USER INTERVIEW: Senses Fail
Nexopia gives users the chance to sit face to face with their favorite musicians to talk about music, life, and whatever else comes to mind. If you want to be a Nex interviewer, click here to apply. Interview by .Wyatt. |
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.Wyatt.: What was the thought behind the band name? |
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Senses Fail: It kinda stems from the idea that you want to reach your goals, to reach Nirvana. It’s an endless cycle of death and rebirth. You basically have to give up you attachment to everything on Earth, because pretty much everything is meaningless because it all dies and it doesn’t matter. The goal is to free yourself of all attachment ‘cause that’s what causes pain.
There are these Hindu monks that would go out into the woods and starve themselves trying to clear their mind and attain an enlightened state, literally detaching themselves from their senses: Their need for food, their need for sight, their need for smell, anything. It’s kind of like ‘Senses Fail’, it’s like the name Nirvana. It means kinda the same thing. |
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.Wyatt.: Where do you get your inspiration for writing lyrics? |
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Senses Fail: Just life. That’s all you really need. I mean like I’ll be watching a movie and I’ll like hear a cool line that will inspire me to write something or hear something on T.V. or hear something on the radio: A phrase, a word, then it’ll start a whole song or idea. |
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.Wyatt.: What differentiates you from other bands? |
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Senses Fail: The substance of our songs and the honesty in the music. I think everything I write means something to me. I think some of our earlier stuff not as much, just ‘cause I was a lot younger, you know, 18. I’ve kind of grown up thro8gh the records, but it’s flat out honest. That’s why I think people can relate to it, because it’s completely honest. It’s not a fabrication of things that didn’t happen. |
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.Wyatt.: What is the music making process for you guys? |
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Senses Fail: We start off with a riff and then build around there. That’s pretty much how everything starts. |
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.Wyatt.: I found your song ‘Buried Alive’ to be one of the most debated songs because it seems to have a lot of metaphorical references while other people would argue that it even has subliminal references. What was the story behind that song? |
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Senses Fail: That’s one song that really is the opposite of what I just said, it really doesn’t have a ton of meaning to me because I wanted to write something that was a story. One that had a beginning, a middle and an end, you know. And I was like, 18 when I wrote that. |
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.Wyatt.: Some people felt that it was almost your take on a relationship. |
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Senses Fail: Yeah, that’s pretty much what it was, but I don’t think it was as obvious as it should have been to be enjoyable. |
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.Wyatt.: What has been some role models for the band? |
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Senses Fail:I’d say bands like “Save The Day”, “Thursday”, “Jawbreaker”, “Jimmy Eat World”, “Alkaline Trio”, “The Far”, “Rival Schools”, “Gorilla Biscuits”. We listen to everything but I’d say those are our main influences. |
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.Wyatt.: In the sea of new artists every year, let’s say a young band wants to make a name for itself. What advice would you give to an up and coming band so they don’t get sucked away with the rest of them? |
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Senses Fail:Don’t suck. Honestly, I mean there’s a lot of bands out there that get signed and don’t stick around because they suck ‘cause they have no substance. Their show’s probably fuckin’ boring, they have no personality, there‘s nothing about the band to hold on to other than its music. I think the most important things to have are a personality to the band other than just it being a MySpace page. |
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SENSES FAIL INTERVIEW CLIP
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