Band Interview: The Energy

When it comes to choosing a brand name, it’s important to let that name describe who you are and what you’re about. Originally going by the name of Furious George before an old cranky man threatened a lawsuit, the Brooklyn rock outfit The Energy have picked a name to describe them, their personalities and brand perfectly. The band is set to release their 5th album this Saturday, When We Were Young with the CD release show at Webster Studio on April 23rd. We got to sit down with them and find out a bit more about what makes these guys tick. You can catch up with the band and follow them up on their social media platforms by visiting http://theenergy-music.com/.

To ease ourselves into this, we like to find out some of the more personal aspects of bands. Is there anything that many people may not know about you such as if you weren’t musicians, what would you be doing with your lives? Feel free to throw in anything!

One of us is a 5th degree black belt and one of us is a fourth degree black belt. Does that count? 🙂

Before we get into the deep stuff, I have to ask — If Furious George never threatened to sue you, would you still be a cover band or was original material always the plan?

Ha! You’ve been doing your research. We DEFINITELY would have made the transition to becoming an originals act. And we probably would have kept the name Furious George…. I loved that name!

In this day and age of mass music consumption, it seems increasingly important to continue to evolve and grow as musicians to essentially separate yourselves. So now that the band has existed for 10 years, how have you managed to keep things fresh while still retaining the band’s sound?

Great question. It is true that it’s easy to get caught up in the same patterns in this type of industry, but I believe that we’ve always been open to molding and evolving our sound. When We Were Young is our 5th studio album. I can guarantee you that if you listened to each of the albums, you’d here the same band but in very different ways. We are always growing, changing, and adapting. Art is not art if it sticks to one thing.

In a previous interview it was mentioned that your upcoming album, When We Were Young feels like the arrival as far as finding your sound. Does that make it easier or harder in regards to the creation and recording of the album and does it make the next album (whenever that may be) a potential challenge to make?

That’s a great question.  I’m not sure whether it makes it easier or harder.  I will say that by the time you’ve been together for this long (10+ years) and written 5 albums, the song-writing process in general is easier and more fluid.  You sort of “know” what you’re going for and you “try” less- it sort of just flows better.  At least that’s how it has been for us.

In terms of pressure for creating the next album…. Yikes!  Let’s get through this release first, and I’ll get back to you on that!

With When We Were Young taking a much longer period of time to record compared to the previous albums did you feel more pressure to make it “that much better” compared to your older records?

Another good question.  Not really.  It was actually less pressure because we felt like we could take our time with it and do it on our terms.  With this album, we decided that we weren’t going to prioritize what the industry wanted.  We decided to create something that spoke truly to us, while still incorporating what we knew about industry standards, etc.  So I’d say less pressure, although, no matter what, creating an album is an intense experience.

Many albums tend to be inspired by something — whether it’s another band, personal or life-altering experiences of the band members or something that came up during fan interaction. What was the main inspiration for When We Were Young and do you have a message you hope fans take away from it?

I think the inspiration came from the fact that we’ve been together for 10 years- that’s a long time for a group of guys to stay focused on one project. We’ve been through so much together, and we saw this album as a moment to step back and look at how far we’ve come and who we are today relative to who we were when this all began.

Since you are self-releasing the album, you’re in a similar boat many artists have been leaning towards as of late. How do you feel that the rise and ultimately success of platforms such as Indiegogo, Kickstarter and Bandcamp have altered the music industry? Does knowing that those platforms exist make it easier to go the self-release route even if you don’t necessarily use them?

We don’t use Kickstarter or Bandcamp. We could, but we’ve chosen not to. We fund the project through the project. I guess on some level we feel weird about asking our fans to pay for our music. I mean, we’re happy to do that through getting them to buy tickets to our shows and purchasing our albums and merch, but I think we believe deep down that the album is a product that we are responsible for creating.

When it comes to your entire discography, is there one particular song that ultimately stands out? Essentially, if you went up a random person who had never heard of you before and could showcase your sound and style to them, what song would that be?

On the new album, the title track “When We Were Young”. Before this album, “Bookends” which is on our second album, Climbing Palace Walls.

As far as longevity of the band, you’ve been around for over a decade. Do you foresee this musical journey you’ve been on coming to an end anytime soon or is it such a part of your life now, you don’t know what you’d do without it?

Definitely not ending any time soon. We love creating music, and we love having the power to write, record, and perform on our own terms. Giving it up would be like cutting off a limb!

Lastly, and most importantly, anything you would like to say to everyone who has a chance to read this?

Thanks for giving us a listen. I think you’ll find our music is better than most of the commercial stuff the record industries are pumping into your ears. Oh….. and please let us know what your favorite song on When We Were Young is! Also, thanks for coming up with original questions! You wouldn’t believe how often we get asked the same things. This one was fun! 🙂

That should wrap it up. Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us!