I’m Glad It’s You Interview
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I had the opportunity to ask I’m Glad It’s You a few questions about the band, influences, playing THE FEST, news for 2016, and more! Check it out below.
Can you list everyone in the band and what they do?
Kelley Bader - guitar; vocals, Nick Mauer - guitar, TJ Moneymaker - Bass, Matt Soliz - drums
When did the band form and how?
We formed in 2014. We had all been in bands together in the past in which I had played drums and I told them I wanted to start a new band but play guitar and write songs, and so we did. We've been friends for a long time so it was nice not having to search or find any one new and try to figure out how to work with other people.
“I’m Glad It’s You” is a very unique name. Is there a cool story behind where you got it from?
The name came from a poem a good friend of ours wrote, which isn't that cool of a story. I think we all sort of felt that band names are somewhat arbitrary so most of our ideas were jokes. I'm Glad It's You was the first name someone suggested that wasn't a joke so we decided to go with it. I second guess the decision sometimes because of how long and sort of sappy it sounds, but I think we have a sort of sentimental attachment to it at this point.
What are some of the bands you grew up listening to that you could say influenced your sound the most?
We grew listening to a lot of the same music but with some unique influences we brought to the table. Personally, I've had a huge attachment to Pedro the Lion as a kid and so I thought our songs would sound a lot more like that. But together i think the group favorite is Tigers jaw by a long shot. We used to get together or go on trips and sing Tigers Jaw songs and so I think a lot of that sound and bands. In that sort of vein bled through as we sort of collaborated. I think we wanted a sound that was fun and catchy enough to sing along to.
You guys dropped your EP “Daydreams” in September of 2015. When I first found you guys, I listened to these songs nonstop, became an instant fan, and connected with you guy so quickly. I know all of your fans can say this but what kind of feedback have you guys heard from this collection of songs?
The feedback has been very kind. A lot of it was paired with some frustration at how short the Daydreams EP was, and I totally understand. It's really only one new song, a cover, and the other two are re-recorded songs off June. But still people had very nice things to say about the songs. I think the sound we got from them is a little different than I expected, but we kept what I like about our band in tact. I think the songs we are starting to write sonically are landing somewhere between the two EPs with someone forward steps here and there.
You guys rerecorded the song “June” on the new EP. What made you want to do that?
I think the decision to re-record came almost entirely from wanting to release those songs through the label. I had this huge fear that June would be lost in "the land of demos" forever and I really like those songs. But much to my surprise people actually listened to June and so it may not have been necessary. Although personally I like having multiple versions of the same song. It's almost like archiving different points in our history.
Every time I meet someone who is a fan I’m Glad It’s You, they want more, more, more. Can we expect a full length this year? Maybe tour?
This year we will be releasing another EP, which includes the rest of the songs we recorded around September last year. We're all pretty excited about it and in the mean time we are writing and shooting for a couple tours this year as well, hopefully a full US over summer.
I’m Glad It’s You got to rip in Gainesville Florida’s “THE FEST” this last year. How sick was that? Any cool bands you met or a cool set you all got to see?
It was incredible. It was sort of amplified by the fact that we had wanted to go to fest for so long and now we had an opportunity to play. So it felt very surreal. We saw a lot of amazing bands, including all of the other bands on 6131 that were at Fest. I spent a lot of time by myself watching bands I hadn't heard of before and had a very good time doing that. I saw Cayetana for the first time which I had been looking forward to. We all watched the Hotelier together and that was very cool too.
The song writing this band is working with is honestly incredible. Do you all work together on song writing? Is it just one member?
Thank you, that means a lot. So far I've done all the songwriting myself, but we have collaborated more lately. Before I would just write the songs and sort of show them to everyone once they were done, and now I'll always bring an idea and they'll weigh in on it and I'll go and work on it some more. Songwriting is usually feast or famine for me in terms of ideas so I'll usually have 6 or 7 at a time or none at all. I'm finding that sometimes I have to sit and stare for a long time and sort of force myself write. Other times it's super easy.
Anything to say to the fans?
To any fans, thank you! Thank you for listening to the songs and trying to connect with them and finding some sort of meaning in them. It means the world to us
Thank you to I’m Glad It’s You for the amazing interview! Can’t wait to see what this band has to offer for 2016.