In an interview with the Daily Lobo, Feels Like Sunday members Joni Rhodes-Orie, Dylan Martin and Nate Smith talked about the changes that have occurred in their music.
They also discussed the new challenges presented to them by the Downtown noise ordinance that has yet to be voted on.
DL: Who are your musical influences?
JR: I've been listening to a lot of female vocalists lately, and of course; I totally dig all the female fronted rock bands like Garbage and No Doubt and other lesser know bands like there's this German band called Guano Apes.
DM: I really started listening to a lot of rock in the early 90s, Nirvana and all that kind of stuff. I still like a lot of that kind of music. I just recently bought this CD of a band called Sparta. It's awesome. I really want to try to do some drumming like they do on that CD. It's kind of like indie/experimental, I think.
NS: Everything. A lot of rock, a lot of punk, because that's what I listened to when I was younger. That's what made me want to play guitar. So, a lot of that, but not so much anymore. I like a lot of everything. I like ambient sounds and trying to go more in that direction.
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DL: Why did you change bassists?
JR: He actually decided to leave. It wasn't like we kicked him out. He left. He moved out of the state and stuff. There's all kinds of reasons.
DM: Yeah, there was a lot of stuff going on, but basically the reason that Joni said. We weren't going to kick him out or the band wasn't gonna split. It was because he decided to leave.
DL: So has it changed your style musically?
JR: Definitely. I think we're more like.
DM: Rock.
JR: Yeah. Less, like pop-rock oriented.
DM: Yeah, he was a really good bassist and I liked some of the stuff he was doing but he was kind of taking us in a different direction and I like the direction were going in now.
DL: What are the differences between Leaning Against The Wind and Tedious Bliss?
JR: In Tedious Bliss, we had just started out. I mean, me personally. These guys had played music before, but it was like my first musical project. And I don't think I was as confident.
DM: They were the first 10 songs that we had just about ever wrote. We wrote them and said, "Alright, lets record 'em." And that was our album. I think maybe a couple we picked and chose or said "we don't want to put that on there." But I think for the most part it was pretty much as soon as we had enough material, we just threw it down and there was no waiting.
NS: It was almost all before we even started playing shows. I think that you can tell we play like a lot of different bands. We're kind of influenced by all the different bands in Albuquerque. It kind of opened all of our eyes to different styles, you know and all this variety of music kind of influenced us, or at least it did me.
DL: What do you see on your path in 10 years?
DM: Hopefully I'd like to get to the point in 10 years where I can support myself with my music. You know, it would sure be nice to make a million dollars and all that, but is it gonna happen? I don't know. The whole goal is to not work another job and playing music would be my full-time job, or there would be touring around or playing in town.
DL: I heard that you're a vocal opponent of the noise ordinance downtown and you went to the city council meeting Monday?
JR: Actually, no. They decided not to vote on the amendment. They're going to do it Oct. 7, I think. So we have more time. We've got a lot of signatures on a petition we're circulating.
DL: Are there a lot of artists organized against it?
JR: Yeah, there's a lot of people that feel very strongly about it, but
NS: As far as an organized group?
JR: It's not very organized. I wish we could get more organized because I do know people feel passionately about it and if you ask them to speak out about it or to sign a petition, they definitely will. But not many people take the initiative to do it. I think everybody is just busy, and it's really hard to find the time.
DL: So if they do put it into effect, what do you think?
JR: I don't know. It's really scary.
DM: I think we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
JR: I don't know what to expect. I don't know how intensely they're going to enforce it because at the moment there's only one noise enforcement officer. Who knows, I mean they might be just threatening us. It's hard to say.
DL: What else do you want people to know?
NS: I think people should come out and see music more.
JR: Just all kinds of music.
NS: There's so many different styles of bands. There's so many cool bands in this town.
JR: Yeah, Albuquerque's awesome.
NS: It's a really neat town. It's very supportive of the musicians. The people who do come out are usually other musicians.
DM: I was just gonna say, I've said this probably half a dozen times to tons of people, but like the Fall Crawl and the Spring Crawl, the streets are just packed and it's everybody that's local. I think there are people that come in from out of town, but it's mostly people that are here that just actually come out to see music. You know that if a tenth of those people actually came out on the weekends to see music it'd be awesome. All the clubs would be packed, but I don't know what everybody's doing. Maybe they're at home studying or trying to better themselves.
DL: They're probably just sitting around going "What is there to do in this city?" And it's right Downtown.
DM: Exactly.
JR: There's all kinds of music. There's all kinds of indie bands, there's punk bands, folk groups, hip-hop and reggae. There's so much, and jazz bands. Albuquerque's so diverse.
DM: And even being a musician myself, I like to go out and see new bands and see what's going on out there, but even I am hesitant sometimes. You know sometimes I'm like "Hmm what's going on tonight?" and I'll look in the paper and there some bands I've never heard of playing and I'm like "Um, I don't think so." You know, because I don't know them. But I've been trying to stay away from that and I think other people need to do that too. Just because you haven't heard them on the radio or whatever, it doesn't mean that they're not going to be good. Just go out and enjoy yourself.
Feels Like Sunday plays Friday, Sept. 20 at the Golden West Saloon, 620 Central Ave. SW, with Follow, the Fabricators and The Yah-Yah Boom Project. There is a $5 cover and the show starts at 9 p.m. To contact Feels Like Sunday, visit its Web site at www.feelslikesunday.net or call 459-7654.
