Out Of Service - Sound In The Signals Interview
First off, thanks for the interview.
Of course! Thank you for taking an interest in Morning.
For anyone not familiar with your band can you tell me how you got together and formed the band?
The band actually formed back in 2002 when all four of us were in high school. We played together for many years and a the band has picked up and lost a few members over that time. In late 2016 Bryan, our guitar player, reached out to each of us individually about getting the band back together with the original lineup. At this point we were all in or close to our 30s, some of us had kids, and we were all working full time, but playing together again was amazing. The chemistry we had from all those years of performing together never waned and we were able to pick up right where we had left off.
You just released your new album 'Morning'. How long did you work on it and where did you record it at?
We began writing some of the songs that appear on Morning even before our previous EP, “What We Bring with Us,” was released, but we didn’t know that we would be working on a full length album until a few months later. Because of our writing process and how little time we actually get to work on things all together in one place, Morning took months to fully write and record. We built each song over time until we were happy with the finished product. All of the recording was done on either Brian’s or Mike’s laptops in our own homes. Everything we recorded was sent to Nathan Hussey via dropbox and he mixed, mastered, and co-produced the entire album remotely in Texas.
One thing I really like about this album is the guitar work and the overall sound of them on the album. Can you tell me a little bit about your song writing process and what you were going for with the guitar production and sound on the album?
Most of the songs on Morning started as guitar riffs or chord progressions that Bryan would work on in his spare time and send to us as short audio recordings in a group text message. He was constantly pulling form his jazz and classical guitar background to create some really special guitar parts for the record. Once the band agreed on starting points with guitars, we would add the rest of the instruments from there and layer everything together. Vocals and lyrics always came last and would often be written to fit the mood of the song as it was built. This process admittedly took forever, but witnessing the songs organically grow from a small riff to a full story was a great experience for us. The guitar production was a mixture of live and DI amps. Most of the songs are guitar-driven and we paid a lot of attention to the tone and effects on each track, tweaking little details until we felt we had it right. There were actually many guitar parts that didn’t make it on to the record, and just as many parts that were written and recorded in the moment during late night recording sessions.
When I heard 'Morning' for the first time I thought it was a really special album. The more I listen to it I think it has potential to be in my top 10 for the year and from the reaction I'm seeing, especially on places such as Chorus, a lot of other people agree. Did you expect this type of reaction when you were writing the album? Was there ever a moment during the writing process when you knew you had something really special?
Wow, thank you. All last year we were so focused on recording what we felt was the best version of this record that we could make, we never really stopped to think about or discuss what our expectations were. I guess our biggest hope through the whole recording process was that anyone at all would listen. We have been blown away by how much people are enjoying Morning. The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive and that has given us the energy to keep going. We aren’t sure that we ever thought that we had something “special” at any point in the process, but when we were putting the track list together we all seemed to recognize that Morning was a complete work rather than just a collection of songs all written around the same time. It became very important to us that Morning felt cohesive from start to finish.
I've seen people wondering about a vinyl pressing for the album. Is there any chance we'll get the chance to hear this on that format in the near future? If so, do you have any idea of the variants you'd like to have or anything special you would like to do that would be cool for a vinyl release?
We have been talking about this constantly since release day when people started asking. We have even been keeping a running tally of how many vinyl requests to figure out if it makes sense to do a pressing. We would love to do it, and if we can figure out the cost we definitely will.
For people who are just hearing about your band from this interview what song would you recommend them check out from 'Morning' and why?
“Just Between Us,” which is the second track on the album, is a great introduction to our band. Its a pretty dynamic song with lots of instrumental space and a powerful chorus.
I guess that about wraps it up. Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else you would like to add?
We would just like to thank everyone who has given Morning a listen and shared it with someone else.
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