INTERVIEW: Painted Faces

How would you describe Painted Faces to those who have never listened to the band before?
Well, we grew up listening to punk rock, so that’s definitely the base of all our musical upbringings. But as we’ve matured, we’ve definitely embraced what every genre has to offer, and would describe our sound as indie rock with punk undertones.
Who would you say were your musical influences growing up?
We all had very different influences growing up and it’s helped everyone add a different flavour to our current sound:
Kyle Wakeman: Saves The Day, Get Up Kids [and] Jimmy Eat World.
Nik Pilecki: Belvedere, Strung Out [and] Lagwagon.
John Havaris: Guns N’ Roses, Weezer [and] Bon Jovi.
Trevor Rowe: Movielife, Green Day [and] Jimmy Eat World.
Indie is a genre that seems to be making a strong return, with more and more artists from the genre breaking out into the mainstream. Do you think it’ll keep going strong?
We think so! The thing that makes indie music so great is that there are infinite subgenres to keep it from ever feeling stale. So while at one time electronic-based indie might be more popular, there will also be times where folk indie rises above. Also, indie music is less influenced by external factors, so you get to experiment more, which helps artists develop their new sound.
London has a pretty strong music scene. How do you think it’s helped in the band’s growth?
We’ve been playing in London for about a year now and the scene is very accepting. There is not one predominant genre, so at any given show you can have a punk, a funk, an indie and a blues act - you get exposure to people [who] would have maybe never heard your music before.
There is a very strong community and trust where artists help each other. Bands work together on a show by sharing equipment, recording albums, promoting events and even shooting videos. Bands help each other out more than ever before. Some great people working to make the scene as strong as possible are Jimi James, 331 Arts, Brandon Eedy, London Goove Machine and Tony Lima, just to name a few.
You recently released your new EP, Vinyl Signs, this past September. What was the recording process like?
There is actually a video on our YouTube page that documented the process! But it’s always a blast. We worked with Siegfried Meier at Beach Road Studios and have known him for 10 years. He’s a very energetic and enthusiastic producer and we have a very strong relationship and rapport with him. This being the second time he has recorded Painted Faces, he had a much better idea [of] the sound we were after and he captured in perfectly! We could not be happier with the results.
How has fan reaction been?
Very positive! So much so that, when we surveyed our fans, they could not pick a clear-cut winner to release as a single, so we just decided to shoot videos for all three songs. We currently have a lyric video for “Stop the Waters” and a Halloween-based music video for our song, “One In A Million”. We are going to do a one-take video for the last track, “Anymore”, very soon.
There’s a definite progression from your first EP (2013’s The Drawing Board) to Vinyl Signs. Do you feel you’re starting to hone in on a specific sound or style?
Oh, it’s definitely a very different sound, but I wouldn’t say we are honing in our sound. We never try to write the same song twice, so every time we lay new tracks down, we really try to do something different or out of the box. For instance, “One In A Million” was the first song that was based solely around a piano. The three songs on Vinyl Signs are so different from each other and I think we will try to keep that streak going the next time we enter the studio.
What do you see happening with Painted Faces in 2015?
2014 was our first year as a band and it kept us nice and busy. We are looking to continue down that path. We will be heading back into the studio in February to finish off a full-length album – that’s our end goal. Our past two EPs were like demos to help us prepare for the album.
If you could create your own tour line-up (featuring Painted Faces), who would you choose?
This would be quite the mix-up of a tour but here we go: Painted Faces, The Gaslight Anthem, Guns N’ Roses (original line-up), Foo Fighters and whoever the biggest band on earth is at the time.
Final question: who in the band would be most likely to survive a zombie apocalypse and why?
Definitely Trevor! He is the survivalist of the band and loves shows like “If The World Ended” and “How to Create Your Own Apocalyptic Bunker”. (We may be paraphrasing the names of those shows, but you know which ones we’re talking about, haha.) When the world goes belly up, all of us will be running to his house and he can teach us how to make potato alarm clocks and live off the grid – maybe even some makeshift instruments – but we will have to keep it down, as to not attract the zombies, haha!
You can purchase Vinyl Signs on Bandcamp, and make sure to follow Painted Faces of Facebook and YouTube.
By Clare Fitzgerald
