(From The Depths Entertainment)
Genre: Glam rock akin to Foxy Shazam or The Darkness.
Interviewed on: 3/8/12
From: Central, NJ
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1.You guys are set to release your “Insomnia Paranoia” album very soon. What should people expect from it?
Well we originally wanted to come out with a full album because we have more than enough material for one, but we decided we’d break up what would be an album into EP installments. This way we release and EP every couple of months to keep people’s interest. This EP has a little bit of everything though; it shows what to expect from the next two. It has a little bit of thrash, pop, rock, grunge and that’s cool cause we’re all over the place too.
2. The cover and back for the album were some very beautiful shots. Where were the pictures taken and how was the shoot?
The pictures were all shot in The Assunpink in Roosevelt, New Jersey one day. A friend of ours Abigail Schwendeman took them for us. We all drove out there together on this absolutely freezing day, and Roosevelt is a really small town completely surrounded by forests. So we drove out, and along the way we kept passing hunters so the entire time we were taking photos we kept hearing gunshots in the distance and watching deer running all over the place; so quite an interesting experience.
3. Is there a favorite track you like on the album? Is there a theme to the album?
Well the EP is named after the third song on it; Insomnia of Paranoia. That was one of the first songs that we wrote and has already become one of the highlights of our live shows.
As for a theme; across the three EP’s we have planned out, all of the songs deal with the same situation and tell the same story. With the one we’ll be releasing soon, it has to deal with the beginning of a problem and deciding which way to go, as do the beginning of many stories.
4. With Chris and Edward being the primary songwriters, how does the writing process occur with two writers? Is it easier to create a song?
With anything, the more people you involve in any process the harder it becomes because everyone has their own opinion and views, but when we agree on something and it all comes together it turns into something more diverse and complex then we ever could have done on our own. It’s definitely not easier, but it‘s definitely more rewarding.
5. What’s the music scene like in NJ? What’s your take on the whole glam rock scene in general?
Most of the venues in New Jersey are at the shore with a few here and there across the state, but most of the good shows are in Pennsylvania or New York; so pretty much the further from Jersey you go the better it gets. And that’s a real shame because many years ago there used to be music almost everywhere.
Glam rock is usually used as a derogatory term now a days and people imagine guys that look like chicks with big hair. But the early glam rockers were Alice Cooper, David Bowie, Queen and such where there’s a whole production onstage and everything’s bigger and grander than it should be, making a simple rock show turn into a theatrical production. Many glam rock bands now a days are middle-aged men who dress in leather and make up trying to relive the glory days. Everyone in the band is under twenty so we can’t relive anything; we’re just trying to remind people of the basics.
6. Any good show stories?
There are two stories that we’ll never forget. Back in October we opened for Wednesday 13, the front man of The Murderdolls, at The Trocadero Theatre in Philly. And since it’s a large venue we did a big production where Edward shoots himself onstage with the fake blood and everything. So as he’s singing on the floor of the stage “bleeding” to death, there are these girls near the front that start screaming and crying because they think it’s real. So we started thinking “We must be getting good at this!”
And just recently we played a show and Chris has a wireless system for his bass, so he hops off the stage and starts going through the audience until we don’t see him anymore. It was only after the show that he told us that he went to go take a piss in the bathroom, while still playing bass! Our best, most hilarious moments are usually the ones most people don’t know about, until now I guess.
7. What’s your take on music downloading?
We all download music, I mean anyone who says they don’t is just lying, but we as a band don’t illegally download it. For musicians and composers, music is their job and income; you wouldn’t exactly steal bread from a baker. All of True Will still listens to cd’s, but most of us still listen to vinyl. There’s nothing quite like hearing the songs come off the needle and through the speakers because it seems alive. And then of course there’s the sound quality you lose when comparing vinyl to cd to mp3 file. Think of the physical size of a vinyl as a representation of the sound quality; when you compare it to the size of a cd that’s the difference in what you’re losing sonically. And when you compare it to the physical size of an mp3, well there isn’t one.
8. How would you describe your live show?
When a venue permits, as in it’s big enough, we add in the smoke, the actors, the fake blood, and the Romeo and Juliet-like death scene. When people listen to the lyrics and the music and watch the stage show, it tends to make people think mainly two things: “What in the **** was that?” and they start to think about their morals, which not many people seem to do anymore. So to sum it up in simple terms: it’s an energetic, violent mix of beautiful death.
9. What’s next for True Will?
Well our debut EP should be coming up in about two weeks from now. We just played a collaborated show with The Fax Machine Situation, where we all played onstage together on songs so we’d like to try and do more of that with other bands. We’re playing shows almost every week or two and branching out to new venues. And in a few months we’ll be heading back to the studio to record our next release.
10. Any shoutouts?
Everyone who keeps coming out to shows and digging what we’re up to. Anyone we would name knows who they are otherwise it would be a really long list.
