Interview - The Shore

From http://www.luminomagazine.com/5archive/concerts/2005.01/shore.html

ONE ON ONE with The Shore

Story By SCOTT STEGENGA

Once in a great while a band comes from the US that brings together sounds from not only both coasts, but both sides of the pond. The Shore (singer/guitarist Ben Ashley, bassist Kyle Mullarky and drummer John Wilmer) hails from the Silverlake area of Los Angeles and blends smooth Southern California guitar styles influenced by Gram Parsons and Big Star with emotion and grandeur that would make The Verve proud.

Thanks to some buzz from iTunes, an EP release, and even some exposure on United Airlines radio, the band’s “sonic artwork” has become an instant favorite among many die-hard fans across the country.

I took some time with the band before they embarked on their recent tour.

Lumino Magazine: Have you received a lot of feedback from your music being featured on the United Airlines radio?

Ben Ashely: Actually yeah, a lot of people have been coming to our shows because they heard us on the airline. I didn’t even know we were going to be on it.

It took a while for the album to get released, why is that?

BA: There was all the hoopla with Maverick and WB so they wanted to wait until that was sorted before they released it.

I noticed the release was on iTunes before the official street date, why that choice.

BA: It’s one of those things to easily get it out to people who want it first. It actually charted at 68 in the top downloads in its first week with no radio play or nothing.

How did the album come together?

BA: Well I wrote the songs and then we did the music as we recorded it.

What does the name “The Shore” mean to you?

Kyle Mullarky: We had a lot of names on the wall and one of our girlfriends liked “The Shore”

BA: As the music developed, that was the name that felt right for the atmosphere.

KM: We didn’t want to be another ‘The’ band, but it just fit so perfect.

The songs on the album and EP are pretty solid, are there any other songs out there, and why did you choose these 10 for the album?

BA: We have a whole bunch of other ones. We’re looking at one that may be on a film soundtrack and future b-sides for other single releases. The reason we chose these 10 songs was just because when you’re trying to shape art, you wanna use the right colors that make sense to the atmosphere and mood that you’re trying to present and have it represent what we were going through. We wanted to keep it classic in the traditional sense and not necessarily release a double record, which we could have done, but we wanted to keep it focused.

So those 10 songs are pretty personal?

BA: Absolutely

Many people find the instant UK sound while I catch more of a Gram Parsons feel. You’ve even opened your set with ‘I Am The Cosmos’

BA: Yeah, that’s a little tip of the hat to Chris Bell. At least for me.

John Wilmer: Yeah, and Alex Chilton. My last band, Sparkler, were heavily influenced by Big Star and the producer of The Shore was the singer of that band. Thus the family ties.

Any response overseas or outside the L.A. area?

BA: We’ve been contacted by a lot of people overseas who have heard the music, but as it is now, there’s no release date set for England, Japan or any European places, but we’re really hoping we can get our music out there.

KM: It needs to be out there.

What do you want the listener to get out of the album?

BA: I think that with any classic record, especially with this one, you’re going through stages of love, loss and pain, but at the end with the song ‘Coming Down’ you see that love and happiness is the end and hopefully it will take you there. Like there’s a huge amount of redemption and joy waiting for you.

When you’re up there on stage, what’s it like as opposed to being in the studio?

BA: Well a lot of it depends on the audience and their reacting or not reacting.

KM: Lately the shows have been great.

BA: I’d say its like another level of a cosmic experience, like the record already has in it that doing live, there’s even more emotion involved and its literally more electric. There’s that personal energy you have - like Townes Van Zandt used to weep after his songs were played live because he was touched by even his own music. A lot of times it’s an emotional experience each time.

JW: There’s definite emotion involved in those songs. So the saying goes every time “here it goes again” and once it starts up there, sometimes it feels like its falling apart, but that may be because we’re putting more emotion into it live because it means a lot.

BA: It kind of goes without saying when you’re playing emotional music, if you’re honest and true, how can you not feel those feelings?

KM: If you’re just saying the words and not meaning the words, people can see it. You see bands going through the motions.

JW: Bottom line, the reason we do this is we get a kick out of it and its fun to play and the songs are good.

You toured before the album came out. How was the response?

BA: We played a lot of shows in L.A. and did one tour before the album came out. The tour was a good barometer for us to see how the music affects people. There’s romance to it because sometimes you play to nobody because you’re new and no one’s heard of you and sometimes there’s a lot of people there. At either juncture, people reacted positively to what we did. These girls in Boston were in tears afterwards and I asked them if they were into it like we were. We played ‘Hold On’ and it was pretty heavy.

What’s next?

KM: We’re going to radio in January.

BA: College first then mainstream later.