A Conversation with A listet To The Moon's Nick Santino
Mike Ragogna: Nick, before we compass into your sweet album, un providedified & axerophthol; Free, let me ask you how a consider did your firstly hit, "Like We Used To," from your de only album On Your Side change everything for you?
Nick Santino: It was interesting because we were unsloped a teleph unrivall(a)ed that magical spelled all the time off the very(prenominal) eight forms. Then, virtuoso summer, we just decided to take a vocal to communicate because we saw that it was coming off a little meliorate than the rest of our show. It was real unassailable for us. You know, for a band of our surface to turn on the radio station and hear our phone call was conformation of cool. So, hopefully, we sop up to do that again sometime soon. I visualise it by all odds dish uped reach out to that crowd of the great unwashed who listen to the radio and helped them find us.
MR: Did it change things up for the conclave overall?
NS: Yeah, it definitely assailable the door to universe more(prenominal) of a radio band, I guess. We got to play a fate of radio shows that we wouldn't tolerate gotten to play if we weren't on the radio. It also disperseed the door to go covering fire to those stations and meeting the same bulk that played our songs last time. You definitely build a relationship with those spate and it doesn't hurt to meet all those anatomy of people. It just shape of helped us all just about. It was soma of a antithetic thing, but different in a good counsel.
MR: In addition to the single be a radio hit, it was featured on MTV Hits, Teen Mom and island of tee shirt shoring. Now, everybody has their hold opinion intimately those shows. What was the reaction from that, especially afterward the The Jersey Shore exposure?
NS: The sales for the song went up moderately good powerfulnessily after the episodes aired. I think after Jersey Shore they went up exchangeable ten railyard in one week because of the show. I think we gained a lot of new fans from it, which is actually cool. I think people standardisedd it--I don't remember people saying anything akin, "Eew, your song's on Jersey Shore."
MR: Do you think that show admits more of a disobedient rap than it deserves?
NS: Yeah, people forget that TV shows atomic number 18 TV shows for entertainment purposes. I think shows manage Jersey Shore and Honey Boo Boo are purely for entertainment--they're help their purpose. People neediness to conceal at these people's backgrounds and history, and I'm like, "Just look at it as a TV show."
MR: Good point, yeah. wherefore "A Rocket To The Moon," oh by the way?
NS: I don't know. I wish I could grant asked myself the same question back then, but I honestly don't know. When I was making medicine by myself, it was more electronica motley of stuff, and I guess I just stopped being very futuristic and different from everything else. I'm kind of like a space nerd--I believe in aliens and all that fun stuff--so, I think it was just me being weird and then it stuck.
MR: [laughs] I'm a space nerd too. simply A Rocket To The Moon proceeded as more of a side project way back when, didn't it?
NS: Yeah. I've been playacting in bands since I was in middle school. I was in luxuriously school, in a band, but I was kind of get bored with it, so I wrote some songs on my own. Then, I end up projectting those songs up online, and people kind of reacted to them better than they reacted to my band. That was kind of cool because I was getting supranational exposure. So, I got out there level(p) more, and like a year after I started it, I ended up signing my first and barely record contract with render By Ramen, which was incredible.
MR: How did that come well-nigh?
NS: Our A&R guy found me while just doing his job. I was on a DIY lap with my guitar player now, Justin, who used to be in this band called Brighten, and we had the same manager at the time. I would just ride in their van, and we played places like the outskirts of Chicago--not even the outskirts, we were like three hours away. grayback (Minardi), the A&R from supply By Ramen, was from Chicago, so he came out to see the show. I was playing acoustic, by myself to like thirty kids at the show, and insurgent was there. He told me how oft he rightfully liked my music, and a couple of months later, he must have told the label about me, and then a few months later, I had a hide sent over to sign.
MR: Now that you're on your second album, what is your procedure now? I guess you're gearing up to championship the new album and its single ferments?
NS: Yeah--I mean, it's been a while. We've only really put out one full length album. We've put out little EPs and stuff by means ofout the years, but we've only done the one full length album. The cardinal of us in the band kind of forget what it's like to release and album, and kind of forget what it's like to be on a relevant record cycle again. It's really exciting, I can't wait to put it out, get new music out there, and get everybody really stoked on it. The four of us are really evoke about this album. We're planning a tour, which will believably go all year long if we can--that's what we privation to do. We'll go international again if we can. We're just ready to work again. It's been four years since we put something full out, and we're just ready to start working full time again.
MR: Now, the new album is called mistaken & Free. Would you say the music on there is bats and free?
NS: I think so. I mean, it's not barbarian and free like Lynyrd Skynyrd are wild and free, but I think it's emotionally wild and free. I think we all really let go on this one and that's why that title kind of stuck. There are subjects that we've never compose about before that we put on this album, and I think it's really cool. We've written about life, slam, death, regret, reassurance--kind of everything. It was really freeing to write, so I think that's a lot of what Wild & Free means to us.
MR: Your new single is "Ever Enough." Could you go into the story behind that song?
NS: There's this band called Green River Ordinance, and their start singer, Josh Jenkins, is a friend of ours. One day, Justin and I were in capital of Tennessee and we met Josh at his house and ended up playing around with some stuff on the acoustic. He was showing us this little idea he had and it ended up being "Ever Enough." It's a song that we wrote about reassurance--reassuring the person that you're with that you're over taking to love that person until the day you die, through everything. It's kind of just rangeing that person that no content what happens, I'm going to be by your side. I think it has kind of a cool meaning to crack into because a lot of people can relate to it.
MR: Its video features Debby Ryan from the Disney universe. How did you get her?
NS: Debby has been one of my impede friends for a few years now. Honestly, she and I have conversations on the phone all the time about what's going on in each other's lives. She was in New York city one day, and I told her she should swing by the Fueled By Ramen top executives because she would really like some of the people there. She went by the office and they said, "You should be in the 'Ever Enough' video." They were just joking around, but Debby was like. "Yeah. Totally. I'll definitely do it." So she ended up jumping on board and I think it turned out really great. It was fun to do because she and I are such close friends. It was very comfortable to run around and laugh with her. It was a really cool video.
MR: Let's talk about some of the guests you had on Wild & Free. You've already mentioned Josh Jenkins from Green River Ordinance, but you've also got Steven Barker Liles from fare and Theft...
NS: ...yeah, Stephen Barker Liles helped write on the album as well.
MR: And there's Elizabeth Hewitt...
NS: ...who used to sing backup for Taylor Swift, and she came and render on a couple songs for us.
MR: I also want to ask about your collaboration with producer ticktock Bright. What was it like?
NS: You know, it was one of those situations that people always talk about--a "When you know, you know" kind of thing. We were looking at producers for a bit when we started to write the album. We knew we valued to do this thing in Nashville, so we thought we'd just find someone down there. We wrote that song with Stephen from Love and Theft, and the prove was an iPhone recording that he sent to his friend. His friend just so happened to work for check over, and we honestly didn't really know who identify was at the time. Then, the next day, we got a call saying, "I heard this song from this band and I'm really interested in hearing more." Johnny went down to Nashville and interrupted a session that Mark was in. Mark came out of the session saying, "I know who you are. I love that band, and I want to do their record." Johnny was like. "Hi, I'm Johnny. I haven't even gotten to meet you yet." Once Johnny called us to tell us about this producer who had done all the varlet Flatts records and a couple of Carrie Underwood records, right away, we were like, "This is awesome." We were really excited about his roster, the stuff he had done, and the way his recordings sounded. The first scalawag Flatts record he did is one of my favorite albums of all time, so it's kind of cool to have gotten a call from him. Justin and I went on a trip to Nashville and had dinner with Mark where we talked for like four hours straight. After leaving that dinner, we were like, "This is our guy. One cytosine percent, this is our guy." Like I said, it was kind of one of those things. When you know, you know.
MR: Even though you may not be considered a big Nashville act, you're now kind of in that crew of young Nashville. What is your comprehension of that?
NS: I kind of love it. In Nashville, people see you as a songwriter instead of just a face of a band, and that's what I want to be. I want to claim music and I don't really care what I look like. People in Nashville and that whole paroxysm seem to just appreciate music for what it is. We definitely have a name in our producer to throw around town too, because we can meet people and say, "Yeah, we're doing an album with Mark Bright."
MR: Bragging rights! It's also an awesome marriage--Fueled By Ramen and Nashville.
NS: Yeah, Fueled By Ramen as always been very diverse in their music.
MR: What is your advice for new artists?
NS: Man, I just say keep going. You can't really top up. There are a lot of times--whether we play a crappy show or nobody comes--where I can't help but be bummed out and think, "Why am I even doing this anymore?" Then I go and open Twitter and see all these people saying things like, "This song that you wrote helped me through this time in my life." A lot of people give up before they even get a shot, and I think you've just got to push through that and make yourself get better. You'll eventually get somewhere. I've got a long way to go, but I think I made the right move by making music in the first place, and then, luckily, getting signed by an amazing label like this.
MR: And what is the best advice that you've ever gotten?
NS: Oh man, I don't know. Just from touring with a tidy sum of bands you kind of learn from them. In 2010, when we went out on tour with Hanson, they would talk to us and hang out with us every single day. I don't think they ever gave us a single word of advice, but just hearing their stories... They started playing music when they were practically babies, and they still do it, still love it, and they still make amazing music. So, being on tour with a band like that, and seeing that you can get passed trivial things I think is very inspiring. Just being on the road, you learn a lot of new stuff, and you might get advice that someone doesn't even know they're giving you.
MR: What are some bands that you really enjoy?
NS: When I go to shows now, I don't even go to just enjoy the show. I kind of go for homework, in a way. We just did this thing called The Rock Boat last week--it was this cruise that went to The Bahamas. There were like cardinal different bands on it, and a lot of them I'd never even heard of, but one of the bands was called needtobreathe. I remember watching them the three nights they played and enjoying them like crazy, but passably much just taking mental notes the whole time. Everything they would do on stage, I would be like, "This band is amazing! How can I be more like them?" I'm always kind of taking inspiration from music and live shows.
MR: Nick, all the best with this. It seems like A Rocket To The Moon is on a pretty good trajectory right now.
NS: Yeah, hopefully it works out.
MR: give thanks for talking with me today, and we'll have to catch up again in the future.
NS: Definitely. Thank you very much.
Tracks: 1. Going Out 2. First pet 3. Whole Lotta You 4. Ever Enough 5. If I'm Gonna Fall In Love 6. I Do 7. Another Set Of Wings 8. Wild & Free 9. Wherever You Go 10. Nothing At All 11. Somebody Out There 12. You're My Song 13. disjointed And Found
Transcribed by Ryan Gaffney
Follow Mike Ragogna on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ragz2008
Materials taken from The Huffington Post
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