Interview: Dear You

Dear You is a promising, young pop-punk band from Texas. B&B’s Joe Zorzi talks with Chris Roach (guitar/vocals) about the current state as a band and their plans for the new year.

B&B: How’s it going guys? For the record, what are your names and respective instruments?

Chris Roach: Its going pretty well, man. I play guitar and sings, Louis Moore plays drums, and Danny Davis plays guitar.

B&B:How did you guys come together as a band?

CR: Well, me and Louis have been together for years. I mean, we started playing around like sixth grade. We finally decided once we graduated that music is something we seriously wanted to pursue. After some member changes and stuff, Danny just kinda popped up in front of us and clicked instantly with us musically. The rest is history.

B&B: You guys posted a pretty cool cover of Brand New’s “Jude Law And A Semester Abroad” on YouTube this past December. Obviously, they’re a band you’re influenced by. Who else would you say are your biggest influences?

CR: Ah, Brand New is a big influence of ours. We kind of all believe that to want to be great musicians, you have to respect ALL great musicians. We draw influence from, of course, bands that share the same sound as us, like Yellowcard, The Starting Line, Fall Out Boy, etc. But, we draw most of our creativity from bands outside the “pop-punk circle”. Bands like Lydia, The Format, the Dangerous Summer, The Devil Wears Prada, Regina Spektor — man, we could go on forever. [laughs]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWVJp4wRqAM

B&B: Are there any newer bands from the scene that you guys have been digging?

CR: Yeah, in all honesty, there are some awesome bands that are popping up out of some of our favorites that have split. The female vocalist from Lydia teamed up with a few guys from Copeland and they have a new thing going on called States. And the singer from the Format, Nate, started a band called Fun with a some members from Steel Train. Two groups we love that I’m sure will be heard of a lot in the coming year.

B&B: Have you guys noticed a decrease in the amount of kids coming out to local shows? How has that effected you as a band?

CR: Yeah, the scene comes and goes, sorta like fads. It’s just how things go with kids. We try to stay consistent in different towns, though, and usually we get to see familiar faces. As a band, it kind of helps us focus on a demographic as opposed to writing for just some of our friends, which we think that the broader our receiving audience is, the more music we write that we stay true to, as opposed to what we know they want to hear.

B&B: According to your Facebook, Dear You is not signed at the moment. With the music industry the way it is these days, do you think it’s as important to be backed by a label as it was in the past?

CR: Man, the industry changes monthly these days. With the internet being the biggest tool a band has, a lot of the PR that bands used labels for back before the Myspace craze has been solved with all these social media sites. Really the biggest beneficiary I think that comes from label deals is the fact that you can get your name in circles that aren’t paying attention to the Facebook grind, and they can get you tours and show dates with bigger names and bigger cities for sure. All in all, I think if bands want to break into mainstream and go from regional to national, a backing label is a pretty big help.

B&B: You guys are actually in the studio recording your EP right now. How is that going?

CR: Oh, it’s a total blast! We’ve worked with Engaged Audio before, and Kevin is just one of the greatest guys of his trade. He’s super-awesome at taking our stuff and making it sound bigger and more
professional than we could imagine. It’s out in snowy Springfield, Mo., so the cold is definitely new for us Texas folk. [laughs] It’s 10 days with my best friends playing music, which always is a blast. The songs are coming out really solid, and I’m super excited to release them.

B&B: Anything else you’d like the people out there to know?

CR: Our album should be out early to mid-2011 as of now, and we are almost finished booking a March tour to push it. And of course, we want to make some new friends in 2011. It’s going to be a phenomenal year, and we hope to have tons of new friends to share it with.