Tuesday, 17 March 2015

interview: the score

What is up blogosphere?! So, remember that post on the Abercrombie and Fitch-like dudes of The Score? (I remember. Red Bull is bad for you kids!). Well, they agreed to an interview of sorts and after a few mishaps, here it is! Enjoy!

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- What inspired the band name? We struggled for weeks trying to find  the "perfect" band name and our first show was coming up fast, so we really needed one ASAP. We were at Edan's apartment skimming through GQ and a section caught our attention titled "The Score." It had a good ring to it, and we liked the musical reference. So it stuck.

- How did you two meet and what pushed you to form The Score?
We met about 4 years ago through a mutual friend at Universal Motown Records. We were both playing the pop cuts game, writing and producing songs for other pop artists. We hit it off at the first session and started working more and more and within a year we landed Kat Graham's second single on A&M/Octone. Over time we noticed a lot of the songs we were writing were less pop and more "band" sounding, and while A&Rs weren't interested in that type of music at the time, we still felt the music should get out there. So we started a band.


- What was the turning point in your lives when you realized that music was what you wanted to do?I think it was winning the battle of the bands in high school. -Edan"Probably when I wrote and released a couple songs my sophomore year in college. One of my friends was driving around and my song popped up on her friend's iPod. She called me in the car and I was kind of amazed that some kid I didn't know was playing my music because they liked it”. - Eddie
- What was the inspiration for 'Oh My Love'?


"Oh My Love" was the first song we wrote when we moved to LA in October. The new scenery definitely mixed things up and brought a new sound out of us. And the whole journey of moving for this dream inspired us to write an uplifting song, sorta to build confidence in ourselves and what we were doing. Fun fact: we wrote, produced and recorded that entire song by ourselves in Edan's apartment!
- Are the religious undertones in the song on purpose?"When I was writing the lyrics I wasn't thinking religiously as much as about being in love and celebrating that. But the interpretation is subjective to the listener and that's the beautiful thing about songwriting"-Eddie 

- Who are your vocal influences (Eddie)?"My vocal influences are all over the place. I grew up on classic rock and motown so Paul McCartney, Elton John, Stevie Wonder were big influences on me growing up. Paul McCartney really resonated with me because he could literally do everything..he could be this amazing hard rock singer like in "Oh Darling" and then sing a song like "Yesterday". Modern influences vocally would probably be Ryan Tedder and James Morrison...those guys are just insane vocally and really push modern male pop/rock singing to a new level. -Eddie 

Eddie


- Which musicians/bands influence you?"We're influenced from everything. Classic rock and motown were big influences on me. Ryan Tedder and the way he writes is also a big influence on both of us. I also listen to a lot of British rock and country believe it or not haha. The more influences you have the better songwriter I think it makes you". -Eddie

 I was a jazz dude growing up, listening to musicians like Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter, pianists like bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau. Funk soul fusion groups like Weather Report, Soulive, Medeski Martin and Wood, John Scofield. That stuff is just in my DNA at this point. Today I listen to a lot of alt. radio and that's helped push our sound in a more alternative direction. -Edan

Edan


- Who writes the songs?"We both write. Eddie is more of a traditional songwriter and Edan more a traditional producer. Every song is different though".
- How would you describe 2014 in terms of your growth musically and what are your hopes for 2015?We've grown a lot in the past year, especially in the last couple of months. Our ability to churn out great records quickly has hit a peak, and we adjusted our sound and rebranded across the board. Oh My Love opened a lot of doors for us-- we did a bunch of cowrites in NYC last week including American Authors' guitarist James Shelley , and we have a bunch more cool cowrites lined up for this year. We're releasing a second single very soon.
- Who would you love to open for/tour with?


There are so many bands we'd love to open for/tour with. One Republic, Walk the Moon, The 1975 to name a few. We really admire them and they're in the same world as us musically-- would make for an awesome show.
- Who would you love to collaborate with?

Ryan Tedder
Ryan Tedder obviously because we're both heavily influenced from him. Tim Pagnotta is a producer we really admire. The Black Keys guys would be amazing to work with. And Justin Timberlake because he's the man???

- You hit shuffle on you iPods, what are the first three songs to play?


"hmmm probably "Take Me to Church" buy Hozier, "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac, and "Cop Car" by Keith Urban -Eddie


Shut Up and Dance by Walk the Moon, Spanish Joint by D'angelo, Stop This Train by John Mayer -Edan
- What book did you read last?

Image result for the alchemist

"haha I need to read more...probably "The Alchemist" which I re-read a couple months ago".-EddieI don't read. Is that bad?? Haha -Edan
- Any fun facts about you two?"I used to play football and actually have an MBA in Finance".-Eddie 

When I was in high school, I assembled a team of kids from around the world to create a Star Wars video game. The game got so popular that LucasArts called my house to accuse me of copyright infringement!! Not even kidding haha. -Edan
- Do you have offers from any labels yet?We're in talks with a lot of majors right now. Oh My Love has gotten an amazing response, so we're psyched.



- Any advice for indie acts waiting for a break?"I don't think you can "wait" for a break. Edan and I have been writing and working on music almost every night for the past 3 years together trying to hone our craft and continuing to get better. I would say the biggest thing we are still learning is that trying to make it as a band is very similar to starting a small business. It's more than just the music. It's building a team of core people, marketing your brand, developing your sound/brand, and that's on top of writing/producing really strong songs. It's everything you don't learn in music school or school in general for that matter. -Eddie

"Ditto, and I'd also say embrace the Do-It-Yourself mentality. Produce and record your own music, pitch your own music, build your own website, create your own videos. If you don't know how to do it, learn. It's important to build a team but until you find those truly dedicated people, you're the only one that will understand your vision and have the passion to make it happen quickly. Once people see what you can achieve on your own, they'll be more willing to help." -Edan

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....aaaand, that's it for now! Lots of thanks to Google and the guys' Facebook pages for the pictures (no images belong to me AT ALL) and the guys themselves for even bothering with me. Their new song 'Catching Fire' is out now (listen to it in my Song of the Day tab to your right) and it is awesome (duh). I detect Icarus references!


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