Sydney three piece, teen pop sensations were online about their recent release, an Ep titled ‘Day In Day Out.’ The guys have been around for a while first coming to our attention with a performance of Taylor Swift’s “Style” on X factor auditions. They haven’t looked back since then.
What attracted you to the style of music for the forthcoming Ep?
It’s a combination of things, the three of us having been doing music for quite a while now. We came together with the three different musical influences, we wanted to make music that would be entertaining for any age group. We wanted to make music that was uplifting, music that was crafted. We wanted to make people want to dance, make people want to laugh. I think we’ve done that with the latest Ep, ” says Chris. ‘Each song has its own kind of vibe and meaning to it.’
I wanted to look at the Ep, being so young (average age is 16), how much creative control did the guys maintain through the release?
“It was almost 100% our creative direction,” says Ethan. “Every single song was held together by a very valid strength to why we wanted that track included on the release. In this release were were very instrumental in the whole creative process.”
So were you able to maintain this creative flow once you were in the studio, working with different producers?
“We were working with some very cool producers, who we had connected with on different levels over the past couple of years. We were in control and we were really working together. They really understood who we were and what we wanted. We had really good working relationships with them. Creative control wasn’t an issue because we all get along very well, and the producers we worked with understood what we wanted.’
I remembered talking with silverchair when they started back in 1993 and the issues they had as a young band starting out. Was it hard with In Stereo?
“Some people were going to like us, some people weren’t going to like us. We’re doing music and that’s what we love to do. It makes us happy expressing what we like. We could write a book about our lives, but we like to write things that make people happy.”
This was the second time the guys had spoken about making people happy in their music. Did they also like to make people think about issues in their music?
“There are a couple of emotional ballads and we wanted to get people thinking about life and about love and relationships and other people around you,’ says Chris.
“We’re still and we’re still growing as well, we want our music to develop and grow with us. Lyrically you can see the jump from our previous Ep, to this Ep. We have matured a lot and moved to a deeper level with the songs. We like to entertain and engage people more. This is where this new release really moves.”
Have crowd favorites (or Youtube favorites) influenced you in the order in which you are going ro release your songs?
“It does have an influence, especially with this project. It is what we always wanted to do and it was the way we wanted to do it, that made it such a special project for us,” says Chris.
“We spent a lot of time working on this release, compared to the other two projects,” explains Chris. “This time it was a solid six to eight months of working on the project. We had plenty of time to think on how we wanted to go about it, were the songs were sounding right? Re-working some things we weren’t happy with.”
In the writing process, do you find you have bits of paper everywhere, or do you hit your phone every time a new idea that might be worth while for a release comes into your head?
“Sometimes we will bring a notebook, or on our phones or on our laptops. All of us would have hundreds of voice recordings, music riffs, whatever on our phones we bring into rehearsal. Sometimes we might come into a rehearsal and the producers might say to us “We got this great idea for a chord progression, what do you guys think?”
“We say “oh yeah, that’s going to work, or not.” It’s a very collaborative process between us all.”
I ventured a guess that the opener “Bad For Me,” was going to be the crowd favorite, what did the guys think of my choice?
“That was the one we chose to release as the first single off the Ep. It’s doing pretty well.”
Do their parents have a favorite track?
The guys from In Stereo agree they have very supportive parents, but I wasn’t able to get a clear picture of who supported what? But they did reveal there was no full size posters of the boys behind doors or above the dining room mantle. No awards sitting gathering dust on the mantel.
So did the guys have tracks they wished their parents wouldn’t play?
“All of them, ” they chorused.
“The release is an Ep that appeals to everyone,” explains Chris. “There’s the ballads, the anthems, every song is different, I guess that’s why our parents haven’t really named any track in particular.”
It’s an Ep for all ages?
“Yeah, that’s what we have been aiming for.”
The guys from In Stereo have a pretty crazy Youtube channel, that features music, dares and random thoughts.
“We really like to connect with our audience. It’s a great way to show our personalities and our music,’ says Chris.
youtube.com/instereomusic.com
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