I Hear Sirens Interview

The four members of I Hear Sirens are Salt Lake City, UT residents. I live in Seattle, WA so it should be obvious that I took a plane trip to the Holy state just for the interview, right? Nah, that’s not true. I emailed the band some questions about their brand new album that I love so much, Beyond the Sea, Beneath the Sky. I have a feeling if you found your way to this interview then you already know the band, but just in case you haven’t do yourself the favor of listening to a track while you sit back and have a read.

Beyond the Sea, Beneath the Sky: album cover

I Hear Sirens – The March

IRR: How did I Hear Sirens come about, and where did the name come from?
Daved Harris: We started up in the fall of 2005. David, the drummer, and I played together in a band post-hardcore band called Gabreal a few years earlier, and we decide we wanted to put something together again. We weren’t planning on doing a post-rock band originally, but it just kind of turned into that on its own.

As far as the name, I Hear Sirens refers to Greek mythology Sirens. A Siren’s song is supposed to be enchanting, and draw people in. Hopefully our music has that same affect.

IRR: I Hear Sirens is not as famous as some of its more popular counterparts. Why do you think that is?
DH: For starters, we’re a DIY band. It’s not as easy to get your name out there when you’re not relying on a label for support. With that said, I feel that makes the fans we do have so much more special to us. They’ve heard of us through our own efforts, or from someone we’ve reached. The whole “word of mouth” thing you know? That’s pretty cool!

We’ve also had a lot of member change over the past four years. That has made it difficult to accomplish some of the things we would’ve liked to be doing this whole time. It’s hard to release new music and tour without that consistency.

IRR: So you guys have had your fair share of the revolving band member syndrome already in your early existence. What happened with the members that are no longer with you?
DH: First of all, I want to say that every previous member of I Hear Sirens has been important to this band. Whether they played with us for years or months, they have all had something to do with who we are as a band today.

There are four ex-members so I don’t want to go too much into detail. Let’s just say between personal, non-band-related problems, differences of opinion and time-related issues, it has been tough to have any sort of consistency.

IRR: Who makes up the band now? Can you tell me how they came to be in the band and what they play?
DH: David and I are the only original members. He plays drums and puts together all the samples. I play the guitar. As far as everyone else, this is their first band experience.

Eric is the keyboard player. He’s been a long time friend, and we needed someone to play some ballet performances with us back in May 2009. He’d never played keyboard or piano before so it took some convincing, but we taught him the parts to our songs that we were performing with the ballet. A few weeks later he was played them perfectly for eight shows in front of four hundred to five hundred people each night. He’s been amazing us ever since.

Adrienne is the newest member. She joined as the bass player after David, Eric and I finished recording the new album in October. She had been a friend of the band as well, and had never played bass before. She heard we were looking for a bass player, and mentioned she was interested in giving it a shot. In two months she has learned all but a few of the songs we have, and plays them like she’s been playing them for years.

We are super impressed with both of them, and their ability to catch on so fast having no previous band experience.

IRR: Is the song writing process easy for you guys? Where do your songs begin and who is the main songwriter?
DH: Things are different than they were for the majority of this bands existence. We struggled to write songs for the first three and a half years because of different opinions and member changes. We’re a bit more efficient now. I’m the primary songwriter. The songs usually start out with a little guitar line, and a general mood or feeling. From there they seem of write themselves as long as everyone stays within the emotions created.

IRR: Do you have a favorite song of yours at the moment?
DH: Personally, I really like “Oh Failing Vessel, Brave The Violent Sea.” It’s not the best song we’ve ever written, but I like the story it tells. It starts out like you’re in the middle of the ocean fighting your way through a storm. Your ship is taking a beating, and you’re struggling to keep her afloat. Just when you think you can’t hold on any longer the storm breaks, and you drift into calm seas. You’re bruised and battered, but you’ve survived. That’s life, you know? Sometimes everything seems like it’s falling apart, but if you can brave the storm and keep pushing forward you’ll get past it.

IRR: Do you have a most hated song of yours at the moment?
DH: “Intermission.”  We don’t play that song anymore. I don’t think I even remember how it goes, to be honest.

IRR: You recorded your first EP and the new album “Beyond the Sea, Beneath the Sky” with the same engineer. Are there differences in the recordings or are they supposed to kind of fit together?
DH: There are definite differences. We record with Matt Winegar because we really like what he does, and he’s a great guy. He has the same sort of humor we do so it’s always fun to get together with him.

IRR: How did the recording go? Did you run into any troubles?
DH: It went pretty well. I got pretty burnt out though. I wrote and recorded all the guitar, bass, and vocal parts for the album, so I put in a lot of studio hours. Most of the songs were written within a three-month period, and I had just finished up bass before going in. We weren’t as prepared as we would’ve liked to be, but we learned some things we can do a little better to make the process a bit smoother in the future. It helps that we have a bass player now!

IRR: What do you hope that your fans take away from the new album?
DH: The great thing about instrumental songs is you can give them your own meaning. For me, “Oh Failing Vessel”  is about not giving up, but someone else could see it in a completely different light. The guy that used our songs to choreograph the ballet “Growth and Grief” had lost his father, and that is what his piece was about. He discovered us online, and for him those songs captured what he was feeling. The listeners can make the songs mean whatever they need them to mean to get them through wherever they are in their lives. That’s what we want them to take away from it. Whatever they need it to be.