CD Giveaway - Sam Shrieve, "Bittersweet Lullabies"
Ends Nov 29, 2009
The current student at Berklee College of Music has a rock 'n' roll pedigree, but delivers a pleasing and diverse collection of soft pop on his debut record. Enter our contest for your chance to win!
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As Cartel passes its second anniversary as a band, The Trades was able to get Will Pugh, the group's vocalist, to overview what they've accomplished since 2003, and to look forward at the future, which will be marked by the release of their full-length debut, Chroma. Pugh formed the group, whose current lineup consists of the charismatic frontman and guitarists Nic Hudson and Joseph Peppers, bassist Ryan Roberts, and drummer Kevin Sanders, when they were in college. Their first show was October 26, 2003, and soon after, he says, "The Militia Group took notice, and that was pretty much all she wrote."
Having signed to Militia Group and released (and subsequently re-released with bonus tracks) an EP on the label, the Atlanta-based quintet began to tour the country on the strength of "the first five songs we ever recorded as Cartel." They played with bands such as My American Heart and the predecessor to Just Surrender as a self-booked tour that first year. "In the classification of tours and the relativity of that, it was absolutely the hardest thing we've ever done," Pugh explains. "But it's been great so far. Touring's hard; it's not easy at this level, but you've gotta do what you've gotta do." That kind of determination translates seamlessly to their studio work. A handful of demos that the band did to convince the label to release more money to finish the record made their way on to the Internet. Some fans wanted to know why they didn't use a much higher-pitched and graceful demo version of "Save Us" on the album, and Will was kind enough to set the record straight. Stylistically, the song was dropped four steps lower. "All kids hear are the record and our live performance. If you can't recreate the record live, then you might as well not record it. Then you're not a real band; you're a studio band. You might as well just sell your song to somebody who can perform it live. I as a singer personally knew that there's no way in hell that on consecutive days on tour that I could be able to pull that song off live." He went on to say, "You try to sing it every night consecutively after singing all the other songs. I sing it in a pretty high register live, and my voice has just gotten in tune to being able to do that consistently every night. That song, even now after my voice has gotten to this point, is still hard to sing. The fact that I sung it good on the demos (and it was a couple takes) was absolutely a miracle. Not that I'm a bad singer, but that thing is just way up there—it's high! I never wanted to come down to it and disappoint live."
Chroma also boasts an interesting choice of producers—Zach Odom and Kenneth Mount. After you get over the initial shock of most likely never having heard of them, here's the scoop. Both men are the in-house engineers for Tree Sound Studios, the Atlanta-area studio that Cartel recorded in. The duo can now claim Chroma as their first widely distributed production work. In explaining why the band chose Odom and Mount to work on the record, Will says, "I think it's really nice because we didn't want to have a name on the record to where kids could at all attribute any success or good songwriting or anything to a good producer. They're great producers, don't get me wrong. But they're not songwriters. They're not somebody where people are going to go, 'It's really good because Butch Walker did it.' Or 'it's really good because Aaron Sprinkle did it.'"
Atlanta's newest musical export have capitalized on a new wave of music exposure—the Internet. Media assets such as Purevolume have helped many bands gain exposure by allowing fans to stream artists' songs for free. Absolutepunk.net has thrown their hat into the ring with a new section called The Leak. In a deal with The Militia Group, they have been streaming Chroma three songs at a time since August 16th. Each week, three more songs are released. On September 6th, the entire album will be available for streaming for a full week. "We've had those few brave souls who've been willing to admit they've downloaded the record and Myspace message us or e-mail us and say, 'I downloaded the record. Don't hate me, but it's really really awesome.' That's always awesome to hear, but I think it's fun to watch the Absolutepunk kids listen to it." Will goes on to remark about some initial criticism they've received, "It's really funny to hear people say, 'These songs kind of sound the same.' And we're sitting here, the people who have heard it, and we're going, 'Just wait!' When they get down to those last three tracks, 'The Minstrel's Prayer,' 'Q,' and 'A,' if someone says it's generic, I don't know what they listen to. They listen to some crazy stuff if they think it's generic; they listen to nothing pop. Those last three songs, we wanted to stretch the boundaries as far as possible. It's funny to hear what people say. It's not their fault that they don't know what's coming." Why did they consent to doing this in the first place? "We've been mentioned a lot on Absolutepunk, so we wanted to be able to let kids hear what people were talking about," he explains. "Will it leak? Well, it already has. Will it be a detriment to us? I don't think so just because we haven't really sold that many records so far. It was just to make sure that kids could actually put music with a name now and get a chance to hear it before everybody else does." Given the buzz surrounding Chroma, it's a pretty safe bet that AP's experiment is a success and Cartel will benefit immensely in the sales column.
They will continue on the Take Cover Tour for the next five weeks or so. Only a handful of shows in, Will points out, "The last show is sold out. It's the best tour we've played by far. The fans are great; the kids are great, and we couldn't ask for anything better." Along with "Settle Down," and the timeless "Luckie St.," the band will be playing the first three tracks from Chroma and maybe a bonus song closer to September 20th. "We're probably going to add in 'If I Fail' around the release date, once kids have it in mass quantities," the soft-spoken yet eloquent vocalist says. And don't fret--on their next tour, they will make a serious attempt to add in even more songs. But they do have some constraints such as time and money that may pose potential roadblocks. "I've got to purchase a lot of stuff, a piano, guitar, all this crazy stuff; I'm going to be broke," Pugh grumbles. "We want to try to start playing 'Burn This City.' Everyone who's heard that song at the end knows that it's not just two guitars, a bass, and a singer. It's a bunch of stuff going on that we as a band really have to sit down and hash out; we really haven't had time to rehearse this record at all. So, we'll add in the standard songs, but the more outer limits stuff on the record, you'll have to wait a little bit until we get money and time to practice." If you'd like an opportunity to hear one of the most youthful acts out of the pop-punk genre today, Cartel's Chroma needs to find its way into your shopping cart on September 20th. They also put on a fantastic concert, no matter whom they play with. Pugh puts it best when asked to convince readers to come out to see the band in concert. "We don't suck live." Understatement of the century? Quite possibly.
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They will continue on the Take Cover Tour for the next five weeks or so. Only a handful of shows in, Will points out, "The last show is sold out. It's the best tour we've played by far. The fans are great; the kids are great, and we couldn't ask for anything better." Along with "Settle Down," and the timeless "Luckie St.," the band will be playing the first three tracks from Chroma and maybe a bonus song closer to September 20th. "We're probably going to add in 'If I Fail' around the release date, once kids have it in mass quantities," the soft-spoken yet eloquent vocalist says. And don't fret--on their next tour, they will make a serious attempt to add in even more songs. But they do have some constraints such as time and money that may pose potential roadblocks. "I've got to purchase a lot of stuff, a piano, guitar, all this crazy stuff; I'm going to be broke," Pugh grumbles. "We want to try to start playing 'Burn This City.' Everyone who's heard that song at the end knows that it's not just two guitars, a bass, and a singer. It's a bunch of stuff going on that we as a band really have to sit down and hash out; we really haven't had time to rehearse this record at all. So, we'll add in the standard songs, but the more outer limits stuff on the record, you'll have to wait a little bit until we get money and time to practice." If you'd like an opportunity to hear one of the most youthful acts out of the pop-punk genre today, Cartel's Chroma needs to find its way into your shopping cart on September 20th. They also put on a fantastic concert, no matter whom they play with. Pugh puts it best when asked to convince readers to come out to see the band in concert. "We don't suck live." Understatement of the century? Quite possibly.
