An interview with David of Secret and Whisper
by Jason B for Indie Vision Music
The most anticipated question is…any upcoming tour plans?
We have a couple one off shows coming up, but unfortunately no big national tours or anything. Charles just got married and is on his honeymoon right now, and Jason is expecting his first child early/mid September, so our life scheduling kind of took priority over a hectic tour schedule. Don’t worry though, we should have something substantial coming up in the Fall/Winter time! We have 3 fest’s this summer, near the end of July and mid August in Seattle area, New York area, and Los Angeles area. Our myspace page has full details.
I’ve seen you in concert before and Charles seems to like to wear some Native American garb, and there was also some featured in the Teenage Fantasy artwork. Is there any significance to this or is it just for kicks?
Haha I see you noticed! Last summers tour, we had already had Teenage Fantasy completed, and were about 99% sure that Warrior would be the first single off of it. The song is about Natives, so as a little foreshadowing, Charles thought it’d be cool to where the traditional necklace. Lots of people asked why he was wearing it and we told them to wait and see, hopefully they caught on.
What are some of the other concepts and ideas that are featured on Teenage Fantasy?
Lyrics wise, I’m not too sure what a lot of them mean. Some songs have complete overarching themes, and then another line in it will be completely irrelevant to the others, but still relevant to what is being written, it’s not just a random lyric and seems to sound cool. I know Star Blankets is about aliens though, and Silver Mountain is inspired by the movie Dune. I’m a firm believer in taking whatever you want from lyrics. Even the worst lyrics have something you can take away and base on your life or what is happening at that moment in time with you. We’ll let others decide.
Who are your biggest influences musically?
All of us have very different in some aspects, but very similar tastes in music. We all love Smashing Pumpkins and Meshuggah! We like a lot of punk rock, I’m more of a pop punk lover. We like some metal , some indie, some good rock. Summer time is in full effect right now so I got the Blink 182, New Found Glory, Gob, Wonder Years, Jimmy Eat World, Houston Calls, etc pop punk/rock train going in full force haha.
How do you react to being compared to bands like Saosin or The Bleeding Alarm? Does it ever offend you and what do you feel really sets you apart from these bands?
Well, Charles used to sing in thebleedingalarm, so I can see where that comparison comes from! Other than that, there’s always the Saosin/Circa Survive comparison. I don’t really understand why so many people think so, yeah we all play rock music and have singers that sing higher than most bands, but apart from that, I don’t see many comparisons. It is what it is though, at least we’re getting lumped into the same category of good bands, and then people hear who we are from that, and new fans are made. Music’s all been done before, everyone is compared to everyone, every band rips off another band, I’d rather be compared to them than a lot of others.
If you could cover one song, what would it be?
Kickstart my Heart by Motely Crue. That song absolutely rips.
What is your favorite song that the band has written?
My favourite song to listen to off the new album would be Blush, or Whale Bones. Playing wise, I’d have to go with Star Blankets or Edge of Wilderness.
Any plans for a music video? If so, which song?
Yeah, we’ve been planning some stuff to film a video for Warrior. It’s kind of fallen to the side though, we have some other things we’re trying to do and it’s gotten a little lower on the priorities list. Hopefully it’s out sooner than later though!
I’ve been in a touring band, and I know it can be very hard to be on the road a majority of the year. How do you balance your professional and personal life?
There’s little things you can do to keep your sanity. A big thing I think is knowing when to back away and maintain the personal life, take a break from the road. Yeah it’s fun out there, and it’s terrible, but at the end of the day you’ll be returning home, and that’s where things need to be familiar. I’ve met bands who tour 10 months out of the year, I wouldn’t want to do that. Those 2 months that you’d be home for, you would be a stranger. It’s impossible to maintain meaningful friendships and relationships when you’re gone for that long, you need to find a balance that works for you.
What was your favorite tour you’ve been on?
I really enjoyed our tour with Emery, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, and Closure in Moscow last summer. Every single dude on that tour was such a genuinly good person, we had the best times. I was also huge fans of Closure and Maylene, so being able to play shows everyday with them was rad, I never expected to see Closure live since they were from Australia, totally awesome.
What is your ideal tour? Do you prefer to tour with band that fit nicely into your genre or do you like to have a mish mash of artists?
Direct support to Blink 182, but that’s just me haha! I honestly have no idea what our ideal tour would be. There’s tons of good bands out there, and finding that perfect balance of who to tour with off the top of my head is tough. I’m not a big fan of tours that are all the same genre. By the time you get to the fourth band, even if it’s the one you went there to see, you’re desensitized from watching all the others that you don’t enjoy it as much. It’s got to be the fine line where it’s like “yeah, I understand why these guys are touring together, I wouldn’t have necessarily expected it, but it works.”
This may cause a rivalry of fans, but do you prefer playing in the US or in Canada?
That’s actually kind of a funny question. We’re from Canada, the West Coast, but we never tour Canada, pretty much always American tours. They are two completely different markets. There are thousands of good popular bands in the States, in Canada, I think I can count our popular music scene on my fingers, maybe even a foot of toes if I thought into it. While it’s harder to break in the States, that were popular music comes from. That being said however, what we’ve already established in the US is a lot more than what bands in Canada have established here, and they have more popularity. It’s kind of a strange Catch 33 or whatever. We’d all really like to start doing more Canadian stuff, a 2 week tour does majority of our country, two weeks in the States gets us down a coast. It’d be nice to show our home what we’re actually all about.
Do you ever face struggles being a Christian band in a secular world?
Music’s music. Let that speak for itself, you can’t let it be the forefront of why you listen to a band. If I hear music I like, then I’ll listen to it, simple as that. People who don’t listen to a band cause they’re christian, or people who listen to nothing else other than christian music are straight up ignorant. It’s music, it’s meant to break boundaries and to be an outlet of expression for people to enjoy.
What are some words of wisdom that you would give to aspiring bands?
The one piece of advice I always give, play music because you love it, no more, no less. The day you stop enjoying what you are doing, take a break. You can never expect to get back what you put in with this industry, but as long as you are okay with that, love what you’re doing, and are having the time of your life, go for it.
And finally…who are you rooting for in the World Cup?
At the time I’m writing this, we only got 5 teams left! 4 left in a couple hours. I’ll have to say Uruguay or Germany. Ask us a hockey question next time, we’ll skip the rest of the interview and write you an essay on what we think of that! /end cliche Canadian talk
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