Interview: Band of the Week - Self Against City - Page 2

We brought him up four days before we left for tour, he actually only had three days. We played the set a total of five times before we left for the tour. So he had three days to learn to play seven different songs. It was nuts! But we now have a final line-up.

I’ve been listening to Telling Secrets to Strangers this past week, and my 14 year old daughter loves it. How would you describe your sound, as far as audience appeal?

Wow! That's nice to hear. I don't know. It's kind of difficult for me, being in the band, to be able to form an unbiased opinion. We're just a rock 'n' roll band.

We listen to everything so our influences range from old rock 'n' roll, old do-wop stuff to old country, modern rock 'n' roll. I do mean everything. We try to take from everything we love and put it into our band. I guess the best way for me to describe it is just good ol' rock 'n' roll.

You and Jonathon are credited with all of the writing; do the other members have any input in the eventual sound of a given song or the album?

This time it was a little weird. As we were leading up to the recording of the album, the other members leaving the band and the writing process, so Jonathon and I took over on that. We ended up writing and demo-ing the songs ourselves. Every now and then we would have the other two come in to the band room and they would jam around with us. But for the most part Jonathan and I wrote what is Telling Secrets to Strangers.

Now that we have new members the sound is obviously going to change a little bit in what I think is going to be an amazing way. The heads that we have together working on a common goal, which is our next record, will be something I'm very very looking forward to. Everyone wanting to be here, and everyone wanting to be involved in songwriting, it's going to be an incredible experience to write with our new lineup, eventually.

So you think future albums will be more collaborative?

Article Author: Connie Phillips

Wife, mother, aspiring novelist, and music editor at BC Magazine, Connie Phillips spends most of her time in a fantasy land of her own creating. In reality, she writes about music, television, and the process of writing, when she's not cheering on her kids at equestrian events. …

Visit Connie Phillips's author page — Connie Phillips's Blog