SHREDnews

Kayley Guyette: Mind introducing yourself and saying what you play?

Chris Kalla- My name is Chris Kalla and I sing  and play guitar for Crash Coordinates.

Vincent Liou- My name’s Vincent Forrest Liou and I play the keys.

Chris Wahl- My name is Chris Wahl and I play the electric Guitar.

Jon Stoddard- My name is Jon Stoddard and I play drums.

Kevin Williams- Kevin Williams, I am Crash Coordinates lead Bassist/mover and shaker

Kayley: How did Crash Coordinates get started?

Crash Coordinates: Chris Kalla (singer/guitarist) and Chris Wahl (guitarist) decided to create a career out of their passion for music. When both members came together, they knew they needed talented musicians to finalize their sonic group. That’s when members Jon Stoddard (drummer), Kevin Williams (bass) and Vincent Liou (keys) were added to the lineup.

Kayley Guyette: Is there a meaning behind the Crash Coordinates? How’d you come about it?

Crash Coordinates: The name derives from their intentions of sharing their music with the world. Hence, “Crash” signifies blasting their music to different places, and “Coordinates” denotes their listeners. Chris Kalla came up with it one day while pondering the perplexities of the universe while in a search for a band name.

Kayley Guyette: You have an EP, The Business Of Making You Move, coming out later this month, how was recording it?

Chris Kalla- It was an awesome experience, we all learned a lot in terms of our sound maturing and we definitely felt like it was worth the time

Vincent Liou- A lot of fun. Matt Grabe’s the man.

Chris Wahl- It was an awesome recording session. Matt Grabe has a lot of awesome ideas, we had a lot of positive energy the whole time, and the entire process was very efficient.

Jon Stoddard- Recording this EP was an all around great experience. Every time we go into the studio we grow as musicians and Matt Grabe taught us a ton and was a riot to work with. I am going to be doing some studio drumming with him for our friend Torin Dinh (http://www.myspace.com/torindinh) who is recording his new EP in December and I can’t wait to get in there and work with Matt again.

Kevin Williams- Recording Business was the best recording experiences I have ever had personally. Our producer Matt Grabe, really knew what product he wanted to mold us into and he took us to the highest level, that I believe he could and helped us make a record we are all extremely proud of. Matt made an environment that I associated with being hectic and stressful and make it very calm and relaxing, he is one of the most professional human beings I have ever had the pleasure to work with and I hope to record more with him.

Kayley Guyette: Is there any main song writer in the band or is it a group process?

Chris Kalla- Chris Wahl and I write songs on acoustic guitars on their own and then we bring them to practice for the rest of the band to give their input and we finish the song as a group.

Chris Wahl- Chris Kalla or I bring a song to practice, the band works

Jon Stoddard- Chris Kalla or Wahl will bring song to practice, then the band as a whole adds in parts and ads all the finishing touches to the song

Kevin Williams- I would say mostly a group effort when it comes down to the nitty gritty of it all. Either Wahl or Kalla will come to the group with a song and we will put it all together. So it’s kind of the best of both worlds.

Kayley Guyette: There’s a music video for Beyond These Atlantic Tides, how was filming it? Any plans to do another video?

Chris Kalla- It was one of the most difficult things we had to do in this band lol. The entire days was filled with mishap, from getting lost to getting injured to getting rained on. Overall it was a very challenging day but the end result was worth it! We haven’t really discussed a video, but our manager might have something up his sleeve.

Chris Wahl- It was a horrible process. The truck couldn’t make it up the mountain and overheated three times. We got lost multiple times in the woods looking for where to shoot. The shoot was on top of a 20 foot hill which we had to carry hundreds of pounds of camera equipment up. After everything was set up it started raining and we had to carry everything back down the mountain as fast as possible. Finally the rain stopped and we moved it all back up and basically just went for it. Due to all the difficulties we did no pre-production, we basically just winged it.

Jon Stoddard- Filming Beyond These Atlantic Tides was a horrible experience. We it seemed like Murphy ’s Law reared its ugly head to try and make everything go wrong. with one of the vans breaking down, getting lost, carrying tons of equipment up a giant hill, then running it back down because of rain, my drums getting damaged because of the rain, then carrying it all back up the hill again we were on a time crunch so we really didn’t have time to plan anything, we just started to wing it. Luckily the director Kieran Thompson and the crew that was helping out were amazing and worked extremely hard to make sure we got all the shots we needed in the little time we had. We are all so grateful for those guys and the time and work they put in for us. As for right now, we don’t have plans for another video, but never say never!

Kevin Williams- Filming Tides was complete hell, probably the worst day imaginable and everything that could have gone wrong did, but we got it shot and it was fun shooting the actual video. There aren’t any set plans for another video but if there are my vote is to keep the video inside this time.

Kayley Guyette: Your CD release show has Anarbor playing too, you exited for it?

Chris Kalla- Yes we are very excited! Anarbor is an awesome band and they are great guys. We are happy to share the stage with them at such an awesome show. I hope that everyone that comes to this show will stick around for all of the bands and will leave with saying it was an amazing show!

Jon Stoddard- We are all really excited for the show. Anarbor Is a great band and we are all really excited to be able to play another show with them, and the rest of the lineup is full of great local bands as well. The show is defiantly going to be one to remember.

Chris Wahl- Definitely. Those guys tear it up. I’ve had the pleasure of watching them grow as a band since their days as troop 101 and the progress they have made is phenomenal.

Kevin Williams- Absolutely, along with Anarbor almost all the bands we are playing with are pretty good friends with us. So for them to play and help us celebrate our new album is a really awesome feeling and we are all very stoked for the show.

Kayley Guyette: Any plans to tour in the near future?

Chris Kalla- Yes we definitely want to begin touring once the album is out

Vincent Liou- I sure want to! More than anything in this world!

Chris Wahl- Touring is definitely on our list of things to do.

Jon Stoddard- Definitely on the list of as soon as possible.

Kevin Williams- I think as soon as the next year you may be seeing Crash Coordinates on the road!

Kayley Guyette: Do you have a favorite venue/state to play?

Jon Stoddard- The Clubhouse and Marquee Theater are pretty fun to play at. As long as there are people to enjoy the music I enjoy playing.

Chris Wahl- The Marquee Theater, Venue of Scottsdale, or the Clubhouse. Any place with a good sound system.

Kevin Williams- As far as Arizona, I really enjoy playing at The Clubhouse because it’s close to home and it’s one of the best venues in the state that isn’t too big, so it’s still personal. As far as out of state, I played in Nashville, TN in another band I was in previous to Crash and really loved it down there. And since I’m from Chicago, there are quite a few venues there that I love. I am hoping to tour more to build a bigger list.

Kayley Guyette: I see that all of you have Twitter and the band has Stickam, YouTube and basically every social media that everyone has, do you feel as though this helps promote the band better?

Chris Kalla- It definitely does, when we promote on these sites it creates a more personal connection with our friends and helps fans stay up to date with everything that is going on.

Chris Wahl- It helps us be more personal with fans. Having that personal connection is the best kind of promotion we can get.

Jon Stoddard- I do feel it helps promote the band, but more importantly it gives us the opportunity to get to know our fans and for them to get to know us. We love talking to people and all of the social networking media tools help us get to meet people.

Kevin Williams- Of course. We know that with World Wide Web, our generation has a huge advantage over our predecessors to promote to places that we never thought we could reach. I am currently talking to someone who lives all the way in Qatar who has just discovered us thanks to Facebook. I think that’s pretty amazing.

Kayley Guyette: If you guys could make up your dream tour who could play and what would it be called?

Chris Kalla- The tour would be called, “The Galactic tour” We would have Blink 182, Fall Out Boy, Minus The Bear and Metallica play.

Vincent Liou- It would be with Kanye West and Taylor Swift and it would be called The Awkward As Hell Tour.

Jon Stoddard- I would want to play with any bands that have good music and would be fun to tour with. I’m not sure about the name, something catchy and fun, just like the music that would be played.

Kevin Williams- My dream tour would be, us, Taking Back Sunday, Fall Out Boy, and The Beatles and I’d call it the “Get Back…To The FuTour”

Kayley Guyette: Anything else you’d like to add?

Jon Stoddard- Thanks to Red Bull, Fender Guitar, and Orange amplifiers for all their support and a huge thanks to all of our fans who support us, we appreciate all of you!

Vincent Liou- The pressure’s all mine.

Kevin Williams- Make sure you pick up our new EP The Business Of Making You Move now available for pre-order on smartpunk.com and available worldwide November 17th. Thank you to all our fans for your love and continuing support and we can’t wait to get on the road next year to see you all!