Although they're just out of High School this New Jersey 4-piece has just finished up their 2nd full-length CD and for the second straight year has made a couple of appearances on the Warped Tour. I recently interviewed guitarist/vocalist Kevin Nicotera about the band, the new disc, Warped and more and here's what he had to say.
All Access Magazine (AAM) - Geoff Melton - Can you give me a quick rundown of the band's history?
Kevin Nicotera (KN) - The band started in October 2005 with Tom Kenney, Karl Pearson and Cole MacDonnell. With no real direction the band sort of fell apart and remained stagnant for a while. Tom and Karl started to play again, but by then Cole was in a different band, so we enlisted in a new drummer. After coming to a few shows, Kevin Nicotera joined the band as another guitarist and singer. Not seeing eye to eye, the band decided to part ways with the drummer just as they were entering the studio to record Drop Everything. Cole was asked to record drums for the album and he wound up staying with the band for good. Now we’re here today going four years strong and ready for more.
AAM - I know it's a very clichéd question, but where did the name A Clear Blurr come from?
KN - Karl’s dad used to be in a band called Clear Blur back when he was growing up. This was something that came up when we were deciding on a band name so we decided to make it A Clear Blurr. The extra R comes from Tom and Karl thinking that’s the way blur was really spelt.
AAM - How did you hook up with former Ataris guitarist John Collura as your producer on Trigonometry?
KN - After hearing our debut album, John contacted us about wanting to work with us at his studio, Silent Owl Studios, in Orange County, New York with his partner Paul Carabello.
AAM - How do you feel your sound has evolved from your debut to Trigonometry?
KN - Our first album, Drop Everything, was pieced together a little at a time. Half the songs on that album were written and recorded when we were only 14 and 15 years old. Add a few years, along with many new, inventive, and mature ideas, and out came Trigonometry. We worked really hard change the poppy, simple songs on the first album and molded them into a sound that really fit us as a band. We all improved tremendously as musicians, as well as our ideas, and so did our overall direction. We can’t take all the credit though. We had the pleasure of working with two great producers/engineers, Paul Carabello and John Collura, previously of The Ataris, who gave us a ton of great ideas and help along the way. I wouldn't say we have a completely new sound but the new album has definitely evolved musically from our debut with a lot more time and thought put into each song and a lot of complex harmonies and a heavier feel.
AAM - I don't know if they were much of an inspiration or not, but the opening cut on Trigonometry, "Drive Me Crazy", has a sound that's a bit different from the rest of the disc and to me sounds very reminiscent of Bad Religion. What do you think?
KN - Karl might be the only one in the bunch that listens to Bad Religion, but Tom wrote the lyrics and he and I came up with the music, so I don’t know how much of an influence they might have been. Haha. The song may sound different from the rest of the album because I’m pretty sure it was written even before Drop Everything was released. We recorded it in our rehearsal studio as an acoustic track and we weren’t sure if we wanted to add it to the album or not so we just waited. Between Drop Everything and Trigonometry we started playing it as a full band and began adding more and more to it.
AAM - The last 2 cuts on the disc are much more slowed down with closer "Tinted Blue" completely acoustic. Is this a direction you think you might explore more on future releases?
KN - Definitely. We’ve always been into trying different things and experimenting with new songs. On Drop Everything, the track “Yes It Is” is similar to “Never Sing Again” on Trigonometry, in the sense that it is slowed down a lot compared to the other songs, but they still really end with a bang! “Tinted Blue” was a song that we wrote as a full band, but it didn’t really sit right. So when we went into the studio we decided to do it fully acoustic and it turned out a lot better than we expected.
AAM - You recently played a couple of dates on Warped again this year. How was that?
KN - Warped Tour is always amazing to play. The dates we’ve managed to play were ridiculously awesome. We bought 5000 postcards for each date and made sure every single one of them was handed out. It was hard work, but well worth it to get our name out to such a large number of people. Were all really hoping to do a larger portion of the tour next summer.
AAM - Do any of you have plans to continue with you education right now or are you putting everything into the band?
KN - We have been putting everything into the band ever since the release of Drop Everything and always managed to keep up our grades in school and take part in a few other things like sports or a job. Basically, besides school, this is all we do. We are all planning on going to local colleges so we can still keep giving it our all. We are trying to set up our schedules so that we can go on “mini tours” on extended weekends to different states and to start to branch out of the local scene now that were older.
AAM - There's a thank you to your principal in the liner notes. How has he helped the band?
KN - He has always been really supportive of the band and what we do especially since we are big into community events. He helped us organize an annual music festival at Edison High School and recognized us for our generous donation to the scholarship fund we set up.
AAM - I recently read that that music festival in Edison is now going to be an annual event. Can you tell me about that?
KN - Our good friend Kittim Sherrod was an amazing athlete and an overall great person that we all knew from school. One day during track practice he collapsed due to heart failure and passed away soon after. Because of the tragedy and our school’s low spirits, we wanted to do something for Kittim and for his family. We decided to organize a music festival in his name with a bunch of bands, rides, food, etc. We got shirts made with his football jersey number on the back that said “In memory of Kittim Sherrod” with our logo on the front. All the money raised from the festival and t-shirts was donated to the Kittim Sherrod Memorial Scholarship and we have decided to turn it into an annual event in memory of Kittim.
AAM - What are your plans for supporting Trigonometry and do you have any plans to do any touring outside the PA / NJ area?
KN - Trigonometry is going to be released September 29th, 2009 on iTunes, Amazon.com, select Hot Topics, Smartpunk.com, Vintage Vinyl, etc. As of now we have a CD release show planned at Vintage Vinyl on the 29th which should be pretty packed. Other than that we are looking to plan a week worth of shows following the release, and attempt to sell at least a thousand copies during the first week to get on the Billboard Heat Seekers Chart among other things.
AAM - Is there anything else you'd like to share with readers?
KN - Please go pick up our new album Trigonometry on September 29th, 2009 where ever possible! We appreciate all the help we can get so pick up the album and come out to a show sometime soon!
