By Jackie Lam
Voxhaul Broadcast is definitely making waves in the local indie circuit these days. Getting massive radio play on KCRW and British airwaves alike, they are the local rock music darlings that everyone is rooting for. And while multiple EPs have been circulating the past four years they’ve been together, Voxhaul Broadcast are planning a release of their first full-length LP, Timing is Everything, to be self-released in early November. They are nothing short of spectacular live, and I was fortunate to catch them this summer at KCRW’s Also We Like to Rock concert series and for an amazing set at the L.A. Zoo. If you haven’t experienced Voxhaul Broadcast live, they’ll be playing a free show at the Abbott Kinney Street Festival this Sunday.
I managed to sit down with the four members of Voxhaul—lead vocalist/guitarist David Dennis, backup vocalist/guitarist Anthony Aguilar, bassist Phillip Munsey, and drummer Kurt Allen--before their set at Bardot’s in Hollywood to talk to them about their songwriting process, what’s it like to go on tour, and their upcoming album.
You guys are really solid live. There’s not a lot of bands that are that together. What’s your secret?
David: We practice a lot, but we’re also childhood friends. I’ve known Kurt the drummer since I was like, 4. And it’s one of those things where we learn to play our instruments together. We’ve all been terrible musicians together, and we’ve all been good musicians together. When we were kids we jammed with every single kid that could play. I think that’s one of the reasons why we got good playing together, because really we’ve been playing together for that long. But as a band it’s been for the last four years. It’s kind of funny because we’re at the point now where when we make mistakes, we can read where it’s going. When somebody makes a mistake, we kind of roll with it and make it look like it’s on purpose.
How have you been preparing for your tour?
David: Our tour is like 40 dates and we’ve been playing solidly for the last week. I think you reach a point where the best practice, the best learning lessons are when you’re playing constantly, and when bands come back they become better. Every band I’ve seen that’s gone on tour, they’re always like five or 10 times better.
Does it help you with the recording process, too?
Tony: We didn’t do a long tour but we did a couple mini tours before we recorded the album to test what gets a good reaction.
Are you done recording the album?
David: Yea, I was at Tom’s house earlier, the guy who did our album. I went over there just to listen to the tracks, and they’re sounding great. We’re about to get the new mixes, and I feel like it’s Christmas. We’ve just been working on it for so long and we tried this time not to give the unfinished copies to everybody. So you get Demo-itis, you know?
The songs on the new stuff sound a lot different than the older songs. It sounds like you’ve developed your own style. How did you go about doing this?
David: It’s crazy that somebody actually knows our songs.We’ve been in the studio a couple times since Rotten Apples and haven’t gotten anything that we were completely satisfied with. Also it’s working with producers like Chris Storm from Blind Melon, we did a couple of tracks with him, and actual producers that take to time to let you know this isn’t working. That’s like another ear for us. Also it has been like three years since we’ve put anything out. That’s three years of us recording shows and recording demos. Just kind of growing as a band. So the songs just naturally sound a lot different because we’re not the same band at all than what we were three years ago.
When you are creating your songs, do you have a direction you want to take it?
David: Usually that’s being said as the song is taking shape. We’ll start playing something, and if we think the strong point is like, the chords, but the rhythm’s not working, then we’ll find a way to make it in a different time signature, or slow it down, speed it up.
It sounds really intuitive. Like it’s coming from within and you’re not trying to be more like this band, or that band. Do you have any favorite tracks?
Tony: I really like “Leaving on the 5th,” which sounds really good, but I’m excited about all of them, to tell you the truth. We were doing some vocals, a couple of rough mixes, and just hearing the rough mixes, I was just amazed at how good we sound.
When it comes to recording versus playing live, is there one that you prefer over the other?
David: At this point I prefer playing live, just because playing live feels natural to me and that’s how we write the songs. But I imagine that it would be great to be a band who has the freedom in the studio to take the time to really come up with sounds and write songs in the studio. Like, we haven’t been able to become that kind of band yet because we have to stay on a budget, you know? And there’s bands like Radiohead that have a huge budget for just taking a year off and coming up with sounds. Just being able to write songs in the studio can come out very differently than our music does. But we kind of record it live, like back in the ‘60s when they used to do it that way. We all love that music too, so. It’s working for us right now.
What’s the songwriting process like for you guys?
Tony: David will probably come up with something like the lyrics. Some songs are like Kurt starting off with the bass, or even Kurt may have like a drumbeat that’s really cool. It’s like a bunch of monkeys trying to crack a coconut.
David: Melodically, everyone will write the song. Even things that someone’s hummed before, we’ll like, ‘Yea, that’s a cool melody.’ But usually I’ll come up with a rough idea of what the melody is gonna be, then we write it during practice. Then I come home and write lyrics.
Do you write songs on the road, too?
Tony: We write all the time. When we’re all up on stage there will be times when we start jamming. We jam at sound checks and some songs have come from that. Some songs started that way, where it’s like, ‘What were you playing at sound check? That was awesome.’ We’ll like go back to practice and he’ll play it again, and we’ll start working on it.
You guys are so versatile, like you draw from so many different styles. A little bit of rockabilly, a little bit of classic rock.
David: I mean it’s hard these days, because you don’t know how that’s going to be accepted. As a writer, I’m not comfortable of writing in just one mood all the time, because that would be my only expression, you know what I’m saying? So like, I’m not only sad all the time. I’m not only happy all the time. I’m not only aggressive all the time or whatever the feeling of the song is. It has to do with all the millions of different people that I am from one day to the next. The record is pretty versatile, but I think it has a common thread through it that makes the listener not go, ‘This isn’t even the same band.’
Is that something you worked toward? To have that common thread? Because sometimes you’re listening to an album, and you can’t even tell they’re from the same artist. It sounds like a compilation or a soundtrack or something.
David: I guess my favorite albums are the albums where the songs are drastically different. There’s like Beatles albums, like Sergeant Pepper, where there are so many different kinds of songs. I like when singers play characters in their songs. When sometimes it’s like acting for them. Like the Beatles, or the Kinks, even Radiohead, like on OK Computer. There’s so many different songs on that album, so many different feelings. The way they put together the album, it tells a story.
You recently moved to Silver Lake a couple years ago. How do you like it versus the OC, where you grew up?
Kurt: We like it a lot. It’s way, way better. I’ll say this, since going back to my hometown since being up here, it made me realize how beautiful it is, but it’s just, so fucking boring. There’s just the weirdest dynamics spread all over that area and there’s not a lot of places where you can catch bands.
Are there any local bands you like?
David: Eastern Conference Champions, Black Apples, they’re a really good band. We’re friends with the Local Natives. One time I saw Fool’s Gold, and I really like them. They’re a great live band. Union Line, too. They’re not an LA band, but they play a lot with us.
Is there an ideal lineup, like, ‘Oh, if I could play with this band..
David: I dunno, I want to play with KISS. Maybe we could a Guitar Center commercial with them. I think of bands that would be really awesome to play with, but then, I’m like, would it be a good fit though? I doubt it would be a good fit with KISS.
What’s next? What are you looking forward to?
Kurt: I’m looking forward to getting what comes at the start of this next year, and going on this tour and what happens between now and then. Hopefully we’ll be in a position where we get can tour frequently and do it all the time, because I know that is something that we all want to do.
David: We all are kind of tired of going on the road, then coming back home with no money in our pockets and having to scramble to find jobs again and places to live. We’re kind of working on being on the road all the time. Because it’s a nightmare to have to come back home, pick up the pieces, drop the pieces, go back out on the road, and do it all over again.
Kurt: It’s worth it, but it’s like ignorance is bliss, because when you’re out on the road, you’re like, ‘Oh, this is so great.’ And it’s only when you set foot back on home soil when you’re like, ‘Oh, fuck.’ It’s only get back to California, when you’re like, ‘Oh, how am I going to eat today? Where are we going to live?’
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