1.Growing Up
The first record I ever bought was Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti. I remember seeing some kids in my high school parking lot driving around in a truck, blasting ‘Kashmir’ and feeling like they had the answer to something. There was so much presence in the song and the way it resonated with me. My childhood was very colourful and gave me a massive sense of nostalgia, from which I draw extremely heavily when composing music. I am always trying to recover simpler times with music.
2.Inspirations
I picked up a guitar because of Jimmy Page. I was, and to some degree still remain, an extremely shy person. There was a girl I had a crush on when I was very young, and I remember feeling like if I could pick up a guitar and play it like him, I would have a better chance at talking to her. Little things like that… When I started exploring the instrument it felt like an extension of myself and the most effective way to communicate how I was feeling.
3.Your Band
We started jamming together in 2003 and played our first show in August of 2004. We didn’t have any grand ambitions to tour or record or anything that we are doing now – just to play music in a practice space that we liked together. We started with zero professional expectations, and touring and visiting places all over the planet seemed so remote and impossible that we didn’t entertain those thoughts. Immediately after our first show we realised this was something we needed to fully explore and have been doing it ever since then.
4.The Music You Make
It’s easiest to describe our music as ‘instrumental post-rock’, and over the years we’ve come to accept that and be fine with it. We have always preferred being just a simple rock band with orchestral tendencies when it comes to composing, but are happy with being defined however people want. We recorded our first three records in Boston with our friend Ethan Dussault. For Waking Season, we wanted to step things up a notch and work with a fresh ear and Matt Bayles offered his services. Our live show is full of energy and is extremely immersive. A lot of people who have never seen us before end up telling us that they weren’t expecting the kind of intensity we deliver onstage.
5.Music, Right Here, Right Now
We dip in and out of music scenes wherever we are on tour and always end up meeting people that are extremely passionate about what they’re doing, and that is a beautiful and inspiring thing every time. When it comes to this genre of post-rock, I feel like things are always changing but firmly rooted in the emotional context that is seemingly so central to all of this.
Caspian withMeniscus and We Lost The Sea atThe Bald Faced Stag onWednesday March 19.
Waking Seasonout now through Hobbledehoy/MGM
