Hey everyone!
Today for you I have a special and exclusive interview with one of my favorite up and coming bands in the last couple of years, Person L! Person L was actually the very first artist whose album I reviewed here on the blog upon its launch in November of 2009 with their full length debut release, "The Positives". Kenny Vasoli (of The Starting Line fame) and drummer Brian Medlin recently took some time to talk a little bit about Person L's origins and the genesis behind the overall sound that their latest album undertook. And without further ado, I'm proud to present my interview with them:
Can you give your names and what you do in the band?
Ken Vasoli: Guitar, vocals
Brian Medlin: Drums, percussion
How did the band come together?
Brian: From my understanding, Ken wanted to do something different and experiment with some different sounds. He came out to one of my old band's shows, The Minor Times, as he did a lot, and asked me to play drums. He wanted to play with a lot of different drummers, but Ryan, the other Person L drummer, and I were the ones that stuck. Neither of us were sure how it would go. But Ken and I just clicked at the very first practice. I think we wrote "Help Yourself" and "Wooden Soldiers" during that first jam. Maybe "Born in the Rainy Days of May" too.
With your last album "The Positives", do you feel like this time around it's more of a full band effort than your last effort, "Initial"?
Brian: Definitely. "Initial" was recorded before we were a live band. It was just a recording project at the time. In fact, I recorded the drums for that the day before I recorded the drums for The Minor Times "Summer of Wolves". We wrote "The Positives" together as a full band, after touring on "Initial". And we recorded it together at Aaron Marsh from Copeland's house in Florida in February 2009. That was a great time. A nice sunny getaway. All of our friends and family in Philly were stuck in the snow, and we were hanging out on decks in T-shirts.
How did you come up with the name Human Interest Recordings for releasing "The Positives"?
Ken: Human Interest is a great Drive Like Jehu song. They were a huge influence on me for Person L.
Can you describe the inspirations behind the song "Untitled" and what made you decide for it to not have a title?
Ken: From what I recall that song was written very quickly in one sitting, I was probably listening to lots of Bob Dylan and Dear and the Headlights along side with various 90's post-punk records at the time. There's not too much to the lyrics, it's really just about embracing changes in life. Because there are so few lyrics we decided to let them stand alone and keep it untitled.
Lastly, can you describe the element that makes your live performances so unique?
Brian: I'd like to think it's the energy and the spontaneity. We would always come up with a set list immediately before we went on stage. We never played to a click track or anything like that. It was always just raw and full of emotion. I think we have such great fans because they recognized that, and shared that energy with us.
Thanks once again to Kenny and Brian for being so gracious for carving time out of their busy schedules to do this interview! We'll keep you posted on Kenny's musical endeavors, but do check out Brian Medlin's solo material that you can check out at: www.brianmedlinmusic.com and on Facebook as well. He also has another alt-rock side project called Ghost Away that is worth checking out at: www.ghostaway.org and yet another band, this one is a punk-leaning outfit called Wives that is on BandCamp at: thepinktriangle.bandcamp.com
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