Camera Can't Lie Featured in the August 2010 Issue of Songwriters Monthly
Within the span of less than a year, Camera Can't Lie have released two EP's and hit the road on tour a number of times. As far as plans for the rest of the year? The band is looking forward to a full-length album release and even more touring. "It's just going to keep getting more and more busy and exciting!" bass player, Kyle Lindsay expressed.
“I mean, it’s been a pretty fun process,” he continued. “Signing to a label in itself is a dream come true and the recording was something I’ll never forget. We’re completely done! We’re ready to go out and play the songs live and release the full-length album later this year!”
Lindsay was barely able to contain his excite- ment and enthusiasm as he spoke. His fervor was understandable because Kyle and high school friends Eric Aries (vocals/guitar) and Josh Bendell (drums) have been on a nitro-fueled ride these past few years. Camera Can’t Lie signed to Atlantic in 2008 after only about one year of being a band. By 2009, the Minneapolis trio was in Ron Aniello’s (Lifehouse and Guster) Los Angeles studio recording tracks for their Atlantic Records debut.
The band members’ influences range from classical to classic rock, but the one thing they share is a passion for 90’s rock. “We love 90’s music! All three of us are heavily influenced by it,”
Kyle revealed. “No one was bigger in the 90’s than boy bands and I think the rock was overshadowed by that. Do people forget that Nirvana was in the 90s? Even after that, after grunge was over, there was still so much alternative music and great rock songs with pop sensibilities! That’s kind of the influences that are shining through in our sound. We miss hearing those bands and we just wanted to create music that we liked.”
Indeed, Camera Can’t Lie has succeeded in not only bringing back that post-grunge freshness, but in creating a sound that is both looking back and forward at the same time. The members understand the importance of dynamics, tightness, hooks, honesty and just good old rockin’ out! Even though the demos and live shows from back in ’07 had a much rawer feel than the new material, all the vital elements were already present at the band’s beginning.
“We were always striving to write the best songs possible,” Kyle noted, “songs that were honest and connected with the audience. Even though maybe
the sound wasn’t so polished and we didn’t know exactly what we were doing [in 2007], we started off the band in the right mindset.”
As far as the songwriting process, Lindsay explained, “Generally, our singer, Eric, will write the whole song on acoustic guitar, then Josh, the drummer, and myself on bass, will bring our own parts to the mix and make sure it all works.”
Lindsay underplayed the importance of the strikingly tight bass and drums on the recordings, the element that catapults the songs forward with the same staggering force and velocity that the band’s career is experiencing. When asked about how much effort goes into keeping the bass and drums locked together, Kyle seemed grateful that aspect of the music was brought up. “Josh and I work really hard on hanging out a lot and playing together so we’re really close,” he pointed out. “We strive to make it sound essentially like the bass notes are coming out of the kick drum, like Josh is playing the note straight out of his kick drum. Yeah, I’ll leave the kick drum here and there to do some licks and whatnot, but we want that to be so tight. We practice by ourselves on low volume just to make sure we are tight as can be.”
When asked what happens after the band enters the studio, Kyle replied, “During the recording process strange things happen and the songs really come together. It’s kind of trial and error, we see what works and what doesn’t. There are so many things that we tried on the songs that were later cut and then there were things that were added at the last minute that truly made the song.”
Perhaps due to the band’s open-to- anything approach when in the studio, the tracks on the two EPs are wildly diverse. Still there are many elements which hold the music together as a cohesive whole, elements that scream, “This is Camera Can’t Lie!” One of those elements is a consistency of style in the guitar hooks and licks, not only within each song, but from one track to the next. “Yup! Totally! I know what you’re saying, I know exactly what you’re saying!” Kyle nearly exploded in response. “That’s another thing we loved about some of those 90’s bands, you knew what bands they were just from the guitar hook. With Third Eye Blind, you know who is playing the guitar as soon as the song comes on, you just know it’s that band because of the guitar hooks!”
As far as plans for the rest of the summer, Kyle informed, “We’ll be releasing a single called ‘Last Dance.’ It’s pretty much THE single! If there was one single on the entire record — which I think there’s a few— this would be the first one. I’m sure we’ll shoot a video and there will be all sorts of ways to get the song out, hopefully there will be a lot of opportunities for people to hear it.”
“Then we’ll head out with Secondhand Serenade,” he continued. “We’re super excited, we were so stoked when we heard we were going with them! Then, the fall tours . . . there are some exciting things happening for the fall! The announcements are going to come pretty soon and we’ll announce those as soon as we got ‘em.”
