Exposed Vocals catches an exclusive interview with ‘Disciples of Babylon’
Their debut EP release ‘Welcome to Babylon’ was recently released digitally (physical CD in April) and was produced by Grammy winner Andres Torres whose engineering work on Grammy & Latin Grammy winning (La Santa Cecilia) has put him on the map in the Latin world as one of the fastest rising young producers in the genre today. This was his first foray working with an American rock act. The album was mastered by Grammy nominated Joe LaPorta (Foo Fighters, Imagine Dragons, Vampire Weekend) making this a world class project all the way. The band is a cross between Muse, Foo Fighters & 30 Seconds to Mars to give you some musical context as to the bands direction.
Karma is their debut single off the EP which is building traction and getting an incredible reaction from stations around the world such SWR FM (Sydney, Australia), Total Rock FM (London England) as well as specialty rock shows including On the Verge – 98.3 FM New Jersey, The Shift Music from the UK among others.
Karma was selected by the Eclectic Music Blog as #75 of the “Top 100 Songs of 2015” alongside acts such as: Muse, Royal Blood, Foo Fighters & U2.
Disciples of Babylon were also selected as one of the “Top 25 Best Critiqued Bands” of 2015 in the year end edition of Music Connection Magazine.
In addition, over the last few months they’ve built a very organic and extremely loyal following on social media that continues to grow every day.
Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
Ramon Blanco: I grew up in Granada Spain. I came from an artistic family, my mother is a Ceramist and my father used to play guitar and since i’ve been a child I have been surrounded around artistic elements.
Chris Toeller: I grew up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. More specifically, Prairie View, IL. Having parents who were both professional musicians at the time, it was natural for me to want to play music as well. In second grade I started taking violin lessons, which only lasted a year or two. Later on, I picked up the trumpet and began playing in the middle school concert band. I developed quickly as a trumpet player for a few years until I got braces on my teeth, which made it more difficult to get a good tone out of the instrument. That was really the turning point for me, musically. I realized that I wasn’t so interested in becoming a classical musician anyway. So I asked my dad, who was and is currently a professional drummer in the Chicago area, to show me the basics of drumming. I had grown up hearing him practice every Saturday morning in the basement while I was trying to sleep in, so I think that allowed me to pick up the nuances of the instrument a lot quicker. That being said, I was very much self taught. I would get home from school and just try playing along to records of my favorite bands. Eventually, stuff started coming together and I was able to develop some decent coordination behind the drum set, just from that. A few of the bands that really inspired me most include Thrice, Underoath, and Taking Back Sunday. I still come back to some of these records when I’m feeling burnt out and I immediately remember why I am doing what I’m doing. Nevertheless, I did continue as a drummer/percussionist in concert band, marching band, orchestra, jazz band, etc. throughout high school. And because I chose to continue playing in the school music program, I also developed a very strong ability to read and write music, which I am incredibly thankful for. Had it not been for the passion and encouragement of all my grade school band and orchestra directors, I don’t think I would have had the guts to move to Los Angeles to dedicate these early years of my career to writing and performing original music. At the end of the day, it is the support of my parents, the passion of my mentors, and the music of my favorite bands that have inspired and allowed me to become the musician and artist that I am.
Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?
Eric Knight: Well I was doing research and reading up on Babylon and its origins and in the text that I was reading I came across a phrase they used calling the people of the city the disciples of Babylon. I thought it was an interesting name. Something that would be very thought provoking, so I decided to write it down in a list I keep of interesting and unique names for bands. The rest as they say is history.
Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
Chris Toeller: I think there is a difference between online music sharing and giving away music for free. I see or define music sharing as the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material. However, when an artist releases or “shares” their music, it is almost always for promotional purposes. When purchasing any product, people like to see reviews or try out a demo. That’s why artists release singles or music videos for a select few songs off of a record. You can even go to iTunes, if you so choose, and hear a portion of every song on a record before you buy it. While I believe these to be a sufficient and fair means for marketing music, there now exists streaming services such as Spotify, among others, that allow people to stream an entire record for free or for a small monthly fee. As a consumer, I can certainly see why these services are so popular. My personal opinion as an artist though is quite different. I do feel that artists should be more fairly compensated by services such as these. Either way, as a band we do use these services as a means to get our music out there. I think that is simply a reflection of where the rapidly evolving music industry is at for the moment. We want people to hear our music and come out to shows, meet the band, and get on board with what we’re trying to accomplish. If that requires us to put our music out there for free, then sure.
Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
Gui Bodi: We believe that creating and developing the fan base is one of the toughest tasks of any given band. Be responsive and take care of your fans, they are the ones that are gonna help you throughout your career, and they’ll always be there for you. Create good music and create a plan on how to launch it, including music videos, websites etc, also promote yourself on social media, it’s a daily hustle.
Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
Gui Bodi: We don’t have any particular formula for songwriting, we usually get together and bring some ideas we’ve been working on our own and go from there. Sometimes we just create songs on the fly or we develop it on a riff or a chord progression that we like.
Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?
Eric Knight: Yes, our official website is: www.disciplesofbabylon.com
Eric Knight: As far as what online platforms we use to share our music. If you mean in social media terms we have the usual suspects that we use, such as: Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Twitter. If we are speaking of music platforms are music is available on all digital and streaming platforms via Tunecore (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, iTunes, Google Play) etc.
Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
Ramon Blanco: I would use it to help develop our band.
Chris Toeller: Stretch every dollar, cut an amazing record, and go on a worldwide tour.
Eric Knight: Take a third of the money to record, market and promote our record and invest the rest to make the money work for us and not the other way around to be able to continue to do this for a living.
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
Gui Bodi: Social media is the way to go right now. We have a great response from people from all over the world, and that’s something that some bands take for granted. Go to Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, they offer a lot of free services that work great if you’re an emerging artist or band.
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
Chris Toeller: Well, we’re currently working on a record to follow our EP that was released last year. We’re super excited to be writing more music and even more excited to get it out to our fans as soon as we can!
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
Gui Bodi: I would be working as a dentist, since that’s my former career before coming to the US and joining the band!
Chris Toeller: I have no idea.
Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
Chris Toeller: I think I can speak for all of us when saying that we don’t get too many days off. Being a musician is a constant hustle. We’re all trying to pay our bills and rent, which can be difficult when living in SoCal. We’re all trying to balance time between work/career goals, practice, fun, personal relationships, personal growth and development, etc. For me, I find myself having to pay close attention to how I balance my priorities. I think many people can relate to all of this.
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?
Ramon Blanco: We are looking forward to continue playing out and touring as well as writing new music and by the end of the summer start the recording of our new album.
Chris Toeller: More shows and new music and videos.
Eric Knight: The beginnings of total global domination!
To find out more about Disciples of Babylon visit them on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/user/thediscipleofbabylon or Soundcloud at: http://www.soundcloud.com/disciplesofbabylon
Disciples of Babylon | KARMA [Official Video]
http://vevo.ly/Jg9rho
Disciples of Babylon | We Are The Ones [Official Live Video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Disciples of Babylon | Welcome To Babylon | EP Preview
https://soundcloud.com/
Disciples of Babylon | Recent Press
http://disciplesofbabylon.com/
Disciples of Babylon | Newsroom (Media Assets) bio, photos, ep cover etc.
http://disciplesofbabylon.com/
Disciples of Babylon | Social Media Links
Facebook: https://www.
Instagram: http://instagram.
Soundcloud: https://
Twitter: https://twitter.com/
