Stabilo Live in Studio - to hear audio version, click on URL above.
Hello everybody. This is Shawn Hughes and I’m sitting down with Chris and Jesse from Stabilo out of Vancouver. How you doing, guys?
Chris: Great
Jesse: Awesome. How are you?
Shawn: I’m pretty good , thanks. Thanks for coming in today.
Jesse: Thanks for having us.
Shawn: Congratulations on the new album, Happiness and Disaster, just out a couple weeks ago. It’s finally here. Two years – three years of work.
Jesse: It seems like about 10 for us.
Shawn: How does it feel to finally have this record in your hands and in the hands of the fans?
Chris: Very satisfying.
Jesse: Yeah...
Chris: Relief...
Shawn: When you finally got that finished copy did you just want to run out and give it to all your friends or your family and say listen to this, this is the last two years of our lives here...
Jesse: No we wanted to just tell them to go buy it,actually. Sorry, no freebies this time, family.
Shawn: Do you find it weird, you know, having your emotions in these songs....that you’re getting all this personal stuff out....do you find it weird having it in a package like this, that people can just go buy?
Jesse: It’s not weird anymore. I think it was weird for a while...this is our, I mean it’s our first major label full album, but we’ve put out a couple before and it is very strange having – yeah at first – but you kind of get used to it and you kind of just desire to do that now so.....
Shawn: Now, there’s a great dynamic in this band with obviously two singers and two songwriters as well. Did you find any challenges not having one clear leader with one clear direction of the band? Like, do you find it difficult trying to balance the two personalities?
Jesse: Yeah, to a degree. There’s some difficult points and some parts that are a bit easier just in terms of... the difficulty comes in pigeon-holing your band and really finding a niche for it which isn’t necessarily what the goal should be, but a lot of people really desire that or want that in a band. But if you’re okay with that not being the case, then I think there’s a real plus to having the dynamic and the different aspects to it and different songwriting....and you know, it’s not the same thing every single song that’s on the record so....
Shawn: Does it become difficult to make a more cohesive record, though? Having two styles working together?
Jesse: Yeah, definitely. I think on this record we really focused on bringing both together and I think we’re getting better and better every record and hopefully two, three more records down the road it’ll really sound....not that it doesn’t right now, but I think we still have a lot of room to grow.
Shawn: Okay. You’re going to play a few songs for us today, so why not get right to some music. What are you going to play for us first, guys?
Jesse: This song is called “Don’t Look in Their Eyes”. It’s the first song off the record and hope you like it.
*Chris and Jesse Play: Don’t Look In Their Eyes.*
Shawn: That’s “Don’t Look in Their Eyes” by Stabilo. The song that opens their great new album, Happiness and Disaster. And also, the third most downloaded song in iTunes Canada history.
Jesse: Yeah, that is correct
Shawn: Yeah, that’s pretty amazing!
Jesse: Yeah
Chris: It is.
Jesse: Apparently... we were just talking about that earlier. We didn’t actually – you know – we were just saying how we didn’t really know the influence of iTunes and it’s such a new thing. We heard that and we were like, “Oh! What does that mean, kind of thing.” And it was like - guess that’s pretty good!
Shawn: With the emergence of iTunes being such a big thing now for bands to sell their records or their songs, and sort of the music industry starting to turn back to being in the singles market again, do you find that affects your songwriting at all?
Jesse: Yeah, totally. I think it - I mean - if we were to say no we’d probably be lying but I think as soon as you’re dealing with....you know...a record label and selling records and when that’s a definite motivation you have to keep in mind that the – sort of – pop aspect to it and as much as you, you know, to a degree want to stay away from a lot of that stuff it comes into play in the songwriting for sure.
Shawn: Is that something you find difficult dealing with? You know, all this pressure added on to you now, with the major label....
Jesse: Not really. I think once you sort of get over the, you know, not necessarily a shock but the initial.....like, okay, you’ve got to sell some records....as long as you can keep your own flavour to the songs and really keep your own style to the music, there’s always different ways of going around making something commercial but at the same time, you know, making it original, so...
Shawn: Now, on the album, the topic of self control comes up a couple of times. With all the interviews and the photo shoots and touring and everything, did you find it hard to focus on writing this album at all?
Jesse: No, it was written over a long period of time. We.....well, actually, you know, probably the collection is not too old. There’s a couple of older songs, but ...most of the songs are within a certain time period, but it wasn’t like a sit down and aww crap write the record and stress out. It was just, like, gradually.
Chris: We weren’t really doing a ton of interviews, or you know, press or anything like that when we were writing it anyways, so....it was easier
Jesse: Pretty casual
Chris: Yeah – easier to focus on it.
Shawn: Now you mention some of these songs have been around for a while....the song that first got you noticed off your – is it – Cupid? ‘Cause there’s a question mark there.
Jesse: Yeah. It’s Cupid? Yeah.
Shawn: The song that sort of got you noticed was “Everybody”.
Jesse: Yeah.
Shawn: And that’s been around for quite some time.
Jesse: About ten years, eleven years. Yeah.
Shawn: Why the decision to include it on this record, even though it was on the EP?
Jesse: I think because it was an EP and it was sort of ... you know....when a band puts out an EP the idea is to throw a little tester out to the world and then quickly come back after it with a full record and a lot of times it includes some of the songs off the EP but....in our case we procrastinated and procrastinated and we probably waited a bit too long to put out the full record but still felt like if that song was ....you know for other markets and stuff like that it’s going to be valuable to have that song on the record. That’s why we re-recorded it and threw it on kind of as a bonus tracks so.....
Shawn: So is there any significance other than it’s just a bonus track as to it’s placement on the record?
Jesse: No, that’s why it’s last. And it’s sort of like, here’s the record and then here’s the bonus track for everyone who really liked it on the record before and....
Chris: For the other markets...
Jesse: Yeah....
Chris: Around the world
Shawn: It’s nice. I found it....nice that it was the last song on the record and it sort of felt to me like, you know, this thing has come full circle. This is where the band sort of first got its break and this is how we’re going to end the album. I just thought it was a nice sort of nice little nod to the past. So...
Jesse: Where we came from. Yeah.
Shawn: Now the band’s been around for ten years – how is being in the band for that long and with the same guys – how has that helped you write a better record?
Chris: I think probably just...you know...you practice writing songs and you...you write....if you’ve written hundreds of songs hopefully they’re gonna be getting better as you go along...and.....
Jesse: We know each other’s boundaries and what everybody’s gonna sort of bring to it and you kind of....when you’re writing a song you kind of think, “oh! This is what I had hoped”, you know you have Nathan or Karl – drummer and bass player - to do.... and this is what I imagined....just... getting more familiar with what everybody does.... kind of leads into the songwriting and helps out with ideas.
Shawn: OK. Great. Would you guys like to play another song?
Jesse: We would love
Chris: Sure
Jesse: To
Shawn: What are you gonna play for us this time?
Jesse: We’re gonna.....
Chris: Haven’t actually....
Jesse: Play
Chris: Talked about it, but...
Jesse: Probably play Flawed Design
Shawn: OK, Great.
*Chris and Jesse play Flawed Design*
Shawn: That’s Stabilo and Flawed Design. I have Chris and Jesse in the studio with me here. Talking to Chris earlier, he was saying that you guys are just about to head out on tour....what do you guys enjoy the most about touring?
Chris and Jesse: Playing shows
Shawn: Just getting up there and working the songs out
Chris: Yeah...connecting with all the fans out there across the country and....yeah, just meeting people.
Shawn: How much do you find your songs evolve when you’re out on the road from the time you start touring?
Chris: They evolve basically based on when we get bored with playing them and decide to change it up.
Jesse: Or when something’s working out much better live....or if...you’re playing something and, you know, a few nights in a row it just doesn’t feel like the audience was responding to it you sort of re-think it and maybe work out something else, so.....
Shawn: I know a lot of people have difficulty writing on the road, is that something that you guys have had trouble with in the past?
Jesse: Hasn’t really been an area of trouble because.....
Chris: We’ve never tried to do it....
Jesse: We’ve never...yeah...never had to do it before. It’s never been like, “oh shit we have another record coming up and we’re gonna be on the road for six months until we start recording....” so...we’ve always had a fairly large backlog of songs and it’s been easy to get into the studio for us.
Shawn: What kind of stuff were...what kind of music were you guys listening to while you were recording the album?
Chris: This album? I was listening to some of the stuff that the producer produced earlier.....band called Me Without You, MIA....or M.I.A. I don’t know how you’re supposed to say it....
Jesse: Not really too much.....most of the time is just spent in the studio recording and then you go home and go to sleep...and so you don’t really have too much time to go through a bunch of other records and we were in L.A. so... we didn’t really have a collection with us but......
Chris: We had our iPods...
Jesse: Yeah
Shawn: Much has been made....everything I read about you guys....had to mention that you guys were named after a highlighter.
Chris: Of course.
Jesse: Yeah
Shawn: So it was a highlighter that you guys were writing the names of the bands down...or...possible band names?
Jesse: Yeah it was the first song wrote the....actually wrote “Everybody” with a Stabilo Boss highlighter pen and then we named the....no, I’m totally lying.....we just saw it and we’re like, let’s just call ourselves Stabilo Boss...
Shawn: But that doesn’t make for an interesting story. You gotta put a little drama to it
Jesse: I know. I was....I’ve been thinking about telling that story and you just gotta slowly ease into it...you know....
Chris: Or just say it a couple of times and then admit to lying and then maybe it’ll turn into the actual story....
Shawn: You’ll actually start to believe it yourself, yeah
Jesse: Yeah. Exactly.
Shawn: So you guys are gonna do a third song here for us....you’re gonna do “Don’t Be So Cold”, which was my favourite song on the record...and it’s got just this great slow guitar build right up to it and....
Jesse: I don’t know if we can do that here....it took a couple of electric guitars and some drums and stuff but we’ll...kick it..
Shawn: Have you guys sent this thing to Quentin Tarantino, ‘cause on the record it sounds like that should be in his next movie...
Jesse: We will...we’ll get our A&R guy to send that over ASAP....
Shawn: Alright, well let’s hear it, guys.
*Chris and Jesse play “Don’t be So Cold”
Shawn: Don’t be so Cold, from Stabilo. Guys, we’ve got Chris and Jesse here. Thanks so much for coming in and doing this for us.
Chris & Jesse: Thanks for having us.
Shawn: And good luck with the tour.
Chris: Thank you.