Stab - Sound In The Signals Interview
I recently had the opportunity to interview Joe of Stab. We discussed how they formed the band, the writing and recording process for their demo, their cover of Matchbox 20’s “Push”, the importance of physical releases, and more. Check it out below.
First, thanks for the interview.
Thank you! Really appreciate you taking the time to chat with us.
I know a lot of your members are from various other bands. How did you come together and form the band?
Yeah—we’ve all been playing in various bands for well over a decade at this point. A lot of us have played together in past projects, or our bands had played together on the same bills.
Most recently, Matt and I had been playing together in Hard Ca$h and were wanting to do something a little more laid back. We wrote the music for “Rinse” back in January and just sat on it for a while. A couple months ago we sent the demo to Nik and had him do his thing. Once we heard it with his vocals we knew we had something.
I’d been playing in a couple other bands with our drummer Bobby, and he liked what he heard from the demo and wanted to be a part of it. And when we found out Griffin was picking the bass back up, we didn’t really give him a choice—hahaha.
You started the band and released your first demo really quickly. What was the writing process like for the demo?
It’s a funny story, we got ourselves booked on a show with Death Before Dishonor and Street Power before really having any other music written. I think the process would have been a whole lot slower had we not put ourselves in that position. We wanted to get music out and get some more hype before the show was announced, so it really forced us to get it together.
Musically, it was Matt and I sending riffs and ideas back and forth to each other until we had full songs laid out. We’d send those demos off to Nik and he’d drop vocals on it. Once we had everything hammered down we hit my studio and got solid takes of everything.
I think the entire process of writing, recording, mixing and releasing the demo was like 2 or 3 weeks.
Have you been pleased with the response to the demo?
Pleased is an understatement. We just wrote songs that we liked and hoped other people would like it too. The response that we’ve gotten so far has blown us all away. We’re so thankful to anyone who has listened or shared the music.
I think it is great. I really like all the songs, but I especially like “Casco St.”. Can you tell me about writing that song?
Thank you! Casco is my favorite track we did on the demo. “It's a Beautiful Day, What a Beautiful Day” by Skinhead had recently dropped and I wanted to write something in the same vein. I wrote the entire song in like 15 minutes sitting on the foot of my bed.
Lyrically, it’s a song about falling in love. I think that Nik’s writing perfectly encapsulates that feeling of falling in love as an adolescent. I’ve probably listened to that song 1,000 times at this point, and I still get hit with the same wave of nostalgia that I did the first time I heard it.
You chose to cover Matchbox 20’s “Push”. What made you decide to cover that song? How did you decide how to approach it to give it your own take?
We had been tossing around different ideas of stuff to cover. We ended up kind of going down a 90s alternative path and Push was one of the ideas thrown out. The nice thing about that song is it’s kind of a blank canvas. The chords and song structure are really straightforward, so there’s a lot you can do with it.
I don’t know that any of us were ever really sold on the idea until we recorded it and heard it all come together. I figured everyone would think it was lame, but we just played our first show and it went off. It’s gotta be the first time anyone has ever moshed to a Matchbox 20 song.
You released cassettes with Endnote Records. How did you end up working with them? How important is having physical releases to the band?
We did! I can’t thank Richard and the rest of the team at Endnote enough for working with us. I think our demo had been out for maybe a day and they reached out saying they were interested in working together on a physical release. They had heard one of the tracks shared on Instagram (shoutout to the homies in Risk for that) They’ve been a pleasure to work with and so accommodating. The tapes came out sick. If you haven’t picked one up yet, hit up the Endnote store and snag one! (https://www.endnoterecords.ca)
Having physical releases of our music is very important to this band. Physical media represents so much more than just the music. It gives fans the ability to hold a small piece of the band's history in their hands, and it gives the music a sense of permanence. Growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, so much of my time was spent laying on my bedroom floor, listening to a CD I stole from my older brother and flipping through the insert. It’s how all of us discovered new music and how we connected with our favorite artists. In an increasingly digital world, it’s important for us to be able to still give people those same experiences.
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else that you would like to add?
Thanks for taking the time to ask the questions! I just want to thank everyone who has supported us in any way, shape or form. We’re just getting started and if five shots can't stop us then nothing can. The Stab train is running, get on it or get run over.
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