Straylight Run

On a fun night filled with lots of laughter and some cool thoughts and information about their music and direction, I sat down with two-thirds of the now independent Straylight Run.

Eric, TO: You can start off by introducing yourself.
John Nolan, SR: Hey, my name is John, and I sing and play guitar and piano.
Shaun Cooper, SR: My name is Shaun, and I play the bass.

E: You guys are independent for the first time. How does it feel?
J: Feels good. Feels pretty good. We uh… yeah, I don’t know. We’re liking it. So far so good.
S: Yeah, we’re not trying to chase down people anymore at a major label who aren’t doing their job for us, so, like our drummer Will Noon has said in journal entries before, if something doesn’t get done it’s because we don’t do it, so now we’re responsible for it all. And it’s a lot better feeling than watching other people screw up your life and livelihood.
J: If someone’s gonna screw it up now it’s us.
S: And I prefer that. I don’t get as mad at us. We’re out here on the road working hard.

E: How did that come to be that you were on your own?
S: Well, Universal Republic did a terrible job with our last record and ended up dropping us a few months after we released the record. We could have tried to find another label, but we just thought the way the music industry is going and stuff we’d have probably about as good or better of chance of succeeding on our own. And it had been something we had talked about even before we did the Universal deal was releasing our own records, so we’re like, “Now’s a good a time as any to try to do stuff our own way and see how it works out,” so… It’s gotten us here.

E: Do you think that you would sign with another label in the future if something worked out that way?
S: It would have to be a really good deal and it would have to be with really enthusiastic people that we liked a lot. We’re not opposed to it necessarily, but we’re giving this a shot and we’re gonna see it through a little bit longer, and if someone comes out and they seem like the right people to work our record and seem as enthusiastic as we’d like them to be and can do the right things for us and offer us something that we can’t offer ourselves, we’d be into it.

E: OK, yeah. Tell us a little about the series of EPs and what exactly is going on with that.
J: What we wanted to do is kinda try to take a different approach to releasing our music. Hope we keep our music coming more consistently, more steadily, and then when we’re touring after those releases, you know, those songs will be fresh and exciting for us. And hopefully that will translate to our audience as well. Cause a lot of times with the standard way of touring off a record, by the time you’re first playing songs from your record the songs are already a year old, nevermind a year after touring from that record. And we were just thinking, the way things were changing, this might be a better way to handle things.
S: And I think one thing that I’ve just thought about is that we have so much material that’s out there already and there’s so many songs we’ll never get a chance to play live, so it just keeps us being able to release new music and playing it immediately so people will be able to see those songs, instead of releasing a record of twelve songs and only being able to play maybe three of those songs so we can accommodate the older fans we have grown accustomed to seeing us play certain songs and like to hear certain songs. So that we can keep changing it up and keep it interesting too.

E: Do have a set number of EPs that you’re doing right now or something in mind or just the idea and see what happens with it?
S: Everything’s completely open-ended. We have no idea. We know we’re definitely gonna shoot to do one more and then record as soon as possible, and then after that hopefully in a few months after that we’ll get back to writing and more touring and another EP, I don’t know… We don’t have anyone to answer to but ourselves.
J: We’re kinda playing it by ear. We’re trying to see how it goes and see if it’s working for us, see if it’s working for our fans. And if people are enjoying it… We’ll assess it probably after the next one and make a decision whether to keep going or not.

E: And they’re going to be released on vinyl then too?
J: I think so. This is pretty new. It’s only been out about a month. We’re still, even with this one, trying to figure out whether or not this has worked well, so. We were really happy with everything, so now I guess after that it’s a matter of seeing whether or not continuing to do the vinyl was a good idea and uh, yeah, I guess we’ll just have to see.
S: And there are so many variables too, because who knows, maybe we might get super productive and come out with like a dozen songs and be like, “Oh, well, shit, let’s do a record then.” Or, I don’t know, we could write really long songs or something so we wouldn’t be able to fit them on a 7” vinyl, we’d have to go to a 10” vinyl or 12”. So yeah, like I said, it all depends on what happens when we start sitting down and coming up with some new songs.

E: Explain the title to your new EP, Un Mas Dos.
J: We were basically just looking to find a way to just stick with the theme of three. It was just something that made sense, you know, three songs, three band members. And it was kind of a new start all based around that idea of having it be three songs and having it be for the first time just the three members. So we thought it was a pretty simple idea, but it made sense, and we wanted to find another way to say three other than just saying the word Three.
S: And there’s a band called Three, so we don’t want to be ripping them off.
J: Three Doors Down, they might have gotten angry. They probably wouldn’t, but you never know. Better safe than sorry.
S: You don’t want to piss those guys off.

E: How did the loss of Michelle, the other member, change the dynamics of the band and the sound?
J: Well, we probably would have gone in a different direction even if she had stayed in the band. I think in a certain way things probably wouldn’t have changed that much, but in another sense we did want to make a fresh start of things, and part of that was deciding to go in kind of a more rock oriented direction, and concentrate a little more on rocking. I think that was the biggest thing that changed.

E: Do you think in the future there will be more songs like “Existentialism on Prom Night,” the stuff on the first album, or is it all moving in the rock direction now.
J: I don’t know. It’s one of those things that it seems like we don’t have too much control over. It seems like songs start coming together and they seem to have a certain way they’re going.
S: And we try not to repeat ourselves. We don’t want to write “Existentialism on Prom Night Jr.” or do something like Metallica did, “The Unforgiven 2.”
J: Although it might not be a bad idea, cause people really like that song. “Existentialism on Prom Night 2, the Sequal.”
S: Yeah. “2008.”
J: “2008 Remix.” Maybe we should just remix it?
S: Yeah, throw a hip-hop beat on top of it. Maybe some synths. Dance it up. Maybe have Gabe Saporta do a guest vocal.
J: That’s a recipe for a hit, if I ever heard one.
S: Yep. That’s a success.
E: So we can expect that on the next EP?
J: Yes.
S: Well, if we really, really fail with this one.
J: That’s our last, that’s our worst case scenario.
S: Throw Pete Wentz in the video.
J: Hell man, pulling all the stops.

E: I know some bands don’t like to explain meanings to their songs, is that cool with you if…
J: Yeah, it’s cool.
E: OK, can you talk about “Wait and Watch”?
S: It’s about John’s hatred of immigrants.
J: I’m fueled creatively by my massive hatred of them.
S: I stole that from Will Farrell. I apologize, Will, if you’re reading this.
J: If Will Farrell is scouring the internet for interviews with little-known bands…
S: …that are ripping off his Neil Diamond impression.
J: Yeah, a lot of the songs that are on this EP were not really necessarily meant to have a direct meaning or meant to tell anybody anything. Like a lot of songs that I’ve worked on, it’s more about capturing a mood or a place in my life at the time I’m writing the song. So I always feel like the songs speak for themselves, and like people tend to get different things out of them, but I think for the most part whatever they’re getting out of it is usually like, there’s some aspect of that that is what I was trying to get across, you know. I think that’s about it. I could go into more detail about specific parts of it or something, but I think that’s the basic gist of it.

E: So like in the song when you say “You” feel this or “You” do that, is that like a specific you that you’re thinking of or just like a general thing or?
J: Well for me it is, you know, but like I said, I like it to be something that somebody could say that that you is some person that they have in their mind when they hear the song.
S: And everybody probably thinks it’s about Jesse Lacey anyway.
J: And really I mean basically the songs is more or less about myself, like from my perspective, that’s what I had in mind. I’m not pointing my finger at a particular person, you know, which happens sometimes. With that song, it had a lot to do with me talking to myself, when I’m saying you, or when I’m saying I. [shifting to a mocking voice] It has a lot to do with me. I really like to talk about myself and how I feel.
S: Well you’ve been going on and on.

E: Halo 3. You guys played and got it to be Halo Un Mas Dos for a day?
S: You know what? We didn’t play.
E: No?
S: That was a cluster-fuck that didn’t happen, unfortunately. We left the hotel super early and went to Denver to try to make this thing happen. The hook-up between the X-Box Live and the internet at the club was just not working. So we’re getting there, we hung out at this club for so long with absolutely nothing to do. We didn’t get to play Halo. We were bummed, but not too bummed because none of us had ever played Halo before.
J: We would have just been like stumbling around in a corner while people shot at us, basically I feel like. We don’t have any idea. I don’t think I’ve ever even played an X-Box in my life, so even getting the controller in my hand would have been a challenge.
S: You’ve played Rock Band though.
J: On X-Box?
S: Yeah, at Jake’s. But that doesn’t really count…
J: …cause you don’t use the X-Box controller.

E: Where did that idea come from then if you’ve never played before?
J: I have no idea.
S: They asked us. They got in touch with us actually.
J: I don’t even know who the they were.
S: The tour was included on…
J: I think we were promoting them…
S: Yeah, I think they were promoting the tour. It might have been through Anberlin or something maybe, and because we were on the tour we were offered to do that and thought it might be a lot of fun if we could have made it happen. They asked us and we said we’d love to and then…
E: So it was more of an Anberlin thing that you jumped on?
J: The whole thing, it was a tour thing. But something went right with it because this is the second time in an interview that I’ve gotten asked about it, so word got out there.
S: Well, I think because Will posted a bulletin on our myspace.
J: And people got excited about it.
S: And then we let everybody down.
J+S together: Womp womp.

E: Yeah, so speaking of the current tour, tell us about it. How’s it going?
J: It’s good. It’s been really good. It’s been a lot of fun. We were really happy that Anberlin asked us to be on the tour. It was one of the kinds of things where they came to us and asked us, so that was really cool. That doesn’t happen very often, at least not for us.
S: And we haven’t done too many support tours at all and even fewer support tours that made perfect sense with our style of music, so this was a really fortunate opportunity and we were really grateful to get it. And now it’s the last leg of things. We just cruise down to Florida and then it’s done. So it’s been a great run for us, for sure.

E: Cool. And then next you’re going to Australia for Soundwave 09? Have you ever been there before?
J: We were in Australia once, not for Soundwave, but for another tour. We love it there. It’s great. And actually, [turning to Shaun] I don’t know if you know, but Anberlin is gonna be on that. Did you hear that?
S: I don’t know. I remember hearing Bayside is gonna be there, so I got excited about that and I found about that real late. I guess I wasn’t aware of that.
J: I found out from them. They asked what we were doing after this tour. I said we were gonna be at Soundwave Festival. “Oh, us too.”
S: I might have talked to Christian about it, but I was really drunk.
J: It happens.
S: So yeah, it’s gonna be real exciting to go there again. The flight’s a bitch, but it’s worth it when you get there, for sure. I remember the first time we went there we were in the air for like 24 hours straight before we went down. It’s like New York to LA, LA to whatever the west coast is of Australia, and then over to the east coast. 24 hours straight you feel like a maniac after that but…
J: All the time though.
S: And then once you’re eating at Nando’s you’re not bothered by anything.
E: Eating at what?
S: It’s this place called Nando’s. It’s got chicken with a spicy kind of sauce. I really liked it. They have it in the UK too. It’s not that special, and it’s kind of just like fast food, but it makes me feel good.
E: There you go.
J: Well on that note!
E: That’s basically it.
J: Eat at Nando’s.
S: If you’re on the other side of the world, eat where I eat. Or where I’ve eaten like three times before.

E: Anything else you want to say?
S: No, thanks for having us.
E: Alright.
J: Thank you.

  • Post Info

  • Posted by: Eric
  • Posted on: Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
  • Category: Interviews