Interview with SikSik Nation
Powerful, psychedelic rock is the name of the game for SikSik Nation. The band is amping up for the release of their second full length album later this year and is revved up to play the MotorcityRocks.com showcase on Friday night at the Lager House.
How did SikSik Nation form?
Did MotorCityRocks.com have a message board a few years ago? If I’m not mistaken, you did?
Yeah I think Ryan and those guys did have a message board back then?
Well that’s where Sean (Guitar/ Vocals) and I (Eric, Bass) met. In the summer of 2005 we had both posted threads about starting up a band. Sean actually emailed me first, but I blew him off because I was in the process of auditioning for another local band.
Still to this day Sean holds it over my head that I never emailed him back the first time. He was persistent and emailed me again. By that time things fell through with the band I had tried out with, and Sean had started jamming with a drummer (Scott Stone of Rogue Satellites). The three of us started writing songs together. Sean and I were gelling really well, but Scott was not working out. The three of us still remain friends, though. Over the next five months Sean and I continued to write songs and look for a drummer. Sean and I then met Rick (Drums) at the Blind Pig one night. Sean approached him because he said that “he had cool hair and looked like he played drums.” The three of us downed a few Old Styles together, and Rick joined the band the next afternoon.
So you guys put out a really blues/psychedelic album back in 08, tell me about that?
Eight Styles to the Unholy came out in May of last year. It has become a major stepping stone for us. The record is a collection of songs that we had wrote when we newly formed and were still looking for our own identity. I feel that the charm of the record is that there are so many different elements like psychedelic, blues, rock, and even a small amount of dance.
Are you working on a new album?
We started recording our new full length, Doom Rise Sunshine Vapor (working title) last week. We took the hints of psychedelic from the first record and turned it into full blown exploration, with a bit of fuzz rock for good measure.
Also, between the last record and this one we have built our own studio and are recording the entire record ourselves. Every recording that you put out you need reinvent yourself in some way. By recording everything ourselves, it puts us outside our comfort zone.
What’s your songwriting process like?
The song writing process has changed a lot for us in the past year. Since we built the studio, we started recording everything from impromptu jam sessions to more complete song ideas. We listen back to the ideas we recorded, layer another idea on top of it, tweak it, re-record it and then do it again a few more times until we were happy with it. The songs have been coming together in a much more organic form. Prior to building the studio, one of us would come to the band with a song idea and we each learn our respective parts put our spin on it, and the song was done. The new way of song writing has allowed us to be much more experimental and to write much more as a collective.
Who are your influences?
The record we are currently recording is more psychedelic than the last, but I feel that is mostly due to our new approach to the writing process. To say it sounds like this or that would be a hard thing to do because, we each have very different influences. We meet in the middle somewhere with bands like Joy Division, Jesus and Mary Chain, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
FEATURED DOWNLOAD:
“Lord is My Gun” – SikSik Nation
Are you planing to go on tour to support the record?
Were hoping for an early October release here in town and then doing long weekend trips to DC, NYC
and so on for the fall.
What are the challenges in marketing an independent band such as yourselves?
The internet has helped but also saturated the independent music market which makes it hard to promote, distribute music when people has access to 80.000 bands at their fingertips.
Anything special planed for Friday night’s performance?
We plan on playing most of the new tracks on the record this friday night coppled with a bunch of noise
** This coming Friday night at PJ’s Lager House (July 31st) is the MotorCityRocks.com Summer Showcase featuring 800beloved, SikSik Nation, Almost Free and The Juliets.