Under The Rotunda

A few weeks back, sitting outside the Boston club Great Scott, I was an interviewing machine. Right after I talked with Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, I sat down on the patio with three-fourths of Via Audio. Via Audio are one of the bands made up of Berklee alum, and so, of course, our Berklee connection came up immediately. Berklee is where the band started, as Jess told me. “I used to play outside on the beach with my guitar. [The Berklee beach is] the smoking lounge outdoors, and our original drummer Danny came by and wrote me his business card of sorts, saying ‘Drummer of excellence. Call me!’ and the rest is history.” Said history of Via Audio is, in fact, rather interesting. The drummer that Jess spoke of is Danny Molad, who was in integral member of the band until rather recently. He is included in much of the songwriting credits on Say Something, Via Audio's debut, as well as being the drummer on the recording. In the past year, however, he decided to leave Via Audio so that he could be a full-time member of Elizabeth & The Catapult, who are another excellent band comprised of Berklee alum. Jess said the songwriting process hasn't changed much for them since Danny's departure, since they generally wrote separately before bringing it to the band. “We may have less variety, because we all write in different styles."

Coming in to replace Danny on drums is Adam Sturtevant, yet another player from the Berklee scene. “I just joined this band a few months ago, but I’ve known them for four or five years. I met them here, at Great Scott. They were playing in an earlier form of Via Audio that didn’t even have Tom in it yet. I was playing with a world music band that night, and we became friends. I talked mostly with Danny, who was their drummer, and we became good friends. Then, many years later, he asked me to replace him in Via Audio.”

Adam joined after their Say Something was already recorded, so he missed out on the Jim Eno recording experience. Yes, that Jim Eno, the one from Spoon. Jim was instrumental in Via Audio's career, as he offered to produce their album free of charge, until they found a label to pick them up. He rested his time and money in the faith that they would be picked up, and this was a huge opportunity for Via Audio. Not only did they get to record their album free of charge with a seasoned pro, but they officially had Jim Eno's endorsement. Their connection to him started simply, with Jess handing off a demo at a Spoon show. "She happened to have a CD and gave it to Jim because she thought he would like the artwork. Jim happened to like the music, as well as the artwork. He kept on listening to it and coming back to it, and eventually called us because he wanted to be our producer." I can only imagine what an experience it must have been for them to record with him, especially since they had to cram everything into two crazy weeks. "We started the album nearly two years before we went into the studio with Jim Eno, and because of one thing or another, our progress was lost or didn't get finished. We decided just to finish the record in the studio. In that time we slept, breathed and ate only music."

Now that they have a great album released, Via Audio are only going up and up. "This is maybe our sixth or seven tour. Every tour is better than the last." "It's gets a little bit nicer, we can eat more of what we want, as opposed to just granola bars. We still eat granola bars, but we don't eat only granola bars."

Via Audio are going on tour in June (that's now!) with Jukebox The Ghost and they are going to the Czech Republic in September.

Via Audio - Modern Day Saint (from Say Something)
Via Audio - Harder On Me (from Say Something)

Labels: Interviews