The High Divers – Wild With You
From the album “Riverlust”
Check them out 3/11/16 @New Brookland Tavern – 8:00 p.m
Q: Tell me what’s it been like recently playing, traveling, and being apart of a band in general. What are your methods of coming up with new material and what’s your favorite thing to do beside play music together, etc.
The road has been a lot of fun, and put a lot of things in perspective for each of us. You don’t make a ton of money, but you meet a lot of nice people who go out of their way to help you, see some beautiful sights, and you live so much in those moments out on the road, that you come back and it seems you’ve been gone for 6 months. Touring takes a lot of planning, and a lot of getting to know what your body needs so that you don’t pull up to a show as a zombie. I honestly don’t know how people used to party as hard as they did, then travel for as long as they did. Cocaine and various amphetamines, I guess.
After hours and hours in the van, you can lose your mind if you don’t find simple things to keep you occupied. We get to the point a lot of times where we can’t even listen to music. We mostly burn through podcasts. One of my favorites is “This American Life”, with Ira Glass. It’s been amazingly entertaining, and I don’t know that I could complete a long trip without it nowadays. Also, before each show we try to get a good band huddle going and get pumped for the show. 50 jumping jacks are mandatory. Haha. We’re always excited to play, but sometimes we have to remind ourselves to look excited, too.
I come up with material by just writing every day, no matter what. It’s like showing up to a job, and most days you get just a little more than nothing. Then, some days you write a song in 10 minutes, and it makes you smile for a week. It’s the daily practice though; you can’t help but get things done. Recording your ideas is essential for me, too. I have to hear things back to be able to make any sense of what a song could be. It’s like panning for gold, you mostly get just dirt, at first, but every now and then you see something shiny. The more you do it, the quicker you sift through the dirt.
Being in a band is very rewarding, powerful, and sometimes very hard. To go to strange places with 3 people you know have your back as soon as you get on stage is a beautiful thing. When we’re on, I’m floating, invincible, life is sort of like that Dali painting “The Persistence of Memory”, there aren’t any rough edges, and things like time just seem to melt. The hard part is being in such close quarters for huge stretches of time, and remembering to be decent to each other. Everyone knows they are loved, but it’s just like a family, you have to have time on your own every once in a while or you’ll go nuts.
Q: Decide as a group what were your top 3 favorite bands in Middle School!
Beck, Green Day, The Beatles, Rise Against
Q: If you were super heroes who would be who and why?
Kevin would be Wolverine because he gets to see the world, is a badass, and can’t die.
Luke most identifies with Superman because of his duality, and because it would be cool to fly/have X-Ray vision.
Mary Alice would be wonder woman fighting for justice, love, peace and gender equality.
Julius would be The Flash because being fast would be a well-rounded super power, and he couldn’t get hit in a fight.
Q: What’s your favorite TV series to watch together?
We’ve been crushing Malcolm In The Middle at an alarming rate.
Q: What are your recent influences?
The Byrds, MMJ, John Prine
Q: Do you believe that you have to be sad to make music and if not what inspires you to make music on a deeper level?
Part of me has always felt the answer to that is yes, but I don’t think that’s true. I think music can be cathartic, but I don’t think it’s necessary to have to draw from past experiences, and I don’t think you need to be miserable to write great songs. If you’re a good enough songwriter, I think you should be able to write about anything, and be pretty convincing.
I haven’t been very successful in writing songs when I’m particularly pissed off, happy, or sad. I’ve found it’s easier to tap into how I was feeling at a point in time much later, sometimes years later. It’s like writing an angry letter, sometimes you read it the next day and think, that was out of line.
Q: What genre would you consider The High Divers or if you could make a new genre name for yourselves what would you call it?
Lucid Dream Rock
Q: Who is the funniest person in the band and who is the craziest?
Julius is both the funniest and craziest, usually in tandem
THE HIGH DIVERS
Luke Mitchell – Guitar, Vocals
Mary Alice Connor – Keys, Vocals
Kevin Early-Bass, Backing Vocals
Julius DeAngelis – Drums
