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I sent My Lady Four some questions, and Francis recently took the time to answer them :)
Make sure to check out the band on
iTunes,
MySpace &
Twitter.Introduce yourselves- Who does what in the band?Brian Schwarz (Vox, Rhythm guitar, Keys), Peter Iversen (Bass), Carp (Drums), Francis (Lead Guitar)
If you could be any person (alive or dead) for a day, who would you be & why?Probably Michael Jackson, to have all the sweetest dance moves. Who wouldn't want to dance like him?
What are some of your earliest memories that made you want to get into music?Going to my first big concert at the Target Center in Minneapolis to see Eminem, Limp Bizkit, and Papa Roach really just gave me chills. I almost felt like I was on stage with them like apart of the show (don't ask why) but ever since then, I've always wanted to write music, be on stage and be apart of such a cool experience.
What kind of music did you listen to growing up? I listened to a lot of hard rock and pop. Growing up, my mother influenced my pop sensibilities of music being that she was always listening to the top 40 stations. My rock side came from pops and he always had a Metallica, Guns 'n' Roses, or Nirvanatape playing in the car and at home. After that, I've really reached out to anything from Michael Jackson to many Indie artists.
When/how did you know you wanted to be in a band? By the age of 12 I persuaded my dad to buy me an electric guitar so I could start a band with anyone who had an instrument. Once I got the guitar I was jamming with everyone who had instruments in school and started writing music right away.
How did you guys get together to form this band? Believe it or not, the whole band came together through craigslist ads. Brian had tried out many people and went through quite a few members until we came to us!
Who named the band? How’d you come up with that name? Brian named the band, so I'll let him take it away.... "It seems like we make up a new story every time we get asked this question... which happens a lot.. sometimes I have trouble remembering how it really happened.. :) If anyone really wants to know, you'll have to ask me in person and if i'm feeling up to it, I will tell you all about it!"
Describe your Stickam sessions: We do a weekly chat on a popular webcam site called Stickam. We do them at 6pm CST every Tuesday. Our video chat is also featured on the front page of Stickam at that time every Tuesday, so it's easy to find us!
What’s your favorite part about being in this band? Being a completely DIY band is something that couldn't make me happier about being in this band. My favorite part would probably be that and it just helps us to appreciate our own hard work, work our hardest, and makes us ten times more excited every step we take.
Is it hard having five people in the band? Well we now have four people in the band. We have parted ways with former guitarist Brandon Rimmey. We still love him and are still the best of friends. Getting back to the question, five people was not hard, more people for us usually means more ideas. But being a four person band is not hard either, we can pair up for stickam sessions which works out nice as well as pair up for numerous other activities. When we're all together on the road, we're all constantly working together, so the sky is the limit when it comes to our work, ideas, and productivity.
For those who haven’t heard it yet, how would you describe your sound? Alternative College Rock.
Do people ever compare you to other bands? Yes, those three would be Panic At The Disco, Taking Back Sunday, and Kings Of Leon.
You guys definitely have some interesting song titles. How’d you come up with those?I'll let
Brian take this one again..... "I don't even really know. I just come up with titles that fit the mood and the idea of a song. :)"
There are a few songs on the record with female vocals. (At The Gate & Even Apologies Have Enemies) Who’s that singer? A friend of ours, Liz Akhavan, she's amazing and you can find her solo music
here.
What do you consider your biggest accomplishment so far as a band?Probably sustaining ourselves in every aspect, alwaysbeing ourselves, and makingall the friends we've made on and off the road is our biggest accomplishment to me.
Do you guys have any shows coming up? Yes, they are Jan. 16th at The Garage in Burnsville, MN w/ Take Cover, Jamestown Story, Lights Out Dancing, Dustin Phillips, and An Honest Lie. The next show is Feb 4th at The Varsity Theater in Minneapolis, MN where we'll be playing a Red Hot PartyBenifit Concert for Children's Heartlink. The next show is April 16th at Viterbo University in La Crosse, WI w/ See The World.
How would you describe your stage presence? With high volumes of energy in the set opener and through out the set, we feel the musicin our bodies.We bring the zest and like to refresh the set with soft numbers like "At The Gate" and we like to end the set with some Zing in "Sometimes The Bear Eats You".
Favorite song to play live? And Suddenly I'm Somebody, and that song is our set opener most of the time so it's like a premature climax for me.
Best/craziest tour story? On our last tour,
Peter wanted to work on some of his harmonies and vocals. It is was a rainy night in Leavenworth, KS. We were staying down the street from Leavenworth Prison. Peter takes a walk and proceeds to sing while walking onto a Buffalo field next to the prison. There's two possible fatal outcomes he could have experienced and one being that one of the (non-tame) buffalo take him out or get picked off by a Prison watch tower sniper who could have thought that he was an escapee. Instead, in the blink of an eye he was surrounded by five squad cars with 6 officers shouting at him and half of them pointing guns at him. The officers thought Peter might have been an escapee. Peter couldn'thear them that well while they were saying "don't step any closer!". Well they eventually let Peter approach them and soon enough they had him in handcuffs, ran his license and let him free being that he wasn't wanted in KS or MN. I am just glad Peter made it back alive!
Do you guys go to concerts a lot? If so, who would you like to see/who have you seen recently? When we're home, yes but not really on the road, as weird as that may sound. Recently we've gone to a lot of local shows such as Quietdrive's annual holiday show, a few hardcore shows, and a few funk shows by my friend's band The Disposable Panchos. I would love to go to the Motion City Soundtrack show at First Ave here soon but it's sold out. Otherwise we all would love to see Jimmy Eat World.
Who would you love to tour with? I think we would all love to tour with Jimmy Eat World, Broadway, A Day To Remember, and Paramore.
Who would you want to collaborate with?A fun band would definitely be Say Anything. Other solo artists would be John Mayer and Lil Wayne.
Where would you want to play in the future? As cliche as it may sound, we'd love to play the bigger venues such as first ave. Myself, I've always pictured what it would be like to play arenas and big stages but we'd really just like to keep playing anywhere and everywhere.
As a band, how do you guys find new music to listen to? We all get itunes giftcards every now and then. We usually spend those on new releases that we've been looking forward to. On the road we'll buy a new cd for the van every once in a while for us to listen to. We also meet a lot of bands/artists on the road and do a lot of cd trades with them.
What have you been listening to a lot lately? Relating to the last question, we ran into the guys from Broadway in Milwaukee at The Rave and I must say they are really nice and cool dudes. We did a cd trade with them (they gave us their cd "Kingdoms"), and we definitely have a spot in our hearts for their music. Another cd would be A Day To Remember (Homesick) which we bought while on the road and we really dig that one.
What are the best and weirdest gifts you’ve received from fans? Best - cookies, Weirdest - a plastic bag full of 3D glasses.
Do you have any pre-show rituals? We're throwing some different ones around right now, but we like the four-man hand hug.
Bonus Round:Favorite:Movie? Superbad
CD(s)? Prince "Purple Rain", A Day To Remember "Homesick", Justin Timberlake "Future Sex Love Sounds"
TV show? The Office
Video game? Road Rash 64
Sports team? The Vikings
This or that:Coke or Pepsi? Pepsi
VMA or Kids’ Choice Award? VMA
Twitter or AIM? Twitter (mostly)
Calling or texting? Calling
Albums or Singles? Albums
Behind The Scenes: What else should we know?Special talents? Drawing
Age? 22
Pet peeves? When someone chews with their mouth open.
Nicknames? Fish, Fisher, Fishy, Francis, T.I.M. (the ideas man)
Members Only: In the band, who is:Funniest? PeterCraziest on stage? PeterLaziest? PeterMost organized? CarpStrongest? CarpHas the best hair? Francis
