It’s rare to see a band’s debut explode onto the scene the same way that aliensdontringdoorbells have. Then again, it’s rare to a see a band with such an eye-catching name, sound and singular ambition. We at Original Rock are proud to present the first of three exclusive interviews with each member of this exciting new band (this time, it’s lead guitarist Dorian), as their debut album ‘Arrival’ is now available everywhere.
You’ve just released an album – congratulations! Tell us something about the writing/recording process that we don’t know…
Dorian: Yes, and we have called our debut album ‘ARRIVAL’. It has 12 songs on it all written by the three of us but what you might not know is that for the song ‘STORY’ the drums, piano and bass tracks are actually the ones we recorded for the original demo in the Bahamas. The reason for this is that typically when you record a song, the band plays to a ‘click’ in the headphones which keeps you on time but when we recorded the demo for Story we didn’t worry too much about the click as it was a ‘demo’. Well, in our genius (not!) to get a music video out early, we filmed the music video in August 2019 using the demo recording but when we went into the studio in the fall of 2019 we realized that we could not match the tempo of the music video with the ‘on tempo’ studio recording so we had to use the demo drums as the variable click track so that the album version matched the tempo of the demo and the music video. If it sounds complicated, it was, but we ended up liking the demo drums, bass and piano parts so much that we kept them and just recorded guitars, all vocals, percussion and keyboard pads/strings in the studio for Story!
Are there any themes which crop up a lot in your songs/lyrics? How hard/easy is it for you and your band to write a song?
Dorian: The themes vary by the person in the band who brings the initial idea but often we write lyrics for each other’s songs when we get stuck – sometimes I like to write about observations of life so I can be a bit specific and you can hear this in songs like, ‘Story’, ‘Slipping Away’ and ‘Choice’ and then other songs will have a more overall feeling as in songs like ‘It’s Your Night’ and ‘Consummation’ which started with an idea from Adam, or a song like ‘Missing Pieces’ which Christian had the idea for. As you can imagine, it is not very easy to schedule yourself to ‘write a song’, rather songs often come from a moment of inspiration when you have your phone nearby to record your musical idea or lyric. The way we decided to handle this was to schedule two 10 day writing sessions for ourselves. We all gathered away from home in a condo in the Bahamas for our first ‘creative writing session’ which was a bit scary as we didn’t really know if anything would emerge. Well the saying ‘it takes pressure to make a diamond’ applied to us all as the creative week approached and none of us wanted to let the other down. The result was 5 songs from the first creative week and another 7 songs from our second creative week (again in the Bahamas) which was immediately followed by recording the 12 demo tracks in 2 days at Sanctuary Studios in the Bahamas.
How much did you spend on the first guitar you ever bought? Or was it a present?
Dorian: When I was 12 years old my mother brought my brother and I to New York City to buy a guitar from the famous Manny’s Music (sadly now gone) and when we were having lunch in Greenwich Village my mom spotted a guy carrying an amp on his shoulder and a guitar. My mom was quite a character and she said ‘I bet that young man is selling that guitar’ and she got up and ran to ask him; she was right he was headed to the pawn shop! So I ended up getting a used 1965 Fender Jazzmaster and a 1965 Fender Twin Reverb for I think $175 (£135). Today both those items are highly prized vintage gear. Sadly I sold the guitar when I was 16 to buy a Les Paul guitar but the amplifier I still have to this day; it’s my oldest piece of equipment next to my 1956 C.G. Conn Baritone sax.
You have something of a background in car racing – could you tell us a little more about this? Did it influence your career as a musician at all?
Dorian: Yes, I have a thing for cars! I was intensely into racing cars for about 10 years or so racing and practicing 2 to 3 weekends per month at the peak. It was all amateur racing but it was intense. I loved the speed, the comradery and the mechanics. The guys I raced were also in it to win so I met a lot of ‘A’ type personalities; great fun to race against. In 2007 at the US National SCCA Championships I was 3rd in the USA in my class (DSR). There is a yt video somewhere if you look up islandracer you can watch one of my races. The intensity of racing, which I enjoyed, is something I like to bring to my music and I play my instruments rather intensively often wearing out parts or breaking strings to get that peak performance so it helps that I’m pretty mechanical.
If you could borrow the guitar off any rockstar in music history, whose guitar would you want and why?
Dorian: I would borrow Jeff Beck’s Stratocaster. He has got the best pickups (made by John Suhr) and the old fat neck on his guitar which were only made back in the late 1980s by Fender. So many complained of these hard-to-play ‘ fat necks’ that Fender quickly stopped production of them but Jeff knows better that these necks sustain wonderfully and just need time to get used to. So, that is definitely one guitar. Additionally, I wouldn’t mind to borrow the 1959 Les Paul that once belonged to the late Peter Green and then purchased by the late great Gary Moore; wonderful tone.
Have you ever smashed a guitar at a show? Have you ever been tempted?!
Dorian: No. I would never purposely smash any of my guitars as I love them all too much. But, when I was 17 at my high school graduation party held on the patio of my parent’s house, my band at the time was playing and the other guitar player pulled out his old Teisco guitar and busted it up. We all laughed so hard and I still remember it all in detail.
Thanks so much for joining us, Dorian! Stay tuned for parts two and three coming next week!