Hello, guys. What’s happening musically up your way this October?
Hey James. Well we just issued our second single. Pretty please with how it turned out, so we’re excited about that. Plus we’re both always working on other stuff.
ABANDONERS is two members, Ross Morgan and Nick Hagen. Is there a set role for each member? What do each of you bring to the act? What significance does your name have?
Not really a set role, we’re both producers and both play a lot of instruments so we just kind of take each part as it comes. So far its mostly been Nick handling all the guitar and key stuff and I’ve done the drums and vocals. But whatever works. The name is from a Steven Wilson song, who’s really kind of our mutual favorite musician guy and the jumping off point of our shared taste in music. I kind of think of it like how people just leave stuff everywhere too, just decay everywhere. It fits the mood.
Rain on Sand was your debut single. What is your creative process and what sources of inspiration (e.g. books, television, film) get your creative juices flowing?
Rain On Sand was actually just a working title for a guitar riff I sent Nick. And it kind of just stuck. It worked its way into the lyrics. Then I caught a bunch of rainy video in Michigan’s UP so it was fate I guess.
I’ve taken inspiration from a lot of weird old home videos and that kind of vibe. I also just get inspired when Nick does something cool and sends it back and we keep refining it.
You have a new single, I’m Too Late, which was released a few weeks back. What should listeners expect from the song?
Expect it to be slightly longer than might be entirely necessary. No but it’s actually kind of hard for me to pin down the genre because its mostly just a standard rock song. So be prepared for how normal it is I guess.
In a related vein, how does I’m Too Late differ from Rain on Sand? How can listeners find samples of these two singles?
One of the benefits about just putting out a song at a time is you are able to explore and refine and experiment on each song. So its great that no two songs will really be the same. So the production is a little different between those two. Actually these two songs are probably the most similar of all the songs we have in the works.
There’s so many but I would be comfortable saying that Porcupine Tree and Dream Theater are big ones for both of us. I’d give a nod to some earlier bands like Our Lady Peace too, at least for me. I’m sure Nick would have a laundry list. The working title for I’m Too Late was ‘Anathema’ if that tells you anything.
What sort of plans do you have for the latter part of the year and early months of 2017?
We’ve got song #3 in the works so we’ll plug away on that until it’s finished. It’s a slow sad one. Should be a real party favorite.
Let’s talk gear and technology. What does your current recording and music production set up look like? What sort of upgrades do you want to add in the future?
I’m mostly working out of my home studio now a days which is basically set up for doing vocals. I’m using a Neumann TLM 67 into a Vintec pre amp. We both work in Pro Tools. I know Nick and his Dad are always working on their studio and I’m always working on mine. We’re both microphone geeks so we have an ample wish list on that account. It never ends.
Thanks for speaking with us tonight. Do you have anything else that you would like to tell NeuFutur readers?
Go ahead and take a look at the videos and give the songs a listen. Both songs are available for free from our website, or on any major streaming source. Really our only reward for this besides just the fun of it is hearing back from people who enjoy it, so don’t be shy to drop us a line.