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I'm going on tour with my pals in Exit Salida! See you in August!

8/9 - Lowell, MA @ The Laundry Room 8/11 - Danbury, CT @ The Heirloom Arts Theatre 8/12 - New York, NY @ The Path Cafe 8/13 - Haledon, NJ @ The John Ryle House* 8/14 - Kennett Square, PA @ Pinball House 8/15 - Philadelphia, PA @ The Fire 8/16 - West Chester, PA @ Fennario

More links will be added once the Facebook event pages are made up for the right dates. Bring all your friends!

#No Stranger #nostranger #nostrangermusic #Exit Salida

Interview: Exit Salida

If you’re a fan of good music, you’re in for a treat today. Luke Anderson and Conner Shultz of Exit Salida have been kind enough to answer some questions for us and, just as with our recent Track by Track feature, they prove to be some of the coolest guys we have had the pleasure of working with.

Take a moment to get to know Exit Salida.

Enjoy.

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MELODIC POST: Before we jump into things, I want to thank you for setting time aside for this interview. I’ve quickly become a fan of your music and am eager to learn more about the band. For those who may not be familiar with your music, would you mind a quick introduction?

Luke: Well hey thanks! You’ve been awesome to us and we really appreciate it! I’ve always found our music somewhat hard to describe. If I’m ever asked in person I usually just whip out my phone and play a clip of Prtatr or Keelah, but otherwise I’ll usually end up putting my foot in my mouth. Lately I’ve been describing us as indie/prog and no one seems to go too crazy when I say so.

Conner: Yeah, thanks a lot, man! I always tell people to look us up, and give them some strung together descriptor of what we are kind of like. I usually end up just saying we are a weird indie rock band.

MP: Tell us about the inception of the band. How did you all meet and how long have you guys been playing together?

Luke: It really started out with Conner and I. I wanted to start a band the moment I got to York College of PA and then we met at the end of our freshman year through the radio station and we had a lot of musical tastes in common The first time we actually spoke to each other he was complimenting my Circa Survive shirt so you know it was meant to be! The next year Conner and I started writing together and messing with the “Album a Day” concept and the second time we went at it we brought Kristian in on it as a drummer. The year after that Kristian moved to guitar we got a super sick drummer to play with us and we started recording demos and doing shows as The King in The North. Eventually we added Tommy into the fold on keys, which was a little ironic because he remains the best guitar player any of us have ever met. We changed our name to Exit Salida, recorded Glow Mountain in a classroom studio, and before we released it our drummer left. Before the release we were joined by our new drummer Gilbert, which has been amazing, he is the most positive person in world and he keeps us all chipper when we get stressed out. The rest is history!

Conner: I May actually have those files from the “Album a Day” thing that we did, so maybe someday, we can add those in as a special release in the future. Haha.

MP: Since discovering your music, I can’t help but notice the amount of free exposure you guys get. I’m met with an “EXIT/SALIDA” sign in nearly all cases of leaving someplace. Is this how you guys came up with the band name?

Luke: Yeah, Kristian got the idea while navigating Brooklyn subways and I can’t speak for the other guys, but every time someone I know has gotten on a plane in the past few months I’ve been sent a picture of the exit sign.

Conner: Oh my God, yes. I keep getting random photos sent to us, but I don’t really mind, because it just shows that people are thinking about us, and that’s a really surreal feeling.

MP: Can you tell us a bit about your writing process? How do guys typically approach new material?

Luke: Most of the time I’ll bring the band a skeleton of the song and together we’ll mold it and shape it into something we all agree with. That or we’ll all collaborate on something and jam it out until it makes sense.

Conner: I think our writing process works well, because I honestly don’t know much about theory. I tend to write by ear and what I think sounds good, but Luke tended to be a theory hound, so we sort of end up pushing each other in new directions. I push him to break the rules, and he gets me to obey them. My process for lyric writing varies depending on the piece. I listen to the core of what Luke writes, and I sort of interpret it emotionally, thinking how it makes me feel, what it makes me think of. From there, I draw from personal experiences, recalling how I felt at certain times in my life that match the mood of the groove.

MP: Your EP, Glow Mountain, is superb. Tell us a bit about the making of the EP. Where and with whom did you record?

Luke: We recorded it in a classroom at our college with a guy named Chris Jackson, who did it all for free and put some real elbow grease into it. Glow Mountain would not be real without him so we’re very, very thankful for all his help.

Conner: Thanks so much! The EP is actually recorded in a live-studio style, so we basically just sat in a big circle and played the songs. I don’t think we would have had the same energy on the EP if we did it any other way.

MP: What was the most difficult part about recording the EP?

Luke: All the instrumentals were done in one night so we were doing take after take from about 8pm until 3 in the morning.

Conner: That wasn’t difficult, it was fun! The most difficult was probably vocals, I think. Since all the instrumentals were basically done in 1 or 2 takes, having to sit in and try to get the perfect version of the vocal tracks was more frustrating.

MP: Can I ask how you guys came up with the artwork for the record?

Conner: I actually designed that. It’s gone through several different iterations, from being a more photorealistic mountain, to a cubist interpretation, to glitch art, and we eventually I just wanted something simple. What is simpler than 2-tone? I tried it out, and we all kinda liked it. It gave us a flexible design, that we could really put on anything, as well as being a semi-powerful symbol. It’s simple and eye-catching, so it just sort of works.

MP: I noticed that you’ve made Glow Mountain downloadable for free on Bandcamp, which brings me to my next question. What are your thoughts on music-sharing and the impact it has had on today’s music, musicians and fans?

Luke: Glow Mountain, for the most part, is free because we figured this would mean it would have a farther reach and we’d get to more people to listen to it and download it. I think it’s taken a while, but I think file-sharing has become more of an opportunity for musicians and fans than just a threat.

Conner: Music sharing is nothing new, people are going to do it. It’s no different than making a mixtape. We are pretty proud of Glow Mountain, so it makes sense to get it out to as many people as possible. We didn’t feel like dealing with the financial aspect of all of the digital sales, so a free download made sense. We’re just starting out, so to get our music out to anyone and everyone was really important.

MP: One of my favorite parts about interviewing artists is getting a chance to ask about their gear. What sort of equipment is everyone playing on these days?

Luke: I play a four string Music Man Sting Ray, and I don’t always use my pedals, but I’ll run it through the Electro Harmonix Big Muff Pi, Boss LMB-3, and an MXR M-108. And all that runs into my Ashdown 300w half stack. Tommy has a glorious Korg Sv1 that he runs through a DD7 to get some really cool wonky sounds.

Conner: I play a Fender Telecaster through a BossSD-1, a Boss DS-1, a Rocktron Big Crush, a Boss TR-2, and a Boss DD-6. All that goes into a Fender Mustang IV. And all of that, except the compressor is Luke’s stuff. Kristian uses my guitar, a Greg Bennett Design Avion 7 and my ZVex Fuzz Factory into a Line 6 Spider III, I believe. Man, does that fuzz scream. I have it so it can be mounted to the guitar, giving access to the “Stability” control, so you can just send it right into crazy oscillation mode without having to be bent over playing with a floor pedal.

MP: Since becoming a band, what would you say has been Exit Salida’s proudest moment?

Luke: For me it was coming together with Gilbert after the departure of our previous drummer.

Conner: I would say the Glow Mountain release show is up there, too. That was our first big show with Gil, and we ran out of our limited-run physical copies, and had just the best crowd there. The perfect summary of the night is in a photo from the show, where Luke is crowd surfing on his back, playing his bass. So much energy all over, I was like a proud poppa for us, that night.

MP: What plans do you all have for the summer?

Luke: We’ve begun work on an LP, so hopefully by the end of the summer we’ll have made some serious progress on that, other than that we’re gonna keep trying to play in places we’ve never played before.

Conner: Writing, acquiring gear, more writing, and just keeping this thing alive! I love it, I love my bandmates, I love the crazy things we do, it’s all some of the best things that have ever happened to me. And I can’t wait to show everyone what we come up with next.

MP: Again, thanks for spending time with us. Is there anything or anyone you would like to plug?

Luke: Check out our boys in The Mellowells and No Stranger, because they’re great!

Conner: What Luke said! I’m also a big fan of Maitland, and King Tivoli, as well. Super nice guys, super awesome stuff!

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Be sure to check out Exit Salida:

Exit Salida on Bandcamp  

Exit Salida on Facebook  

Exit Salida on Twitter

Photo Credit:

All photos of Exit Salida were shot by John DiCocco.

You can see more of John's awesome work here and here.

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Oklahoma Car Crash - CD Cellar - Falls Church, VA Exit Salida - The Shop at Newgrounds Roasting Company - York, PA

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Track by Track: Exit Salida, Glow Mountain

Recently, Luke Anderson and Conner Shultz of Exit Salida sat down to give us a rundown of their debut EP, Glow Mountain. Check out their notes and stories below and be sure to download your free copy of Glow Mountain on the band’s Bandcamp!

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“Glow Mountain”

Luke: From the day I brought the skeleton of this song to band practice to this very day I get confused looks and questions about how to remember and follow that beat at the beginning. It was inspired by the likes of Anathallo and As Tall As Lions and it opens up all of our shows perfectly. And accompanied by the chants that take place this song (the first lyrics written for any of our material) I think this song serves to, at least to some degree set us apart as we open up the album and any of our shows.

Conner: Lyrically, this is the only song I didn’t write. Luke wrote the lyrics and the melody for it, and I sort of helped conform them to my style of singing. I remember hearing the melody for the first time and thinking “hmm…I don’t really like the whole ascending scale style”, but it dawned on me after we recorded it, that it sort of represented the climb up the mountain. Much of this song, lyrically and musically, is based round the idea of ascension. There is a lot of imagery there that feels very uplifting. So, kudos to Luke for this one!

“Prtatr”

Luke: This song is our meat and potatoes. When the band was just Conner, Kristian, and I we would practice this song for hours, at just the verse of it at that. This is the song where odd meters finally came together for me and started to make sense. When this song finally came together it was an incredible relief. After working so long and so hard to put this band together and get off the ground, this song, our first song, was finally done and it was like I could exhale for the first time in months.

Conner: I had the chorus riff for this one stored away, and I had been messing with it for a while, but it never went anywhere until I brought it up with Luke and Kristian. It really took flight, and I started thinking about lyrics. This one had a name before it had lyrics, so I took the imagery of a potato (since the title is a phonetic southerner way to say “potato”) and applied it to my own life. I’ve always had a problem in relationships where I self-sabotage through inaction. I thought, “like a potato stuck in the ground.” It made sense at the time… I’m not really sure what I was thinking.

“Quarter Pyramid”

Conner: Fun fact, this song was supposed to be in 9. We played it as a sort of slower jam piece, but it never really had a good vibe to it. I t was always really depressing to play, so we shelved it. At the time I was listening to a lot of Minus the Bear, so I started experimenting with some different rhythms with a delay pedal in it, and it had so much more life in it. So I brought it to the guys and we completely rewrote it. I wrote some lyrics that mirrored that feeling. It’s about just taking the time to look at things in a new light, and realizing it’s all alright.

“Paratrooper”

Luke: We recorded all the instrumentals for this album live and you can kinda hear that in the beginning. It all happened in one night, and none of us went to bed until 3:30 in the morning -- I think Kristian or Dan, our drummer at the time, had class a few hours later. We were getting kinda loopy by the time we got to this one (to say the least), but I still think it sounds solid.

Conner: The lyrics for this song are the first ones that I wrote that I really took personally. The song had a powerfully sad feeling to me, so I did what a lot of musicians do: get sad and write about how sad I was. I really looked at my own flaws as a person, and it was pretty depressing, but it was a cathartic release for me. It’s one of my favorite songs to play, just because I don’t have to act as a character to play it, I’m just letting it all out.

“Bike Ride”

Luke: Conner and I wrote and rewrote this song probably something like four times, and the way it finally ended up on the album is almost a completely different song than the original Bike Ride. As it stands now, I think this is our heaviest song, probably because of all of the frustration that went into writing it.

Conner: Luke is right. A little Fun-Fact is that this final version of the song was written at my family’s annual tractor races. As in like, garden tractors. I thought it was a uniquely backwoods Pennsylvania thing, so I brought Luke to my home and we went out to the event. Something stupid happened and we ended up getting really mad at each other over it. But then we both took time and cooled down and came together and wrote this song. It’s basically what a band-fight sounds like.

“Keelah Se’Lai”

Luke: This song is my favorite song. I think this is all of our favorite. This is the song where we cook… where we play together and every note fits together perfectly, with every part a compliment to the other.

Conner: This song was actually written as a challenge. The phrase “Keelah Se’Lai” comes from the Mass Effect video game series. My roommate challenged me to write a protest song for the one race of aliens in the game. So, I did it. Lyrically, this song tells the story of this race, albeit in a sort of hidden way. The aliens were driven from their home planet by robots they created, and live in a nomadic fleet of ships. So, that’s what this song is about. The title comes from the aliens phrase for “by the home I hope to see”, so I managed to work that phrase into the song, as well.