Center Stage with Aloud - Part 2

by Aaron Cheney | August 5, 2009 | Add Comment

Photo by Annie Burns

In part two of my interview with Aloud, Jen and Henry talk about the recording studio, videos and online promotion, and balancing the business end of their music with creative stuff:

AC: Describe your recording process for me.

JEN: We get a live take that we then begin overdubbing parts on top of. That’s how we did Fan The Fury. I think that retains the feel while you put on the guitar, bass and drum overdubs. Then you’ve got vocals and then what I call the “fun stuff” - which is anything else under the sun. That’s my greatest joy in the studio. That being said that process could all change on the next release.

HENRY: With some of the stuff we’re currently working on we’re doing everything backwards and adding things like drum and bass at the end of the process. It’s working out surprisingly well, and it’s forcing us to think of this stuff differently than in the past.

AC: Are you selling more downloads or physical CDs of Fan the Fury?

HENRY: Downloads, for sure. In fact, I think we’ve only sold CDs at live shows recently. Even at our level, things are changing.

JEN: Digital sales are by far in the lead. It’s certainly an eye opener to approach any future pressings or albums in a totally different way as far as reproduction. Maybe you make a small run for shows, or maybe you go all digital and have special limited edition packs the hard core fans can buy. What’s apparent, though, is that doing the same old thing as far as pressings isn’t really worth it.

AC: So what is working?

JEN: The internet is certainly an important tool. Twitter is a very easy way for us to keep folks updated. Henry is a great blog writer and will regularly post on our website. He also runs the site and keeps it as user friendly as possible. We’re on Facebook and MySpace, of course. And I’ve mentioned our YouTube page. That and Twitter are the big ones for us in terms of social networking sites and the like.

HENRY: Yeah, YouTube and Twitter are great, great tools. When we’re on the road we like taking movies and uploading them as soon as possible. I’ve had a lot of folks come up to me and talk about how they’re living vicariously through us while we travel, so I like to get those videos and blogs up about our time on the road.

AC: I loved the video for Julie. It reminded me of Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer”.

HENRY: I’m so glad you mentioned Peter Gabriel! His video for Sledgehammer was mentioned quite a bit while we were filming. The take we wound up using was filmed twice as slow as the actual recording, so when we sped it up to the proper speed it had have a very stop-motion, jerky quality to it. The first day of filming was fun, which is when we did the main shot with the red background and green screen. Jen and our friend Justin- the pair of hands on the right- as well as Chris March (the director) and Annie kept coming up with ways to torment me. Those kitty whiskers that Jen painted on my face were completely unexpected and we nearly lost the take because I started laughing, but it’s the take we ultimately used. It was one long shot with no cuts through to the middle eight of the song, so I had to wash my face and dry my hair so many times. I have to say, I was very clean that day. But yeah, we had a lot of fun with this video and working with Chris. Behind the camera, Annie and Chris kept egging me on to ham it up. We were all in good spirits, and it felt more like a big group project. The whole idea was kind of silly and it was a really, really fun video to shoot. It’s my favorite Aloud video so far.

AC: How much of your time is spent running the business end of the band, versus making music and doing the fun stuff?

HENRY: It’s a constant tightrope act, because you can’t neglect either. Our manager, Annie Burns, is an enormous help to us and does what she can to ease the burden of the business end of things. But, yeah, sometimes the business side can get very overwhelming. It’s difficult sometimes to focus on writing music you actually care about when your weekly schedule keeps distracting you.

JEN: It can be difficult. The main thing is to be creative with all of it. That’s tough to do all the time of course. If we’re ever taken with a flight of inspiration we stop all we’re doing and work on the song. You also have to set aside time during the week to hang out with friends, do new things or what will you ever have to write about? Generally, idleness is a good thing. It’s where you have space to be creative.

AC: What else do you want people to know about Aloud?

HENRY: Well, we’re planning on another tour by the end of the year, we’re working on writing and recording new material, playing CMJ in October… just generally keeping busy. And who knows, we may even be lucky enough to sneak in a quick vacation in there!

Do it now - check out the Aloud website.

Aaron Cheney is an artMUSICwords-guy living in Seattle, WA.

www.aaroncheney.com