5 Questions with Laura Barry from Addax
Photo by Hector Parayuelos
The World Cup is back, and today I discovered that the best audio accompaniment to the game is Addax. I urge you to test my theory thusly: grab a frosty beverage, tune your TV to your favorite World Cup match (on mute), make yourself comfortable on the couch, and pump up You’re Eyes I’m Wearing on the stereo. I guarantee that replacing the drone of the fans in the stands with any song from Be the Victim will heighten the excitement level of your soccer experience. What’s even more exciting is the band plans to release their yet to be titled EP this summer, followed by an East Coast Tour.
Addax is made up of: Laura Barry- lead vocals, Omar Williams- guitar backup vocals, Carlos Paguaga- drums, Eddy Davis- bass, and Josh Rohe- guitar. Their hard driving sound is tough to pin down to one genre or to compare to one band. The best I can do is group them in that 90's punk revival Ric recently mentioned. I think that captures the musical vibe and a quarter of the feeling I get when I hear Laura sing. The fact is her singing is the wild card that gives the band an edge on the style she likens to "a cross between pop-punk and indie rock, that's how we're described on Pandora and CD Baby".
I caught up with Laura through email and over the phone to learn some history and find out what's new with Addax. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that she is super nice and hilarious to boot:
Steve: At what age did you find out you had such a powerful singing voice?
Laura: I wouldn't describe my voice to be powerful, however, I do consider it to be "different". I never took singing lessons (well, ok, maybe one...but I left running for the hills when he put some Italian aria in front of me) but I did do a lot of musical theater growing up. It was at summer camp (1998/1999ish) that I discovered that I had a passion for singing. My good friend Jon forced me to stand up on a picnic table and sing at the top of my lungs -- people gathered around and I thought "hey, I like this, I want to make my own music and see what happens". I still credit Jon today for forcing me not to be afraid of singing in front of a crowd. He was the drummer and helped write music in my first band "Still Movement" (which Omar was also in).
S: I was curious about Addax's first full length, Be the Victim, I know you released it on your own but did you all start a record label? How did that work?
L: No, we wanted to do and album and it took a really long time, obliviously we’ve been a band since 2003 and we released the record in 2008. We had members switching out throughout the process so we didn’t want to shop it to record labels, we thought let’s release it ourselves and see if people like it. It’s actually sold pretty well. I think CD Baby was the first place that we put it on. We got an email later saying “Congratulations, you’ve sold so and so copies in so much time in the United Kingdom!” We were like "What!? That’s crazy!" A record label would definitely help, but it’s been all right.
S: I understand you are in the process of finalizing your new EP. Are you all working with the same studio and people that you did with the last album?
L: We aren’t. We decided to take on this album all on our own. Josh (our guitarist) is an extremely talented studio engineer. We did all of the recording at his house.
S: When you all make decisions on matters like titling the EP, do you all take a poll, or each make a few suggestions? How do issues like that get worked out?
L: We draw straws….
S: Really?
L: No, I’m kidding, haaa. We toss around ideas and eventually we all agree.
Photo by Hector Parayuelos
Every decision we make is a collaborative effort. There’s not really anything that we do that we don’t consult each other on. This is so cheesy but we’re really close, we’re kind of like a family so we don’t like to do anything without getting the approval of the rest of the group.
S: I know you guys are playing the Supercon Festival with Less Than Jake Friday. What are you looking more forward to, playing with them or getting to meet all of your favorite superheroes in person?
L: I think we’re pretty excited for both. I was definitely super into Less Than Jake back in the day so I’m really excited about that. But I’m also excited to play Supercon because I hear it’s a lot of fun, a lot of people, and I think it will be good exposure for us. Not to mention I think we might dress up, sorry to say I’m not going to give it away.
Addax will be at Churchill's tonight and at the Supercon Festival Friday night!
LINKS:
Addax's myspace
Florida Supercon Festival website
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Very cool! Sounds like a fun event too!