#do615ive questions

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#Do615iveQuestions featuring Concord America​! Catch these dudes at Betty's Grill​ on March 30th.

Read the interview here

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                         ---Do615ive Questions with Wray---

Tonight is a special night for the shoegaze band - Wray. Not only will they open the first night on tour at Exit/In with headliners Man or Astroman?, their debut self-title album releases today. They worked on their self-title with engineer Daniel Farris (who has also worked with Man Or Astro-man?, St. Vincent, Polyphonic Spree, Verbena). This new band from Birmingham, AL hazes over the shoegaze, post-punk feel to a T. Check out their debut video above to catch their vibe. Before Wray start their big day, we asked them five questions:

Get tickets to their show with Sallie Ford and Man or Astroman here. 

Do615: What was it like to work with Daniel Farris, who engineered your self-title? 

Wray: It was a great experience. He knew the sound that we wanted, and he was on board with our conceptual ideas for the record. The feeling and pace of that time spent working with Daniel directly coincides with the mood of the record. 

Do615: If any, what album or song do you turn on to pump you up before you perform?                            

Wray: We all have our own preshow rituals, but usually it involves us either pacing around in circles or going off somewhere quiet for a bit. Calm before the storm, so to speak.

Do615: With your album dropping on today what else is in the future plans for Wray?

Wray: Fortunately we’ll be starting the first leg of a national tour with Man or Astro-Man? the day the album comes out. We’ll be heading out West for a couple of weeks, come back home to Birmingham for a few shows (and hopefully some rest), and then in September hit up the East Coast.  

Do615: Who has been an influence while writing music?

Wray: The three of us have varying influences, but there’s definitely some overlap. We try to incorporate the different elements each of us bring to our sound…from new wave to shoegaze, to post punk and psych/krautrock and hopefully create something different, a sound all in its own. 

Do615: How did you guys meet and how long have you been making music together?

Wray: David Swatzell and Blake have been roommates for some years.  David Brown and David Swatzell have played in bands together, off and on, for some years.  One day, Wray just happened.  

Interview by Amber Davis

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Do615ive Questions: Jonathan Sexton & Mark Montgomery of Feed The Birds

Feed The Birds are a collective of Nashville and Knoxville musicians, it’s the newest startup from serial entrepreneurs, Jonathan Sexton and Mark Montgomery.  The band has made a big splash in the past few months with some high profile opening slots in Knoxville.  Now, Feed The Birds land at the Basement this Monday at 7 pm, with opening act Gator Park.

Feed The Birds website: http://feedthebirds.co

1. How did the band come about?  It seems the band is comprised of very busy people, how does the band juggle careers, rehearsal, and writing around each other's day jobs and personal lives?

  Jonathan Sexton- Mark and I have been friends for awhile, but finally got in the same room with guitars toward the end of the year last year. I already had a new band Id been trying to work up in Knoxville and he was doing the same thing here is Nashville, after a long evening of talking shop and listening to tunes together that we liked, he emailed me a riff he’d written and I finished the tune and send it back. Everybody knows Marks the best around at the music tech thing, I never gave alot a thought to him actually being a player, but after he sent me some of the tunes he had been working on I realized, “Shit! this guy is the real deal, he can play, and more importantly I realized that it wasnt about hot licks or anything, when he plays he creates a sound that is all his own, it didnt sound like anything Id heard before, and THATS something I get real excited about.  

  Mark Montgomery:  For me, it's about staying connected to the creative process.  To me, this is just part of the life I want to live. In many ways, music saved me.  It's always been there... And as Jonny and I say, it's a hobby till it ain't. And we have had a couple insights for biz ideas - working the problem from the inside offers a much different view.

  2. The both of you come from Technology backgrounds, does the band inspire you to dig in deeper in relation to integrating music and technology, or is it a 'happy place' to escape the insanity of the day to day responsibilities?

JS:  I actually do have more of a music background, I got into the tech thing about 3-4 years ago, the 5 years before that I was on the road and playing clubs constantly, my band Jonathan Sexton and the Big Love Choir had management, booking, publishing, TV placements, and we played some big festivals like SXSW and Bonnaroo. We were doing it, but when my buddy and I had the idea for a music management app, and some investors came on board, it was too much to pass up. Mark moved to town with $800 bucks, a guitar, and girl wanted in multiple states. Most people don’t know it, but he started out guitar too!

 Now with Feed the Birds, We can get back at it, but we are also learning how to approach the whole thing a different way, because we are busy, yet we are serious about it, so we know we have to be really smart and efficient. 3 or 4 months into this thing its all about writing songs, I think its inevitable that guys like us will think about and learn more about integrating music and tech, but all in all- its music first on this one. 

MM: For me, it's both.  But I try to just be a guitar player first (try is the operative word...) just chasing what I hear in my head in the context of other great players. 

  3. Did the songwriters bring in material from previous solo or band projects, or did all of you start from a clean slate musically and build the songs from the ground up?

 MM: We are doing about a 50/50 of new stuff written from the ground up and previous tunes out of jonny's catalog. 

  JS: This early in the game we both had to pull in some old stuff just to be able to get a set together, but know that the rest of the band is coming together, we are writing all the tunes together, thats the way we like it, team effort.

  4. What are some of your musical influences past and present and has the way that you discover music changed with the advent of the Pandoras and Spotifys?  Do you feel artists today have a more level playing field or just a more crowded one?

MM: I’m musically skitzo.  Zeppelin to Zappa - Lyle Lovett to Michael Hedges - Ani to Aerosmith. 

  JS: I’ve still yet to find a robot that can tell me what I want to hear when I want to hear it. Maybe that’ll change at some point, but I still discover music the way I always have, Word of Mouth, now the difference is, I can have a tune pulled up on my phone 10 secs after I hear it, and thats powerful, so in that sense the field is level, but I don’t really think the field is level at all. What’s changed is lack of sales isn’t the problem, obscurity is. We wish, hope, and pray that one of these days people will “steal” our music. The only way to cut through the stack is quality. You have to be better than everyone else, or more clearly: you have to have better songs. Great songs win, every time.  So thats why we write and write and write.

 5. What are your plans for the band with regards to shows, are you doing mostly one offs or planning any mini-tours outside of the state?

JS: Again, its early, so its mostly one-offs for now, but if you know me or Mark at all- you know we don’t like to do anything small- so watch out!

6.  Extra Credit: If you had to pick a festival or ultimate dream gig (sharing a bill with an iconic act or appearing at a festival) what/who would you choose?

MM: OutsideLands or an opening slot for Pearl Jam…

  JS:  I grew up in Knoxville and the first Feed the Birds show was New Years Eve at the Historic Tennessee Theatre to about 1800 people. That for awhile, had been the ultimate dream gig ,and I’ve done Bonnaroo already- so I’m actually gonna throw out an achievable dream here and say, next stop: The Ryman…..with Prince or Elton John.