Into the Light On the Making Of “Camera Shy” + Album
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind "Camera Shy" and the story it tells?
Adam (Singer/Guitarist): It’s mostly an observation on how everything is documented, almost nothing is forgotten, and how that has to feel for people who don’t like their photograph taken and like their anonymity. When I was thinking about ideas for lyrics, my daughter kind of inspired the theme of the song because she often doesn’t want her photo taken - especially when there’s a social expectation like at a birthday party or family event. There’s a strong introvert theme to the song.
What do you like the best about "Camera Shy?"
Adam (Singer/Guitarist): For me, when Rob brought the song to the band, I just pretty immediately thought it had a catchy sounding chorus riff mixed with a kind of angular and rhythmic verse.
Can you share any interesting or unique musical elements or production techniques used in 'Into the Light?'
Adam (Singer/Guitarist): We were lucky enough to work with Steve Sopchak at More Sound Studios in Syracuse, and he did a really excellent job capturing our sound.
For guitars, each song seems to have a slightly different tone, which I really like on these types of rock records. For instance, almost all of the guitars on “call it” are equipped with p90 pickups, which to me sound a little more unrefined and rock and roll. For “midyear” the rhythm guitars are basically 2 different big muffs, and a Super fuzz that makes the chorus pop out. We used a lot of different amps and tones, which made the whole process inspiring and creative.
How does ‘Into the Light’ fit into your overall artistic vision?
Adam (Singer/Guitarist): It’s a band like a lot of bands where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. We basically can’t pick a song to cover because we all have such different tastes, and I think that opens up our sound to be a lot of different things as we move forward.
How did your band members initially come together?
Adam (Singer/Guitarist): I moved back to Rochester from Seattle after living there for 11 years, and I really wanted to start a band with my brother Mike who is an excellent drummer. We got together a couple of times and wrote “Bridge,” and it was super easy and fun to work on. I thought it’d be fun to try being the singer for a band, which is something I haven’t really done before, so I called up Rob because he’s one of the best guitarists I know. Rob has played in a bunch of bands from Rochester and Buffalo, including Achilles who are one of my favorite bands from our area. Jay, I’d known from the Rochester and Syracuse hardcore scene in the mid-2000’s, and we reconnected and started playing together in Bad Bloom. I tend to keep pretty busy, so I really wanted to put together a band with people that I really enjoy being around. After we brought in Jay, we really started crafting the sound of the band, which admittedly took a while, but it was worth it because I think we really like where we landed on this record.