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Cartel
January 9, 2012 | Drew Bartlett
Last fall we had the opportunity to speak with Will from Cartel about their self-produced EP, upcoming tours, former members leaving, the future, and much more. We hope you enjoy reading this interview as much as we enjoyed conducting it.
AltRockLive: How has the fan response to "Up In Stereo" been so far?
Will: It's been great! I think just from our twitter reaction, which is just the most direct thing we can read and facebook comments and what not. It's been really well received which is nice when we took such a drastically different approach to doing this. So it's cool, it feels good.
AltRockLive: Where did the name "Up In Stereo" come from?
Will: It came from the title of one of the tracks on the record. We just felt like that song was most indicative of our current state. It kind of talks about being a band and doing music and that sort of thing so we wanted that to be a title, plus we thought it was cool haha! It worked.
AltRockLive: What was your inspiration for writing this?
Will: Ahh, I mean I think it was just about time. We like recording music, we like putting out new stuff out there and you know it had been so long since "Cycles", we just felt like it takes too long to make a record, like the cycles are far too long, no pun intended, it needs to be a situation where bands can get music out to their fans more often and more frequently. I think that with taking the EP approach we wanted to be able to put music out more often. So really the inspiration was just building up frustration of having these songs and having nothing to do with them and nobody really to achieve what we wanted to out of the release and the music and the marketing and everything so we figured the best way to do that was to do it ourselves. That was basically the inspiration behind it. It was having a project to start and we had some songs laying around too so it's not like we had to start from scratch. It was just a very natural thing to happen and now we'll be able to take advantage of putting things out more often.
AltRockLive: How was the writing and producing experience different from being with a record label?
Will: Well, you don't have to talk to anybody before you do anything. It's basically just us and management going through the songs and deciding what the most effective ways of doing it on record would be. So, just not having that extra person to deal with, it's not that sometimes it isn't appropriate and called for, it's just one less thing to worry about. Liberating is probably the best way to describe it. We felt like we were in a free, creative environment to be able to do what we do and be un-interrupted. I think it was just really natural flow to things with us because we didn't have to hear some others dudes thoughts on the record who has no artistic involvement or liability as well. When it's your music your dealing with and you know that no one else is there to tamper with it or even on the other end to be able to help it, we just felt like we could be ourselves and do our thing and I think it really shows.
AltRockLive: Which do you prefer, writing yourself or with the label?
Will: Definitely writing by ourselves. I think we get awkwardly lumped into the new regime and the new way of doing things. When we started with our earlier stuff, they didn't hear the record until it was done. They were just there to support and market it and put it out the best way possible and that was the way we had come to understand it would work and when we did it with Epic, even on the self-titled, most of the label involvement was obviously dealing with the "band in the bubble stuff". Otherwise musically they wanted to hear more and more and we just kind of widdled down which songs would really work. So they weren't really there to enter the process that much, they were just always around which wasn't bad, it just took longer that's all. It's just with the way the economy is and music not making as much money as before, the labels just have to be very vigilante of what they put out. They feel that either you're not good enough to write your own quality music or that you can, but it can be better with all these song writers and producers helping you out. That's just not the school we came from. We don't need help and we've never had to have help writing. I feel like we made the best decision we could've made by going with the self-released model.
AltRockLive: How would you say all of this affected the writing process for you guys?
Will: Ahh, I mean we really weren't focused on the writing process as much. It sounds crazy. We've written a bunch of songs together as a band and this is our fifth go-round for writing material and we felt like that wasn't a process we had to worry about because we always felt that when we left the practice space for the studio to record it on all the records that we had, pretty much the song was done but we just had to get in the studio before we could finish it. So, we weren't really concerned with that at all. The writing process remained unchanged for all of that. We just kind of melted the two processes of pre-production and writing all-in-one.
AltRockLive: Former member Jeff Lett left the band. Did this have any affect on the writing?
Will: Yeah of course. We were a five piece and now we're a four piece so there's one less guitar part that we could be able to stick in there and help out with things. Bringing it down to two guitars was kind of hard. We had a couple growing pains trying to figure out who's playing what now that there's not that third guitar part and I'd play a lot the rhythms anyways and Nick had played a lot of the auxiliary rhythms which helped the whole layering process. Now we were like, Joseph and I are going to have to split that sonic range of parts in between our parts and turn three into two basically. We just kind of had to figure that out which didn't take very long. By the second or third song we already figured out how we were going to make that work. He didn't really affect it in a negative way, it was just more so figuring out what we had to make up for and what we were playing.
AltRockLive: In the future, do you plan on doing more self-produced albums?
Will: Umm, we're not against going back to the label, but obviously because we can self-release and do it ourselves it's been so much easier. It's been the best it's ever been in our band so we're kind of hesitant to go back with the label unless it's under certain conditions. So if we're already self-producing we only really need them for distribution. I would say that we're probably going to self-produce everything in the future, yeah. It's just such an easy process and we know our music better than anybody.
AltRockLive: You're playing a few shows in the US and then going to Australia, what's that going to be like for you?
Will: It's going to be a super mix of shows because we play a couple of college shows before we go to Australia. College shows are totally different than your standard club show just because of the nature of things. You're in a locker-room typically for a backstage, you're playing in a gym with a really big stage to play on. That will feel weird and then immediately going to Australia to play a bunch of club shows. We love going overseas because the point where you feel the luckiest is when I'll be sitting in Melbourne having a cup of coffee and saying to myself "the only reason I'm here is because I'm in a band and play music". That's pretty awesome right there regardless of whatever the success of the band is. If you can travel and see places you'd never see otherwise, it changes you for the better. It's definitely nice.
AltRockLive: Any last words for the fans?
Will: Yeah man, our fans our incredible. I know everybody says that but being a self-release model now and everybody knows that in our fan base. They are even more important to us now because there's no disconnect. Before hand it's like "oh the label needs to be able reach out to fans and the label needs to be able to put things out". So, for us to be able to communicate directly with them and to know that basically all communication is coming directly from us, I feel that connection only going to get stronger and I feel like it already has gotten stronger in the small amount of time that we've been doing the self-release thing so far. It's much more important when you go to the show and you know that this person bought the record and there's no label that this person is contributing their money to, its basically that they're helping me pay my house bill. It's really great, it kind of feels like you're homeless sometimes and begging for money, haha, but our fan-base is very vigilante in their dedication towards us. Even having a couple-hundred people coming out to our shows is remarkable. I really appreciate all the fans sticking around and helping us out and enjoying the music and continuing to.
Last fall we had the opportunity to speak with Will from Cartel about their self-produced EP, upcoming tours, former members leaving, the future, and much more. We hope you enjoy reading this interview as much as we enjoyed conducting it.
AltRockLive: How has the fan response to "Up In Stereo" been so far?
Will: It's been great! I think just from our twitter reaction, which is just the most direct thing we can read and facebook comments and what not. It's been really well received which is nice when we took such a drastically different approach to doing this. So it's cool, it feels good.
AltRockLive: Where did the name "Up In Stereo" come from?
Will: It came from the title of one of the tracks on the record. We just felt like that song was most indicative of our current state. It kind of talks about being a band and doing music and that sort of thing so we wanted that to be a title, plus we thought it was cool haha! It worked.
AltRockLive: What was your inspiration for writing this?
Will: Ahh, I mean I think it was just about time. We like recording music, we like putting out new stuff out there and you know it had been so long since "Cycles", we just felt like it takes too long to make a record, like the cycles are far too long, no pun intended, it needs to be a situation where bands can get music out to their fans more often and more frequently. I think that with taking the EP approach we wanted to be able to put music out more often. So really the inspiration was just building up frustration of having these songs and having nothing to do with them and nobody really to achieve what we wanted to out of the release and the music and the marketing and everything so we figured the best way to do that was to do it ourselves. That was basically the inspiration behind it. It was having a project to start and we had some songs laying around too so it's not like we had to start from scratch. It was just a very natural thing to happen and now we'll be able to take advantage of putting things out more often.
AltRockLive: How was the writing and producing experience different from being with a record label?
Will: Well, you don't have to talk to anybody before you do anything. It's basically just us and management going through the songs and deciding what the most effective ways of doing it on record would be. So, just not having that extra person to deal with, it's not that sometimes it isn't appropriate and called for, it's just one less thing to worry about. Liberating is probably the best way to describe it. We felt like we were in a free, creative environment to be able to do what we do and be un-interrupted. I think it was just really natural flow to things with us because we didn't have to hear some others dudes thoughts on the record who has no artistic involvement or liability as well. When it's your music your dealing with and you know that no one else is there to tamper with it or even on the other end to be able to help it, we just felt like we could be ourselves and do our thing and I think it really shows.
AltRockLive: Which do you prefer, writing yourself or with the label?
Will: Definitely writing by ourselves. I think we get awkwardly lumped into the new regime and the new way of doing things. When we started with our earlier stuff, they didn't hear the record until it was done. They were just there to support and market it and put it out the best way possible and that was the way we had come to understand it would work and when we did it with Epic, even on the self-titled, most of the label involvement was obviously dealing with the "band in the bubble stuff". Otherwise musically they wanted to hear more and more and we just kind of widdled down which songs would really work. So they weren't really there to enter the process that much, they were just always around which wasn't bad, it just took longer that's all. It's just with the way the economy is and music not making as much money as before, the labels just have to be very vigilante of what they put out. They feel that either you're not good enough to write your own quality music or that you can, but it can be better with all these song writers and producers helping you out. That's just not the school we came from. We don't need help and we've never had to have help writing. I feel like we made the best decision we could've made by going with the self-released model.
AltRockLive: How would you say all of this affected the writing process for you guys?
Will: Ahh, I mean we really weren't focused on the writing process as much. It sounds crazy. We've written a bunch of songs together as a band and this is our fifth go-round for writing material and we felt like that wasn't a process we had to worry about because we always felt that when we left the practice space for the studio to record it on all the records that we had, pretty much the song was done but we just had to get in the studio before we could finish it. So, we weren't really concerned with that at all. The writing process remained unchanged for all of that. We just kind of melted the two processes of pre-production and writing all-in-one.
AltRockLive: Former member Jeff Lett left the band. Did this have any affect on the writing?
Will: Yeah of course. We were a five piece and now we're a four piece so there's one less guitar part that we could be able to stick in there and help out with things. Bringing it down to two guitars was kind of hard. We had a couple growing pains trying to figure out who's playing what now that there's not that third guitar part and I'd play a lot the rhythms anyways and Nick had played a lot of the auxiliary rhythms which helped the whole layering process. Now we were like, Joseph and I are going to have to split that sonic range of parts in between our parts and turn three into two basically. We just kind of had to figure that out which didn't take very long. By the second or third song we already figured out how we were going to make that work. He didn't really affect it in a negative way, it was just more so figuring out what we had to make up for and what we were playing.
AltRockLive: In the future, do you plan on doing more self-produced albums?
Will: Umm, we're not against going back to the label, but obviously because we can self-release and do it ourselves it's been so much easier. It's been the best it's ever been in our band so we're kind of hesitant to go back with the label unless it's under certain conditions. So if we're already self-producing we only really need them for distribution. I would say that we're probably going to self-produce everything in the future, yeah. It's just such an easy process and we know our music better than anybody.
AltRockLive: You're playing a few shows in the US and then going to Australia, what's that going to be like for you?
Will: It's going to be a super mix of shows because we play a couple of college shows before we go to Australia. College shows are totally different than your standard club show just because of the nature of things. You're in a locker-room typically for a backstage, you're playing in a gym with a really big stage to play on. That will feel weird and then immediately going to Australia to play a bunch of club shows. We love going overseas because the point where you feel the luckiest is when I'll be sitting in Melbourne having a cup of coffee and saying to myself "the only reason I'm here is because I'm in a band and play music". That's pretty awesome right there regardless of whatever the success of the band is. If you can travel and see places you'd never see otherwise, it changes you for the better. It's definitely nice.
AltRockLive: Any last words for the fans?
Will: Yeah man, our fans our incredible. I know everybody says that but being a self-release model now and everybody knows that in our fan base. They are even more important to us now because there's no disconnect. Before hand it's like "oh the label needs to be able reach out to fans and the label needs to be able to put things out". So, for us to be able to communicate directly with them and to know that basically all communication is coming directly from us, I feel that connection only going to get stronger and I feel like it already has gotten stronger in the small amount of time that we've been doing the self-release thing so far. It's much more important when you go to the show and you know that this person bought the record and there's no label that this person is contributing their money to, its basically that they're helping me pay my house bill. It's really great, it kind of feels like you're homeless sometimes and begging for money, haha, but our fan-base is very vigilante in their dedication towards us. Even having a couple-hundred people coming out to our shows is remarkable. I really appreciate all the fans sticking around and helping us out and enjoying the music and continuing to.