An Interview With June [08/2007]

On the eve of the release of Make It Blur, June’s second album, I got to talk to their drummer, Mark Sutor, about the new songs, touring, and life in general for this band about to break big.

pixie: How does it feel waiting for the new album to come out?

Mark: We’re just really anxious. We wanted to make sure we wrote the album that we wanted - exactly - so we took a lot of time off to work on it. With the first album, we were really excited to have our first full-length. So we went in and recorded the only eleven songs that we had, and put them all on the album. This time around, we wanted to make sure to present the world with the exact album that we wanted to create. So we took a lot of time on it.

It kind of sucks… even when you’re done with the record, you get to hear it and have a CD, you still have to wait for the rest of the world to hear it. But now that day is coming on Tuesday, so… we’re anxious, but it feels great.

pixie: Do you have any special rituals that you do before a release? “If we do this, we’re going to have the number one album!,” that sort of thing?

Mark: We always wanted to make sure that people could communicate with us. When I was younger and getting into bands, I always thought that would be the coolest thing ever, if I could get in touch with a band and they would actually get back to me… so all of our IM names and everything is on our MySpace and Web site and we leave them on all the time so people can contact us. Anyway, there’s not one real ritual, we all have our own little rituals before shows, but besides that… talking to us brings in a ton of people every day and it’s really cool to get to talk to your fans and get their reaction to the music and what they’re thinking.

pixie: So, what is your pre-show ritual?

Mark: I like to about 45 mins. Before I set up, sit with a practice pad by myself, put in my headphones in - the ones that I listen to when I play live because they kind of block everything out. And then I’ll play the new Justin Timberlake record. And I will drum along to that for 40, 45 minutes and be fully prepared to play.

pixie: You possibly made yourself the world’s biggest rock star with that comment… or not at all. I’m really not sure. So, this is your second album with Victory - has anything changed, especially considering the success of the first?

Mark: It’s pretty much business as usual. Tony’s outlook an writing and recording is pretty cool because he just says, ‘hey, give us your effort and we’re going to sell it.’ It’s never a situation where he says ‘I’m not happy with these demos, go back in and re-record…’ he would ask us how things were going, we’d say we needed a bit more time, and he would be okay with that. And when we finally had everything done, we delivered it to him and he was like, ‘alright, Let’s rock and roll.’ I’d say it’s pretty much the same as the first time.

pixie: The CD is great, by the way. I just got a copy yesterday and have listened to it a couple of times -it’s really catchy.

Mark: Well, thank you very much. Did you like the direction we took? I’ve been seeing a lot of comments and I agree that the first record didn’t really have a sound that you could pin us down, and we went in more of a “pop” direction with this one.

pixie: It is poppier, but there’s nothing wrong with that because they’re good songs and the lyrics are amazing… it’s a very coherent album.

Mark: Thank you very much.

pixie: So how did you come up with the name Make It Blur and the blurred design for the CD? What was the inspiration for that?

Mark: I thought it would be a cool way to talk about this record is in terms of growth. I think that’s the biggest thing we’ve done, being in a touring band and growing from little high school venues… so Make it Blur kind of refers to the things that you do… when you go back and do them again… because you want to make it your career or make a relationship last longer. When you do it over again, the paths become clearer: this was the right thing, we should do this, and we need to take this out of our lives… we applied this to the record. Make It Blur was just kind of a unique way of saying that.

pixie: In terms of design, it’s very clean, it stands out. It’s not a busy album, and is striking in its simplicity….

Mark: I agree. When we were looking over the artwork, we all liked how simple and sleek it looked. The blue and the white, with not much going on. We liked that a lot.

pixie: Your album was produced by Marc McLusky, who also produced the Powerspace album - do you feel any competition with them? Are you friends?

Mark: No, it’s two different situations. We’re on different labels. We met those guys in the studio with Mark and got to hear some of their stuff, which was really good. I think when we were younger, we looked more at the competition side of things, because we were worried and wanted to come out on top. But now it’s more of a long-haul. A lot of people look at first week sales and try to decide a band’s success based on that, but we’re kind of hoping this album will just keep on growing. If Powerspace does it too, or they get bigger than us, hey - maybe they’ll take us out on a tour.

pixie: Now that’s a good attitude…. Honestly, the way things work, it’s not like the old days when you put out an album and the first week sales really mattered. You have more music community, online, it’s a totally different world.

Mark: I think we looked at sales a little too much the first time around and this time around, we want to see how many people come to our shows, and hopefully see that number grow. That’s how we’re going to gauge success.

pixie: And you guys tour pretty much constantly - how do you even hold down normal lives… what IS normal for you guys?

Mark: It’s rough. I will tell you that my girlfriend hates me a little more every time I leave… so I don’t know if… it’s kind of weird. A lot of us have younger siblings. I have a thirteen-year-old and a sixteen-year-old sister, and it’s weird not being around home and seeing them grow up. But this is the paths we chose, so we all know we have to do it. It’s been weird recently because we’ve been home a lot more than usual - we just had a two-week break between tours when usually, we are home for two days then out for another six weeks.

pixie: When two weeks at home is a ‘long time…’ that’s intense. I don’t know how you guys do it. I respect you, anybody who can do that. How big is the van, anyway?

Mark: It’s a 15-seater. On the last tour, we had seven guys with us. So we’d have two guys that would share a bench, three guys would get their own benches, and whoever was shotgun and driver. You get used to it and learn how to make yourself comfortable… but when you get home and get that first night of sleep in your own bed? You kind of realize how uncomfortable benches and floors or hotel rooms and splitting all that space together really is.

pixie: How do you even decide who gets their own seat?

Mark: It’s actually a rule you have to abide by - either you call it, or if you’re having a day where people are feeling sympathetic, you just give it to the person who didn’t have it the day before.

pixie: no punch-outs or brutal brawls?

Mark: No, those only come after drives that are ten hours or longer. That’s when the fights and the brawls and the wrestling matches all come.

pixie: Does the winner or the loser get the bench after the match? Is it like, “I broke your back, you can have the bench,” or “I defeated you, you’re going in the trunk?”

Mark: Yep, that would be it. The winner definitely gets the bench.

pixie: So you have a tour scheduled through the beginning of September, then what?

Mark: For August and September, we’re touring with The Graduate and The Higher, and then My American Heart is going to be on I think the last couple of weeks of that… so that should be awesome. And then, so far, we are booked for the Bayside’s headlining tour that runs from the end of October all the way to the beginning of December. We’re working out what is going to happen in between.

pixie: Oh, that’s all? That’s all you have? Your girlfriend is going to chase you around with a rolling pin.

Mark: Yes, she is.

pixie: So, I’m asking you your own question, from inside your CD: If you could, would you?

Mark: Yeah! YES!

pixie: I like the way that phrase is just under the CD… why did you choose that one? It really makes you pause.

Mark: We thought it was a strong line, it’s part of track 9, “Swallowed” and that was a song that AJ and Tim primarily wrote together. I think I know exactly what it’s talking about. If you hear the questions that are being asked in that song, you’ll understand… but we thought it was a really strong, simple line. We were talking to the graphics guy at Victory, we thought because there’s so much presence of that line in the song, we just put it there.

pixie: The way it’s there, tiny and subtle — it’s strong. I think your fans will get that tattooed on their backs.

Mark: That would be awesome! So how does the disc look? We’ve been on the raod - I haven’t really seen it because we’ve been on the road.

pixie: Very clean, really nice… the art is so well done, and you all look really attractive in your photos. Girls are going to love that. You’re the next Fall Out Boy or something.

Mark: That’d be great! Then I’ll get a modeling contract and my life will be set.

pixie: You have to get the clothing company and the bar first. There are steps!

So, do you have anything to say to people who maybe hasn’t heard you before?

Mark: First off, thank you for checking out our band and if you listen to this CD in particular, you will find twelve songs with their own identity. We didn’t half- ass anything, it’s exactly what we wanted to say and do. So hopefully, you will love the songs as much as we do.

June’s new album, Make It Blur, is in stores Tuesday, August 7th, and the band will be touring the US extensively this summer and autumn.

RSS feed

Comments »

Trackback responses to this post