Soular

Since winning a local radio station’s “Battle of the Bands” competition in 2003, New Mexico-based outfit Soular has done nothing but watch their stars rise. Honing their unique brand of Americanized Brit-rock over the span of three EP’s and now 2007′s full-length effort, Love Crash Heal, the band has established themselves as a force to be reckoned with.

Recently, SSv sat down with lead vocalist Marsh Shamburger to discuss meaningful music, the place of spontaneity within the creative process, and the question of how to create art that is truly original and not simply derivative.

SSv: Let’s begin with me asking this. Our tagline here at Stereo Subversion is “meaningful music exists.” What does meaningful music mean to you? How might you define that?

Marsh: Meaningful music is, well, I’m going to use adjectives. It’s sincere. It’s non-sentimental. But it’s thoughtful and it’s diverse.

SSv: That’s interesting. What do you mean by “non-sentimental?”

Marsh: What I mean by sentimental is sentimentalism where it’s like the music is trying too hard to be over-emotional. You know, it’s trying too hard to pass. Many songs have sentimentalism. I don’t like sappy music! It’s just like trying to be too emo…

SSv: So almost as if it’s just going for the emotional payoff without really having something of substance to say then?

Marsh: Exactly. I’m not sure I phrased that just right, but yeah…

SSv: Okay, so building on that idea of what meaningful music exists, how do you guys within Soular create your music given that you’ll each answer that question differently?

Marsh: As far as coming from diverse opinions and forming them into an individual?

SSv: Yeah…

Marsh: I think a lot of it comes from just the mutual [understanding] we have together. You know, where everybody just kind of knows what they’re going to bring to [the band]. Even though Brian and I tend to write a lot of the lyrics, the passion is that we trust one another that even though the song missed one thing and we’ve started the idea, I’m going to finish the thought in kind of a cohesive effort and it’s still going to be greater than just the individual, you know, just one guy’s perspective. Actually, I think to have more of a diverse perspective actually brings strength. Because in a strange way, it can still be cohesive but it can sort of have multiple layers or meanings as well.

When I write a song, it has a meaning to me. But what’s interesting is that a lot of times that meaning can change over time even as life’s experiences come into play. It morphs and what it means to me is a little bit different although there are some similarities to what it means to Jared or Brian or Ian, even in the same song. It could have something to do with whatever we came up with as a melodic idea.

SSv: So have you ever had that moment when a fan came to you with the story about how they were in “that place” and they heard one of your songs and the meaning they derived from it was simply so far off from what you originally intended?

Marsh: [Laughs] Yeah, it’s happened quite a bit. We had a song off of an older record that was actually a pretty dark tongue-in-cheek song. Plus, what it meant was sarcastic and they didn’t get the sarcasm and they had it in their wedding.

SSv: Wow.

Marsh: Yeah, and they came up to us and told us about how meaningful the song was and it was the one in their wedding. I was like, “If you only knew.” [Laughs] But we weren’t going to argue because you know, if they want to play it, they want to play it.

SSv: Yeah, it reminds me of that Police song, “Every Move You Make” that people play at weddings. I’m always like, do you get what that song’s about?

Marsh: Yeah, it’s a stalker song.

SSv: It’s crazy. Anyway, continuing to deal with the dynamic in the band and I know you guys are very proud of your live show, what other artistic elements or mediums do you bring in to enhance the experience? And do you feel that’s an important thing for the music to incorporate those additional elements?

Marsh: Yeah, I would say that there’s a whole lot of things that we want to incorporate over time, especially into the live experience. One of the things we do is we try different things with different sounds and instruments. Brian will do some things with his guitar and I’ll do some things using some samples of different things and just different analog sounds. There are always moments live in every show where we want to not know exactly what’s going to happen. We sort of have planned spontaneity.

So those elements keep it interesting for us because there’s something new we can do every night and just different from the night before. It may be based on how we’re feeling that night or how other things are going that night. And also for somebody who’s going to come to multiple shows it’s going to make it so that there’s no show that’s exactly like another show. So those elements are there.

There are some things, getting to the point, where we could have more of a budget for bigger tours and things with lighting and stuff like that. We’d love to have different elements involved and I think it’d be fun to brainstorm that. I feel like a lot of our music 4we write and play in sort of a soundtrack form to a made up movie that’s in our head at the time and so our sets are kind of that way. And it would be interesting to have some other elements. I don’t know exactly what that would be but to expand on that in the future is something that we’d be really into.

SSv: It would be really interesting to see how something like that would flesh itself out.

Marsh: Yeah, so I’m sort of excited to get to a point where we can really experiment a little bit more that way.

SSv: Well, it just seems that you’ve got a platform for those things with music videos and the like, but to have it incorporated into the live rock show would be very compelling…

Marsh: Yeah! You know, the classic example is Pink Floyd. They, of course, have their laser light shows and that was just phenomenal and it just became a signature with Pink Floyd. And then you’ve got other people doing them and play The Wall or Dark Side of the Moon or something and have a laser light show. And I think for us, obviously, they’re an influence. So what they did though as far as taking the live rock thing from just a rock concert to an experience, I think for us that’s a really important part of who we are as a band and heading in that direction.

SSv: Okay, so with the idea of planned spontaneity and such, I know that you guys had a few tracks such as “It’s a Shame” on the latest album that were spontaneous songs…

Marsh: Absolutely spontaneous.

SSv: …And then with “You Taste You Feel” that you guys built more or less from the ground up in the studio. Is that a freeing thing for you as an artist?

Marsh: Yeah, I can just speak for us. I mean, because everybody’s a little bit different in how that they react and how that they thrive in their environment or whatever. For us, I can just say that to have that ability. What we’d do is whenever we’d hit a creative wall, we’d just go into what we call the “interlude mode.” We would just kind of say, “Okay, let’s go track an idea.” That kind of a thing. And that’s how those two songs were formed.

We’d be struggling with a song and rather than force our way through it, we’d just take a detour for a second and then we’d come back to the song or we’d go somewhere else. Our approach was “if it’s not working, let’s not fight to make it work. We’ll just find what’s working and move on with it.” And those two songs were sort of like breaks, if you will, or intermissions. And they ended up on the album. Those are two of my favorite songs on the record.

SSv: So would you say that better art comes from spontaneity or from a reasoned, practiced structure?

Marsh: I don’t think you can paint with that brush, no. I think it’s both. I think that some great songs come instantaneously. Some great art comes instantaneously and some comes from a lot of sweat and work. I don’t think you can define it that way. I think that some of the things we did that we worked really hard on are better than some of the other things.

SSv: Okay, Soular is cited quite a bit as a band with Brit-pop or Brit-rock influences and you guys have shared some of those influences yourselves. And the sound is readily evident on Love Crash Heal. So, being that art is not created in a vacuum but by people who have been influenced, how do you then create music and art that is honestly original and not simply derivative?

Marsh: Yeah, that’s a very good question and I was just talking to somebody about this. One of the things that we did intentionally is that we didn’t want to hide some of our influences and act like we were this completely original band with no context and no relation to anything else. The conversation I had was just about how we tip our hat to the various influences that we have but, at the same time, it just so happens that a lot of our influences are from England or Ireland or something, you know? Or Australia. So we didn’t want to come across as this Brit-rock band because, to me, I feel like that’s not original because we’re not a British band. We’re a New Mexican band. Basically, we’re Alberquerqeans and two of us grew up in Dallas, Texas. Sometimes with some of the British music, I feel like it doesn’t hit hard enough, you know what I mean?

SSv: Sure.

Marsh: Some of it does, but I just felt like one big thing that’s cool about American rock and roll is that it’s not scared to hit really hard. And by that I just mean production-wise and guitar-wise, like Rage Against the Machine and even the grunge stuff, the Nirvana stuff. It was just like great music and a lot of us wanted to be in bands because we’d hear Kurt Cobain play his guitar and sing the way he did.

SSv: Absolutely.

Marsh: And who didn’t. So for us it was “What if we just tried to write songs that are songs we believe in and at the same time not be scared to give a musical reference or quote, if you will, here and there.” And I feel like if you do that, it’s okay to quote as long as you’re obvious about your quotes and where you maintain integrity overall where, the song’s a song. It’s just going to have…I feel like there were points where we sort of referenced or channeled… (Laughs) It’s like, for me, mentally I was thinking of John Lennon at moments. I was thinking of David Bowie in moments. There was a time where I was thinking of Brian May.

So I think it’s okay to say that we didn’t create anything in a vacuum, that we did. We wouldn’t be where we are as musicians. We wouldn’t even have the opportunity to play music if it weren’t for all the bands that came before us. So I think that when you recognize that and you still have your own voice, have something to say that’s different than what Led Zeppelin said and what U2 said and than what Green Day said or whatever band, it’s like you’ve got your own thing. I don’t know if that makes sense but…

SSv: No, it makes total sense. We don’t create in a vacuum and we’re lying to both ourselves and others if we hold to that. And your sound is going to be influenced by those you grow up hearing, those that truly do help to form your sound…

Marsh: I wouldn’t be in a band, I wouldn’t know how to sing harmony, I wouldn’t hear melodies the way I do if I wouldn’t have listened to my parents’ Beatles records. Or I’d sing a whole lot differently. If all I listened to was Frank Sinatra, I’m sure I’d probably not be in the same band or we would have created something completely different.

SSv: And you’d be rocking a few different clubs there in Albuquerque than you are now, too. [Laughs]

Marsh: [Laughs] Yeah, exactly.

SSv: Okay, let me springboard off the word “integrity” that you used and move on from there. While Love Crash Heal deals largely with the ups and downs of relationships, “American Dream” takes a different path, dealing with the cycle of greed, corruption, and the possibility that the American dream isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. How do you as artists who, rightfully so, desire to sell bunches of albums and have your fan base grow larger, honestly negotiate those pathways without getting caught up in the machinery as well?

Marsh: Right, not selling out, quote unquote?

SSv: Yeah.

Marsh: Whatever that really means. And I think it means different things to different people. If somebody’s got a high sellout meter, they’re going to answer the question differently. When you write music and you’re in a band, you want people to hear what you’re doing. We don’t write songs just sort of in a room by ourselves, just thinking about the tour bus or me just writing and thinking about myself. I think that one of the beautiful things about music is that it really is not just about one person, it’s about everybody. And so when we write a song there may be a specific instance and an idea lyrically that may have an individual meaning but it’s got a broader application, so to speak.

I think there’s something meaningful and real and dangerous about that desire that we have for as many people to hear our songs as possible. So that song is really talking about the fallacy of living the American dream as we think of it. Like if I could drive this, if I could make this, if I could sell this number of records, if we could get on this program, or whatever successful thing that could happen that we’d think, then I’d be happy. The reality is that then you want the next thing. And so the real problem that we all have is that struggle to be happy and to be balanced.

This is the thing you were just talking about – to be artistically true and genuine and authentic while at the same time realizing that it’s okay if a lot of people like it. It doesn’t make it ‘not cool’ if a lot of people like it. I was just talking to somebody about this and I was asking them if they’ve heard this particular band’s new record and they were like, “Oh no, they’re on a big label now.” I said, alright, but it’s a really good record, this particular record. I enjoyed it. I said, “You know, that’s really shallow to think that just because something reaches a wider audience that it’s immediately not artistic and not respected as a record or whatever.”

So we have to kind of guard ourselves from one extreme or the other, to go either super commercial and just to make everybody happy, which is never going to happen, or to be this kind of hyper-indie mentality that says unless only ten people buy the record then it’s awful. Or unless it sounds like it was done in somebody’s garage and it’s too weird and experimental for me to understand, then it’s cool. So I think both, like the super-slick and the super lo-fi on the other side are the mentalities that we try to avoid.

SSv: It’s very interesting how the musical snobbery out there manifests itself. And you’re right about the major label thing. You’d think that people might consider the idea that if an album is getting that much exposure, maybe it’s just that much better in some cases…

Marsh: It could be. It’s again that everything can’t be judged in the same way. The criteria for judging whether something is meaningful is subjective but there are certain things that are common denominators in all the things. And the good thing about everybody’s exposure to music is that we know the difference between an American Idol record and a Blonde Redhead record. We can hear the difference, quality-wise. Whereas I think that ten years ago, twenty years ago, it was harder to tell the difference, because we’ve sort of seen the man behind the curtain, and he’s not that cool. [Laughs