| Driver Side Impact interview - Victory Tour 2007 October 27, 2007 at the Trocadero, Philadelphia |
| Last month, after seeing Driver Side Impact perform at the Trocadero, in Philadelphia, opening for Bayside on the Victory Tour 2007, I had a chance to talk to both Branden Langhals and Teddy Feighan about the band, how life on the road's been for them, and about the trials and tribulations of having a band on the ground floor and starting that slow, tough climb to the top. It was an interesting time, to say the least, and one thing I found out is that the guys in this band definitely have the drive that it takes to make it. They've already been through some tough times, but it doesn't seem to get them down, because they're in this for the long haul. LM: So... how's the tour going so far? Branden Langhals: Yeah, yeah! Tour's going really well. We're playing with bands that we either know, or we like a lot. Like, we like every band's music, our whole band is listening to every band on this tour's record, like, a lot, to the point where we really know it. So, I mean, it's like... this is cool. We're just having fun. And just we're pumped because this is something huge that we can do where like... no one knows who we are at. All. Because we haven't been touring. So it's kind of like a guarantee that people will finally figure it out, you know? LM: Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking. I knew you guys were kind-of like... new-ish. But I didn't realize just HOW new the band was until I tried finding some information about you all. It was... well, there's nothing there! BL: It's crazy. Yeah. I mean, we've been signed for a year, but we haven't done... we've done one tour. And so with this being our second tour, we're actually doing pretty decent considering like... no one knows who we are. So... we're pretty pumped about it. LM: So as far as touring is concerned right now, what is life like for the five of you? BL: Well, we find a place to sleep every night, but usually we either know someone or... we're lucky on this tour because Victory Aaron -he's a street-teamer for Victory - he gets a hotel every night, and he told me before tour, "if you guys ever can't find a place to stay, just come stay in my hotel with me," and so we always have a place to go, but so far, you know, we're only three days in, but it's like... finding a place to sleep, waking up between like, 9 and 11 and just driving to the show. And we're doing some acoustic in-stores now though, too... LM: Yeah. BL: So we're pretty busy, and it's really weird because, for instance, my girlfriend was actually like... really mad at me today because I was busy since 1:00 till like... still. You know what I mean? So I'm like, constantly doing something. Even if I'm hanging out, it's like, I'm hanging out because you're hanging out and meeting people and stuff like that, so it's not really like I can be on the phone and dedicate time to just be by myself. But we've been really busy and I think we all feel like we're getting a lot done because we're sticking with a schedule, we're sticking with the tour itinerary and we're just making it happen as best we can. LM: And you guys seem really upbeat about the whole thing. BL: We are like... we're all so pumped about it. But that's how we are with everything. You can catch us at a show with like... four kids, and we're the same people. I'm dead serious. We're just always like... we try to have fun, no matter what. And like... let kids have fun, no matter what. And that's... just how we are. LM: That's really cool. So how did you guys all get together? BL: Teddy and Jack decided to start a band, and they had a drummer that they recruited from Norwalk, Ohio. And then they threw out that drummer and recruited me. And then we played as a band with another guitarist that they were friends with for like... a year and a half. The guitarist left, they kicked out the drummer, we got a new drummer, a new guitarist, being Mikey. We did that like... forever, and got signed with that lineup. Then Zack quit the band like... a week and a half ago. Our new drummer, today was his fourth show ever with the band... care. He was really elite into the music scene, into these really obscure bands, so he didn't care about... LM: What's the new drummer's name? BL: His name is Dave. And his last name is like...crazy, I dunno. [laughing] LM: And Dave's a new member of the band? Or he's a touring drummer for you guys? BL: He's probably, definitely a new member of the band. We set it up so that we'd all make the decision after the Bayside tour, but he's been awesome so far. So I mean, just to be the first to say it, he's probably going to be a permanent deal. LM: Oh, well good. I hope it works out. So what music are you guys into? You were telling me before, you're really into Saves the Day. BL: Personally, Saves the Day is one of my favorite bands... LM: I know you're really into Bayside... BL: Bayside's awesome, umm... Thursday... LM: I guess I was just wondering music motivates the band? BL: I give the same answer every time, and I feel bad for this, but it all depends on what each member has been into, and to be honest, each member is into different things. Like Mikey, he's been into like metal and hardcore bands with names like Caligula and like... Dead Yellow Elvis [?] and stuff like that. He's been in bands that are just like... the hardcore, the breakdowns, the metal, the squeals, all that kind of stuff. So that's where we're really getting that background from. Jack's been into pop punk his whole life, I've been into Saves the Day, stuff like Arcade Fire, Alkaline Trio, really that whole following, and then like... Teddy kind of the same thing as me, pretty much. So I mean, it all kind of just blended in, all those bands together kind of combined our whole feel for what we're doing but at the same time we just... love stuff that's like... experimental. The big thing we're trying to do is to be a band that sticks. We're not a band who's trying to be a trend. We're not trying to stick to some certain trend. We're trying to, like, there's so many different things that we've done that we're like 'uh, we can't do that, it sounds like a U2 song'. Because obviously, that band's been around forever, but we're trying to make it so that we can do this for the rest of our lives and make a career out of it. LM: Right, well, actually, I wanted to ask you about that. The fact that... I know that sometimes Victory has been criticised for signing a lot of bands that sound the same, and it's all that... really popular sound right now. And the few articles that I've managed to read about you guys, a couple of people really loved you, and a couple of people lumped you guys in with that whole sound. BL: Yeah. LM: Now, I listened to it, and I think you guys are different than the rest, and that you are trying to do something different so... what... BL: Personally, I think the people who would agree with the fact that we're summed into the 'lump sum' of being like everyone else, they're listening for like... they hear a high-pitched vocal for two seconds, and they're like... "new song, click! New band," like it's a dime a dozen. Bands are a dime a dozen, it's true, and to stick out, it's really hard if someone doesn't give you the time to listen to your full record, they're not understand what you're doing. And even if you do listen to our full record, you might not get it because Sal Villanueva, awesome producer, awesome person, produced Taking Back Sunday and produced Thursday, tried to make another pop record out of us, kind of like Taking Back Sunday, which isn't exactly what we wanted, but it's something we were still kind-of striving for. But like, he really did kind-of strip us of our experimental and, like, ambient aspect that we really have, and it's like... what we're all about. So when we do our next record, we're just going to do whatever we want to do, and that's going to be like... not mainstream and not poppy, none of that stuff. LM: So you're saying that you guys are actually a little bit disappointed... BL: To the turnout of our record? Yeah. But it's only because like, there were a lot of things like... all of our guitar effects were supposed to be totally different. Like, there was actually a sheet that was all of our guitar fact, and that sheet got totally thrown away. This is Teddy, by the way, the guy you were looking for before. LM: Hey! Teddy Feighan: Hi! BL: So he can join the interview if you want. LM: Yeah! Sure! BL: But uh... it was no one's fault? It wasn't like, a <i>bad</i> thing? But it was just that there were different visions for what was supposed to be created for the band and for us, I think we wanted something that we could really pride ourselves on, on being really different and... I dunno. Different's a really hard word to explain. Music's music, we all use the same kind of instruments as every other band... LM: Yeah, but I get it. You want to be memorable. BL: Exactly. We want to be memorable. We want people to look at us and be like "that band did, you know, X thing," and that's what made us... LM: You want people to be able to listen to it and pick out that there's something about it... There's something about that, that just really grabs me, yeah, I totally understand that. But, like... at what point in the recording process did you guys begin to realize that maybe it wasn't sounding like you wanted it to, or was that not until the end? BL: We didn't. It wasn't until a few months after having the record done that we were kind-of like... Oh, but we still love it, like, don't get the impression that we don't... TF: Yeah, we didn't realize it at the time. BL: We like...love our CD. But... TF: That's why we were like... putting all this work into it and we were all like "cool, cool..." and taking his advice... BL: We trusted him because we were awestruck by <i>him</i>, because he is who he is, who he's worked with, and we like... really, really trusted him on this. LM: Ah, okay. TF: But then afterward we were like "you know what," and there was a lot of stuff I would have done differently, you know what I mean? But... BL: No, yeah, we still love our CD. LM: And this one is your second CD, is that right? TF: First album. BL: First ever. LM: Oh, okay... what did you have out before? BL: Well, we have an EP, but that was literally like, something that our management, in combination with a producer they knew, did with us to get us signed. So that was the whole point. It was just a demo, basically... so I really don't count the demo as being a record. Although, we're selling them now, because we have a thousand of them left, and we figure... they'll be a limited edition and some lucky kid can maybe sell it on eBay in eight years. LM: Yeah! OK, how did you come up with the name Driver Side Impact? BL: Teddy! Why don't you pick that one up? TF: I was in a band before, in my freshman year of high school, and we were thinking about band names, and somebody's friend was like, "how about you call it Braced for Impact," and I thought that was... I dunno, but it totally jarred my memory and I was like "no, wait, Driver Side Impact," and I thought that sounded... BL: It's kind of funny. I don't know if you feel this way? I'm just gonna... we're gonna have this discussion on paper now, but, I feel like, right now, if we were to name the band? It would never be this. TF: Yeah, it was Austin. BL: Austin, our old keyboardist, actually... what we did was, each of us basically got, on our own, like... pen and paper, write down whatever you want to do for the album name. And we took whatever, like, everyone kind of came to the studio one day and we were like "Alright, what do you want to name it?" Everyone brought all their names too the pool, and we were just like... well, Austin actually had like... three really good ones. And I think we just really dug The Very Air We Breathe because since before that name, people used to tell us that our record was like a breath of fresh air. It was like, something that wasn't totally typical for this whole emo post-hardcore scene because we're doing something at least a little bit different and whether or not people agree with that about the full-length, I think they should to listen to our EP and they can understand that at least from our roots, they would agree with that. The Very Air We Breath, was just like, alright, cool, that makes perfect sense. The Very Air We Breathe. Plus, to me, it was like a tightness thing, you know, the fans breathe the same air that we do? And it's like, we're doing the same thing that they want to do. Like... I know it sound cheesy. Everybody's laughing at me... TF: No, no I'm not! BL: But like... for real. I've always thought of it in terms of how I used to be that kid in the crowd, who was watching a band and thinking how that would be so sweet. And... we all breathe the same air. And all of a sudden, it happened for us, too. Like... we earned it. We worked really hard, but it can happen for anybody. I don't know. LM: I've seen you guys called experimental, and I've seen the word progressive used as well. Do you find a difference in experimental or progressive? BL: You know, I'm not much of a music guru, and that's the truth. I took music theory in college and I was in marching band in high school. Other than that, and playing drums for nine years, and trying to sing in a band, I'm not trying to claim that I know more about music, so a lot of like... "elite" music people rip us apart for being wrong with using the term "experimental", but in terms of what I think of, we literally do sit in our practice room and experiment with weird guitar sounds. And to me, I don't know what else could be experimenting, I mean, in terms of science, that's an experiment, you're trying something. And we mess with weird stuff and try to make some cool little sounds out of some stuff and... we experiment. LM: Great. BL: And we're ambient, because we do like... pretty little stuff. And that's ambient to me. LM: The MySpace. MySpace has been having a huge influence in music. How much of an influence would you say your MySpace is making for the band? BL: You know what's weird? I've seen bands like... Teddy, give me an example of a band that's got huge MySpace numbers, who's huge because of it. TF: Devil Wears Prada BL: Like the Devil Wears Prada. That's a band who - and I'm not trying to bash them. Great dudes, probably, but - I feel like because of MySpace, that's why they became a band. Not why they became a band, but why they got big as a band. For us it was busting our balls and sweating in a Pontiac Aztec every Saturday or Friday night, trying to figure out if we had enough tickets sold for all of our shows because we busted our balls trying to make sure we had the right amount of stuff going out for every promoter for every show. And the only reason we ever got recognition from management was because we did that. Every single time, we sold as many tickets as they'd ask us to, we did everything they said we should, and we tried our hardest to be on time. And we probably weren't all the time, but like... MySpace in general, our numbers aren't huge. We don't get a ton of plays a day. We still average under a thousand, which is like... nothing. Like, that's so bad. But we don't... there's bands that are equal level that are getting 35,000-60,000 thousand plays a day. TF: I think that, actually, MySpace is like... invaluable. LM: I agree with that. I completely agree with that. BL: I agree with that, too. TF: And I think that's pretty fucked up, too, because it doesn't really... BL: I agree with it too, because MySpace is such a good promotional and marketing tool. MySpace... but to show the other aspect of what I just said, MySpace is literally what got us signed. Our manager sent a completely informal email to Tony Brummel and said "hey, this is another one of Don's bands, Driver Side Impact, this is their MySpace link, check them out". Three hours later, the response to that was "we're all going to Chicago next week." It's amazing, but at the same time I'm not saying that I agree with it. Agree with bands getting big off it. TF: Also, I think it kind of takes away from the whole experience in finding new music where... you had to get the album from a friend or you had to go see a band and now, with MySpace, it's like "Oh, check my band out. Oh, your numbers are low," or whatever. BL: Yeah. People make a really big prejudice based on what your plays look like, or what your pictures look like, which is something that's really weird about it. So as much as I think it can be a promotional tool, it can also shoot you in the foot really quick. LM: That's interesting. I, personally, have found so much new music through MySpace. Up until now I've been a strict LiveJournaler, and when I first started with MySpace, and this was just a personal page, I hated it. Then I put up another page, for my photography. Now I love it. I'm on MySpace so much, because it really is a great promotional tool. BL: It's a promotional tool. Now it's marketing, the business aspect. LM: Exactly. Exactly. And I'm really finding so many ways to use it. BL: Totally different. LM: What do you guys think of the downloading issue, and... have you ever given away songs for free to attract attention to the band? TF: I'm all for it. I would put our entire album online for free. BL: Yeah, I would, too. All of us would. We told people that the week our album came out, "Look, buy our record! Buy our record, and if you can't afford it, have a friend buy it, burn it from a friend, just listen to our music. And come to our shows and hang out and be our friends. Like, anything. And... we did at one point in time, though, yeah. It was nothing we've done on Victory though, that we've given away for free, but we've let people download our EP. At Victory were to be like, "yeah, it's cool, you can let people download a song," we'd be like "fuck yeah, let's do it." But... we actually just aren't allowed to... LM: Yeah, I figured as much, now that you're signed. BL: If we're giving away something that's a business, and sold and paid for by someone that isn't us, for free, that isn't really right. TF: Record sales are kind of skewed. They're really hard to gauge. BL: Yeah, it's true. It's true. So it's like saying, if you've sold 3000 records, you've really sold about 9000. LM: Or there's 9000 out there, at least. BL: Well, yeah, figuratively saying, 9000 kids <i>have</i> your record, and are listening to it. LM: Saying that you were able to give the album away, you would want to do that, to attract more people, to get them to the shows? BL: Yeah, I mean, we would be totally down with that. LM: Are you going to make the money at the shows, if more people come to them? BL: Absolutely. The plain truth is we're probably not going to make any money off our record, or our... anything. The only thing we make money of off are our t-shirts and our, like... selling stuff at the shows is the only way we can make any money. To this day, I'm still living off a five-dollar a day per Diem. And like... when you're on the road long enough that your paychecks from working at Starbucks at home runs out... LM: Five dollars a day? BL: I literally live off of five dollars for a whole day. LM: Wow. BL: And that's because this whole industry is set up to the point where it's like... how else are you going to make your money if you aren't selling enough t-shirts and playing in front of tons of people? And like... every band plays tons of shows in front of twenty kids. LM: This was a pretty good crowd tonight. BL: Oh, this was amazing. It was awesome. This whole tour is like... awesome. Well, like last night, it was 2000 kids. It was sold out. I mean, I can't complain about this tour, but this is one of many. It's harsh. We spent, yesterday, in New York City, $120 just to park, we spent $103 paying the venue our percentage of merch that we sold, and that's more than we make for the show, playing it. We make $100 for the show. And owed $103 to the venue for that. So there's no way to really win in this situation because there's no one giving you money... other than yourself. Apparel. You know what I mean? We're a clothing company. LM: That has to be so frustrating and so ridiculous. You're just getting famous, but you're not famous enough. BL: Exactly. LM: To, you know, put your whole heart and soul into it like this... BL: Yeah, we bust our balls. LM: Wow. Yeah. That's hard. And you guys have had your gear stolen, not just once, but twice? BL: In one week. LM: In one week. BL: We had our van robbed right in front of Victory. We had a GPS, three iPods and a MacBook Pro. And then literally one week from that in Sacramento, California, our trailer was broken into, $11,000.00 worth of equipment stolen. LM: So the first time they didn't steal all your equipment? BL: No, they didn't touch the trailer. They just broke into the actual van. Because we were dumb and left our shit out in the open. LM: So, how... a small band like you guys, just starting out, $11,000.00 worth of stuff. How do you recover from something like this? BL: Umm... out of pocket. Help from parents. Depleting the band's bank account. Everything. And we're still suffering from that. This was last summer, and we're still like... dying from it. We haven't been able to pay back our merch contract yet, and we've probably got like... fifteen t-shirts, total, right now, left in our merch right now and you're supposed to sell way more than that. And we can't even sell those because we don't have the right sizes right now. So we're hurting even more right now on this tour, in front of sold-out crowds, because we don't have the right amount of merchandise to give to these kids, so we're kind of... we're kind of fucked right now, for lack of a better word, because we really don't know what else we're gonna do. Anthony from Bayside said he's going to help us out with getting merch made, and I'm not sure when that'll happen, but, yeah. Literally, getting robbed like that, and recuperating, we spent like eight hours in a Guitar Center. We were late for the show, and we played right before the headliner, because that's when we got there. We had to go around and buy new equipment and get ready for the show, and like half of it was on credit card and other stuff. And it was so expensive, recovering from that. LM: And then you guys aren't making anything right now... BL: Yeah. Everything that... it's so weird because that stuff, it's a really big issue and every time I think about it it kills me, but at the same time I don't think about it enough to the point where I'm unhappy. I have so much fun, like... when I was just out there handing CDs to kids and dancing around and being stupid, just having a good time hanging out with the fans, and I know it sounds so cheesy but... I'm ready to go to tomorrow night's show, and the next show, and the next show. LM: Well, yeah. There's got to be something to motivate you to do that so... BL: If we didn't, okay, not literally, [laughing] but if we didn't get off on playing on stage, we wouldn't be doing this. LM: Yeah. So what are you guys doing after this tour? Any plans yet? BL: I don't know yet. I'd prefer to be home, because by then it's December 9th or something, and the holidays come up soon. I think January we're talking about, we have some other small tours, a headlined, but I don't think we're ready to headline so... yeah. We're not big into headlining yet. But we just got a new booking agent, and January we're doing some stuff with Mayday Parade, definitely going to be doing more stuff, so we'll see. I'm sure we'll do more stuff in December, but it'll be more regional, like, home kind of stuff, where the kids know us. It was good tonight, because the kids liked us a lot, but it's weird because they didn't know who we were, and they don't get into you and dance around because they don't know what's going to happen, and they're not comfortable yet. But at the end of the night they were very appreciative, which was cool, so hopefully when we ever come back to Philadelphia people will actually know who we are. LM: What band is it your dream to tour with? BL: Honestly, if I were to tour with Saves the Day, I mean, I know I keep talking about this band... LM: Is there somebody, collectively, that the whole band would love to tour with? BL: OK, I guess... I can speak for Teddy and I, because we're the business dudes in the band. If we toured with Saves the Day, we'd be like... freaking out. Every day. But I know... even Mikey would probably fall into that category. Jack, you know... OK, it would be like, Blink 182, if they ever reunited and we all got to tour with them. That would be crazy. I mean, it's like, we grew up in that same era. We're not old enough where we'd want to try and tour with like... Led Zeppelin, which people might knock us for but yeah. I graduated in 2004. I listened to New Found Glory and Blink 182, and I used to like Linkin Park way back in the day, you know what I mean? I'm not trying to sound cool or anything. But it would be Saves the Day, Blink 182, Thrice, Coheed and Cambria, Taking Back Sunday, Thursday. Any of those bands. LM: Cool. BL: Because those are literally the bands that even just to play with them, it means a lot. LM: Everybody's got to have that dream, you know, in their head. To tour with someone, no matter who it is, even if it's... BL: It you could get Thursday, Taking Back Sunday, maybe Glassjaw, and Thrice on the same tour... LM: And you guys! BL: I wouldn't be able to play every night, because I'd just be like... wondering what the other bands are doing backstage. I'd be late for sound check, because I'd be freaking out. LM: That's funny! BL: Well that's how this tour is for us right now. We love Bayside. LM: It's really great that you guys are all having so much fun doing this. BL: We've been waiting for this... forever. Everyone at home has been like, "You guys are going out with Bayside!?" We're kind of a big deal at home now, people know who you are and ask "You're going out with Bayside. Are you excited?" And of course it's like "yeah, totally!" It feels like we're watching a movie, really, to know that we're standing on the side-stage because we're on the same tour with Bayside. It really hasn't sunk in yet but... day three! LM: Yeah, that must be a great feeling, I'm sure. BL: Yeah, it really is. LM: Well great. I hope it continues to go well, and you guys have a great rest of the tour. Thanks for letting me do this, and come talk to you about this stuff! BL: Hey, yeah. No problem. Thanks a lot. |
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LM: Oh, wow! I didn't know about that.
BL: Well yeah, no one really does. And we were really proud to get someone
who's like that good at drums, so like... he's been holding his ground to the point
that no one knows he's new. 'Cus he's pretty confident.
LM: So Zack quit only a week and a half ago.
BL: Yeah, Zack quit the band a week and a half ago. We were in Columbus. We
were like... staying at someone's house for a show and he was talking about how
he wanted to quit the band, and he was like 'you guys aren't going to get big off
the Bayside tour,' 'you guys suck,' 'the music's always sucked...' and he was
telling us we were all fake and whatever, so... He quit the band, and we got a
new guy and he's all about it. And we're all about it. Zack never had the same
heart in it as well all did. Zack never wanted it to get big. He never wanted it to
be successful. He never wanted to make it his career. Ever. He just wanted it to
have fun.
LM: OK, yeah. I guess if you're not into it to a point, it starts becoming too
much.
BL: Yeah, it's... it's really big for us to have all our hearts in the same goal. And
he definitely didn't care about any of that. He never once checked our email,
logged into our MySpace and answered our fans email, like... anything. He didn't
BL: Well yeah, no one really does. And we were really proud to get someone
who's like that good at drums, so like... he's been holding his ground to the point
that no one knows he's new. 'Cus he's pretty confident.
LM: So Zack quit only a week and a half ago.
BL: Yeah, Zack quit the band a week and a half ago. We were in Columbus. We
were like... staying at someone's house for a show and he was talking about how
he wanted to quit the band, and he was like 'you guys aren't going to get big off
the Bayside tour,' 'you guys suck,' 'the music's always sucked...' and he was
telling us we were all fake and whatever, so... He quit the band, and we got a
new guy and he's all about it. And we're all about it. Zack never had the same
heart in it as well all did. Zack never wanted it to get big. He never wanted it to
be successful. He never wanted to make it his career. Ever. He just wanted it to
have fun.
LM: OK, yeah. I guess if you're not into it to a point, it starts becoming too
much.
BL: Yeah, it's... it's really big for us to have all our hearts in the same goal. And
he definitely didn't care about any of that. He never once checked our email,
logged into our MySpace and answered our fans email, like... anything. He didn't
TF: Never.
BL: I kind of don't like our band name! [laughing]
TF: No, I.. I don't like our band name.
BL: No, I don't like our band name either... but we're gonna go with it.
TF: I don't really care.
BL: It's not that big of a deal.
LM: Yeah, it's already, you guys are already on tour...
TF: Yeah, and here we are, and thinking it's stupid, and there's like... people
who are like "I really like your band name!" Someone in Jersey last week was
like, "I love your band name!" And I was like "okay, that's weird". [laughing]
BL: You're weird! [laughing]
LM: Speaking of names, where did you come up with the album name, The
Very Air We Breathe?
BL: It was our keyboardist, wait, was that Austin?
BL: I kind of don't like our band name! [laughing]
TF: No, I.. I don't like our band name.
BL: No, I don't like our band name either... but we're gonna go with it.
TF: I don't really care.
BL: It's not that big of a deal.
LM: Yeah, it's already, you guys are already on tour...
TF: Yeah, and here we are, and thinking it's stupid, and there's like... people
who are like "I really like your band name!" Someone in Jersey last week was
like, "I love your band name!" And I was like "okay, that's weird". [laughing]
BL: You're weird! [laughing]
LM: Speaking of names, where did you come up with the album name, The
Very Air We Breathe?
BL: It was our keyboardist, wait, was that Austin?