Vents Magazine caught back up with illfunk and you can read it here
Hi Greg, welcome to back VENTS! How have you been?
Thanks, I have been awesome, it’s good to be back. Lot’s has happened since we last spoke for sure. I think that was just before the record came out, before the tour and everything. So we have some catching up to do.
Can you talk to us more about your song “Wreckless Soul”?
Yeah, this is our single off of the EP. We figured it was a good one to start off with, nice and up-beat. Not too serious of subject matter. It’s actually the lightest hearted song in our set I’m guessing. I love Jason’s rhythm guitar on that one, screeching super high with those chords and moving them around as fast as I’m playing the lead, it just creates a really interesting sound. We kind of try and do that same thing on most of our songs, I feel like it creates a really strange sort of melancholy undertone that works really well with our mood as a band. But yeah this song has a bit more playful of a vibe than some of our other tunes.
Did any event inspire you to write this song?
Not one event per se, more like one individual. It’s really about my son. He’s kind of a bad ass, I mean he has always just done his own thing. No matter what the group, the school, society thinks is the way to go, he will find his own way and do that instead. Sometimes I think it’s natural, sometimes I think he does it out of spite. To prove he can maybe, I don’t know, either way it’s cool and it has always left an impression on me, so much so I wrote a song about it.
Any plans to release a video for the track?
We do have a video for the track, and it’s pretty funny if you ask me. You definitely get a sneak peek at what it’s like to ride around with us idiots, because that is pretty much exactly what it looks like when we go on the road together. Of course, in this case, you get to hear a beautiful studio recording of Wreckless Soul over the top of the action, as opposed to one of the 5 million acapella odes to hamster fellatio you might hear if you were actually riding in the tour van. Don’t ask. I digress, my best friend Joe stars as the delivery driver in the video, and he’s great. We plan to use him to do a continuation of this video for One Single Night, where he kidnaps me “Misery” style and forces me to perform privately for an audience of stuffed animals. It going to be epic. Watch here
The single comes off your new album Some Other’s Day – what’s the story behind the title?
We recorded the EP at the legendary Soundhouse Studio in Seattle with Jack Endino. We ended up getting a break on studio rate or something I believe, because it was Mother’s Day weekend. What sucks for my mom is, I have two of my three brothers in this band. Which means, that if we are all in the studio with Jack Endino on Mother’s Day, we aren’t with Momma. I felt like the right thing to do was to dedicate the album to our mother, and the title of the record (obviously) is a play on Mother’s Day, we chose Some Other’s Day to go and make a record for Mom.
How was the recording and writing process?
Well for this one the writing process was fast, because 3 of the 4 songs were ones that I had been playing by myself for several years. One Single Night we wrote as a group together as it was important for me, to have at least one track where everyone had some kind of ownership. The next album will have quite a bit more of that, as Mike and I have worked together very closely with Matt on drums, to come up with new stuff. The recording process was really amazing for the EP, as I mentioned we recorded at Soundhouse, where just about every Seattle music legend you can think of has recorded. We did it with Endino, who has personally been a long time hero of mine in the music production world, where I pretend to spend some time myself. It was really really “pinch me”.
How has Foo Fighters and Muse influenced your writing?
Foo Fighters definitely influence my sense of rhythm, and structure when writing songs. I’m a drummer first and foremost myself, so I think about writing music in a similar way to Dave Grohl, albeit Mike (bass) seems to come up with the riffs that are most heavily Foo Fighters in feel. Foo Fighters never really used to have guitar solos though, so I took a lot of cues from Matt Bellamy (MUSE) when it came to leads and solos. Matt Bellamy’s primary influence, however, can be heard in my guitar tone. I can’t write or play like Matt, at all, I wish I could but I can’t, not many people can. But I can hear his guitar tone you know? I would say that is where you would hear the Muse comparison, is in the tone of my guitar. That mid-rangy “cuts right through the mix”, Digitech Whammy kind of sound. That is the Matt Bellamy in me. As far as how I play the solos, J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr. Nobody hits me harder in the feels when they solo than J.
Where did you find the inspiration for the songs and lyrics?
The songs are all really just about my everyday blue collar lunch pail life you know. I work a day job, I built a house, raised a family, lost a job, got a job, had a failed marriage, I have been dumped, been single, fallen in love, been heartbroken. I’m just like everyone else. The one thing I have always gone to, in every single one of those situations, my post to lean on (J Mascis), was music. Playing it, listening to it, writing it. It has always been the most reliable of mistresses. She is always there to put her arms around me and help me deal, you know? I think even people who don’t play music, still connect with and use it as a healing mechanism the same way. I want very badly for the music I make to help people deal with life struggles, in the same fashion that it does for me when I write it.
Any plans to hit the road?
For sure, we will be in Portland in October, Seattle and Bellingham in November and Hollywood in January. We have some gaps in between that will be filling up fast as the weeks go on. We have to leave a little time to hit the studio and finish up these new tracks we have. We would like to be dropping the full length LP around the first of the year.
What else is happening next in SIXTWOSEVEN’s world?
As I mentioned we are trying to narrow down the long list of new material to the 8 or 10 songs we think best go on one LP. We have been writing machines as of late, so having time away from our jobs and touring to flesh out all these song ideas has kind of been the real challenge. We need longer days, and weeks in order to squeeze all of this in while working 40 plus hours a week and raising our kids. But we have about 18 more songs that need to be recorded, and then we have to decide how to best package them up and have them out to you by January. The good news is, no matter what songs go on the LP, there will be enough material not going on that one, to release another very shortly after, hint hint.