{"id":12459,"date":"2014-02-03T01:00:17","date_gmt":"2014-02-03T06:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=12459"},"modified":"2014-02-05T08:09:28","modified_gmt":"2014-02-05T13:09:28","slug":"blowing-wind-with-rival-sons-scott-holliday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=12459","title":{"rendered":"Part I of II: Blowin\u2019 Wind with Rival Sons\u2019 Scott Holiday: \u201cRock N\u2019 Roll isn\u2019t too abundant right now. It\u2019s kind of just leaking in here and there. If people are going to hear us they\u2019re going to need to take it in a small pill.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RIVAL-SONS-LEEDS-METROPOLITAN-UNIVERSITY-13TH-APRIL-2013-16\"<\/a>California based rockers Rival Sons have been bringing their heart and soul infused classic rock sounds to the masses since 2008.\u00a0 One listen to this band and it will blow your mind that they\u2019ve only been at this for a mere 5 years.\u00a0 Their cohesive, tight as a drum sound is reminiscent of a band that has been at this for 3, even 4 times longer than what they\u2019ve actually been together for.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I recently had the opportunity to talk with guitarist Scott Holiday and what started out as a 20 minute interview turned into an hour long conversation that had me completely entertained and feeling like I had learned so much about one of my favorite bands.\u00a0 This was such an in depth talk that this ended up being a two part interview.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this part we talked about following up their monumental 2013 release Head Down, the shadiness of the record industry, and how the hell a song like \u201cManifest Destiny Pt. 1\u201d could be captured in just one take.\u00a0 I feel like there was no stone left unturned in this unabridged, unfiltered conversation.\u00a0 Get yourself a drink, put on some Rival Sons, and settle in for Part 1 of my two part interview with Scott Holiday!\u00a0 Enjoy!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Scott.\u00a0 Thanks so much for doing this interview today brother!<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s my pleasure Don.\u00a0 Thanks for having me.<\/p>\n

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So are you guys on a break or something and plotting your next phase of world domination?<\/strong><\/p>\n

[laughs] We are on a very rare break.\u00a0 We\u2019re usually out on the road but we just got back from Canada where we did a few weeks out there.\u00a0 We\u2019re aiming to be in the studio in January.\u00a0 We have a couple of one off shows in the next couple of months and just trying to get our act together.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to sign our next deal and get things in order before the next record.<\/p>\n

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You mentioned that you guys are signing a new deal.\u00a0 Will this new deal be a record deal?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We just do one record at a time deals.\u00a0 For some reason, we\u2019ve been able to negotiate these kinds of deals so this also allows us to keep the rights and control of everything one record at a time.\u00a0 We actually own all of our records and we\u2019ve kept a lot of our business and our rights.\u00a0 We own more than the average band.<\/p>\n

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Why not just sign a big deal with a big company like Warner Bros or Universal?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s just now who we are.\u00a0 What they want for a deal like that is hilarious.\u00a0 I\u2019m not selling off my children, I\u2019m not giving away my loved ones, and I\u2019m keeping all my body parts [laughs].\u00a0\u00a0 Those people are terrible and really demonic.\u00a0 In all seriousness, what they want to take from you on a business level is really sad and they\u2019re getting it from people.\u00a0 They give you one chance, one record and you better hope that your planets align because if they don\u2019t, you\u2019ve just ruined your entire career because now you owe them for those records and guess what?\u00a0 They\u2019re not going to make those records for you so you can\u2019t go sign another deal and your trapped.<\/p>\n

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The delusions of these bands are that they believe that the Warner Bros, the Atlantic Records, the Universals of the world are where the money \"rival-sons-14062013-02\"<\/a>is.\u00a0 You guys have just chosen to not sell your souls or your artistic rights and chosen to go with the smaller guys for maybe enough money to get you by.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Right.\u00a0 What they\u2019re asking for is just not fair.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a simple analogy.\u00a0 You have a can of Coke.\u00a0 I want to buy your can of Coke for a dollar and you give me that can of Coke.\u00a0 This is a normal deal right?\u00a0 Now I\u2019m the record company.\u00a0 If you sell me that can of Coke, I promise you a keg.\u00a0 Actually, I don\u2019t just want that can of Coke though.\u00a0 I want your rights to every can of Coke you ever buy again.\u00a0 Ok?\u00a0 Here\u2019s a dollar [laughs].\u00a0 That\u2019s what they\u2019re doing to people.<\/p>\n

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It sounds like I\u2019m catching you at a pretty exciting time as there sounds like some cool shit is about to go down.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh yeah.\u00a0 I mean, we are definitely fired up to get back in there and make a new record that\u2019s for sure.\u00a0 The album cycle for this one (Head Down) went way longer than any album cycle.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been priding ourselves over these last 4 records on making sure that every year we have something new coming out.\u00a0 Unfortunately for this record the releases were offset by like 6 months between the US and Canada so we had to put another 6-8 months into it.<\/p>\n

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I know it was a long cycle but man, we barely saw you guys hitting the states behind this one.\u00a0 I\u2019m just going to cut to the chase here.\u00a0 Why has there been such a lack of Rival Sons here in the US?\u00a0 What is it that people just aren\u2019t getting here?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, I think that business wise you\u2019ve got to work where your dollar is best well spent.\u00a0 You can only focus on so much of the world.\u00a0 It\u2019s a huge place and you can only focus on certain areas so much.\u00a0 It costs a lot of money and it takes a lot of time.\u00a0 From the beginning of our career we\u2019ve been pretty focused on Europe because they took to us quicker.\u00a0 The media has taken to us and we\u2019re on magazine covers over there, we\u2019re charting over there, and we\u2019re on radio all over the place, and we play pretty big theaters over there.\u00a0 When it\u2019s time for us to work, it\u2019s just kind of our go to.\u00a0 Our next biggest market that took to us quicker than the US has been Canada.\u00a0 I think the answer that everybody wants to hear from me is that America hates rock n\u2019 roll [laughs].\u00a0 We know that\u2019s not what it is at all and we know that there are great fans here.\u00a0 We have a boatload of fans here but it\u2019s just such a huge territory.\u00a0 It\u2019s a little bit slower here and everyone\u2019s taking to us slower.\u00a0 We don\u2019t get tour support.\u00a0 We fund everything ourselves so it\u2019s going to take us spending a whole bunch of money.\u00a0 That said, we\u2019re going to focus on this album cycle much more on being over here with our brethren.<\/p>\n