Today marks the release of the sophomore album 'Where My Communist Heart Meets My Capitalist Mind' by Sounds Under Radio.
Check it out on iTunes/Amazon and then buy the album. It's my big pick for the week...and the single 'Sing'...it's ridiculous good.
So here is the second half of my interview with lead singer Lang Freeman...where we discuss inspiration, beauty and vampires...
One on One with Lang Freeman: Part 1
Back in October 2007 - you wrote a post on MySpace that said "27, I don't know why... but this is such an absolutely frightening age. From October 15, 2006 to October 15, 2007 I did a great many things. In this last year I was forced to make more decisions about my life than I ever expected...in retrospect I wish I would have been able to enjoy them more. I feel like I was always caught up with preparing for the next race rather than enjoying the moment of the one I had just won. A brutally difficult life lesson learned. The year ahead... I will try to learn from my mistakes, enjoy accomplishments and mend broken fences."
So fast forward 3 1/2 years. Have you learned to enjoy your accomplishments and take the time to stop and live in the moment/take stock of what you do have as opposed to solely focusing on the next thing on the 'to-do check list'?
It definitely took me a bit of time… years of time actually after writing that blog post to ‘stop and smell the roses,’ but I feel like I now finally have. Our band works ALL of the time, even when it may seem like we are not up to much we are still working fervently, writing, recording, rehearsing, just being creative… it’s just who we are and what we do. It’s a job that you never really clock out of… because we are so passionate and so connected to what we do, it’s always with us… but in that I worked with so much focus on this project for so long that it came at a cost to my personal life, and when I saw relationships with people I cared about crumbling around me… much to my own doing, so I finally had to take a step back and give myself perspective. And interestingly enough, that perspective (albeit a difficult thing for me to see and experience) prompted the majority of the writing for this new record. So, it was healthy on many levels.
Love the video for 'Sing'. Drives home the message that despite all the uncertainty in the world that we still need to find the beauty and appreciate that beauty that exists in the world. Ralph Emerson Waldo wrote "Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower..."
So in the spirit of your video - what do you see as beautiful, that inspires you?
Wow, what a great question… you know it’s interesting, I think we far too often overlook the beautiful and inspirational things in life… and not because they don’t exist, but often because we are so selfishly wrapped up in our own lives that we don’t take the time to open our eyes and fully engage the world around us. The thing is though (and I think this is something that the director of the ‘Sing’ video Jeff Ray brilliantly captured) is that the world is full of so much beauty, yet it is juxtaposed by equal amounts of the grotesque… BUT the thing in between, the thing that shifts the balance, the thing that makes it worth opening your eyes to engage the world is humanity, it’s hope… it’s the people fighting for the good because they have hope for a better tomorrow. This in and of itself is beauty, and is something I draw great inspiration from. People fighting the good fight… you’ll see it all around you every day, if you just open your eyes.
So when on your down time - not doing the SUR thing...what music are you listening to right now that you love?
Like I said earlier… we are lovers and consumers of music just as much as we are makers of it, so there is no shortage of things we listen to. Things that I’ve recently been enamoured with (and this again is just off the top of my head of NEWish things I’ve been listening to)…
-Mumford and Sons ‘Sigh No More’
-Eisley ‘the Valley’
-The Damnwells ‘No One Listens To The Band Anymore’
-Arcade Fire ‘The Suburbs’
-Manchester Orchestra’s new single ‘Simple Math’… cannot wait for the new album to come out!
-Radiohead’ The King of Limbs’
- Deftones’ Diamond Eyes’
I’m sure there are tons more, but that’s a good start I guess.
Since your single 'All You Wanted' was featured on an episode of The Vampire Diaries, what word comes to mind when you hear...
Twilight? Sparkly Vamps!
Dracula? Old school Vamp!
Buffy? I liked the movie better than the TV series Vamps!
Angel? Isn’t that guy now on ‘Bones’ Vamps!?!
Count Chocula? Count Chocula mixed with Franken berry was a divine sugar coma… Cereal Vamps!
Count von Count (The Count on Sesame Street)? Béla Lugosi for baby’s Vamp!
The Lost Boys? Kiefer Sutherland was a pretty great king of the teenage Vamps!
Anne Rice? Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst in ‘Interview With a Vampire,’ those are some A list Vamps!
Blade? Made 3, but should have only made one movie about these Vamps!
True Blood? Ahhh we all love this show! Tongue and cheek Vamps (with a Cajun drawl)!
So today is the big day, your album, 'Where My Communist Heart Meets My Capitalist Mind’ is finally being released. Final word is yours...
We wrote and recorded the songs for ‘Where My Communist Heart Meets My Capitalist Mind’ as an album… not just a group of songs that we haphazardly threw together, so all the songs are intimately tied in theme and design. This is not a ‘concept’ record per say, but it is definitely conceptual and thematic… and we sincerely hope that people take a listen and give the entire thing a chance! We are very proud of this album… it’s a living document of sorts of us as a band and as people working through our own trials, so our most sincere hope is that you take a listen… like it or love it, we hope you can take something of value away from it… even if it’s just a new perspective! Oh, and enjoy… hopefully we’ll see you in your city very soon as well!
Here's the latest tour date listings for Sounds Under Radio...and I am totally holding the band to a tour north of the border....are you listening Lang?
May 3 @ KLBJ FM (Austin TX) ‘Local Licks Live’
May 7 @ Magnolia Motor Café (Ft. Worth TX)
May 21 @ Jacks (San Antonio TX)
May 27 @ The Prophet Bar (Dallas TX)
May 28 @ El Dorado (Shreveport LA)
June 17 @ The Rutledge (Nashville TN)
June 24 @ Warehouse Live (Houston TX)
June 25 @ The Stafford (Bryan/College Station TX)
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