Oh No Not Stereo

 
Photo Credit: Wes Naman

Thanks to the miraculous technology we have these days that involves ‘blackberrying’ back and forth to my humble e-mail inbox via that wonderful thing that is the World Wide Web, I managed to put some questions to up and coming Hollywood based rock band, Oh No Not Stereo. Lead vocalist Sky Nielsen talks about his band’s history, relentless future, hopping the pond and how he deals with running an independent band while still remaining as rock & roll as can be. Best of all, Mention reading this very Rock Pulse interview in a comment/message to the band via their Facebook or MySpace page to be sent an unreleased track from the band’s catalogue! 

RP - Hi O.N.N.S!
For the record, Could you state who you are and what do you do in Oh No Not Stereo? 

Skyler Nielsen - Vocals, Guitar, Piano 

RP - Myk and Sky are the founding members of Oh No Not Stereo and have developed the band for a few years now, but after taking many different musicians out on stage with you to fill the live guitar/bass positions, are Jussi and Marc now more permanent ONNS members? 

Sky - Marc and Jussi are absolutely an integral part of our team! When Mykul Lee [drums] and I started the band in 2003 we conceptualized the band as a live duo and toured for 18 months, just him and I. It was like the White Stripes on speed :) When recording our second record in 2007, we realized that we needed a bass player in our live show to add the low-end that the record had. Since then our concept for a live show has transformed from a duo to a trio, and now to a quartet. Myk and I write all the songs and manage all the creative and business aspects of our band on a day-to-day basis. For an independent band, we keep ourselves extremely busy and constantly strive to throw our boundaries aside. More than ever in our six-year history, we take a lot of pride in our amazing touring team that we have right now. 

RP - How do you feel the release of ‘003’ LP has differed from that of the preceding releases? For example, have you seen or felt a different, maybe better or bigger response to this latest release compared to the ‘002’ EP or ‘001’ LP? 

Sky - We spent three months writing this record and had over 50 songs to choose from when we were compiling the track listing. In the past we didn't record as many songs so we felt like this time around we had a whole lot more to work with. We produced the record ourselves too and we were very prepared when we went into the studio as we knew exactly what we wanted and it turned out better than we could have asked for. We have already gotten a super positive response on this record, and it was released only three months ago! We are very passionate about this record and have a lot of fun playing these songs live! 

RP - Which is/are your favourite track/tracks from ‘003’? Why? 

Sky - The album has a lot of dynamic, so it's impossible for me to pick one favourite. You'll find radio-friendly pop anthems like the opening track "Let's Get It Started", you'll find heavier edgy guitar-solo filled rock songs like "Hurricanes" or "Miss Hard Time" and then there are a fair share of piano and string accompanied 'hybrids' like "I Can't Say" and "12 Years Later" that make the album hard to pigeon-hole into one certain genre. One of my favourite things about the new record is that we opened up to three new demographics just by turning off the distortion and letting our Beatles-esque influences play an important role in the production, which makes for a more pleasurable listen.

RP - Which ‘003’ track is your favourite to churn out live? 

Sky - "Brothers", "Miss Hard Time" and "All You" are probably my favourites to play live because they always sound really full, and they're a blast to play. 

RP - You’ve recently released a music video for ‘Let’s get it started’. Did you enjoy the filming process and who is it that directed the video? 

Sky - That was a really fun video shoot, we actually filmed two videos in the same week (one for "All You" too, which comes out in July!), so production time wasn't that extensive. Filming for the ‘Let’s Get It Started’ video took about 8 hours or so. As it was a performance video, most of the work came in the editing process. The director’s name was Josh Finn. If you look closely at the video you can see a bottle of Jack Daniels on my Orange amp that continuously gets more and more empty :) 

RP - You’ve been over to the UK with Bayside/Hit The Lights and then came back a short while after with All-American Rejects, are there plans to make another trip over here any time soon? 

Sky - We had so much fun on both tours, we absolutely can't wait to come back! The response that we got was insane, and we look forward to returning as soon as we can. Hopefully we'll get to come back before the end of the year! The All American Rejects were great to tour with, and we hope to return with them again! 

RP - When I (Danni) caught you live on the Bayside/HTL tour, Sky did a lap of the crowd mid-set, are your live shows always as energetic? 

Sky - Haha, Yes! Absolutely. You never know what's going to happen at an Oh No Not Stereo show. We know that there's more to a show than just the music and we have to make the most of the performance no matter where we play or how many people are there. 

RP - Which UK city has been your favourite to play so far and why? 

Sky - London! We played two really awesome venues there (Shepards Bush Empire and Islington Academy) and had such a memorable experience. Although, that’s not to say that Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham weren't just as amazing. All the places that we played in the UK were really good to us and we hope to return sooner than later. 

RP - In your opinion, Which bands should we all be checking out right now that might have slipped the UK radar so far? 

Sky - Our friends from Colorado in THE PHOTO ATLAS are really awesome, We just finished a tour with them and we’re trying to get them to come over to UK with us next time. Also, THE EPILOGUES are good homies of ours, so check them out too! We played a show with MONTY ARE I the other day and their live show was fantastic! 

RP - What are you listening to right now? 

Sky - I’ve just listened to Odessey and Oracle by The Zombies and now I'm gonna give Green Day's new record a listen. We just got kicked out of our hotel in Phoenix so I'm sitting outside finishing the interview in need of some good new rock and roll. 

RP – Tell us about ONNS’s first ever gig? 

Sky - Our first gig was just Myk and myself, full on 'Local H' style, at the King King in Hollywood on May 27th, 2004. We were ready to show our friends there in LA that we mean business and two guys really CAN sound like a four piece and put on a show that you won't forget. I remember Myk puking out the door behind the drums in between songs, We still to this day look like we jumped in a pool when we get off stage (RP – It’s true! It looked like they’d gone for a swim rather than played instruments!) and sometimes you just have to puke! 

RP - What are the bands plans for the near future? 

Sky - We are planning on touring relentlessly for the rest of year in promotion of the new record. Since we handle all the business for the band ourselves, we are working around the clock writing, booking, licensing\publishing, maintaining our online presence, and challenging ourselves with new opportunities and goals to accomplish. This is definitely not going to be a boring summer and fall, and we hope that anyone who reads this article will say hi to us on Facebook or MySpace! Mention that you’ve read this interview and we'll send you a couple of unreleased tracks! Cheers, and thanks for showing the love Danni and everyone at Rock Pulse! 

You heard the guy! For unreleased tracks or simply more on Oh No Not Stereo, visit their website,blog, MySpace, Facebook, Last.fm or if you’re really swish you can even follow them on Twitter! My word, aren’t they multi-platform!