Glazed - Sound In The Signals Interview
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| Leighton Hoey |
First, thanks for the interview.
I am thrilled to speak with you 😎.
Can you tell me how you started the band for anyone not familiar with your music? What got you into music?
Before we started Glazed, we all cut our teeth playing in different punk rock bands during a golden era of pop punk - opening for our favorite bands like Bayside, The Wonder Years, Fireworks, and many like them when they made stops in north Florida thanks to our friend and promoter Rory McCoid of For Your Friends Booking. The incestuous nature of the scene inevitably led us to each other, and we all became friends. The bands we were in broke up because of college and other things. The members who survived formed Glazed, and we've had the same lineup since we began in 2013. I think that's because we're all cut from the same cloth. We put a tape out that year, and the rest is history.
I grew up during a time when music television was particularly popular. Shows like Headbangers Ball on MTV and Fuse's Warped Wednesday and Uranium technically got me into music. I think I knew I wanted to play in a band after going to my first show to see PlayRadioPlay!, Meg & Dia, and The Spill Canvas at a spot in Jacksonville called Jackrabbits. I was 14 and it looked like a blast.
Your new EP ‘1999’ just came out. What was the writing and recording process like for it and how long did you work on it?
1999 began to take shape in a tiny brown apartment in Virginia Beach in 2016. I had just graduated from college and took a job as a radio news journalist. I had also just gone through a break up and seriously had like one friend in Virginia. So, I was a hermit on nights and weekends, writing music with my guitar, a 2-input interface, a notepad and my laptop. I eventually moved back to Jacksonville, and Reid and I wrote the song Shakey Archery.
We recorded it at Rockbot Studios in the historic Riverside neighborhood of Jacksonville, which is about 5 minutes from our house. Josh Cobb of My Getaway fame recorded, mixed and mastered the songs. We went with Josh because he knew the Drive-Thru Records vibe we were going for. We recorded it during the fall of 2018. It's been a long time coming, so we're stoked to finally give it to the world.
The video for ‘Shakey Archery’ came out last year and I really liked it a lot. It captures the vibe of your band really well. What was the video shoot like and who came up with the concept for it?
I'm glad you really liked liked it a lot! We hired our friend Nick Lorini, whom I met in a film class during college, to direct the thing. We love music videos by bands like Fall Out Boy and Blink-182 because their members actually got to act in them. That element was important to us. One late night, Reid and I brainstormed the idea of us playing our real selves and alter-dimensional selves, and we ran with it. The visual elements in the video are very personal, too. Our friend and legendary Jacksonville promoter Mike Ciero makes a cameo, Liam's vintage bus we used to take to gigs in the early days is the centerpiece of the video, and we even got to film in our favorite neighborhood restaurant Moon River Pizza. Small nuances like that give it the authentic vibe we hope the viewers catch watching it.
"New York City" is one of my favorite songs on the EP. How long did you work on that song and what was the lyrical inspiration?
That's actually the first song I wrote for 1999. Lyrically, it's about the hot and cold marriage between working a full-time job and being in a band. I borrowed specific themes from a failed relationship to give it character because I was going through it. Musically, I wrote the song with romantic sounding chords. I learned a few classic Disney songs on guitar around that time, so maybe that's reflected in the song's feel.
You guys did a vinyl pressing for your album ‘You’ve Changed’. Are there any plans to press ‘1999’? How important is it for your band to release your music on vinyl or to have cassette releases?
I certainly hope so. I collect records and tapes myself, so I'd love to see 1999 on wax or cassette. Publishing music on media like that give artists another outlet of creative expression because it's physical. I'd like to do something weird like put locks of our hair in the batch of record wax. Liam would probably want to put some ketchup in it.
You have some dates coming up with The Ataris in Florida. How did this lineup come about?
It came about randomly, and we're in disbelief it's actually happening. Our friend Tom Stev who runs Elevated Booking in Tampa asked us to play the March 28 date at the Brass Mug, and our buddy Jason Hunnicutt who owns 1904 Music Hall in Jacksonville wanted us on the March 24 show. Those are two great dudes who have put us on for years. It's important to us to keep good relationships with promoters, club owners, sound workers, security guards, bar tenders, and more folks who work hard to ensure the show runs smoothly. This is just an example of how it paid off.
You’re also booking a summer tour right now. What can fans expect at a show and how’s the process going so far?
We are still very much a DIY operation, and I book all of our tours. It's lots of 'just following up!' emails, DMs, and phone calls. But it's totally worth it. Fans can expect us in the flesh playing songs from 1999 and the weirdly interesting improv stage banter between Reid and I.
I guess that wraps it up. Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else that you would like to add?
Stream 1999 everywhere music is available. Jam it in the car with friends, put it on a mixtape you make for your crush, hit the squat rack while it plays, ANYTHING!! Come see us live at a show, too. We come in peace and want to meet everyone.
Follow us @Glazedfl on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Also follow us on Spotify.
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