SHREDnews

Bekka Collins: When and how did the band form?

Brian Schwarz: Well, that’s a great question. I have been playing music since high school, and I chose to stay in Minneapolis to continue with my high school band, however things don’t always go as planned. My singer moved to North Dakota, thus no more band. I played bass at the time, and after the band dissolved, I remember my guitarist and singer telling me that I would never be able to sing/play guitar, that some people just can’t… and I was one of those people. Of course I didn’t take that well. I tried out for a few bands in the cities with no luck, using Craigslist mostly. Then, after a nasty break-up with my girlfriend, i bought my first acoustic in 05′ to express myself creatively in a different way. I hadn’t really touched a guitar before that. My favorite band is Dashboard, so I wrote some mean break up songs, and that was my introduction to songwriting. I remember a friend of mine listening to one of my songs and saying “Man, you have some pipes!”. Until that point i didn’t think I could sing, but after he insisted, I decided to start my own band and front it. I grabbed some friends, bought an electric guitar, and started playing shows and singing live. After a few member switches, a few craigslist adds for replacements, and a new name, we find ourselves with My Lady Four, established in the fall of 08′.And I think it’s worth noting that every member of My Lady Four at this point was found via Craigslist. I think it’s one of the things that makes us very unique.

Bekka Collins: Is there a story or meaning behind the band name?

Brian Schwarz: Haha. We tend to make up a different story behind the name every time we tell it, but sometimes a band decides on a name because all the members agreed on it one night for roughly 10 seconds. Haha. Then after that it just sort of sticks to you, for better or for worse.

Bekka Collins: Who or what inspired each of you to pick up your respective instruments?

Brian Carpenter: My dad played guitar, and one morning he made me a drum set out of buckets. My hi-hat was an old Quaker Oats container. haha.

Peter Iversen: I loved music, and knew I wanted to be involved somehow. I looked at drums and realized i’m not ambidextrious enough to play those, so I looked at guitar. Then I realized that everyone plays guitar, so that didn’t make sense. SO, then I chose to play bass.

Francis Fisher: I first wanted to be a lead singer, and I asked my parents to give  me singing lessons… well that never happened… Then my dad took me to guitar center to buy me a guitar, and I sorta assumed that my parents weren’t too excited about me singing… So I guess I became a guitar player by default.

Brian Schwarz: haha. I sort of went into this in my last question, but I always liked chords better than the single notes you play in bass. Many times i’d play bass chords when i was a bass player, which doesn’t make a very good bassist, so I finally moved to guitar instead. And singing just sort of happened. I get into something, and then I get excessively focused on it. haha.

Bekka Collins: How would you describe your sound to our readers?

Brian Schwarz: I would say we sound much like Panic! At The Disco mixed with Kings of Leon. Our producer did a lot of work with the pop-punk scene. He interned under Matt Squire (Panic! At The Disco, Katy Perry, 3Oh!3) and he himself produced All Time Low, Sing It Loud, You Me And Everyone We Know, so Jordan’s influence in our music is very apparent. While I grew up on rock albums, and influenced Jordan’s decisions by pushing for more rock sounds.

Bekka Collins:When it comes to writing is there a main songwriter or is it a group process?

Brian Schwarz: Songwriting at this point in time is primarily done by me (Brian). I generally develop a skeleton of a song, with some lead guitar riffs, piano, vocal ideas, and then I bring it to the band to see what they think. Everyone adds their musical influences into the songs and writes their parts in a way that fits, and that’s pretty much how it comes together. I’ll write about half the lyrics before recording and the other half in the studio.

Bekka Collins:How was the recording process of your debut album Everyone Pays The Gatekeeper?

Brian Schwarz: The process was really a lot of fun. Working with Jordan was great. He had a lot of very good input to add to the structure of the songs. I do remember Todd, longtime friend and recording buddy of Jordan, walking into the room to listen to the demo’s for the first time and remarking “This is what you brought in for demos? This is ridiculous! Most people bring in crap, but this is REALLY good!” So I think we were all pretty excited about the album from the get-go.

Bekka Collins: Intertwined with your album is a story, whats the purpose of it?

Brian Schwarz: I grew up on two things, music and literature. When we first set out to write this album, we wanted to create something with depth and meaning, something that would be accessible to everyone but still give people an opportunity to understand our views on the world we live in. The story can be taken simply as a story, something I wrote as a piece of literature, just like the album can be taken as just a simple collection of 8 catchy songs. But when read and heard together, people can take away something bigger, something more. We wanted to give people an opportunity to really get into our heads and hear our message.

Bekka Collins: Since Everyone Pays The Gatekeeper is part one of two, do you have an expected release date for the second part?

Brian Schwarz: At this point we’ve thrown around a few dates. We’re not totally sure when we’re going to hit the studio again. Could be as early as this summer with a release in the fall, or it could be as late as next spring. We’re not really sure. What we do know is the next album will be called “In This Life Or The Next” and it will conclude the story and theme that the first album began.

Bekka Collins: Do you guys have any pre-show rituals?

Brian Schwarz: Haha. I’ve played in many bands with a lot of different pre-show rituals. Our band hasn’t really had a pre-show ritual to date. Most of our time before a show is spent getting ready to get on stage, getting mentally and physically prepared.

Bekka Collins: What would you say people could expect from your live shows?

Brian Schwarz: We do our best to bring energetic and fluid live shows to our fans. We are strong believers in a performance. We don’t just want to play our album for people, we want to show them the passion and devotion that went into the process, make them feel what we feel and see what we see.

Bekka Collins: Your worst and best things about touring?

Brian Schwarz: Haha. Well I don’t particularly enjoy sleeping in a van, which happens for indie bands and many times signed bands at least a handful of times before tour is over. When we first set off on this 3 month run, I remember Sam (See The World) saying “We’re all gonna need chiropractors after three months of sleeping in the van”. I didn’t believe him till about a month had gone by… It’s not fun. My favorite part about touring is probably something that most people who don’t tour would hate. I love the unknown. I love having no clue where we are gonna sleep tonight, what we’re going to eat, how far we have to drive, where we’re going, how many people are going to be there, and how everyone is going to react to our set. I love it. I love making friends that i’ve never met before. I just love tour.

Bekka Collins: What are your favorite songs to play live?

Brian Schwarz: Hm… I really enjoy playing “…Sometimes The Bear Eats You” and “And Suddenly I’m Somebody”.

Bekka Collins: If your could collaborate with any artist who would it be?

Brian Schwarz: Oh man. There’s a few. Max Bemis from Say Anything would be amazing. Chris Carraba from Dashboard Confessional has always been a big hero of mine. Andrew McMahon from Jack’s Mannequin, or probably Ace Enders from The Early November (now in Ace Enders and A Million Different People).

Bekka Collins: If you weren’t able to make music anymore what do you think you guys would be doing?

Brian Schwarz: Understanding that the only way I wouldn’t be playing music would be if I was deaf, blind, and disembodied, I would probably be writing novels or short stories.

Bekka Collins: Do you have any advice for up and coming bands like yourselves?

Brian Schwarz: Work hard. That can’t be stressed enough. There are literally millions of bands on Myspace these days, and you can’t set yourself apart just by being “good”. You need to work hard. Some of my favorite bands in the world will never be heard by anyone because they don’t do simple things like add friends on myspace, book tours and promote them like crazy, have and use a twitter account, have and use a facebook acount, and actively pursue everything on your own first and foremost!

Bekka Collins: Anything else you guys wanna add?

Brian Schwarz: To you guys, thank you very much for the interview! You make it possible for us to do what we love, and your help, interest, and investment in us as a band makes us who we are. We could never express our appreciation for that fact. And to our fans, we extend the same gratitude. We love you all, and you make us who we are. You have all shaped us in amazing ways, making us the musicians we are today, and we won’t forget that.