The CreativeLive Music Podcast

Nick Hipa is one of those rare humans who just makes you feel really good when you talk to him– one of those guys who makes you feel like the sun is shining all the time! He’s also the guitarist for Wovenwar, who as you may know are the newish band essentially formed from the ashes of metalcore pioneers As I Lay Dying. I ran into him a couple months ago when they were on tour with Atreyu and Beartooth, and realized that I needed to pick his brain and figure out what makes him such a chill dude and solid musician.

“Archers,” from their self-titled debut album. Video is edited and directed by Nick too!

We caught up with Nick to talk about how their songwriting process works and how it’s evolved over the 10+ years they’ve been playing together, his home studio setup, how pre-pro is the key to successful studio sessions, and working with legendary producers and mixers like Bill Stevenson and Colin Richardson.

Follow Nick on Facebook and Instagram / Follow Wovenwar on Facebook and Twitter

The post Music & Audio podcast 33: Nick Hipa of Wovenwar appeared first on CreativeLive Blog.

There are more options than ever for distributing your music, which is awesome because choice is always a good thing. But if we’re being honest, a lot of these platforms are more similar than not: they all want to be the default platform for distributing your music online. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s not the only way to look at an online music store.

Enter EftMega, a new company headed by Evan Baken. Evan is a veteran of the industry, first as the drummer for Long Island melodic hardcore standouts The Movielife, then later as management for artists including a little band you may have heard of called Avenged Sevenfold. He’s seen everything from grimy DIY shows with 14 people in the “crowd” to the private-jets-and-arenas world of A7X, and while he may be a little bitter at times, it’s clear that what drives him is a sincere desire to build a community that supports artists who want to put in the work.

Check it out to hear more about Evan’s emphasis on community, artist development, and putting in the work– I personally found it a very refreshing departure from the zillions of “we’re like Soundcloud/Bandcamp but [x]” pitches I’ve heard.

The post Music & Audio Podcast 32: Evan Baken of EftMega and The Movielife appeared first on CreativeLive Blog.

Ryan Downey is a man of many faces and many talents. In addition to being Senior Editor of Alternative Press and the man behind a dozen or so cover stories for the magazine, he is the boss over at Superhero Artist Management where he works with artists and producers including Throwdown, Ross Robinson, Steve Evetts and Zeuss. He’s also a survivor of the 90s hardcore scene, which is how I met him about 15 years ago when he was the singer of Burn It Down and made one of my favorite fanzines, MAG. I would never have guessed that our paths would cross again so many years later in a professional context, but I am happy that they did.

Ryan and I share what I have to think is a pretty rare perspective, which is that although we grew up in the world of “real” hardcore and metal and cut our teeth in a fairly extreme version of DIY culture, we are still involved in music and still stoked on new bands, genres, and scenes.

Ryan rubbing elbows with A-listers like Aaron Paul, Will Smith, and the Governator

I caught up with Ryan to do what old men like us do, which is talk about the old days of the vegan straight edge hardcore scene and how much things have changed since (mostly for the better). We talked about lessons learned from years of being an excessively opinionated member of the hardcore scene, making zines in our basements, why Pierce The Veil and Black Veil Brides are awesome, and much more. This is a long one, but if you’re a fan of old hardcore guys bullshitting with each other, you’ll love it!

Follow Ryan on Twitter and Instagram // Visit RyanJDowney.com

The post Music & Audio Podcast 31: Ryan Downey appeared first on CreativeLive Blog.

I’ve been a fan of Atreyu since the early 2000s, from their start as an Orange County metalcore band to their then-shocking transformation into a hook-filled rock band that was something like a downtuned version of Bon Jovi on “Lead Sails Paper Anchor.” The album was ahead of its time and had more than its fair share of haters at the time, but in hindsight it’s one of the few albums of that era that stood the test of time and still sounds great today. Why? Because they had SONGS, something that a lot of their peers didn’t seem to pay attention to.

Atreyu’s latest single, “Long Live”

The band is back with a new album on Spinefarm, and I took the chance to connect with Dan and Brandon on their approach to songwriting, what they’ve learned over the years and from working with the likes on John Feldmann, and how the key to a great song is focusing on one or two really solid ideas. Apologies for the sound quality, Brandon was calling in from the dark side of the moon so his connection wasn’t the clearest.

Follow Atreyu on Twitter and Facebook

The post Music & Audio Podcast 30: Dan and Brandon from Atreyu appeared first on CreativeLive Blog.

If there’s one thing that unites all musicians, it’s their seemingly insatiable appetite for talking about gear. Metal musicians have an especially voracious appetite for gear nerdery, which is why our friends at Blastbeat Network (the people who brought you Metal Sucks and Metal Injection) created GearGods: the world’s first site about gear for metal. We are big fans of what they’re doing, so we caught up with GearGods’ editor Trey Xavier to get the inside scoop.

One of my favorite things from GearGods: a comprehensive shootout of 25 (!) different overdrives, with a really cool interface that I have never seen before or since. Slick!

We talked about everything from what new gadgets Trey is excited about, why people should care more about bass guitar, whether gear even matters (spoiler warning: it doesn’t, except when it does), whether people spend too much time turning knobs instead of making music, if my beloved 90s rack gear like the Rocktron Chameleon and Voodu Valve will ever make a comeback, and the day-to-day grind of being the “content” business.

Follow GearGods on Facebook & Twitter

The post Music & Audio Podcast 29: Trey Xavier of GearGods appeared first on CreativeLive Blog.

I’ve been a big fan of Alternative Press since the 90s, and it’s been really cool to see it not only survive the increasingly-difficult publishing industry, but thrive. The magazine is now in its 30th year, going from a little fanzine that Mike Shea made in his spare time to the #2 music publication in North America with distribution at mainstream outlets like Barnes & Noble and Target.

The newest addition to their empire is the Alt Press Music Awards, which I went to a couple weeks ago in Cleveland. Featuring performances by bands like Weezer, Panic At The Disco, Black Veil Brides, and Pvris, it drew over 9000 people (!!), trended #1 on Twitter and #4 on Facebook. The brains behind the APMAs is AP’s Director of Sales & Business Development, Josh Bernstein, who you may know as the guy who ran Revolver’s Golden Gods show for 5 years.

“The Art Of Songwriting” panel I hosted at the APMAs with Senses Fail, The Wonder Years, Set It Off and Halestorm

I was kind of blown away with how polished, slick and bigtime the APMAs felt, so I sat down with Josh and my cohost Eyal Levi to talk about the show, making the transition from the metal world to AP, learning how to be a “salesman,” and how he took the APMAs from nothing to filling Quicken Arena in just two years.

The post Music & Audio Podcast 28: Josh Bernstein of Alternative Press appeared first on CreativeLive Blog.

Boston’s Ice Nine Kills are the first addition to the roster of our friends at Outerloop Records (an offshoot of, you guessed it, Outerloop Management). They play a very dynamic, theatrical take on metalcore and post-hardcore that brings to mind everything from Panic At The Disco to Pierce The Veil to A Day To Remember, yet doesn’t really sound like anyone else in the scene.

With the help of my cohost Eyal Levi, we talked to INK vocalist Spencer Charnas about how they ended up with Outerloop, what they’ve learned in the studio over the years, their songwriting and arrangement process (in particular how they make room for Spencer’s vocals and their hyperactive guitars), dealing with lineup changes, and more.

Follow Ice Nine Kills on Facebook and Twitter

The post Music & Audio Podcast 27: Spencer of Ice Nine Kills appeared first on CreativeLive Blog.

Carnifex are one of the few remaining members of the deathcore explosion of the mid 2000s, having survived the massive glut of copycats and trendhoppers and the inevitable implosion that followed. They’ve slowly but surely carved out a career for themselves through sheer force of will, and are now among the scene’s elder statesmen.

“Hatred and Slaughter,” from their latest album

I roped in my friend Eyal Levi (who worked on their latest album) to co-host with me, and we caught up with Carnifex vocalist Scott Lewis to talk about the factors behind their longevity, how they survived the “MySpace deathcore bubble,” what they’ve learned from working with producers like Zuess, Dan Castleman and Mark Lewis, and some tips for extreme metal vocalists who want to keep their voice intact for a decade like Scott has.

The post Music & Audio Podcast 26: Scott Lewis from Carnifex appeared first on CreativeLive Blog.

It’s been a couple decades since MTV played music videos (right?), but thanks to YouTube, the music video as both an art form and promotional tool is more relevant than ever. The brains behind many of my favorite videos for bands like A Day To Remember, Blessthefall, The Devil Wears Prada, Beartooth and many more is Drew Russ.

What I love about Drew is that unlike a lot of “directors” these days, who are content to throw the band in a dingy warehouse or grassy field and call it a day, Drew always puts the concept first (usually a concept that involves an insane amount of time and effort).

Some of Drew’s best work imo, “City Of Ocala” for A Day To Remember. It documents the city and their history, an in typical Drew Russ fashion he did things the most painful, labor-intensive way possible: the video is made up of around 5,000 still images (a mix of film and digital) strung together to create the cool, stilted feel. An insane, absolutely masochistic workflow? Maybe, but I think it perfectly captures the vibe of the song and I don’t think you could have gotten this look any other way.

We chatted with Drew about the tough business of music videos, why he’s willing to go to such lengths to execute his idea, why a great concept is more important than a big budget, and of course his home town of Ocala and growing up with Andrew Wade.

Follow Drew on Instagram & Twitter // DrewRuss.com

The post Music & Audio Podcast 25: Music Video Director Drew Russ appeared first on CreativeLive Blog.

While a lot of people may write Black Veil Brides off as their little sister’s favorite band, I have a feeling that they’re going to go down as one of their era’s biggest and most respected hard rock bands that inspire a generation of kids to become shredders — like the heirs to Avenged Sevenfold’s crown.

If you’ve listened to their music with an open mind, it’s obvious they can play their asses off, but what you might not know is that they actually have a big hand in the production side of things.

Guitarist Jake Pitts is not only one of the band’s main songwriters, but actually engineered all the guitars on their latest album. Given that it was produced by the legendary Bob Rock (producer of Metallica’s black album), that is pretty damn impressive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXdJo99RCos

My personal favorite BVB song “Shadows Die,” which is has a Swedeath-meets-A7X kind of vibe and some very tasty lead playing

If his work is good enough for Bob Rock, that is serious business.

The band is huge, so obviously they don’t NEED to engineer things themselves, they did it because they WANT to, which I think is really cool.

We caught up with Jake and got nerdy about guitar tone, how he learned to record, what it was like to work with legends like John Feldmann and Bob Rock, and of course why CreativeLive is better than recording school.

Follow Jake on Twitter and Instagram

The post Music & Audio Podcast 24: Jake Pitts of Black Veil Brides appeared first on CreativeLive Blog.