A Dirty Dozen with CAMERON DOUTHAT of ALIVE IN BARCELONA – April 2019

According to a recent press release: “Hard Rock band, Alive In Barcelona, signed to Smartpunk Records, are celebrating the release of their full-length album, titled Alive In Barcelona which came out on February 22, 2019; produced by Paul Leavitt, Jesse Barton, and Jimmy Hill and mastered by Brad Blackwood. The album is highlighted by their radio single, “Zombies” which features Craig Mabbitt of Escape The Fate, and is about going through life’s trivial moments and losing sight of opportunities ahead.” We get vocalist Lindy and guitarist Jake to discuss new music, influences, and much more…

1. Tell us a little about your latest release.  What might a fan or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through?  Are there any hidden nuggets the band put in the material or that only diehard fans might find?

Our debut, self-titled album is very much a journey through the grieving process, and a way to find hope through hardship. We cover themes such as death, depression, and isolation on the album, and hope to give listeners a map to help them navigate tough times, and also instill them with a feeling that no matter what they’re going through, they’re never truly alone. One thing that you may not notice on the album is that aside from our features with Craig Mabbitt on “Zombies,” and Joe Buras on “The Convalescence,” we also have two features on other songs from Dawson Scholz of The Ongoing Concept, and Tj Bell from Escape the Fate. I won’t say what songs, but if you listen through the album again you may notice their guest vocal parts if you didn’t catch them both on your first listen!

2. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

I initially got into music because of my dad and grandfather. I come from a very musical family, and I got a toy drum set when I was 3, and between playing the drums with my dad and learning how to play the guitar from my grandfather, I spent the majority of my childhood infatuated with music. My decision to become a musician largely came from interactions I had with bands that I looked up to later in life. I started posting covers on YouTube when I was 10, and those covers got the attention of a few bands that I really looked up to. I spoke to members of All That Remains on MySpace when I was in like, 6th grade, and was lucky enough to meet them at their concerts around that same time. I maintained a friendship with Oli Herbert from that time forward, and I still stay in touch with their old bassist Jeanne, and the guidance that they gave me as well as watching them perform really made something click for me, and I realized that I wanted to tour the world someday more than anything.

3. Building on that, is there a specific song, album, performer, or live show that guided your musical taste?

Aside from All That Remains, After the Burial, Born of Osiris, and Betraying the Martyrs largely guided my musical taste through most of my teenage years. Much like All That Remains, I’ve known the members of those three bands since middle school, and I’ve seen all of them live more times than I can count. They all put on great live shows, and they all have so much fun with their bandmates when they’re on the road, and I always try to put 100% of my effort into our live performances while also maintaining a fun, happy mentality while on the road.

4. Who would be your main five musical influences?

My five main musical influences would be All That Remains, After the Burial, Periphery, Erra, and Bring me the Horizon. The Fall of Ideals by All That Remains was the first album I ever bought, and it shaped my approach to songwriting and my musical tastes immensely. After the Burial, Periphery, and Erra are all bands that I’ve been lucky enough to know personally for a long time, and I borrow a lot of rhythmic flair from After the Burial’s music, while drawing from Erra and Mark from Periphery heavily when it comes to my approach to building chords in songs. Lastly, Bring me the Horizion’s newer material (Sempiternal forward) has heavily influenced my approach to writing music, and I’d say they are one band that influences all of the members of my band.

5. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be, and why?

I would love to write a song with Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park. They are one of the most successful bands in rock music of all time, and I think their sound has changed in so many cool ways over the years. Mike has always inspired me because I’m also a multi-instrumentalist, and I would love to have to opportunity to write with him.

6. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before? What is the one comparison a reviewer or fan has made that made you cringe or you disagreed with?

I always struggle with comparing our music to other artists, but I would say that we have a lot of similarities to bands like 30 Seconds to Mars, Linkin Park, and Pvris. We co-wrote a few songs on our debut album with Stevie Aiello from 30 Seconds to Mars, and the electronic elements we include in our music definitely resembles bands like Linkin Park and Pvris. Most comparisons don’t make me cringe too badly though! I’m always flattered when people compare us to bands that I love, or that are otherwise killing it in the industry currently.

7. When the band are all hanging out together, who cooks; who gets the drinks in; and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

This is tough! I would say that Jesse definitely cooks the most, but none of us cook too regularly when we’re together. We will occasionally grill food while we’re on the road though! Aside from Chase, we all drink to a degree, but I would say Colton and Jesse are definitely the two members that most consistently get drinks in hahaha. Finally, I would say Matt is definitely the go-to person for breaking out an acoustic guitar for a singalong. He has a great voice, and he’s always singing, so he does a great job of breaking out a guitar and getting everyone to sing along with him when the opportunity arises.

8. When was the last time you were star struck and who was it?

That’s a tough question!.I don’t get starstruck by musicians very often, but  oddly enough, outside of music, I actually had a big star-struck moment this past summer. My fiancée and I consume a lot of content from an online media company called Rooster Teeth, and in particular from one of their affiliated companies called Funhaus. We attended a convention that Rooster Teeth hosts called RTX last summer, and we were lucky enough to meet the two members of Funhaus that we admire the most, James and Elyse Willems. They’re two of the funniest people that I’ve ever met, and I was more nervous to talk to both of them than I have been to speak to anyone in a really long time, and I definitely made myself look like an idiot hahaha. They were so kind to both of us, though, and I’ve spoken with James since then about bringing them out to one of our shows in the future. Hopefully we’ll be able to work something out for one of our future tours!

9. What is the best part of being a musician? If you could no longer be a musician for whatever reason, what would be your dream job?

The best part of being a musician is definitely meeting the people that you’ve impacted through your music. My love of music has helped me get through so many hard times, and meeting people that our music has helped get through hard times is such a humbling experience, and it’s still something that I have a hard time fully comprehending. If I wasn’t a musician, my dream job would definitely be to be a Sociology Professor. I know that’s a super specific answer, but I’m actually currently in a Sociology PhD program, and if one day I’m no longer able to impact others through my music, I hope that I can use the knowledge I’ve built through my schooling to conduct research that can influence public policies, while also inspiring students to become effective members of the mental health or criminal justice fields.

10. What is one question you have always wanted an interviewer to ask – and what is the answer? Conversely, what question are you tired of answering?

I always thought it would be cool if interviewers would ask about the worst show you’ve ever played. Interviewers tend to focus on a lot of “bests” in band’s careers, but I think it’s important to show others that everyone has missteps in their career. Plus, bad shows can be really funny to hear about lol. To answer my own question, I won’t go into specifics, but we played a festival that would have been amazing on paper, but the people putting it together had no idea how to promote a show properly, and they built a lineup around a ton of washed up bands that they payed way too much, and they put the festival in the middle of nowhere. I saw more people at the festival with all access passes rather than ticket-buying fans, and it was kind of funny to watch the perks they were giving go from like, super over the top and awesome from the first night, to absolutely nothing on the last day of the festival which kind of turned everything into the hunger games for bands.

11. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over”, even if it didn’t change your current situation?

I really wish we would have released our debut album sooner, or done more touring in 2018. We had a ton of momentum coming out of 2017, but shopping our album to labels took longer than anticipated, and I feel like if we could have somehow overcome that our release would have been even bigger. With that being said, I still don’t think I would change anything, because we have the best time we could ever ask for between Smartpunk Records and PinUp Artist Management, and I think being patient and waiting until we received offers to work with them will definitely allow us to have a longer, and more successful career long term.

12. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

I would love to be a part of the recording sessions for Colors by Between the Buried and Me. That album was so ahead of it’s time for the technicality and compositions that the band managed to put together, and I feel like getting to witness how those songs were constructed in real time would be such an incredible experience. That album really made me realize that the possibilities of what you can accomplish through rock music are endless, and it inspires me to really try to write music that is unique in an effort to push the genre as a whole forward. I have a hard time choosing what my favorite album of all time is, but this album would always be in contention for my number one choice.

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Category: Interviews