Interviews

Saosin

Interview with Chris Sorenson on Oct 15, 2006 by Archive Bot

Saosin’s been around a while. They’ve cycled through vocalists and drummers and have been, until this past September, touring constantly in support of two EPs, one well received (and featuring a different lineup) and the other a collection of demos from the aforementioned album. Finally, Saosin’s first full-length, out on Capitol Records, dropped September 26th. I had a chance to chat with bassist Chris Sorenson two weeks prior to the release while he had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. He’s a nice guy and he succeeded in getting me to give up being veggie…at least for the time being.
 
By: Ian Lashbrook
 
Hey Chris, how ya doin?
 
Chris Sorenson: Pretty good man, I’m at California Pizza Kitchen right now, man.
 
You wanna go ahead and introduce yourself and what you do?
 
C: My name is Chris and I play bass in a band called Saosin.
 
So the record is about to come out, how are you guys feeling about all that?
 
C: Really good, actually. Apparently the record leaked today. Which isn’t too bad, you know, two weeks before is to be expected I guess. I mean if it was a couple months…I know the Rise Against record got leaked a couple months before. It’s really good to know we kept it under wraps for up until two weeks before and the responses have been really good.
 
Yeah, I’ve seen a bunch of reviews start to come out and they all seem pretty positive.
 
C: Yeah man, which, you know…I guess we won’t know until it’s released and we’re actually building some momentum. You know, but just the fact we have a full length to actually support now instead of kinda being like a joke band, some what of a sorta enigma in a lot of people’s minds. It’s gonna be cool…now we can really do the test I guess.
 
What can fans expect in regards to Translating the Name and the black EP
 
C: Umm…more songs. A lot of the songs that are on the black EP are on the record actually…more revised and polished versions. Like, we ended up putting “Bury Your Head,” even though it’s like the oldest song in the world. That’s on the record, but it’s a little bit different. And “I Wanna Hear Another Fast Song,” which is on the black EP, is now called “Sleepers,” and that’s on there and it’s a lot different. And then the song “No Angle,” is now called “I Never Wanted To,” and that’s like leaps and bounds different. It’s a completely different arrangement and lyrics and stuff like that. And then the rest of the songs, you know, instead of filling a five song EP we had to fill twelve songs, or thirteen songs actually…we had to record thirteen, so we had to diversify. We couldn’t be in the red, I guess you could say, the whole time. Like I would say Translating the Name is pretty much in the red the whole time. But, you know, this was our first attempt at being a real band, so I think we really shine.
 
Well, over the years, you guys have gone through some serious line-up changes. How has that affected the band?
 
C: Well, I wasn’t the original bass player either. There was this dude Zach, he played on Translating the Name. And then a higher-on drummer, Pat, played on that EP as well. But I played the first show, and we had a different drummer from San Diego named Danny and, uhh…hold on, I’m getting my food right now…and we played three shows with Danny and it just didn’t work out. So, we finally convinced Alex to try out, and he did, and he joined three days before we left for our first tour in July of 2003 and he’s been in the band ever since. As far as Alex joining the band, it didn’t affect the band at all; I think he was exactly what we needed, which was a really good drummer. I mean, he’s a solid dude and he has a lot of touring experience with his old band Open Hand and…he’s just level. He’s not gonna freak out on us like the other drummer did. So…as far as Anthony quitting and us getting Cove…at the time Anthony quit, yeah, it sucked really bad, but then once we started workin’ with Cove and now at the spot we are with Cove and the band and he’s been in the band longer than Anthony was in the band and wasn’t in the band, so…I don’t count him as a new singer at all. I’m so used to dealing with Cove now that Anthony was just a chapter where we progressed, and we don’t forget that, but I think we’ve moved on and I definitely think it shows in the record. That we’re not trying to make “Translating the Name II,” that we’ve actually made another Saosin record that’s as good, if not better.
 
Well, you guys have seemed to have cultivated a huge following without actually having a full-length record. Did you feel pressure going into the studio, because there seems to be a lot of expectations around you guys?
 
C: We didn’t. I mean, we did, kinda, at first, I think. And then, by the time that we actually entered the studio, which was, like, kinda late, the pressure had worn off because we knew that the pressure…we had so much pressure on ourselves that it negated the pressure from outside, and we just needed to get something out. We felt that it was time. We didn’t want to just play and support those old songs any more; we really wanted to have something to focus on and take to the next level.
 
I was curious about the writing process. Where do YOU come into the writing process? Where does a song start and where does it end for you guys?
 
C: A song never ends! That’s the key to our band. It really depends…it’s whatever fits the song. For instance, the first song on the record [“Far Better to Learn”], all the music was written by Beau. I mean, Beau and I wrote the majority of the music. We’ll write the core and then Justin will lay stuff over the top of it. But then as far as the vocals are concerned, Cove and I work out the verses, and the choruses are also a collaboration between Cove and I…like, the first line is Cove’s line and the second line is my line and the third line’s Cove’s line and the fourth line’s my line, and that’s sorta how the majority of the vocals worked out for the record. Like, in “Bury Your Head,” I wrote all the music for “Bury Your Head,” and the majority of vocals while collaborating with Cove. The way we kinda run is weird. As far as the older stuff, we’d just kind of have Cove run through the songs and kind of shoot ideas off while listening to the songs in the studio. I mean, we have our own recording studio in our garage at Beau’s Dad’s, or something. So, he would sit in the tracking room, I would sit in the control room, and we just run over ideas and just kind of like freestyle and I would hear, say the melody, and say “hey run with this,” and then he would be like “hey, I have this idea I wanna throw right after that,” and it would get kinda pieced together that way. That’s the same way it worked out for a lot of the songs on the black EP, but this time, when we did the full-length, we had a producer, so we couldn’t necessarily do what we had done before because it’s just not feasible when the cost is $2000 a day on top of paying all the engineers and all the people, so we had to really be prepared this time. There was some stuff we improvised in the studio and wrote on the spot, but a lot of the stuff, it really boiled down to…like, we had that song “Voices” up on our Myspace page. I wrote the chorus to that song and wrote the verse melody…I wrote all the music, the verse melody and the lyrics and the melody for the chorus and then Cove interpreted what I wrote and wrote the lyrics for the verses. It’s weird. We have a weird process. We don’t have a guy that does “something,” you know? Songs like, umm…there’s a song on the record that Beau wrote the majority of the melody to the chorus as well as some of the lyrics so, it’s like, kinda weird. Beau and I tackle the music.
 
Is the lyrical process a collaboration between you and Cove usually?
 
C: Yeah, but it’s kinda unspoken. It’s weird. We don’t want to say exactly what we’re talking about to each other because I think it’s better that the beauty behind what we’ve done is kind of left things up for interpretation between each other and played each other as a listener, ya know? And that leaves it up to interpretation for the people that listen to the CD. It usually works out really well and I think it did work out really well for this record.
 
How’s being signed to a major label affected you guys?
 
C: Uhh, there’s a lot more stuff that needs to be done. Before…I mean, we released Translating the Name on our own record label called Death Do Us Part and we just did that to get the record out because it’s hard to be like “Hey, here’s our demo.” It’s easier to get it into stores if you’re like, “Hey, here’s our EP on this record label,” even if they don’t know who it is. Once we signed to a major record label, nothing changed, but now that the record’s actually being pieced together, the whole thing kind of manifests into a real release. There’s little things. Things happen on a daily basis. I would even say an hourly basis; things being made and approved and ideas being thought out. Instead of working with one person outside of the band, now we have to work with like 500. But we’ve definitely made it a point to make everyone aware that the band is our first priority and we’re willing to fight with the record label for that. We won’t stand down. A lot of bands are like “well, this happened to us, and this happened to us.” We’re more like “We did this.” That’s kind of our motto; we don’t want to be victims, we want to be involved and really be responsible for what’s happening.
 
Sounds like overall, it’s been a pretty good experience so far.
 
C: Yeah, it’s awesome man. I think Capitol is the perfect place for us because they don’t have a band like us.
 
Right, which is different than, say, Island, who has a lot of bands at least in your same vein…
 
C: Right. With Capitol, they need us just as much as we need them.
 
What are the plans for when the record comes out?
 
C: Yeah, the record comes out on September 26th and we do the typical in-stores and CD release shows, press, all that stuff for the following 15 days. And then we fly to Australia and start Taste of Chaos International with Taking Back Sunday, Underoath, Senses Fail, Anti-Flag, and Thursday.
 
Are you guys going to be doing a headlining North American tour in the upcoming months as well?
 
C: Apparently what we’re looking to do now is head out with Senses Fail when we get back from Taste of Chaos on the 23rd of November. And that’ll basically run us from November 23rd to December 20th and then the tour picks up again in January on January 10th, or something through, February 9th. We’re gonna be out for the next six months supporting the record and we’re putting a video up on Fuse that goes into rotation on the 18th.
 
The video for “Voices?”
 
C: Yeah. It was a live video that was shot by Chris Finn who did videos for The Kinison and 18 Visions, Throwdown, As I Lay Dying, and other bands. He came out and did like a 6 camera shoot with HD cameras and pieced together an edit for “Voices” and it looked killer. It looked so good that we didn’t want to spend that hundred grand on a video that was just as good.
 
Just one more question and then I’ll let you get back to your lunch out there…
 
C: Have you ever had the BBQ chicken pizza from CPK?
 
Actually, I’m vegetarian.
 
C: Dammit…I say get it.
 
I break vegetarian every now and then for something that’s worth it.
 
C: Dude, this is really good.
 
Well, what do you see down the road for the band? What’s the best case scenario, in your mind, for Saosin in the future?
 
C: Getting to the next record. I think that’s our main priority really. Whatever level we’re at, I don’t think it matters as long as we can keep recording and touring. I don’t think we have aspirations…I mean, we definitely have goals and hopes, you know, but the reality of the situation is that our main focus is to tour and record good records and write good songs and meet people, stuff like that, ya know? We’re not planning on being the next Rolling Stones or any band like that, ya know?
 
Well, you guys have generated enough hype. I mean you’ve been around three years now and your first full-length is just coming out.
 
C: Yeah, somehow we’re still around.
 
I’d like to thank Chris for taking time out of his busy schedule to do the interview and I’d like to thank Molly Birckhead at Fanscape for setting everything up.