Off the Record

*Army Jacket playing*

Tyler Farnes 7:09
This is WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1 Raleigh, I am The Loaf and this is Off the Record, an artist interview podcast/spotlight/whatever it is. I just talk to the local artists, so I do personally, here at the station. Today in the studio. I have uh, Condado, here to talk about their latest album, Everything I've Done is Not Enough. First off, how are you guys doing?

Anunt Singh 7:30
We're doing good.

Tyler Farnes 7:31
So, so first off before we get more into that, like, introduce yourself, you know, what do you play? What's your role in the band? Yada yada yada.

BirdieVelazquez 7:40
I'm Alberto Velasquez, what everyone calls me Birdie and I'm the frontman, I play guitar and sing.

Josh Reid 7:47
Josh Reid, I am the lead guitarist, and I sometimes sing,

BirdieVelazquez 7:54
He yells and cries.

Javan Trinidad 7:57
I'm Javan Trinidad. People know me as Jay, but I play bass. And I do some singing here and there.

Tyler Farnes 8:03
Yeah.

Anunt Singh 8:04
I'm Anunt Singh and I play drums. And I don't do any singing.

Tyler Farnes 8:09
Nice. How long, how long have you guys making, been making music together? Has it been a while?

BirdieVelazquez 8:15
If you want to count the very original form of the band, it started in December of 2017. We announced it on New Year's Day of 2018. And then, Anunt joined the band in April or May of 2019.

Tyler Farnes 8:30
Okay, so y'all have been making music for about four years, right? Um, what was your sort of goal like starting out? Like, with this band? Was it just like a fun thing? Did you all just, like, jam out all the time? And you're like, Okay, let's just actually record stuff like, like, what, what was up? How did this come to be?

BirdieVelazquez 8:48
I was already making music with people. Um, specifically with Kevin who used to be in the band. And I was making music with Kevin and his brothers. His brothers, you know, kind of weren't up to the full fledged commitment at the time. And I needed to find people that were willing to, I guess, you know, put their full attention towards it. And so, a year and a half prior to starting the band, I ran into Josh and Javon at a Guitar Center. And I saw Josh playing some Hozier song on electric guitar. And I was just like, hey, this is pretty cool. And so we kind of sat in the acoustic room and jammed for a little bit and we exchanged information and then for that year and a half, it was a bunch of, yeah, phone tag, just like you got a jam or something? Yeah, let's do it. And then like one of us would just cancel on the other and it would just keep on happening that eventually I hit him up and I was like, bro, like, you and your buddy that was there that day. Like that's, y'all are the only people that I can see like making this happen. And like I need musicians that are consistent. When is the soonest we can meet up? And Josh was like, Well, I'm helping do music at a church and I've got keys to the church so we can go, and doesn't matter how late. I'm like, let's just do it now. And it was like one or two in the morning or something.

Tyler Farnes 10:04
Nice.

BirdieVelazquez 10:04
And the three of us were there, Kevin was not able to be there that night. But um, we wrote army jacket pretty much like, right then and there.

Tyler Farnes 10:12
Nice.

BirdieVelazquez 10:13
And since then it's kind of been, we all work day jobs. But it's kind of been a thing where we're making the music that we want to hear that we really care about, and that we love. And in the meantime, we're willing to kind of deal with working the day jobs and stuff like that to supplement our lives. But eventually we'd like to go on the road and travel and see everything as a group and do music to pay the bill. Not to be rich, but just to do what we love full time.

Tyler Farnes 10:44
Nice. Condado means community in Spanish, correct?

BirdieVelazquez 10:47
County.

Tyler Farnes 10:47
County in Spanish. Okay.

BirdieVelazquez 10:49
Yeah.

Tyler Farnes 10:50
Why did you decide to name your band County?

BirdieVelazquez 10:52
So I had the band name in my head. Because two of the members, Kevin and I, we're from Randolph County, and there's not really a whole lot going on there. It's a really rural place. And there's this constant cliche in like pop punk and emo music, where it's like, I want to leave my hometown with my friends. And I'm just saying, bro, like, just like, accept the fact that you're from where you're from, and like, make it happen regardless of any like, kind of adversity you might face from, like a lack of a scene or lack of diversity or something. So for me, it's just kind of like a constant reminder to like that, like, we come from a certain place, and we're gonna make it happen regardless of where we're from, we're not, you know, we're not going to let the fact that we're not in a city that's like, popping, with like, a lot of like, small artist support, stop us from anything. So yeah, that's where the name came around.

Tyler Farnes 11:44
Is that, is that the sort of, like, goal of the, of the band like for you guys, is that how all of you see it, just sort of just like, it's very much just doing your own thing. And then just like, being there and being loud, and just like, like, like, is that what it's all about?

Anunt Singh 12:01
The DIY aesthetic is really important to us, especially when we put out the new record, and it sounds the way it sounds. And we still did it all ourselves. Writing, recording, producing, mixing, mastering, promo, all of it is still us. And so it's kind of like, for me, it's like, I don't really know how to do it any other way. Because we've done it this way for so long.

Javan Trinidad 12:33
You know, like, even, even as long as it took, you know, because we, those who have been, you know, it's always, you know, hey, we'll have merch soon.

BirdieVelazquez 12:48
Now I'm like, we have an album. Thank goodness. But um. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely I think it's just always been about, you know, pulling from our influences, but still putting out music that we like, and that we want to hear out in the world, but also, that's very attainable, and accessible by all music tastes like, you know, we find ourselves playing shows. And, you know, we got people that look like us out there saying, like, Yo, like, I really love this kind of music, and I kind of got made fun of growing up for listening to it, because everyone thinks I'd be listening to like hip hop, or like, Latin music, or whatever the case may be. And they're like, it's really cool to see that people like y'all are doing this and being original, and, you know, doing what y'all want to do, regardless of what anybody says. So that's definitely the motto, for sure.

Tyler Farnes 13:38
Nice. So, speak about your new album, Everything I've Done is Not Enough. It is a rerecord, remix and remaster of both your EPs and 2019 singles. How did that come to be? Why did you want to do this? It seems like it's a very dramatic shift in your sound from compared to when you first released stuff.

BirdieVelazquez 14:00
I think that whenever we decided to record the first EP, we had already been a band for six months and people are like, what are you going to put out music, and I kept on telling the other three like, we're doing this completely by ourselves, we're self funded at least, because we did do it at a studio, but first impression is very important. I don't want us going out there and looking amateurish and stuff like that because I think a lot of DIY is very accepting of music of all skill levels and musicians of all skill, skill levels and it's fine but you know, I really wanted to make it a point that we were super serious about it and that we had lasting power and you know, wanted to do this for real eventually. And so that first EP was recorded, live, no click, all in the same room. Just throw the mics up and you know, we paid for as much mixing as we could afford, which was not a whole lot of in depth mixing, and the first EP came out. I think people to this day say it's kind of like charming in the sense that it's kind of dry sounding and not a whole lot's going on. And I do agree with that. But ever since the personnel change whenever Anunt joined the band, the band itself sounds very different and Anunt was there for the writing process for the EP Sable. And that was recorded at home. But that was also recorded at home before we really knew what we were doing. That was before I started pursuing a audio engineering degree. And that was before Anunt really started to teach himself a lot of stuff regarding recording and mixing and things like that. And so we just kind of got tired with prefacing showing somebody our music with the phrase, you know, this is our stuff. We sound different now. Which is the corniest thing you could ever say. And so-

Yeah.

-we just, we wanted something that was more representative of what we sound like and who we are, especially moving forward with more out of state gigs being more frequent, I guess, you know, we want the first impression for people that have never heard of us to be what they heard that night whenever they came to the rock show. So the rock show.

Tyler Farnes 16:15
A local show.

Javan Trinidad 16:16
No, I mean like that, yeah, that pretty much nails it. Because like, us as people who hear this music, like on a regular, you know what I'm saying? Like.

Tyler Farnes 16:26
Yeah.

Javan Trinidad 16:27
Sometimes it just hurt to play a show. And then the drive home, and then listen, just like listen back to, one, how you played it, and then two, to what people are actually hearing.

Tyler Farnes 16:37
Yeah. Okay.

Javan Trinidad 16:38
Is so important.

Tyler Farnes 16:39
Okay.

Anunt Singh 16:40
You know, the, the fact that I can put on the new record, and then listen to like, microwave's as much love, right after that. And think, Okay, I'm proud of what we did. Like, I'm proud of the way this sounds. Finally.

BirdieVelazquez 17:02
It feels like it belongs in a professional music space now.

Tyler Farnes 17:06
Yeah.

BirdieVelazquez 17:07
It's very, it's competitively loud. It's competitively HD. Not that the original recordings were bad in any kind of way. It's just, you know, this is much more of a polished kind of more commercially viable sound, which, you know, moving forward, I think is kind of important.

Tyler Farnes 17:24
Nice. So, how long have y'all been working on this album?

Anunt Singh 17:30
With it being very DIY, it took, like, the oldest tracks on this record, the date is probably 2020.

Tyler Farnes 17:37
Oh.

Anunt Singh 17:37
Like, some of the drums are super old. And like, it just happened in piecemeal. And then really, in the last, like, 6, 7, 8 months, we decided to, okay, let's make this a project, make this a priority. And even then, it was like, we would go like a week or two without recording anything, just because of people's schedules or stuff like, people having kids.

Tyler Farnes 18:04
Yeah. Everybody has a life. Yeah.

Anunt Singh 18:06
But it took a while. But I think that's also like, that's a luxury of the DIY thing. And it's also, you have to motivate yourself to get it done.

Tyler Farnes 18:17
Okay.

Josh Reid 18:19
Like he said, it did take a while, but I think looking back on it now, I was telling Javon the other day, that I'm glad that it took as long as it did, because throughout the recording process, there would be times where I would listen to what we had already recorded, like last year. Like, I don't even play that like that anymore.

Tyler Farnes 18:40
Yeah.

Josh Reid 18:40
So go back and redo that.

Tyler Farnes 18:42
Okay.

Josh Reid 18:42
I'm glad that like, yes, it took this long. Yes, we gotta tell people, it's coming. Just be patient. It's so worth it now that people are like, hitting all of us up individually and just being like, I like this part. And I like this part. And-

Tyler Farnes 18:56
Yeah.

Josh Reid 18:56
-you guys did really good with all of it as a whole, or just like this section really stuck out to me this time after listening to it. And it's like, that makes it worth it to me, no matter how long it took. We were talking to somebody, I think it was last night. And they were telling me their project took four years.

Tyler Farnes 19:11
Oh. Yeah.

Josh Reid 19:15
Like, a year to us. We were like, really, really trying to hunker down and get it done. But like, I'm glad that it took a year, it's definitely worth it. Definitely worth it.

BirdieVelazquez 19:26
When I put the record on, I'm like, This is my band. This is what we sound like, any given day of the week. If we're playing a show, it's just the most accurate representation of who we are, what we sound like, what we like, our influences, everything, you know, it's just, it's up to date. It's current and I, it's really, really relieving.

Tyler Farnes 19:48
Nice. So first I want to talk about uh, Army Jacket, which was played before the interview. But before we started talking, all that jazz. How do you feel about remaking that sort of old song that, one of your, one of your first songs like ever that you demoed in 2018. How, what was the process, was it very difficult, did you have like a lot of emotional attachments to it, like, like, were you excited to rerecord that, remix it, like, what was it like?

BirdieVelazquez 20:15
I think the most difficult part was getting the guitar tone right. Because whenever that, the first EP comes on, the jangly, kind of really bright and hoopy sounding guitars, kind of the, the real priority for me because it just sounds, it just kind of like makes your ear kind of perk up whenever you hear it because it just sounds, doesn't sound like heavy angry guitar, it just sounds kind of sparkly. And so with how we play now and how the tone shifted for Sable, it's kind of hard for me specifically to get that sound out of my guitar nowadays, unless I really kind of dial everything in so we made it a point to try to use the the equipment that would complement that sound the most, so that song is actually all processing, like, guitar like, a guitar processor instead of amps.

Tyler Farnes 21:06
Oh, okay.

BirdieVelazquez 21:07
Or, for the guitars and the bass, um, it's the only song on the record that every instrument is running through that, so we just wanted to use some other flavors of amplification instead of what we normally use live to get that sound, but aside from that, you know it was mainly, get it sounded kind of punchy and heavier which happens naturally with the way Anunt plays drums, but also kind of still maintaining the groove and kind of lightheartedness of the song, you know. And I think we were able to do that fairly easily because that song kind of evolved as the band did.

Tyler Farnes 21:36
Yes. I would describe your earlier EPs as sort of Midwesty emo type of, type of scenario, where it's like very twinkly I guess and that's, and that's what also what Maddie, my general manager at the station, also described it as. I like mentioned, oh, you know, Condado, I'm going to interview them, like, aren't they like very like, twinkly and like Midwest emo. I was like, yeah, yeah, they are, but this new album rocks. So I guess this goes on to the point where transitioning to like, a lighter will burn a bridge fine. I think it's kind of like the, like that and Army Jacket kind of seemed like, the most like twinkly sort of like, Midwest Emo. It like sort of like, inspiration, well, not inspiration, but like keeping it that. And also, I remember you saying like, in that school kid show that, that, that, that title, and that sort of song is like, the most emo sounding Steggy that you have. So, was that a song that consciously, you were like, that and Army Jacket where it's like, okay, we want to sort of still keep this identity a little bit during the beginning of the, of the record? Or is it more just like, you know, or am I reading it completely wrong? Like?

BirdieVelazquez 22:47
No, I think that those songs, whenever they were written, those were probably some of the biggest influences at the time. I would say that personally, my biggest influences instead of being the Midwest twinkly stuff, is more of the riffy kind of Philly emo stuff like modern baseball, and everyone that is, and was on Lemo records, and those kinds of bands, oso oso, thin lips, Katana warriors, all those that, that kind of music is really what resonated with me. But I think that the, inherently whenever I'm, whenever we were writing a song that sounds as emotional and kind of nostalgic as it does, you know, you kind of lean towards a guitar tone that sounds a little cozier and a little bit more kind of like, big question mark floating over you instead of just really authoritative, very heavy and distinguished kind of distorted guitar, I just don't think it fits as, as well as you know, a very mellow kind of soft touch in that case. So I think the songs just naturally sound more like that. It wasn't exactly uh, at the forefront of my mind, but um, definitely something that I think was somewhat preserved on the new recordings. But everything, like Anunt said earlier, is kind of just turned up a little bit.

Javan Trinidad 23:59
They were, they were also written closer to each other, like, in the timeframe of us, you know, being a group within like, weeks so like, through the whole album, like you can still kinda like, tell how, like, we're still evolving our sound. And it's really still at this point, not stopping, like, the album is just a capture of like, the whole beginning chapter of our story of like, how our sound started and where it is currently sitting. Like, I don't ever see myself being comfortable, like ever, even at shows and stuff with like, the, the tones that I'm getting at all, like, I'm always in a constant change with, you know, this and that. So like, those two songs being so close to each other, like, within the writing process of it, like, I feel like it keeps a really rooted, natural kind of same sound as it is in itself.

BirdieVelazquez 24:55
And we also made it a point to put the songs on this record in chronological order.

Tyler Farnes 24:59
Yeah.

BirdieVelazquez 24:59
I'm sure we could have decided a tracklist that was a little bit more, I guess dynamic or appropriate for how the songs themselves sound, but we just made it a point to release it in chronological order, because we want people to hear the songs and how they've changed over the years, but all at once, and all sounding very consistent. So that was another thing that we wanted to focus on.

Tyler Farnes 25:22
It's just very sort of like warm, but it's like, still like in your face, sort of a little bit. So I don't know. Um.

BirdieVelazquez 25:29
I think the key to that sound to me is the mid range. A lot of people like to scoop it out in order for the detail and the, the kind of woodier frequencies that it gets hard to stick out. But I just want it to be kind of brash and kind of boxy and hunky sounding because that's what's going to just cut through everything and hit your ear first, as opposed to something that's kind of hollow in the middle, you know, so we use amplifiers made by a builder in Durham. His name is Chris Rossi. His company is called Dusk electronics. And we use his amplifiers, which have a very distinct kind of harmonically rich, very, very dense mid range to them. So they just have this kind of really pleasant, like vintage kind of squawk. And so it just, if we're playing on single coil pickups, it'll do the jangly thing. If we're playing with humbuckers or with more distortion, it'll do the really gutsy kind of distorted thing and just.

Tyler Farnes 26:21
Nice.

BirdieVelazquez 26:22
Yeah, I think that too many people are out there scooping their mids and it makes me sad.

Tyler Farnes 26:31
Alright, well now now that we obviously talked a little bit about the new album and the sort of the songs, I'm put on two new, two, two more songs from them, from that album, These mountain families sure know how to make money, and beer goggles. Hope y'all enjoy.

Unknown Speaker 26:49
*These mountain families sure know how to make money playing*

Tyler Farnes 35:22
All right, and we're back. These mountain families sure know how to make money. How do you like it now that you've sort of rerecorded it and remixed it and everything?

BirdieVelazquez 35:30
I think that the part that I like the most is the fact that the heavy hitting sections hit harder. And I think that I'm very proud of the way we were, the way we recorded it. And the way that we mixed it because I was, even though I have like a slightly different voice now, I feel, when I sing, I was very content with the way that the harmonies and like the ending of the song sounded on the original recording. So it was definitely a point of mine to make sure that we, we made things sound just as full and very choir-esque towards the end of the song. I wanted to preserve that element of the old recording, for sure. And I think that the new version, just again, just like the other stuff, just has this weight and this punch and this steadiness that just feels good and kind of brings a little bit of anger to the track, a little bit of, you know, just like in your face, and very, very important for that to be felt for that song, especially, I think.

Tyler Farnes 36:29
Did you do like a lot of like, because your singing seems a lot better in this album. Did you do a lot of vocal training, or is it just like, you just got more comfortable with it all?

BirdieVelazquez 36:38
So, I think that my voice and the journey that I've had with my voice has kind of been a lot of ups and downs. Throughout my life, I did a lot of musical theater and choir in high school.

Tyler Farnes 36:51
Nice.

BirdieVelazquez 36:51
Constant, I had constant training there. And I think that's the best my voice ever sounded. Shortly after high school, I just had a lot of upper respiratory issues all the time. And I was just very stuffy and I didn't know how to how to project and stuff like that. I've broken a lot of, or damaged, a lot of like cartilage and stuff in my nose. So like you know, I just kind of have a very deviated septum like, I can't breathe, I suck at breathing. It's not, it's not the greatest thing, not the greatest problem to have if you're trying to sing but I feel like nowadays, you know, just really focusing on what my body is doing when I'm singing and also the monitoring environment. I do kind of what the singer for Metallica does, where instead of headphones on, I've got a little speaker in the road in the booth. And so I feel like I'm singing with the track instead of like, hearing a duplicate of my voice in some headphones, I feel like I'm just singing in the room. And that feels a lot more natural to me. So we did a lot of recording that way on the record. And that also helped and I think live just in general, you know, running earplugs so I can kind of hear my own voice in my head definitely helps. I'm still not the best singer by any means. Sometimes I get really self conscious about it. But I do think that the singing is a little bit more of a step up. And also there's a, you know, beautiful plugin called Melodyne which cleans up some of the ugly notes here and there. But obviously I don't Yeah, I don't sound like T-Pain. So shout out T-Pain. He's got the same birthday as me.

Anunt Singh 38:21
Very quick note, like everybody on any track unless they make it a point to say they didn't use it. Everyone uses pitch correction. Okay, everybody. Yeah, like it's industry standard for a reason.

BirdieVelazquez 38:33
And pitch correction, you know, I think is it's definitely widely used, but it's also not a substitute for a good delivery, I think you can still deliver something very emotionless and very underwhelmingly and you know, auto tune or pitch correction is not going to fix that. So you know, I definitely made it a point to rip it on these tracks. Yeah, that's like the,

Tyler Farnes 38:51
Sorry, it, it didn't, it doesn't seem like you use any type of autotune or pitch correction at all. So listen to it. It's very much. It seems like you guys aren't using like much of it, but it's still there. Right?

Anunt Singh 39:03
Yeah, it's there. But like you, the performance is number one.

Tyler Farnes 39:06
Yeah.

Anunt Singh 39:07
But number two is like we still we, you know, sometimes you need just that little bit of, especially when we're doing like stacked harmonies or something like that. It's a lot is everything just fits a little bit better. Then all, you know, like, that's the best compliment to me. If you use pitch correction, and people don't recognize it, they say, oh, no, you don't like this, that that means we did it right.

BirdieVelazquez 39:31
You know, there's also some spots where you know, I'd be butting heads with and I'm like, I don't like the way that note came out. Like please tune it and you know, it's just like no, like it's it's a human performance. It's a it's meant to have little imperfections and things like that. So you know if it's not blatantly horrible, or like just like a whole semitone away from where I was supposed to sing them. We just might keep it so it's definitely not like every word on the album was tuned, but just the spots that needed it.

Anunt Singh 39:57
Specific stuff. That was by the way, that's another reason the album took a while. We went through all these like, iterations of like, oh, you know, let's record the guitars this way and then Josh was not happy with his tone or we couldn't get it right or whatever. So he went for all the songs that are on EP one, he went through the processor. And then we've the first big hurdle that I remember was Birdie not being happy with his voice. And it was just like, it wasn't bad, but he was trying to sing with headphones. And I was like, we just trying different stuff. And I was like, you know what, I feel like you were used to hearing your voice as it is in a room with no like, no, like as it comes out of your mouth. So let's try putting a monitor in the room. And it was like a switch flip. And it was like he was hitting everything as usually as you usually do. He does like live,

Javan Trinidad 40:52
We really kind of like made it a point like through the recording from that point on like, vocally was like, this is like, strictly things that we can do live you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Like we try to you know, in pansy, we did add, you know, some, some cool little vocal flair things in comparison to the old recording. Like more harmonies, more harmony things. But like, we didn't want to get too out of pocket to where it sounded like it was super overproduced.

BirdieVelazquez 41:22
Right. Yeah, like we do make it a point that everything that's on the record is, we're not missing too many components when we play live, we want to be able to replicate it live.

Okay.

A lighter will burn a bridge fine. Funny story about that. So when we tried recording it to a click, but and even though that song has kind of tempo switches and stuff, but we realized that, although we nailed it, it sounded really like sterile and like lifeless because it was locked to actually.

Tyler Farnes 41:49
Okay.

BirdieVelazquez 41:49
Recorded the drums and bass at the same time live for that song. So that song is completely free. Unlike the other ones that were recorded to a metronome, lighter was actually recorded live because that song needed it the most.

Tyler Farnes 42:03
Nice. So uh, beer goggles.

BirdieVelazquez 42:06
Beer goggles is a song that, the whole, the whole thing that made it different back in the day, and back in the day, in the old lineup of the band, there was a lot of instrument rotation, um. I had originally, or Javon presented the guitar riff for that song and I had written the drum part. And so that song was definitely a standout moment. And we were actually, it was actually going to go on EP one, but there was actually an emergency with our old bandmate where his brothers were in a car accident while we were, you know, in the studio, like, recording and everything. And so we kind of, there was a little bit of a very understandable loss of focus, and we just didn't continue with that song just because we were having difficulties recording it in that very moment. But um, definitely kind of a heavier song. And Javon has a huge hand in the way it sounds and how it was written. And it's been through quite a few different iterations, there has been the original one that was recorded at the Haywood house in Greensboro. And then there was beer goggles two, which was recorded at home and then this is beer goggles three, which sounds a lot like beer goggles two.

Anunt Singh 43:11
Yeah, they're the same drums.

BirdieVelazquez 43:12
Same drums. But uh, we just made it you know, even more representative of what it sounds like today.

Tyler Farnes 43:19
Nice. Beer goggles was a song, it, it is a song where you're talking about love and sort of, like, through sober eyes, and it's, it's through sober eyes and sort of drunk eyes, right? What is that about? Does that come from, like, an actual experience, like an actual, like relationship? Or it's just kind of, like, whatever.

Javan Trinidad 43:43
So yeah, I mean, you know, typically as it is, I speak from actual experience in that, you know, growing up as a kid, you know, trying to do whatever I want to do, you know, respectively, so everybody goes through their own kind of, you know, paths in life and mine at that timeframe was drinking away and not really doing anything productive with myself.

Tyler Farnes 44:08
Yeah.

Javan Trinidad 44:09
And, you know, it sort of kind of talks about how the drinking away and not, not using yourself to your full abilities can bleed into the simple things like relationships in your life. And whereas, you know, that is somebody who is, probably could be better for you in a different situation, you just refuse to put yourself in that spot because you refuse to let go of like, little habits such as like drinking and things like that.

Tyler Farnes 44:38
Yeah.

Javan Trinidad 44:39
It's, you know, just a song about the importance of anybody can have a beer, anybody can have a shot, you know.

Tyler Farnes 44:45
Yeah.

Javan Trinidad 44:45
It is what it is dude.

Tyler Farnes 44:46
Yeah.

Javan Trinidad 44:47
It's just a part of this world. But you got to, you got to keep it to a level to where you don't let it control outside of whatever it is you do because it can, it can ruin other people around you and you know.

Tyler Farnes 45:02
Okay.

Javan Trinidad 45:03
In like, just a quick second.

Tyler Farnes 45:06
Okay.

Javan Trinidad 45:06
That's what, pretty much the whole writing scheme is about is just how I was uncareful with pretty much the the situation that I was in with alcohol.

Tyler Farnes 45:18
I'm moving on to Haywood, Haywood is um, you mentioned it previously. It's where you recorded a lot of stuff right, at Haywood.

BirdieVelazquez 45:29
Yeah. So Haywood refers to Haywood Street, which is kind of near UNCG's campus and my old bandmate, Kevin was friends with these two guys named Daniel and Larry, and Daniel and Larry were studying at UNCG at the time, and they were percussion performance majors. So they were, you know, very, very, very talented musicians. And Kevin was roommates with them. And so, you know, we now had a new place to rehearse. And we would go over to the house and what was supposed to be kind of like, a room that connected the kitchen and the living room that was originally I guess, intended to be a dining room, ended up being a music room with a ton of instruments and stuff. Hence the first lyrics of the song, but um, Haywood was a was a spot where we would go hang out, where we'd go write music, where we record our stuff, where we would meet up before shows, rehearse all that stuff. And whenever Kevin ended up moving away, Josh needed a place to stay. So he moved in. And so through both lineups and phases of the band, we were at that house very often.

Anunt Singh 46:39
And that first audition, the audition, I auditioned at Haywood.

Tyler Farnes 46:42
Yeah.

Anunt Singh 46:43
And I learned seven. The only thing that was out at that point was the EP one, and three singles. And I learned them all. Yeah, so that, even in the later stages of us being involved with that house like it, it means a lot to all of us. And I'm saying even myself, even though I was there a limited amount of time, like it was just like, the vibe was like.

Javan Trinidad 47:10
It was a pivotal point.

Anunt Singh 47:11
It was, it was a, it was a, it was, it was kind of like a, this touchstone, it was like crusty, and like walk into there and be like, I don't know who, like it'd be like random people in there, just hanging out, you know, friends, playing Smash Brothers.

Tyler Farnes 47:25
Nice

Anunt Singh 47:26
Playing, what it was, like Splatoon or something.

Tyler Farnes 47:28
Yeah.

Josh Reid 47:30
Larry and Daniel, both. Like Birdie was saying, they were very goofy. They were, they were musicians as well. So it was like, at any given moment, there was somebody playing something.

Tyler Farnes 47:44
Yeah.

Josh Reid 47:44
And then when I had moved in, Birdie was like, You're gonna have to learn all those lead lines, and you're gonna have to start writing lead lines and stuff like that. And I was like, I'm not a lead guitarist bro, I don't do that.

BirdieVelazquez 47:59
Yeah, because the way the old format of the band was. The usual rotation was between Josh and Kevin, they would flip flop back and forth, depending on the song between lead guitar and bass. And Javon was on drums. And then on the newer stuff that ended up becoming Sable. Javon was writing bass parts anyway. So that's kind of how that worked. But.

Josh Reid 48:19
and so like, during that, like just talking about how like, pivotal pay, Haywood was, like, for Anunt, he was only there for a brief period of time, but it got him in with us. And then for me that house like, it was just inspiring to come home from work. And like, Larry and Dan will either be practicing or studying or doing, it's like, okay, so I needed to do something myself.

Tyler Farnes 48:43
Yeah.

Josh Reid 48:43
So I would just lock myself in my room for a couple hours. And like, I gotta learn something, I got to come up with something.

Tyler Farnes 48:48
nice.

Josh Reid 48:49
Like, the more I did that, the better I got at playing and getting more confident with the way that I play.

Tyler Farnes 48:56
No, no, yeah

Josh Reid 48:56
Haywood was just is all just because of being in that house. Just being motivated by what was going on in there. Even if it was some goofy moments, and whatnot.

Anunt Singh 49:08
It really, had really, it really facilitated the thing that like, you hear a bunch of like, old heads or older people, older musicians talk about how you got to like, get in a room together and play. That was where it started. Like you, you need a space to come together. And you need a space to play with each other and play off each other and write stuff off the cuff. That's really important. Especially if you're like in a rock band in the genre.

Tyler Farnes 49:35
Yeah. Yeah.

Anunt Singh 49:36
That's what it was for us. Because that room was so tiny. It's like the size of this room.

BirdieVelazquez 49:42
Like really, it is exactly. And we had a whole drum set and all the amps and everything

Anunt Singh 49:46
Yeah, it was so small. Got so hot. But like that's how you cut your teeth.

BirdieVelazquez 49:52
Yeah, and, and that's especially why I wrote the first chorus the way I did, because I wanted to capture what was going on at any given moment. You know, um, at one point, Larry and Daniel were playing Smash Brothers and someone beat the other person, just started kind of like slapping at each other making funny noises which resulted in one chasing the other down the street. You know, whoever girlfriends or partners were at the time they would be you know, on the couch just like waiting for us to get done with rehearsal, you know, knocked out regardless of how blaring loud it was.

Anunt Singh 50:21
Be sleeping, be sleeping, while we're playing. And then it was like 100 decibels in the next room.

BirdieVelazquez 50:27
And we would just grind songs out until, you know, they were what they needed to be.

Tyler Farnes 50:34
Nice.

Josh Reid 50:34
Shout out to the neighbors, also.

Tyler Farnes 50:39
Hence the second chorus.

Anunt Singh 50:40
Yeah, because we also referenced in the song

BirdieVelazquez 50:42
Yeah, the neighbors never complained about anything.

Tyler Farnes 50:44
Yeah.

Anunt Singh 50:46
Something that I think, just talking about wrapping up, talking about Haywood. Um, yeah, it's the, it's the first song to me. That was completely written from scratch. With this lineup. Cause Birdie had written Sable, a lot of the riffs and stuff, before I joined. He was like, Hey, I got these songs, they're kind of not finished. But here's some starting points. And here's the ideas. Sable was like, it's super homogenous, like it sounds like, like the perfect collection of these six songs that all go together. We, we finished it up. But we didn't, there was no like Genesis, you know, like from start, from beginning to end with this new lineup. Hey, what is the first song? That, that is that because I remember Josh coming up with the riff.

Josh Reid 51:37
Yeah, I don't remember the exact conversation. But I do remember like, we're sitting around. And y'all had said, y'all, like I liked the way this, we were talking about some song. And we were just talking about what we liked about it. And I was like, now I'm gonna go home and write something like that. I went home that night. And I was like, hey, what does this sound like to y'all, and birdie was like, That's it. That's the one we're just gonna run with that. We're gonna come up with some more stuff. Next time we meet up, finish it.

nice.

And it was just, it was, it was that easy. And I think Songwriting with this lineup now, it's still that easy. It's cool. Yeah, it hasn't been like a pulling tooth and nail trying to like, figure out what fits, we'll bring something to the table. And then the other three will be like, Okay, well, this fits here. And I have this idea from such and such. Let's just pull that from here and put that here. And then it just comes together. And it's just,

BirdieVelazquez 52:32
yeah, when it comes to some-

Anunt Singh 52:34
it's really interesting. In the scope of the whole record, this, the whole thing from army jacket to haywood, was written with like different people writing different parts, different members who aren't in the band anymore. But it's kind of seen through the lens of the four of us now. And it's kind of like this is ground zero. Okay, we're starting here.

Tyler Farnes 52:55
Yeah.

Anunt Singh 52:55
Next record is going to be entirely written with this lineup, like from scratch, and we've already basically got it written.

BirdieVelazquez 53:02
Yeah, it's pretty much written instrumentally, we've been sitting on probably 11 to 13 songs since the beginning of the pandemic.

Tyler Farnes 53:10
Dope.

Javan Trinidad 53:10
Did you just sneak peek the ideas?

Tyler Farnes 53:13
Yeah, awesome, before we go, where can, where can people find you and your music and stuff?

Javan Trinidad 53:21
So yeah, we have social medias. You know, Facebooks Instagrams,

BirdieVelazquez 53:27
Twitter we never use except for forwarding the Instagram posts to the Twitter

Javan Trinidad 53:32
They're all the same. It is condado NC, that's c o n d a d o N C. You know, if you see somebody with an afro and you know you, that's me, it's the right page. On YouTube, you might run into, I think a Hispanic rapper, but we're also there.

Tyler Farnes 53:53
Alright, well, thank you all again for coming in and talk about your new music and all about you guys.

Anunt Singh 53:58
Thanks for having us. Yeah.

Tyler Farnes 54:00
All right. I will leave you guys off, or at least the listeners off, with beer goggles and haywood. Thank y'all for listening to Off the record here at WKNC 88.1 FM HQ in Raleigh. Y'all have a good day.

BirdieVelazquez 54:14
This is Birdie Velasquez with the band Condado and you're listening to WKNC 88.1 FM Raleigh.