Photo L-R: Chris Dechert (Bass), Justin Sanford (Vocals/Keyboard), Tyler Moellmann (Drums), Matt Basilotto (Guitar), Rob Bost (Guitar), Rudy Meier (Guitar).
Ashton: We can start off by talking about The Bamboozle. You guys won The Break contest for the 3rd year in a row, can you tell us about your experience with the festival?
ROB: We had a great time with The Break. It was a lot of fun; it helped us advance some steps in the scene that we wouldn’t otherwise have gotten the chance to. It was fun, you know, we got to play The Bamboozle three years in a row and it means a lot to us. We’re really proud of it.
Ashton: What does the album title, Inner Animal, refer to?
JUSTIN: Inner Animal is referring to your inner self. It’s letting your inner person out, letting your inner animal out of your self and whether it’s good or bad to anyone around you – whether its pain, frustration, joy, happiness – whatever it is, letting that out, letting the real you out and expressing yourself. That’s what every song on the album is about. Each song contains some kind of theme towards that.
Ashton: Would you say there’s a mix of positive and negative, as far as messages go, throughout each song?
JUSTIN: Absolutely, yeah. Definitely. Every song has a different interpretation of certain situations of letting the real you shine through.
ROB: There are a lot of different scenarios to try to relate to a lot of different feelings for everyone’s different inner self.
Ashton: Can you guys talk about the recording process a little bit? Is it routine, or is it more of an organic, natural process?
ROB: The recording process for us is a lot of fun. Our engineer and producer works for the New York Giants. While we were tracking our record, he was going to the playoffs and the Super Bowl. He was back and forth every week, he was flying all over the country throughout the NFL season and the Super Bowl, and we were tracking once or twice a week for the record for about six months straight until we got it done. Then from there we went to mixing and mastering. It was a long process, but it meant a lot to us and we worked really hard on it.
RUDY: Plus his parents were awesome and let us sleep at their house while he was with the Giants and left us to record.
Ashton: Do you sense that you guys have matured as a band and as songwriters during the time that has lapsed between the release of your self-titled EP and Inner Animal?
RUDY: Definitely, absolutely.
ROB: With our self-titled EP, there were five members in the band, two of the members here now were not in the band. We changed a lot from our EP to our full length. With the EP we had just started out. At the time, we found what we thought was the right band with those five members. Of course we had best friends that were in the band, but we had to make some changes.
CHRIS: We all love each other and we’re all best friends. Breathing Blue is ultimately about doing our own thing and doing whatever it is that we want. Over the years we learned and discovered that, as a band, we don’t want to follow trends and worry about fitting in. We want to be ourselves because that’s what we feel music is all about.
Ashton: Would you say that the band has also matured when it comes to songwriting?
JUSTIN: Lyrically, I’d say so. There are a lot of things that have matured. As a lyricist, you start by talking about your own perspective. You’re talking about your own life, what’s going on with yourself and what you experience. From there, you start to realize that what’s going on around you and the people that are around you. You want to share your feelings and your beliefs with those people through the lyrics and through the music. For us, we want to bring the good vibe lyrically, musically, and all that good stuff.
Ashton: What would you guys say are each of your favorite songs off the new record?
RUDY: Everything You Needed. It’s the closing track to the album.
ROB: Human Nature.
MATT: Gorilla.
TYLER: Inner Animal.
JUSTIN: This Isn’t About You.
CHRIS: Blood & Bone.
ROB: We all had different choices! Awesome. The six of us all had different favorite songs. That’s amazing.
Ashton: You guys are heading out on tour tomorrow. Let’s talk about that.
ROB: Yeah, we’re touring most of the summer. We’re leaving tomorrow, and right now we’re at our free 21 and up album release here at Jenkinson’s in Point Pleasant Beach. From here we’re leaving for a week. This month we’re going to be in the northeast. In July we’re doing a tri-state tour. Then coming up in August, we’re going south. Pretty much over the entire summer we hope to cover the whole east coast. There are going to be a lot of shows that we’ll be reaching out to for the first time ever. We’re going to see what happens, we’re going to see a lot of new faces, different crowds, and try to get them to see us, know us, and come back to shows when we’re back in their area. That’s pretty much what we’re doing the rest of this year; pushing the record, getting it out there. Pushing ourselves to see what we can do.
Ashton: Who are you touring with on the Northeastern leg?
ROB: We’re touring by ourselves. We do all of our touring DIY, which is ‘Do It Yourself.’ We have a manager and a booking agent who helps to book our shows, but we do it mainly by ourselves. Whatever shows we can hop onto, we book it. We like to get on shows that have locals playing. If we can’t do that, we put the shows together ourselves. Sometimes getting on bigger shows with more well known bands is tough because we can’t draw big enough crowds all throughout the east coast just yet, but we see what we can do and try to make it happen.
Ashton: My next, and last question was actually about the whole DIY, grassroots approach that you guys seem to be really big fans of.
CHRIS: We’ve always been about the “indie scene,” which is really about not being mainstream and cookie-cutter. We strive to do things a little bit differently. We’d rather have a fan base of people who actually, truly are dedicated to the music and respect it rather than people who like us for one single and think that we’re good looking. We’re not very attractive and we don’t really care about writing hit singles. We really like doing the independent thing. I think that, in the long run, we’ll have more of a solid foundation to build upon in the future. We’re trying to build a foundation off of our own inspiration. All of the bands that have inspired us to do what we’re doing never were what you would call “mainstream.” Not heavily rotated on the radio, not hyped up. They just did what they wanted to do and that’s what we want to do, too. That, and play rock and roll music because that’s what we love.
JUSTIN: Going off of that, with having six members in the band, we have to realize that we have to go off of everybody’s influence. We have to be open to each other’s ideas and incorporate them into everything we become as a band.
RUDY: Considering we have all sorts of different influences coming together between all of us, it really translates well as one final result.
Don’t miss Breathing Blue at Rebel Rock in Philadelphia on July 3rd and at Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park, New Jersey on July 7th. Check out the new album, Inner Animal, streaming in full at the band’s PureVolume page: www.purevolume.com/breathingblue.
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Ashton: We can start off by talking about The Bamboozle. You guys won The Break contest for the 3rd year in a row, can you tell us about your experience with the festival?
ROB: We had a great time with The Break. It was a lot of fun; it helped us advance some steps in the scene that we wouldn’t otherwise have gotten the chance to. It was fun, you know, we got to play The Bamboozle three years in a row and it means a lot to us. We’re really proud of it.
Ashton: What does the album title, Inner Animal, refer to?
JUSTIN: Inner Animal is referring to your inner self. It’s letting your inner person out, letting your inner animal out of your self and whether it’s good or bad to anyone around you – whether its pain, frustration, joy, happiness – whatever it is, letting that out, letting the real you out and expressing yourself. That’s what every song on the album is about. Each song contains some kind of theme towards that.
Ashton: Would you say there’s a mix of positive and negative, as far as messages go, throughout each song?
JUSTIN: Absolutely, yeah. Definitely. Every song has a different interpretation of certain situations of letting the real you shine through.
ROB: There are a lot of different scenarios to try to relate to a lot of different feelings for everyone’s different inner self.
Ashton: Can you guys talk about the recording process a little bit? Is it routine, or is it more of an organic, natural process?
ROB: The recording process for us is a lot of fun. Our engineer and producer works for the New York Giants. While we were tracking our record, he was going to the playoffs and the Super Bowl. He was back and forth every week, he was flying all over the country throughout the NFL season and the Super Bowl, and we were tracking once or twice a week for the record for about six months straight until we got it done. Then from there we went to mixing and mastering. It was a long process, but it meant a lot to us and we worked really hard on it.
RUDY: Plus his parents were awesome and let us sleep at their house while he was with the Giants and left us to record.
Ashton: Do you sense that you guys have matured as a band and as songwriters during the time that has lapsed between the release of your self-titled EP and Inner Animal?
RUDY: Definitely, absolutely.
ROB: With our self-titled EP, there were five members in the band, two of the members here now were not in the band. We changed a lot from our EP to our full length. With the EP we had just started out. At the time, we found what we thought was the right band with those five members. Of course we had best friends that were in the band, but we had to make some changes.
CHRIS: We all love each other and we’re all best friends. Breathing Blue is ultimately about doing our own thing and doing whatever it is that we want. Over the years we learned and discovered that, as a band, we don’t want to follow trends and worry about fitting in. We want to be ourselves because that’s what we feel music is all about.
Ashton: Would you say that the band has also matured when it comes to songwriting?
JUSTIN: Lyrically, I’d say so. There are a lot of things that have matured. As a lyricist, you start by talking about your own perspective. You’re talking about your own life, what’s going on with yourself and what you experience. From there, you start to realize that what’s going on around you and the people that are around you. You want to share your feelings and your beliefs with those people through the lyrics and through the music. For us, we want to bring the good vibe lyrically, musically, and all that good stuff.
Ashton: What would you guys say are each of your favorite songs off the new record?
RUDY: Everything You Needed. It’s the closing track to the album.
ROB: Human Nature.
MATT: Gorilla.
TYLER: Inner Animal.
JUSTIN: This Isn’t About You.
CHRIS: Blood & Bone.
ROB: We all had different choices! Awesome. The six of us all had different favorite songs. That’s amazing.
Ashton: You guys are heading out on tour tomorrow. Let’s talk about that.
ROB: Yeah, we’re touring most of the summer. We’re leaving tomorrow, and right now we’re at our free 21 and up album release here at Jenkinson’s in Point Pleasant Beach. From here we’re leaving for a week. This month we’re going to be in the northeast. In July we’re doing a tri-state tour. Then coming up in August, we’re going south. Pretty much over the entire summer we hope to cover the whole east coast. There are going to be a lot of shows that we’ll be reaching out to for the first time ever. We’re going to see what happens, we’re going to see a lot of new faces, different crowds, and try to get them to see us, know us, and come back to shows when we’re back in their area. That’s pretty much what we’re doing the rest of this year; pushing the record, getting it out there. Pushing ourselves to see what we can do.
Ashton: Who are you touring with on the Northeastern leg?
ROB: We’re touring by ourselves. We do all of our touring DIY, which is ‘Do It Yourself.’ We have a manager and a booking agent who helps to book our shows, but we do it mainly by ourselves. Whatever shows we can hop onto, we book it. We like to get on shows that have locals playing. If we can’t do that, we put the shows together ourselves. Sometimes getting on bigger shows with more well known bands is tough because we can’t draw big enough crowds all throughout the east coast just yet, but we see what we can do and try to make it happen.
Ashton: My next, and last question was actually about the whole DIY, grassroots approach that you guys seem to be really big fans of.
CHRIS: We’ve always been about the “indie scene,” which is really about not being mainstream and cookie-cutter. We strive to do things a little bit differently. We’d rather have a fan base of people who actually, truly are dedicated to the music and respect it rather than people who like us for one single and think that we’re good looking. We’re not very attractive and we don’t really care about writing hit singles. We really like doing the independent thing. I think that, in the long run, we’ll have more of a solid foundation to build upon in the future. We’re trying to build a foundation off of our own inspiration. All of the bands that have inspired us to do what we’re doing never were what you would call “mainstream.” Not heavily rotated on the radio, not hyped up. They just did what they wanted to do and that’s what we want to do, too. That, and play rock and roll music because that’s what we love.
JUSTIN: Going off of that, with having six members in the band, we have to realize that we have to go off of everybody’s influence. We have to be open to each other’s ideas and incorporate them into everything we become as a band.
RUDY: Considering we have all sorts of different influences coming together between all of us, it really translates well as one final result.
Don’t miss Breathing Blue at Rebel Rock in Philadelphia on July 3rd and at Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park, New Jersey on July 7th. Check out the new album, Inner Animal, streaming in full at the band’s PureVolume page: www.purevolume.com/breathingblue.
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