and you thought you knew.. Inner Frequency
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Cara Young - "I think our collaborative style was quite unique: we never actually sat side by side in the same room to work on a new song, but instead we just exchanged ideas, often over the computer, and then worked on them individually. Depending on who originated a song idea, collaboration began with Luke throwing down some guitar riffs and posting them on the ‘net' for me to download and write lyrics over the top of. Then I'd present Luke with a semi-finished song that allowed him to get a “feel” for it." |
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Cara Young, Julie Licata, Luke Carnevale, and Bruce Croker, did something really sensible last year, they went from being true individual artists and musicans to becoming a 'collective collaborative' unit by the name of Inner Frequency. It wasn't long before they eagerly set about taking strands of each other's musical backgrounds, skills, and interests and combining them into a rather brilliant pop/rock collage of superbness and electrifyingly exciting audio wonderment!
The band's most recent release, a five track ep extravaganza entitled ' The Lemmontree Project' is all the proof one could expect from such a powerful stage and studio ensemble and with an album on the not too distant horizon, we thought we'd better get them in quick to answer the inevitable questions..
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The Interview - November 05 2006 |
| Welcome to IOM guys... can we begin with you telling us a bit about your background? |
Cara: In early 2005, I was sitting at home playing piano and singing my songs… longing to be out performing to a crowd of eager fans. Luke meanwhile, was at home playing his guitar and recording songs but didn't really think much about performing in public!
I found Luke on the internet looking for a musical partner. We met, played some songs for each other, and decided that our musical approaches and styles matched up really well. We were truly symbiotic from the beginning!
I think our collaborative style was quite unique: we never actually sat side by side in the same room to work on a new song, but instead we just exchanged ideas, often over the computer, and then worked on them individually. Depending on who originated a song idea, collaboration began with Luke throwing down some guitar riffs and posting them on the ‘net' for me to download and write lyrics over the top of. Then I'd present Luke with a semi-finished song that allowed him to get a “feel” for it.
We would also share a completed song to which one of us would add that extra finishing touch. This approach to songwriting I think has created a diverse catalog of material that reflects vastly different perspectives on life, love and the world.
We immediately recorded three songs: one of Luke’s – “Sometimes,” one of mine – “Buried,” and one that Luke wrote the music to and I wrote the words for – “Breathe” that was recorded in Luke’s cramped little bedroom on his computer!
We then set out to play them at every open mic night possible. Over the next six months we gigged as often as we could, building up our repertoire to include over twenty songs.. mostly originals.
By the end of 2005, we realised we were craving a rhythm section to fill out the sound and add more energy to live shows. Once again, and turning to the internet, we found two musicians capable of adding just the right vibe: Bruce Croker on bass, and Julie Licata on percussion and drums. With the full band in place, we recorded our self-released debut EP The Lemmontree Project, in the summer of 2006! |
| What would you say have been your main musical influences? |
Cara: I truly believe that every musical note that we hear in our entire lifetimes influence us as musicians, writers, performers…so any time I have been asked to name my influences, I hesitate, because how do I mention everything I’ve ever heard in my life? So I will at least attempt to skim the surface..
My musical influences started in childhood with jazz, classical, pop, rock, musical theater, gospel, Christian contemporary, and (ugh) even an itty bit of country music! Up through my high school years, I was mostly exposed to very mainstream music that you could find on any radio station in any town in the US at that point in time. It wasn’t until college that I actually listened to anything at all “hip” or non-mainstream.
During those years I fell in love with Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan, Depeche Mode, NIN, Nirvana, and some pretty eclectic groups as well such as Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Dead Can Dance. I also listened to some old school jazz (since I'd DJ ’d at the jazz college radio station) such as Nina Simone, Peggy Lee and Sarah Vaughn. Then, after college I picked up on my obsession with techno/house/dance music, listening to a lot of Moby, BT, DJ Tiesto and other popular DJs!
Luke: My musical influences started very early with Michael Jackson (then with face), street breakdancing (on cardboard boxes), and of course the ‘beatbox’ (or ‘beep-box’). But while the late eighties almost killed all of this, a little band called Pearl Jam got me right back into action. The Nixons, Live, STP, Tonic, and anything else labeled ‘grunge metal’ or rock soon followed suit. So my next big inspiration was through bands like Linkin Park, Evanescence, Falling Up, etc.. Rock with fat Pop beats is where it’s at!! My tastes today have since grown to include almost every type of music (except most Country and late 80’s.. still not a fan!).
Cara: Stop dissing on my 80s!! |
| What could you tell us about “high points” in your musical career? |
Cara: I think the high point for Inner Frequency, so far, has been the release of our first EP, The Lemmontree Project. The release party was great, with all of our fans and friends there as well as some local media. We just hope that everything builds from here, with our high points getting higher and higher! |
| How about low points and how you managed to get over them? |
Cara: We’ve had two low points so far in our musical journey: low point 1 was when we did our first photo shoot in 2005 with something set incorrectly on the camera! A week later, we returned to shoot again underneath the VERY hot Texas summer sun. I got to see the photos briefly (and some were great!), but Luke never saw any of them, because two days after the photo shoot, my house was broken into and the camera and the computer were stolen!
We never had a chance to return to the location where we shot the photos and the old abandoned hotel has since been demolished. I also lost all of my old songs that I'd had documented, but instead of getting too bummed out about it, I saw it as a sign that I needed to move forward creating new music with Luke.
The second low point for us was showing up for our first full band gig (up until that point we had performed with a djembe but never a full drum kit) to have it shut down minutes before the show by the fire marshall because of some girls standing up on the roof of the venue! We wanted to play SOOOO bad that night. Some of our fans walked up and down the street trying to find somewhere else for us to play, but some of the other venues were suffering from the same problem (it was the big Fry Street Festival, so the cops and fire marshals were cracking down hard). We did end up finding out about a venue that we did go back to a few months later to play!
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| If you could turn the clocks back, is there anything you would have done differently? |
Cara: We rushed in to record our first EP without really working the songs to the point that they should have been at. We worked with our two new members, Bruce and Julie. Since Luke and I had been working on these songs for over a year, we knew them so well that we were dying to get them recorded. The result of that was that we ended up leaving one song off the EP and weren’t 100% satisfied with all of the songs, though we are very proud of the end result. The positive side of this experience is that we learned a lot in the recording process and grew as a band. We came out knowing that we had to really break every song down and put it back together as a band instead of just throwing songs at Julie and Bruce and going with the first thing that happens! |
| Who did you work with on your most recent projects? |
Cara: We recorded the Project at Dustin Mason’s studio, the Lemmontree Studio. He had moved to Dallas from New Orleans after a harrowing ordeal post-Katrina. He had brought everything he could from his studio in New Orleans and had set it up in a house that he and the band he lives with, Invain, share. We were the first band to finish a project with him!
Julie joined as our drummer and this was her first recording with us, the same for Bruce Croker on Bass. They were real troopers and willing to go into the studio to throw down tracks pretty early along in the process for them.
Of course, Luke is the one on most of the guitars (Dustin added some on one song) and I did the vocals on all songs (with Luke singing some backup). |
| If you could pick a favourite track from your recent work what would it be? |
Cara: Fairy Tale You…I just really love the background vocals that Dustin and I came up with on the final chorus and the way that the song builds. I think it is the most fully produced of the songs on the CD.
Luke: Backwards .. I’m still not sick of that one!!
Julie: Fairy Tale You
Bruce: Preacher Man
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| What musical instruments/equipment do you normally use? |
Cara: My voice and whatever microphone someone sticks in front of me
Luke: Taylor 14CE acoustic/electric guitar. Boss sd-2 pedal. That’s it for now!
Julie: Yamaha maple custom absolute, zildjian cymbals, authentic African
djembe
Bruce: Peavy Foundation Bass, 1986 version |
| Do you have a favourite instrument either as a player or appreciator? |
Cara: Voice…I love listening to singers who truly amaze me with their voices and pianos (playing and listening)
Luke: Guitar is it!! With a weak-spot for great acoustic playing!!
Julie: Cello, as an appreciator
Bruce: Bass |
| Can you remember your first stage and/or studio experience? |
Cara: My first stage experience didn’t happen, as I was supposed to be Mary Poppins in my kindergarten graduation ceremony (but we moved before hand! Boohoo! I sooo wanted to sing Chimchiminey) So my first one was probably singing in church. My first studio experience was when I was about 13 and I got to go in and record a few songs somewhere. I remember the songs, but don’t really remember how the situation came about.
Luke: Not really, but I’m sure I was nervous as poop. And probably hit 50 wrong notes (out of 49!). |
| What five albums would you want to find if you were stranded on a desert island with enough food, water, a copy of IOM, a fantastic audio system, and any one musical instrument of your choice? |
Cara: I would want a piano…a baby grand would be nice, but even a little toy piano would do. I'd have to have Tori Amos Little Earthquakes more than any other music, then: Moby Everything is Wrong (cause it would be if I was stranded on a deserted island!), 30 Seconds to Mars, Beautiful Lies (is my current favorite album), NIN Pretty Hate Machine (for those bad days), and Enigma MCMXC aD for the nights with lots of thunder and lightning.
Luke: A guitar, of course but for CDs - Evanescence (1st Album), Live (2nd Album), Dishwalla Opaline, Linkin Park (1 or 2), and a mp3 disk I burned from home (that’s right I cheated hizzoes!!)
Julie: Musical instrument of choice - the African mbira and CDs - radiohead, OK computer; toto, past to present; meshuggah, destroy erase improve; pat metheny, trio 99-00; and, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture performed by the Minneapolis Symphony with REAL canons!!
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| Do you have a favourite album cover of all time? |
Luke: I really like the artwork for ‘The Lemmontree Project’ – elci Productions does quality work!! (Cara agrees with this emphatically!) |
| and what, may we ask, are the five albums you listened to most recently? |
Cara: Just saw Evanescence in concert last night, so I've just downloaded their new album The Open Door and it is great! Especially “Sweet Sacrifice” and “Lithium”; also: 30 seconds to Mars (will be seeing them in Nov.) Beautiful Lies, Muse Absolution (is not the newest album, but my fave), Panic at the Disco I Write Sins not Tragedies and Kate Bush Aerial.
Luke: hmmm I don’t know off-hand!
Julie: Sting, brand new day; Mel Lewis Orchestra; Fiona Apple, Extraordinary Machine; Sigur Ros, Takk...; Pat Metheny, Trio 99-00. |
| What five movies did you watch most recently? |
Cara: Well it seems that I'm the only one who has had time to watch any movies lately: Matchpoint, Donnie Darko, Rain (made me have a bad dream!), The Stepford Wives (remake) and Twin Peaks.
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| Which artist would you most like to meet or borrow a bag of sugar from as a next door neighbour? |
Cara: Tori Amos
Luke: Amy Lee/Ben Moody or the ‘Real Slim Shady’
Julie: Sting |
| If you could have been responsible for writing the best song or piece of music ever written, what would it be? |
| Cara: I Can’t even imagine having written a song that someone else wrote. |
| If you could have three wishes, what would they be? |
n/a |
| On to the more intimate side of Inner Frequency.. what did you dream about last night AND you can't say 'I do not remember'... |
Cara: That my grandfather had died and no one in my family told me for over a week, I somehow found out from someone. How horrible! I have bad dreams a lot, probably cause I watch too much Law and Order before going to bed.
Luke: Awww, I usually dream like crazy, but I actually didn’t have one last night. |
| And, if we were to “shadow” you on a typical day, what might we see you doing? |
Cara: Working at the gym, helping people get into shape and managing a fitness program, sitting at this computer at home WAYYY too much and working on band stuff.
Luke: A whole lot of mouse clicking, then go home – click some more, practice, click, practice, click, practice, (you get the idea), shower, bed.
Cara: And on a typical practice night, all of us traveling to Bruce’s house for rehearsal in his garage…yes, we are a garage band!
Luke: No… shop band
Cara: shop band? Looks like a garage to me!
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| What did you do, the day before yesterday? |
Cara: Slept till 2pm, went to the State Fair of Texas on a beautiful Oct. day and ate way too much junk food, went to see Evanescence in concert!!
Luke: Work all day, worked on contract job, practiced, moved some more stuff to my new apartment, shower, bed .. almost as cool as Cara’s day ..not! |
| If you had to move to another country for a year to record an album, but you only had a few suitcases and an hour to pack… what would you take? |
Cara: My mp3 player with as much music as I could fit onto it, a few pairs of favorite shoes and skimpy outfits, a bathing suit (surely I’m going somewhere warm!!!?), lotion, sunscreen, Emergen-C packets, a lot of contacts, my tape recorder and cell phone. This would all fit in carry-on, I don’t check luggage!
Luke: My guitar and computer.. I can buy the rest there! |
| What bugs you most? |
Cara: Wanting to spend more time on music but having to spend time working
Luke: Interviews.. Oh, I thought you said what do I love the most.. Sorry, I meant interviews. (just kidding IOM friggin’ rocks!!)
Julie: Tardiness
Bruce: Stupid people |
| What makes your day really shine? |
Cara: A great gig!
Luke: The son.. (did I misspell that ..or didn’t I?)
Julie: Rain and dark clouds...yeah, really...in Texas that doesn't happen much!
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| I hate to end it all like this guys, but.. finally, what are your plans for 2007? |
Luke: Complete and utter world domination! Or at least: Recording a full length album, setting up national distribution, building up a fan base on an international level, and eating lots of sushi…oh wait, the sushi is Cara…sorry!
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| Cara, Bruce, Luke, and Julie .. thanks for dropping by... the delightful Sandra will see you to the car! |
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Cara, Julie, Luke, and Bruce of 'Inner Frequency' were interviewed by Colin Lynch - November 05 2006
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