For
part 2 of our exclusive "Ask the Artist" interview with Sister
Hazel, the Gainsville boys give us a lesson on Record Company
101, and finish up with an acoustic performance of "Champagne
High," live from the StarPolish Offices. Watch the interview
and download the mp3 now!
Keeping the Fire Burning
Andrew: Those are the best parts
of what we do - playing our music live. And like Ken said, writing
is therapy for some of us. And it's fun -- those are the fun things
about being a musician and being out on the road and doing your
thing. Playing live is the best part for me, personally, of what
we do…the time we get up onstage and play. It seems like everything
else goes away, I mean all the way up to walking up to the stage,
all of a sudden when you step up those stairs and get on the stage
and the crowd is going crazy and you kick into the first tune, everything
else kind goes away and you get lost in the music. And then you
get done, and you're on this high for a little while after the show
and it kind of wears off and you're tired again, but man, that time
right there is where it's at -- that's what you do it for…
Ryan: I think also, if I can
add to that, if you don't play the same show every night…we try
and change it around so it's not as mechanical from the beginning
of the set to the end, we try to keep ourselves on our toes…
Andrew: Rotate who writes the
set…
Ryan: And we just give each
other something to look forward to each night - it's a little bit
different from night to night and it grows.
Starpolish: You guys sometimes do acoustic sets…
Ryan: We'll do acoustic sets,
we'll change jams in songs, we'll extend solos here, we'll do transitions
from one song to another,
play a song in a slower tempo or a faster tempo to kind of keep
us fresh so we don't feel like we're pushing play on a tape recorder
and going through the motions.
Ken: I want to say there have
been times when we took the fun out of playing music. But being
together for seven years and a half year, we had to learn, "Look
this is what we're doing and we know how to have fun playing music
and we know how to have fun writing songs." And we have to keep
each other in check with that. And it's like a marriage when you're
in a band. I don't think we can sit here and all say it's always
fun every time we've ever been together to write a song, 'cause
sometimes it's really tough, because creatively we're five very
different people, and we're very opinionated people. But I think
we're learning as we get older which battles to pick, and the six-month
rule - who's going to care in six months…you know what I mean? So
we're getting better and better at that, and keeping the fun it
in it. And also, I'll always be a little crazy, as will everybody,
so there'll always be something to write about.
The SH Website:
Ken: Big hands up -- thumbs
up, hands up -- go to Jeff our bass player, because even before
we were signed he's like, "We gotta get a website, this is a great
way for us to now keep in touch the people we just met in Charleston,
and in Atlanta…
Andrew: Jeff invented websites
(laughter)…
Ken: (Laughing) Yeah, Jeff invented
websites. The funny thing is when we went to the label initially
and said, "Hey, this has been a really good tool for us, as a grassroots
tool, could you give a couple of a few thousand dollars maybe to
work on our website?" the label said, "No way, man - it'll never
work, it's overrated it…" And then we went through these legal wranglings
where they wanted sole control of it. Now years later, we've put
all our money into it and our ideas behind it and we brought in
other people to work on it…we wanted it to be informative, we wanted
it to be fun, we wanted it to be interactive…there's chat rooms
in there, message boards in there, there's bios about the band,
there's gear stuff, tour information, soundbytes, video from "Champagne
High" is on there now, I think and we're really proud of the web
site. Usually, when we're not doing 11 shows in 12 days, we all
get on there and interact with people.
What's In a Name
Ken: We named ourselves after
someone who runs a homeless shelter. And her whole deal is giving
people a safe warm place to regroup, regardless of religion or race
or orientation or age or anything like that. Her charitable acts
have been unending for decades. And if our vehicle can call attention
to something worthy, that's really important to us. We get a lot
back from that
