Hi, I hope the sun is shining for you today, where are you?
How would you describe your sound to people that have not heard your music yet?
I think we’re a band that needs to be seen to be understood. But I think we've stepped into a territory where without being or sounding too arrogant, I would describe our sound as Exit Calm. I think we've really become something more than the sound that comes out of the speakers. Were much more than that - were all about connecting with people and communicating a way beyond words and descriptions.
There are a lot of bands, making a lot of noise out there, what makes Exit Calm different?
Were doing exactly what we want to do. We’re not a part of any scene, movement or fashion. We make the music we want to make and we do it with absolute honesty.
How did the band come together and when?
With fate and luck we got together about 6 years ago. Were about to release our second album in September and it all feels as good as it ever has done.
Where was your first gig and, what are the key memories?
Our first gig was in
Your second album is due out in September. Tell us about the recording process this time around and how it differed from your first record?
Certainly not as intense this time round, which I'm grateful for. We recorded it in Cricklewood with a good friend of ours Rob McVey who took the Production chair. His enthusiasm was key to making it happen. We stripped the tracks bare and really got to the root of each one and allowed it to find its own path in the recording.
Rob's quite old school in his approach, which worked perfectly because we really wanted to make a classic record. Whether we did or not is irrelevant, we aimed high. We all pulled together and made the best record we could. It was all about getting it down right in the first place rather than correcting things later down the line. We had a great engineer on hand too in Christian Mock. They've worked together before so there was a very confident and up beat feel in the studio sessions.
Would you ever like to play different genres of music such as jazz, dance, soul, pop?
The very essence of Jazz is improvisation so yeah, we’re very spur of the moment, we like to be creative, we have souls but we like great pop music... so....no can't see it. ;-)
How important is it for a band to have a recording contract these days or can you do it all yourself?
It’s more important to build a great team of people around you. In fact it’s absolutely vital and we’re fortunate to have some of the best people in the industry working with us. A recording contract is the platform for release for lesser known bands like us so yeah it’s important. I'd rather have people that really care about putting our album out concentrate on that, and leave us to do what we do best which is making the music in the first place.
Is there any downtime from the band and if so, how do you spend it?
No real surprises here but most of the time it involves music and drinking. Same as most.
What was the music you listened to back in School/College days, that you still draw inspiration from today?
When I was
Album out in September, Tour in the autumn, what then, any plans for 2014 yet as a band?
We intend to get very busy with this record on the live front and hope to take it as far as we can possibly reach. We’ve not got over to the
