Late Cambrian - John Wlaysewski

Catch an interview with lead guitarist and vocalist of Late Cambrian, John Wlaysewski, and make sure to get your copy of Golden Time, out now.

What brought the band together?

John Wlaysewski: Well, initially, it started as a solo project for me. The first album that we have called The Last Concert - kind of a weird name for the first album - but we didn't even have a bass player yet and it was really just me and the drummer putting together some stuff that I really liked that I'd never gotten to record in any other projects so on that album I play the bass, the guitar, and the keyboards and sing. Our drummer, who's not in the band 'cause he moved to Nashville, played the drums and the girl, O, she joined the band around the time I was recording so she was able to sing on three of those songs before it got finalized but she wasn't in the band yet and then, after the album came out, we kind of put the band together and found a bass player on Craigslist and did all that so, I guess, it started as a little solo thing and then turned into a band really quick.

How does the sound on those earlier releases compare to Golden Time.

The first release sounds a lot more like the second Weezer album. At the time I was making it, I was kind of obsessed with the album a bit, I listened to it too much and I was like, you know, I want to make an album with no metronome so that the live feel of the band can be there and I want the guitars to feedback when we stop playing so it's definitely more gritty but, yeah, it's definitely different. It's not as rhythm oriented, more about a wall of sound and power and then really, really melodic melodies. That's actually the album that got us our Japanese album deal because I think they really like messy kind of unkempt punk rock over there and they found that album online somehow and then contacted me and asked me if it would be okay to set up a deal together so now we're on the third album, they're put out three so far in Japan, I think they sell better there than they do here. So we're trying to get over there; that's our goal for the end of the year is to tour Japan this year.

Which artists have influenced your sound?

I'm very voracious when it comes to music. Besides going to iTunes and just kind of sampling the top fifty albums, which I do that like once every couple of days. I also walk around, I have Shazam on my phone so whenever I hear something I think is really cool I look it up and then later I listen to it and try to analyze it but, main influences, I really like The Strokes, early Elvis Costello, and Phoenix.

Any current releases you're hooked on?

It's more like I get really interesting rhythm and melody ideas from pop music so like, you know, hip hop and stuff I listen to that and, as a guitar player and songwriter, it would never occur to me to loop this sample over and over again and then add this atonal chromatic keyboard to it. I do like Sia's new release a lot and her voice, I don't know, she's super talented and it's really weird because I remember one of her songs closed Six Feet Under series finale so I remember her from that and then this is like thirteen years later and she sounds younger which is really weird. As far as alternative and indie releases, I liked the newer Arctic Monkeys that came out last year, I thought that was a very controlled, rhythmically rich effort by them.

How does the creative process work in the band?

I try to bring in stuff every practice, just like riff ideas or chord changes, and see what the band can do with it but, a lot of times, I'm at home with my acoustic and I'm able to write at least the layout of the song, not the lyrics yet, unless the music's very, very emotional, then it like pulls the lyrics out of me, otherwise I've got to play over and over and then the lyrics eventually show up in my brain. But, I guess I write it and bring it in and then the rhythm section kicks it up to high gear and we try to figure out the rhythm and how it's going to feel in the song after I put in the basic chords and stuff, so I guess it starts with me and ends with everyone else because the lyrics show up later when they feel like showing up, when the muse decides to tell me something I should tell to people and be like, okay, here we go. When I try to write lyrics it's a major fail and when I just let them show up in their own time, then they end up being good.

How would you describe your sound?

Uh, what do you call it? [Laughs] I call it indie guitar pop. I'm not really sure what else to call it.

Could you sum Golden Time up in one sentence?

That's hard. I guess, it's indie pop about yearning for love in a hipster wasteland [laughs]. Yeah, it kind of, it's like trying to make connections with people but, yeah. It's indie pop about yearning for love in a hipster wasteland.

How did you come up with your band name?

I was emailing band names back and forth with O, who is the co-lead vocalist, and she really liked that one. I came up with it because it's a time period from like 390 million years ago when there were just trilobites and a few plants and the air was still poison, but it's when life really, really started; before that it was just kind of a few things here and there and then it took off. So, the Cambrian explosion is when this planet went from being ninety percent water and nothing else to a bunch of stuff so I guess it was a name about just organic creation and making things out of nothing. Then it stuck and more than one person said 'I really like your band, change the name' [laughs] and I was like, yeah, I guess, but in the end I really like it because it's original and it's not trying too hard to be exciting or anything; it's not too hipster where I have to lose all the vowels or something to be cute and it means something to me about organic creation and making things happen from nothing.

Do you have plans to tour the US soon?

I really want to, we might have to do that. There are a couple of venues in Ohio that really want us to come out and play and we've been getting requests from people in the Midwest and South to come down there and play, so thinking about putting together maybe an eight to ten day tour in the US, but that would probably be later in the year. If it happens it would be late July or August but, at the moment, we just came out with our album, the vinyl comes out March 6 which I'm super proud of because I've never had my music on vinyl ever, so that's kind of awesome. Yeah, I hope to bring it to the US.

What do you want to do with your music?

I want to be able to live as a musician, like that's been my dream forever, to be a musician and for people to relate to what I'm singing about and to feel good when they listen to the music and to be able to tour. We had a really, really good tour in the UK; last November in 2014 we played like twenty-six shows in thirty-two days - it was crazytown. It really did well, we sold out of our merch twice and made a lot of new fans and it really pointed some things out to me about the differences between the United States and other countries when it comes to music. For one thing, there's a lot of stuff where it's like, there is no way American radio would play this song, this is like a B-side from their first album - I said that a lot. They want something else from their music. I think Americans are pushing themselves so hard, it's such a super capitalist country, everyone is just pushing themselves so hard to survive or be rich and then, at the end of the day, they need music to kind of be the background, to be the rhythm to the things they're doing and to distract them a little bit by making them feel a little bit cooler or a little bit more like a diva but, in the UK, I don't think they're pushing themselves necessarily as hard; they just want a good life, hang out with their friends, you know, chill out and make a living, and so the music has got a little bit of a melancholy side, there's less autotune on  the dance music, it's less shrill about being happy. It's not desperately happy so I kind of identify with it more and I'm hoping to go over there again, I'm contacting all the pubs we played and trying to put together a shorter tour for this year to see everyone again. I went on kind of a tangent [laughs] but that's what I want to do, I want to bring my music to the people who love it and I felt a real connection to the UK. We played in Great Britain, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Amsterdam in Germany; it was pretty ridiculous to do that.

Be good to one another and follow your dreams and do things so that you'll have no regrets and thanks for reading everyone. 

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Sleep Machine

Catch an interview with Alisha Zalkin and Dan Kalisher of Sleep Machine and get their new EP, Cover Me In Gold, out now.

What brought you two together?

Alisha: I was doing this music, guitar player sort of gig and a couple friends recommended I work with Dan and, ever since then, we kind of just hit it off and started this project.

This sound is so vastly different from your solo release "Fearless", what inspired that change?

Alisha: Yeah, that's a good question. I guess, after meeting Dan, we wanted to work on a project together creatively and I was really inspired after I saw the documentary 20 Feet From Stardom which is about background singers, soulful singers of the rock n' roll ages and how really crucial their voices were to that sound and I knew Dan had a background in rock and was heavily influenced by that and so we kind of just decided to start this project together.

Which words would you use to describe your sound?

Dan: Well it's definitely loud. It's boisterous, it's noisy, it's sexy, it's a little bit dark I would say, sonically, and, yeah. It's really hard to describe your own music; to us, we've heard it so many times and it's hard to objectively describe it when it's something you've created, but I guess those are the words we would use for it.

What do you want people to know about Cover Me In Gold?

Dan: We want them to know that it's coming out [laughs]. It's been really fun to make.

Alisha: The song "Wild For You" is actually going to be on the promo for the show Younger.

Dan: It's going to be on TV Land, it premieres March 31st - the show - with Hilary Duff and Sutton Foster and "Wild For You" is going to be used in the promo for it, leading up to it.

Is there a track from the album you think will be most popular?

Dan: "Wild For You" is getting a lot of attention; that's the one that people are going to have the most exposure to.

Alisha: But I think they're really going to like "Game Over" which is the electric track. It's a sort of balls to the wall, fiery song to get you pumped up and motivated and I listen to it when I work out and I feel like I can run out the track to it.

Dan: Yeah, it's - I don't want to say it was designed - but it was sort of written and produced with the idea in mind that it was going to be sort of used in arenas, sort of a cerebral rock sort of thing where we wanted to get people fired up so if they want to either run a marathon or break a cinder block with their bare hands, you know, something fun like that.

Which artists have been most influential to your sound?

Dan: Well, that's a good question, because we draw from two completely different places. I draw more from the Led Zeppelin and the old school rock and even all the way up to the new school rock, kind of like Incubus and Audioslave and things like that.

Alisha: And, I mean, I was very heavily influenced by big voices like Whitney Houston and Celine Dion. Just those huge vocals, soulful vocals, are what influenced me.

Dan: So when we came together we kind of felt like, what if those two things, you know, what if Whitney Houston was the lead singer of Led Zeppelin [laughs] what would that sound like? And that's kind of what we came up with.

Any current tracks you guys are hooked on?

Dan: We really like the new Incubus song that just came out.

Alisha: Yeah, the new Incubus song is awesome.

Dan: It's called "Absolution Calling" and we love it.

Alisha: Really looking forward to that EP coming out.

Dan: But, to be honest with you, at least for me, I'm still trying to figure out the old music, the stuff that influenced me. I'm still learning new things about that just in terms of the production and layering and the performance of it; from a musical standpoint, I'm still discovering new things about that every day.

What effect has that had on your music, studying those older styles?

Dan: I think it's had a deep effect, just because both of those things were what was ingrained in us so we didn't really have to do - a lot of times, artists will do research and they'll look up current tracks to see what's happening and, for us, it was just like we already had that in us, just because that was what we knew. It wasn't even a conscious decision, it was just like, well, this is what comes out, this is what it is. Just, this is what we know, this is what we do, so it had a huge effect on our music just because it was so natural for us to do it this way.

What's the message you two hope to get across in your music?

Dan: Have fun.

Alisha: Yeah, let go. Don't be afraid to be a little wild. 

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Human Brother - JD Shultz

Catch up with JD Shultz aka Human Brother and listen to his new album, Back To Music, out now.

What got you interested in the arts?

JD Shultz: I was born into a family of artists, my mom and dad raised three kids with my mom's sculpture and my dad started painting about twelve years later in the early '80s, so I've just been around art my whole life and, as far as music, you know, I grew up in the early '70s, I was a teenager in the '80s, so I got the best music that was coming out; just hearing bands like Zeppelin and The Beach Boys and The Cars and all the great new wave that came out in the '80s and the '70s classic rock, I just couldn't put my records down. I was kind of a hyper kid so I was always beating on the dinner table and finally my parents caved in and got me a drum set when I was eight years old. I didn't get serious about playing the drums until I was in my late teens, because it was more of a hobby. While I just loved music, was an avid concertgoer, I didn't buckle down and become more of a serious musician until my late teens; I was more of an athlete growing up.

Were there any artists who inspired your work, visually or sonically?

Well, concerts, I missed the Led Zeppelin boat, that was ahead of my time, but I had all their records. But yeah, going to concerts in the early '80s, I was at US festival in '83. I was kind of a rocker, I got into the heavy stuff like ACDC and Black Sabbath and I went to these concerts in the '80s, but I was actually a big fan of The Cars and, to this day, Ric Ocasek, has left the biggest impression on me as a songwriter; his songs, they just spoke to my heart in a way that not too many artists have really figured out a way to do. The Cars were probably my favorite band growing up. As far as artists, Pablo Picasso, Basquiat, I'd say those are my favorite artists that inspired me but, to tell you the truth, just growing up in my household, I would say my biggest inspirations were my parents and siblings, my brother Adam and sister Rachel are  both artists and we've just been painting our whole lives; painting, drawing, writing poetry and stuff like that. So my family would have to be my biggest influence I would say, artistically speaking.

When you're working on something new, how do you decide which medium to use to express yourself?

It depends. Painting is a job for me, it's how I make a living, so if I sell paintings - and I do sell a lot of paintings - when I sell them I have to recreate new paintings to have a full inventory for me to sell. I get a different feeling from music than I do from painting. Painting is very therapeutic; when I paint, I don't even listen to music, I enjoy the quiet and just focus on what I'm inspired to be painting at that very moment but, with music, it's usually just if I'm feeling the bug. If I'm inspired to do a new song, I kind of just buckle down and enjoy the comforts of my own studio. It just depends on how I'm feeling and if I have work to do, to pay the bills [laughs].

Why choose the name Human Brother?

I'd been trying to think of a cool name for either my band or my solo stuff because I didn't start singing til’ a bit later in life but I was always in bands, since my late teens, and I could just never find the right band name;  there was always something that was stopping me from coming up with the best band name, and one day it suddenly came to me. It came to me because I was trying to think of a name that was universal but also fit the music I was making which was kind of my own take on alternative funky rock with some MIDI instruments and some world sounds. On this record, Back to Music, you can find everything from Asian flutes to Turkish violins, some African choir samples, and tribal drum beats. So, I was trying to think of a name that could reach people all over the world, that kind of connected us all on this Earth and brought us all together in the form of a band name, and it just came to me one day: Human Brother. I just was like 'wow, how the hell did I think of that?' [laughs] because it's the best band name and it's not even a band, it's kind of just me. It's kind of like my own little name for my music, but I do have a three piece band that plays live with me, not to confuse the name, it is my alias. JD Shultz aka Human Brother. So I am Human Brother.

Did you record all the instrumentation on this album yourself?

Yes, I play all of the instruments on this record - aside from the few samples I used - but I'm thinking about doing it a little bit different for the next record. I'm thinking about having my band lay down the rhythm tracks and going for a different approach. A “Jimmy Page” style of recording.

How does Back to Music compare to your earlier releases?

Sound wise, I think it goes very hand in hand with my last album, released in 2010, which is called Vision Days on the Life Ride. I think this is kind of a continuation of that kind of approach but I think it's much more mature because I've grown, not only as a songwriter, but as a singer and as a mixer and an engineer; I think I did a better job this time around in capturing the best I could possibly capture with these songs, so I think, yeah, it definitely is a continuation from the first album. It's kind of the sound that I've been trying to put together for about six, seven years now and I just think this is my best foot forward for this particular approach and I couldn't be more thrilled with what I've achieved.

How would you sum up this album in one sentence?

Music for the people.

It's music that can get people dancing, get people thinking about playing instruments again, reminding people of some of the music that came out in the '70s and '80s and just bringing back instrumentation, you know. I play a lot of lead guitar on this album so I'm trying to kind of bring that back to the forefront but doing it in an interesting way that can get the young kids excited about it, not just showing off. I'm trying to do some tasteful, unique instrumentation on this album, so I think I'm doing my own little thing. Not reinventing the wheel, but just trying to carve my own little niche in the world of music.

What's been most influential to your career, as an artist and songwriter?

My art is a wonderful way to express myself and I get a completely different feeling when I'm painting than I do when I'm creating music; it's a completely different outlet. I make a living from art so that's my job, but it's a wonderful job that I feel blessed to have every day, but music is, I would say, my number one passion. It kind of just grabbed a hold of me at an early age and, since my late teens, it's just been a dream of mine to be able to get out there and touch people with my music. I play four instruments and I've given my heart and soul and, god, about a hundred thousand hours plus into just learning how to play these instruments - and that is a kind estimate, could be even more when I think about all the time I put in - and it's not for money, it's not for financial gain. For the most part, it's just about my passion, it's about expressing myself and leaving my mark in this world and a great legacy for my kids and their kids. You know, when I'm not here anymore, what is a better way to leave your stamp in this world than recording your own music, it's here forever, just like a painting. Music and art are really two of the best gifts that have been given to this planet and I just feel so blessed to be able to express myself in both mediums.

What message do you try to get across in your music and art?

It's positivity, it's happiness, it's cheerful. It's funny, because if you look at my art and you listen to my album, I think that anybody can see how the parallels exist; my lyrics are very positive, just trying to bring us all together, and I don't try to be the deepest guy in the world, I'm just trying to unite people and have people that don't even speak our language relate to not only what I'm doing sonically, but what I'm saying lyrically. “Be true to yourself”, you know, just staying true and staying on your path and never giving up and just really, really focusing on what makes you happy.

If I had to think of one word to describe my music and my art, I would just say “happiness”.  My paintings seem to make a lot of people happy when they look at it because the colors are so vibrant and they explode off the surface that I'm using, so I think that what I'm trying to do is just make people happy and be a positive influence for the next generation and for whoever discovers my music and art. I just want them to know that I was a very cheerful, happy, uplifting soul living on this planet and trying to give back music and art.

Never give up on your dreams. When you find something that you love to do in this world, don't let anybody tell you you can't do it, because the key to happiness is finding something you love to do and just doing it at all costs. If you can't figure out a way to do that because you're stuck and there's something that you love to do but you have to pay the bills, try to find the time to express yourself creatively because I think we all come into this world and we all love bright colors; when we're babies, we love looking at bright colors, we love to play with crayons and express ourselves and make drawings and then, what happens, is you just grow up and society says 'no'; society says there's no time for that, you need to focus on this so you can do this, and I just think that if everybody expressed themselves creatively and continued to nurture those gifts that are given to all of us at an early age, that you'd be able to take that into your adult life and it would just never go away. So, whatever you're doing in this life, even if it's a mundane 9-5 job, if you can approach it in a creative way and use your creative brain, I just think that it can help you in any form of what you're doing in this life. In any job, in any medium, creativity is the key to reaching human potential; it's reaching out and nourishing those beautiful gifts that we all have from day one.

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Anais Aida

See what singer/songwriter Anais Aida has to say about her style and inspirations and listen to her new EP, Out In The Waves, available now.

What got you interested in music?

Anais Aida: Actually I started making music when I was really young. I was born in Toulouse in the South of France and when I was four years old my mom put me in the conservatory however, in France, before you can start picking up an instrument, you have to do two to three years of music theory, so probably from four to seven I was doing music theory and then I chose my first instrument which was the violin. I was in the choir and I was playing violin up until me and my mom moved to Ireland and I tried to keep playing the violin but I slowly lost interest because of the teachers I had, in Ireland, it was more about ear training as opposed to reading music and I didn't like that too much so I ended up dropping violin by the time I was ten years old. When I moved to California I was really interested in singing and started writing and I went to an art school in Oakland and there we pursued songwriting and vocal music.

Were there any artists you listened to growing up that affected your sound?

There's a lot of artists, it's hard to say one person in general, because through every move I ended up studying a different artist, but I would say someone who is very impactful to me is India.Arie, she's a soul singer. She inspired me a lot because she has a really deep voice and, at the time, I wasn't really as comfortable with the tone of my voice and I found a lot of resemblance with my tone and her tone so I really learned to appreciate the quality of my voice through listening to her music.

How would you describe your sound?

I would say it's more alternative RnB with a little bit of soul. The truth is I'm still developing that sound, so what you guys will hear when you listen to the EP is that every song is a little bit different. "Waterfall" has a bit more of a pop influence and then there's another song called "Dancing Barefoot" that has more of an indie, indie pop, indie rock type of feel, and then you have "Single Rose" which is very full of gospel influence, and then you have "Recover" which is an RnB ballad. So, it's definitely soulful, there's always going to be a bit of that RnB, just because it's always been a big influence for me, but then there's a lot of different influences that come depending on the track.

Which track from the EP stands out, in your opinion?

I'm really proud of "Single Rose" because I did an acoustic version of that song last year and I was able to go back and do an official version and I tracked strings for it and I find it really beautiful, so I'm really excited about that song. Then there's another song called "Out In The Waves", which is the title of my EP, and that's probably my favorite song on the project because it was very personal to me. We took a lot of risks in the instrumentation and it was just a really fun song to create and I think that people will respond pretty well to it.

What do you try to keep in mind while writing new songs?

It depends, sometimes it's from a storytelling perspective and sometimes it's just direct experience, but what I always try to do is leave it open for interpretation; I like for people to be able to put their own spin to it, I don't like to be so specific to the point that people can't apply it to their own personal lives.

What's the most memorable compliment you've received for your music?

I don't know, I get a lot of good feedback from a lot of people, but the person who mastered my EP, Chris Gehringer, really loved it and I was very surprised. He masters a lot of the records for like Rihanna and Jay Z and some of the biggest artists, like he does all Top 40, and when he mastered my EP, he told me he loved every single song and he couldn't choose one that was his favorite and that really meant a lot to me.

Any artists you're hooked on right now?

I'm absolutely obsessed with Kwabs - he's an artist from London - he has this really gorgeous, rich tone. It's different beats and it's just, every time I listen to him it just makes me want to sing, and I love when artists inspire me and make me want to go out and sing and be better, so he's phenomenal to me.

What do you want to say about your music?

I would just say that you should always listen to music on a surface level and then try to decide what some of the stories that are beneath are. I really try to make music that's empowering, so whenever I write a song, I always try to find a way to lift people up, or myself up, because life in general can be a little bit difficult at times or being an artist can be very challenging, you deal with a lot of criticism and a lot of different opinions over time, so it's really hard to affirm yourself and to love yourself and to believe in yourself and that's something I'm trying to convey through my music and I hope that will be a message that will be with me throughout my career. Whenever people listen to my projects, I want them to listen to it not as a final project, but as a journey. I think of myself as constantly growing and trying to find my place in the universe of music and where I belong and what my sound is, so I'd really love for people to listen and hear the potential and still want to grow with me.

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