I was first turned onto Via Audio via TheTripwire.com, which asked the band to keep a studio diary while they recorded their SideCho debut, Say Something, earlier this year. As fate would have it, an advance copy of the CD showed up in my mailbox right around the same time. It’s a pretty fantastic debut from this New York/Boston-based band, Jessica Martin’s pretty vocals sure to break the hearts of many a young male music blogger. Martin’s band mates (oh yeah, THOSE guys) – Danny Molad, Tom Deis, and David Lizmi – lay down a smart and sophisticated pop sound behind Martin’s vocals and compliment her vocally as well throughout the 11 songs on the CD. It’s no wonder Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie) and Jim Eno (Spoon) took interest in the band early on.
MP3: “Presentsâ€
MP3: “Developing Active Peopleâ€
Buy: Say Something
Doing things the new-fashion way, I sent the band some questions via their MySpace account since I had to miss their show in Columbus this past weekend (who went? leave a review in the comments section please) and just a few days later the answers arrived … without a name of the person who answered them! So, I’m fairly certain it wasn’t Jessica or Tom since both are referenced in the interview by first name. That leaves Danny or David. Your guess is as good as mine.
Is it any coincidence that Via Audio and Van Halen both start with the letter V, are both two words, and have the same amount of letters in both words?
This is no coincidence. Tom actually taught Eddie Van Halen how to tap. Also, Via Audio is French for “Van Halen Rocks”.
Of the 3 Van Halen singers, which is your favorite – David Lee Roth, Sammy Hagar, or Gary Cherone? When it comes to their work outside of Van Halen, which is your favorite?
David Lee Roth, because he rocks even when he forgets the words.
You’re days away from hitting the road for a pretty extensive tour and you’ve put out a call to your MySpace friends looking for floors to crash on. How successful have you been? Have you ever had a not-so-comfortable floor crashing experience?
One night we stayed in a beef slaughterhouse. It smelled bad, but they gave us beef ice cream. Plus one girl didn’t know i
was going to sleep in her bed and she threatened my life and almost called the cops on us.
What are you secrets to killing time when you’ve got a 12-hour drive ahead of you?
We have a 12 hour overnight drive from Kansas City to Aspen coming up in a few days which we are dreading. We give each other magic marker tattoos and play each other Michael Jackson songs.
Is there a way for you to get “alone” time when you’re traveling with the rest of the band?
I pretend they’re all pigs and all they say is “Oink Oink”, so I don’t have to respond.
Are there any van rules such as whoever drives gets to pick what is played on the stereo?
The only rule is 24 hour party 24/7, OMG
What’s been the worst tour experience you’ve had so far?
Leaving the hard drive of our upcoming record in Los Angeles, which means we had to start all over again, plus leaving our instruments in various clubs in various parts of the country
Have you ever shown up to a club only to find that a) nobody at the club knew you were supposed to play or b) you’ve been booked with 6 other bands, none of whom sound anything remotely like you?
That happens 30% of the time now, it used to happen 60% of the time.
When writing songs about other people, how much do you lay on the line? Do you wear your emotions on your sleeve and express everything in a straight-forward fashion or do you write lyrics that the person they are about might not even realize?
We go for a Bob Dylan meets Brian Wilson approach… Our lyrics are objective in their subjectivity, they are not obscured by their straightforwardness as much as they are revealed by their impressionistic quality.
There’s a lot of facial hair going on in the Via Audio. What’s the deal with that? Which came first, the beards or the band? Do you have some goal you’re hoping to meet that you’ve said “If we sell X amount of CDs, I’ll shave my beard?” or something like that?
If we shave, we look like baby fetuses and no one wants to see that
The music blogging community seems to be made up of young men who fancy cute indie rock chicks . How aware of that are you seeing as Jessica is exactly the type of woman that the male music blogging community loves to write about? Do you play that up at all in order to get your name out there?
We know Jess is a selling point, but we don’t front … OK, maybe sometimes
Between Chris Walla “discovering” you, Jim Eno producing the CD, WOXY playing tracks, Side Cho signing the band, and Tripwire.com heavily featuring Via Audio, you’ve had a pretty good year or two. If this was MTV and you could script out the next “season” of Via Audio, what would you love to see happen with the band?
We make a totally dope record. TOTALLY DOPE… and it goes ULTRA DIAMOND…which is like 100 times platinum
Is there a particular song/album that, when you hear it, instantly takes you back to a specific time/place in your life?
I listen to “Stayin’ Alive” and it takes me back to being 5 years old and dancing around my living room, making the record skip.
When this tour is all wrapped up, do you have to return to day jobs or have you made rock and roll your career?
We definitely have to go back to jobs. Most of us have jobs that are flexible to leave for long periods of time but can come back, like catering, babysitting, gigging, moving large objects etc..
How do you spend your non-touring days when your friends/roommates/etc. are at work?
I lie on the floor naked and listen to the Carter Family on vinyl and cry myself to sleep.