Perfect - Sound In The Signals Interview
I recently had the opportunity to interview Perfect. We discussed how they started the band, musical influences, merch, and more. Check it out below.
First, thanks for the interview.
Heck yeah, thanks for reaching out! This is really cool.
Can you tell me how you started the band for those who may be unfamiliar with it? How did you become interested in music?
Who’s unfamiliar with it?! Jk jk. All three of us grew up on rock music as kids. I remember walking around at like six years old bumping Seven Mary Three and Tool and stuff. My brother Ethan (drummer) and I started getting into heavier music in high school and always thought it would be so cool to be in a band. I had moved out to Boston while he was finishing up grad school in Iowa. He had picked up drumming a bit and we always talked about moving to Chicago and getting a band going.
We played around with a couple different guitarists and then met Matthew through our good mutual friend Ryan. We heard Matthew was the music guy. He’d played in a ton of bands before and played classical music (viola) in orchestras and stuff. We went into the studio to mess around and right away we’re all like yeah we could do some cool stuff.
You draw from a lot of musical influences to create your sound. Can you tell us more about your main influences?
With my brother and I coming from such a different musical background than Matthew, we kind of pull influence from everything. I think it’s been an effort to kind of pull back on our stuff so it wasn’t completely all over the place and try and make something that still had variety but in a way that felt more cohesive. But I love bands like Heavy Heavy Low Low and See You Next Tuesday that have a certain jester to them yet play the heaviest of music. Ethan’s more interested in emotive screamo bands like Ostraca and Infant Island. Matthew is influenced by Frank Zappa and some newer post-punk bands in the UK like Squid and Black Midi. My brother and I are slowly brainwashing Matthew to become influenced more by some of the heavier stuff.
You recently released your EP. What was the writing and recording process like for you?
The process has been interesting. We had written a giant 15-song LP last year and recorded it all over a period of three months. We were writing/playing new songs while we were touching up the LP and just started to have more fun playing the new songs that we had written. I think we were a little too eager and underprepared to release the original stuff (we’ll definitely do something with it though).
We played a show in Detroit in February and went to a bar after. We all had a giant argument about whether we should release the old stuff or just DIY record and release the newer stuff as an EP (we had most of the songs finished for it at the time). My brother and I were this close to full on fist-fighting in the bar about it. But I won the argument aye aye I should’ve done mock trial or some shit.
But we had a blast DIY recording. It was also less nerve-racking. Being in a pro recording studio is stressful. With that said, I have to give Jason Koth at Picture-Minded Studios a shout out. He recorded our older stuff and mixed/mastered our EP. He is the fucking best person to work with and an absolute saint of a human being.
I really like the song “Mouse In A House”. How long did you work on that song specifically?
Thanks! That was actually the last song that we wrote for the EP and we wrote it pretty quickly. We wanted something with a big heavy opening, but also something that had a bunch of twists and turns to leave the listener not knowing what was to come for the rest of the record. As with lots of our songs, we recorded it and planned it as just a normal guitar/drums/bass/vocals thing — but Matthew was like what if we had a billion other instruments on it. We’re fortunate to be in contact with a lot of people that play some non-traditional instruments in rock. My brother and I were reluctant to have the additional instruments at first. Our deal is always, “Sure Matthew, you can dub whatever you want on it, but we’re probably going to hate it." But he proves us wrong a lot.
Black Dice made shirts and CDs for the EP. How did you end up working with them?
Sam from Black Dice Records is the best. He helped us book our second show at The Fallen Log (RIP) this past November. Since then he’s kind of blown up. I’ve talked with Sam quite a bit since then as I’ve made him some flyers and he’s gotten us a couple more shows. Two things quickly became very apparent to me with Sam. 1) Dude is a work horse and 2) Dude loves this shit. I respect the hell out of what Black Dice Records is doing for the Chicago music community and we’re all super fortunate to have the dude. It was an obvious answer who to go to for physical merch.
PS Modest Merch made the shirts! Another Chicago hammer who is relentless with their craft and passionate as hell about heavy music. Can’t recommend him enough.
Reach out to us or Black Dice Records for shirts/CDs!
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else that you want to add?
Thanks again for having us!
And yeah we’d just like to thank everyone that’s listened to our music and come to our shows. We also would like to thank the snappa crew (particularly Joe Borushek who records all of our shows). We have the most amazing group of friends here that support us and we’re super blessed to have them. Thanks again to Jason Koth for being the man. We love nothing more than playing music together and sharing it with all of you and we’re super grateful to be able to do so.
And stay tuned for new music:)
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