Electric Citizen

0:15RossI am Ross Dolan, guitar player of Electric Citizen.

0:20HostNice. I know Electric Citizen since the first album. Was it like a full? Yeah, Satine was a full-length album, right?

0:32?Thank you.

0:32HostAnd I wanted to check up on you, you know, like what is up since 2018?

0:38RossYeah, we've been missing in action for a while, huh? We, well, COVID, you know, between COVID and our singer got melanoma and had to have surgery to get the, you know, get her tumor removed. And she's totally fine now. Everything's great. But, you know, we had some setbacks and now we're just working on getting our fourth album done, you know, where it's almost fully mixed. Hopefully we'll find a good record label to put it out and it can come out this year and we can kind of...

1:19HostSo it's going to be not writing easy records. It's going to be somebody else.

1:24RossYeah, yeah. Writing easy records likes to do like three album deals and I think they kind of maybe see themselves as more of like a launching pad for bands versus a, you know, forever home.

1:38HostI think Backwater Hololet is also writing easy records.

1:43?Uh-huh. Yep.

1:44HostYeah, yeah, yeah. I also interviewed them. Yeah, I mean, makes sense. I didn't know about the three album deal. But so now you like in the process of... I mean, you already have demos probably, right? But it's...

1:57RossYeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, the whole album four is completely done recorded and hopefully by Wednesday completely done mixed and we can move on from there.

2:15HostSo you mean it's like super fresh. I mean, I called you in the right moment.

2:19RossYeah. Yeah, it is. It's like... Yeah, it's super fresh and we've been working on it really hard. 12-hour days in the studio.

2:29HostWhich studio? Where?

2:30RossWe recorded this album at a studio called Candyland in Kentucky, which is just right across the bridge from Cincinnati, where we're from. And yeah, it's a great studio. We worked with our friend engineer, Mike Montgomery. Just a great energy for recording bands, you know? And I think that's really important. And this is the first album for us that we are recording with someone new because we did our last, you know, our first album, second and third, with the same person, Brian Olive, at Mount Saturn Records studio. Or maybe it's just Mount. I can't remember. He may have done something with some records. I can't remember. But anyway, it's been a whole new experience. And we're looking forward to getting it out there and kind of... We, I think, myself personally, I had done the last four albums with Brian because I was, you know, I was in a band right before Electric Citizen and we did an album with him. And then obviously three more with him. And I think myself and the band, you know, we were just kind of ready for a change of scenery. You know, you just, you want, just wanted a change, really, you know? And we recorded, we're used to very minimal amount of tracks. And, you know, with this album, we were able to just get more tracks to just kind of thicken the songs up. And, you know, and we've always kind of missed that in the previous albums of kind of really beefing tracks up when you're just limited on the tracks. So, so, yeah, just, just switching it up and doing something different.

4:35HostOkay. Yeah, I understand. So you want to completely start fresh, I'd say like that.

4:41HostAll right. So actually, which means that approach is different probably, right? Anything technically that you're trying to do something else? Still, are we still having organ and the way you do things?

5:00RossJust being able to, you know, if we want to add two, let's say two acoustic guitar tracks to one song, that's, that's not a big deal. You know, we don't have to try to figure out how to make space. And if, if there's room and the drums have more than four mics on them, you know, it's just, it's, it's been a lot, it's just been more fun to have, you know, multiple tracks to just kind of do whatever you want to do. And, and with this, with this album, we have, we have some songs that maybe have more of a progressive rock sound to them. And you, you want to be able to layer those, layer those up so you don't bore people to death with a longer song. So, you know, usually in the past, you know, our song, maybe our longest song was like five minutes. And there was one of those on an album and the rest were just like, you know, little three minute rock songs. And, and, you know, we still got a couple of three minute songs on the, on the new album, but, you know, we also have some longer songs where we, you know, we're just experimenting, trying to do something a little bit different.

6:13HostYou know, have you seen, you know, Rick Beato, the guy on YouTube?

6:20HostHe just recently, like today or yesterday released a video regarding the statistics of, of music industry. Right. And one of the trends is that songs are getting longer. Right. I'm not, I'm not sure exactly, but it was a response to the TikTok influence. Right. Because TikTok music is like really short.

6:46?Yeah.

6:47HostAnd maybe, I mean, it's not, he didn't say it, but I think it may be musicians want to be opposite to that. You know, really show what is real music, spread out, like make this, make the songs a little bit longer. Maybe like show the talent, the skills and just, and just for, because you can, right. Maybe it's, maybe it's like just going against the, the, the, the mainstream TikTok thing. And that's why somehow you also like wanted to do it. Have you thought about why you wanted to have like, like that? Yeah.

7:23RossYou know, we just basically for fun, you know, let's, let's make a little bit longer song. Let's add some more transitions and see if we can, you know, tie it all together in the end.

7:37RossAnd, you know, I, I don't, I don't think, you know, I know TikTok is a lot of like, you know, shorter videos and things like that, but I think there's a lot of people out there that have a longer, you know, attention span, you know, and they, and they can, you know, sit through a three hour long podcast and, and really enjoy it. And I, and I, I don't necessarily think, uh, everyone only needs a, you know, a two minute song, otherwise they're just going to skip it, skip over it. You know, it's, it's, um, yeah, TikTok's a strange thing, but you know, people latch onto it, but.

8:12HostWell, people, people latch onto it because, uh, labels are, uh, are, uh, paying attention to it. You know, if somebody is hot on TikTok, they get signed and everybody's looking who gets signed. So that, that thing, you know, but in reality, it's, it's, uh, it's just, uh, the way it is at the moment, but it's not going to last that long.

8:36RossYeah. I, I hope not. Cause I don't, I don't necessarily agree with like going online and looking at band, you know, a musical person or whatever and trying to, and being like, oh, they got all the stuff. You know, these, you know, these, these streams and these views and, and I, I kind of, maybe I'm old school, but I would, if I was looking for a band, I'd, I'd want to, you know, of course, listen to their music, but I wouldn't like see them live. Like what, how do they, how are they performing these songs? Are they, are they executing these songs? Are these songs coming across the way they were intended?

9:21RossI, I don't, I don't know. It's maybe it's just not for me. I, maybe I'm just more old school.

9:25HostWell, I, I, I think that this Tik TOK thing is just for, first of all, it's for the young people. Yes. But young people also get older and they switch to a longer format. I mean, it's just, it's just a thing. It's, it's like, uh, Tik TOK is like the Beatles, uh, of, of, of, of, of, of apps at the moment, you know, super hip, super fun, you know, like for young people, like Tik TOK is, is like this pop band, right? That gets the attention of all the teenagers. And of course, everybody wants to be this pop band and be part of this, you know, like experience. But in reality, the pop band, uh, like also gets old and loses all the audience and stuff. And, and not all the time, but most of the songs of, of the pop bands, if they're mediocre, you forget about them. Maybe they have one hit and that's it. The most important is doing what you believe in and not trying to go chasing trends. So I'm totally with you on this one. Of course.

10:27RossAnd I mean, you got a music, music should be for you, the creator first, in my opinion. You know, I, I don't, I, I play music for me. I write songs for me and it'll just make me happy. This is how I like to spend my free time. You know, we're all, we're all different. People spend their free time in different ways. And this is, this just so happens to be the way I like to spend my free time. You know, I like make, I like listening to music. I love playing music.

10:55HostSo tell me more about the album, you know, right? So it's been like, uh, the last album was in 2018, right? Yeah. So we already like know that it's going to be, uh, beefier, like say like this, you know, more. Yeah. How, how's the, how, how is the sound? I mean, it's still going to be you, but like if we compare it to the previous album, hell town or higher time, you know, like, like, how is it different?

11:20RossYeah. Yeah. Um, and it is different. Um, hell town, we were kind of looking at, uh, looking at it as in, you know, just like a more fun album, like slight, you know, it's a little bit lighter, short songs, most songs on it, uh, maybe the exception of one where like really heavy, fast rocking songs, you know, in the three minute or three and a half minute, close to four minute range. Um, and for the fourth album, uh, there's a lot of mellow songs on it. Actually, there's, you know, we still have our, our rock songs, you know, but there it's, it's considered maybe the most mellow of all of our albums is the fourth album.

12:07HostDo you think it's, uh, because of the experience of everything that's went like in the last five years, uh, has a huge influence on the thing?

12:20RossWith, you know, writing a lot of, uh, maybe, well, maybe the, maybe half the album was written during like COVID COVID times or maybe like, yeah. So, you know, everything's was of course like locked down and it's just not very, um, uplifting of a time period to just write a bunch of fun rock songs. So we kind of, you know, and as with everyone during that time period, I think everybody was just kind of like, you know, blah, I'm just, I'm tired of being here and, and everything's closed down. And, and I think that definitely shows in, in this album and, um, and on top of that, we, we hadn't really written, there's some mellow songs that we have, but there isn't many. I think we could, I think we're, we were able to go down that Avenue and, and not bore people to death with it, you know, throw some dynamics on them. So they're not just like dragging the whole time. Uh, we have two acoustic songs on this album, which we've never put on. We've never done full acoustic songs on any album. So we have two for this album. So I think this, um, it'll, it'll sound like us cause it is us, but there will be, this might be the most different of the albums just due to some acoustic songs and some more mellow, hopefully more easy listening. And, you know, like I said, there's also some rock songs on there. So hopefully we've, we can, uh, we've delivered kind of the best of both worlds on this one, where I feel like maybe, uh, especially on the last album, album three, it was kind of like one world and that was rock world.

14:06HostSo yeah, I mean, I'd say that's how it differs when you were talking about the experiences that because of COVID, um, everybody has, uh, uh, uh, the same starting point, right? It's all musicians, artists, right? They had this zero ground to start with. And, and now, especially after like, uh, interviewing people who are coming up with the new music right now, you can see how they are re-reacting, reacting to the stuff that happened to them. For example, like with a heavy tempo, they have a new album, uh, and, uh, the, it's like full of anger, right? Uh, yeah. So like, I just realized that right now we're seeing not only in music, but in, in, in, in artist world, how people are reacting to everything that's going on in the world. And, you know, like, uh, definitely I can see that people are trying to write, to show, to play, whatever stuff that they really believe in because they understand that, uh, death is around the corner, uh, you know, like, like, like the, the, the, the look of life changed a little bit.

15:19?Oh, big time. Yeah. And, and I don't, I, and for us, I think it was just like taking more of, um, you know, I think a lot of things that are going on in the world today definitely can make you feel

15:32Rossangry, you know, but I, I feel like we've had enough of kind of powery riffs and mean sounding

16:15HostYeah. I mean, if you feel like this, you don't have to hide it. You have to embrace it. Yeah.

16:20?Yeah. Yeah.

16:21HostEspecially don't, don't pretend because everybody will understand that you are faking it anyway.

16:27?They will feel it. Oh yeah.

16:31HostIt's about, um, the band members. Everybody is like still on board, all good, nothing changed because there's like why I'm asking basic questions because there was not much information in the last like years almost. You didn't give so many interviews.

16:45?Yeah.

16:45HostThe freshest interview was actually for the orange amplifiers that you like a small short video that you did recently.

16:52?Yeah.

16:52HostYeah. Just a little bit of, of, of explanation of orange stuff. Right. It's about, but not much.

16:59RossYeah. Yeah. That's, that's true. We don't, we don't really do too many interviews. Sometimes we'll get asked to do one and then drop the ball on it because we're, we're so busy.

17:29HostAnd people who are not musicians are, would be surprised how many successful musicians are actually have to work to have a day job, you know?

17:38?Oh yeah.

17:39HostI mean, it's like a, like a 85%, 90, 90% probably of all people who wouldn't, you would never expect to, to have a day job. They have day jobs.

17:48RossYeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so, and, and any interview that maybe we've not, not done or whatever, it's, you

18:01RossI'm still going to play music because I love to do it. And I was glad that when you reached out to us that, uh, you offered up a good time slot and, uh, you know, I'm, I was able to do it, which I very much appreciate because I know you guys are, you know, six or so hours ahead of us. But yeah, but as far as the band goes, it's, it's still, it's still the four, four of us. We had on our second album, uh, we had a different bass player, uh, and he toured with us, you know, with that on that album cycle. And then our original bass player, uh, rejoined the band.

18:38RossWe don't, we had a, we had our keyboard player from the very first album.

18:50Rossthe album came out. So we, we kind of now have a revolving door of touring keyboard players, but we, we wrote

19:02RossAnd this album is the first album we, uh, wrote with the keyboard player being there since the first album. So the, the second and third album, when you hear a keyboard, it was just basically an afterthought, you know, like, Oh, here, here's a good key part to polish it a little bit at

19:23Hostsome flavor.

19:27RossAnd, and so this album, I think the keyboard parts are, uh, just, just much better, much more fitting, you know, and it was just an all around pleasure. You kind of forget how nice it is to have a keyboard player there when you're working on your new material, you know, they can, uh, uh, keyboard, you know, riff or whatever in the right spot can totally make something sound incredible. Um, but yeah, other than that, we're all, it's, it's the main four of us.

19:56HostHave you, when you toured, I think you, well, you were touring without the keyboard player, right?

20:01RossLike if it's like, we, we have done that, uh, in, in the past, which is probably one of my biggest regrets is not finding a keyboard player to tour with. Um, uh, when we did that, uh, now we always, we, we haven't gone without a keyboard player, I think since the third album, uh, and until now we, we have not done a show without a keyboard player and we won't do a show unless a keyboard player can be there. It's, it's just become too much a part of the sound. And when we don't have it, it's, it's thin, it's missing a lot of the, the, what, what would make our songs unique, you know? But yeah, again, you got, you just kind of got to do what you got to do. Not everybody can just pick up and leave for a month and, and, and then at the end come home and, and not make a ton of money. I mean, you make some decent money, but if you're only making money to come home and catch up back on the bills, you know, it's just a lot of people will be like, I don't want to do that, yeah, and, uh, so it's, uh, we feel very grateful for the keyboard players that have joined us in the past several years.

21:12HostSo I was, uh, when was the last tour, uh, in Europe? Uh, it was like a last year.

21:20HostI, oh man, it was a for Manchu, I think.

21:25HostI mean, one year or two years ago.

21:30HostYeah. I mean, uh, you came to Austria some time ago, but I couldn't make it back then. So I kind of missed your gig. So hopefully, like with a new album, you would come to, to Europe, Austria again. Uh, would be cool.

21:43RossOh yeah. Yeah. Austria is amazing. Yeah. I would, I would, I would love that. And I'm, and I'm sure that'll happen. You know, that's always the goal. It's always fun to, uh, come over to Europe. You know, we all love it.

21:53HostHave you played the, the new music that you're going to release on the album, like live at, uh, at, uh, local gigs or something like this? Have you experimented with that? Maybe people already heard your music, but didn't know it's new and new.

22:07RossYeah. Yeah. Um, yeah. We did that even with the Fu Manchu tour. We played, uh, two new ones, uh, every night that we played with them just to, you know, just cause it's been, it's been so long since we've played new music and, um, and then yeah, when we play home shows, we might do, uh, two or three, we don't want to, we don't want to put them all out there just yet, you know, get the album out and, and then just, and then really open them up to people, you know, with like, you know, the day of we're in that time where people can just record you playing them live and then throw them up online. And then it's like, not as special when it comes out. Uh, so we try not to play, uh, you know, too many, we kind of stick to that two, maybe three new songs when we do play, but I mean, people seem to, people seem to dig them. So, I mean, you know, we'll see, you know, it's not, I mean, I, I guess I'd be shocked if we played a new song and, and it ended and everyone booed. Did it ever happen to you?

23:10HostNo, you know, because, because you're, you're not a shitty band. You're a good band. So, I mean, I understand your fear. Uh, we all fear that, but, uh, and it's, and if you don't fear that it's something is

23:26HostNo, totally get it, man. But, uh, no, it'll be cool to, to, to hear the new music, like, like, but that's, that's really cool to know that something is coming up. It's not over yet. That's why I wanted to do interview to check up on you, you know, like, because you never know. And I wanted to encourage you to, to make the new music in case you're not doing it or kick your ass for that. Yeah.

23:49HostBecause you have a lot of fans who are waiting, you know?

23:52RossYeah. And, and, and yeah, and I, and I very much appreciate everyone who's eager for new music, music from us. You know, we, I think we all in, in the band feel lucky that we're able to, uh, you know, to, to do any of this, to come to Europe is such an honor, you know, and, um, not very many people get to do that. And yeah, I think we're all excited. Jump back.

24:15HostI did an interview with, uh, heavy tempo, howling giant recently. And I was asking howling giant, how was for them to tour Europe because they've never done that before. You know, like the excitement in their face and eyes, you know, like the whole experience is amazing.

24:30RossYeah. And Europeans are, are such like good, loyal rock fans too. It's, I mean, America, we, we have them too, but it almost sometimes it feels like rock, rock music is more important to Europeans or something. You know?

24:45HostProbably. Yes. I would say, yes, especially like, like middle, I mean, pretty much Europe. Yes. I would say heavy metal music and rock, hard rock and rock. Uh, that's what I heard from other musicians, rock musicians. They feel that in Europe, more appreciated, more dedicated fans, super fans. Um, I don't know why.

25:08RossVery sweet, very sweet people. We, I, the, the venues, like I, I always thought this was really cool. Uh, about Europe is a lot of venues will also have a place that you can stay, you know? So, so you get done with the gig and you're not racing around, you know, hopping on the phone and then trying to figure out a hotel and then racing over to the hotel so you can get the bed. And like, you know, they, they give you this wonderful dinner when you show up and there's, there's beers in the fridge. And it's just, uh, you know, in America, you know, you might be handed two drink tickets and have to fight for money to buy yourself dinner and, and, and, you know, they're not going to have dinner for you, you know, maybe some venues might, but like most venues are going to try to hand you 10 bucks and tell you there's, you know, a Chipotle within walking

26:01Hostdistance, you know, all bands from, uh, North America with whom I spoke and said the same thing exactly, you know, and after this, you know, like when you see American, American musicians, like, okay, you're, you're, you're in a safe space, come here. Like, you know, as Europeans were like, okay, you can like totally play music and chill, you know, like we can, we'll take care of you. We understand.

26:29HostSo the plans right now is, uh, hopefully mixing is done soon, right? You start shopping around, uh, labels, uh, any particular, like maybe like we should like, uh, like, uh, spread the word or something like this. Are you looking for something specific or, or just nice people with a good, good contract? Yeah.

26:51?Yeah. Yeah. I don't really, I haven't really gone down that, uh, road in my mind yet because I'm just trying to get this album done, but, but yeah, I, I, I record label with, yeah, that's going to give you a nice contract that, you know, it'd be nice to, if they had like a, a long reach, you know, maybe connections, uh, maybe they want to spend a little money on

27:17Hostmarketing support, support, tour support. Exactly, exactly, exactly, that would be booking connections in Europe, Australia.

27:35Rossbe amazing. Those are, those would be the key things.

27:37HostYeah, well, you never know, but yeah, I mean, but now I'm trying to calculate, okay, if, if even tomorrow you're going to get signs by label, it means that the music will come out only like, like, I don't know, like the fastest four months later, the fastest.

27:53RossYeah, yeah, yeah, I know, and which is why it's like, we're trying to really work hard now, you know, just, we've got to get this thing done, and it's so close, but yeah, you just, now that is, that is one thing I have thought of, you know, yeah, it's like, once it is done, you know, we got some, still some months to go, you know?

28:12HostYeah, yeah, and production, production of like, merch, vinyl, takes time, planning of the tour, support tour of the, of the album, takes time, oh, so much work, man.

28:29HostAnd everybody has a job, yes, yes.

28:33HostAll right, man, so, I don't want to bother you too much, I wanted to check up on you, third time I say this. Which song should I put at the end of the interview, a good introduction to the Electric Citizen band?

28:45?Bagger's Knee.