Alternative rockstars Galvanized Souls, is comprised of four young Southern California musicians, hence where the band is from, these guys have enthusiasm and dedication to music like no tomorrow. They have pushed their abilities well beyond their years doing what any other artists or band would typically do, write, record, release, play, repeat! The entire group got together to disclose their dedication and insight into the band and how they bring their music to life and into the future.
Chris Traylor - Vocals and Guitar
Zakk Silveira - Vocals and Guitar
Matt DeMartini - Bass and Vocals
Kevin Cogen - Drums and Vocals
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
Chris: I grew up in Idaho and loved playing the game “Guitar Hero” and listening to my dad’s records. My parents noticed my skill and love of Guitar Hero and signed me up for guitar lessons. Then when I was 14, my parents moved back to California. I met the drummer of the first band
I was in from mutual friends at a party. I ended up in a band eventually with Zakk and then Matt. We played in that band for about a little over a year before we decided to take things more seriously and produce and create our own original music. This meant forming a new band and finding a new drummer.
Zakk: My dad has lots of guitars around the house and is a big rock music fan and he inspired me. I started taking lessons at 9. I performed in some rock band workshops at the local music center, Rock City Studios in Camarillo, with Matt when I was 14 and then later, Matt joined a band that Chris and I were in together.
Matt: I started loving and listening to Beethoven when I was 5 years old, then moved to Benny Goodman and then onto full blown rock music starting with Ozzy Osbourne a few years later. I started guitar lessons at 11 and moved to bass a year later. I was going to play guitar in my first ever rock band workshop when I was 13 and did not feel right. That is when I first picked up a bass that I borrowed since there was no bass player in the band workshop and I loved playing bass ever since. A year later, I joined the band that Chris and Zakk were in already.
Kevin: I have always been into music but what launched me into becoming a musician was my experience acting in a Gym Class Heros music video shoot. I got a call from one of Chris' friends saying that their band was auditioning drummers. I had not been playing the drums for a while but I was open to looking into the opportunity. When I found out that the band members were ages 14 to 17 I thought that I was going to be more of a baby sitter than a band member at first since I was 18 at the time. But then I met them and I was really super impressed at how professionally and seriously they operated. Over the course of a few months I got to know the band and their music while they were auditioning other drummers at the same time. Then about 5 months after they started Galvanized Souls, I started playing in the band and our first show together was May 31, 2013.
2. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
Chris: Ventura County has a very active music scene. In our age group most of the local bands playing around town tend to lean toward the post hardcore style. We consider our band Alternative Rock/Rock. There is an actual specific genre that grew out of Oxnard CA called "Nardcore". There are a lot of alternative rock bands in our area. One band called "Good Deeds" is a band from our area that we have done a lot of shows with that has a great sound, catchy tunes, and they seem to take their band seriously.
3. How did you guys come up with your band name?
Zakk: Trying to find a band name is one of the most difficult things to do. When we were trying to come up with a band name, we were looking up other bands with cool names like “Guns N Roses” and “Velvet Revolver” and the names had hard and soft imagery to them. We were also going to a construction school and there were galvanized nails that we would use. So we thought “galvanized” was a cool word to use for the hard imagery. So, then we looked for a name to depict the soft imagery like “souls” that would work with the “galvanized”. What “Galvanized Souls” means is protected souls.
4. Can you describe the message and meaning behind "Carry On" and why was it picked out as a single and video?
Matt: We wrote "Carry On" as a message to our fans after we saw how much emotional pain they were going through due to their social media posts. We just wanted them to stay strong and carry on through their struggles. A little while after recording the song we heard about this amazing kid named Colin. Colin was bullied in school but he always kept a great attitude through it. After reading more about his story we all wanted to show what he went through in our music video for "Carry On". We think it is a big social problem that is made bigger with social media being around now a days. "Carry On" was written and recorded after our first EP and at this time in our career we were releasing singles. We make it a practice to make videos for all of our songs that we release since visual media is the trend.
5. Your other single and video choice was "Shut You Down" why was this one picked out as your other single and video?
Chris: We felt that this was one of our strongest most energetic songs that carried a strong message to stand up for yourself. We make videos for all of our songs but put a lot into this one since it was our single
6. Will you be picking out, anymore tunes, to be made into singles and videos?
Chris: We will most likely select a strong song to be a single off our next EP and we plan to do a music video for each song eventually.
7. You guys have released a number of singles as mentioned, "Carry On", "Shut You Down", and "Believe" including an "Self-Titled" EP that only includes 1/3 of those singles, will the other singles be included on the next release?
Chris: Our next EP release will be four new songs. We plan to probably produce an full album that will include songs from all of our previous recordings that do not have a physical product associated with them. We think is it good practice to select a song to be a single if it is a really good contender and aids in the process of getting the music noticed.
8. Why did you want to take releasing new music in the form of singles and not another release of some sort?
Matt: We feel that in today's music culture, releasing music in small bundles is the most effective method especially for a new band. But we do hope to eventually release an entire album someday.
9. What will the next release, will it be an EP or a debut full-length album?
Zakk: We will be releasing a cover of a Bob Dylan song "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" as a part of a compilation CD and a new 4 song EP that we will release this summer 2015.
10. Where are you in the process of the new music if there is anything to be said about it?
Chris: Right now we are working really hard on some new songs. We have a few that we have not produced but we are performing live. We are actively in production mode and we are trying to define our sound in a big way.
11. When can we expect it to be released?
Chris: We finished production on our latest EP and we are now moving onto our newer songs. We hope to keep pumping out tunes throughout this year on a regular basis.
12. Your recent live activity has put the band on the acoustic front, what made you want to take your music turning it into acoustic format as opposed to the regular method?
Zakk: Being able to perform your songs acoustically allows us to go more places and get our music to different audiences. An acoustic set can be very unforgiving and having a great acoustic set
really displays the band's musicianship and allows us to be able to perform during live on air interviews on TV and radio.
13. If these showcases go well, will you be considering releasing any tunes in acoustic format?
Matt: We have talked about releasing our songs acoustically and would love to if the opportunity comes up.
14. Speaking of your music, how would you describe your style? Which bands influenced your music?
Chris: The members in our band have several different tastes in rock music but for our band we are influenced by alternative rock and 90's bands. The music of Nirvana, Awolnation, Queens of the Stone Age, Royal Blood, Failure, Thrice and the Foo Fighters are influential.
15. What lyrical theme do you guys use in your music? What message do you want to send?
Zakk: Being a newer band, we have experimented with different themes ranging from history, Greek mythology, lost love and struggles and issues affecting our fans. We are still staying with those themes so far.
16. Are you guys signed or unsigned? If you aren't signed, what should labels/zines/promoters know about your band? Why should they be interested in it?
Matt: We are unsigned. We are in this to make this a career and be an inspiration to our fans. Performing live with energy and extreme musicianship is what we aspire to and practice heavily to do. We care a lot about the production of our music and focus on quality rather than quantity. We focus a lot on melodies and are continually focusing on improving our music by working with instructors and professionals that can guide us on our path. Besides music we are unique in that we build and modify our own instruments to make our music even more unique.
17. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
Chris: You can find us on our official website Galvanizedsouls.com which has links to all of our music, videos, merch and social media.
18. What plans do you have for the near future as a band?Chris: To write more material and play as many shows as we can to get our music and our message out there.
19. How about shows and tours, what do you guys have lined-up for those events?
Chris: We are taking a little production break right now on shows and tours but we are open to doing any sort of tour that is the right fit for us.
20. What is it you?d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
Chris: To have fun with it and to remember our messages in our songs and to use our messages to apply to their life situations.
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