| |
We speak to Josh Partington, who plays guitar for the band, the day
after a show in London. He begins by telling us how it went.
"It was amazing, having all those people there. It's so rad going
overseas and people knowing your band. I think no matter how big you
ever get it will always be something that will blow you away. It reminds
you what home's like. Beginning as a band, those are where your best
shows are and that's where you're very familiar with having great shows.
So it gives you a taste of home some days. Even when we're homesick,
playing shows especially like last night are probably the best shows."
The band have not just picked up fans from England, as well as of course
their home country, America, but from all over Europe and elsewhere
in the world. It must be an incredible feeling to know that kids who
don't even speak the same language as they do have been won over by
the lyrics they write and the music they play.
"It's kinda weird really. The record company will kill me for saying
this but it's really just the power of the internet, especially with
something like when our album had only been out in Paris for a week
and a half. To have all those people there and have them all knowing
the words and stuff like that I would wager that they may have bought
the album, but a big reason why we did that well that night is because
people were surfing the net and finding our band. That's kinda like
one of the positives to what internet music has done."
A
Something Corporate gig is something (no pun intended) that has to be
experienced. You can listen to the album, but you should also go out
and see the band live. Josh says, "To me, if I were in the audience
to see our band, I'd be very confused. I don't think we necessarily
give people any cues on how to act, which is probably refreshing for
a lot of people because we don't go one way or the other. Some people
are jumping around and moshing while other times people are just sitting
and listening intently. You go to a lot of shows nowadays and it's a
little bit different. It's either a really hard show with people moshing
the whole time or something like Coldplay where people are watching
intently. We're really lucky that we have both sides of that because
I think we get the best of both worlds. I think we've always tried to
be a multi-faceted band. Thus far, knock on wood, it's worked for us."
The band have been to Britain a few times. They were over here last
September although the first time they came to the UK was in March 2002,
playing a show at London Dingwalls.
"Dingwalls was the first time we'd ever been to Europe as a band.
It was really cool. It was a lot of fun. But even then it was kinda
weird having people there. We were like 'how do you even know about
our band? We don't even have an album out here'. It's kinda cool to
see the progression of things. It's ten months later and we've multiplied
that audience by four or five times. But then again it wasn't that huge
of an audience so it's not this amazing feat," he laughs. "But
I think we're more than happy with the people that are into our band.
We're so blessed to have so many great fans, not only in our own country
but over here as well.
On
21st November Josh made an entry on the band's official website tour
diary, noting 'I doubt any tour after this will be this much fun'. He
was talking about the band's tour as support to New Found Glory.
"The New Found Glory tour was so special because we knew all of
the bands on it. Well, New Found Glory and Finch, we'd known them for
a very long time. Sometimes when you start touring with bands a lot
of times they're bands that you don't really know very well, so you
have to learn to get to know them and that's part of the whole touring
thing, but we went into it as already friends so the work was already
done. The guys in Further Seems Forever we had never met before but
the guys in Finch had and the guys in New Found Glory had known them
and they were super awesome guys. We're all so alike, all four of the
bands. It was so much fun because at any given moment you would see
any guy for each of the four given bands all hanging out. It wasn't
like there were big rowdy parties every night or anything like that,
it was just that we would all hang out every night. Everybody was on
everybody else's bus. It was just a really good thing. I think we all
just had a really good time. I'm a huge fan of every one of those bands.
Finch's 'What It Is To Burn' is one of my favourite albums in the world;
it's one of the coolest albums that I own. I think Further Seems Forever's
album is just amazing, and their new album with Jason singing on it
is so awesome. I just have a whole lot of respect for that band. And
to top it off the guys in New Found have just been so good to us over
the years. Taking us out when we were over here in Europe and taking
us out in the US. We couldn't have been happier with how things turned
out."
When
some people perform on stage their personalities change into something
entirely different. Mild-mannered men can become animals in front of
a crowd. Josh says he becomes a lot more rowdy onstage too.
"I think it's not necessarily our personalities but definitely
our musical tastes that come out when we play. I think Bill and I being
the guitarists in the band, you can look at Bill and tell he likes a
whole lot of classic rock from watching him play and you can tell before
the show Bill was probably listening to a Beatles album and you can
watch me and probably tell that I was listening to a Thrice album or
a Glassjaw album. I think you can tell it by looking at us. Not just
by looking at us but by watching how we act. I think that is where our
personalities come across. I'm a whole lot more of a hard rock guy than
the other guys in the band. But I think that that's part of what we
are.
"Clutch is kind of quiet. He's like the bass player for The Who,
just kinda there, omnipresent. He's kinda like watching over all of
us. But Clutch is very cool. Clutch and I have a lot of fun on stage
too because there's a lot of times that Clutch and I will just look
over at each other and just laugh. There's a part in the song, 'Cavanaugh
Park', the end part of the chorus, the chorus devils at the end and
goes 'dun-dun-dun-dun' and me and Clutch meet right in the middle of
the stage and get on our knee and are full on metal 'dun-dun-dun-yeah'.
It totally doesn't fit the song but it's so funny to us. We do it all
the time, at every single show, whenever we play that song."
While on the subject of personalities, I ask Josh, if Something Corporate's
music or 'Leaving Through The Window' in particular was a person, what
sort of person who it be?
"It would seriously be a split personality. Andrew and I do all
the writing for the albums and stuff, we're getting ready to do another
album pretty soon. We talked a lot about what we think of the next album.
We talked a lot in retrospect about 'Leaving Through The Window'. 'Leaving
Through The Window' is very much a summer album to us, but in many ways
we made it in a time where we weren't completely sure of what the band
was. And I think that's always been a good thing for us. We've always
known, especially when we write, that there's no boundary to it. We
can do whatever the fuck we want. It doesn't matter to us. I think when
it came to this album we talked a lot about how we wanted to have an
idea and finish the idea, whereas with the last album it was all over
the place. On this album we don't want to have a song like 'Not What
It Seems' and a song like 'Drunk Girl' on the same album. We'd rather
finish a complete thought. I don't necessarily think that makes 'Leaving
Through The Window' a bad album or anything. I think it was very much
an introduction and it was very much a growing part of our band, but
it's definitely something we think about."
In
a past interview, Andrew stated that with the album achieved what the
band were hoping for.
"Yeah, very much so. We made the album we wanted to make. I don't
think any of us were ever worried about that. I'd have to say we were
probably a whole lot more worried about it not sounding good than about
it not feeling right at the time. I have to be honest, I'm a lot more
excited about the next album. Just because I think we've grown a whole
lot as people. We just recently went into the studio to do a couple
of tracks for some compilations. I think we've really learned a whole
lot about what it means to be a band. You go on the road… We've
been on the road for eight months after this since the release of that
album, and eight months on the road straight is a lot of time. From
the inception of that album we've learned so much about what we are
as a band and what we are trying to accomplish as a band. I think that
we are going to be able to walk into this album really being able to
not only see our goals, because I think we met our goals on this album
but our goals definitely weren't as clear to us, so we were still trying
to work out what they were at times.
One of the tracks the band recorded was a cover of Björk's 'Unravelled'
for a compilation.
"It was more of kind of like how we worked in the studio where
we just noticed that we are a whole lot more comfortable not only in
the studio but with each other in the studio. Nobody is ever looking
at all over their own shoulder to see 'What are they doing? What are
they doing?' It's like everybody knows, not what their place is in the
band, but everybody is very comfortable with what we're doing within
the band, because we've found our roles.
Growing
up, Josh had other aspirations than being in a band. He was a very academic
child, studying hard at school. Believe it or not, he was still at college
when the band took off.
"I didn't leave college until we got signed. I was in the band
and in college. To me being in a successful band was like winning the
lottery - what are the chances? Come on! So I stayed in college. I was
a political science major. I wanted to go to law school and work in
politics. I'm not as active just because I'm so busy with what I'm doing
in music, but I think that I was always very focused on doing the obvious
thing, the safe route. Because it was like 'yeah sure, I'm sure the
band will do well, whatever'. I'm not saying that I never had faith
in our band, but it's kinda like having faith in winning the lottery.
It's hard to do."
Would he choose a political career in the future - when the time comes
to give up the music biz?
"I don't know if I ever would. I'm sure I'll come to the crossroad
in my life where I have to figure out what I'm going to end up doing,
but I'm not there yet and I'm only 22. I can always go back to college.
I'll go back to college and figure that out. I still have a year, almost
two years left at college to do in order to graduate. If I'm going to
end up doing something like that, I'm going to have to go back to school.
And I'll go back to school and figure it out. I don't need to know now.
"
Josh's parents were, like most, concerned for their child and his well
being.
"They were very wary. They were never unsupportive, but they were
very wary. And that's kind of a lot of the reason that I was the way
I was. It's really tough. The music industry is a sucky industry. It's
very hard to become successful. A lot of it is based on luck. I think
that they never wanted me to put all of my faith into something based
so much on luck. I'm a pretty bright guy at the end of the day. I don't
need to rely on luck. It sounds kind of conceited but I was always raised
to go out and make your own place in the world, and use your head…
not that being in a band isn't something that smart people would do.
Still, go out and use your head and work for it. That's where I was
always coming from. When we got signed I went to the dean of my school
and said 'listen, I have the opportunity for the next year or so to
really see the world' and stuff like that. I still have acceptance into
college. If I wanted to go back to school I could do it tomorrow. I
think now they see how beneficial it is. At the end of the day, even
if it all ended tomorrow, I've seen most of Europe, Japan, all of America.
I've seen more of the world than I probably would have in my entire
lifetime had I not done it, so I have no regrets.
One member of the original line-up had opposite thoughts though. Before
William Tell joined the band as guitarist, Something Corporate consisted
of Josh, Andrew, Brian, Clutch and a guy named Reuben. But Reuben decided
to concentrate on his academic studies - so the band brought in William
to take his place.
Josh says of Reuben, "He is about to graduate from college. That's
actually why it all came down… I was really into college and so
was Reuben, but Reuben went ahead and was like 'I really want to travel
and go and study abroad. It's something I really want to do' so he made
his choice. It was kind of indicative of, not like he never cared about
the band, but that was his thing. I don't think he ever regretted it.
All of us have talked about it. We were saying we don't think he would
have been happy doing this. We think he probably would have left and
gone back to school."
Josh
definitely sees both sides to the rock n' roll coin. Being in the music
business definitely has its pluses but it also has its minuses.
"Don't do it unless you absolutely love the music you play. If
you don't love the music you play it's the shittiest job you could have.
It seriously is. There are so many days that walking on stage is the
only saving grace to the day. And it's the only thing that makes it
seem like it's worth it. And if you don't like the music you're playing
you'll go mad. There are some days, don't get me wrong - it's one of
the raddest jobs you could ever do, because if you really believe in
it, it's the most rewarding thing in the world. An example is what we
were just talking about. Coming overseas and playing a show to 900 kids
in London, 6000 miles from my home, that's surreal. To really sit and
contemplate that is scary. It's like 'what? I don't get it!' I think
the pluses are that you're doing something that you totally believe
in. The downside is that, I think, you probably have to ask all the
guys, but everybody has their own downsides. To me, I think the biggest
downside is that it completely takes over your life. It has nothing
to do with the fame thing or anything like that, 'cause none of us are
even close to famous, y'know. But I was just on tour for seven months
straight and then came home for three weeks and we're about to go back
out on the road for four months, come home to do an album which we're
going to be gone for, for another month, so that's five months gone,
come home for like three weeks and then go out on the road for another
six months. I don't have a girlfriend. I'll come home and go out on
dates with girls and it's like 'this is pointless, how am I ever going
to get to know anybody?' And that's more of a personal thing. To me
that's the hardest thing about it.
"I remember reading an interview before I was ever close to being
successful with this band, and it was with Adam Duritz and he said 'everybody
envies rockstars so much… you can get any woman you want but what
if the one woman you want is in medical school in Boston?' He's like
'that doesn't really help anybody, so it's not that great'. It's totally
true. Don't get me wrong, the positives completely outweigh the negatives
in so many forms. It's not even just relationships with the opposite
sex. Your relationships with your friends suffer 'cause you're not around.
There's this thing I used to do with my friends all the time where we
would go to Palm Springs which is a vacationing spot. We'd go for a
weekend in the summer. Just me and my guy friends. It's like 120 degrees
out there. We'd go to the pool and hang out. There's almost nothing
to do out there, so it's just all of us staying indoors playing cards,
drinking, hanging out, playing tennis, and jumping in the pool, just
being idiots. We used to do it every year for three or four years. This
year I got a call, I was in Philadelphia and they were like 'hey man,
we're in Palm Springs, we just wanted to say hi' and it's really tough.
Then again I don't get resentful or anything because I made my choice
and I think it was the right choice. But that's kinda tough because
that's something I wish I could really do.
"You know you're doing well… and not like we're doing amazingly
well but I guess we're in London with 900 people seeing us so it's not
bad, but I think you know you're doing well when it really starts taking
over your life."
Josh... this is just the beginning…
"Yeah, that's what's scary! But again, it's a labour of love."
Let's hope Something Corporate don't feel the need to go leaving through
the window just yet.
For
more information on Something Corporate visit www.somethingcorporate.com
|
|
