Sounds Under Radio
News Flash: Sounds Under Radio has released their long-awaited new album Cinematica. See video footage below of their CD Release Party at La Zona Rosa in Austin, TX on October 18, 2008 filmed by Open Labs.
Open Labs Exclusive Artist Interview
- by Carson Barker, Open Labs Staff Writer
Consider the rolling textures, gigantic landscapes and vertigo overtures that Sounds Under Radio's debut album, Cinematica offers. Judging by its sonic texture, you'd think that lead singer/guitarist Lang Freeman and company's home studio is MTV's "Cribs" worthy, but it's not. Tracks like the pulverizing "Digital Lo-Fi" and the bombastically melodic "Sellout" all elude to some kind of room that is wall-to-wall with multi-track mixers, hi-def speakers, racks of digital what-nots and so-forths. But S.U.R.'s home studio, which resides in a spare bedroom of their Austin house, is small enough to fit on of top a single school desk. Don't be fooled by the size -- the band's desktop set-up is capable of way more than studio standards. It's fitted to work on the road, on the stage, and handle everything from sequenced light shows to cuing each member of every subtle change in their live performance ... eventually.
"We've never been ones to rush things," said Freeman. "Good fortune always comes with letting things take their natural progression."
You may of heard of Sounds Under Radio from their hit single "Portrait of a Summer Thief" which was featured on the "Spiderman 3" soundtrack when they were still an unsigned band. Or you may have caught a glimpse of them live since they've been touring vigorously from Texas to Toronto in support of the album. Between the passages of Hollywood film, international airplay and the fact that Cinematica was finished almost two years ago, you've probably heard of Sounds Under Radio, but you haven't bought the album yet, why not?
Because you can't. You can't get it on iTunes. You can't find it at a local record shop. You can't even find a link to it on Sounds Under Radio's website. Why? Because much like the natural progression of coal into diamonds, this band chooses to wait until the time is just right.
"We're hoping it will be released by the end of summer, early fall at the latest," said Sounds Under Radio's bassist/keyboardist Bradley Oliver. "The record has been finished for a while now. We finished it in October of 2006, December 2006 was when it was finally mastered. The unfortunate thing about recording a really good, powerful album is that no one wants to botch the release. There is a grand master plan. Putting in a date sometimes is like saying 'I love you.' Do you still want to do it? I mean, you want to, but that changes the context of it."
"We've done adjustments to it and tweaks," added Freeman. "Two different dates were in plan for its release, but it just takes time. It literally took us a year to come up with a title for Cinematica ... Like I said, we never rush things."
Upstairs in the southern corner of Sounds Under Radio's casa is their home studio, which looks like a college musician's dorm room. The walls are curtained with monotone, paisley tapestries, there are candles, incense burners and the like flanked around. Books by Chuck Klosterman and Joseph Campbell lay next to a few guitars and basses. It's easy to imagine a couple of newly budding musicians sitting Indian-style on the floor, cutting song ideas and polishing guitar hooks in between classes, which is essentially how Oliver and Freeman got started.
"We actually met our freshman year at UT, I was on the third or fourth floor of the dorm and he was on the first," said Oliver. "One of my friends said, 'Hey you should meet my friend Lang, he's a great guitar player.' Lang called me, he and a couple of other guys were starting a band and he said we should jam. It was the day before both of us had left for Christmas break. I hauled both of my bass cabinets into his little dorm room and I was like 'Cool, lets jam!' I asked him, 'What do you know? Do you know any Weezer?' We ended up doing a Miles Davis song."
"I had a chart, I don't know why I had a jazz chart but I pulled it out," added Freeman. He's was probably like, 'What the hell?' Regardless though ... from that came the idea of Sounds Under Radio and the collaborative project we wanted to build. It took us a year to assemble all the right players, but again, it was the right amount of time necassary to build the band we wanted."
School's out now for Oliver and Freeman, and they've mined a number of musical gems since the days of playing jazz tunes in Freeman's dorm. Being the only unsigned band on the "Spiderman 3" soundtrack, and recently inking a deal with Epic Records, to name a few. But most importantly, the finalization of their debut, yet-to-be released album, Cinematica.
"It describes, I think, the record very well," said Freeman of the album's title. "The record has these large landscapes and very intimate moments, which was very much the goal of creating this record. And these very natural moments destroyed by these unnatural kinds of things. All within the context of writing pop songs and rock music. Everyone has described it as when you listen to the album as a whole, it seems like your watching a movie."
As we're sitting in the band's home studio, Freeman and Oliver are showing me Internet videos of Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Holmes attacking a fan from the stage, and I notice that the only piece of real studio equipment hanging around their studio is their MiKo, resting comfortably on the desk. According to Freeman and Oliver, that's all they need.
"It's collectively owned by Sounds Under Radio," Freeman said. "It will soon be important to every member of the band in some way, shape or form. We've basically been sequencing audio from our record for the live show. Everything we've recorded is done to a click track, so it's a simple task to implement into a live context. There are four people in this band, but the record has these huge elements where on stage it would take 10 people to accomplish it all. We have prerecorded tracks that supplement the live sound and keep the show in sequence. Basically, we want the live show to be something that is less about playing a collection of songs and more about a movement that starts from the moment that we get on stage to the moment we're done. A theater of sorts, but where the organic band is the biggest and most focal element."
Much like their music, Sounds Under Radio's plans and uses for their MiKo are expansive. But that's how the band functions: vast, bold and beautiful.
"Function two of the MiKo is integrating all the keyboard and analog synth stuff," said Freeman. "Bradley plays an old Roland Juno 60 live, but there is only so long that those things will last on the road and take the wear and tear of touring. We want to get those sounds into the MiKo via MIDI so he doesn't have to worry about switching instruments as much live, and we don't have to bring out 10 different keyboards on the road with us ... we just want to bring the MiKo. There are certain songs that we can't play live because we don't have an organic piano on stage, but with our MiKo, it's really easy to do with the MIDI interface and a killer piano VSTi."
"Function three is using a MiKo to assist in the visual element of our show, by routing a single MIDI program to cue a sequenced light show that compliments the audio element of the event. We want our show to be a large, multi-media type thing, so when people leave a Sounds Under Radio performance they think, 'Wow, I just saw a show! Not just a couple of guys on stage playing songs.'"
The coordinated light shows, MIDI programs and multi-media performances are still on the vine, but Oliver and Lang are not sweating it. Patience is a virtue, and these Austinites exercise this practice well. The coal is still compressing into a diamond until the release of Cinematica, and the band is maximizing every minute of it.
"We have so much new material right now, and we want to be prepared when the next record comes along," said Lang. "We recorded Cinematica independently, and it took us six months to a year to do the actual recording because we were on our own budget and juggling many different schedules. With the next record, I think that with all the pre-planning, demoing and what not, it will be done in a finite period of time."
Equipment Used
Purchased MiKo LX (Gen3)
Artist Links
