Social Club {Interview}

 If you’re not privy to Social Club here’s your chance. The 4 member band has been making waves down in San Diego, creating a unique indie rock/pop wave sound, and now GroundSounds has an exclusive interview check it out below!

Social Club! Thanks for taking time to talk with us here at GroundSounds. How are you guys doing?

We are doing awesome. Getting super pumped for our Jan 22nd record release and upcoming tour in March.

Tell me who everyone is, and who plays what in the band?

John Levan- Lead Vocals and Guitar    Jeffrey Litzman- Drums

James Spratley- Bass Guitar  Thea Tochihara- Synth/Keys and Vocals

How did you all meet and start playing music together?

Well we all have different stories on who approached who. But basically, John and James were in another project together. John wanted to start his own project in which he wrote and sang more. He asked James to come along to play bass. They wrote a couple of tunes, which they played at some open mics around SD. And that is where they met Thea and Jeff. Social Club was born shortly thereafter.

When I first heard your music, it reminded me how I felt when I first heard Maroon 5. You guys have this cool cocktail of rock, pop, and funky electro-soul thing going on. How do you describe your sound, or genre of music?

Honestly, we don’t describe our sound. We all come from different backgrounds of music. So we like to infuse a little of everyone’s taste in our tunes. But if we really had to pick a genre, we would go with Indie Rock…although the cocktail you described sounds pretty tasty…

So what is the creative process for your band? Do you all write together?

Our creative process kind of differs each time we get together. Sometimes a song can come from one of our 15 – 20min jam sessions at the beginning of practice. John likes to come up with little riffs at home and then we will build off that. We have even come up with songs just from a sound that Thea would be tinkering around with on the keyboard. Once we kind of figure out a structure, or close to one, John usually mumbles out some sounds, in which he turns into lyrics. Its kind of dope to have a freeform process at writing new tracks. 

You recently dropped a dope video for “Slow Motion.” Where did the idea for that video come from?

Well we knew we wanted to play off the slow motion theme with the song. We had a couple of brainstorm sessions, to see how we could pull it off with two of our friends, Matt Lopman and Rob Stephen, who also shot and directed the video for us. We came up with a lot of great ideas, but in some cases, were not physically possible. So we decided to set the camera up in Rob’s studio, slow the track way down, and run it. And the dopeness that you see is what came out. It was a very ‘lax and fun shoot.

How did you guys link up with Pacific Records?

Well we both had spaces at the performing art’s center Rock and Roll San Diego. So they were forced to listen to us through the walls. And I guess we grew on them. Lol, actually that is partially true. We played the grand opening at the center and they approached us shortly there after with a proposal. And the rest is, what they call, history. Lol

Who are your biggest influences?

Like we said before, we all come from different backgrounds of music. Individual influences, we are all over the place with. But I think as a band, we can agree on a couple…like Arctic Monkeys, The Killers, MUSE and Radiohead just to name a few. The list goes on and on. Some you may have heard before and some not.

Do you have any new projects, tours, etc. that we can look out for?

Yes, we have lots of little goodies up our sleeves this year! Of course the big one is our album Gamma Rays, produced by Christian Cummings, will be releasing Jan. 22nd, 2013. We are also releasing a music video with that called “Loosen Up,” directed by our friend Thierry Denis. We are also planning a tour to be kicked off in March. And that’s just the start of it. 

Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?

In a large stadium serving up some of those tasty Social Club cocktails you mentioned earlier to the masses…

If you were on a deserted island, and each of you could bring 1 album, what album would each of you bring and why?

James- Can I bring a Mix Tape? My musical mood changes all the time.   John- Probably the sound track to the TV show “Lost”

Thea- Surviving the Island: the Greatest Hits.    Jeff-  Irony Is a Dead Scene -Dillinger Escape plan