For our next Reverbnation spotlight, we chat to vocalist (and guitarist) Randy Burlingame of Westfield, Massachusetts-based melodic rock act Arrows Over Athens about his band and their plans for the future.
S] What, or who are your great musical inspirations?
R] “Personally, it’s my dad, mom, and brother. Musically, it’s Bayside, and just life in general. Different things tend to inspire me everyday.”
S] What about personally, what kinds of themes and ideas can inspire your songs?
R] “Like I said, different things inspire me everyday. One of my best friends took his own life this year, so I guess a lot of my recent inspiration has come from that. The human need to relate to others is a big one as well. I feel like we all strive to be understood, but we never quite understand each other the way we’d like to.”
http://youtu.be/s0NouQjUZWI
S] What song that you are working on right now best defines your sound, and why?
R] “I’d have to go with the second track that’s going to be on the new record, which comes out in 2013. It’s the second part of a two part song, Part 1 is ‘Give Me a Place to Stand On’ and Part 2 is ‘And I Will Move the Earth’. In my opinion, this song is just a perfect example of where our band is heading. We still maintain catchy melodies and hooks, but the music has become just a little more aggressive, and the instrumentals are just more well put together.”
[like_to_read][/like_to_read]S] Do you have a message for any UK fans?
R] “Besides being extremely humbled by the fact that we have fans in the UK, I would have to say to them, ‘thank you’. We’re doing our best to come overseas, so hopefully we’ll get to meet all you guys in person soon.”
S] What can people expect from your live show?
R] “Lots of energy. We pride ourselves on having (we think) great stage presence. You’ll see us jumping off of our guitar rigs, spinning, guitar spins, and all that fun stuff. The crowd usually responds to that and we have a lot of fun.”
S] What are some of your biggest challenges right now?
R] “I guess the biggest challenge right now is just knowing whether or not we’re doing the right things to get where we want to be. We’re booking our own tours and we’re in the studio recording our next record. We are running promotions in a way we think is pretty effective, but how can we be sure it’s all going to work? We can’t. That’s the tough part. We just have to do it all, keep doing it, and we’ll find out after the fact if we did things right!”
S] What’re your plans as we move into 2013?
R] “We already have tours for January and March in the US, and we also plan on releasing the record come late spring. We’re also going to be heading up into Canada to play Pouzzafest in May. Once we get some more work done on the new record, I’m sure we’ll announce a few more surprises for early in the year.”
