RIGHT BRAIN/LEFT BRAIN: THIS TIME NEXT YEAR'S "NEW SENSATION"

THIS MONTH: THIS TIME NEXT YEAR'S “NEW SENSATION”
(myspace.com/thistimenextyear)

WITH PETE DOWDALLS (VOCALS)

SILVER SPRINGS
Denis [Cohen, guitarist] writes most of the music, and he came out with this song he'd recorded as a rough demo on his MacBook. He sent it over to me, and when I heard it, immediately it had this hook that just kinda caught me. I was like, “I hope I can make this a decent song,” at least lyrically. I spent a good amount of time on that song alone, but I'm stoked on how it came out. That was the first one I got for the full-length, and then we took it as they came along from there.

RULES OF A GHOST HUNT
The theme behind it is not so much attacking people or anyone as an individual; it's more just my view of how to be yourself in a band. Do what you want, and don't abide by trends, or what's hype, or what's cool to wear, and avoid clich�s. You don't need to give in to the hype. That's the vibe I got from the song, because it's a high-energy song, so I tried my best to convey that. We all see the signs of the times-not every band are the same, but there are bands who are like, “Oh, that band are doing something cool. Maybe I can do that,” instead of doing their own thing.

HEARTS AND ARROWS
There's a line in the chorus that goes, “Sing us a song/Where we can't sing along/You're the new sensation.” That's me saying, at least for my generation of music, whatever's being hyped right now-whatever kids are buying into-is not something I can identify with, and it's not something that makes me stoked on a band, or stoked on music.
I remember growing up, listening to, like, old Saves The Day, or Get Up Kids. There was some real substance there, and the music was so real, it inspired others and myself to start bands. I feel like there's a lack of that in music right now. It's definitely out there, but I just feel there are a lot of bands who maybe don't go that path. Instead, they're like, “How do I look? I need to straighten my hair. I need to look really good. I need to get a good V-neck going. How am I going to look cute?” instead of, “How can I write music that will get kids pumped,” or not even that-just write music that kids can identify with. I certainly don't identify with dance floors and getting with girls at parties. I don't think many other people do, either.

A PLACE FOR YOU
We're definitely not saying that we're better than anyone else, or our sound is better than whoever's sound. I just wanted to convey to kids that they should keep an open mind, and go find music, and go find what they think is cool. As clich� as it is, think for yourself when it comes to music, especially nowadays, when the only place you can be yourself and think for yourself is within your own genre of music, whatever it may be. Go find your favorite band, or start your own band. Do what you want to do.

WITH DENIS COHEN (GUITAR)

CHEERS TO A LATE NIGHT
A lot of times when I'm writing songs, I don't even have a guitar in my hand. I'm just walking around or doing whatever, and I just come up with guitar riffs or melodies or something in my head. For [“New Sensation”], I was on break from work, and I was standing there thinking about the band or something like that, and the riff came to me. I was humming it to myself, and then I pulled out my cell phone and recorded it on the little voice recorder it has. I brought it home that night, learned it on guitar, built off of that, recorded it on GarageBand and sent it off to Pete [Dowdalls]. I was pretty happy with it.

THE WISE ARE ALWAYS BETTER
We'd never really worked with a real producer before, so [recording the upcoming full-length] was our first time bringing in songs that we wrote and having pre-production. What Brian [McTernan, producer] did really well was help us refine our songs. A lot of our songs are completely everywhere-especially [“New Sensation”], where there are, like, three bridges, and choruses where there shouldn't be choruses-and Brian helped us to figure out how to create song structure, which was big on this record. Brian really helped at the end, where there's a big sing-along part for the chorus. We had, like, two extra parts that were there that he just decided didn't fit; you don't really think about that until an outside source tells you, and you're like, “You know what? That's a great idea.” So there are a couple of parts he cut out, which just makes the song flow better.

SWEETEST AIR
I was pretty sure when I wrote [“New Sensation”], that it was going to go on the record because I just felt it encompassed everything we wanted to do and was a catchy song, with the catchy chorus and melody that Pete [Dowdalls] came up with. It's a short song, but it really packs a punch, and [represents] what kind of music we want to play-the tempo, the vocal melody and the guitar riffs and everything I think are a really good example of what our band are trying to do.

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LINER NOTES
SONG: “New Sensation” ALBUM: New Sensation 7-inch; full-length coming in September WRITTEN: December 2008 in Walnut Creek, CA RECORDED: February and March at Salad Days Studio, Baltimore PRODUCED BY: Brian McTernan