In this interview spotlight, I chat with Stop.Drop.Rewind about their latest single, challenges, technology and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
As a band, we are from northwest Indiana, although Andy is our only region native. Kris and I are originally from Maryland, and Matt is originally from South Carolina.
We call our genre “progressive powerpop,” or “what happens when emo kids get jazz degrees.”
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
For Kris and I, playing music together has been our dream job since we met when we were 11 years old. We’ve pretty much been writing songs together continuously since then, and we’re still passionate about it and we think we’re getting better at it too, so it’s easy to stay motivated to keep going because it still makes us just as happy as it did 19 years ago when we first started.
For me personally, my dad has always played guitar and used to play for me all the time when I was growing up. He still plays in a cover band in Maryland. But growing up that close to music of course had a huge influence on me; wanting to be like my dad was pretty much the reason I started playing guitar in the first place. Honestly my parents are still super supportive of me and the band, they drive out to Indiana several times a year to see us, and my dad wears all our T-shirt’s and stuff.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
The whole format of this release was different for us, because our 2019 recording project is being released as a series of singles instead of all at once like an album, and “Floating Stone” was the first one we released. We know the industry has been moving toward a more single-heavy release schedule, but we weren’t sure how it would work for us, and I’m sure we’ll keep learning about it as we continue to put out new songs, every two months or so for the rest of the year. But we’re hoping that this new release schedule will help give our followers something to engage with and be excited about year round. We’ll be trying some new things with regard to our “music videos” (I hesitate to even call them that because in a traditional sense that’s not what they all will be) for these releases as well, so that should give people another way to experience “Floating Stone” when its accompanying video comes out in the coming weeks.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this over saturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
You pretty much hit it on the head when you called the market “over saturated.” Social media can be an amazing resource that helps people get connected and stay connected, but it gets harder and harder for one band to set themselves apart from the crowd now that absolutely everyone has access to these resources. We’ve had to change the way that we promote ourselves and the way we connect with our followers, but I think the end result is that we’re more accessible to the people who support us, which I think is a good thing. We’ve grown to take genuine pleasure and pride in the way that we run our social media, knowing that if someone reach out to us on Facebook or Instagram they will hear back from Kris, and that if someone reach out to us on Twitter they will hear back from me.
What was the last song you listened to?
“I’ve Been Delivered,” by the Wallflowers. That’s Jakob Dylan at the height of his powers.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
I’d love to say I still buy CDs, especially given the amount of time I spend trying to sell our CDs, but honestly, it’s all MP3’s for me now. I don’t have a computer or a CD player in my car, so my only option was to go digital. I only feel a little bit like a sellout because of it.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
I like to buy albums from the iTunes Store and listen to them as they were intended, front to back. As for streaming services though, I like Pandora because it gives me the opportunity to listen to music I like and discover new artists at the same time, and once I got an ad on my station for a free Manchester Orchestra concert, so sometimes there’s even good stuff in the ads.
For people to stream and purchase our music though, it’s best to do that directly from us, at www.stopdroprewind.com. That said, we are also on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, Bandcamp, and Pandora, and they’re all fine ways to check us out too. We just want as many people to hear the songs as possible, we don’t care how they do it.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, and twitter, or at stopdroprewind.com. We post regular updates about our releases and shows, and memes but not spoilers, so that’s good right?
Anything else before we sign off?
I think we pretty much covered all the bases! Thanks again for interviewing us, and for sharing “Floating Stone!” We’ll keep you posted about our releases for the rest of the year!
