The Winter Sounds are a band that has been breaking through in a major way this year, and 2018 sees no sign of slowing down. Set to release their most ambitious record to date, "Maximum Reality," out in January 2018, the band step into the New Year in style. Recently we had the chance to catch up with Patrick Keenan from the band, to find out what The Winter Sounds have up their sleeve for the new year. Are you ready?
1.What is the inspiration behind the upcoming record?
For each of the songs, there were singular moments of inspiration in which their identity was realized, like one song 'hearbeats' was inspired by lines from Aldo Leopold's On a Monument to the Pigeon, or another 'real life is hard' about the mythos of the Kim family in North Korea. I would just know its "about" this, without being explicit, or even obvious in the lyrics. From there, I think of writing a bit like Michelangelo's claim that every block of stone has a statue inside it, the songs' feel intuitive to me, but they may take a long time to flesh out and the end result is as much discovery as creation. Putting all the songs together into Maximum Reality feels different this time around, because the past four years have seen so many changes for me personally. So i think that if there's any common thread between all the songs, it is that they each have survived all this change, and I still like them.
2.What made you discover your passion for creating an eclectic blend of indie with an edge?
I think I have always valued creativity in music the most and then melody, mood, lyrics probably a little less... So, from the beginning I always wanted to have a unique sound while still having great songs.
3. What places in your mind do you channel to craft your songs?
This seems closely related to the inspiration question, so hopefully I've understood it correctly ;) but anyway, in general, when I'm writing I'm really just living in a moment, like a week of time or something in which I have this lingering inspiration from something I read, or heard, or saw, or an experience and I really dig into it and try to capture the feelings that are there. When doing take after take ... like at home in my "home studio", and I have the headphones on and I'm just looping a part and playing along on the keys, you can really lose yourself in the song, and you'll start to notice old memories start to creep up into consciousness, almost as if they've been coaxed out like a snake charmer ... Sometimes the process can be so rewarding in that sense.
4. What are your favorite venues to perform at? and if you had to choose, do you feel more comfortable in the studio or onstage, and why?
For me, festival shows are the best, but we normally play cozy bar/venues and that is really nice... places like Tin Roof in Charleston, SC, Radio Room in Greenville, Evening Muse in Charlotte, where you know the people who book there and its a good size room but not so big that its all-business. I'm more comfortable on stage by far. The studio can be exhilarating, but it is intimidating as well. I'm not a clean cut precise player at all, so I definitely struggle in the studio. Mostly I record from home and even let a certain level of sloppiness pass to which I later become endeared to, haha, contrary to, in the studio, where you have to make permanent choices about seemingly trivial things like tones or aspects of takes or pronunciation on single words, etc., and that minutiae can be a bit exhausting.
5. How do you create your songs? What is the process like? Does it take you days, weeks, even longer? How does the perfect Winter Sounds piece come together?
Recently, i've been releasing music through patreon. It is almost 90% home recordings, so I treat the songs as demos for possible future Winter Sounds records. I realized that it has given me more freedom to expand into different styles and try things I might not normally try otherwise, like writing instrumentals, or waltzes, or quirky nintendo sounding stuff. To answer the question, if I think about that process, I can usually finish a song for release in a week. When it comes to actual album cuts, the process is a bit more involved, the other players contribute and we have to rehearse so that everyone individually is happy with their parts. Then you go to the studio, and even though you might have great takes and a high quality production, something inevitably always gets lost in translation between the demos and the studio. So, actual album cuts can take a lot longer!
6. How did you create a sound throughout time that is so uniquely your own? What defines your sound to you?
I don't know what exactly defines my sound, but my aim is to write emotionally engaging and interesting pop music. I can also tell you what people have told me and the words I tend to use when describing the band, which is: melancholic, new wave, dance, folk and punk anthems.
7. This year is already shaping up to be a huge year for you. What do you hope to accomplish in the remainder of the year?
Well, there's one month left and we've got a new video by Zbanski Kino coming shortly, along with a new Christmas song (hopefully) and a bunch of new photos shot by both Taavi Arus and Jillian Cobb to share. Our album artwork was done by Jacob Hunt and I'll be posting that soon as well. But my big goal is to finish booking our tour dates for January and get those announced. I'm nearly there! The USA MAXIMUM REALITY tour dates start mid-January 2018 right after the record release date (January 12, 2018).
