Emotional rock is what they’ve been labeled lately. But I think charming, or even thoughtful, is a better word for these five young men from the South Bay. Ryan and I were both invited to spend a night with them in their practice area, in the heart of El Segundo, to capture some photographic images as well as let them speak their minds. Besides getting lost driving down skinny streets trying to find the place, I had a wonderful night. I shot a couple rolls of film while Sensefield played some of their new songs, which are just as brilliant as the old ones, but much more mature (they seem to be growing toward an even more layered and textured sound). And afterwards we all drove to drive coffee and talked about whatever they felt people needed to know about them. This is what went on… -Travis
Interview by Ryan Ritchie for Buddyhead on February 10, 1999 at the Coffee Bean and Chris’ sister’s car in Manhattan Beach.
Ryan: How did Warner Bros. come about?
Rodney: The WB.
Jon: We started getting major label attention in 95 and the Warner Bros. was just the label we liked the best.
Chris: The least amount of creepy people.
R: Did you have any bad experiences with major labels?
C: It was actually a lot of fun.
R: Did you get courted by any labels?
J: We went to New York about 4 times, being flown out to meet with labels, it was fun.
Ro: Free lunch, free dinner, shows.
J: It probably only happens once in a career.
R: Between Building and now what happened to you guys?
C: It seems like we’ve fallen of the face of the earth.
R: Rumors were flying.
C: After the last tour we did with Jimmy Eat World in the beginning of 97 we decided we wanted to stop touring and just write songs because Building was a bunch of old songs plus a couple new ones. We thought that we’d write totally new songs so we got way into demos.
J: Chris and Rodney went on a tangent. They fell of the face of the earth.
C: We spent forever doing demos and then planning to do the record and started looking for producers. That ended up taking forever so we found a guy and we began recording in Jan 98. We got about a month into it.
J: Let’s just say we weren’t on the same page as this guy.
C: The guy producing it wasn’t working out. There were technical problems and weird tuning problems in the songs. It ended up sounding like crap and nobody was happy with it so we ended up scrapping pretty much everything we had worked on for a month. We had to wait a while for the next producer. So we started up again in March from the ground up, recutting all the drums and everything. Then we worked on and off from then until now.
Ro: Exciting stuff.
C: It’s amazing. We don’t understand why it took so long either. It just kept going and going.
R: Did you purposely not play in this time?
J: At first we focused on writing and recording but then we thought we should play.
C: We didn’t want to play because we wanted to focus on writing new songs and practicing those songs. Every time we played it meant that we had to go through the set so we ended up wasting a lot of time doing that. So we said, “let’s just not play”, but we didn’t expect it to take this long. It should have been done almost a year ago, in March of 98.
J: I felt like in order to become something new it would be better to not play the old stuff so we could really become a new band with a new sound and new style. I don’t think it’s a drastic change but it helped to not play the old music. Kinda shed our skin off.
R: Are there any songs you won’t play? What’s the set list like now?
C: We still play mostly old ones now because we don’t have all the new ones worked up live where they sound good. A lot of them became studio things. We did more than we could handle live so we’re trying to do the new ones that we can pull off. We still do the ones people usually want to hear.
R: If a kid yells a song at you, you won’t say no?
Ro: Only if we don’t know it.
C: We still like to play what people want to hear.
Ro: When you don’t play a song for that long it’s fun to learn it again.
J: I really enjoy singing all of our songs. I’ve never been the type that burned out on a song or hated a song. I don’t know why. When you sing you can always sing it different.
C: Like Rodney said, it’s fun when you haven’t played it in a while. It’s like, “Wow. That’s a cool song.”
Ro: New stuff is always a little sketchier. You play the old stuff and it just feels so natural to play. It’s fun, you don’t have to think about it and people are singing along.
J: People know them and get happy.
C: The lamest thing about playing new songs before the record is out is all of a sudden it’s all “uhhhhhh.”
J: A lot of people I talked to said they were kind of scared to hear our new stuff. They said they were nervous about it but they felt all right after.
C: When we were starting it I thought it was going to be a lot more different. We were thinking it was going to be a whole new thing.
Ro: It still sounds like Sensefield to me.
C: It’s still mainly loud guitars and drums and a little bit of flavor in there for fun but it’s basically us.
R: Are you guys going for radio and video now that you’re on Warner Bros.?
C: Videos, I don’t know. Radio, I’m sure they’re going to be pushing something to radio but we don’t know what song yet.
R: How much say do you have in what song is chosen?
C: I’m not sure because we haven’t done it yet but so far it’s been totally up to us. You hear of bands with horrible experiences making records. All of the info we got from them we asked for, nobody was pushing anything on us. We have a really great A&R person whose close to us, the hugest Sensefield fan in the world. It was a mellow experience for us.
J: If the guy who is promoting the record hears a song that he thinks is good and really wants to push a song then…he’s been promoting records for 20 years. I’m not ashamed of any of our songs so I might be learning toward one but it’s still our music. It doesn’t have to be a certain song. It’s going to be interesting to see what direction it goes.
R: What do you think that pop music fans will think? Being on a major, will your audience embrace that or do you think you might lose some fans?
C: I don’t know. I think our fans aren’t the typical (pauses)
R: Sellout yellers?
C: Yeah. A lot of the hardcore kids aren’t into us anyway. It’s usually their girlfriends that like us so they’re already pretty forgiving. We’re not a hardcore punk band whose all of a sudden on a major label.
Ro: We never had a manifesto and never said we wouldn’t do this or do that. We were always “We’ll do whatever comes up.” Whatever leads to bigger and better things. R: To a kid with a radio ear they might throw you in with Matchbox 20, Third Eye Blind, bands like that. Some bands might be catchier but just never catch on when bands like those do. A band like Everclear, whose songs all sound the same are really popular. Is it how they promote the records?
C: It sounds like they’re all made for the radio. I think some bands it’s in the production; they are just geared toward to be radio singles. It’s verse and a huge chorus. We’ve got a couple songs you could hear on the radio but still a lot of stuff on our records is out of left field.
J: It’s really hard to say where it’s going to go. You just do it.
C: Jimmy Eat World. They’re a KROQ hit band right now and I hear that song on the radio and it sounds like a radio to me. I like it, it’s a cool song. We’re going on tour with them. It’ll be interesting. They were probably some of the biggest shows they’ve played.
R: When’s the tour starting?
C: Mid March. At the Drive In are doing the first part and we’re doing the second. We start March 17Th in Philadelphia.
R: Are you excited to go back on tour?
C: I’m really excited. We’ve been home for so long. It’s going to be a really good tour, hopefully the shows will be packed.
R: Is Sensefield your job or do any of you do anything else?
Ro: It was for a while. I’ve worked at the same places forever and I know the 2 bosses so they know I’m in a band so I work when I’m in town.
J: The way we record, Rodney’s not around after he’s done or when Scott finishes. We have to wait around for everyone to finish so people get jobs and hang out or play with other bands. There’s been a lot of down time.
C: Way more than we thought but we’re all really pleased with it. We’ve been doing the same 13 or 14 songs. It’s just some reason…I’ve heard rumors that the label rejected the record but no.
J: We wouldn’t be ashamed to admit it if it were true.
R: What’s the best and worst thing about being in a band? Why keep going?
J: At this point I don’t really know anything else. I’m 28 and I’ve been around bands since I was 14 or 15.
C: We have no other skills.
J: It would be so weird to not be in a band. I’ve been in a band over half of my life. It feels like it’s what I’m here to do. The uncertainty of what’s going to happen is the worst thing. You hope for the best. There’s a roller coaster ride on tour. You have highs and lows. It’s hard to stay grounded and focused. You have to be ok with whatever happens.
Ro: Winter touring on the East Coast for me.
C: We’ve had a couple of near death experiences.
R: Do you have girlfriends, wives, families, kids, or whatever?
Ro: I have a kid. She just turned one. Lealoni (sp?). It’s cool so far. Her mom’s a big fan so she’s totally understanding. She wants me to pursue this full on so she’s really cool about it.
R: Will it be hard leaving?
Ro: Yeah but this first tour is only for 3 weeks. But if we keep being away for a long time it seems like it’s going to get sad. R: Have you ever thought of what might happen if the band takes off but your kid needs you at home?
Ro: No, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. I’ll fly her out.
R: Do your parents ever think you’re wasting your time?
C: Yeah.
J: I think they’d be disappointed if I was messed up on drugs. I live with my mom and she knows that I’m in my right mind and I’m striving for something.
Ro: My parents have always been totally supportive, even when it wasn’t going anywhere. My dad spent a lot of time in school, getting degrees and ended up not using them. He says to follow my heart and do what I want. You can always go back to school. It seemed a little more happening a couple years ago. There’s been a lot of down time. There are times when the band is paying the rent.
R: Are you still involved in the music scene (buying records, going to shows)?
J: We go see bands all the time. We heard about At the Drive In and we went and saw them. We checked out Jets to Brazil. When we went on tour in 94 there were some god awful bands.
C: Not the bands that are happening now.
J: All these Snapcase-ish bands, every band was a wannabe Snapcase and then it changed.
C: It’s all happened since we stopped touring. Everybody says in that period it exploded. We are anxious to go back on the road to see what it’s like.
R: When’s the record coming out?
C: The first or second week of June. We’re scrambling to make that. The Jimmy Eat World tour is as far as we’ve planned ahead.
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