Sunday, October 19, 2014

Team Data Amplifier Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
1. Team Data Amplifier for now is a studio project but I hope to turn it into a live show in time. It actually started as an idea between myself and Andy DeVries a video editor buddy of mine from back in high school. The idea at first was to take ideas that I wrote and he would create video to accompany and visa versa. That is where the idea for the whole Blade Runner theme came from. I have a whole video clip that extends the entire EP. I guess its for the die hard Sci FI nuts like me. After I had written the entire Ep I showed it to Brad Hawes another friend of mine who plays drums on the album. He plays in a bunch of groups off and on including, The Projection People, Butt Funnel, and his main focus is his electronic project Echo Island. He had asked me to master "Hinerval" the new Echo Island full length and that is where Replicant Eyes came up. I sent it to him and like 5 minutes later he signed on to play drums. Up until that point I wasnt really planning to release the EP with a live recording. It was more just something for me to work on creatively but after that the idea of really spending some time recording it seemed more possible.
 Next I asked Dan Eichman who used to play with a group called The Abominable No Men that I recorded a few albums for to play bass. I really loved his playing, very tasteful and solid. Somehow he just seemed to pick the right notes every time.
   Shawn Conrad, the guitarist from a previous band I was in called Take me Tick Tock joined up. That was kind of what I had in mind from the get go. Shawn has a really unique and expressive playing style that he had really developed over the years I had been playing with him. I actually wrote his parts with him in mind, kind of mimicking his playing style. I think he really enjoyed recording those parts, they were tailored for him and he just took the ideas and pushed them 1000%.
 Lastly I asked a super old friend of mine Mike Braeckevelt to join. I used to pay music with him almost 10 years ago and I always missed the way he played. He lives about 3 hours away so I did not think to ask him right off the bat but then I realized with a studio project the distance doesnt play as big of a factor. Its exciting though there is a chance he is going to move to Madison in the spring to attend The Madison Media Institute. I went to that school to learn recording and I work there as an instructor as well as work as a recording engineer at The Blast House where I tracked the EP.

2.Recently you have released an ep, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?
2. The album for me was an effort to make a continuous idea that while pushed different genres kept true to a solid theme. As far as the specific sonic quality I was really just trying to go for a clean sound without having to rely on processing after the fact. I think because of the way the album was written on a computer piece by piece it has a mechanical quality to it. Not that its a bad thing and lots of albums I love have that feel but for the next album I would like to go for a more organic/natural vibe. Its funny you mention a 90s sound. That is pretty unintentional. That is just the music I grew up on so I guess it kind of bled through.

3.The lyrics are based on the movie 'Blade Runner', can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in this film?
3. For about 6 months when I was around 13 my brothers and sister moved to Louisiana to live with my father while my mother was stationed in Italy for a short term. There was a movie store called slick Sams that you could rent old movies 5 bucks for 5 movies. If I remember right the lunch was like 2.50 at the high school I attended so twice a week I would skip lunch so I could rent movies. It was in one of those batches that I rented blade runner. I remember wanting to see it because the back of the box of Akira a classic anime that pretty much got me into anime said “Makes Blade Runner look like Disney Land.” I read that more as inspired by BladeRunner. After watching it the first time my mind was blown. This was also the theatrical release that had Harrison Fords narration
that he really didn’t want to do and rushed through so it had an extra layer of cheese factor. Since then I have probably watched BladeRunner once a year. I had just watched it again last year and for some reason it had struck a deeper chord. Before it had just been a really cool Sci Fi but this time the themes of Fear, uncertainty of identity, and manipulation really stuck out. This is the backbone of Replicant Eyes. In many ways those same themes parallel issues I see in my life so it’s not entirely written specifically about Blade runner, more of a jumping off point. In all Blade Runner is just a great movie and the visual Fx is amazing especially for its time. The soundtrack is killer too. I do remember when I first saw it thinking it was just like an anime in film version. More like the anime I had been watching had already used Blade Runner as inspiration

4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Team Data Amplifier'?

Team Data Amplifier is an uber-literal name: It’s a “Team,” because the group  extends beyond the band members to include visual artists and promotion professionals. “Data Amplifier” means taking information and ideas as far as they can go. So Team Data Amplifier is a collective of people pushing artistic ideas to the extreme.

5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and how would you describe your stage performance?
5. We havent played any shows yet.

6.When can we expect a full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
6. We are working on new music now. The goal is to make the next project a collaberation. I have been super busy so when I find time I write ideas rather than full songs. I would like to push the music further into the realm of Prog. Not so much the music style but to abandon typical song structure. I would also like the next album to more dynamic and spacious.

7.What are some of your non musical interests?
7. I really like video games when I have some free time. Right now I am playing Dark Souls 2 its really good. 

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