Major League - Interviewed pre-show (December 8, 2012)

Major League, as you will find out in my next album review post, is one of my favorite bands. Despite that they are not a band I've listened to for years and years, they are still one I hold dear to me. I emailed them just days before the show (which I only found out about less than a week beforehand) and asked if they would do an interview with me. Nick emailed me back the same day and was incredibly gracious and agreed. We set up a time and a place and bam! Just like that, it was on.

The only thing I didn't predict was first losing my camera charge cord and then having a tape recorder break. Yeah, it felt a little like the world was out to make sure I didn't get a good recording of my interview. But that's okay, because what did we do before we had technology like video and audio recording? We used pen and paper. So that's what I did.* I've never been nervous during an interview before, but the combined lack of preparation that happened at the last minute and being in the presence of one of my favorite bands (not in a fan-girl way, just in an appreciative way) made me a little flustered. Enjoy learning a little more about Major League!

(If you've never heard of Major League or don't know them well, please visit the links below to view their different social pages and check out their music.)

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Photo by Shot by Nesha

How did you first get started and what made you choose the direction for your sound that you did?

We just started jamming and writing songs; threw it together. The pop punk thing just happened. We all came from hardcore or metalcore backgrounds; that's what we had played in different bands before we came together. It just worked and we're able to play what we want.

Do you feel like starting in New Jersey made things harder for you to break into the music scene?

Yes. In our area there wasn't a pop punk scene. It was a "harder" scene and then when it came to pop punk, bands like Man Overboard were becoming popular and being noticed so it was hard to break into that.

Do you feel like you've grown as a band and your sound has changed accordingly?

Yes. [Unanimous. Perhaps next time I'll add more depth to this question!]

Do you think your fans perceptions of you may have changed over the past few years?

People take us more seriously now. It's a good and bad thing. [Good because] Our parents perceptions have definitely changed and they take us a lot more seriously. They're proud. My dad thought we'd come crawling back but now he sees that we've made it out of the garage band thing. [Brian]

How do you feel about being named a pop-punk band? Is that a self-proclaimed genre or something fans have decided for you?

Photo by Shot by Nesha

Definitely fans. Really, it's all rock. We're playing rock and the titles are just sub-genres of rock. Everything is pop punk now. Title Fight is pop punk. Things on Tumblr are pop punk.  [Matt]  I hate genres. [Brian] Promoters and kids take it so seriously - everything gets based on genre. It used to be so much like one big thing - the music scene. Now kids come out to your shows and they judge you off your merch and it's not about having fun anymore. They stop looking at musicians now and it's about being prejudice against certain genres and only coming out to shows if the show is a genre they like.

Who writes most of the lyrics and the music and if it's not a total collaboration, how do you come to agreements?

Brian writes the lyrics and Matt does too sometimes. The lyric process is just what I feel and what's going on, life experiences. The rest is a group feeling. Everyone in the band has lost someone or been able to relate to something that a song is about. Nick will sometimes take lyrics and make a chorus from something I couldn't, trying to figure it out and arrange it.  Everyone writes their own music except with the last record where everyone had more input on it.

Please explain your writing process and how it has changed between albums, if it has.

Hard Feelings was totally different. Luke lives in Pittsburg so when we did The Split [with Giants at Large] and Hard Feelings recordings, we would use our phones to record and we would be emailing songs and it got to a point where Luke would hear the different parts of what we were doing and say "You'll hear the drums when I'm done."

Photo by Shot by Nesha

Do you feel like it's ever difficult to continue making a name for yourself as a band, while others seem to meld together under the pressure of the industry to make "popular" music?

You pay your dues. You make the music you want to make. People see you work hard and it all comes back to you. It's about respect especially in underground music. [Nick]

What, if anything, have you run into as a band that was difficult to overcome?

An accident where a truck ran into us.
But honestly nothing really - we keep going - every band goes through things. [Nick] We've been asked this before and it seems like everything comes out good or better in the end. [Matt] For every 3 things, 1 good thing happens. So after 2 things we're just waiting for the third bad thing to come and know that a good thing will be coming next. Always 3 and then 1 in that order.

Have you experienced any fallbacks or problems while recording?

With the new record. It was the most stressful, crazy thing with limited time. Only 4 weeks in the studio which was different and we hadn't heard everything together. Once we did, we didn't want to go that way and we literally spent the whole first week in the studio rewriting all the songs completely. For Nick, that meant spending 4 days on vocals with no time to relax or take a little break away from music and not think about it. It was just straight recording.

Do you feel like those things brought you closer and made the band even stronger?

Yes. Getting through certain things like the van being totaled and bouncing back the next day. As a band we can get through anything but it's good and bad. We can get cocky and think we're immortal.

Photo taken Dec 8 @ Baldwin Park show

When touring and playing live shows, do you feel lie it's hard to please all your fans? E.g. playing the songs they want to hear, meeting their expectations or meeting everyone who wants to say hi?

No, we ask if they want to hear certain songs and we try to make people happy. It's about the fans more than us. It's up to them what they want to hear.

What can fans expect from you in 2013? 

More of the new record. We want to play more of the new stuff. Last night [12/7] in Vegas, the kids rushed  to the front of the stage to hear Homewrecker right away and to sing along. It's a great feeling that kids want to hear our new stuff that much.

I'm curious as to how you guys personally feel about the way music sales have hanged, including illegal downloading, iTunes, Amazon, and other online music retailers. Does this totally ruin music or do you think this improves how easily and rapidly music reaches your fans ears?

Both. I hate that there is hardly any music stores anymore. It used to be a huge thing staying up and standing in line (like they do now for movie premieres at midnight) for a new record to drop. Kids miss out now, because it's not like that anymore. It's changed a lot. It helps bands in a way because when we're MIA kids can still download the stuff (illegally or not) and come out to our shows once they've heard it.

Do you think that online sales will eventually completely replace CD and vinyl sales?

Yes. It already has. I remember when Blink-182 self titled CD came out and I was a freshman I was there in line waiting for it and the next day you couldn't find it anywhere. That's how it was when albums dropped. But now when their last album came out, you saw it everywhere. Nobody was buying physical albums. It seems it's only at shows that people buy the actual albums. It's a big bummer.

*I tried to get things as perfectly as possible, so please excuse any paraphrasing or abruptness!

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Find Major League on Facebook, Twitter, and their website.

All photos noted with source by Shot by Nesha. Check her there on her website or on Facebook!

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Taking Back Sunday, Bayside, and Man Overboard (#TAYF10 Tour) at Club Nokia October 25, 2012)

The scene was a beautiful one: a crazy long line of people all lined up for the Taking Back Sunday #TAYF10 tour! A lot of these people were wearing merch and some of them even had TBS shirts from "back in the day," showing that they had likely been around from when the album was first released. Many Bayside fans also showed up, some excited to see the bands for the first time, while some had been to many shows and had more of a relaxed vibe as they waited in line. I didn't see any Man Overboard shirts, but I know there were many loyal fans out there in the crowd once the band went on later.

Personally, I've seen Taking Back Sunday twice: The Next Big Thing 6 (Tampa Bay 2006) and Warped Tour 2012 (My first Warped Tour this year in Pomona) and Bayside once at the same Warped Tour this past summer. I was beyond excited to get to see them, even though I felt a little nervous about the venue size, crowd, and the VERY small pit that they had given "limited" access to. (Which really meant as many people as they could fit in there without killing someone.)

After waiting in line and getting our pit access, my friend and I squeezed as close to the front as possible and waited for the show to start. There were so many people who were excited for Man Overboard to open. Although I hadn't been as long-term of a fan of them as others in the crowd, it was great to see how much excitement there was for them. Many people knew the lyrics to their music as they started playing, but the crowd didn't go nearly as crazy as I would soon witness. Now, I've been to a LOT of shows. I've been to shows in all sorts of venues with all kinds of music and different crowds and I've been hit in places I had to think about later (how?! why?!) but never have I seen a crowd like the one that night.

Bayside played a solid set to a sea of singing fans who knew the lyrics very well and it almost sounded like a live recording of their album. I was very pleased and glad to be part of a crowd who knew and apparently loved Bayside as much as I do! (A few people, not surprisingly, screamed out their love for, and desire to have the babies of Anthony.) They put on an even better set than the smaller one at Warped Tour, which I had thought was amazing, so that's saying something.

The crowd started pushing some towards the end of Bayside's set and a couple people attempted to crowd surf, which is apparently their way of showing appreciation for the music. Nobody seemed amused. When Taking Back Sunday took the stage, the change was enormous. Not only did everyone start shoving and "moshing" (I put it in quotations because these individuals have clearly never been to a hardcore show and were trying to mosh/circle pit but don't know what they are doing.) but the voices got louder and the excitement was even more clear.

On the upside, a great show was had and they played a great set, comparable with the one I saw at Warped Tour (with a much smaller crowd at Club Nokia) but the downsides were the tight space and people kicking and throwing elbows everywhere (even in the parts of the crowd you usually would be safe in) and one guy who tried to crowd surf to the stage 12 or 13 times in a row and didn't get kicked out. I would put the downsides mostly on the venue/security, because that's not really on the band. But I did get punched in the face so hard I thought my nose was broken, and my glasses were ripped off my face a few times. (Not the first time it's happened... La Dispute...)

All in all, great show.

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Metric and Half Moon Run @ The Greek Theater 10/9/12

     On a breezy evening in Los Angeles, California, Half Moon Run took the stage, kicking off the evening and opening up for a much anticipated Metric concert. The Montreal based band got the crowd excited, with songs off of their debut album (2012) Dark Eyes. Three talented guys make the group a strong trio, whose music has been described as both traditional folk and electronic. Whatever genre they may be placed in, they certainly have a unique sound. I had the pleasure of meeting the band briefly during intermission, at which time they shook my hand and although they were already engaged in conversation, they behaved like complete gentleman. For me personally, this added a certain charm to their observed on stage presence and their sound.

     As the seats filled post-intermission, you could clearly hear the buzz and excitement of all the fans of the Canadian born band, Metric. For most of the concert-goers on this Tuesday evening, it would be their first time seeing Metric perform live. That was true for myself, and I was beyond excited to get to see one of my favorite bands play. I wondered how they would handle the set-list, due to the fact that they had just released their newest album, Synthetica. And handle it well, they did! They managed to impress me greatly with a combination of songs from each of their albums, but understandably focusing on their last two: Fantasies being the one previously released three-four years ago.

     As they opened with the first song on Synthetica, "Artificial Nocturne," I was impressed to see and hear that the majority of the fans in the crowd knew the song well enough to sing along. This followed suit with each of the songs throughout the evening that the band played off of their new album. I clearly underestimated Metric's fanbase and their ability to swiftly memorize the lyrics. I was equally impressed with Emily Haine's stage presence and with her versatile voice that I had previously enjoyed for so many years on their albums.

    All in all, Metric's beautiful songs paired with the energy at the Greek Theater and with the beautiful light show, made for an unforgettable concert.

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