Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to
become an artist?
I grew up in Wayne NJ, it’s a great spot being close to NYC…we would always hear
of all these bands and clubs like CBGB so gravitating towards music was pretty easy…
However, I got into music late on and didn’t take it serious until after college, but I was a
super fan of bands and music in general absorbing a ton of information along the way…we
rehearsed in Clifton, NJ where our suite mates were the sensational emo band Thursday
and a band that later would take over the world named My Chemical Romance…around the
corner was one of the best Goth bands going that I would later join for a 2 year run named
The Empire Hideous.
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?
Well when we first started it was really the beginning of that internet/social media
train, so definitely have a social media plan these days…a band like Thursday and My
Chemical Romance were pretty smart instead of having a house party they had a party at
the local spot we all played gigs named the Loop Lounge. Everyone would show up
creating the impression of a bigger fan base for that time and get them written up etc and
exposure…it would later prove for both bands the right move, obviously you have to have a
great live show and songs like they both did…I’d say another bit of advice don’t turn down
opportunities…I was friends with Alex from Eyeball Records who flat out asked me if I
wanted to join/tour with Thursday pre Full Collapse being they needed a 2nd guitar player, I
said no due to other things and it’s a decision that I regretted for a while.
Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle
that?
Nah we are perfect…yeah we all did from time to time, don’t panic…back when we
were a guitar driven band I’d break a string or 2, I’d just adjust and keep going….but
practice practice practice, we would sometimes practice one song for the entire night for
hours….another thing is have a mixer on stage with you so you can somewhat control your
levels if you don’t have a sound man you trust running the board you can do it yourself via
the mixer.
Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our
readers would enjoy hearing about?
We plan on going out on the road in 2018 in support of the new record titled “13”.
We played the NYC Goth Festival, the crowd was not into us for whatever reason and where
giving us a hard time and the middle finger…we played with a ton of strobe lights and bright
white spot lights…we turned all the lights and strobes onto the crowd and challenged them
to a fist fight but by mid set we won them over and afterwards had a blast getting drunk
hanging with Mickey Rourke and plastering John Mayer’s tour van with our band stickers…
Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?
James just upgraded the “real” studio with a ton of stuff but that is stupid long list of
gear…but in my song writing studio I do all the writing on a Mac with Pro Tools & or Ableton,
my main song writing gear is a Fender Baritone, Novation Launch Pad Pro aka the light
bright a ton of boss pedals. I run 2 rack units as well, T.C. Electronic’s M-One and a TC
Helicon oh and an Alesis Microverb so make that 3 rack units…a few Korg and Yamaha
Keyboards as well…I have a great set of speakers, headphones and a few crappy ones to
get a good cross of what each song will sound like on various platforms…
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
Artist: Twitter seems to be the king…youtube. We have done internet radio and podcasts
but I don’t know…we had a bump but things move so fast these days and people seem so
distracted…I think getting out and playing live is great way to build a fanbase…doing these
types of blogs/online magazines…giving your remixes to established DJ’s to play in their
sets…it all adds up over time.
Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where
and who would it be with? Why?
I’d love to play with The Cure…They are in my opinion one of the best bands ever. I
can pretty much play all their songs on bass or guitar so…doing a live gig with The Cure in
France and joining them on stage to play the song faith or disintegration would be ideal.
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
We are going to release a bunch more singles and 2 records some this year and the
others early 2018…2018 ideally will be spent in Euorpe playing shows starting in Helsinki,
Berlin, Denmark, England etc etc. The entire focus is the full length record titled “13” the
goal is to get as many people to hear and experience this as possible.
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
Artist: I’d probably be surfing…doing a triathlon or trying to start a brewery with a strong
focus on a great IPA named after a dinosaur like Tricerahops the triple hop sensation…
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in the next year or so?
A mega ton of new electronic Untitled Art tracks…ok well not a mega ton but about 3
full length records worth of new music.
Exposed Vocals: Any Shout-outs?
Follow me on Twitter @UntitledDave…check out the band The Foreign Resort or The
Twilight Sad for some guitar driven alternative stuff…or if you want some really cool
electronic with a female fronted singer check out SPC-ECO.
