www.facebook.com/alicesweetalice
From: Kansas City, MO
Sounds like: Rock
1. How did you get started with music and how did you develop your sound? Who thought of the name “Alice Sweet Alice” and is there any meaning behind it?
All band members have been playing music since high school or even before, having varying degrees of success in their respective hometowns over the years. Scott Martinez started Alice Sweet Alice, and is one of the principal songwriters, along with Ali Kat. The sound of the band is metered pretty heavily by Scott's influence, but is a true collaboration of all members. The name ALICE SWEET ALICE came about a very long time ago, when Scott saw the movie of the same title, starring Brooke Shields. He thought it would be a great name for a band. Every project he was involved with after, didn't agree. Finally, when Scott started Alice Sweet Alice, there was nobody to argue with.
2. What do you want listeners to take away from your music?
Alice Sweet Alice writes about what we like to call "human experience". We write about our fears, our dreams, our lives. We do focus a lot on our lyric writing; we don't like to write just "WORDS" to a song. The songs really need to convey a real story or idea in order for them to really resonate with not only US, but our fans. Also, not secondarily, we want our music to become the soundtrack of people's lives. Just like the bands we were listening to, when we were growing up, became in ours.
3. How would you describe your music to the average listener?
Hard Rock w/ slices of metal, alternative & classic rock, served w/ male & female vocals.
4. What can people expect from your live show?
A good mix of material from extremely hard to melodic and gorgeous, played with energy and enthusiasm.
5. Who are three bands you’d like to tour with?
Collective Soul, Foo Fighters and Pretty Reckless.
6. Any crazy show stories?
No. We are embarrassingly punctual, reliable, sober and go to bed as early as we can.
7. What’s your take on the current state of rock?
Lots of flash and not enough depth. Many are trying to shock and awe, to try to stand out from the pack. As a result, a lot of the music sounds extremely similar and shallow.
8. What’s the current music scene like there in the Kansas both locally and state wide?
Kansas City is very cliquish and relies very heavily on bands that hang and kiss up to certain club owners, promoters, radio stations and periodicals. If you DON'T hang out in a particular scene, people don't really want to let you in. It really doesn't matter if you're talented or not. But honestly, it seems to be that way in a lot of the towns we go to. Especially with fans coming out to live shows. They watch their friends' band and then take off - which makes absolutely NO sense, considering they spent money on a ticket for the entire night. It's either that, or they're out to get drunk. So ASA doesn't really play in bars anymore for that reason, unless it's part of a special event, festival or some such. We learned our lesson, and the world has changed.
9. What’s your take on legal/illegal music downloading?
It can't be stopped. Don't post anything online IN ITS' ENTIRETY or FULL LENGTH, that you don't want to give away for free. I think that online retailers need to ONLY post 1-2 minute samples of songs, rather than full length songs. It's too easy to download and pirate songs online, and even convert YouTube videos to MP3's too. People forget about that.
10. What’s next for Alice Sweet Alice?
Lots of songwriting, recording and video production. We are not playing many shows the remainder of this year, but will be working on our live show over the fall and winter and start booking for the Spring 2015 season - hopefully to coincide with a new release.
11. Any shoutouts?
Paul Chandler of Kansas City Local Artist Radio Show, Joe Pluff of For The Broken, our friends at NeueRegel Radio, especially RTFX and DJ Darkgift, everyone at Rocker's Dive Radio, Jenny Plant, the promoter with the mostess, and all of our fans in the ASA Army! Arjay from KKFI, Shinda Shima and Cancervive, and Dustin Roberson from Voodoo Lounge. We love you all.
