Interview With A Static Lullaby
June 24th, 2009 by Stephanie Stevens
When I think confidence and integrity when it comes to the music scene I think of the Chino hills, California band A STATIC LULLABY. They are coming up on the 10 year status and through turmoil of labels and member changes the founders Joe Brown and Dan Arnold have never lost these two prominent things. The bands music has been ever changing their songwriting has been real honest and creative. They are who they are and that is what makes these guys a stellar and amazing band.
Through the years I have been a very big fan but it was only this year when I had the pleasure of seeing them play live on the Silverstein tour and now on their very own headlining tour.
With their latest effort RATTLESNAKE pretty much being the most aggressive and impacted thing in their career so far I was happy to be able to sit down with them to chat about the process of writing it and how they feel after the finished product is out. With Joe and Tyler in tow we headed backstage before their set to chat about the cover tunes, the future and if there is any regrets of what they have done thus far.
HEY GUYS! I SEE THINGS ARE GOING WELL FOR YOU?
JOE: Yea things are good
I KNOW ON RATTLESNAKE YOU PUT A LOT OF YOUR HEART N SOUL INTO THIS ALBUM. WITH YOU AND DAN SINGING, THROUGH THE YEARS HOW DOES THE SONGWRITING HAPPEN?
JOE: I write all the lyrics. I work with Dan on melodies and rhythms and stuff like that. So basically I get an idea in my head on how I want something and then we get together and then we go through on how I want the words to fit and then he just sings it the way I want him to. He writes a lot of the music and guitar and stuff like that. But Dane on this album contributed a lot on the songwriting.
DO YOU FEEL THROUGH ALL THE PERSONAL STUFF ON THIS ALBUM THAT IT IS WHAT MADE IT THE BEST ALBUM THROUGH YOUR CAREER?
JOE: I wouldn’t say it’s the best thing I could do in my career. I believe that the album itself, to me is my favorite. I know it hits home when I sing it and I feel everything I was feeling when I wrote it. It is a good chapter in my life and proud I have this. I am just really proud as a band of what we can do and I believe every record is a step up from the last but RATTLENSAKE is defiantly my favorite.
WHEN YOU SIT DOWN TO CREATE AN ALBUM DO YOU GO BACK TO PRIOR ALBUMS FOR INSPRIATION OR WHAT NOT TO DO?
JOE: You never really have a conscious effort especially with our band and that is probably half the problem (laughing) we don’t do that. The only album I remember us saying well this is what we kind of want to do and that was the self titled album. That is because after we split with the original members it was Dan and I and we basically wrote our first album together. It was him and I in my garage so anyway we did the split with the band and we said ok let’s go back to doing what A STATIC LULLABY was!!! Let’s go back to making music we love. So then the next album came!! We are always
evolving and we are true to rock n roll, we are musicians we try to do the best of what we do. We love to write songs and playing heavy rock n roll and metal is the most fun we can have.
SO WITH THE NEW GUYS EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE IN FOR THE SELF TITLED THIS ALBUM THEY DID HAVE A BIGGER PART WHEN THE CREATING PROCESS TOOK PLACE.
JOE: Yea like I said earlier Dane really put in a lot on this new disc. For the first time ever this is the first time I can remember someone else giving something to a record besides me and Dan and it was great. The collaboration was great.
DO YOU THINK THE AGGRESSIVENESS ON THE ALBUM IS BECAUSE OF DANE’S CONTRIBUTION.
JOE: Well that is the thing. Dane is a bass player so when Dan would write a guitar part it would be written like it was for the bass line. It was played with different rhythm. So the songs were coming out heavier but we loved it. I was generally pissed off and I didn’t believe the lyrics I was writing could be played on a soft album because if you read the fuckin lyrics it was pretty brutal shit!!! It could make your hair stand up on your arm if you really think about it
GOING BACK THOUGH DO YOU REGRET ANYTHING THAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN ON THE RECORD?
JOE: No (laughing) If I was to regret I would be in a lot of fuckin trouble (laughing) I would have too much regret for myself (laughing) I do like to make little notes to myself I call it little post it notes to my heart, I guess little life lessons and they say no regrets!!
NOW WITH THE BRITNEY COVER OF TOXIC DID YOU DO IT FOR THE ALBUM OR FOR THE FEARLESS COMPILATION?
JOE: That was on our album way before anything else that comp came out a while after. The funny thing about it was we did the song because we wanted to do another cover because of the success of LET GO. So we wanted to do it too have fun and it was a wonderful thing and then when Pop Goes Punk came out it just did amazing it was on MTV and the video did well. So that success of it has been great for us. I wish it did well for our album because it just wouldn’t be single sales it would be album sales because we are the most popular song on that comp album
WELL THE QUESTION I WAS GOING TO ASK YOU IS AFTER PUTTING YOUR HEART N SOUL INTO THIS NEW ALBUM DOES IT FUSTRATE YOU THAT THE COVER IS PRIMARLIY WAS IT MAKING YOU STICK OUT THIS YEAR TO THE PUBLIC?
JOE: It doesn’t frustrate me but I get what your saying but still it doesn’t and the point was we wanted to do it, we really thought it would be a good thing to do. To get someone to drive to your album by listening to a pop song, they are going to hear our songs regardless. So then they can be the judge of it for themselves but the planning between the two releases wasn’t correct so that is just what it is you know.
ARE YOU WORKING ON ANYTHING NEW FOR RECORD 5?
JOE: We have been doing this for 10 years now, we get in our moods where it is touring touring touring but when we go home this next time everybody has some family things they need to sort out but we are going to write for sure. I am really excited to write just because of where RATTLENSAKE was and it is a statement. After writing that album it gave me a breathe of fresh air
WITH THIS LINEUP YOU HAVE NOW HOW MUCH DIFFERENCE OR IMPACT DOES THESE MEMBERS GIVE THE LIVE PERFORMANCE AND THE PERSONAL FRIENDSHIP LEVEL ON THE ROAD?
JOE: Well Dan and I have been together forever. I was 14 when I started playing with him. I guess as a whole I’m just happy to be able to play with such great musicians and I think the overall show and presence we bring to the stage is great we connect with each other and the crowd and that is beautiful. The live show can get loud at times sometimes I’m the one that goes crazy and then Dan has his moments. They are all great guys and now I have the pleasure of not having to deal with what I dealt with previously
SO WHEN YOU WERE LOOKING AGAIN DID THESE GUYS JUST FALL IN TO PLACE?
JOE: Dane was in Berkley music in Boston and he tried out for us and came out to California and worked on the self titled with us and then Tyler was a drummer in another band and we had lost our drummer so we stole him (laughing) from another band so he came aboard when we were on tour for the self titled album. The rest is history
TYLER HOW IS IT WORKING WITH MR. JOE BROWN?
TYLER: It is amazing I couldn’t be happier
YOU DON’T WANT TO QUIT YET?
TYLER: No
JOE: I can make him want to
TYLER: (laughing) yea he knows how to push my buttons
JOE: I push his buttons rarer then others
TYLER: Yes Dan on the other hand just doesn’t know how to stop (laughing)
JOE: OOOO he is a button pusher…(laughing)
I KNOW YOU MUST HAVE HEADLINED BEFORE BUT HAS THIS BEEN YOUR FIRST MAJOR ONE?
JOE: Sweetheart we have been a band for a long time so we have done big ones and little ones but we haven’t headlined in like three years because we talked as a band and said we just want to support and get RATTLENSAKE out there because it is a whole new scene from when we started and I’m trying to understand it most of the time because I don’t!! So we went out jumped on tours to get our name out there and then do a headliner. We did this because we didn’t get Warped Tour or anything like that and we didn’t know if we were going to tour this summer so when we made the decision we all agreed to headline and then we get to play more songs for the fans and that is really all we wanted to do on this one.
PICKING THIS TOUR DID YOU HAVE FULL REIGN ON WHO WAS GOING TO MAKE THE PACKAGE OF BANDS UP?
JOE: Yea we picked the bands
TYLER: I mean there was some that were offered to us and we were on tour at the time when we got all the offers and we kind of left it up to our managers and booking agent to give us options
JOE: They sent us a list of bands and said what about these guys and we listened to them and then said what is their deal.
IS THERE ANY MAIN THINGS YOU WANT IN A PACKAGED HEADLINE RUN?
JOE: I like diversity. I think this tour there is diversity which is great. Tides Of Man is phenomenal, they are just a great great rock n roll band, they are not really heavy, I mean they are heavy but not intense, they are really great musicians and all the other bands kick it on stage and then we get on and finish it off
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU’RE LEARNING FROM THE BANDS ON THIS BILL YOU WILL TAKE AWAY WITH YOU ONCE IT’S DONE?
JOE: I think Vanna is teaching me a lesson on life!! (laughing)
IS THAT A GOOD THING?
JOE: If your saying by the end of the tour what will we take away with us I think we will lose a lot more (laughing) Tyler might lose his mind by the end of the tour!!!!
AFTER THIS TOUR ANYMORE TOURING OR JUST GOING HOME?
JOE: Oh yea we are going to write
(As Joe rubs Tyler’s head) AND RUB HIS HEAD!!
TYLER: They gave me crap because I shaved it down to nothing
JOE: I didn’t say much..aww come on dude
TYLER: You know what you said
JOE: O dude don’t repeat that
TYLER: No, I won’t but you know what you said
WHILE YOU WERE ON YOUR PHONE CALL I ASKED JOE WHEN YOU DO WRITE FOR THE NEW RECORD IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WANT TO SPECIFICALLY THROW IN TO THE WRITING PROCESS?
TYLER: I would say since I listen to more metal
JOE: Him and I want to sound like Lamb Of God
TYLER: Yes!! But my aspect towards our music I would say I would try to get more heavier parts out of us because Dan is a top 40 guy he listens to like anything that you will hear on the radio and Dane listens to very diverse amount of music and I try to but Joe can atest to this but like I said I listen to more metal so I tend to go back to just that all the time. So I think that is what I kind of bring out
WHAT DO YOU THINK THE PERCENTAGE IS THAT YOU WILL GET YOUR WAY?
TYLER: NOW!!!! Since this past record
JOE: I don’t think the discussion of metal is going to be any question
TYLER: After RATTLESNAKE I would say a good percentage
JOE WILL WE HEAR MORE ANGRY LYRICS?
JOE: Hell yea it’s just going to be Tyler and I. It will be double bass and just me screaming
SO WE DON’T NEED THE REST OF THE BAND
JOE: Yea we are going for the tribal sounding A STATIC LULLABY (laughing)
(Laughing) CHANGE IS GOOD (LAUGHING) OKIE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT TO ADD OR COMMENT ABOUT?
JOE: Yes!! You did a great interview and your questions were great and you did a really good job
DO I GET A STAR ON MY FOREHEAD?
JOE: YES YOU DO!!
