Time for another installment in my ongoing series of interviews with recent Artist Spotlight subjects! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Mike Swanson and Tommy Flynn from a local Boston band called Red Star Super Giant. They were an Artist Spotlight feature on the blog just a couple of weeks ago, and they were totally enthused when I approached them about doing an interview for the blog. We caught up as we sat on the bleachers overlooking the field at Tufts, the site of my ongoing outdoor interview series that I'll be doing this summer with a handful of local artists. The guys are relatively new to the local scene, and this interview will allow you to get know the guys a little bit better personally and see what they're like both on and off stage. Here is the transcript from that interview:
Give us your names and your current roles in the band?
Mike: Hi, I'm Mike Swanson. I primarily play the keyboard and I picked up bass guitar for a couple of tracks, and every now and then I get to play guitar.
Tommy: Hi, I'm Tommy Flynn and I'll be doing the guitar playing, singing, and a majority of the writing.
How did you guys all meet and when did the band form?
Mike: So, we met in high school and we sort of knew we were playing instruments, and after college it became more of a reality that we should try to get together to form a band. So then we started getting together in their basement, and just working on concepts and making things happen. Like I said before sporadically, and then it became more of a consistent basis and then we locked down some tracks.
Describe the sound of your music to those who may not be too familiar with you guys?
Tommy: It is a little abstract, you can't really pin us down to one artist. I would definitely say alternative, it's not overly loud, not too soft, it's got a little Oasis in there, a little Tom Petty. I'm big on melodic songs that flow, I don't really like to get into the crazy, abstract bridge that goes up and down three octaves, we're pretty straightforward, we used a total of 6 chords. But we're more lyrically based anyways so that's kind of the thing we do.
Mike: But I think eventually we could gravitate towards Young the Giant, The Kooks, maybe even The Airborne Toxic Event.
Tommy: We plan on ripping everybody off at one point. (Laughter)
Mike: As our sound matures, I could eventually see our sound drifting more in that direction, but right now it's more of an organic, simpler sound, but it's working for us.
How did the name of the band originate, who was the one who came up with the idea for the band name?
Tommy: We went through some awful names. Me and my brother were talking names for a year and a half and we got in more fights over the band name than the actual songs and how to be successful. I like astrology, space, it's very interesting to me, so we were thinking of a new band name and I just looked up "Space terminology" and one of the things that came up was "Red Super Giant", it's supposed to be the biggest star in the sky, so I put "star" after "Red" and it became Red Star Super Giant, and I was like "I like that". There's no rhyme or reason behind it, it was just a coincidence I guess.
Mike: You tend to remember it too. You say it once to them, and then they say it back to you and they say "Are you sure? Red Star Super Giant?" and we're like "Yep, that's it!"
What do you guys love the most about playing together, either live or in the studio?
Mike: Playing live is definitely the rush, I've always been a huge concert junkie and I've been so jealous that they get to go up on stage and do what they love, and just finally I have that experience and share it with friends. For me, it's a dream come true and also when we can tell that the hard work is paying off and we're finally getting the tone right and playing together in harmony very well, it's a very satisfying feeling.
What are some of your favorite songs to perform live, any covers you like to play also?
Mike: My favorite is probably "Geisha's Garden" for sure.
Tommy: Right now it's all original material, we need covers cause our setlist is only 6 songs and it works right now, we're doing these smaller shows. Down the line, we're going to need 10 songs so I was thinking of doing some covers, maybe MGMT or some of the new bands but we like some of the old stuff too, so we'll see.
Mike: Another thing we're working towards is creating a list of songs we want to cover, and hopefully there's a Venn diagram in the middle with something for everyone. We're getting everyone to agree on a song to cover, cause that can be fun too.
Can you describe your live shows to those who haven't seen you live and why you think people should check you out in concert?
Mike: Based on what you've heard on the recordings what we play live, we tend to play live with all electric instruments and we try to get the people as pumped up and psyched about it as much as we can, try to have that good energy. While at the same time, just playing as best as we can so with those two combined, we think that people would really enjoy themselves at our show. Our friends have come and have had a great time, I think any random civilian or person from the street would enjoy it too.
Besides music, what do you like to do in your spare time when not making music?
Mike: Since college, I haven't really been into sports too much. I'm an electrical engineer as well, I personally try to go to alot of concerts, I'm a huge concert junkie and just hanging out with friends, trying local restaurants, going to bars, hanging out, stuff like that.
Tommy: Definitely going out, I love partying, you have to do that, that's the readiest excuse. Just the regular stuff, I love reading, I'm a big advocate of reading on philosophy and stuff. There's alot of time in the day to just swallow as many books as possible as I can. Just the usual stuff, nothing too crazy.
Mike: Travel when you can. I've been to California quite a few times, and I recently just went to Coachella and had probably the best time. It was too good to be true, it was amazing. I saw 31 bands in 3 days, I was sick for a week after, my whole body was sore and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
What's coming up next for you guys, planning to play any shows or release any new music in the future?
Mike: I think we need to focus on playing live, getting as many shows as we possibly can to get really comfortable playing live. We're definitely trying to solidify the tone of the songs we already have in existence. At the same time, we're also trying to create new material, but it's definitely focusing most on playing live and then solidifying the songs we already have and then whatever comes at anytime, we just build on that eventually.
Any last words to those who may be reading this interview?
Tommy: Definitely check out the music, obviously I'm gonna be biased because I'm in the band but with a lot of new bands, they're either too loud or you can't hear them or you cringe a little, I don't know if you're going to love our stuff, but it's definitely cringe-free music.
Mike: I agree. It's an interesting sound, I have a tough time explaining who we sound like to other people and reading your review clearly that seems to be a common thing. It's a very unique sound, it's very original, it's very refreshing and something that hasn't been made into music in awhile so with that said in mind, I think alot of people would appreciate the new sound.
Thanks once again to Mike and Tommy for carving some time out of their busy schedule to do this interview. I thoroughly enjoyed interviewing the guys and I had a great time chatting with them briefly before and after the interview, and I really got a chance to know them a little bit better personally and I have high hopes for these guys moving forward, they're really genuine and honest people. If you haven't checked them out, please do so on Facebook
here and on their official website right over
here.
