Short Fictions - Sound In The Signals Interview
I recently had the opportunity to interview Short Fictions. We discussed the band’s recent Audiotree live session, their latest release, Fates Worse Than Death, and what’s next for the band. Check it out below.
First, thanks for the interview.
Absolutely, thanks for reaching out!
You recently played an Audiotree live session. How did it work out for you to be featured and what is it like recording one of those sessions?
I don’t really know how they decided to let us play haha. And since they don’t announce until like, two days before the actual stream, the whole time we were practicing I thought that it must be some sort of prank. It was really cool though; you drive out to their building in inner Chicago and then you go up a freight elevator in a really inconspicuous alley way and suddenly you’re in a huge studio. And they tell you to just help yourself to whatever gear you want. It’s all mixed and mastered live, which is wildly impressive. They’re wizards over at Audiotree, and everyone was super friendly too. They have free fizzy water and caffeine free Coke in a mini fridge that looks like a Marshall amp.
Your latest release ‘Fates Worse Than Death’ has been doing really well and has built some good buzz for the band. Have you been pleased with the response so far?
Yeah absolutely, before that album came out, I feel like pretty much no one had heard of us at all haha. And I was fine with that but I’ve been really happy to feel on-the-map for the first time basically ever. Hoping we can ride that wave into the future.
Do you have an interesting story from recording that EP that you haven’t told anyone yet?
I think the most interesting aspect of the recording process is the terrible and outlandish way we went about it. I recorded the whole thing at home and I really didn’t know what I was doing. In a lot of cases, there weren’t even demos for the songs and I would just dictate what I wanted a part to sound like to our drummer without him having very much context for the song at all. The first time he heard the songs in full was when I sent him the finished product. The drums were recorded in his bedroom with $50 overhead mics from Guitar Center and the rest was recorded in a storage unit. Of course, it’s not like, the zenith of fidelity but I’m always surprised at how well it did turn out.
What song was your favorite to record from it? On the other hand, which one was the most challenging to write or record?
I think the most fun bits were the instances where I got to add a bunch of samples and like, weird ambient textures. We’d never done that before and it was so fun creating in that way. I felt like a real artist lol. I think the most challenging was the first track because that long intro was recorded to a metronome that was slowly but continuously getting faster and it came out really out of time when we first recorded it. Honestly a lot of the obstacles with the album pertain to tempo and timing because I was too stupid and stubborn to learn how to add a tempo map to my recording software. I’ll never not do that again.
You had some neat merch for the EP including some vinyl variants. What’s the process like for designing the merch and the final look of the cover and vinyl choices?
I always bring a 35mm camera with me on tour in hopes of capturing something good for our social media, or, better yet, album artwork. I took the picture that ended up as the cover outside a stranger’s house in Baltimore. I’m not a great graphic artist, and I’m definitely not a photographer, but I like having control over the design and layout. And since grainy camera photo are so appropriate for emo album covers, it makes me feel a lot more comfortable in that process haha. Everyone seemed to really like that picture too. As for the vinyl, I was trying to match the color of the disks to the colors most represented in the artwork (mainly yellow and brick-red). We’re limited as to what colors are available at the pressing plant but the original pressing was cream, and the second was red-pink. If we do more pressings it’ll probably begin to deviate from the album colors. I wanna do a glow in the dark, liquid filled record that projects a hologram, and if you play it backwards it summons an actual demon.
The pandemic has made it hard for bands to record and perform. It’s hitting the entertainment community hard. What have you been doing during the pandemic to engage fans? How are you finding this time?
Yeah it really sucks. I feel like the best thing you can do is just shitpost on social media to remind people you exist. I was doing live streams for a while and I think everyone got tired of them. I got tired of them too. We’ve been dropping some merch too which has been engaging. Oh, and occasionally I’ll make a funny video of Ryan. But that’s about it. I miss tour so much.
Are you currently working on anything new? What can fans expect for the remainder of the year?
We actually just finished up a whole new album! I have no idea when it’s coming out haha. I’m just gonna keep writing songs and hopefully by the time Corona is cured we can hit the ground running with like, three new albums.
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else that you would like to add?
For sure! Thanks for reading. Stream us on Spotify, follow us on Twitter and Insta. Donate to bail funds. Organize within your community. Tell your friends you love them. Call your mom.
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