HAIL THE SUN
PHOTO COURTESY OF WILD OAK RECORDS  l  WEBSITE: www.myspace.com/hailthesun

Interview answered by Donovan Melero (Drums/Vocals) and Shane Gann (Guitar/Vocals)

YOUR SONGS HAVE REALLY STRANGE AND COOL STRUCTURES. HOW DO YOU GUYS USUALLY APPROACH THE SONG WRITING PROCESS?

DONOVAN: Thank you. We try not to write songs, but instead birth them, naturally, with no pain meds.

SHANE: We invite a toddler into our practice space, and play a game where we all make funny faces, then whoever the child looks at has to play something for as long as the child continues gazing upon them When the gaze moves to someone else, that person gets to play something. The process repeats until the toddler becomes more interested in the taste of the carpet than our faces, at which point we deem the song “complete.” Then we take a recording of that, and separate, and write our respective parts for the song.
 
DONOVAN: I personally love musical surprises, where you don’t expect what actually happens. There are soft parts into fast parts, melodic parts into different melodic parts, key changes, time signature changes, all that jazz. It shows in our more recent songs on the album “Sleep Now and Forever Wet Your Dreams”, “Crying is Only Manly if Splinters Come Out”, and “Ready or Not, There I Go”. Even in the older song “Railmaster” there are traces of these things. And we like to do anything that makes songs different from one another, and memorable in their own way; for example the arguing and accelerando in “Railmaster”, the hand claps and whoooos in “Ready or Not”, the trumpet and ofttimes in “Orion”, etc. As far as structure goes, we just write what we would want to hear next, and most of the time the songs end up rounding themselves. Shane and Aric are both perfect matches, and always surprise me with what they can come up with. We are never in a rut for too long before we write a part we are happy with. We like our songs like we like our women- soft, petite, but deadly.

THE BAND’S DEBUT ALBUM TITLED “POW! RIGHT IN THE KISSER!” WAS RELEASED IN MAY. DID YOU GUYS FIRST GO THROUGH THE PROCESS OF RECORDING AS MANY DEMOS AS POSSIBLE TO FIND YOUR SOUND BEFORE YOU WENT ON TO RECORD THE ALBUM?

DONOVAN: Aric and I recorded demos of some of the songs that are on the album in sporadic blocks of time in the summer of 2009. We had already formed a fraction of the type of sound you hear on the album during that time, and even from late 2007 on. But it wasn’t until Shane graced the band that we really hit the kitten on the head, in the best way possible. Our style got even more evolved with that man.

SHANE: Yes, and we polled a sample pool of people indigenous to the Pacific Ocean to decide which sound was most popular throughout the masses.

DONOVAN: The three of us started mating our styles and riffs together, recording a few other demo songs, and it was nothing short of slimy. As if that wasn’t enough, our bromance of sound was completed in January 2010 when John took over the bass after our original bassist left. We asked him to fill in for our first tour of CA last minute, and he learned all the songs on his own. Our first show with the final line-up was the first show of our tour.

After that, we carefully calculated a way to manipulate John into joining the band in an occasion where he thought he was just going to get a free sundae at McDonalds. We went into the studio in March 2010 and had our record release show May 21, 2010. It was during this time that we discovered the sum of our talent + the smell of the control room - the sleep we didn’t get multiplied by Polly Pocket sales divided by fairy pixie dust = our sound. It was truly an amazing (cliche) experience. We actually recorded the whole album live in the studio at first in an 8 hour sweatshop session.

Then a few weeks later, we completely scratched those sessions and tracked the instruments from scratch because we thought we could do better. It was painstaking, and most of the sessions were between the hours of 10pm-8am, but needed to be done. We learned how to be zombies during that time.

THE ALBUM CAN ALSO BE DOWNLOADED FOR FREE AT HTTP://HAILTHESUN.BANDCAMP.COM. BY GIVING YOUR ALBUM AWAY FOR FREE, IN WHAT OTHER WAYS HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO SUPPORT THE BAND FINANCIALLY?

SHANE: We don’t. We’re poor. We’re thinking of selling vampire blood.

DONOVAN: The whole bandcamp thing is actually a very recent development. On our tour we sold hard copies of the album. It was only $5 and included artwork, booklet, and CD cases. This was successful. But in the current music world, offering free DL of your music is a sure way to get people who like you to listen to it, and it’s not a big hassle. We are not all about the money, but we do like it. In fact we love it, and we are all about the money. Except we are not. SO…to tour, and make merchandise, and pay our amazing engineer and close friend Fernando Macias-Jimenez, we did it the old fashioned way: saved up according to a budget.

A lot goes on behind the scenes with us, that doesn’t just include cuddling and Candyland late night board games. We actually take careful note of every dollar we spend and make. We created a very accurate budget for making  our album and going on the summer 2010 tour. We then divided that number by 4 like we learned in fahrst grade, and each member contributed that over several months. The cool thing is that everyone in the band is super cool about contributing, and understands the importance of pleasing Mr. Cashman, so there’s no dispute. When we sell albums, sell merch, and get paid by the venue we end up making some of the money we spent back, and that sits there for the process to start all over again. Oh, and we’re hookers.

WHAT WOULD YOU GUYS STILL LIKE TO ATTEMPT MUSICALLY WITH THIS BAND BECAUSE THE COOL THING ABOUT MUSIC IS THAT YOU LEARN SOMETHING NEW ALMOST EVERY DAY?

SHANE: *Sappy alert* We’d really just love to continue to make music together, and share what we’re proud of with the world. It’s amazing to find a group of people who mesh so well, and come up with such exciting music; too ask for anything more would just be greedy.

NOT MANY BANDS VOCALISTS PLAY THE DRUMS WHILE PERFORMING THE VOCALS AS WELL. WAS IT SOMETHING THAT WORKED RIGHT FROM THE START OR DID IT TAKE A WHILE TO GET USE TO?

SHANE: I don’t know. I play guitar.
 
DONOVAN: A little bit of both. I have always loved singing, especially to the mockingbirds outside my window on a crisp Sunday morning. Once Aric and I started jamming and writing our own songs, separate of our old high school band, I would just sing the vocal parts I heard in my head. Doctor said it would help distract me from the voices I heard at night.

It was about this time also that Aric and I moved up to Chico to go to school (where we later met our toy things John and Shane), so we didn’t really know any other musicians in the area. It just stuck that way even when we started getting serious and playing shows. There was a brief period in the summer of 2009, before Shane and John were in the band, where we had a drummer play with us and I just played guitar while we were home in Ventura, CA. And it was fun. But once we were back in Chico, I hopped back to my throne, and things have been that way since. The only challenge is having enough stamina and energy to perform 100% the whole show. It’s easy to run out of breath. We also had to work on our live show.

Because there is no official ‘frontman’, Shane, John and Aric have to be frontmen, and be entertaining. I will come out to the front during certain parts of our songs with no drums and sing. I think this combination makes for a very spontaneous live show, which we will discuss later.

YOUR FAVOURITE LYRIC FROM ONE OF YOUR SONGS?

SHANE: If I could block out these sounds for just fifteen minutes, maybe then I’d get some feeling back between my ears.

DONOVAN: My favorite lyric on the album is the very last line that closes the record. “I’m the way I’d hate to be.” I believe this line was thought up as a band effort. That or “Lets F*** anyway.” It’s a theme for life.

THE COOLEST PLACE YOU’VE TRAVELLED TO SO FAR?

DONOVAN: The coolest place I’ve travelled so far is Wingstop in Orange County. Oh! And the mystic swamp pools of old man Ozz. Dark, Dark days.

SHANE: John’s parents’ house.

ARE YOU ALWAYS A BIT NERVOUS BEFORE A SHOW BUT FIND YOURSELF HAVING A COMPLETE BLAST ON STAGE AS SOON AS YOU PLAY THOSE FIRST FEW NOTES?

SHANE: No…yes…

DONOVAN: Right before a show I am so nervous that I turn into an etch-a-sketch. I quickly evolve into Voltorb, pokemon #100, but not before I lose control of my speech, and talk with an accent similar to that of a hybrid leprechaun-elf, both of which are part of the same Phylum and Species. By that time, I forget why I was nervous to begin with, and I have a blast.

WHICH BAND MEMBER HAS THE BEST STAGE MOVES?

DONOVAN: John. Hands down, no doubt.

SHANE: John Stirrat, Lord of the Dance.

DONOVAN: Actually, Mr. Miagi.

HAVE ANY OF YOU GUYS EVER CRIED (OR WANTED TO CRY) DURING A MOVIE?

SHANE: No. Crying Is Only Manly If Splinters Come Out.

DONOVAN: My tears are made of acid. Yes, I have.

ANY OTHER COMMENTS OR ANYTHING ELSE FANS SHOULD LOOK OUT FOR?

SHANE: Our sex tape will be out this fall quarter; look for it in the checkout at your local supermarket!

DONOVAN: There are tons of awesome bands out there today, locally, who are just amazing. Check out The Rhythm Kills, The Speed of Sound in Seawater, Mute Witness, Airborne Age and Harris Grade. They don’t play games.

INTERVIEW BY NEIL VAN ZYL