Pop-punk, alternative, hard rockers LIFE IN IDLE got their start back in 2011. But since have released a debut album "She's Out To Get Me", with all new music on the way, including shows possibly! The band got together to talk about music and the crisis at hand for the meantime....
1. So tell me about Life in Idle, why did you decide to name the band with such a title? What kind of ideas did you explore beforehand.
David: “We kinda just stumbled upon our name one unsuspecting day when we were still a young band in HS. The quote “life in idle” was written on our drummer’s practice pad and it seemed to be fitting and stick with us. Music has really grown into a way for us to keep our lives exciting and spontaneous so it’s actually kind of like a paradox in the name itself.”
Alex: “We ended up changing our name when we tried out for the talent show Freshman year of HS and our school counselor assumed our name at the time, “Get Up High”, was a reference to drugs. We actually just wanted people to come jump around and mosh to our songs.”
Joe: “Before being LII, we were named Business! before Pleasure and Thoughts of Tomorrow. Definitely happy we ended up with Life in Idle.”
2. In your opinion what is the best way to define Life in Idle's sound and style.
David: “I’d say we are an Alternative-punk band that pulls various amounts of influences from different sounds relative to the genre. We try and exploit different sounds in different songs of ours. Right now, we’re writing more of a Midwest-punk style album with more technical guitar parts and melodies.”
Joe: “Personally I find the best way to define the sound of our band is by listening to us and deciding for yourself. A lot of people compare us to bands I would have never thought to compare us to. A lot of people call us genres we don’t call ourselves. The listener is the person who really gets to decide what they get out of our music and what they think of our sound and style.”
Alex: “I feel like we deliver a really classic sound with a sharp new edge with a focus on songwriting, instrumentation and tone.”
John: “That's kinda hard to say right now, since we are changing our ways a little bit. I feel like we are still kind of sticking to our roots with that sort of 1990's-2000's punk sound, but we’ve also gathered more modern influences and have veered off to have a much more mature and more emo sound.”
3. What are your main musical influences? How huge is their influence in your sound?
David: “My big two are Tom Delonge of Angels & Airwaves and Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco. Their vision, passion and success are something I hope to achieve one day. Meeting Tom Delonge was a highlight of my life and I gave him an LII guitar pick.”
Alex: “Travis Barker. He’s constantly working on himself as an artist and working to play the best he can. He never misses a beat and never loses his fire. His drive has always been the biggest inspiration to me.”
Joe: “I’ve always really been inspired by Green Day, just as a whole band. They have the most solid music writing and discography in my opinion and they have wild stamina as musicians live. Cage the Elephant is another band that I’ve always liked because they’re different.”
4. How about the lyrical content, what sort of theme's does your music tend to cover?
Alex: “Our first album was written about a lot of the experiences we had while we were first starting the band up. A lot of it was collaborative efforts between David and I. Our songs are both deep and vague on purpose. On the surface, some of the topics we cover are kind of shallow but if you listen you can really dive into a much deeper meaning with most if not all of it.”
David: “We wrote a lot of SOTGM lyrics about a breakup one of us went through. A lot of our new upcoming stuff while still touching on romance is about our personal experiences such as loss, anger & confusion, self-reflection, accepting yourself and mental health. Our songs really tend to help us deal with some of these feelings we are having when we write them and perform them.”
5. You went on to release a single with accompanying music video called "State of Mind", along wit another new song called "Catch 22", discuss for us.
Alex: “State of Mind was released with our first album not as a single. It was one of our favorites, as well as our listeners, so we knew we had to get a music video out for it before releasing anything new! “Catch 22” was the first song we wrote kind of thrusting ourselves in this nu-emo punk direction we are going now.”
David: “Our guy Patrick Ferguson really helped us a lot and killed it with the idea for the video in making it come to life. Catch 22 was our first single to really seem to take off and gain traction on it’s own. Right now, it’s just surpassed 25,000 streams on Spotify. We’ve heard a lot of great feedback on the direction of the new more mature sound we are going for and we hope the response keeps up as we work to keep writing this music.”
Joe: “We had a fun time making our first official music video. One of the fun behind the scene parts was that we actually got to break down the drywall of our fake walls on the set of the shoot. Then, we lugged all our gear a mile and a half to a secluded location for the video ending which was a good time too! It was worth all the effort to see it all come together as sick as it did.”
6. Now are these "new" single's as far all new material, or are they tracks to come off your album "She's Out To Get Me"? Do you have any new music as far as a follow-up in the works?
Alex: “State of Mind was actually the last rewind we are going to take to our debut album before releasing all our new stuff. Catch 22 was a new single we put out on New Years Day and our brand new song ‘Hourglass’ will be available everywhere May 22.”
David: “Yeah we do! We also just put out a stripped down Acoustic Version of our first single, ‘Paranoia’, off of SOTGM on 4/20 we had arranged to show off our softer side a bit. Coming up, we are sitting on 2 more new songs ,Lovebirds and Waterwell , which are finished and going to be released this coming summer/fall as part of our next full length record release date TBD in early 2021.”
7. Are you all supported by your relatives towards your devotion to music?
David: “Our families couldn’t be more supportive of all our dreams! I’d say No parent usually is too happy when their kid drops out of college to pursue being in a punk band. We really couldn’t ask for better families to have in our corner and we love them with all our hearts.”
8. Do you have any other hobby beside music?
David: “I don’t really have many hobbies besides music. Music is pretty much my life and I love my dog, Sonny.”
Alex: “Music is my main hobby. I’m an audiophile who likes a lot of different kind of music. Discovering new music is one of my favorite hobbies as well playing Pokemon Go.”
Joe: “I like working on cars and getting my hands dirty. I’ve become the handyman of the band so they all come to me when things break now.”
John: “Besides writing songs on guitar, I enjoy spending time playing video games like Playstation and Nintendo switch and watching Star Wars.”
9. What else does the band have lined-up for 2020?
Alex: “It’s looking like a really exciting year for us despite being set back by Covid 19 restrictions. On the horizon for us is a lot of new music and shows.”
David: “You can expect a really big content push with us leading into our new stuff. We really appreciate all our likes/shares we get on social media, to have someone share in what you create is really one of the greatest feelings. We just copped a new passenger tour van so you can expect us to hit the road as soon as this virus lets up.”
10. Being from Ohio, would you say Ohio Is For Lovers?
Alex: “I would say so. Dayton really has a beautiful way of showing love and support when all else fails. We’ve been through a lot of tough situations and tragedies as a city here lately, between tornadoes, KKK rallies, shootings, and now Covid 19 worldwide and even though it’s been rough, you can still see so many caring smiles ready to help out anyone anywhere you look here.”
David: “Yes, because the Dayton music scene is full of nothing but such caring and supportive friends. We’re just so fortunate to have such an amazingly talented, artistic and thriving community to be growing as band within.”
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