Interviews
You may have heard of Michigan based band Last Night Saved My Life, and if you haven’t you need to check them out. They recently released their latest single, “Ghost”, and it is one that we cannot get enough of. The song has so many different elements to it that makes each listening experience unique; the composition of the melody and the layering of the different instruments, mixed with beautiful lyrics, makes it one for the ages. Last Night Saved My Life is comprised of Wilson Shaner (vocals), Justin Burns (lead guitar), Riley Hupfer (rhythm guitar), Ryne Weber (bass), and Eric Cousins (drums). We had a great time speaking with Wilson, Justin & Riley! This was a super fun interview and we hope you enjoy it! WCBG: Thanks so much for speaking with us, we greatly appreciate it! Can you please introduce yourselves and tell us a fun fact about you? Wilson: Hello, I’m Wilson and I am the lead singer of the band. A fun fact about me…it’s not really a fun fact. I’m allergic to fresh fruits and vegetables, which makes it hard because I’m also a vegetarian. Justin: Hi, I’m Justin and I play guitar. I have two fun facts, one is I have a twin brother, and the other is that the band is in Michigan and I’m in Jersey. Riley: Hello, I am Riley and I play rhythm guitar in the band. My spirit animal is a squirrel. WCBG: How did you pick your respective instruments and decide your role in the band? Riley: I’ll go first. When I was 14, my parents got me a guitar for Christmas when I asked for a PlayStation. But now it’s like my favorite thing. Justin and I originally would alternate between lead and rhythm guitar on our songs and we realized it didn’t make sense, so it happened pretty naturally. Justin: Ideally, I’d be the drummer, but they won’t let me. I would hang out with my neighbor and his older brother would play the guitar so when I went over his house, I would ditch my friend and watch his older brother play the guitar. I was super interested in it and I have a habit of being super interested and invested in something for like two weeks, so my parents didn’t want to buy me a guitar. I finally convinced them and here we are. Wilson: If I could choose, I would play the guitar and sing but we don’t really need me to do that. I like to be more interactive when we perform so it makes more sense for me not to play the guitar. I actually started as a drummer and then I switched to guitar. I never thought I would be the singer of a band; I started singing near the end of high school and then I was later asked to be the singer for the band. WCBG: Describe your sound for us in three words. LNSML: Toaster Strudel Pop WCBG: What are you currently listening to? Justin: A lot of Four Year Strong and Silverstein, as well as Knocked Loose and Kevin Garret. Wilson: Hot Mulligan’s new album, Between You & Me and lots of podcasts. Like Armchair Experts with Dax Shepard. Also, The Maine and their podcast as well. Riley: The Maine, Ben Rector, and Bears Den. WCBG: What’s the scene like in Michigan? Wilson: It’s strong in Detroit, there are several really good venues there like in Pontiac. We got to play a Sad Summer date there last year. I would say it’s less pop-punk driven. We are super lucky to have two sides of the state with great venues and people that come out to support us. We are pretty lucky to have that. WCBG: What is your favorite venue that you’ve performed in? Justin: I would say the date at Sad Summer Wilson: That was probably my favorite show, it was packed and the energy was crazy. For venues I’d have to say The Intersection in Grand Rapids. WCBG: What is your opinion of releasing an artist’s unreleased music after they’ve passed away, should it be released or should it not? Wilson: I think it depends on who the artist was. If it was up to me and we had unreleased songs I would want them to be released since we worked hard on them. It would be upsetting if it existed and no one was able to hear it. Justin: I think if it was tasteful, if there was someone who knew the artist and what they liked and were able to finish it and develop it. WCBG: This question came about because of the Little Peep songs that kind of sound like unfinished bedroom demos. Wilson: We have some demos that I wouldn’t want released since they didn’t live up to what we thought they would be. WCBG: If you could change one thing about the music industry, as it is today, what would it be and why? Wilson: The politics of the scene. It’s hard to come across opportunities for tours or big festivals since it is all based on connections. I understand why, there are companies and groups that work together and support each other. I wish that it was more open to more artists that deserve to be discovered. Riley: As a smaller band right now, there are certain areas that are hard to break in to. We try to build a following and a platform. We can’t just work hard and make good music. Wilson: Some of it is luck. There so many bands that are really good and you don’t know about them unless you’re deep in it. WCBG: What is your opinion of streaming services like Spotify? Riley: I feel like a lot of people talk about this based on the previous question. I would say the lack of album sales. I find a lot of the artists I listen to through streaming and I do still purchase albums. There a pros and cons financially; it’s a great platform to be discovered. Justin: The playlists are a plus. The curated playlists are really good for exposure. Wilson: It makes it accessible for people to gain access to so much music. At the same time there is a lot of noise and it is hard to break through and get people to find you. We have been lucky to get on those playlists a couple of times. It’s hard since there are a couple of people curating them and if they don’t like your sound then you won’t be featured. It’s not determined by the masses. I love the algorithmic playlists like the Daily Mix. It’s almost always stuff I want to hear. WCBG: Can you tell us how your album, Cherry, came to be? Wilson: We found a producer, Seth Henderson (Knuckle Puck, Real Friends); we liked his sound and tone. He worked on our EP, “Outgrown” with us that came out in 2018. I love that EP, but I feel like we could have done better, maybe if we had more song options. We went in with 5 songs written and we recorded those 5 songs. If we had written a ton more than we could have recorded the best of the best. We changed the way we write for the album. In the past we would all be in the room and come up with an idea and try to write all of our parts at the same time, it became so chaotic. Now we demo the songs as we write them this way we can have the ideas down and be able to hear it back. Sometimes we change the vocals or some of the layers or other parts. For the album we have over 20 song options and we were way more prepared. We wanted it to sound fun and different but also familiar enough to draw people in. We wanted the album to be engaging to catch people’s attention. I asked Derek (DiScanio) from State Champs if he wanted to be a part of this protect. He ended up co-producing the album with Seth. He was there with us through almost the whole thing. It was about a month in Indiana. WCBG: What is your favorite part of a song you’ve written? Justin: ‘Undone’ would have to be my favorite. It’s the song I had the biggest contribution for. I flew home that weekend to help write and in about an hour we had the full song structure down. I think it was the fastest song we had written, and it didn’t really change much throughout the process. The tone, the lyrics and the output were exactly what I envisioned. Riley: The ending of ‘Undone’. They let me experiment a bit with some spacey, melodic guitar stuff. I also loved writing our latest song, ‘Ghost.’ Wilson: The lyrics to ‘I Was Somebody’ were some of the most honest lyrics I had written. It’s cool to see the connection people have to that song. WCBG: Can you tell us about your latest release, ‘Ghost.’ Wilson: It almost made Cherry. Riley: It is one of our sadder melancholier songs. We worked with Nick Deener on it and he added some banjo to the track. It started off as an acoustic song and then we added in some cello and other fun stuff. It was a bit different for us. WCBG: What are your goals for 2020? LNSML: To put out a few singles and do some touring. We have some dates booked and we are hoping everything will go as planned. We also started writing again. And we are going to do some more podcasts. Check out their podcast, Lifesavers Podcast, here. Follow Last Night Saved My Life on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook. And of course buy merch! Check out their music here!
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Chase Petra is a Long Beach, California based band that is blending genres in a way that sets them apart from others. Their album, Liminal, focused on the perils of growing up and experiencing the world as we get older. Chase Petra’s music is catchy and emotional with deeper meaning hidden in each layer of their tracks. The band is comprised of Hunter Allen (vocals and guitar), Evan Schaid (drums), and Brooke Dickson (bass guitar and vocals). We have recently been obsessed with their music and we are super stoked to share this interview with!
WCBG: Thank you so much for speaking with us, we are hyped to have you here! Can you please introduce yourselves and tell us a fun fact about you? Evan: Hello, I’m Evan and I enjoy looking at candy in bulk on Amazon. Hunter: I am Hunter and I have a cat named Styx who is the love of my life. Brooke: I’m Brooke and instead of a crazy cat lady I aspire to be a crazy dog lady. WCBG: We have a question that was asked at our freshman orientation that we love asking people. If you could be any utensil in the kitchen what would you be and why? Brooke: The big scary knife so everyone knows what they’re dealing with…I’m talking murder. Hunter: A kettle because I like fire. Evan: A coffee maker since it’s the only thing I know how to use. WCBG: What music are you currently listening to? Hunter: Caroline Polachek. It’s apocalyptic pop, which is very fitting for what’s going on. Also, Hayley Williams Petal for Armor. Oh, and this Boy Genius song. Brooke: I have a quarantine playlist it’s like scary zombie apocalypse quarantine music that sounds like it’s the end of the world. Music like old Cold War Kids from like the first two records, everything sounds like it’s constantly falling apart and it’s not afraid to be gritty, ugly, and dirty. Evan: When I listen to music, I try to find bands I really like. It’s been a lot of B sides from bands I enjoy. A lot of music that’s like a little under math rock—elementary school math rock—tricky phrasing not tricky playing. WCBG: How did you pick your respective instruments? Brooke: My dad taught me and my sister how to play the guitar when we were little. My sister stuck with it and I didn’t like that the strings were so small and hurt my fingers. Then I saw the movie School of Rock and saw that the bass player was a girl and I just thought it was so cool that you can do that. It’s such a stupid, simple concept and in my mind as a young kid it was revolutionary to be a girl and a bass player. I really liked how low it is [in sound] and I told my dad that I wanted to play bass. So, he took me to Guitar Center, and I got one for my 10th birthday. Evan: I thought drums was cool—it’s still cool. My brother plays guitar and it made sense for me to play drums. You sit behind the drums and I think there’s a part of everyone that has rhythm and everyone and anyone can do it. Hunter: I’ve been singing since I was a kid. My dad is a musician and we immediately started writing songs. My dad would record them with me and eventually he tried to teach me how to play the guitar. At this point I didn’t want to do it and then it was in 8th grade and I was listening to All Time Low and I wanted to be able to do that myself. WCBG: What’s your writing process like? Hunter: We are trying new ways of going about it. In the beginning I had a plethora of songs written and we would go into studio, I would play the song and we would learn it part by part and arrange it together. Now we try to write the song together in the studio. Brooke is getting more involved in the lyric writing. We are trying to switch it up to see what works. Brooke: It’s fun to write all together. Evan will set a challenge for us, so we try to write a song to try to do this thing that we haven’t done before. I love that we get to work from the ground up all together. It also shows the growth of our band. Evan: The first go around with our full-length Hunter came in and brought in these songs and we would flush them out. This time around it’s a personal goal of mine to try to write and hear songs already recorded in my head before we record them so production is done before we record so we can have an idea of what it will come out as. It’s been fun to write together, and I love it! WCBG: What is your favorite part of a song you’ve written? Brooke: In “See You Next Tuesday” we have a transition section into the outro chorus that we took forever one day figuring out what the counts. We were going for this weird transition, but we figured it out and it’s just this weird transition it’s like a bar of 7 into…I don’t know. We try to count it, if we do it’s a problem so we don’t. I get to do a fun little bouncy bass line that I enjoy. Evan: the song “Contractual” is still my go to. It’s one of the oldest things we’ve ever done and it’s still my favorite thing. The way we orchestrated that song, we wanted to keep it tight and it never opens up until the bridge. It’s this sense of relief for me. Hunter: Overall my favorite song is “In an Emergency Such as the End of the World.” It consistently feels like…it’s just a fun song and I like it a lot. About the new things we’ve written, and speaking of trying new things, the bridge in “Paranormal.” It felt like the first step into doing things that weren’t like what we’ve done before. Evan: The new stuff could be some of my new favorite stuff too. We finished song last week and we can’t wait to release it. WCBG: Describe your sound in 3 words. Evan: quarter-life crisis rock Brooke: honest, fun, powerful Hunter: from the heart WCBG: You guys are travelling together in the van, what are three songs that must be in your playlist?
WCBG: What’s the scene like in California? Chase Petra: The scene is interesting. LA feels pretty good, Long Beach is not quite what it once was; it’s not a younger crowd. There are a couple of cliques around our city that we don’t fall into. We can’t break into them here, so we play a lot in LA. We are not super tuned into what’s considered the most trendy—it seems to be sort of a fusion of genres like things seem to be getting more sound cloud hip hop like. There’s a kind of like Burger Records lo-fi surf-punk scene that transitioned into regular old emo again. There’s a big punk scene in Long Beach and we are more aggressive rock not necessarily “punky.” It’s a blend of lo-fi with a lot of different genres. WCBG: What are your plans for the new decade of 2020? Chase Petra: For the band to tour Hunter: To get a job as a substitute teacher. Evan: To get my masters and live on my own and get really good at recording drums. Do session work and be in this band. Brooke: To find career stability, financial stability, and to become a self-sufficient wood worker and maker of things and also to become good at all the instruments I’m not so good at. Oh, and to be a good friend! You can follow Chase Petra on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter Check out their music here The Everafter are a Yonkers based pop-punk band that are taking the world by storm. The band is comprised of Cora Small (vocals), Rich Rivera (rhythm guitar), Ryan Lare (lead guitar) and Danny Nugent (drums). We spoke with Cora and Danny about their latest EP, Where I Came From and their goals for the future. It was a pleasure speaking to fellow New Yorkers about their journey in the music scene! WCBG: Thanks, so much for speaking with us, we really appreciate it! Can you tell us a little bit about you? Danny: Cora and I are from Long Island and we go to college in Westchester County. Our band formed in Yonkers, so we claim that we are a Yonkers based band. WCBG: If you could be any utensil in the kitchen what would you be and why? Cora: A knife so I could cut a b**** Danny: Um… Cora: A spatula, no wait a plate since people pile a lot of stuff on you. I could be the decorations. WCBG: How did you become a band? Cora: We all have musical backgrounds in one form or another. Rich, Ryan, and Danny are all part of the music program at Mercy [College]. I was the president of the Acapella group at Mercy. So, we all met through music and we realized we had a vibe going together. We connected well and we actually wrote our first EP in about two weeks. We all love music and have that passion for it. WCBG: [directed at Cora] How did you know you wanted to sing and [Danny] how did you know you wanted to play the drums? Cora: I play a few instruments. Everyone in my family sings, it comes naturally to me. I love it and have a passion for it. When I sing, I feel right, it’s always been there. Danny: I took an interest in music when I was about 7 or 8. I started taking community guitar lessons when I was younger. Then one year for Christmas or for my birthday my parents got me a drum set. I do still play guitar and bass. WCBG: What music are you currently listening to? Cora: I have a very broad range of genres I listen to. I love State Champs, Neck Deep, Knuckle Puck as well as, John Mayer, The Beatles and Taylor Swift. Danny: The classics. My favorite band is Bayside, I always go back to emo roots like Taking Back Sunday. It changes day to day. A lot of upcoming bands we play with or want to play with. We just opened for Sleep On It, Bearings, Between You And Me, Neverkept so a lot of them. Cora: Hot Mulligan Danny: Stand Atlantic as well. WCBG: What is your favorite part of a song you’ve written? Danny: Track 4 of our last EP, Where I Came From, “Self Assured.” The drums that I like to play and write the most are the most technical parts. The first verse is my favorite, the structured part with the fills. Cora: The 2nd verse of “In Between” when I say, “the pull of my sheets are stronger than me.” Can I spoil? Danny: Sure Cora: We have a song we are working on and I’ve been obsessing over this lyric I wrote “if you break the bones, the skin won’t show like it used to, layers of white over black and blue.” The demo isn’t done yet, I’m just really excited for it. WCBG: What’s studio recording like for you guys? Do you prepare or is it more spur of the moment? Cora: They prepare… Danny: I do a bunch of jumping jacks, I’ll put on an anthemic pop punk song to get in the right mindset. Coffee is big since we record ourselves, we don’t outsource. We record in the school studio; it’s a student run and student book studio. We normally have two days to record. Danny: Cora shows up in pajamas. Cora: I’ve slept in the studio before, I also bring a pillow and blankets. Danny: We go in for 14 hours, so I have to track about four songs a day. Cora: To prepare I avoid all dairy, alcohol or caffeine. I do a 5 min vocal warmup from this video by this guy on YouTube, I do it twice. I also do some neck stretches. I also have to take off my shoes; if I have shoes on I won’t get a good take. I also dance a lot around the studio. I have to mentally prepare myself to be in a box for a lot of hours. Danny: We discovered when we were writing one day, Cora was having a lot of rough vocal takes—she was very in her head about it. Once, she took her shoes off…it was one of our best writing days. WCBG: Describe your sound in 3 words? The Everafter: Energetic, Up-beat (instrumentally), and modern WCBG: What musicians inspire you to be a better musician? Danny: State Champs, Stand Atlantic, and Neck Deep Cora: Taylor Swift and Joan Jett or Janis Joplin. Being a woman in a male dominated music scene I get a confident boost from watching powerful women in the music scene. State Champs inspire me performance wise, sometimes I hear their songs and I’m like I have to go write something. Danny: Some mid-tier bands, our best friends in Goalkeeper in Philly inspire me on a daily basis. We can talk about all of our band friends for hours. Cora: There’s nothing better than touring with people you love. WCBG: What’s the local scene like? The Everafter: It’s interesting, non-traditional, especially for local pop punk. Long island is huge in the local music market. Yonkers caught us by surprise. It’s much smaller but not smaller in the sense that people are less into the scene; there are less bands and a lot less entities supporting the scene. The support here is intense, in the scene everyone is so supportive of everyone. We have this crazy support system. They all help out when someone else is down—they’re genuine. It never gets boring there’s never the same sounding band and that’s awesome. It is typically, unknown in the regional touring market and has a more DIY feel. Everyone is so professional in the way they present themselves. WCBG: If you could change one thing about the music industry what would it be and why? Danny: streaming revenue, not because we are in it to make money. It is very hard as an up and coming band to remain financially stable and to have as much available time in the day to make everything happen. From an artist standpoint we rely on touring and merch sales to make any revenue back. I know it is in the process of becoming an artist focused payout. Cora: The over sexualization of women in the scene. I talk about this in the song, “Self Assured.” I’m always told that sex sells and that I should dye my hair blonde and wear tighter clothes. I don’t feel like I have to do that; if that’s your style then go for it. It shouldn’t be about telling artists what they have to do to make it. I also get talked down to a lot. I’ve been kicked out of my own shows before because I’m a woman. We would go in early for load in and I’d be told “no honey you can’t just be a merch girl you have to actually be in the band.” The women I look up to are women that don’t do that. An example would be Hayley Williams every single guy in this genre that’s their crush—a lot of girls too. When they [Paramore] started their career, she wasn’t wearing skimpy things. It gets really annoying and I think it’s damaging for young girls to be told these things. WCBG: What is your favorite album in your personal collection? Danny: Wow that’s really hard. Cora: I’m looking at all my CD’s in front of me. I would have to say John Mayer’s In Your Atmosphere Live. It’s raw and intimate and there’s so much talent packed in there; it’s just incredible. Danny: Bayside’s self-titled. Cora: I knew that was coming. Danny: It’s my favorite front to back album. It doesn’t have a lot of inspiration for me for writing and drums it is just my all-time favorite record front to back. I don’t think any of our favorite genres are pop punk. Cora: I love folk! I think we all love it [music] with a passion. WCBG: What’s the weirdest or funniest question you’ve been asked before in an interview? Danny: In Poughkeepsie in August on tour we were asked this weird question outside the venue. Cora: It’s not coming to me right now. Danny: I might have to say the kitchen utensil one. If Cora didn’t answer for me, I don’t know what I would have said. Cora: I was thinking of interview questions in jobs and stuff. I was prepared for it, I had done the Miss New York pageants and I was being interviewed by the top 10 people and they asked me what’s your favorite food? I said spaghetti tacos and they asked who makes them and I panicked, and I didn’t know, do I make them, am I give spaghetti tacos? WCBG: What’s your favorite venue you’ve performed in? Cora: Knitting Factory [in Brooklyn]. They have an actual backstage; I was like a nerd. I also really like... so many venues have been so kind to us, there’s a different reason for why I love them. Creep Records in Philly is also great. Danny: Venue-wise the Knitting Factory, it was the most incredible experience. I’ve seen so many of my favorite bands there when I was growing up. Cora: What’s the venue in North Carolina? Danny: Kaboom Art Gallery? Cora: I also really loved that one. Danny: It’s in Garner, NC. WCBG: What’s your favorite state that you’ve been to? Danny: I’m going to say a province, Ontario. We were there for five days for the first time in August. Cora: Our 1st ever show in Canada was Toronto, it was also our first time out of the country. I also love Massachusetts and Pennsylvania since a lot of our friends are there and North Carolina because my mom’s side of the family is there. It’s this comfort level. Danny: Maryland is also great, I loved Baltimore. WCBG: We have some spitfire questions so say whatever pops into your head! Favorite color? Cora: Blue Danny: Orange WCBG: Favorite Book? Cora: The Hunger Games, the first one Danny: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Cora: I love Go Dog Go Danny: You already picked one! WCBG: Favorite TV show? Cora: The Office…or Breaking Bad Danny: Breaking Bad WCBG: Favorite movie? Cora: The 1970’s musical version of Scrooge starring Albert Finney Danny: Step Brothers WCBG: What’s your favorite Restaurant? Cora: The Red Arrow diner in New Hampshire Danny: TGI Fridays WCBG: What are your goals for 2020? Cora: Personally, I want to work on cardio and stamina in general because it would be nice to do that without being as out of breath. I also want to work on vocals, and I want to expand my range even more. I also want to be kinder to myself. Danny: All my long-term goals have to do with the band. I want to book an opening slot on a national tour. Live shows are my whole passion. Cora: To adopt a dog Danny: To up our stream numbers, that would be huge and grow our fan-base and connect globally WCBG: What would you like to tell your fans? Cora: Thanks for giving us a chance. It can be daunting or tedious sometimes for people to check out new bands if they’re not as known. You make the world of a difference. Danny: If no one supported us and listened to our music came or out to small local bars or basements or bought tickets we wouldn’t be where we are. You keep us going. Follow the Everafter on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook Check out their music here |
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