Spinner

A Shoreline Dream Interview: SXSW 2010

A Shoreline DreamThough A Shoreline Dream formed over a mutual love for metal, they've gained greater attention, mostly thanks to a German electronica producer. Once Ulrich Schnauss began praising the band to his fans, frontman Ryan Policky contacted him in hopes of a collaboration. The band ended up gaining much more as Schnauss produced material for the group and extended an invitation to his SXSW 2009 showcase. Taking a break from recording a third album, Policky and the rest of A Shoreline Dream – guitarist Erik Jeffries, bassist Adam Edwards and drummer Sean Merrell – talked to Spinner about the band's history, influences and most interesting comparisons.

Describe your sound in your own words.

RP: Layered mayhem that has somehow found structure.

EJ: Often Ryan would describe it as "melodipsych," where it's a bit psychedelic, and has more melodies and layering than that traditional "wall of sound."

RP: Everybody says that we came up with "melodipsych." We didn't; it was probably a blogger coming up with a new genre. I don't know where that came from or what that meant, but it stuck.

How did your band form?

RP: We were a different band at the time -- Drop the Fear -- but we decided that we wanted to keep going with some side project we were doing -he Ocean Above. We did a remix for some DJ – that's the first thing we ever did, 'Motherly Sight' -- but then we were like, "We should do this as a band." Then we got a hold of Erik.

EJ: I sat in on a song with Drop the Fear right before they broke up -- a strange coincidence. I helped them with one of their songs. I was doing some of my own recording when Ryan approached me. In a couple of months we started playing songs and started putting an album together pretty quickly.

How did you come up with your band name?

EJ: The Ocean Above was already taken. [Laughs] We thought about fighting those guys for it but it wasn't worth the battle. Our second choice was A Shoreline Dream. It was similar but different enough. The shoreline is one of the most beautiful places and one of the most destructive places to spend time. And everybody wants to live there. We're in the middle of the country. By strange coincidence, our first album came out on Sept. 19, which happens to be National Talk Like a Pirate Day. I never put the whole ocean thing to the pirate thing together, but now it makes sense. We are pirates that live in a barn.

What are your musical influences?

RP: I had a death metal past so I like doom metal a lot. I'm big into Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride. There's Carcass and all these symphonic bands -- Porcupine Tree, Sigur Ros.

EJ: I too had a heavy metal background, but then I switched over. I was actually a big Smashing Pumpkins fan when I was studying classical music. I went to school for that initially.

RP: We all like the same kind of music: the progressive stuff and the weirder stuff: Tori Amos to Bath to Megadeth, even. Jeff Buckley, I was obsessed with him. Depeche Mode for sure.

Ryan, this will be your second time at SXSW, after Ulrich's showcase last year. What is the craziest thing that you've experienced there?

When we almost ran over the guy who signed Madonna [Mark Kamins]. He jumped out on the street and I almost ran over this dude -- I didn't know who it was.

What's in your festival survival kit?

AE: I'll just be bringing large amounts of milk thistle for my liver.

RP: Milk thistle, I never thought about that. I guess I'll pack Adam in my festival survival kit. [Laughs] We hope that we're able to bring more clothes. You don't want to just wear one pair of clothes for that much time -- especially socks. If you want to drive people crazy, don't change your socks for a few weeks.

The band has received a few interesting comparisons, including Sigur Ros. Which of these have you found the most compelling?

RP: The one thing I find interesting is the My Bloody Valentine reference. They've been the go-to band for anything that might be reverb-y, but I don't think we sound like them. We don't have a girl singer, and we don't play keyboards on everything.

EJ: That, and the Sigur Ros comparison. One guy wrote, "It's like Sigur Ros with vocals you can understand." That's a hell of a compliment.

You guys are releasing another album this fall. What can we expect?

RP: Because Adam's new to the band, the rhythms are getting a lot more progressive. I can see the album just being more rhythmically driven than what you've heard in the past.

SM: When you switch people, the nature of the band and the relationship changes. Different people get along in different ways, and then the sound changes. Some bands change members and do the same thing. We're a new incarnation.


Christina Lee is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.

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Sean A.M.

I would like to say thanks to Spinner.com -- especially editor Jess -- for making the corrections which I mentioned in my above posting; we appreciate your efforts and the time your staff took to interview us.

February 11 2010 at 7:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Steve

Sean from A Shoreline Dream here...

I would like to correct the language in this article by saying that Adam's "festival survival kit" should be said to consist of MILK THISTLE, and not simply "MILK," as he was making a joke about the amount of drinking he expected to do while in Austin; milk thistle is an herbal supplement which supports liver function and detoxification.

Granted, this interview was done on a cell phone set to speaker-phone, so it's understandable that things might be lost in the translation, but some of this doesn't sound like us at all.

"Carcus" (sic) is not a band name or even a word; it's spelled CARCASS, you know, like the lifeless husk of an animal? Other influences were also not noted, as they were probably either unknown to the author, or were lost in the fuzz of cellphone transmission.

Other important musical influences mentioned during the interview include: Can, King Crimson, Yes, fusion in general (Mahavishnu Orchestra, etc.), jazz music (Adam owns nearly every Jaco Pastorius release; Sean has an extensive Miles Davis collection, etc.) in general, and Cynic, which is one of the few bands Ryan introduced me to which I actually loved. It's important to point out that not all of us listen to and are primarily influenced by main-stream, American-radio-friendly music. The fact that "My Dying Bride" is perhaps the most obscure influence mentioned does a severe disservice to those of us who take more of our cues from artists like Talk Talk, Bark Psychosis, Bailterspace, and Genesis.

Also, as if it needed to be said, not all of us are influenced by (or even enjoy) some of the bands listed, and overall this article sadly failed to detail the variance of influences shared between band members. The entire impetus of my point towards the end of the interview was to express that we have noticed that people who seek to understand our music through a need to compare our band to other bands are ever reaching for more comparisons, and that is only testament to A Shoreline Dream further cementing itself as a unique entity. Wired magazine specifically said that we "outrun" the "shoegaze" terminology, and I think that's a very important point.

What should listeners expect from the next album? Of course Ryan was correct to say that the rhythms would become more progressive, but I think a more concise answer is this: expect to be surprised and delighted as we are when the music comes to us.

I would recommend (as a professional journalist myself) that future publications of this sort be forwarded to the band(s) for a final review before publication to ensure that each artist is represented as faithfully as possible. Journalists should actively support journalistic integrity, just as musicians should actively support musical integrity.

February 11 2010 at 5:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tommy

I look forward to seeing these guys in Austin! I love this heavy sound, cant wait to see them blow up in 2010.

February 11 2010 at 12:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply