AGE OF DAZE…Dazed And Confused !

Interview with Tim

1. Hallo there, please introduce yourselves to the  world…

.Hey this is Tim from New Brunswick ( Canada ) based band Age of Daze, we are a hard rock band based out of the East Coast of Canada …

2. So do you think that you live in the age of daze? Let us know about the story behind the name..

The name came about in the studio, our previous band name was already taken by a band in the UK , so we wanted to find something different that meant something to us. Everyone is wired and plugged into something in society so we came up with Age of Daze, it’s kinda of a play on how everything this day and age and how people seem to be losing touch with each other on a personal interactive level

3. Your sound is fresh , radio friendly but still alive  n rockin…What’s your influences in musical and  spiritual level and who writes the music in the band ?

Thanks that means alot, we don’t try to sound like anyone or fit a specific mould, we are products of our influences I guess, and by that I mean we listen to what people refer to as “radio friendly” rock so that’s just where our writing style developed. We just want to write good rock songs people can identify with, after all we are all human and go through the same things in life. The principle song writers in the band are myself -Tim (vocals) and Matt (Bass player), usually I end up with an idea, whether it be a chorus or a verse and bounce it off Matt and we end up pulling it together, or sometimes I bring a finished idea and Matt brings his own finished ideas, we make a great song writing team because we both share the same vision for AOD and what we are about. With that being said the other guys do contribute to the process but mainly myself and Matt write everything.

4. What about your latest Cd “Hollywood Ending”, what  do you mean by the title and what’s the symbolism of the  beautiful girl at the cover ?

Well the name Hollywood Ending actually came from a show we did where the last song of the night just wouldn’t end..ha….ya know the Hollywood Ending, Matt laughed and said that’s our album title…and we thought about it and it worked on all levels, we have a song called “overrated” which deals with young Hollywood starlets and how they just seem to be throwing it all away and “afflicted” is another song that fits the theme so we decided to title the album “Hollywood Ending” and the cover image is basically a down and out actress seeing the harsh reality of Hollywood and her dreams of being a celebrity being crushed. I know pretty deep…haa…

5. I can admit that the album includes great production  and all thematerial is made with a detailed work. Can you inform us about the whole process of the recordings, production , etc. ?

The album was recorded in Toronto ( Canada ) with our friend Mike Turner co-producing, Mike is the co-founder/guitarist for Canadian rock icons Our Lady Peace. We went into the studio to produce an album that had a major label feel in terms of quality on an Indie band’s budget, we recorded for 3 weeks and spent a lot of time developing each song before entering the studio, we have 3 guitarists in the band so every song has distinct guitar parts and the trick is to capture that feel, I think Mike did a fantastic job with this album. We are proud of what we accomplished with this record and having made some great friends in the industry we were able to hook up with Dean Maher (Nickelback, 3 Doors Down, Trapt) from Vancouver (Canada) who did an amazing job mixing the album.

6. Why did you use only 8 tracks, are there any other  material that you didn’t release ?

We decided to run with 8 tracks for a few reasons, one being when you are completely self-financed as we were at the time you have to be realistic about what you can do as far as recording, marketing and promotion for the album. So we decided to take 8 songs that we spent a lot of time with and best defined what AOD was about and track those songs, we had more material and are always writing new material but decided on those songs at that time. Recording 8 songs left us a substantial amount of capital to market and promote the album to radio and help get AOD into other markets. One thing we learned early on is this is a business first and foremost and you have to be able to market your self and essentially your product, it’s all about the music for us but you have to know how to get it to the masses. We basically looked after everything and it was overwhelming most times but we believe in what we do and who we are as a band so it was always worth it.

7. Whose idea was to include the acoustic version of  “Believe” and why that ?

The acoustic version of “believe” came about in the studio, it was a song I wrote (Tim- vocals) and it has meaning to me personally and once we added the string section in I wanted to have an alternate stripped down version that got back to how I wrote it originally. I always like buying albums and hearing different versions of tracks and how the artists approached each version.

8. What about the lyrics?

The lyrics on this album tell specific stories about our lives and what’s important to us. We always write from experience, we have never been good at just picking a subject and writing about it, it has to be something I have experienced in order for me to write about.

9. What’s your goals as a band ?

I’d say the goals for me in AOD is to be able to have a long career and make a living at something I am so passionate about, you only live once and if I can make my living doing what really makes me happy then that is my dream and we have been hearing from fans how important our music is to them and how it has impacted them and their lives and that really means a lot to hear so we are going to take this as far as we can.

10. I can read in your MySpace, that you really believe in the power of online promotion than the offline  traditional marketing, Would you like to talk us more  about your philosophy ?

The internet has been a double-edged sword for musicians. It allows infinite possibilities in terms of networking (ie. Myspace) but, it also allows for illegal music downloading, where artists are not fairly compensated. Legitimate online music suppliers (ie. iTunes, Rhapsody) do allow artists to sell music with very little upfront costs. Our band has embraced the internet as a valuable tool. Gone are the days of the major record labels developing acts. The responsibility for developing an artist lies primarily with the musicians themselves and making your music available online and creating awareness by using these tools has helped bands like us.

MYSPACE PROFILE FOR AGE OF DAZE : http://www.myspace.com/ageofdaze