Posted on: June 2, 2015 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0
1. We were lucky enough to have a few moments with San Jose’s Audiobender. How has the Memorial Day weekend been for you?

Jared Richard (vocals/guitar): It was great!  I spent it down south near San Luis Obispo, visiting friends, working on new material and drinking my face off!

Paul Cingolani (bass): Any day we can grill meat and listen to good music is a good day. Plus it’s a great time to reflect on the sacrifices made by men and women of our country – rock and roll seems so paltry when you think about it. Important and paltry at the same time.

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2. Audiobender makes it a point to fully immerse yourself into the band’s recording. What about your music separates you from bands that only require a surface listening?

Paul Cingolani: Our lead singer. He’s amazing. He’s the most dynamic vocalist since Bon Scott, or Robert Plant, or Eddie Money. I mean it. There is a lot of thought put into the material, and in a good way. Many disagreements may come up on how the song should go, or what should be played and when, but at the end I think the songs reflect that conflict by sounding whole and at the same time changeable. 

 
Jared Richard: (casually slips Paul a $20 bill)

Jeff Lemas (drums): I suppose it’s that we care about crafting something that will have a long shelf life. So many of my favorite albums are just that: albums — not singles — that you listen to from beginning to end. We tried to take the same approach with Reverb.

 
 
3. Reverb is the band’s debut recording, but the story never begins and ends with an album. Can you give us a little bit about the band’s backstory?

Jared Richard: Man, it goes a way’s back!  I’d written the bulk of the material for Reverb over the past decade or so, mostly for myself.  I never really considered trying to do anything with them, but in early 2012 I finally decided to give it a go and throw a band together specifically for those songs, this sound.  After a fast start the line up changed a couple of times, and it was Paul, Jeff and I. Hilariously, we had been in an entirely different band together in the early 2000s, so it was a bit of a reunion.  In late summer of 2013 we started laying down the tracks for Reverb, and after months of mixing and mastering, we released in February of 2014.  It was really an emotional thing for me to see the album released and receive all the positive feedback we did.  Honestly, having the music come together and morph with Paul and Jeff’s influences and flavor, tightening it up and finally getting it recorded was really like a dream come true. Since then it’s been an absolute roller-coaster… sometimes we have to say to ourselves – out loud – the names of the insane venues we’re playing and the legends we’re playing with… just to remind ourselves how crazy it all is.

 

 

4. There seems to be a small amount of time that is passing between the release of Reverb and the upcoming release date for Dry. How has the band changed in the time that has passed?

Jared Richard: The downtime was for playing shows, basically touring California.  I jokingly call it the “Slow-Trickle Tour”.  It also gave time to write new material — I think there’s only one song on the new album that’s over a year old — and that’s critically important, as so much has changed.  We’re incredibly tight musically now, on stage and off.  After playing so many shows, seeing what works and what doesn’t, we’ve really narrowed down the sound we’ve been looking for.  It’s raw and streamlined and dirty and beautiful.

 
 
5. As we have discussed, it seems that Audiobender is a very productive band. You are going to be releasing a live concert on album (Audiobender – Live at the Whisky). What should listeners expect from the title?

Paul Cingolani: A lot of noise – good noise. That’s what a lot of our listeners say: “wow, we can’t believe you guys make so much sound with just three guys.” It really shows that we won’t need many or even any backing musicians when we tour the world.

 
Jared Richard: Dirty, tight and raw!  And loud.  Definitely loud.  I flew into Burbank on Saturday morning, we met up at a coffee shop and proceeded to party our faces off until showtime, which I believe was at 10pm.  We had so many fans and friends that were either in the area or came all the way from the Bay Area to see us that we didn’t really have a break until we hit the dressing room.  Long story short, I blew out my voice on the first song! But honestly, it somehow added to the ferociousness and raw energy of our set… we had no choice but to release it to the public.

 
Jeff Lemas: The Whisky was such an amazing show. Stepping on the stage was surreal! We all brought our A-game to the performance and I feel it shows. It’s a raw, edgy set with a few new songs that rock, in my opinion.

 
6. There will be a live show to promote Dry. Can you give us a little information about the live date?

Jared Richard: It’s going to be a massive show, but no set date yet.  Tentatively scheduled for late summer.

 
7. How can listeners listen of your music?

Paul Cingolani: They can listen of it through deep meditative thoughts of listening.
 
Jared Richard: Yes.  And iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Rhapsody, ReverbNation, Facebook, hell… pretty much everywhere. On purpose. We had licensing issues with Pandora, so that’s the lone exception.  As for actual physical CDs, they’re available at Amazon, CDbay, a slew of other online retailers, and of course at shows. 
 
8. A little bit of an aside, what two or three bands would constitute a “dream lineup” for Audiobender to play alongside? What role does each act hold in the creation of the Audiobender sound?

Jeff Lemas: Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters and Audiobender.  Wow, seeing that in writing is a trip!  Both are amazing bands with such a killer catalog of tunes. Just great bands who have managed to stay relevant all these years.

9. What does the rest of 2015 hold for you?

Paul Cingolani: Well we said it: the next album. Look forward to more tours and some cool gigs while at the same time featuring new songs.

 

Jeff Lemas: Lots of gigs… and planning for that Pearl Jam / Foo Fighters / Audiobender tour. 😉
 
10. Finally, do you have any thoughts for NeuFutur’s readers?

Paul Cingolani: Always keep listening.

 

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