| Final Club Session | |
| Violitionist Sessions |
Session Date: January 21, 2012
Posting Date: April 2, 2012
Artist Hometown: Denton, TX
Free Audio Download
Links: Facebook, Bandcamp
Recorded by: Michael Briggs
3 QUESTIONS
ONE: What was it like writing and recording your most recent album, Blank Entertainment?
Brendon Avalos: It was before Chris was in the band. It was the three of us, and we just got David as a guitar player right when we started writing and recording it, so, I think that we wrote it in about three weeks, just like, crunch time! Then we recorded it for five months or something…
David Broderick: We tracked all the music in a week or so, but then we had to go back through and do some overdubs, and it took us a while to do the vocals, but the majority of the time was mixing. We mixed the entire album once, and then we got all the way to the end of it, and we were kind of unhappy with it, so we started from scratch and mixed the whole album in the two weeks after that. That was done pretty quickly. But we had spent three months dilly-dallying before that.
MB: Where was it recorded?
David: It was recorded in our house, and in my old house, also…I think that’s where we did all of the vocals and some of the overdubs, but the majority of it was in our house. We also had Brian, our old bass player. He played on that record.
David Broderick: We tracked all the music in a week or so, but then we had to go back through and do some overdubs, and it took us a while to do the vocals, but the majority of the time was mixing. We mixed the entire album once, and then we got all the way to the end of it, and we were kind of unhappy with it, so we started from scratch and mixed the whole album in the two weeks after that. That was done pretty quickly. But we had spent three months dilly-dallying before that.
MB: Where was it recorded?
David: It was recorded in our house, and in my old house, also…I think that’s where we did all of the vocals and some of the overdubs, but the majority of it was in our house. We also had Brian, our old bass player. He played on that record.
TWO: What were the absolute best and worst moments from your last tour?
Chris Pickering: Tour was great. I guess the coolest thing is we all got to go to Universal Studios for free.
MB: How did that happen?
Chris: Our friend Julio that we were staying with there…It’s funny because, going into it, it was David’s birthday the weekend that we were going to be in Orlando, and we had a couple days there, so we were kind of set on going to Disney World or something, but we knew it was going to cost a bunch of money. So, we get there, and our friend is like, “Oh , I work at Universal Studios, and I have a bunch of free passes!” It was like us and his whole band. We all went together. The worst moment? We really didn’t have too many bad times on tour. I’d say the worst thing was that we had some really long drives that were…like, we played in Savannah, Georgia one night, and Dayton, Ohio the next. We had to leave right after the show in Savannah, drive and stay with a friend in Charlotte, and then get up early and drive through hillbilly country…
David: Yeah, driving there was probably the worst moment.
Chris: That ten hour moment.
Anthony Mangarano: Well, driving from Georgia to Charlotte, when I was driving and you guys were asleep, it was just completely foggy and rainy, and I couldn’t really see the road that well, and I’d look over and there would be like 50 deer on either side of the road. I just knew one of them was going to pop out…
Brendon: Like driving through that blizzard.
Chris: Yeah, we drove through a blizzard, too. That was pretty, uh…white knuckle.
Brendon: The shows were great!
Chris: The shows were great. Everywhere we went was great. The only bad part was the driving.
MB: What city gave you the best response?
Chris: Uh…Murray? Murray, Kentucky loved us. We’re huge in Murray. Dayton, Ohio loves us.
Brendon: And we love them!
Chris: We also love Beaumont, Texas…
David: That was probably one of the best.
Brendon: It’s the towns that we didn’t really know. Well, we knew about Dayton, because we played there before, but for Beaumont and Murray we just had a contact and had no idea what to expect, and they both turned out really fun.
Chris: In smaller towns where there’s less stuff to do, kids get more excited when bands do come through.
MB: How did that happen?
Chris: Our friend Julio that we were staying with there…It’s funny because, going into it, it was David’s birthday the weekend that we were going to be in Orlando, and we had a couple days there, so we were kind of set on going to Disney World or something, but we knew it was going to cost a bunch of money. So, we get there, and our friend is like, “Oh , I work at Universal Studios, and I have a bunch of free passes!” It was like us and his whole band. We all went together. The worst moment? We really didn’t have too many bad times on tour. I’d say the worst thing was that we had some really long drives that were…like, we played in Savannah, Georgia one night, and Dayton, Ohio the next. We had to leave right after the show in Savannah, drive and stay with a friend in Charlotte, and then get up early and drive through hillbilly country…
David: Yeah, driving there was probably the worst moment.
Chris: That ten hour moment.
Anthony Mangarano: Well, driving from Georgia to Charlotte, when I was driving and you guys were asleep, it was just completely foggy and rainy, and I couldn’t really see the road that well, and I’d look over and there would be like 50 deer on either side of the road. I just knew one of them was going to pop out…
Brendon: Like driving through that blizzard.
Chris: Yeah, we drove through a blizzard, too. That was pretty, uh…white knuckle.
Brendon: The shows were great!
Chris: The shows were great. Everywhere we went was great. The only bad part was the driving.
MB: What city gave you the best response?
Chris: Uh…Murray? Murray, Kentucky loved us. We’re huge in Murray. Dayton, Ohio loves us.
Brendon: And we love them!
Chris: We also love Beaumont, Texas…
David: That was probably one of the best.
Brendon: It’s the towns that we didn’t really know. Well, we knew about Dayton, because we played there before, but for Beaumont and Murray we just had a contact and had no idea what to expect, and they both turned out really fun.
Chris: In smaller towns where there’s less stuff to do, kids get more excited when bands do come through.
THREE: How do you feel about the current Denton music scene? What do you think is next for it?
Brendon: I think it’s pretty good. We have house shows and stuff at the Lion’s Den, where me and Chris live, and then we have a studio thing going on at their house…I think it’s pretty good. I want to encourage more bands to pop up, like of younger kids and stuff, and that’s why I try to open up my house and pass around flyers and stuff like that, so that kids can come out and experience what I experienced when I was really young. Just bands playing and playing music. I think that there needs to be more music, because all of our friends who are older are moving away. I don’t know, it’s kind of running dry, or something.
Anthony: I don’t know. I think there’s younger kids popping up, like the dudes in Two Knights. They’ve got friends, and I’m sure they all know how to play good tunes, so—
David: It feels like there’s always a wave— up and down. It feels like it’s been down for a little while, but it’s coming back up now, especially in the past few months. Hopefully it keeps doing that.
Chris: Denton is always like that. I’m sure in the spring more stuff will start popping out.
Brendon: It’s hard to judge, too, because there are so many little pockets and groups…like, you have the Gutterth stuff, and we have our friends and even these younger kids, they have their own…
Chris: I went to a house show the other night, and I didn’t know any of those people.
Brendon: Exactly. There are multiple scenes.
MB: Do you think the scenes interact enough? Is that an issue?
Chris: I think that’s somewhere where we could improve, as far as combining all of these smaller pockets into one bigger community.
MB: Do you think that could happen?
Chris: It could, but it’s sort of always been that way in Denton. When I first moved to Denton and we started Back Stabbath, we thought we were the only punk band in town. We just didn’t know anybody. There’s a lot of people in Denton.
Brendon: There’s so many musicians. Every person you meet at a bar or something, they all play in bands.
Anthony: There’s never a lack of good musicians. There’s always badass people playing, it’s just a matter of getting to meet people with similar interests musically.
Brendon: All in all, Denton has always been full of music.
Anthony: I don’t know. I think there’s younger kids popping up, like the dudes in Two Knights. They’ve got friends, and I’m sure they all know how to play good tunes, so—
David: It feels like there’s always a wave— up and down. It feels like it’s been down for a little while, but it’s coming back up now, especially in the past few months. Hopefully it keeps doing that.
Chris: Denton is always like that. I’m sure in the spring more stuff will start popping out.
Brendon: It’s hard to judge, too, because there are so many little pockets and groups…like, you have the Gutterth stuff, and we have our friends and even these younger kids, they have their own…
Chris: I went to a house show the other night, and I didn’t know any of those people.
Brendon: Exactly. There are multiple scenes.
MB: Do you think the scenes interact enough? Is that an issue?
Chris: I think that’s somewhere where we could improve, as far as combining all of these smaller pockets into one bigger community.
MB: Do you think that could happen?
Chris: It could, but it’s sort of always been that way in Denton. When I first moved to Denton and we started Back Stabbath, we thought we were the only punk band in town. We just didn’t know anybody. There’s a lot of people in Denton.
Brendon: There’s so many musicians. Every person you meet at a bar or something, they all play in bands.
Anthony: There’s never a lack of good musicians. There’s always badass people playing, it’s just a matter of getting to meet people with similar interests musically.
Brendon: All in all, Denton has always been full of music.
– Interview by Michael Briggs/Transcription by Dale Jones