that have
expanded my musical vocabulary vastly.
These lie not only in rock but also in jazz, classical, hip-hop, and
many other genres. The great thing
is that this is still all in Nashville and it makes a great working environment
between my residence and our main base of operations.
Nashville
is known to be a major Country Music capital, you clearly make anything but
country, does this make you stand out in that city?
Being
a progressive band in Nashville does make us stick out a bit. You can find different styles of rock
here that range from alternative to hardcore underground. We genuinely feel that we are the only
people in this town that are pursuing this style seriously. For example, we have had a good bit of
difficulty in the past finding appropriate bands to gig with us. Many times there will be multiple
genres in one show. It allows for
an interesting dynamic but at the same time it gets lonely haha. That said, it makes us feel good to
think we have this head start.
The
name of the band, Lines in the Sky, where does that derive from and who came up
with it?
Lines
in the Sky was the tentative name given to a jam that Bowman and I played back
when he was first picking up the drums and honing his skills during high
school. It comes from a conspiracy
theory involving something along the lines of public indoctrination via
chemicals placed in the exhaust of airplanes by the government. Sort of far-fetched but it was the one
I read about the day we wrote the jam haha . I’m really into this sort of stuff. Makes for an interesting read despite its
craziness.
When
we decided to form a band we picked that as our name. We had gone through several other names which I will not
mention. But it has stuck ever
since and has been a good fit.
You
have been compared to Muse, Circa Survive, Mutemath and The Police. What is it
like to be placed in the same sentence as these artists?
All
of these bands are personal favorites of mine. The Police and Muse reflect especially when we perform in
the three piece format. Great
bands to be compared to.
Circa
Survive is hands down my all time favorite band. Ever. I know
almost every word to every song.
Definitely an awesome band to be compared to. Especially after their recent departure from their record
label. They haven’t lost any
momentum and still write amazing music.
Anthony Green is also an amazing tenor. Obviously a huge influence on my vocal melody lines. When people compare us to them it makes
me feel simply...great.
Being
a trio, you are already placed in a different category than most bands since
trios do not seem to be as popular as they once were. Was it clear from the beginning
you would always be a three-piece?
Honestly,
it is still very unclear that we will be a three-piece. Ever since the beginning we have
floated between three and four key members of the band. As of right now it appears that is the
way we will portray ourselves.
Always and forever it will be Bowman, Zack, and myself as the essential
members. The band would simply not
be the same without one of us.
That
said, I ALWAYS write two guitar parts and synth/piano parts. It is a key aspect of the music. Without this we would be a different
band. It is no simple challenge
finding other musicians to fill out these roles live. We have had five people on stage at times fulfilling these
parts. Technology has allowed for
us to compensate a little but there is still no way to reproduce a second
guitar with a computer. No
exception whatsoever. So the
debate now is should we go to strictly three people or still utilize a second
guitarist? Either way we still
have a blast playing and forget the issue when we hit the stage. We can play with just the three of us
comfortably which is an awesome flexibility. Especially when we play at more intimate venues.
Who
are some of your influences?
As
I stated earlier, Circa Survive and Anthony Green have been a great inspiration
for this project. Coheed and
Cambria are also another fantastic group that I absolutely adore. Their “Good Apollo I’m Burning Star”
record is fantastically written and maintains a certain eerie but romantic mood
throughout the entire set that has been with me ever since the first
listen.
Aside
from these two being big favorites, we also employ techniques from other styles
of music. These include (firstly,
and very importantly) metal
ranging from hardcore to symphonic, various styles of electronic, hip hop,
classical music, and many others.
I mention metal first because I used to play in metal bands in high
school. While I have outgrown much
of the genre, I feel that there are certain elements that add to intensity that
can be applied to any genre. We
make use of sub drops and various styles of riffs that are common to
metal. Playing with these tools is
very fun. Good crossover audience
grabbers too. We like it when a
metal head is like “dude that was some fast double pedal” or “dude your sub
drops are dank!”
How
would you describe the band to someone who has never heard of you before?
Lines
in the Sky is an alternative/progressive rock band. We integrate many aspects of other genres to help us up the
level of our musicality and performances.
For example, instead of playing static chords with repetitive strumming,
we like to play moving parts to ‘draw out’ these chords harmonically. This results in a constant motion that
makes the music fun to listen to.
The music is literally alive and moving.
You
released your EP Dig Deeper this year, what was it like making that compilation?
Dig
Deeper was a journey from one world to another, and back again! Kind of like Bilbo Baggins haha. It took many months to make sure the
music was written exactly the way I wanted it and to figure out what exactly I
was talking about in the lyrics.
The
recording process was quite interesting.
All of the live instruments were recorded to tape here in
Nashville. It was an eye opening
experience that I will never forget.
Due to the nature of the tape and the three days we had in the studio we
had to be incredibly well rehearsed.
Kudos to Bowman and Zack for totally killing it on the first day.
From
there it went to digital mixing and eventually ended up back to analog. The end product has a neat sound that
only could have been captured on the tape. We are glad that we didn’t lose that in digital recording
land.
John
Eden mixed the final project back to analog. He was super friendly and gave great support. He was also super patient with us
through all of the computer technical issues we ran into. We owe him for that generosity. haha
Richard
Dodd was our mastering engineer.
Working with him was incredible and he provided some good insight for
our style. John and him compared a
lot of their notes over the phone.
His took an interest in us and we are grateful for all that he did for
us.
Is
a full-length in the works?
Of
course. We are about to hit the studio
again this December and record a boatload of music. We are pulling some songs that predate Dig Deeper as well as
some completely new ones. It’s
basically going to be amazing. We
are also going to do several new versions of older songs. Not sure if these are going to be bonus
tracks or just for our archives yet but they’ll find their place.
The
writing process is also a blast too.
I come up with a root idea and I’ll take it to Bo and Zack and see if
they like the direction. We jam on
these ideas and see if we are feeling it.
Sometimes it just doesn’t work.
The guys are great at keeping me in line with this, illustrating why
keeping them a part of the process is a valuable step of the journey. Bo comes up with beats patterns I would
have never thought of. Zack is
also there to remind me of the rock roots (He literally soaks in this
stuff. He should be a music
history professor. haha) Brainstorming ideas with him is
killer. We’ll listen to some old
Yes cuts and hear a section that we thought was dope (Yes, I just referred to ‘Yes’
as dope) then try a jam on it. All
at three in the morning.
With
this inclusive process we are really feeling out these new tracks. We can’t wait to start adding them to
the live set. It’s really exciting
to think about.
What does it mean to be
a new band these days when it seems like a new band emerges every day?
It
means we have to be on our game every second we are together. Every time we have a mediocre session
someone else is having the best session of their career. We have to stay ‘fresh’. That means coming up with new music as
often as we can and playing as much as we can. This past summer has been good for us considering we have
played much more than other summers.
In turn, we have become more solid with the tracks and feel the
confidence that everyone needs to succeed.
Where
do Lines in the Sky go from here?
We
keep playing and writing as much as we can. We hope that with more shows more people can tap into what
we are doing. This style of rock
has so much potential and we hope that it will someday bring rock back from the
dead. Our dream is to be on the
cusp of that revival and with enough hard work maybe that could become a
reality. We love what we do. This passion along with the fan
support we receive allows for us to further keep pushing ourselves to our
highest potential.
