States

PropertyOfZack had the chance to sit down with Mindy White and Stephen Laurenson of States just last week at their first ever show in New York City and their second show of all time. Mindy, Stephen, and I discussed the reception to the band’s debut EP, their writing for a full-length, label possibilities, and much more. Read up and enjoy!
For the record, could you state your names and roles in States?
Mindy: I’m Stephen Laurenson and I sing.
Stephen: I’m Mindy White and I play guitar.
Mindy + Stephen: We are States.

So, just two days ago you guys played tour first show in Nashville. Can you talk about that first experience?
Mindy: It was awesome. My mom was all over the place. It was a home show, so we had family there.
POZ: Hayley and the Relient K guys too right?
Mindy: Yeah, we had friends there too. It’s so cool to see that support because we always go to their shows. It’s kind of nerve-wracking because they’re really good friends of ours, but honestly, having Hayley in the crowd was like, “Well, here we go. We have this girl with angels in the throat watching me sing.”
Stephen: Angels in the throat?
Mindy: Yeah dude, she’s awesome. It was great though. For us, I think it was the best feeling in the world to have the first show and to have people around you that love you.
Stephen: Both Mindy and I live in Nashville and it was just awesome to see that kind of support from friends and family. Even the turnout. I think we were all just pretty excited.
Mindy: Pretty shocked. Nashville is a really bad market for shows and no one really goes to shows.
Stephen: I set my expectations kind of low. It felt great; I had a lot of fun. Definitely had some hiccups, but for the first show I couldn’t have asked for a better one.

How did it feel up there compared to your previous bands?
Mindy: Amazing. It’s like sleeping and then like partying. Now we’re partying.
Stephen: It is. Both of our previous bands were a little more mellow.
Mindy: Nap time. It was great. We had fun up there. We work so well together. Besides the music difference it’s just like working together as a band. It’s so much more fun.
Stephen: I think we’re all just suckers for pop music. We loved being in our previous bands, but I think we’re doing things a little different and maybe a little bit more fun; upbeat. It’s a blast. It’s a lot of fun.

Tonight kicks off the real start of the tour in Manhattan and then you guys will be going out with Anberlin for a few dates. How did those shows come together?
Stephen: Our management also manages Anberlin and we’ve been long time friends with Anberlin. We’ve known them for ten+ years. It kind of fell together. They had a headline tour for their new record and one of the opening acts couldn’t make a couple of dates and we were doing this, so it just worked out.
POZ: Those will be a lot bigger venues so those will be great.
Stephen: Yeah, those will be some really cool ones. One of them is the TLA in Philadelphia and I think that might be my favorite venue in the country.
Mindy: This way I can crowd surf all the way back to merch as soon as we get done. I don’t even have to walk.
Stephen: And there’s a philly cheese steak place across the street. I’ll probably eat there for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It’s so good.
Mindy: There’s a vegan place out there that I’m going to that has vegan chilly steaks. Chilly steaks? It’s a new thing. Philly cheese steaks.

There’s only six songs on the EP, so will we be hearing a lot of unreleased stuff?
Mindy: We’re going to play the six songs twice. We’ll have twelve. I’m just kidding. We’re playing some new songs and we’re doing one cover that we can’t say what it is.
POZ: Justin Bieber.
Stephen: Dangit, it is! We’re playing three or four new ones and then a cover.

How has Line ‘Em Up been received so far?
Mindy: That was another thing. I think we didn’t really set any expectations for that because we were kind of scared, kind of nervous. We didn’t know what to think about it, we just wanted it to do what it was going to do and it stayed on the top of the charts on iTunes and Amazon and we were just blown away. These are songs that we recorded in Brain, our guitarist’s, apartment. We did it all on our own, we didn’t have any label or a publicity. We don’t have that help. We did it all on our own so that kind of really showed us our fans are so loyal. It means the world to us because we couldn’t sell it without our fans obviously. It was amazing.
Stephen: These were demos and we were like, “Let’s track these. These sound decent. Let’s put it together and make an EP out of it.” I remember going to bed and thinking, “Man, it would be really cool to sell enough for the charts, but it probably won’t go anywhere.” When I woke up it was like 50-something and then it started climbing. It blew me away. It was awesome. It was great.

What were some of your influences for some of the tracks? I can definitely hear some Metric.
Mindy: That’s a great thing then [Laughs]. Metric is one of my favorite bands ever. I love Emily Haines. I’ve listened to every type of music ever, but my favorite to sing to has been pop music. I grew up loving N’SYNC and Britney Spears, but I never wanted to do the cheese ball, like written for me lyrics. Coming together with these guys, the music is so much cooler than regular pop-rock music, so I think it’s completely different. I think it’s different than a lot of stuff that’s out right now.
Stephen: I grew up pretty much solely on The Carpenters and The Beatles, so I just always had that kind of pop sense. I definitely love the previous music that our bands got to make, but I really feel like this is some of the stuff that I’ve always wanted to write. I love it.

I believe you guys went to Florida to record, how was that?
Mindy: It was awesome. It was hot.
Stephen: I like Florida people, but I don’t really like Florida that much. It was fun. We just tracked everything in an apartment with about 500 bucks worth of gear and a couple amps and mics and just did it in about a week or two. We tracked drums out of a studio. It was really fun. It was just the three of us for the most part. It’s just fun to get to wake up in the morning and hang out and be like, “Let’s track some stuff.” There wasn’t any pressure. There wasn’t a deadline. We didn’t have a label be like, “Let’s hear the singles.” We just got to write some music.
Mindy: I really liked going out to the car and warming up and then making sure that the thermostat was off. It was funny, but so personal. When I listen to that record now, the magic that Bryan did to it, it sounds pretty awesome.

You guys obviously wanted to give everybody a little taste, but are you writing for a full-length?
Stephen: Yeah, we’ve been writing a ton for the past several months and we have a bunch of new tracks. The EP, three of four of the songs were literally the first things we ever did.
Mindy: Experimentation.
Stephen: I feel like we’ve gotten a little bit more of our sound that we want. I’m really excited. We’ve got a fair amount of ideas and we’re gonna spend the next month or two after this run writing a little bit more and then hopefully in early January go into it. We’ll probably do it a little different this time though. It was fun doing it on our own, but I think we want to incorporate a producer and do it on a little bit more of a traditional route.
POZ: Is a late spring release possible?
Stephen: Late spring, early summer.
Mindy: We’ll shoot for that.
Stephen: Earlier the better, but it just depends on how things move.

I think I read that you guys recorded some acoustic tracks too. Might we see those?
Stephen: Yeah, we did a couple acoustic tracks and threw them on some thumb drives for a couple contestant winners for each one of these shows and they can do what they want with it. We don’t really have plans on releasing them, but if they want to leak them we’re totally cool for it. I always thought it’d be a cool thing to go to a show and get exclusive music. They might wind up on the internet or we might leak them eventually. I think I actually like one of the versions of the acoustic songs better then the actual version.
Mindy: Stephen’s going to leak them [Laughs], so if anybody wants them, just look for Stephen.

As soon as the project was announced people automatically started discussing labels. I’m sure you’ve obviously been in contact, but is there any shopping happening?
Mindy: I don’t know. I feel like at this point, no offense to them, but I don’t know if there’s anything out there right now that’s worth it at this point.
Stephen: We’re not throwing out any ideas. If the right people came along and we meshed, sure, we might go along, but it’s been fun to be our own bosses. I think we don’t really have a clear path set for this. We’re willing to go where it takes us.
Mindy: I want to work with someone, whether it’s a label or not, who’s as passionate as we our about the music. I don’t care who they are, where they’re from, our how much money they’re going to give us. That stuff obviously matters, but I just want someone to care. You can be on the best label with a ton of money, but if the people don’t care you’re not gonna get anything from it.
Stephen: They also don’t know how to market you. There’s some really awesome people who work for big labels and we’ll see. Unfortunately it’s dollar signs. People say, “Is this marketable?” and then it becomes that way. If we find people that are passionate about us and are music lovers, I’m into the idea.

Might we see scattered dates towards the end of the year at all?
Stephen: Maybe a few.
Mindy: We just got an offer today.
Stephen: We’ve gotten an offer. We might. I think our big focus is just writing. We really want to do a full-length. If they’re shows that are worthwhile then we might jump on. There might be a couple. There won’t be any touring until probably spring of next year.
POZ: And then should we just expect constant touring?
Mindy: Oh yeah, we’re going to be touring full-time hopefully. We even talked about maybe going overseas first. This was kind of like the tour for the EP. I think we might go straight overseas.
Stephen: Copeland used to go overseas and the response was always amazing. Kids are just so awesome in Japan and Australia and stuff. We definitely have a lot of kids say that they’ve gotten the EP someway and love it. We’d love to go overseas at some point next year. We’ll be touring as much as possible after we track our full-length.

What’s been the biggest shift from Copeland and Lydia to States?
Mindy: For me, one, I’m not sitting at a piano and just singing really falsetto soft stuff. I’m moving around the stage and belting stuff, so it’s a lot different in that sense. It’s also different in writing. In Lydia there were two guys who primarily wanted to write all the music. On Illuminate, our last album, I was able to do a little bit of writing, but not much at all. In this band it’s like we came together and everyone has an equal share. Everyone has ideas and it’s just awesome. It’s actually how it’s supposed to be. It’s a huge 180 being in States.
Stephen: I think for me, I jumped on the Copeland bandwagon, not late, but in ’06, so I had about four years with them and Brian and Aaron were much of the writing force behind Copeland. I’d write my own parts, but in terms of songs and stuff not much. So I definitely love being able to write and be a little more creative on that side. Just the music styles different and playing live is a totally different feel. I’m still playing guitar but,
Mindy: It’s more fun.
Stephen: It is. I enjoy this a lot. I loved Copeland, but I have a lot of fun playing this for sure.

Thanks so much for your time, is there anything else you’d like to add?
Mindy: Come see us, and freaking thanks to everybody who supported the EP and are just now finding out about us. We’re stoked to come tour everywhere.
Stephen: Check us out on www.Statesmusic.com.
Mindy: And Twitter, @Statesmusic. All those social networks.

Sainthood - Tegan and Sara

Tegan and Sara, those two Canadian identical twins whom have joined the indie-pop cruise around the music world release their 6^th LP amd om the outset it promises to be an excellent transformation from Under Feet Like Ours back in 1999. The twins have joined forces, once again, with Death Cab for Cutie guitarist, Chris Walla, on their development from teenage indie rock to a more adult music scene as they delve into darker and deeper subjects, yet still revolving around their common themes through their songs over the last 10 years - love and relationships. Over their 10 years of experience in the music industry, they are the hidden pioneers of indie rock and pop and now have grown into their own, after the hit album in 2007, The Con. Upon witnessing the surge to success of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs with Fever to Tell and It's Blitz, Tegan Quin and identical twin, Sara Quin, release their own record to mark the sudden mainstream popularity of indie rock and pop.

As producers tell fans that they should be prepared for a new and radical change from vintage Tegan and Sara, even more so that when The Con was released, this is supposedly the first record where both Tegan and Sara have written the album in unison. However, this does not seem to be the case with 2009's Sainthood. Fans have acknowledged the two distinct composing styles of Tegan and Sara; either siding towards Tegan's pop-oriented songs with a major focus of lyrics or Sara's deeper and more complex compositions, both musically and lyrically. This seems to be a constant throughout Sainthood as well, yet their content in different from their origins and for the better, especially in the mainstream music industry that the majority of society lives in, making it a more accessible record than previous ones.

Sainthood opens with Arrow, and is distinctively a Sara track with the opening synth lines. It provides a deeper and more 'adult' opening for an album with the repeating metaphor, 'feathers of an arrow' and truly sets the tone for Sainthood and their path to 'perfection'. Yet, Tegan still steals the majority of the album with her radio-friendly tracks as she writes those nice power-pop tracks with the ease of listening and mainstream popularity. Hell becomes the first single off the record, and the other obvious Tegan tracks would likely follow including In Directing, The Cure; Tegan's tribute to the Cure, which mimics the keyboard lines from their 1989 album Disintegration and the track Lovesong, and the new-wave/power-punk influenced track - Northshore. Nonetheless, Sara's musical talent is still clearly evident on Sainthood, with more probably would be the second single on the record - Alligator and a wonderful outro to Sainthood, the 1-2 punch of Sentimental Tune and Someday. This finale of the record shows glimpses of what Tegan and Sara would be like if they wrote together, yet this may dishearten hardcore fans, who want songs of the past. But, Tegan and Sara have taken the other path of the Y-intersection, into the future and as they reach 10 years writing and performing in the music industry and hitting their mid-30s soon, truly have shown the maturity to write an excellent album as a whole, while still writing about love, sex and relationships and still keeping in touch with fellow indie-pop stars, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

8/10

The Get Up Kids - Something To Write Home About

So, this is a pretty good record I must say and after purchasing the 10th anniversary CD/DVD with a live performance of the entire album, this will be a good band to check out if you are attending Soundwave Festival 2010, pending the timetable annoucement (I know there's gonna be at least one clash because the lineup is so AMAZZZIINNG!!).

Opening with Holiday, it sets a punk-inspired alternative rock album with some easily identifiable pop-punk sounds. The vocals give their genre away, and some pop-punk rhythms help us rock out to the track. And gee... wouldn't we all like to be on a holiday right now?

Here, come out the alternative rock of TGUK with Action & Action with a pop-punk riff mixed with a synth and keyboards. This style follows with several tracks, Red Letter Day, the uptempo Ten Minutes and I'm a Loner Dottie, a Rebel...

Evidently, we see the influence that TGUK have on many modern bands, and following on from the gothic rock and metal scene in the 80s, they form the backbone of the second wave of Emo, as cited by pop-Emo group - Fall Out Boy.

But of course, any great album needs to have contrast and change, to make those singles and iconic songs on the record stand out. We are introduced to this lower tempo indie rock through Valentine and even more so with Out of Reach with its soothing acoustic guitar, which is very well recorded with the emphasised bass notes and slides.

The lyrics throughout the album, make it a very enjoyable and meaningful album, shown in Out of Reach - "Out of sight. Out of mind. Out of reach... Start over..." Even in the high tempo punk inspired Ten Minutes, "It's like I've fallen in love, while I just fall apart." lyrics have a strong role in the song.

Beautifully, the album's end starts with a cover of The Cure's Close To Me, which I would almost listen to instead of the original, except that they are missing one key factor - Robert Smith's vocals. Finally, Something To Write Home About ends with a maginificent outing track. It begins with its beautiful piano arpeggios and faint electric guitar. Lyrics clearly want to be heard, and the assurance given that I'll Catch You means that we'll always have Something To Write Home About.

7.5/10

Next, I'm feeling towards AFI's new record Crash Love.

Nada Surf - The Weight Is A Gift Part 3

Comes A Time

A relaxing song, with slow tempo and soothing guitar arpeggios and melodies. I mean, the lyrics and great and work really well with his tone of singing. “Comes a time when you can’t judge no more” talks about the fact that there is a point in life where we become the lone figure and we are the ones being judged instead of judging other people to me.

In the Mirror

An up tempo song relative to the previous track, it sets into the mood of the song soon with lyrics coming in within the opening bars. The double tracked guitar lines work well with the simple percussion as the lyrics and recurrent rhythm melody, “I need a reminder of what I’m doing, I need a reminder that I’m human” tells me that once in a while we’ve gotta stop living and just see what we’ve done. What mistakes we’ve made, what bad choices we’ve made, because that essentially means that we are human.

Armies Walk

Soft guitar introduction with another simple bassline and percussion works well, but not a huge fan of this track, it seems more like a filler track and doesn’t really tell its own story.

Imaginary Friends

A great way to finish the album, we see a strong overdriven rhythm guitar lead the way of the final track of the album, as his soothing voice contrasts the melody with its strangely high range  as he tells us, ” Today, don’t want no one to tell me how it ends, meaning that he just wants to be alone and we need times like this in our lives.

A true indie rock record.

7/10

Nada Surf - The Weight Is A Gift Part 2

What Is Your Secret?

I love this song. I really do. Mix of simple guitar chords and piano melodies offer great assistance to the lyrics of the song. He really just states the reality of life that everyone has secrets and although they’ll always come out, he’d given up on finding out that kind of shit proven as he says “I don’t care about you anymore, people don’t care anymore.”

Your Legs Grow

Alright, this songs uses lots of dubs and works well with the song vocals. Essentially all he says is that he looks forwards and not backwards… ain’t that true bout love. Also, love it and saying that forget the bad stuff cos “Your Legs Grow”.

All Is A Game

This a is great song and sometimes i go way too deep for this one. Again, i love this kind of unique guitar tone he uses, slightly overdriven but still gets the clean and almost acoustic. Anyway, going deep for the time being, he really puts it right – “Is the weight of your own life too much for you?” and this line ties in with the album title: The Weight Is A Gift. Too right.

Blankest Year

This song became pretty famous after i listened to it, and really all he says is ’screw life, i’m gonna have fun.’ This is a true indie rock song with that rhythm guitar and well selected percussion. Ultimately, this track is just laid back and a really fun song to sing to – “Oh… Fuck it, I’m gonna have a party!”

Nada Surf - The Weight Is A Gift Part 1

Wow, great album. Their best album. Easily. Caws’ unique voice and lyrical writing shows the band’s prowess in developing into one of the better indie/alternative independent artists out there a well as his accompaniment from Elliot and Lorca on drums and bass.

Concrete Bed

The opening track is fitting with their love-based album The Weight Is A Gift and its predominant lyric “To find someone you love, you gotta be someone you love” shows its deep yet simple meaning – Only your OWN heart knows what it wants you know? There’s no stopping that. The musical composition is excellent as well, showing their new and unique version of indie rock with great rhythm acoustic guitar.

Do It Again

This song is another great rhythm song and I felt that when listening to this album, this song made it as a really good driving track. It has the album title’s lyric – “maybe this weight was a gift” and it makes so much sense; having a burden on your shoulders is a good thing, whether it be love or a friendship, it’s worth it. Funny as it is my friend actually interpreted as literal weights in the gym so now I get to tease him. Clearly, he’s what I would call a music person.

Always Love

This again is a good song, which still hasn’t demonstrated as of yet, their unique indie sound but is my personal favourite track on the record as it really sums up choices in life in a few lines – “To make a mountain of your life is just a choice.” Composed well with the soft guitar tone and then an overdriven verse as it simply compares those two great opposing emotions – hate and love with great assistance by Elliot on percussion. Be careful kids, this choice is between having a hill or Everest on your shoulders.