Come What May is a five piece rock band from Athens, GA. They recently released their first full length, titled 'Strange Dialect' on June 12. I was blessed with the amazing opportunity to pick the guys' brains and get all the inside scoop on the new album- here is what they had to say!
What is the story behind the album name, Strange Dialect?
Tim: We arrived at the name after a great deal of deliberation and time. When we went to write the songs for this record, the band was in an interesting place. We had parted ways with two of our members, had some rather involved family issues, and three of us were coming into our final months of schooling. For a lot of people, those kinds of thing put a sort of finality on youth. I kind of struggled with this for a while and found myself at odds with who I found myself growing into. I know it sounds kind of cheesy, but I couldn’t really make sense of these new thoughts and processes that I found myself unknowingly engaging in. Not that either of these schools of thought were bad, more that they were so different. So, after many, many nights of writing, meandering aimlessly, and laying awake, I came to the conclusion that these two characters in my head just couldn’t communicate at the time. Though they were both a kind of protagonist [youth and my adult mindset] that it was like they were speaking different, equally valid, languages. . . and I suppose you can see where it went from there. I think it’s appropriate for a number of reasons, the main one coming from this internal struggle.
Did you guys practice any special routine to seek inspiration when going into the writing process?
Tim: I can’t speak for everyone, but I really look to conversation and film when I write. I like to capture a certain imagery or mood with what I’m creating and I get a lot of inspiration from talking to people. With a lot of the material on this record, I just. . . spoke with people. I visited places that I hadn’t in a very long time. I spoke with strangers, with old friends, with people I didn’t particularly care for. From the very beginning, our band has been about lifting other people up. We firmly believe that every single person has worth to them, no matter how different we are from one another.
Evan: I don't know that there was any specific process during the genesis of the album. Me and Tim and Patrick wrote a couple of the songs following the departure of our bassist and second guitarist, who had previously written a good bit of our material. A lot of this new stuff was written with an eye towards developing a new voice, as we were definitely a different band in a different place than where we were during the last few songs that we wrote. For me, it was the first time I had written any songs for the group, so it was a bit of a challenge, as well as a bit of a risk, as I wasn't really sure whether the context of the material was going to be seen as a complete break from the older stuff, or whether there was an acceptable kind of continuity. I didn't want to alienate anyone, fans or bandmates, and I wanted to make sure that everyone found enough space and energy to work with when they approached my ideas.
Favorite lyric from Strange Dialect..go!
Tim: That's a great question. I feel like I have a favorite section we play live and one that I think turned out really well on the record.
I like “Nights are like the lives of people, you close your eyes and they’re gone” [from our song Deuteragonist], because it really has proved true time and again in my life. Less in a morbid, and more in a positive way. It’s been hard to learn, but your time with people isn’t guaranteed, so you should really cherish it.
When we play live, it’s “We made a promise in youth, to be steadfast” [from Give & Take]. Everyone’s really into playing that section, and the crowd usually gets super crazy. That whole song means a lot to me personally, so it’s really satisfying to play it.
Garrett: “They would have us become silhouettes, but I will not be moved to a state of hopelessness and constant loss.”
Evan: “Though the end is inviting / Refer to the start of the page"
You guys recorded at The Sound Barn in Kinston, NC with producer/engineer John Harell (Sent By Ravens, life on repeat, Embracing Goodbye). How was that experience?
Tim: John is an incredible individual. I know, from my own personal perspective, that he is the best engineer/producer we have worked with to date. His ability to make you feel in control and relaxed simultaneously [even when you're so incredibly frustrated with yourself] is a gift that not every engineer posses. His work is a marriage of natural, raw sounds and polished work, without being overly-processed and artificial. It's rare that you meet someone that, for lack of a better term, just completely gets what you're going for.
Garrett: It was a lot of fun. John's a really awesome guy and he really made us all feel really comfortable. He had a lot of great ideas for the album and he really helped us get
Evan: John was awesome. He definitely made us feel comfortable and seemed excited to help us get this project going. He brought a lot of things to the table that were truly novel compared to some of the other engineers/producers we've worked with, and his expertise in terms of gear and tracking were extremely helpful.
It has been almost a year since you guys released your last and second EP, 'Stimulus vs. Sense'..how do you all feel CWM has grown since then?
Tim: I can’t tell you how much we’ve grown as people and as artists since then. In the nicest way possible, that EP did not turn out how we wanted it to. We tried some things for that release that we found out, just didn’t work for us as a creative body. While I wouldn’t take them back, I have to say that that EP is not an accurate depiction of what we are capable of.
Garrett: We've grown me! best guy ever. Joey as well, I think personally that the music has really matured a lot and that we're definitely getting to a really good point in our collective music.
Evan: We've lost two members and gained two more. Our songwriting process has matured, and I believe that we are a stronger creative collective than ever before. Joey and Garrett are both wonderful dudes, great to work with, and extremely talented musicians in their own right. It was really refreshing and energizing to finally write songs again, and to have two new voices to work with was nice, as well. We've gotten a lot better as musicians, as performers, and as creative consciences. We're more used to sleeping on floors and eating dumpy fast food and driving all the time.
Any interesting studio stories?
Garrett: I remember sleeping a lot... haha. these guys took a good bit of pictures and videos of it, and after a few days in the studio, I felt like I had to sleep in the studio at least a little bit everyday or else something was wrong.
Evan: Probably the sleepless, hallucinatory drive me, Pat, and Garrett made to get to the studio on the first day. We left Athens around 10PM on a Thursday, drove across three states hopped up on RedBull and Coffee and Naked Juice, met John at a Waffle House at 6:30in the morning on Friday, and then proceeded to head to the studio, where we unloaded, set up, and tracked all day until around 4 or 5.
This is you guys' first full length, what are some other things you guys seek to do as a band for the first time in 2012?
Tim: Well, I’m pretty excited to say that we’re putting out an acoustic EP. We’d talked about it before, but thanks to a pretty gracious response from friends and fans [yourself included, I believe!], everyone’s agreed on making it happen. We’ll be working on some covers, as well as, some acoustic versions of some of our tunes. Also, the fine folks at Stay Killer Design have some pretty awesome merch worked up for us. I’m super excited about it!
We’ll also probably be touring up Northeast this coming fall/winter. We had some issues that prevented us from working out a summer tour package that we had originally planned on taking up, and we were all pretty disappointed by that. Hopefully we’ll be able to get that worked out this time though.
Garrett: I'm really looking forward to whatever comes really, I'm enjoying the ride so far and I know that we're gonna have a very productive year that I'm looking forward to.
Evan: It'd be cool to play in some places we haven't been before. Tour the East Coast or something. Put our stickers all over everything everywhere.
Well, I'm beyond stoked and can't wait to get my hands on Strange Dialect. The teaser itself is crazy entertaining. Congratulations on such an awesome accomplishment. I look forward to seeing all of the great things to come from CWM even after this release!
