AUX.tv Interview

[swjuly]

@темы: видео, интервью

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Metacafe Interview

[swjuly]

Under the cut

Interview with Brendon and Spencer from Panic! at the DiscoPanic! at the Disco, South by Southwest

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“The Ballad Of Mona Lisa” on Lopez Tonight

[swjuly]

LINK

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More Ryan.

[swjuly]

pics

@темы: фото, Ryan Ross, twitter

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Lithium Magazine Interview

[swjuly]

Panic! At The Disco’s Brendon Urie (lead vocals, multi-instrumentalist) and Spencer Smith (percussionist) sat at a table of their downtown Toronto hotel, poised to do back-to-back interviews in promotion of their newly released album “Vice & Virtues.” As their third studio album, it’s the first as a core duo after the separation of former band members Ryan Ross and Jon Walker. For this release, the band has also regained the exclamation point in their name, which they had dropped on their second record, “Pretty. Odd.”

I had the pleasure of chatting with the boys as we delved a bit deeper into this upcoming release for the band.

Brittany Morgan: Your latest album, “Vices & Virtues”, is your first album working as a duo. Do you feel your music and style has changed, and how so?

Brendon Urie: Yeah, I do. I feel like that’s something we always strive for whenever we approach a record and we’re coming up to the recording and writing process, especially. We always want to write in ways we never have before or use influences that are foreign, and the new inspirations are always fun. But yeah, we always strive to create something new every time we approach a record.

Brittany: Where did the title for your record come from, and what’s the meaning behind the name “Vices & Virtues?”

Spencer Smith: Well, we didn’t have the title at the beginning- it wasn’t a concept from the beginning. But I think at a certain point as we were approaching the end of the record we were trying to figure out what……. we had gone through a lot of changes, even within the year and a half of writing and recording, so trying to figure out something that would seem cohesive between all the songs and going through the lyrics and looking at those, it seemed like something that was prevalent in a lot of the songs…..things that we’d been going through and just dealing with different vices or virtues. It seemed like it was the one thing that brought all the songs together and was a line through almost the whole record, so we just acted like it was some big concept from the beginning.

Brendon: (laughs) It’s usually how it goes.

Spencer: It really wasn’t, yeah.

Brittany: You worked with John Feldmann and Butch Walker on this album. What did they bring to the process to help you create this sound?

Brendon: They’re both so great. They’re both amazing producers. It’s weird the idea of producing an album, because you think, “What are they gonna do? What do they really do?” And that was something we were a little nervous about: “Are they gonna try to dictate what we’re trying to do? We want these to be our songs”. And luckily they were on the exact same page. They said. “Yeah, these are your songs, you have to write them. We’re gonna help you record them, but essentially you have to write everything. We’re not gonna write stuff for you guys”. And that was just like a breath of relief. They’re both different working with them, John Feldman is amazing, super talented, and at that point, in the beginning of recording, we were not lazy but just had a different work ethic. We weren’t waking up at the crack of dawn to write all these songs until two in the morning and John Feldman was. He’s up for 20 hours a day, and then sleeps for a few hours. But he’s just go, go, go, and that really got us in that mentality, got us out of the little funk and just started working a lot harder. And Butch Walker is amazing, too. Working in his studio is awesome; he makes it a really good time. He has the best instruments and toys I’ve ever seen in the studio, it’s awesome. And yeah, they both just made it a lot of fun to work with because they didn’t compromise any of our ideas, which is important to us.

Brittany: How do you write songs? What is your process like?

Brendon: It’s different a lot of the time, sometimes you’ll have a piece of music that flows nicely and you just go back to it, like there’s a melody being played on the guitar or something, and you go back and go, “Oh, that could be a vocal melody,” you know, you think about things that way. But sometimes you’ll have lyrics that you’ve written or a melody in mind that you’re singing, and then you’ll base the music around that idea. So that happened both ways on this record, and that was fun to do. In the writing process we love just exploring new ways of writing you know, we don’t just like to go, “Alright, here’s another song, here’s this chord, going in the chorus,” because then that just feels mundane a lot of times.

Brittany: So a lot of experimenting?

Brendon: Yeah, definitely a lot of experimenting.

Brittany: Can you mention one of your favourite songs on the record and the meaning behind that song?

Brendon: Yeah, I think the last song we wrote is my favourite right now. It’s called “Ready to Go”, and that one was the last song written for the record. The mentality behind it was we had been in the studio, or working on this record for a year and a half and just wanted to get on tour. We had been in our own headspace for such a long time that, it’s very different from tour - just having that idea of: “We’re ready, we just want to get out there. We have to start touring; we just gotta get it going”. And just wanting to jump right on it, so that was just the exciting bit.

Brittany: Your single, “The Ballad of Mona Lisa” - who came up with the video treatment for that song, and what was the inspiration behind that?

Spencer: We worked with Shane Drake and he had done three videos for us - two off the first record and one for the second record. And so, we usually just sit down and we’ll have ideas and he’ll have ideas and we just sort of start talking about it and it just becomes this collaborative thing. For that video we wanted to do something that paid homage to some of the videos we’d done in the past. Just as something that, even though this is our third record it sort of feels like a fresh start. So we have a couple scenes at the very beginning that kind of look like a set from the first video. Beyond that though, it’s just sort of this interesting story of - it doesn’t really have to do necessarily with the song, but it just seemed visually like something that went with it. It’s an Irish wake, and we’re the band playing this thing, and Brendon is the double character of the guy whose died and the guy who’s now coming back to avenge his death.

Brittany: Yeah, it definitely seemed a really interesting plot line.

Spencer: Yeah, it was fun to shoot, and it was something that just was an interesting story that felt like it went with the vibe of the song.

Brittany: On that same note, you said that it went back to the first video, and it seems there’s this medieval, Baroque-inspired theme. So I was wondering where did this intrigue come from and what inspired that [admiration] for that lifestyle?

Brendon: I think for as long as we’ve been a band, since the first record even, we’ve just had this enthusiasm about romantic periods in history. Whether it be Elizabethan, Victorian, or turn of the century apothecary-type romanticism. All that stuff, the fashion, the thought that guys especially would put into their clothes and into presentation, that whole romantic thing is just really inspiring. There’s a lot of cool deco, art deco, or whatever it’s called, but we just like that (laughs).

Brittany: Did you maybe watch a lot of movies like that, or study history?

Brendon: Maybe that’s what it is; the musicals that we grew up watching or something.

Brittany: You said that you came from Las Vegas, not a huge music scene, and you were discovered by Pete Wentz over the internet. So I was wondering if you think the internet is still beneficial for bands or if at this point if it’s kind of like a needle in a haystack because there’s so many.

Brendon: I think it could go both ways.

Spencer: I think it’s still really beneficial. I mean, I feel like it’s still the most unique tool, especially for bands that aren’t established because you don’t necessarily have to have a person at a radio station or at a TV station saying that you’ve passed their test to get on the station. And there’s still certain music sites that you can go to that are gonna filter that stuff out for you. And I think there is now such a huge mass of music and that’s why you have to have your own little method of filtering out all the bands. But I still think it’s a tool that to get played around the world. Twenty years ago, you had to be a massive artist. You would have to be like the Rolling Stones to get played in South Africa, but nowadays…. we were getting emails from places like that before we were even putting our first record out. So I think that’s just such a unique way of doing things that it’s definitely not gonna fade away.

Brittany: Do you think that’s what let you have your own unique sound at that time when Las Vegas was not quite your style?

Brendon: (laughs) Yeah, wanting to break out of that place was kind of our influence on the first record. We were in this practice space where all the bands on every side of us were like these metal bands. And so every time we would try to practice we were like, “Ok guys, let’s work on that harmony”, and it’s just like (making metal band noise) “What the hell is going on right now!”’ So hearing all the same stuff every night you just want to break out of that frustration, so that was a huge influence.

Brittany: Can you remember one of the most memorable moments of your career and how that humbling feeling made you realize, “I’m living my dream and this is what I want to do. This is exactly it!”

Spencer: I think the biggest thing that wasn’t actually a goal, but when we won- there’s the MTV awards and we won for the best video, and I think we were up against Christina Aguilera and all these huge pop artists. I remember when we won, you could tell that people were kind of like, “Who is this?” And I think our video probably cost like a tenth, if that, of what the other videos cost that were up for the same award. And that wasn’t something that really validated anything, but I feel like that was a weird, surreal moment of being like, “Okay, this is so far beyond what we ever thought would happen even a year ago”.

Brendon: No one knew

Spencer: Yeah, and I think it was just sort of a really surreal thing, having to go up there and make a speech, so it just seemed very odd.

Brittany: Stuttering?

Spencer: Kind of, we didn’t know what to say.

Brendon: (laughs) Yeah, like who do we thank?

Spencer: We didn’t plan anything because we didn’t think we were gonna win.

Brendon: And good thing we didn’t because that guy came up and grabbed the mic and was like, “Hey, I’m so and so, go to my website. Alright here you go”, (as he passed the mic back) It was really weird, we got stormed, so that was cool.

Brittany: The most unexpected moments.

Spencer: Yeah, that was cool.

Brendon: But it was funny though, too. I went back a month after we had won and I watched it because my parents had TVO’d it obviously, and I went back and watched the scene - the shot where Christina Aguilera is sitting there with her husband at the time and she just kind of nudges him and is like, “‘Who the f*ck is that?” That was awesome. (laughs).

Brittany: With the split and the separation, do you think that has really proved just how much you love your band and your music, and that’s really testified that?

Brendon: I hope so, yeah, I hope that comes across anytime we’ve worked on music, because that is something we feel really strongly about.

Brittany: But I mean to you, yourself, has it pushed you in realizing, “This is my dream, and I’m doing it at any cost!”

Brendon: Yeah, we kinda knew that from the beginning. Spencer and I have been on the same page musically. But yeah, with the direction we wanted the album to go we knew - we love this band and we would do anything for it. We just want to keep doing this, so that is the main goal is to just keep going as long as we can.

Brittany: How would you sum up the band Panic! At the Disco? What makes it really interesting, special and noteworthy as a band?

Brendon: Well, I think Spencer is a pretty special guy.

Spencer: (laughs)

Brendon: So that’s special.

Brittany: Just being together with your best friend?

Brendon: Yeah, it is nice, you know?

Brittany: Has there been any specific turning point in your life as a musician on the road, something that’s happened that has changed how you perceive the music industry or life in general?

Spencer: Well, I think just remembering when I was 16, a couple years before we got signed, just being in my room and idolizing all these bands - studying these bands and wanting to know everything about them and listening to their records over and over and over. And then a few years later, meeting the fans or talking to the fans if it’s a meet and greet or after the show or whatever, and just seeing that you may be that person to somebody in the audience. That’s pretty insane, it’s a special thing.

Brittany: Yeah, humbling.

Both: Yeah

Brittany: Alright, thank you.

Brendon: Thank you!

Spencer: Yeah, no problem.

source

@темы: интервью

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pics from Houston, April 2nd

[swjuly]

more here & here & here & here

@темы: фото

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vids from Houston, April, 2nd.

[swjuly]

The only difference between
But it's better if you do
Camisado
bonuses + Lying(part)
That Green Gentleman
New Perspective
Let's kill tonight
The Ballad of Mona Lisa
9 in the afternoon
I write sins

@темы: Live, links, tour\shows

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Interview with Steven Smith from SXSW

[swjuly]

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411Music

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@темы: видео, интервью

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10 on Top - Interview

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Press+1 Photos

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more here & here

@темы: фото

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AP Magazine

[swjuly]

@темы: сканы, статьи

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Alt Press

[swjuly]

+7

@темы: фото

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newmucislive

[swjuly]

This interview

here

@темы: фото, links, интервью

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Brendon Urie & Spencer Smith Create a Whole New Kind of Panic

[swjuly]

LINK

@темы: links, интервью

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Martin Chronicles

[swjuly]

@темы: видео, Brendon Urie

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Interview on The Top 20 Countdown for Fuse

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@темы: видео, интервью

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Toronto press circuit

[swjuly]

+2

@темы: фото

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Blare Magazine Interview

[swjuly]

Patience is a virtue (no pun intended) and PANIC! AT THE DISCO have recently discovered that. A certain part of their career wasn’t as bright as they thought it would be and with the spotlight on them, and burning ever so brightly, the group confirm they’re not calling it a day. Staying at the Metropolitan Hotel in Toronto, Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith took a bit of time out of their day to talk about growing up and how patience will affect their lives, their career and their future.

How vital is it to be open to new ideas and the thought of change?

BRENDON URIE: Very vital, especially for the writing and recording process because it’s kind of necessary. A lot of the time when we were a four-piece, coming to a compromise would happen a lot; you would say your ideas but you would have to work with other opinions. We were always trying to keep an open mind and it was good practice. If you have an idea that you know is set, you should still be open to hear what others have to say because they could help improve your idea or take it to a totally different place.

Are you the same guys you were in 2005?

URIE: I’d say I’m different.

SPENCER SMITH: Yeah I’d say that too (laughs). It’s kind of a weird thing because musically your influences and inspirations become different, but you don’t really change. We never had that time where any of us said “Oh, we’re this huge band”. We never changed over time as we were still in awe about everything, but we did grow and age.

URIE: Going back to what you said, it is vital to keep an open mind because it’s eventually going to help you grow into the person you are.

Can it be difficult to grow as an individual when you’re a musician?

URIE: Hmm, I’m not sure. Everybody can have their own individual faults. Like Spencer said, we were never really a band that looked down on people and said “Hey, this is who we are. We are Panic”. Having that mindset kept us grounded and we knew people that would keep us in line. Being challenged by those close to you will eventually make you the individual you are.

Aside from the obvious, what are some examples of how the two of you have been challenged?

SMITH: I think not having any live experience when the first record came out was one. We didn’t really have any expectations for that record; we just wanted to tour in a band and make a living and make enough money so it could become a job. It was really exciting to see the success come along but we didn’t know how to handle it. There’s also the fact we’ve gone through a couple years, are now a bit older and were faced with having to write another record. Everything just became different; we didn’t know if what we were going through was okay or not because we were used to having no rules.

What was the label’s reaction to the idea of you two creating another record by yourselves this time around?

SMITH: I don’t know really (laughs).

URIE: Yeah, luckily we’ve kind of had this dynamic where we just do whatever we want and convince them to trust us and they just have to go with it (laughs). Early on, they weren’t even involved in the first record and that was kind of nice. We’ve kept this same mentality where this is ours and no one’s going to dictate what we do musically. They have their opinions, I’m sure, but we don’t let it deter us from our goal (laughs).

Did you receive any support from other musicians?

SMITH: Yeah, we worked with Jack Antonoff and Nate Reuss from fun. and since we’re big fans of their work, it was great to do a couple songs with them. They were very inspiring because we collaborated a few months right after the group split. We also worked with Rivers Cuomo on one song. Even though it didn’t lead to us doing more with him, it was still an inspiring moment.

URIE: We also had a few people play on the record too. We had this guy Michael Bolger from The Leftover Cuties play with us too. They played a show in the same neighborhood as us and he was just shredding on this accordion and it was amazing. Like how do you shred on an accordion, right? But he came in and played some stuff and we ended up putting some of it on the record. Working with different musicians and friends was a big inspiration for us.

With all these interactions, how personal is Vices & Virtues?

URIE: Very personal, especially lyrically. We had some things we wanted to talk about – the split being one of them – as we had just been through so much. The path we took in writing this record affected us lyrically and musically and conveyed a message about who we are. I think everything we’ve done as a band recently has been very personal.

One question mark is performing live; since you two recorded guitar and bass parts for the album, how is that going to transfer over to touring?

SMITH: We’ve been playing with the same couple guys since we split and it’s been nice because we didn’t like the idea of bringing on hired musicians who don’t feel like they’re in the band. So far, it’s been great. One of our friends Ian Crawford plays guitar and Dallon Weekes plays bass with them, the live show has been really inspiring so far. We’ve been waiting to do it for a while and it feels like it first did in the beginning when we first got into music. It’s been really cool to work with those guys and it could lead to some songwriting, especially since there will be some of that happening on the road.

Do you think Panic! At The Disco will ever expand as a group?

URIE: Hmm, I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about that. I guess it would just happen because everything we’ve gone through lately has been handled organically; if it feels natural to do it, then we’ll do it. If later on in life we do find people then maybe. You never really know because we could end up turning out like Slipknot where we have nine people on stage (laughs). We’ve never really thought about it, but we do like to keep an open mind.

What’s one life lesson you’ve learned recently that you plan to live by?

URIE: Patience is a pretty big lesson. It’s a hard one to swallow but ultimately it makes everything easier to deal with. Definitely patience..

SMITH: Yeah, it does sound like such a cliche but it’s true (laughs).Time heals everything. Patience can really help your relationships with other people.

URIE: And even the relationship with yourself so you can figure out what’s wrong with you.

SMITH: Yeah, what’s that one line Buddy says in Anger Management?

URIE: “Nobody cares” (laughs).

source

@темы: интервью

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'Panic' thriving as duo

[swjuly]

Two heads are better than four for Panic! at the Disco's Brendon Urie.

Nearly two years after his emo-rock outfit downsized from a quartet to a duo -- a shift that would have derailed many bands -- the frontman insists it was the best move they could have made.

"Definitely," says the 23-year-old singer and multi-instrumentalist. "I'm glad we did it. We wanted to do different things. If we had stayed together and tried to force a record out now, we probably wouldn't be happy with it. And we probably would have broken up anyway.

"Instead, it's kind of a new start for us. There are fewer options to work through, fewer cooks in the kitchen. Now it's whatever the two of us decide."

Shortly after parting ways with guitarist/chief songwriter Ryan Ross and bassist Jon Walker in 2009, Urie and drummer Spencer Smith decided a) to retain their name; b) remain a duo; c) reclaim the exclamation point that vanished from their name between their first two albums.

More importantly, they've also reconnected with their musical heritage on their new Vices & Virtues, balancing the energized emo of their 2005 debut A Fever You Can't Sweat Out with the dramatic retro-pop of 2008's sophomore CD Pretty. Odd.

A few days before previewing Vices & Virtues (and introducing new touring guitarist Ian Crawford and bassist Dallon Weekes) during an energized, well-received set at South by Southwest, the affably motor-mouthed Urie talked my ear off about closing doors, writing songs instead of tragedies, and his musical douchiness.

I see the exclamation point is back. What should we read into that?

It is back. But I wouldn't read too much into that. We never did. Maybe that was the problem. We kind of shrugged it off and didn't think it really mattered, then all of a sudden it became this thing people were talking about. It was kind of funny.

This is your third different lineup in three albums. What's the deal? Are you and Spencer impossible to deal with?

Ha! Maybe that's what it is! That's what I needed to hear! Nah, with Ryan and Jon, we were just heading in different directions. They wanted to do something else musically and we wanted to stay more in line with what we had done in the past. At first it was kind of difficult. When we first started talking about splitting up, it seemed personal because music is so personal to us. So we actually didn't talk to Ryan and Jon for a month. That was just really immature, looking back on it. But it didn't take long for us to contact each other and say, 'This is stupid.' We're still friends.

Did you think about calling it a day or changing the name?

We kind of humoured the idea of starting a new band with a different name, but that didn't last too long. We quickly decided to stick with Panic, because it's more in line with what we want to do and what we've done. And we're still very proud of the name.

Was it intimidating making the album with just the two of you?

It was definitely different. As a four-piece, we'd always bounced ideas around, so you didn't really have to come with a lot. You could throw out a minute-long idea and somebody else would add 30 seconds. But this time, I had to write a three-minute idea. That was tough, because my ADHD gets the best of me. I tend to jump from idea to idea. So I had to focus my attention. But the most intimidating thing was lyrics. I never considered myself a lyricist, but I had to step up to the plate. I spent a lot of time figuring out how to voice the emotion or the message I was trying to convey, and the best way to do that was with the music. But when it came to recording, I love playing all the instruments. It tickles my ego to play everything but the drums. That was such a treat.

Yeah, you play all the guitars and keyboards here, along with accordion and strings. How can you be proficient at so many instruments?

I don't know if this sounds douchey, but it's always been kind of easy for me. Ever since I was a little kid, I've had this natural ability to look at something, fiddle around with it for a few minutes, and pick it up pretty quickly. I'm very fortunate in that sense. To this day, if I see something new, I have to try it. I saw an accordion five years ago and went, 'Oh my God, I have to try that.'

What's the strangest instrument you play?

I tried didgeridoo one time but I wasn't too good. You really have to get that lip buzz going. It's not easy. I've tried bagpipes too and that's hard, man! Your cheeks have to be superstrong. It's all in the cheek power.

Are you going to continue as a duo or do you want to find permanent members?

That's a difficult process, finding people that you can not only live with on the road but also work with creatively. It's always a struggle. We lucked out on our first record when we found each other. Right now, our friends Dallon and Ian have agreed to tour with us. But we haven't really talked about bringing them on as permanent members, to be honest. It's just been up in the air because we've been so busy. Maybe we should talk about it soon, though. I wouldn't mind.

source

@темы: интервью