Clicking Around with Music: The Iveys
Posted 3/23/2010 by coelder in Labels: clicking around with music, interviews, mp3, music, The Iveys
In a west Texas family filled with music lovers, The Iveys are in a wholesome musical class all their own. Gentle instrumentals with harmonizing vocals is not revolutionary but these guys do stand out in their genre. The brother and sisters combo of Arlen, Jillian, and Jessica mesh the keyboards and melodic guitar in support of uplifting verses and hopeful choruses.
Check out The Iveys interview with Art Star below and enjoy the jams above!
AS: How has the last year been for the band? How has touring been? Can you give us a recap? Any memorable stories that pop out?
Iveys: “The last year has been absolutely insane in the best way possible! We went from singing cover songs outside our local Starbucks coffee shop to writing and recording our album, to filming a music video that was featured on Fuse TVs On Demand Programming, to touring across the country in support of it. This last year has been filled with amazing experiences and has just given us great memories all around.
Of course there are high moments and low moments on the road, but overall there were a lot more of the classic moments that make you smile when you remember them than there were bad. To walk into a bar a thousand miles away from home that is filled with people who have never heard of your music and have no idea who you are is a little overwhelming at times. But at the end of the night having those same people buy CDs and t-shirts, offer you a place to stay and go out of their way to try and help you in any way they can is absolutely amazing!
This tour we were on the road for about a month and a half, we started out in Ruidoso, New Mexico went up into Oklahoma and then made our way across the Southern States going all the way to Florida before looping up into Georgia and then making our way back to Texas through Tennessee.
We have a lot of memorable stories from the road! One of them was in Albuquerque, NM. We performed at a house party and it was right around Albuquerque’s “Annual Wine Festival”. There was a guy who had been outside at the Wine Fest all day and he had ended up really badly sunburned. By the time he got to the party he’d also had a little too much to drink and didn’t seem to understand why his face hurt. He kept walking up to us after we had finished playing asking us to touch his face and figure out what was wrong. We told him he was sunburned but he wouldn’t believe us. He was very persistent until we finally told him, “Look, dude. We’re not going to touch your face”.
AS: How does the song writing process work for the trio? Is someone a lyricist, while someone else works on the instrumentals?
Iveys: A lot of the time we will write the base of a song individually, and then come together to finish it. Track four on our CD “The Promise” is a great example of that and was definitely one of the most difficult songs to complete on our album. After going over it together, we decided it wasn’t the direction we wanted to take with the song, therefore we rewrote the chorus and spent days going over each lyric as well as the harmony/melody lines. Arlen is definitely the lyricist of the band, he is the one we turn to when we need a great lyric, we will sit in a group and he will toss ideas at us, when you hear the right lyric you know that it’s the one. We all put a lot of focus into our instruments, but again, it’s something that after we have the basics of what we want down we will come together to complete the idea.
AS: How do you think your music has evolved over the past year? How do you think your sound will change over the next year or so?
Iveys: Being in the studio really opened us up to a whole new world, we were surrounded by a lot of amazing musicians who really inspired us both vocally and musically. In this past year we have learned to make our music the best it can be even if it’s just played with a guitar and keys. We want to pull people in by the three of us singing, and we think we’re getting closer to that. Over the next year we would love to have even more of a rock sound, along the lines of a band like Fleetwood Mac. Our new songs are definitely leaning in that direction, and it’s something that we think our fans will really enjoy.
AS: What do you like about your debut, self titled album? What would you change or improve about the album?
Iveys: We love the touch producer Ettore Grenci gave to the album as well as the emotion that runs across the tracks. We had a blast recording the CD and that’s apparent when you listen to it, for us that’s very cool! There’s nothing we would change on the album, our only regret is that we were limited on time so we ended up leaving a couple of songs off that will have to wait until the next album.
AS: What are the band's plans for the holidays? Any special gigs? Odd traditions? (Sorry, dated question - should have gotten this posted sooner!)
Iveys: We’re going to be spending the holidays with our family which is something we’re really looking forward to. Last year was really hectic and the holidays went by in a blur, we ended up working right until Christmas Eve and got right back to it the day after Christmas. This year is going to be a lot of fun!
We’re going to be playing a number of number of shows in our area including being a part of a Christmas radio program during the holidays, but a special gig that’s coming up is going to be held by our cousin Ed Ivey (formerly of the Rhythm Pigs, currently of the Faraway Brothers). He holds an annual get together around Christmas time where everyone brings their instruments, sing and jam out. We have an extremely musical family and it’s a great way to get to see relatives you haven’t seen in a long time and just play music.
When we were kids we weren’t really supposed to drink coffee, but one of our traditions was that when Christmas day rolled around we were all allowed to drink a small cup. Even though we are all now avid coffee drinkers you’ll still see a “cup of Joe” in our hands on that special day in honor of our tradition!
AS: How was working with Ettore Grenci? Do you have a particular anecdote? How did he differ from Stephen Short and Tony Rancich? What did each person bring to the production table?
Iveys: We absolutely loved working with Ettore, not only is he an amazing producer but he’s a great guy as well. He asked for our input and got us very involved in the recording process when he could have just run with it, he worked with us in keeping the songs true to who we are which was something we really appreciated.
When we first began recording, Ettore thought Arlen’s name was Henson, it soon became the inside joke and was used whenever he wanted Arlen to do another vocal take. “One more time, Henson,” he would say with his amazing Italian accent, “From the beginning.” We all got a big kick out of it!
Ettore put his focus into the music we brought to him while Stephen Short and Tony Rancich really helped us on the technical side of things. Tony helped us narrow our songs down to the top eight and then pushed us to make them the best songs they could be, while Stephen gave us guidance and helped us prepare our minds for the road ahead. Our album would not have been what it is without all of their help.
AS: Is there anything that you would like to tell the ArtStar audience?
Iveys: We love talking with fans, and there are multiple ways to contact/follow us, be it on MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter just to name a few. Let us know what you think! We love to hear from you! Our music is also available on iTunes as well as our MySpace page. We are planning touring all next year from coast to coast so we’re really looking forward to meeting you! Finally, we wanted to send a special “thank you” to everyone who made this interview possible. You ROCK!!:)
----
I leave you as always saying, enjoy the songs, but if they are in your town, check 'em out, buy their album and get a decal. Keep their music flowing like vines on a brick wall. Cheers.
0 comment(s) to... “Clicking Around with Music: The Iveys”
0 comments:
Post a Comment