Bringin' it Backwards

We had the opportunity to interview The Faim at SOMA San Diego! "For The Faim, an album is not only about showing what you can do now, but what you want to do in the future. The Perth four-piece went into the making of State of Mind, the band's debut full-length, with the goal of expanding their range and getting out of their comfort zone. Over the course of two years, the musicians worked with numerous songwriters and producers to craft a collection of songs that showcase a vast range of styles and tones. "We wanted to the show the variety of skills between the four of us," says Stephen. "But we also want to write and record the music we want to hear. We asked ourselves, 'What is missing? What do we want to be hearing?' And then we decided, 'Why don't we just write that?'" "We wanted to stick true to our roots and where we came from, which is essentially just us being able to explore the passion and love we have for music," Josh adds. "But we also wanted to experiment and to have fun with the songs." The Faim (French for "the hunger") have been building to this moment since they performed their first show at Stephen's 18th birthday party, then known as Small Town Heroes. Josh and Stephen grew up together, playing together on various sports teams, and began writing music together after an assignment in Stephen's music class. Soon the musicians were penning their own songs, inspired by bands like Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, and Metallica, and each brought in an array of musical influences, from indie rock to jazz to pop-punk. Sam and Linden, who met working at The Hen House Rehearsal Studios in Perth, rounded out the band's lineup after they changed their name to The Faim. For several years, The Faim hustled to build a following in Perth, regularly handing out flyers and posters outside Perth Arena and recording 30-second covers of their favorite tracks to post online. That motivation was important in the isolated community's small music scene, and the band was dedicated and willing to sacrifice everything to follow their dream. That hard work paid off when the band got the attention of producer John Feldmann in the summer of 2016. They noticed that Feldmann had posted a call on Instagram for unsigned bands with touring experience, and although The Faim had no real touring experience, they messaged him anyway. The producer wrote back a few weeks later and everything instantly went from zero to a hundred. The musicians brought 30 half-written ideas to Feldmann's studio in Los Angeles the following year, where they enlisted the help of several co-writers, including Pete Wentz (Fall Out Boy), Mark Hoppus (Blink 182), Josh Dun (Twenty One Pilots) and Ashton Irwin (5 Seconds of Summer). Their debut EP, Summer Is a Curse, dropped in the fall of 2018, hinting at the potential for a full-length album. The title track, "Summer Is A Curse," an anthemic song the band wrote with Irwin about realizing that you have to follow your dreams even if it requires a sacrifice, became an immediate hit, with over 15 million streams worldwide to date. The songs on State of Mind encapsulate nearly four years, ranging from an old favorite called "Infamous" to "Summer Is a Curse" to a brand new track "Humans," the first single off the album. The songs, recorded mostly in Los Angeles in various studios with a collection of different producers, reveal how The Faim has evolved since their inception. Co-created with Patrick Morrissey and David Dahlquist while the band was writing songs in New York, "Humans" is an epic rock anthem with a massive, resonant chorus that reflects on how connected we all actually are. "Tongue Tied," produced by Drew Fulk, takes the band even further out of their comfort zone, as does "State of Mind," which was created with the purpose of testing new waters. "We wanted to shake up our mindset and our way of doing things," Stephen says. "For 'State of Mind,' I picked a chord I never play and that's how the song starts --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

We had the opportunity to interview Xuitcasecity at the Hard Rock Hotel San Diego; Robert included! XUITCASECITY is a Pop/Hip-Hop duo from Suitcasecity, Florida consisting of singer Mike Gomes and rapper Cam Young. We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com www.BringinitBackwards.com www.americansongwriter.com/american-songwriter-podcast-network/bringin-it-backwards-podcast/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

We had the opportunity to interview Sublime with Rome at KAABOO Del Mar Festival! Eric and Rome talk about their families growing up and how they got into music. Rome discusses how he connected with Eric which led to magic of Sublime with Rome. Billboard charting ska-punk trio Sublime With Rome recently released their cover of Post Malone's "Goodbyes". "We decided to cover Posty's song "Goodbyes" cuz it's a damn good song and it's actually one chord away from being the exact chord progression as 'Santeria'. It only felt right to drop the solo in," states Sublime With Rome singer Rome Ramirez. The band was inspired to do the "Goodbyes" cover after their recent performance with Post Malone at the Bud Light Dive Bar NYC show. Massive outlets such as The New York Times, New York Post, Billboard, Complex, People, Stereogum, Just Jared, Uproxx, Yahoo!, and Zimbio attended and posted rave reviews of the event. Nylon states, "Seeing Post Malone or Sublime With Rome alone, performing in a dive bar in the heart of New York City, is wild enough, but the pair combining forces to perform such a massive song is peak chaotic good." Blessings, Sublime With Rome's most recent full-length album, debuted at #2 on the Current Alternative Album Chart, #10 on the Current Digital Albums Chart, and #26 on the Billboard Top Albums Chart. Blessings, was produced by Rob Cavallo (Green Day, Paramore, Linkin Park), and "Wicked Heart" was co-produced by Rob Cavallo and Andrew Goldstein (Robert DeLong, Blackbear, Lauv). Listen to "Light On", "Spiderweb", "Blackout", "Wicked Heart", and most recently "Thank U", a tribute video to fans who have supported the band throughout the years, off the forthcoming release. The album is available to stream and purchase. Sublime With Rome is Rome Ramirez (vocals, guitar), Eric Wilson (bass), and Carlos Verdugo (drums). We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com www.BringinitBackwards.com American Songwriter Podcast Network: https://americansongwriter.com/american-songwriter-podcast-network/bringin-it-backwards-podcast/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

We had the honor of interviewing FIDAR with co-host Sean Ulbs of The Eiffels. "Over the course of 13 songs, FIDLAR's third album Almost Free touches on many of the tragedies and irritations of modern life: existential dread, gentrification, the inescapable sway of the super-rich and the self-involved, post-breakup telecommunication, performative wokeness, the loneliness of sobriety or the lack thereof. But through sheer force of imagination and an unchecked joie de vivre, the L.A.-based band manages to turn feeling wrong into something glorious and essential. In the age of joyless self-care, Almost Free makes a brilliant case for being less careful, for living without fear of fucking up, and possibly embracing any incurred damage as a lucky symptom of being alive. Produced by Ricky Reed (a 2017 Grammy Award nominee for Producer of the Year, known for his work with Leon Bridges, Kesha, and Halsey), Almost Free skids along with a relentless energy, a sustained rush of feeling. Even in the album's most languid moments it's still wildly kinetic, with guitars that thrash and buzz and sometimes wander into ethereal terrain, heavy and unhinged rhythms, vocals that shift from manic to fragile and back again. Despite that volatility, Almost Free came to life through a far more gradual and deliberate process than the band followed for their 2013 self-titled debut and their 2015 sophomore album Too. Mixed by eight-time Grammy-winner Manny Marroquin (Christine and the Queens, Dirty Projectors, Kanye West) and mastered by multiple Grammy nominee Chris Gehringer (Rihanna, Chvrches, St. Vincent), the album taps into the insights Zac's recently gleaned in producing for The Frights, SWMRS, and Dune Rats. At the same time, Almost Free achieves a graceful cohesion that the band largely credits to Reed's guidance in sharpening their songcraft, as well as his aligning the disparate sensibilities of FIDLAR's two lead songwriters. "Elvis is really into garage-rock and blues, and I'm usually listening to new shit," says Zac. "There's a yin and yang happening, and Ricky was able to offset everything so it's not so rock & roll and not so SoundCloud rapper—there's a balance." In the spirit of contradiction and contrast, much of Almost Free centers on FIDLAR's love-hate relationship with L.A. and its endless tensions. Partly inspired by the band getting kicked out of their house after Highland Park went trendy, the album-opening "Get Off My Rock" fires off on the thoughtless upheaval that happens when people with too much money claim a neighborhood as their own. And on "Can't You See," Almost Free portrays a particular species of L.A. creep, summed up by Zac as "a musician who's high on coke at a party and showing you his music on his iPhone, and punishing you by making you listen to it." With its slippery groove and tongue-in-cheek lyrics ("Meditate, you can get rich quick/Don't talk, just like my shit"), "Can't You See" originated with a demo that Elvis submitted on a whim. "I figured no one would be into it, since it didn't fit into what we've always done, but Ricky really responded to it," he says. "It was freeing to realize I don't have to write a certain way for it to work for FIDLAR—the songs can take all different shapes." Whereas "Can't You See" unfolds with an elegant precision, "Alcohol" sinks into FIDLAR's most supremely base instincts. Built on a serpentine riff and thunderous drumming, the track emerges as a transcendent party song with a dark undercurrent. "I was sober for a long time, and I remember sitting in a meeting listening to someone's story and thinking, 'This is just making me want to get fucked up,'" says Zac. "Eventually I started drinking again, and that song is what came out." Elsewhere on Almost Free, themes of addiction manifest in the self-effacing sing-song of "By Myself" (as in "Well, I'm cracking one open with the boys, by myself") and in the bleary and brooding stomp of "Kick." "'Kick' is really about trying to g --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

We had the honor of interviewing Angel "AROCK" Castillo at the Hard Rock Hotel San Diego! "Angel "AROCK" Castillo, a native of San Diego, CA this Mexican-American started to DJ at 12years old and always knew his life was meant for more. Now at the age of 32 years this trailblazer's company BPM Supreme has expanded rapidly, launched a mobile app and more! With the music industry focusing more energy than ever on music discovery and streaming, the BPM Supreme mobile app has arrived just in time. Imagine the largest library of downloadable audio and video built specifically for DJs in an easy to use, beautifully designed app. Sure, Castillo says that the mobile version of BPM Supreme's website has always been optimized and user-friendly, but the mobile app offers much more. "Our app is going to revolutionize the way that DJs discover music. Not only will they find everything they already love about BPM Supreme in the app, but they'll also have access to stream mixes, curated sets, and our entire library in HQ from anywhere," Castillo said. "BPM Supreme has all of the music a working DJ needs like top charts and classics. But what you'll also find is a variety of underground and indie artists, independent record labels, and a multitude of exclusive versions from local and world famous DJs alike. It's incredibly vast," Castillo said. The BPM Supreme mobile app is a giant leap forward in the ever-changing music industry landscape. In 2019 and beyond, Castillo says that BPM Supreme will continue to evolve and never away from what's on the horizon. "Look at a company like Amazon, how they started out, and what their business model looks like today," Castillo said. "Many people don't always agree when they see a risk I'm willing to take, but I think if you're not moving forward, you're moving backwards. That belief is reflected in my business plan." While you need a paid subscription to BPM Supreme to get unlimited access the app, non- members can also stream and preview audio. With premium features like curated sets and video downloading however, Castillo is confident that the app preview will convert any non-believers into loyal customers and "BPM Supreme family" immediately." American Songwriter Podcast Network: https://americansongwriter.com/american-songwriter-podcast-network/bringin-it-backwards-podcast/ CREDITS: THEME SONG: SCOTT RUSSO & DESIGN: OSCAR RODRIGUEZ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

We had the honor of interviewing William Ryan Key of Yellowcard on his solo tour at the Roxy! "Sometimes a step sideways is the best progression forward. After the breakup of Yellowcard in Spring 2017, vocalist/guitarist William Ryan Key did just that with his solo debut EP, THIRTEEN which will be released on May 25, 2018 via The Lone Tree Recordings. Both a sonic redirection and a rediscovering of his muse, THIRTEEN finds Ryan in a brand new headspace with a sound that moves away from the pop punk genre that Yellowcard helped create and into new uncharted territory that's equally introspective but not as anchored in convention. "It took a long time to find my own focus and direction after 17 years in a band," Ryan explains. "However, once I found it, the music felt like coming home. There was new freedom and creativity that I channeled into each of the songs." Acoustic and emotionally raw with a spacious and pristine hi-fi sound, Thirteen kicks off with the haunting "Old Friends", with its un-nostalgic look at past mistakes ("I'm sitting on a mountain of guilt that I finally started chipping away") and realizing that he's ready to move forward. The epic soar of "Form and Figure" combines the tender introspection of Elliott Smith with the atmospherics of Hammock as filtered through the knowing eyes of Ryan Key. The first single "Vultures" retains a hint of his past sound in Yellowcard but decidedly switches up the chorus in a way that he could never accomplished in the pop punk paradigm. "'Vultures' was the first song written and recorded for 'Thirteen'," he explains. "I feel like it is the right song to help fans across the bridge from old to new, as well as introduce people who are new to my music to the sound." Coproduced with Arun Bali of Saves the Day (who also mixed the EP) at his own studio TheLone Tree Recordings, THIRTEEN is a pivotal mark in Ryan's life. "2013 was a really difficult year for both me and the people I love," he says. "When writing, I was looking back on the journey from then until now." Another noticeable change was re-adding "William" back into his full name. Followers on Twitter are already accustomed to it (his handle is @williamryankey), but for many who know him simply as "Ryan Key," an additional two syllables will need to be added when referring to him and his solo career. "William is my first name that I carry from my maternal grandfather," he explains fondly. "He was always a huge inspiration to me so it's an honor to use his name." With a new direction in life and a whole new sort of independence as a solo artist, Ryan is feeling the freedom of expanding his personal songbook. Still appreciative of his fans now as he was with Yellowcard, Ryan is always thankful to his fans who have supported him through his musical journey. As much as this EP is a new beginning for him, he sees it also as the beginning of a new relationship with his fans. He concludes, "I can only hope that this release is the beginning of a new chapter both for myself, and for the fans that have supported me for so very long." https://www.williamryankey.com/ "Visualize all the good sh*t you want to do." — William Ryan Key HTTPS://WWW.BRINGINITBACKWARDS.COM/ HELLO@BRINGINITBACKWARDS.COM CREDITS: THEME SONG: SCOTT RUSSO & DESIGN: OSCAR RODRIGUEZ American Songwriter Podcast Network: https://americansongwriter.com/american-songwriter-podcast-network/bringin-it-backwards-podcast/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

We absolutely loved chatting with Anna Clendening at the Hard Rock Hotel San Diego! We talk tears, affairs, therapy, makeup, OCD, divorce, backpack leashes, Coke Zero Vanilla, and so much more! Come laugh and cry with us. "From the moment pop singer-songwriter Anna Clendening appeared on the scene, her music hit home with thousands—and very quickly, millions—of people. Granted, that moment came when she least expected it: One night about five years ago, at home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Clendening recorded a video of herself singing an acoustic version of "Gas Pedal," the monster hit from Bay Area rapper Sage The Gemini, and casually posted it online. It quickly went viral, so she began making more videos and eventually garnered over 2.5 million followers online. Less than a year later, she snagged her first major television appearance: competing on America's Got Talent. (Her audition also went viral: onstage, she bravely described overcoming crippling anxiety to appear that day, then wowed the judges with a chill-inducing rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" on her acoustic guitar.) Though by 2016, she realized she wanted to establish herself as an artist in her own right: "I think it's cool that people hear a song and they want to hear me sing it," she says, "But what really connects me to music is the words. I really did not want to be a cover artist. For me, that sounds like purgatory," she laughs. "You're doing music, but you're not doing your own music. So in early 2016, I started writing." In 2017, Clendening's breakout acoustic version of her single, "Boys Like You," proved she has what it takes to go toe-to-toe with pop's power players. The song—which Clendening says she conceptualized as a tongue-in-cheek, script-flipping version of Justin Bieber's "Love Yourself"—has amassed over 12+ million streams on Spotify (without any official Spotify playlist support), plus an additional 25+ million views on YouTube. Just in time for summer, Asylum Records released a sleek new version of the song June 1, 2018. Stylistically, Clendening's songs range from acoustic to alternative pop with an edge, but each is hook-heavy and relatable. Vocally, she can deliver incredibly personal material with a honeyed grace (as she does in the not-yet-released "Drowning" which she wrote about her own struggles with mental health), but can also carry a power-pop chorus with confidence. In terms of career inspiration, she cites artist-songwriters Sia and Julia Michaels. Throughout her growth as an artist over the last few years, Clendening has also continued expanding her social media presence with a YouTube channel (nearly 600,000 subscribers) and on Instagram (over 540,000 followers), where she often "field-tests" the hooks she's working on in real time to get feedback from her fans. She also regularly shares her experiences with her own mental health. "There's this huge stigma around mental illness," she says. "It's so weird to see people be like, 'Well, I don't want depression, I don't want anxiety!' This is just a normal part of my life. It shouldn't be glamorized or romanticized, but it should be normalized." Ultimately, though Clendening has spent years honing her craft and building a loyal fanbase, this is just the beginning." -Paradigm Agency https://www.annaclendening.com/ "When you really do something because you love it, everything else falls into place. " — Anna Clendening Credits: Theme Song: Scott Russo & Design: Oscar Rodriguez & Photo: Daisy Ann Tom We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com Website: https://www.bringinitbackwards.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

We had the opportunity to interview Max Frost! "It began as an experiment. Music had always been the focus of my short, 17­ year ­old, guitar ­playing life in Austin, Texas. I was obsessed with The Beatles, Hendrix, Sinatra, and Sam Cooke. The Blues were my foundation. I hung with a crowd of young musicians who shared my love of the classics. We listened to vinyl. We played in bands. My safe, little vintage ­rock world was turned on its head when underground hip­hop came knocking at my door. Rappers wanted me to sing hooks on their songs. I never in a million years thought what I did made sense in hip­hop. Eminem and Outkast had blown my mind as a kid, but it was still an alien world to me. As uncomfortable as it was, I jumped in. At first, my bluesy singing made the hooks come across as a sort of "blue-eyed soul" thing. I didn't identify with that. The hooks I loved most had been sampled from old records. They contrasted the beat in a cool way. They felt distorted and fuzzy and their juxtaposition with modern music had an accidental magic. The experiment was to see if I could convince people that my hook was a sample. I sang more laid back, more like a crooner than a hard­ attacking soul singer. I distorted my voice with guitar amps and heavy reverbs that created a huge space. The summer I turned 19 I made this slow beat and wrote a hook over it called "Nice and Slow." I used my sampled vocal approach and started sending the song around and playing it for people. The response was always, "Whoa! Where did you sample this from?" At that moment, my sound was born. By the spring, my songs were gaining some attention. "Nice and Slow" and "White Lies" charted on Hype Machine and a few months later I signed with Atlantic Records. A major-label deal marked a serious second chapter in my creative life. Songs were no longer practice swings. They counted. There were real stakes now. But with a new opportunity in front of me, I dove in head first. I now had access to collaborators and studios that enabled me to indulge in new sounds. Though I remained a producer on all the tracks and played 90 percent of the instruments, the songs were elevated thanks to the input of the brilliant writers and producers I met — guys like Benny Blanco, Nick Ruth, and Franc Tetaz. What began as an experiment in a basement lab blossomed into a larger-scale process, resulting in the songs on my EP, Intoxication. Sonically, I was inspired by artists like Amy Winehouse and Raphael Saadiq, who breathed fresh life into the classic '60s soul sound. Their vintage songs have a modern edge to the production. My process is the reverse. I try to write songs that, if played on an acoustic guitar, are very modern. But my execution of the singing, instrumentation, and production is vintage. Lyrically, the songs on Intoxication personify love, money, and death as a drug, reflecting the way my submission to imagination has consumed me like a chemical. My experiment became an abstract mind state that I want the listener to visit. The experiment of music has led me to places I never thought I'd go in this world. In 2016, I did shows in Australia, Germany, London, and all over the US. It always shocks me to speak face to face with a person who has been listening to my music from the other side of the globe for years. It reminds me that, despite how much time I spend alone in a dark studio, there's a world of people out there that you are trying to reach. If you really expose your truth to them in a song, it doesn't matter where they are. They will respond. My travels have also led me to collaborations with artists around the world. I released a track called "Ghosting" with an amazing producer named St. Albion and also wrote/produced a track for a new artist from Australia named Mike Waters. As much as I'm focused on my own music right now, I look forward to one day spending a lot of time helping other people develop their own experiments. My last year of h --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

We had the opportunity to interview Billy Raffoul at the Hard Rock Hotel San Diego! "Since delivering his darkly thrilling debut single "Driver" in 2017, Billy Raffoul has redefined the limits of the classic singer/songwriter sensibility. Though each of his songs centers on his intricate guitar work, the 24-year-old artist endlessly expands his sound with unexpected textures, mesmerizing tones, elegantly sculpted electronic beats. But at the heart of his music is Raffoul's unforgettable voice—a soulful and gravelly instrument that draws deep emotional power from every poetically crafted line. True to its title, Raffoul's sophomore EP Running Wild is a body of work unbound to any genre or style, drifting from acoustic balladry to beat-driven pop to bluesy folk with grace and ease. Like his debut EP1975, the five-track release was produced mainly by Mike Crossey (Arctic Monkeys, The 1975, Twenty One Pilots), with the two collaborators bringing a purposely free-spirited approach to the entire recording process. "Some of the songs are completely live and done in one take, with just me in front of the mic; others are stitched together in different ways with nothing live but the vocal," says the Canada-bred, Nashville-based musician. "Overall there's no real rules: as long as we get to a place where we love the song, it doesn't matter which path we take." The lead single from Running Wild, "Lovely" came to life through an equally free-flowing set of circumstances. After sketching out the track late one night in a Los Angeles hotel room, Raffoul headed to Interscope's studio at 1 a.m. and recorded a demo on an acoustic guitar. "I was pretty down when I wrote it, and it turned into a song about a missed opportunity: one of those situations where you're afraid to say what you feel, and the moment passes you by," he says. When it came time to record "Lovely" for Running Wild, Raffoul teamed up with Greg Kurstin—a seven-time Grammy Award-winner who's recently worked with Paul McCartney and Adele. The result: a gorgeously tender track built on cascading guitar tones and delicate beats, with Raffoul capturing the pain of unrequited infatuation in his achingly fragile falsetto. Another track sparked from a spontaneous burst of creativity, "Mental Health (Can't Do This By Yourself)" took shape from chords strummed on a ukulele gifted from a local luthier back home in Ontario. "I was sitting in my bathtub with the ukulele and just sort of figuring out some chords, and I ended up writing a song that turned out to be much heavier than I'd intended," says Raffoul. But while "Mental Health (Can't Do This By Yourself)" bravely confesses to certain mental struggles, Raffoul twists the mood with his bright melodies and a message of gentle encouragement for others to open up about their own troubles. "Mental health issues are something that carry a lot of meaning for me and my family, which I think is probably true of almost all families—and I wanted to talk about that for a song on this EP," says Raffoul. Elsewhere on Running Wild, Raffoul turns his heartfelt songwriting to matters of romantic love, such as on the gloriously feverish "Bad for You." Merging its dizzying beats with jagged guitar riffs, the hypnotic and high-energy track features ethereal vocal work from its co-writer, singer/songwriter Julia Michaels. "Julia and I have written so much together and I always love working with her," Raffoul notes. "She's so insanely talented and such a melodic genius, and everything always comes together really naturally." Meanwhile, on "Coffee," Raffoul offers a sweetly uptempo serenade that reflects on the addictive nature of some forms of love. To close out Running Wild, Raffoul presents the quietly devastating title track, a song written for a close cousin who suffered a brain aneurysm five years ago. "We grew up a few houses down from each other and we were more like brothers," Raffoul explains. "When the aneurysm happened he barely made it --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

We had the opportunity to interview The Shelters! The Shelters fan a fresh flame with classic fuel on their 2019 second full-length, Jupiter Sidecar [Warner Records]. Ebbing and flowing between rock 'n' roll roots, surf swagger, synth swells, and unassuming pop ambition, the Los Angeles based group—Chase Simpson [vocals, guitar], Josh Jove [guitar, vocals], and Sebastian Harris [drums]— thread it all together with catchy melodic hooks and handcrafted instrumentation. "In many ways, the record really shows we're a California band," affirms Chase. "There's a bit of the beach. There's a bit of the desert. There's a bit of the seventies L.A. rock scene still around. We're definitely old souls who have been exposed to great stuff—but we're here in 2019." "All of the sounds are old school gear played by live musicians," adds Josh. "We're a rock 'n' roll band open to combining a bunch of inspirations we love." This approach quietly cemented them as a fan and critical favorite following the release of their self-titled full-length, The Shelters, in 2016. Produced by none other than the late Tom Petty, the debut garnered widespread praise from the likes of W Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Paste who noted, "The band's sound successfully marries elements of '70s and '80s rock and roll with a modern flair." Between the album release and dropping the Really Wanted You 7-inch a year later, the boys canvased the country alongside The Head and the Heart, Royal Blood, The Killers, Gary Clark Jr., Band Of Horses, BRONCHO, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Mudcrutch and more logging over hundreds of shows in two years. Meanwhile, the single "Rebel Heart" caught fire, racking up close to 14 million total streams. Not to mention, actress Juno Temple starred in the accompanying 2017 visual for "Gold." While The Shelters have found a way to triumph again in the studio, they faced their biggest challenge in the wake of Petty's tragic passing. For the first time, they found themselves in the studio without the producer who in many ways was the musical and spiritual compass for the band. Petty was even the initial catalyst for their union as a band, encouraging them to work hard at songwriting and offering them time in his home studio to hone their craft. Now with Petty gone, The Shelters returned to his home studio Shoreline Recorders in Malibu to mourn the loss of their friend and mentor; and in the process learned to rely on one another like never before. "When he was here, Tommy took the stance like Mr. Miyagi or Yoda," continued Josh. "He knew we had it in us. We didn't realize it until we got in there without him though." "Starting was the hardest part," admits Chase. "We'd been on the road for two years and hadn't been writing songs. Tommy would take our heads out of the fish bowl and get us back on track. So, Josh and I leaned on each other." "We definitely have something to prove," Chase continues. "Obviously, we want to make Tommy proud. Even more so, we want to step out of his shadow and come into our own. We knew we had to do something exciting and different to carry on being The Shelters." Chase and Josh spent over a year writing and recording at Shoreline. Each personally employed no less than twelve instruments, including tambura, analog synths, and more. As Chase honed his production acumen on Pro Tools, Josh explored his guitar under the influence of everything from Duane Eddy, Les Paul and Merle Travis, to Spirit, Television and The Stone Roses. With the framework in place, they holed up in Sunset Sound with producer Joe Chiccarelli [The White Stripes, The Strokes, Morrissey] in order to track Jupiter Sidecar. Rounding out the sound, Ken Andrews [Paramore, Nine Inch Nails] mixed the album and GRAMMY® Award-winning engineer Emily Lazar [Beck, The Killers] handled mastering at the Lodge. "We had worked hard in the studio prior to meeting Joe and actually kept about 75 percent of the original demos intact," says Josh. "We had the --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/