SHREDnews

Jess Grenier: Please state your name and what you play in the band.

Alex Badanes: Hello, my name is Alex Badanes, I play guitar and I very much enjoy Taco Bell.

Eric Grava: I’m Eric Grava, I am the lead vocalist of the band.

Izaiah Yelle: I’m Izaiah, I play bass and sing back up.

Jimmy Coberly: I am Jimmy from Love Via Dance Machine and I play drums.

Lyle Shaw: I’m Lyle Shaw from Love Via Dance Machine and I play keytar and keyboards.

Jess Grenier: When and how did Love Via Dance Machine become a band?

Eric Grava: I had made demos on my computer thinking to make this whole, like techno-pop project and bring it to life. I just made little demos of it and then what happened was that I made…I had these demos and I didn’t know what to do with them. So, I presented them to Alex, who was my next door neighbor, we all went to school together and he enjoyed it and we started to get other members. I asked Izaiah to play bass.

Izaiah Yelle: Eric and I were in the same harmony class and then he was like “hey are you into this kind of music” and then I was like yeah. So, we got them and through him we found Alex, who found Lyle and they were in the same class together. Jimmy was on my floor and I had been hanging out with him for a while. So, through that we got a drummer and then we just started playing.

Eric Grava: Yeah, we gave him the demos.

Izaiah Yelle: The first time we had practice, Lyle thought we were already a band and we weren’t. So, he was really nervous and “I’m really sorry guys, I have to leave early from the audition” and we were like we’re just trying to hang, you know… make a band. That was pretty funny.

Eric Grava: Well, we formed it, I had known that I wanted to make it…we’ve all grown up on pop, pop-punk, and just pop in general. So, I wanted to be like a little bit of a hybrid of dance, pop, and punk combined, to have the energy of pop-punk with the sound of dance.

Jess Grenier: Is there any story behind the name Love Via Dance Machine?

Eric Grava: There actually is not. We just want to share our love with people and have a good time dancing our asses off… and yeah, pretty much. We come from the future to have a good time and that’s basically what it is. We just want to have fun you know, hop along with people, jump around and have a good time though dance machine, so that’s cool.

Jess Grenier: How would you describe Love Via Dance Machine’s genre?

Eric Grava: Sometimes people ask and we’ve said a couple of things to people. I mean, you said one…

Alex Badanes: Digital pop-punk.

Eric Grava: Digital pop-punk, but I like to call it future synth-pop, uh future synth-pop punk you could add to it but it’s mainly future synth-pop.

Eric Grava and Izaiah Yelle: It’s hard to describe.

Jess Grenier: Yeah, cause no other band is like that.

Izaiah Yelle: Exactly.

Jess Grenier: Have you guys always wanted to be musicians?

Eric Grava: I wanted to make movies and other stuff when I was younger and I wrote scripts but that’s about it… what did you guys want to be?

Jimmy Coberly: I always wanted to play drums.

Eric Grava: Jimmy always wanted to play drums… what did you want to be?

Izaiah Yelle: I just wanted to be a musician; I just wanted to play music.

Alex Badanes: I… I’ve always wanted to be a guitar play however,  I do also want to be a comedian.

Eric Grava: Lyle, what about you man?

Lyle Shaw: Uh, I love playing music, music is one of the greatest things in the world, but… I mean there’s something about it, being on a stage and playing for people like you don’t get from anything else.

Izaiah Yelle: Oh, wow, Mr. never played a show before.

Lyle Shaw: No, I played shows before.

Izaiah Yelle: I know, I’m kidding!

Jess Grenier: Who would you say is you biggest musical influence?

Eric Grava: From what point in our lives?

Jess Grenier: Anytime.

Eric Grava: Okay, eighth grade I’d say Blink-182

Izaiah Yelle: I think we can all collectively say Blink-182

Eric Grava: Eighth grade , I’d say Blink-182, but now Taylor Swift for sure.

Alex Badanes: Journey.

Izaiah Yelle: Any of the pop-punk as we were growing up that’s like Blink, anything…  New Found Glory and what not.

Jimmy Coberly: Eric Grava.

Lyle Shaw: Yeah, same.

Jess Grenier: Is there anyone who is the main songwriter in the band or is it a group process?

Jimmy Coberly: ERIC!

Eric Grava: It’s definitely… well I wrote a lot of the beginning of the songs but then we come together and collaborate. Izaiah and I wrote and we’ve written as a group before, we can all definitely write.

Izaiah Yelle: We usually come up with ideas, then we bring it to practice, and then everyone… from there we just… you know, make the songs happen.

Eric Grava: Musically it’s a total, it’s all of us. Lyrically sometimes, it’s Izaiah, sometimes it’s me, there’s a combination.

Izaiah Yelle: It’s pretty much all of us.

Eric Grava: But the beginning was me, I wrote the songs, I had the ideas and the concepts.

Jess Grenier: Speaking of your EP All Is Fair In Love And Dance

Eric Grava: Yes.

Jess Grenier: Which I’m not sure if it’s released, I think that’s what…

Eric Grava: we’re working on it.

Jess Grenier: Yeah.

Eric Grava: It costs a lot of money. Well, actually, we own a helicopter. So, we put all of our investments in that. No, I’m just kidding, that’d be sweet. Yeah, we’re working on it. We’re going to be the first band to own a helicopter and take it to gigs.

Alex Badanes: To replace tour buses.

Eric Grava: Yeah, way, way in the past.

Izaiah Yelle: But anyways, we’re hoping to have our EP out within the next two months.

Eric Grava: It’s on our MySpace, right now.

Izaiah Yelle: We give out free CDs.

Eric Grava: Yes, if you come see us, we’ll give you a free one.

Alex Badanes: It will be on the MySpace for free within the next, hopefully two weeks. So, that’ll be good… good release for it and it’ll be on iTunes, hopefully in January.

Jess Grenier: How was the recording process?

Eric Grava: The recording process was definitely, I was…we all have been in prior bands before, like most of us. I’d have to say, it was the most fun, most creative recording I’ve done yet as a musician. It’s… you know, we’re a real pop band, but there’s also a lot of elements that we experimented and tried out with beats and synth parts… just the whole process took all of us join in to do that.

Lyle Shaw: We also lived together for five days and didn’t shower.

Eric Grava: That’s what the best part about it is anyways.

Jimmy Coberly: Champion and Annabelle

Eric Grava: Yeah, shout out to them.

Jess Grenier: Do you have a favorite song off the EP?

Alex Badanes: My favorite song, I’d have to say is All Systems Go!

Eric Grava: There’s two different things, off the album I’d definitely say All Is Fair In Love And Dance is my favorite but for live purposes All Systems Go! is my favorite song to play live.

Izaiah Yelle: All Systems Go!

Jimmy Coberly: All Is Fair

Lyle Shaw: Also I really like All Is Fair as my favorite song.

Jess Grenier: What’s your favorite song to play live?

Alex Badanes: I think it’s a collaborative All Systems Go! Okay, well, for me anyways.

Eric Grava: Yeah, that’s mine as well, even though I already said that, so…

Izaiah Yelle: Same.

Jimmy Coberly: Same.

Lyle Shaw: All Is Fair

Izaiah Yelle: Oh, you’re going to be that guy

Jess Grenier: I’d have to say mine is Party In The U.S.A… haha just kidding.

Eric Grava: Oh, our cover.

Alex Badanes: If only we wrote that song.

Jess Grenier: Do you guys have a favorite venue to play at?

Alex Badanes: I’d have to say next to The Sad Café, It’d be The Space in Connecticut.

Eric Grava: Yeah, it’s a tie between The Sad Café and The Space for me, but they’re both great places, great people, and great bands play there.

Izaiah Yelle: The Space.

Jimmy Coberly: The Space and ensemble room B11.

Eric Grava: Yeah!

Lyle Shaw: The Space.

Eric Grava: Ensemble room B11.

Jess Grenier: Are there any plans to record another EP or album in the upcoming months?

Eric Grava: Uh, yes, definitely.

Alex Badanes: In the upcoming months…

Eric Grava: Maybe not really so soon but, we wanna get ours out first.

Izaiah Yelle: Maybe after the summer.

Eric Grava: Maybe after the summer, we’re going to start working on new songs, new material and practice.

Izaiah Yelle: We have a ton of ideas ready to go, it’s just…

Eric Grava: Putting it into action, really, and getting it all. We just want to keep getting further into the future, literally with our sound.  We don’t want to stop the progression of getting more futuristic. So, we’re going to work on that aspect and work on new songs. Yeah, so eventually, maybe like a year, around. The point is that’ll be awesome.

Jess Grenier: What’s a random fact that your fans might not know about you?

Alex Badanes: I think the fact I also do comedy on the side and I really…

Izaiah Yelle: You don’t actually do comedy.

Eric Grava: don’t ruin his fun.

Alex Badanes: I… really want to be a comedian as well, So, if anybody in MySpace world or Shred News world wants to see me do comedy, check on the MySpace page because I do a lot of comedy videos.

Eric Grava: Well, I wet the bed until about fourth grade. So, all the kids out there, who are having trouble, it’s okay, it ends.

Izaiah Yelle: Uh, something you might not know about me is that I’m a… astronomy hobbyist, for some reason…

Jimmy Coberly: an astronomist.

Izaiah Yelle: I dunno how to say it, but I just, for some reason it really intrigues me. So, that’s pretty lame, I don’t like telling people that.

Jimmy Coberly: I sell radios.

Lyle Shaw: I’m a lefty.

Izaiah Yelle: I didn’t even know that.

Eric Grava: I didn’t either.

Alex Badanes: A little to much information.

Eric Grava: That’s pretty awesome.

Jess Grenier: If you could create a dream tour with any four bands, dead or alive, who would they be and why?

Eric Grava: Let me go right off the bat, with four other bands besides us?

Jess Grenier: Yes.

Eric Grava: Okay, Blink-182, Saves The Day, New Found Glory and Forever The Sickest Kids.

Alex Badanes: I’m going to throw in Taylor Swift too.

Eric Grava: Yeah, Taylor Swift.

Izaiah Yelle: All Time Low would be good.

Jimmy Coberly: Jonas Brothers.

Lyle Shaw: I’d like to go on tour with the Jonas Brothers.

Jess Grenier: What do you do when you’re not playing shows or writing music?

Eric Grava: Uh.

Jess Grenier: I think that we know that Alex would be a comedian.

Eric Grava: Watching romantic comedies or Rodger Rabbit and hanging out.

Izaiah Yelle: Uh, that’s a tough question, watching Eric and Tim, I also like to skateboard a lot too.

Jimmy Coberly: I sell radios.

Lyle Shaw: I, um, don’t have a life.

Izaiah Yelle: You play WoW right?

Lyle Shaw: Ah, I do, I play World of Warcraft

Eric Grava: He likes a lot of… what else do you like…what are those things called… Oh! He likes Pokémon.

Alex Badanes: Let’s see, I like to also watch romantic comedies.

Eric Grava: Yeah, copy cat over here.

Alex Badanes: Well I was going to say it first.

Jimmy Coberly: When was the last time you watched a movie? Either of you.

Izaiah Yelle: We watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall last week.

Eric Grava: Yeah.

Jess Grenier: Does Love Via Dance Machine have any future plans for 2010 yet?

Eric Grava: Um.

Izaiah Yelle: Touring.

Lyle Shaw: We have a couple of shows

Eric Grava: Touring, playing good shows and hanging out with good bands, like cool bands that are nice guys, cause that’s the most important thing…

Alex Badanes: Like The Blue Pages.

Eric Grava: Like The Blue Pages, The Sophomore Beat and Ian Walsh. I think the most important thing about being in a band is also being friends with other bands and having a good time because if you’re not have fun, what are you doing, you know what I mean?

Izaiah Yelle: and fun is good.

Eric Grava: So, Fun Via Dance Machine for 2010 with friends

Jess Grenier: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Izaiah Yelle: It’s really cold.

Eric Grava: www.MySpace.com/loveviadancemachine and we love you all and anyone who sings the words at our shows… I wanna do dirty things to you.

Izaiah Yelle: And it’s cold up here.