Bamboozle California Q&A: Envy On The Coast
Julie Ciccarelli, winner of our Bamboozle California guest reporter contest, caught up with ENVY ON THE COAST vocalist RYAN HUNTER and guitarist BRYAN BYRNE at the festival in Anaheim, California. (You can follow Julie’s journey at the concert here.)
This Tuesday is a big day for you guys-it’s the release of your new album, Lowcountry. How did you come up with the title?
Byrne: The short version [of the story] is that I was on a little trip down south and I just kind of saw the words somewhere and I was like, “That sounds cool.” I looked it up, did a little research [and learned] Lowcountry is a very specific part of the south, and a lot of this album was influenced by our previous travels in that area and stuff like that. It’s kind of like a sexy, simple kind of word. It’s kind of dark and it spoke to me. So I brought it up to the dudes and everyone was like, “Yeah. Lowcountry.”
How did producer Sean Beavan (Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson) affect the album?
Hunter: He’s one of those dudes you can listen to for hours, and that’s important while working on a record. You have to be able to respect that person’s opinion. He’s very intelligent and an extremely inspiring dude who has done a lot of really great stuff. He’s worked with a lot of our favorite bands.
Byrne: [He’s produced] a lot of extremely interesting sounding records. They all have very creepy sounds to them, so we kind of wanted to give a little of that vibe.
What kind of progression do you think fans will see from your last album, 2007’s Lucy Gray?
Hunter: The album was definitely influenced by a lot of places–like the south. It’s a contrived thing because we’re from New York, but just musically we connected to the south and we love going down to San Antonio and Dallas, which are our favorite, most emotionally connected places so far on tour for us. So that had a lot to do with the record and the overall vibe of it.
What are your plans for the next couple of months?
Byrne: We don’t have any solidified touring plans as of right now, but a couple of things are in the works. We don’t really know yet, but we’re going to finish up the rest of our [current tour with the Fall Of Troy and Twin Atlantic], Skate Fest [on May 8 in Worcester, Massachusetts], then chill out for a couple of weeks and see what’s up for summer.
Any final words you want to leave our readers with?
Byrne: Go out and buy the new album, stay in school and stay off drugs. alt
