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New Music Spotlight: |
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Time Well Wasted | ||
Time Well Wasted comes to us with a lot of energy and passion; and it shows when you are listening to their tracks. In fact, the Mount Vernon, Washington group delivers a mean punch with their emotional lyrics, powerful vocals, electrifying guitars, head-banging drums, and strong bass that is sure to entertain. Check out this recent interview I had with front man, Mike Anderson:
BAND MEMBERS:
Mike Anderson
-vocals/guitar-
David VEGA!
-guitar/vocals-
Philthy McNasty
-bass/vocals-
Michael Noonan
-drums
Isaac-Joseph: I really like the name Time Well Wasted. Give us a brief breakdown on the concept of the name? A brief history of the band?
Mike Anderson: The name Time Well Wasted just came from everyone saying that being in a rock band is a waste of time. We just felt the, if it is indeed just wasting time, then it's about the best waste of time out there. The band was originally formed by David Vega and Mike Anderson, with their friend Loren Minerich. The three of them went to high school together, and met in choir class. We originally had David on drums. We've had a couple line-up changes since then, but the most notable would be the addition of Michael Noonan on drums.
This enabled David to hop over to lead guitar, and freed him up to do more singing too. Early on, we also added Philthy McNasty to
the bass.
Isaac-Joseph: What aspect of making music excites you the most right now?
Mike Anderson: Right now, just making songs that other people can relate to is the most exciting for us. We love being able to play a show, and see people singing along, and to have people tell us how much our music means to them. That's by far the most rewarding thing for us.
Isaac-Joseph: What aspect of making music gets you the most discouraged?
Mike Anderson: We usually try not to get discouraged ever, although, we can get a little bummed about the people telling us we suck on YouTube. Luckily, there are enough people who love the videos to make us ignore the negative.
Isaac-Joseph: What are you up to right now, music-wise? (Current or upcoming recordings, tours, extravaganzas, experiments, top-secret projects,
etc).
Mike Anderson: Haha, well, we don't really have much "Top-Secret" going on, but we do have covers that we're working on bringing into our shows. We've just finished up our debut CD "Thorns And Halos", which is available on our MySpace page. We've got shows in the Seattle area,
as well as Southern Oregon. And we're planning on hitting up more of the North West soon.
Isaac-Joseph: You have quoted your influences as Nirvana, Three Days Grace, Skillet, Alice In Chains, Killswitch Engage, The Used, Thrice, and Rise Against!
What have you learned from these iconic performers that you bring to your own music?
Mike Anderson: Well, our main influence is Nirvana, and from them we've learned to just, throw all your energy into the performance, and just lay your heart out there, and see how people take it, because chances are, they're gonna love it. That's also something that those other
artists do in their music.
Isaac-Joseph: What's the most unusual place you've ever played a show or made a recording? How did the qualities of that place affect the
show/recording?
Mike Anderson: The most unusual place we've played a show would have to be the High School library, haha. That was a really fun show; although, we had to turn our equipment down really low, so we wouldn't disturb the classes. The show was at 10:30am.
Isaac-Joseph: In what ways does the place where you live (or places where you have lived); affect the music you create, or your taste in music (you guys are from Mount Vernon, Washington)?
Mike Anderson: I think that our hometown of Mount Vernon, WA has helped us, in that we're near Seattle, which goes with our love for the Seattle sound, but also, there's not a whole lot to do out there, being in the farm lands, so we could either party, or play our music, and we chose music.
Isaac-Joseph: When was the last time you wrote a song? What can you tell us about it?
Mike Anderson: The last song we wrote was "Sometimes". And on the album it appears as an acoustic track. That song just sort of came together. We started with the version found on the CD, and then switched up the chorus, and bridge, and now it's the version that you'll hear live.
Isaac-Joseph: As you create more music, do you find yourself getting more or less interested in seeking out and listening to new music made by other people...and why do you think that is?
Mike Anderson: It really comes in phases. Like, when we're writing songs, I know I like to go listen to other bands, and I tend to stray away from the bands I normally listen to. I like to let some odd songs influence me when I write, so that I'm not just re-writing the songs I
listen to all the time.
Isaac-Joseph: Lately what musical periods or styles do you find yourself most drawn to as a listener? (Old or new music? Music like yours or different from yours?)
Mike Anderson: I (Mike Anderson) personally am drawn to a wide variety. Lately I've been drawn to more soft music, like James Blunt and Tracy Chapman. Although, I've been listening to heavier stuff too, like Seether and Rise Against.
Isaac-Joseph: Name a band or musician, past or present, who you flat-out LOVE and think more people should be listening to. What's one of your all-time favorite recordings by this band/musician?
Mike Anderson: Well, I'll start with the obvious, and say Kurt Cobain. He is my all time favorite song writer, and my favorite songs by Nirvana would have to be "You Know You're Right", "Lithium", and "Opinion". Although, I love pretty much all of the Nirvana catalog. Another artist I think more people should check out is The Spill Canvas. The way Nick (singer/guitarist) uses lyrics to tell a story, is just beautiful.
I've seen them live a couple times, and visited with them, and they're all amazing guys. Definitely go check out The Spill Canvas.
Isaac-Joseph: What's the saddest song you've ever heard?
Mike Anderson: Oh man, the only song so far to actually bring me to tears, would have to be "Goodbye My Lover" by James Blunt. That song, there's just no words to describe how amazing that song is.
Isaac-Joseph: Describe a day in the studio for Time Well Wasted:
Mike Anderson: We usually spend about 4-5 hours together in a day at the studio practicing. And in those hours, we'll start by running our live set, after running through that, we'll work on any new songs that we've been tossing around. Once we've done that we run the set again, and then hang out telling jokes and such for another hour before heading home. Occasionally there'll be eating pizza, or discussing music videos, albums stuff, upcoming shows, random fans (yes, we do talk about you guys), and other stuff like that.
Isaac-Joseph: What are you looking forward to the most in 2008 music wise?
Mike Anderson: This year already looks like it's going to be amazing for us. We're lining up a headlining show in our home town at the "big" venue up there, which will be a first. We're also playing an acoustic show, which is another first. But our biggest gig lined up for next year currently, is our show in Southern Oregon, which we're totally psyched about, being as we've never played outside of the Seattle area. We're pretty much just looking forward to promoting the hell out of "Thorns And Halos" and writing new songs for the next album.
Isaac-Joseph: As 2007 comes to a close, what would you say has been the band's biggest accomplishment?
Mike Anderson: Oh boy, 2007 has been a crazy year for TWW. We kicked off the year by bringing in Michael Noonan on drums on February 17. Then we practiced for a couple months before heading back into the studio to rework Thorns And Halos. We've recorded and re-recorded, and then re-recorded again, our new album. We've released the album finally, and now we're playing a bunch of shows to promote it. We've been invited to participate in MTV2's On The Rise competition. We've been asked to submit a music video to them. Although, I'd say getting the album released would be our biggest accomplishment this year.
Isaac-Joseph: Shout out time--Give props to those that matters the most:
Mike Anderson:
Andy Anderson - Our funding/manager.
Drew Locke - Our producer/engineer/cowbell player.
Steve Smith - The owner of the drum school.
Froy Vega - Our kick ass helper, and little brother of David.
Andrea "Yoko" Parker - Another kick ass helper.
John Eingle - Our friend/Camera Man/Actor in the video.
And last but not least: every one of our fans. Without you, none of this could happen.
Isaac-Joseph: Final Thoughts:
Mike Anderson: I hope you liked the interview. Come check us out at www.myspace.com/timewellwastemv
and we hope to see you on tour very soon :)
Thanks,
Mike Anderson
Time.Well.Wasted
360.708.7896
www.myspace.com/timewellwastedmv
