Sunday, November 22, 2009

Introducing: I See Stars


Recently I made the trip to New Haven to catch a band that I've only seen on YouTube. Silverstein is one of the biggest bands in Canada, quite possibly the biggest screamo one and they recently just finished about a 2 1/2 week US tour which included Madina Lake, Closure in Moscow, The Word Alive, I am Committing A Sin and finally the boys in I See Stars.

I See Stars hails from Warren, Michigan and are a self proclaimed rock group. They recently ride on with Sumerian Records and dropped their debut album '3-D' at number 176 on the billboard charts. A focal point of the fans' interest that night, girls were looking into their van constantly during their set along with the occupants of the Yale shuttle buses driving inches away from me. We talked everything from their bass player, Jeff Valentine's love for everything Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl to the strangest yet amazing thing that a fan has ever told them (it's insane!). Read on for the full interview!

So I know this tour is just beginning. I think you're three shows in, how's it been going so far?
Brent (lead guitar): For us, not really that good actually. We got into a accident driving out here and we had some other complications you know during the last couple days. But the tour itself has been great. The shows themselves have been actually surprisingly good.

What's your favorite part of touring?
Brent: Probably just visiting some of the-
Devin(lead vocals): Taco bell.
Brent: Taco Bell. I mean for us we like to explore some of the cities like today this was kind of a cool place. Just getting to see new places and meet new people and stuff are kind of what we really enjoy.
Jeff (bass): I enjoy this place specifically, it's really nice.

Who are your major musical influences?
Brent: We really like the first Panic At The Disco record, that's our jam. We listen to pretty much anything under the sun, I know that's kind of cliche but it's true.
Devin: We're very open minded.
Brent: We listen to anything from Sigor Ros last night to Owl City. You know, just anything, any kind of music.
Jeff: Sigor Ros and Owl City, that's great.
Brent: But I mean if you're talking about building our music by influences, coming from Michigan, obviously Chiodos was a very big influence. Just as kids when we were like 13, 14 years old watching them was kind of a cool experience for us. Um, Green Day but we really just like anything under the sun pretty much.

How do you guys go about the songwriting process? Do you do it all together or is it one person?
Brent: Um, it kind of varies you know from song to song. Some songs, I mean, most of the songs, we all come together and bring some of our own ideas and kind of piece it the way that everybody envisions it. Recently, especially writing for the new record, we've been kind of going off on our own time and writing our own little bits and pieces of music. That's kind of allowed us to do that and bring it together to kind of fit compared to the old process which was just sitting together and constructing ideas altogether.

If you weren't in I See Stars, what do you think you would be doing?
Devin: School.
Brent: It's a hard question. I mean, we've been doing this forever. I mean literally we've been together way too long. We've always been best friends, we're more like brothers now.
Andrew Oliver (drums): Um, electrical things.

What's the craziest thing a fan has ever given you?
Brent: We got a cake that was an I See Stars cake.
Andrew: Actually the craziest thing I think we've ever had to do is some kid bought a shirt from us off the Internet. I guess like he was wearing it during a car accident that he got in and there was like blood all over the t-shirt and he came up to us and he was like "I was wearing this and I got into one of my big traumatic experiences of my life," and he's like I want you to sign it. I was blown away. T-shirt covered in blood.
Brent: Legit like crusty. He didn't wash it. That was the weirdest thing I think a fan's ever brought to us.

Are there any future music plans fans can look forward to from you guys this tour?
Brent: Maybe not so much till after this tour. After this tour, we're doing our first headliner, kind of closing off the year with that so we're excited for that.
Devin: I mean 2010 we'll have a ton of stuff but it's confidential.
Brent: I mean, we're discussing a record, looking at a time frame for that. That in itself is kind of exciting for us.
Devin: And future tour plans.

I'm addicted to:
Devin: Taco Bell.
Brent: We have severe addictions to Taco Bell.
Andrew: We're also addicted to NFL Blitz.
Brent: Madden. Select video games. And then we'll buy like box sets of DVDs.
Andrew: South park now.
Brent: We just got into South park.
Andrew: Our bass players wants us to get into Gossip Girl.
Jeff: I mean it. She knows what's up.
Brent: You know what? I don't want to hear about it.
Jeff: Chuck Bass.

What's your favorite treat, not tree?
Brent: One of my favorites is Vanilla Wafers, that's my gas station snack.
Devin: I like sunflower seeds.
Jeff: Dove chocolate.
Brent: I don't want to hear about it.
Andrew: Danish. It's retarded but I'm into it.

--
Thanks again to Jerry at WarmFuzzy PR for setting this up and thanks to the boys of I See Stars. You can find their music at their myspace and find them on their first ever headliner tour starting November 25th along with playing a show with huge players in the game including The Devil Wears Prada! Thanks for reading and look for more coverage soon from the most recent Silverstein tour!



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