2. When it comes time to add your guitar work to a song, do you try to puzzle piece your tracks into what’s already there, or do you try to mold the song to the riff? for the songs already written when I joined, I added on top of what was there, working around the existing song structure. as we collaborate, the song may evolve directly from any idea that’s introduced, including guitar parts or keys or bass or vocals.

3. I can hear the Cure-style influences in your playing, but who would YOU say are the main guitar styles that you enjoy playing? Ringing chorusy stuff? Metallic Shredding?  Buzzy Jesus and Mary Chain riffs? I love them all! to be totally honest, I am limited in my guitar playing. I believe my talents lie more in knowing what sounds best for each song and working around that.

4. What types of effects do you feel work best within the Shortwave Dahlia construct? And which ones would you like to toss into the mix? the guitar effects don’t really stray too far from what’s been done before, but you may notice some of the newer songs have effects tweaked into the programming and even the percussion.

5. What other musical avenues would you like to pursue within the band, apart from guitar and programming? that’s really what I signed on for, and I am perfectly satisfied with the role I play in this band. I do have another project I have started outside of SD where someone else is playing all the guitars and I handle the programming, bass + vocals. more on that as it progresses…

6. You added some programming to the latest tracks. Do you find programming more creatively flexible than guitar, or is it just another instrument to express yourself? there’s definitely more range in programming + sequencing, but at the end of the day, it really is just another instrument.

7. Having been in a a few bands before Shortwave Dahlia, do you find that the friction  within a band makes for better music or worse? it may give some extra fire here + there, but too much tension without a common goal will kill a band. the bands where one half hates the other tend to have a lack of balance in the entire sound.also, who wants to work with people they do not like?

8. What songs from Shortwave Dahlia’s catalog do you like performing live the most? What covers would you like to do live? “Vara” is  one of the few not ’set in stone’ that we actually improvise on live. I programmed a cover version of Charlie the Unicorn’s “Candy Mountain Cave” song and printed the lyrics up for Jack, so maybe we’ll sneak that in  one day… [interviewer’s note–SQUEE!]

9. What would you like to see happen for Shortwave Dahlia with the next album? I’d like to expand our reach, promote ourselves further out. we obviously have the internet to shop ourselves around. maybe if we could arrange more performances in more areas, like at least a weekend trip out of state, all the better as well.

10. Just for the gear-heads like me– What guitar would you kill to have, if money was no option? I like the ‘fishbone’ guitar Andy Summers had in the Synchronicity II video…

Thanks again to Ethan Grim for talking to me.

“Okay, so here’s how this is going to work.

The Wilderness is expected to be rolling out in August or September.  A pre-order price of $10.00 gets you:

1. A compact disc of the album (remember those things?  shiny platters of digitally coded music?)
2. A selection in the weeks before the album’s release of downloadable practice sessions, in which we roll through the new tunes as well as some old favorites.
3. Inclusion on a special e-mail list with which we give you news on the album’s development.
4. Last but not least, your very own shortwavedahlia.org e-mail address!  Now your spam has somewhere new to go!

PayPal your money over to shortwavedahlia@yahoo.com OR to send it by snail mail, contact Jack at jack@shortwavedahlia.org for the mailing address.
So what do you say?  Ready for the next phase of Shortwave Dahlia?”

Shortwave Dahlia has another gig coming up!
Saturday, July 5th
The P&H Cafe
1532 Madison Ave
Memphis, TN 38104

Shortwave Dahlia
with our friends
J.D. Reager & the Cold-Blooded Three (http://www.myspace.com/jdreager)
~and~
The Original Cyndi (http://www.myspace.com/theoriginalcyndi)
$5 and shit goes down at 10:00 PM.

http://popsballot.memphisflyer.com/

Please do a write-in vote for “Shortwave Dahlia”. It would blow my mind to see us actually get written up as an honorable mention.

So get over there and do the Shorty D write-in!

1: Now that you’re heading into your second full album, has your sound changed or evolved since the last album, Illuminated?

Jack: It’s evolved a lot! The process is much different to the point that it’s almost impossible for me to equate the two. Illuminated was an educational experience for me as much as it was an artistic endeavor. I was learning how to utilize the studio, but I wasn’t really trying to stretch myself as a songwriter so I hear it now and think about things I could have done better. In this process, I can actually say “Why don’t we do this instead?” It’s nice to have people to bounce ideas off of.

Mark: Because everyone in the group has the chance to contribute to the songwriting process, the sound cannot help but have changed as we have added more people. I think that the great thing about this particular group of people is that we all liked the sound of Shortwave Dahlia before we joined. No one is trying to strike off on a tangent, instead it is more a matter of developing what we had as a starting point.

2: You’ve added a fourth person to your band, Dana Liebchen. How has her addition modified the Shortwave Dahlia sound?

Jack: It’s allowed us to do more of the instrumentation live, which has improved things. Also, with Dana on board it’s nice to be able to focus on an instrument at times, personally. I’m no Freddie Mercury.

Ethan: There is definitely a new dynamic working with Dana. We are all impressed by her abilities and proud to include her as one of her own. So far, her influence has been subtle, as I believe she is still trying not to change things too much. But, I also believe that her role will grow the more comfortable she gets working together with us. “Paramour” is so far the most obvious Dana-influenced song, as her voice carries it to a level we could not have without her.

3: Dana, you’re the newbie this go around. How did you come to join Shortwave Dahlia and tell us a little more about yourself?

Dana: My inclusion came about as a result of an evening of karaoke with Jack and Ethan. I did a Journey tune, actually, and I think they were surprised by my enthusiasm. From there, I was asked to provide vocals for a cover of Depeche Mode’s “It’s No Good,” and the rest is history. My own musical background is orchestral in nature, but I’ve always tinkered around with keyboards and embrace all manner of electronic instrumentation.

4: Mark and Ethan– do you find that your playing for the band has changed since the last album? Have you found a signature sound or are you remaining eclectic?

Mark: Personally, I have some new gear that I am very excited about using on this album. I think that I have the chance to spread out what the bass can contribute song by song. That said, I like to think that each instrument performs different rolls depending on what song you are listening to, so I would have to say that I, for one, am looking forward to remaining eclectic.

Ethan: For the studio stuff, most of the changes, for me, come from knowing the other guys better and what I can do to round out the songs. The live shows have contributed to the evolution as well, in that the atmosphere of where we play can help shape what we’re doing. even tho’ I tend to gravitate towards the same sounds + effects, I believe our influences are too wide + varied to let us settle into any deep ruts.

5: Song for Vara has received a LOT of attention over the past year, most notably getting a nod of approval from Warren Ellis. Did you anticipate this particular track getting so much (deserved) attention?

Jack: I’m certain we wanted it to. Can you ever really anticipate stuff like this? But Warren including it in his podcast was incredibly cool. I sent it to him in one of those “oh, what the hell!” moments, and was chuffed when it paid off.

Mark: This is one of the first ones where I was around for a good bit of the writing process. When Ethan joined, the song took on a very different sound. In either version, I have always felt that this was a very powerful song. The ugly truth is that I thought it might have been just me. It is nice to see that others are being moved by it as well.

Ethanl: I agree with Jack, as great a song as it may be, you can never take for granted others will appreciate it the same way. Had it not been for Jack remixing the guitar parts from several takes, I might have abstained from contributing to it at all, as it was already a thing of beauty without me.

6: Your audience is expanding, with you adding global listeners via the web, shows and additional exposure from MySpace and AmieStreet and other venues. Do you think that this will create more opportunities in the wake of the new album?

Jack: We’re not an average band, so I think we really do rely on what the Internet can do for us. We are able to reach people in countries that we’ll most likely never be able to visit. With the new album, I think it will only build further off what we’ve already accomplished. As far as shows go, shows are good but with the current economy a tour of any kind is pretty impractical. Thanks to the web, we can still reach out to people regardless.

Ethan: we can haz fanbase! Seriously, with the exception of television, internet popularity is the next best thing for a band unable to tour extensively. Sometimes even better. We see all sorts of notoriety gained by people with nothing of substance to offer but receive millions of hits or views or myspace friends. At least we have something to offer, why not us too?

7: Jack, you’ve been making music for a good long time now. Do you find you prefer the solo artist or band experience? And is having side projects beneficial for the band?

Jack: I don’t think I prefer one over the other, but I think both can be educational experiences and can benefit each other. You can try things outside of one that you cannot do in another. And yeah, side projects help the band…the more you do with music, the more you come to understand about it. I do electronic music on the side, and certainly wouldn’t take offense if any of the others were working on something else as well.

8: Okay, whet our appetites! Tell us what you can about your upcoming second album? When can we expect to get it in our hot little hands?

Jack: I’d say the brave souls who saw us in the last third of 2007 already know about a third of the album. I think it’s got some strong themes running throughout but it’s not a “concept album”. When? When it’s finished!

Mark: All I will add is that I am extremely anxious to finish. I think that there is some really good material here and I can’t wait until I can drive down the road listening to the final take.

Ethan: hopefully before spring is over, but we definitely want to be sure it is the best it can be before releasing it to the public. From what we have so far, I’d say we are 2/3rd’s the way there. if I had to describe it to those who heard the first album, I’d say more of the same but really, really different..

Thanks to the band for answering my questions!

More mini interviews to come, so Stay Tuned!

–Heidi–

Click over and take a listen!

He also included a link back to this webpage so “Hello!” to anyone swinging by for a visit! Take a look around to learn more about Shortwave Dahlia and scan back through the blog here to see what the band’s been up to!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shortwave-Dahlia/9450546977

Be sure and become a fan! The more the merrier…

Love and gourami,
J

As of now, they’ll be adding the Illuminated album and our Arsonist Radio Session to their playlist Friday, but we’ll aim to get them more music very soon!

Love and gourami,
J

Love and gourami,
J

After that, we went inside and pulled up something Ethan had sent over a while back…made ourselves acquainted to it—lots of great variations in the drums and some melodic elements that we instantly endeared to. Threw about a couple extra chord changes and had a good laugh about the chorus…hopefully next week we’ll give it a bit of structure and voila! A new song!

Had a look at the photos as practice concluded, ended up with about five keepers and one really fantastic one of Dana (that I can say with absolute certainty makes her cringe). Fun times…

Love and gourami,
J