Off the Record

0:00
What is up everyone you're listening to WKNC at 8.1 FM HD-1 Raleigh, we're a student run nonprofit radio station based out of North Carolina State University. I'm DJ lucid, and this is off the record. Here with me today are two extremely talented members of the band By George. Let's do some introductions you guys.

0:21
Hey, everyone. My name is Chandamon, I am drummer and one half of by George,

0:26
you our drummer.

0:27
I am drummer.

0:28
I am Tyler and I am vocalist and guitarist for By George. Well,

0:33
thank you for coming and being with us here today. Where are you both coming from?

0:39
We live together in North Raleigh about 30 minutes north of campus.

0:43
It's right next to Folsom news Lake and middle of nowhere in the middle of nowhere, as middle of nowhere as it can be still living in a large city. True. Yeah.

0:52
So have you guys lived in Raleigh your whole lives?

0:55
Not at all. We actually didn't meet until 20 2018 2019 2019. Yeah, we went to the same high school in Charlotte. But we come from wildly different backgrounds. I grew up overseas and didn't actually move to the States until 2015. So

1:13
yes, so we met in 2019. I am from Charlotte. I grew up in Charlotte, all schooling there until I went to college in Virginia and then moved to Raleigh 2022, or the back half of 2001. And then we started living together. But since since 2021, we've lived together in Raleigh.

1:34
Gotcha. So you guys have been working together for how many years now? As a band?

1:40
What is it 2024? While szarka time is it? Oh, wow. Five years, five years, but in different so like in different projects. This band, we like to say it started the middle of last year. So but working together longer than this band has been a thing. So

1:56
you've been collaborating as a band for a little while now you're still a pretty baby band. But you've been friends for even longer? How does that affect your writing process between you guys? That

2:11
I think it's a huge plus that we've been friends and been writing together for longer than we've been in this band. We have written a bunch of different genres and styles like all the way back to 2019, we kind of started with more indie, indie rock, I had like a little bit of country stuff I know at least with better my head, and just kind of more rock stuff. But then over the years, we've kind of honed the relationship. And then as of last January, we really started writing, like, intentionally for this project and are like this genre that the band is now we started but it wouldn't have been the same. Like starting. We didn't start from scratch. You know, in January, it wasn't like Okay, now, how do we write together? How do we do this? It was like, No, we kind of already know how to do that. And now we just need to do it.

2:55
Yeah, we've, Tyler and I've played live together for so many years. But we didn't sit down and try to write some music together until until last January, like you said, so. I think that helped a lot though. Like the onstage chemistry and just having to travel in place. So many gigs led to a creative relationship that already had a huge base of understanding underneath it.

3:22
Yeah, so would you say, that is kind of a more collaborative process, then, you know, some bands divide between instrumental and lyricism. How would you guys go about that?

3:35
I mostly handled the lyrics. Trauma does a lot of the rhythm stuff. But I mean, it's collaborative in the sense that we have different strengths in what we bring to the songwriting table, I think the way that it typically works, is that I'll bring an idea for lyrics or for a melody to the table, or he will. And then we'll both jump on a logic file together. And honestly, rather than like sitting on the same project, and like working at the exact same time, like I'll bring another thing to the table, and then he'll bring another thing to the table. And then our finished songs are kind of like a piling on of our different ideas.

4:13
Writing is asynchronous in the best possible way to two songs happening at the same time, and we kind of just swap back and forth. Here's what I did to this. Here's what I did to this. Gotcha.

4:23
One of my favorite questions to ask when I'm meeting bands, is how did you guys come up with the name by George because neither of you are named George. So I was wondering that. So

4:37
we were in a project, another project a little while back called Mighty mango, which was based in Charlotte. And we just named after the naked smoothie, the mighty mega one. And we had a number of conversations about how the name needed to be a little more unique, a little bit different. And I don't know Like, the Grateful Dead comparison, musically, it makes no sense. But I do remember having the branding conversation and being like, Okay, I love that the skull and the dancing bears like are a Grateful Dead thing. And so then that led to this. Okay, we need a logo and a mascot, right? Because that's just like, immediately identifiable. And then a guy that we played with a while back would say, by George all the time, and it's an old English, just like phrase, that means like, oh, shoot, or didn't know that. Oh, shoot. Yeah, you know, love saying, Oh, shoot. And but anyway, so the frog is George. So the frog is George. And there's really like, it's kind of arbitrary naming like, it could have been by anything. But I think the, the by George being like a phrase. And also, you know, being able to say, Oh, the music is by this frog. And then there's a visual representation of that. Yeah, people will come up to us, it shows and be like, which one of us George? Like, Hate to break it to you? But none of us are George. But look at

6:05
this historic it was a crowdsourced tagline. The who is George thing? Because people asked us that all the time. And we didn't initially have this master plan, like, you know,

6:16
let's make a frog. It's going to be George, it's going to connect in all these ways that has a double meaning. No, it was at a show people are like, is the frog George. And we made merch that just said, Who is George on the shirt? And that's something well, so we've kind of tried to keep it a question, which has been, which has been cool. I totally went out on it. I remember sitting in like, we should put up who was George and usher, and we're like that is either going to flop or it's going to be great. And I think it ended up right. Like enough

6:42
people wander and they're like, Okay, are you George? No, you're Tyler. Are you George? No, you're showing them and that's even farther from George like we should be by Chandran. Right. Yeah, that would work we'd be that'd be commercially successful.

6:56
Well, I get the correlation between like you said, the dancing bears and the frog. It's kind of like similar. You know, you can print it. Yeah. You guys only started releasing music to platforms. Last year, right, I guess. All right. Well, how long have you been making music in general?

7:15
I've been writing well, writing is a strong word. I've been playing guitar since fourth grade. And then but like writing music started, junior year of high school in different groups, in a group that we were in before, by George. So individually, I've been like writing music since since junior year of college, excuse me out of high school, but it was never really that serious. Like it was always kind of like putting together random guitar progressions. And I've always been a guitarist first. So it'd be like guitar, bass rock. And I never really got into the bones of like, real songwriting, or like, songwriting, math, or like structure, and like how things typically go. And I feel like last January, we were like, Okay, time to take on the task of like, this is how songs are written. This is how to deliver emotion in these ways. And so in a sense, like the real songwriting, I think happened for me, starting last year, but I don't know about

8:12
you, I'm on the exact same page. I, you know, when I was a kid, I grew up in Mongolia, in Southeast Asia and my dad plays all sorts of instruments. And so as a kid, I was in a band, quote, unquote, with him, where he wrote songs and the YouTube videos, I play drums and I was seven Yeah, unfortunately, this all exists online shouldn't be saying this way. And so he, he taught me a lot and a lot of what I like to say is my songwriting knowledge, but same as Tyler, I didn't actually sit down and think, and learn how to structure and write a compelling song until we sat down last January.

8:50
What were the first instruments you guys ever learned to play? Guitar?

8:54
Drums, and you stuck it out? That's what I'm trying to learn bass bass is kind of fun, even though I suck at it. No,

9:02
Tyler's good at what he does all that he does all the electric bass on our demos, and I've learned keys, I've picked it up. i It's helpful for you know, we're moving into a sort of piano synth sort of space where playing the keyboard is irrelevant all over the place. So we're both kind of learning that as well, but but we did stick it out. You're right.

9:20
And then I'm learning. I'm learning how to sing as of a couple of weeks ago.

9:25
Oh, my God, give us a little something a little something. Oh, no, I'm

9:28
not saying right here. I'm not saying right here. It's not good. I still need to get better. But uh, yeah, it's funny. I've been singing for years, but our first couple studio sessions and like, the relationship we now have with our producer gotta hope he hears this. Like, yeah, you're not really cutting it with vocals. But it's weird because like, playing live is one thing. And that says there's a certain energy that you need to bring to that right. But then like, I thought that that's what you bring into the studio. And I finally started taking vocal lessons and immediately I was like, Wow, this is a totally different thing than what I thought it was. So the short the TLDR is, I'm now learning to sing.

10:09
Tyler's also not giving himself enough credit, because we tend to write songs in the wrong key, and then just try to make it work. And it's only recently that we've been like, you know what, you know what? We're gonna make sure it's the right key before we proceed. So we're, you know, but

10:24
so you said your move, moving into like a synth kind of vibe, but right now you guys are really indie. So what I want to know is what the hell is frog pop.

10:36
Now, if you notice that question is right in line with the keeping the who is George thing irrelevant, so there is technically not really an answer. But I think the best way I can describe how the frog pop thing is panning out is that we went from writing more indie music to writing more pop music. And so if you heard our demos, like if you were to hear the demos of the songs that are released right now, versus how they sound, they sound very sonically different. And I think not not to bring this too much into like a different question, but like to define frog pop. It's kind of the combination of us writing these, like Cynthia pop songs at home because we have like stock logic presets and stuff. And they I'm not gonna say bland, but they tend to be like, pretty down the middle. And then we bring it to Atlanta with our producer, who the more we released songs the more I'm like, this has like a group love sound to the to the production quality of its our producer being in group love brings this like, edgier, more rocky vibe to to our song. So it's it's kind of panned out to be this, like, pop music with rock, indie production. And that I mean, that's the best, like, objective way I could describe frog pop. I mean, if we were making our demos into songs, they would not sound like they do, to be honest,

11:56
or they wouldn't. And that's the that's an incredibly legitimate explanation. And then the meme explanation that I'll provide is our mixing engineer, TJ Elias and Atlanta, he sometimes will listen to a song and be like, Oh, that's but rock, right? He makes up genres out of nowhere with whatever with bands, we'd like to write with bands that we'd like. So you know, so part of it is us just making fun of people that try to classify music ultimately, what is indie music, it came from independent music. Likely, you know, we intend to be indie music going forward, but it's kind of turned into this Sonic description of an indie song right? The sort of like chorus II washed out guitars kind of deal. Ultimately, frog pop can be interpreted as us making a genre and also, it's like, we're frog pop, right? Just like but rock is but rock or fun pop is fun. Well,

12:44
and that dot what is it? Is it Dolly? No. Is that the AI image connection? Yeah, we were just like putting keywords and stuff into that. Like, it's just taking some of the magic out of it. But this really cool like, yeah, the picture of the of the frog can like soda can you could call it that but but frog like frog soda has been a cool like, image.

13:07
Right? It was inspired by that we came up with the verbiage and it's like, it's kind of the same thing as the George thing. Like there's you can look at it from whatever you want, as a genre as an actual description of what we make or is a can of soda. That's, you know, and you know what, I'm gonna be so bad

13:19
about this because people write whole papers with Chad GPT. So you know what, I can do one image? No.

13:28
All right, so you guys, you just mentioned group love. Um, are there any notable influences that you guys feel really inspired by your music?

13:38
sonically? I don't feel like I could really have answered this question. Well, until now, but I'm going to go back to the grid. The group love thing. Like I had a bunch of friends text me when we started releasing music. Yo, we hear the group love influence. I was like, Sure. Okay, but now I'm starting to hear it more and more so sonically, I think that's where some of the production is going. As far as like, song writing, I think the band that we connect the most on his band camino. Honestly, I love their writing style. I love what they're doing their lyrics, their song structures, well, their lyrics used to be fire. Just can't get around to them, but they need to work on their lyrics. And they're definitely listen, but then I think the biggest one for us, is the 1975. Because we one thing that I've slowly realized, as we've been doing this more, that I have a really big respect for their music because they're writing these pop songs that could be produced really cleanly and have like, a good analog might be like Lanie style production, like Laney has really up the middle, like it's a thing, right? It's cool. But 1975 We would take their songs to our production team and be like, Oh, can we do this? Or can we do this? And TJ breaking down their mixes? He was like, Yeah, this is a really weird drum sound or like, they could have like this is a really stripped down mix or like, this vocal is Kinda hard to hear it's not super clear and Poppy. So I think the biggest influence other than Grouplove on our, like, Sonic character of our mixes is we always default for the weird elements of mixes rather than making something super clear audible. And that's something that I have a lot of respect for in the 1975 music. Totally, yeah, it's just they're just writing pop music with indie production. And they're one of the biggest bands in the world and that and that's cool that you can do the indie thing in pop music, and it can still have that audience. So Well, I mean, what do you what do you think

15:32
I don't, I wouldn't add anything to that. That's exactly where we were our mindset and songwriting we do talk about it openly, quite a lot. You know, what our intentions are. And I think that's important to set. But one of my favorite things about what we're doing in this project is we're doing something different live. We don't intend to be the 1975 live, we don't want to sound perfect. We want authentic moments in our set. And I want Tyler to jump into the crowd almost fall, survive. You know, that's, that's good. We'll

15:58
touch on that later.

15:59
That's the magic of a live performance, though is that it's not the Spotify recording. Otherwise, why would you go unless you're just need to see Matty Healy in person, which there's a there's a large group, there's a couple of folks that are manager is one of those people if you're listening, shout out live, we love you. But live we we probably sound a lot more like a lot more like a John Mayer set would where there's big guitar solos, where there's improvisation, there's big fills, there's dynamic moments, you know, that's really important to our live musicians. We love that we love. We love the authenticity of a live show. So we want to exist in this have the best of both worlds. Like we want this recording music sounds like this. And we want our shows to feel like something different. I

16:44
forgot the John Mayer thing. Yeah, I mean, he's my favorite, probably musician of all time, just like in I started out playing guitar and just doing a lot of solo stuff. And one of the touchstones of our sets has always been these bigger solo moments. Like he's saying, you know, you start writing pop music, and I wouldn't say you lose the opportunity to do that. But you do sort of lose it if you don't, if you aren't conscious about it. And so, like our last couple sets, we try to be really intentional about like, bringing you through a couple like pop songs that are there just that but then doing one of ours, that's a pop song, but then the end of it is like an extended solo. Because we just don't want to lose the, the freeform aspect of of live music. Because I mean, that's why you go to concerts. I mean, that's why I would go like, if you can listen to an artist catalog on Spotify, why would you go see it? Exactly,

17:32
exactly. And we don't I envy jam bands sometimes, because I love that. But you know, we want to be releasing this music that's extremely accessible. And then being able to recreate that live while also giving them the live experience that we enjoy and that we found our fans enjoy, which is improv. So that's that. That's

17:55
that. So you guys just came out with a new single a couple months ago, called vampire social. Congratulations. Thank you. So what inspired this specific song? Hmm.

18:09
So I think the first thing that happened is that sort of, like, the way that we source songs is that we'll just have rough instrumental or vocal ideas. And we'll just send each other balances of that track. And so I was going through some demos that that gentleman had sent me. And the fun thing is that, like, he'll have an idea that's going one way and I'll do the same, but then the other person will take it and make it into something totally different. So I took this piano thing he had, and I just played it in my head and kind of forgot about it. And then went on a run. And just the the full course for vampire like those, those really cool moments when like, you're not trying to write a chorus, it'll just happen in the full chorus just happened. I was like, whoa. And so then I went to went and recorded it over the piano that he had. And then we got together and added the lead lines and everything. And I would say all that the bridge of that song came together and like roughly an hour. And then the bridge we found, we took from an old song that we heard it but decided not to release and we really liked the melody that we did on the bridge. And so then we pop the bridge into there, redo the lyrics, but Well,

19:21
as soon as Tyler came back with the chorus, all that was really there was the piano, the chorus. And then he had this guitar riff which ended up being a guitar vocal hybrid, and it's like the lead line of the song. And then we were like, what if the drums were like hip hop drums, like, interesting. So we just did that all on a computer, just digital. And then the song was just there. It just happened.

19:42
What I was thinking about with the chorus is it's funny, like, if you try to model your songs after other artists, they end up not sounding like that. So it's still a cool method. So I was like, I really want to do a chorus like see through by band community because I love these rap choruses that they do and they're in there Music and so I was like, we got to do a rap chorus. And so that ended up being that. And then I remember listening to the song when it was done. It's like the sounds nothing like see through. But it's got this cool like rap vocal chorus. So it worked out in our in our way

20:14
I love it right now it's my, you know, I love this stuff we're creating because it's truly us. But this song is my favorite because it it feels like it blends some cool aspects of different genres in a way that, that it's it's unique. And I it means a lot to us. I think this is the first release, we've the first time we wrote where I think we got our feet under us. And we identified some of the three lines, we want our music, like that piano thing Tyler had mentioned, if you go listen to the Spotify recording, that basically made it from the demo with some different production stuff and recording methods. But

20:45
yeah, I mean, your streams are going up every single day. Like you're also really big on social media and promoting this is that important to you guys, the social media aspect of it all,

20:55
you actually just open a box that can't be closed. So we have a love hate relationship with social media as I feel like everybody does. I mean, that's just always the truth. And we realize the importance of it. And I think, for us, it's been a process of maturing into what our social media image is going to be. Because quite honestly, we have always had the consistency with social media, like, we know who we're marketing to. We care a lot about our fans. And sometimes that care spills over to anxiety about like what we should be on social media because like, I know I'll be scrolling on reels or Tik Tok and see just like super click Beatty stuff that, as in genuine as some of it might be, my eyes are on it, and they're not leaving it. And that's how the platforms are designed, which is conversation for another day. But it's been an interesting, give and take of trying to figure out how we stay us because at the end of the day, who are we we are live musicians, we're performers and songwriters. And I wish, honestly, that we lived in a world where those things alone could could put you on a platform because I mean, the number of really talented people that just don't have the, you know, access to social media or the you know, know how to do it or quite honestly, a label to do everything for them. Let's not forget that. It really gets lost on on some folks. So to cap that off, I think we're getting better at being like authentically us on on social media. I mean, I'll just say like, we're not going for the like hot guy thing. Like I think that is so cringy we are pretty normal dudes, we like looking funny and connecting with people. And so we're going to film funny skits, we're going to film stuff that's truly us. And at the end of the day, I don't really care how many views it gets, like we're going to do the best. Like, you know, I'd rather live with 5000 followers total than but I'm getting I'm getting away from the question here. We just have a lot of thoughts on social media,

23:01
we sure do. i The only thought I want to give is that. I just want to be accessible to people that care. That's been the most fulfilling part of social media is when people come to our shows and post a story that we reposted and can respond to them and be like, how did what did you think of the show? You know, that's the whole point, ultimately, of performing is to connect with people on social media, like Tyler said, really doesn't connect us in ways that it should but, but it can. And I think that's what we try to focus on. And try not to focus too much on the instant growth aspect because I think it can really take away from the from the art of this for

23:38
the last thing I'll say is that the biggest struggle on social media for us has been that we've had a couple moments on platforms where video will go viral, or some promotional effort of ours will go viral. And it will translate to a lot of followers and interests. But it will very quickly sputter out as far as like real engagement. So when we do like that, the only way that we know how to do this is to organically bring people closer to the project and just sort of say whatever to the things that go viral. Because like virality just simply doesn't. It just doesn't translate to viewers. Like I don't want to be a band with like 100,000 Instagram followers that are all just there because they saw a cool video and like, we actively try not to put that stuff up because like, if they're not coming to the shows, why would they follow us? You know, like, but anyway, that's that's my answer to that question.

24:30
Well, I think you guys have definitely succeeded in bringing people closer to your music, if that was the goal. And I think on that note, we're going to take a short break to play all vampire social by our new friends by George

25:00
I smile sorry lasted sorry elastics burn out their next house all the bad kids all the bad kids don't feel left out out of fear bird seats come out for all of us for all of us the baby got around We'll bring him in on the found

25:39
never again give us our

25:49
dreams come socks me come socks me we're not the best free mouse can leave my last one you don't want to leave that Chow jam mouth become crowded fun can't shut my mouth that socks must falling

26:15
around when

26:22
we're not going out soon Baby Baby

26:39
Baby Baby calm

27:10
last visit Van Rijn

27:22
never gotta go in outback dealers out many many.

27:57
That was vampire social by by George. So are your lyrics usually General? Or do you guys base them off of specific personal experiences?

28:08
I try to make things as general this about answer but I try to make them hybrid. I think the the touchstone that I use for all lyrics as I try to make everything into a metaphor, which I think backfires sometimes and works at other times. We try to be committed to have like slightly vague lyrics because I think part of the part of the mystique of music is a set of lyrics that you can interpret for yourself. Like I don't know, I'm not really that drawn to like, if I hear a verse and I'm very keyed in on what's happening and kind of like, like I come on, I wanted to figure that out. So as far as like, the way we do it, I think it's always like, we try to make a metaphor out of like, the combination between a personal experience in general, it'll always come from like a feeling that I'm having related to something that happened to me or officer, you know, whatever it is, and then turning that into, as General a feeling as possible. So like, Okay, what is it in this experience that I had that is universal? I think it's the way to think about it. And then and then bring it to that universal thing in a unique way. Because it's tough, right? Because like, write a love song. You gotta be really careful, because there are way too many of those. And they all have the word love in them. But if you find an interesting way to do it, then I think it's permissible.

29:25
I think, again, accessibility is a priority in this realm to making sure that people can make it their own. You know, just once you release it, it's like, well,

29:34
it's not really yours anymore. Yeah.

29:36
Well, now we get to talk about your performances. You guys have been busy this year, lots of live performances, and you're currently enjoying your Spring Tour. How's that going?

29:48
It's going well, it's pretty much just the beginning. This is a pretty different tour than we've done in the past. I think we're enjoying it and say more or less in other tours. We're enjoying it a lot better Has we have the coolest venues I think we've ever played on this on this tour and the coolest artists I've ever played with. And I mean, honestly, what better way to start it than to play in Raleigh and at Lincoln theater? A room we played last year and had a ton of fun out. And then yeah, I mean, really the biggest differences, the rooms, and the frequency of our playing like, we've done tours in the past, where, you know, we used to think being a pan was okay, you're not doing the thing, unless you're on the road all the time everywhere, getting out there. And it's like, whoa, go to the places that you know, you have like fans, like figure out the right space shows out enough. Because we used to just be like, Go Go, go go go new place. And you know, people come out to the shows, but if you have a chance to see us every five seconds, you're never going to fill up a room. So you got to do a couple shows. But it's been great. I mean, the band is the best like group of people. Yeah,

30:57
I think building off what Tyler said in the fall, we did a tour that was a little bit more geographically ambitious. What a way to put Oh, yeah, right. We went to we did DC, New York, Philly, we did Knoxville, you know, we were just all over the place. And it was really cool. But for the spring, our intention was to hone it in a little bit more, let's be a little bit more intentional about where we play, and where our core audiences are, where our listening markets are. And you know, that's Raleigh and Charlotte primarily. And then we have some secondary markets that we're trying to build up. And it's not to say that we don't want to go to all these places. But generally, you know, I think it's just human nature. When you spread yourself really thin, each show gets a little bit less of your, of your of your real intentions. And so, so I'm incredibly excited for this tour. And like Tyler said, starting it off in Raleigh was a dream come true. We played Lincoln 364 days prior, in January 2023. With late notice and CO headlining with Harvey St. Joe. And then this time we played with belltower blues for the first time up and coming NC State band, as well as the layaways, who are friends of ours, which was incredibly fulfilling to play the same sort of event, headline it with these, with these local bands that we'd love. I mean, it's just incredible.

32:11
Yeah, so where do you guys have coming up?

32:13
We are in Greenville, North Carolina on Saturday night. And then we're in Charlotte, the 16th of February. And then we see we have a festival pending in May artists fear in Greenville. And then we have a run of shows with a really cool band from Nashville called okie dokie. Which is a way cooler name than ours. But they're great. And so we're going to do visual aid here in Charlotte with them. We're going to do Pourhouse in Raleigh with them. We're gonna do Chattanooga, Nashville. We're doing Charleston. We're doing Memphis with the lemons of really cool band from there. And they're putting okie dokie on that bill too. But yeah, we're still building out some dates. But the big next steps are Greenville. And in Charlotte, so and

33:07
the next Raleigh date, as Tyler mentioned with okie dokie is on Saturday, March 23. I don't have a calendar pulled up. I

33:14
promise. That is the date that it is on.

33:16
It is it is on that date for for any rally people.

33:21
It is happening.

33:23
It's happening Time and Place poor house

33:25
doors at 7pm 7am. Doors at 7am. At the courthouse. 7pm. Right. Yeah.

33:33
All right. Well, just between us off the record, is Tyler going to stage dive? And if so, is he going to survive? Yes.

33:43
And maybe. Yes. And maybe Pourhouse is a tough sell for stage diving, because we got to ensure people are packed. I mean, that's one of the things we're like, in my health is a concern. So like, I'll look out there and then if I see enough people clump together, I'll do it. But I mean, the implications of that not happening are pretty dire. It's true. It's true. We haven't planned like we have like, here are the circumstances that need to arise for me to do this. We have like alternate. I was gonna say alternate realities. Yeah, we have the multiverse ready for our shows? No, we have, like, okay, they're not, you know, they're not gonna go for it. Okay, we're gonna do this. They're gonna go for it. We're going to do this. So hopefully, in the moment, we're going to do it. But that's all I can say. Yeah, part

34:31
of the chemistry. Aside from purchasing the multiverse, part of the band chemistry we've developed I think it's really cool. This improv stuff we've been talking about live so that we can communicate with each other through talkback mics on stage and so we do leave a lot of room in our performances for dynamic moments that are not planned. Although we do have universes and realities of

34:53
we need to kill that. We kill that point a bit. Yeah. All right. Anyway, but yeah,

34:59
hopefully Do that's a dangerous habit to have.

35:01
Right? That's right.

35:04
You guys, also you play a lot of covers at your shows what's been the fan favorite?

35:09
We, you know, this is our chance to redeem ourselves. All right, this is our chance. So, go for it. We used to play a lot of very classic rock and indie covers. And then we moved it. And I mean, we always played a pretty, like we went from playing very popular covers to putting a couple of originals in. And then I think we got so motivated to make our own music, that this last tour, we're like, okay, we're going to play mostly our own songs. And then the covers are going to be very similar to our own songs. And so we went out with the setlist that was like our songs, and then songs that are similar to that. And I think we left the fall feeling like you know what, we probably should have put a couple more like crowd pleasers in there, because a lot of these really great moments at our shows are from like, what you know, but to your Cinema Club, and like everybody talks like that. I mean, you know, we don't play Mr. Brightside anymore. But like that type of stuff. But it's, it's a fine line, right. Because we we want we're going I mean, we are an original band, and that's where we're headed. And I think we're making the right progress on, you know, getting people to where they'll come see the shows for our music, but it is interesting. It's like, we love playing some really popular covers, and you just have to do them. You know,

36:36
at Lincoln theater, we played one cover for every two original songs, and we split it up as such. And we know, we know what we want to do here. I mean, when you don't know a song and you're at a show, it can feel awkward. It can be in the audience, it can, it can be weird, and it's hard to get into stuff that you don't know, but mixed in with songs that you really do know, I think is the best way to introduce someone to your music and be like, hey, it's not. It's not that different, right? This is This is us. And then here's the song, you know, you might like it, and you might not and that's okay, and you can still have a good time. Because you're getting songs that you do know, I will say my favorite cover to play right now is breakeven. Because, yeah, every time we play it, I'm reliving my middle school relationship. But what

37:18
a great what a great song. Yeah, but we took a chance at Lincoln. And we started with two originals to feel the best about our original stuff now that we ever have it. I mean, it's just it's just, you know, people will get used to the new stuff. And we've gotten great feedback on it. But yeah, that's the best cover break even. You can't go wrong with the script

37:36
or wrong either. Yeah, so like you were saying you just played a huge show at Lincoln theater. When you get off a performance like that, like, what's the energy, what goes through your head,

37:49
hunger, hunger, nice. It's really great, because like, the prep is extensive, and there's just a lot that goes into it. So in there, like, as our shows get a little more complicated as far as like, we've got all these plans, dynamic moments, and we've got lighting rigs and stuff like that, there's more failure points. So like, and our team is not growing in size, like it's us. And our amazing manager, Olivia, and other guys in the band, but like we're doing like five jobs, every like that are typically handled by separate teams every show. And so we're getting there really early, making sure everything works. And then when it does work, and there have been a lot of times when it doesn't work, and it's absolutely terrifying. But like, I mean, I'll just say like we had a, we had a house show in Raleigh, that was like, it just got shut down immediately. And we were like, we just put so much time and we were like, there were so many people there to connect. And you know, we didn't feel all that great after that. But Lincoln, our plan, like everything worked. And the and people were really loving it. And so that's a pretty indescribable feeling when you know, you see how people have been impacted by show in the effort really, really pays off. So I mean, really, really great. After Lincoln,

39:11
I don't think we slept for a night, really, for the seven days before Lincoln theater. Um, you know, coming off of everyone's home for the holidays, and trying to get everything Tyler mentioned together was basically an impossible task. And the more you try to do, the more things can go wrong. But after the show finished, I mean, later that night, I literally cried tears of joy because we actually pulled it off. Very, very happy.

39:35
Yeah, so not only do you guys play venues like Lincoln, but you're big on house shows and lots I think so. My question is when the Feds shut you down, do you pack up or do you keep playing?

39:50
We always pack up because the consequences of the altar like if we were, look if we were a punk band or that was part For the aesthetic, I think there's a value in having content that were like, you know, you're getting rushed out of the shower or something like that. But like, that's not our thing. And it puts the people at the show at risk to like, if you keep playing, and there are people there, and the cops have said, you know, you have to leave, and then we keep playing. Like, it's not really just as simple as, oh, you know, we're gonna keep playing whatever. We don't care about that. It's like, no, there's like hundreds of people here who could be getting arrested right now. And the quicker they get out. They're gone. And of course, that's a noise thing, right? That's just a noise thing. But uh, yeah, I don't I don't really think we we play through stuff. I mean, we've had a cop up. I mean, how do you play through that when a cop is on stage? Like, hey, stop, right. I

40:41
think I think we actually have started playing a period of time after a few times. But you know, the last house show we played. And this is the reason it was the last house show we played was on August 25 of last year to kick off our fall tour. And when the cops showed up, the house we were playing at, we actually had some friends that lived in that house, and the counselors were like, listen, I can't afford a fine. You know, it's like, okay, we're not, you know, we got to stop. It's unfortunate, but I wish

41:09
we could keep going. I mean, it was great. Cuz there's 1000 plus people at that show. And it's tough at the house show stuff. Because like that, honestly, like, we love playing venues like, don't get me wrong, but like house shows are the most authentic musical experience. And it brings us the closest to fans. And you can be really personal with people. And it's just an incredible experience. But it's so tough because it's so unregulated, not in the strict sense. But like, there's no noise, there's noise ordinances, and there's all sorts of it's very difficult to make a house show work. And it used to work really well. You know, when we would have a couple, you know, people out like, you know, 100 200 people out, but like, when we do house shows, there's 800 to 1000 plus people, you can't do that with house shows. So my my hope is that one day, we figure out how to make that at the house show thing keep going in like a safer, more guaranteed space where that many people can come together, because people feel a lot more comfortable at houses to we want to be doing and it's just literally not possible.

42:06
People feel so much more comfortable. He's exactly right. There's no age limits, right. It's like a perfect opportunity for people of all backgrounds to show up. If you're playing at a venue, it's often age restricted. It's expensive. People don't have rides Ubers or expect, you know, it's just accessible again, that's like, I think the most important thing for our involvement in Raleigh is trying to be accessible. Yeah.

42:30
So before we close off, we are going to be playing one more song by by George for you guys called Love It let go, which is currently unreleased. And coming out on February 29. Could you guys tell us a little about this new single? Sure.

42:46
So the idea came when I was on a solo writing trip. At a family farm, we've got this farm out in western North Carolina that will go to Washington go there next week to do some writing. And as it always goes with our demos, the melodies and structural ideas of the song were created in our demo. And then the sound like if you heard the demo right now, you'd be like, what? In the world this is nothing like the real song. And I think it was one of the most interesting recording processes because we got the most creative I think we've ever been in the studio. There's all these like, funny like drum stick loops, and really interesting guitar sounds. There's cool vocal processing. And I think the bass line is my favorite. Dan, the producer. Did the bass and I just think it ended up in a really unique place. Oh, in the lead guitar line. Is this like digital super distortion thing? And then the where, I mean, it's just the coolest combination of instruments I feel like we've ever gotten. And then it's one of my favorite courses. I mean, I I go back and forth between being like, oh, man, like should have really been called. Love it like go but like, it's a great course just yell. I mean, it's fun to sing. And people have loved it. So it's

44:09
also we really like playing it live, high energy, a lot of fun. And that song took the most turns production wise. Like Tyler said, it did not end up

44:18
it was a synth pop song. Yeah, it was a synth pop song with like big keys. And then you know, we took it in and we did the thing we do with our production team, and we made it our own. So unreleased will.

44:32
So one last question before we close off. What do you guys love about music?

44:39
I feel like the coolest parts of of life are when you don't have an explanation for something or you're enjoying something so much that you're in a flow state and maybe connect that to like, how people feel connected in the most like basic sense. And I just think that music kind of transcends all that transcends a lot of stuff going on in in daily life and you can create Moments with people particularly live, where you can have hundreds of people, however many it is that you don't know personally at all, but you're all connected. It just sort of feels like a unifying force that I don't really get from much else. Honestly.

45:15
That wasn't meant to be a dark that was no, that was a fantastic was a fan, I don't get answers from anything

45:20
else. Help me,

45:22
it's all music makes, makes me feel things and, and impacts me in ways that nothing nothing else ever has. And I know I'm not alone in that. I know that. And so by participating in and by, by adding to the, to the world of original music, I feel really happy. It's really simple. And the other thing I'll add is that having studied you know, Tyler studied finance, I just graduated from NC State with an industrial engineering degree. The subjectivity piece of music is so comforting, I think to you know, having spent so much time in a field where it's not there's not that many different interpretations of a math problem. It's just everything for me. Yep.

46:07
I think you're speaking to a lot of NC State students right now. All right, guys. So where can our viewers see your socials and listen to your music? Or

46:17
Instagram is at Ben by George our Spotify is on surprisingly by George, it's crazy. Our website is banned by george.com. Our email list and textless signup are both on on the website.

46:32
And by Jordan, I banned by George we keep it real simple. But yeah.

46:38
All right. Well, it's been a pleasure to meet you both. Thank you for coming in and talking to me.

46:43
Thank you for having us

46:44
so much. Glad to hear it.

46:45
I appreciate y'all for tuning in. And you can check out the interviews I do with other local artists at wknc.org/podcasts by clicking on off the record. I'm DJ lucid this is off the record and you were just listening to by George on WKNC 88.1 FM HD one Raleigh I'm gonna send you off with one more song by our friends called Love It let go which is currently unreleased out on the 29th of February so make sure to tune in Thank you for listening and I'll catch you next time

47:22
a memory and Ma Song said 70 down the Forever reach because we know it's broken

47:47
go hit the fan

48:07
came close her sling shot with DESA so your rings try to cut her off so you decided you decided sad decide

48:25
we could be friends Amen

48:47
gonna go

49:02
this

49:12
trial back and does just

49:31
be the

Transcribed by https://otter.ai