The Strive’s lead singer Brendan Stevens returned to Jake’s Take to talk about how the Strive has grown and their upcoming gig at Dancefestopia. (Photo by Jason Domingues; Courtesy of the Strive)
By: Jacob Elyachar
Dancefestopia 2013 is in four days!
Among the acts that are on this year’s line-up is Kansas City-based band: The Strive.
I had the privilege of meeting the group when they performed at last year’s Red, White and Boom concert.
The Strive is an incredible group that has superb stage presence and perfected the balance between original material and covers. They continued to impress audiences across the Midwest and played on the Warped Tour stage when the festival stopped in Kansas City.
Recently, The Strive’s lead singer Brendan Stevens took time out of his schedule to participate in another edition of Catching Up With…
Jacob Elyachar: How has the Strive grown as a band since the last time we spoke?
Brendan Stevens: Over the past year, we have really focused more on being our own label. A lot of bands are completely independent. Since Red, White and Boom, we learned that nothing is ever given to you and there is rarely anybody that is swept off their feet and thrown directly into spotlight with everything taken care of. We tried to earn it ourselves. We learned that to use our own money to support our dreams. The band has also grown up tremendously since we last spoke and we are living with the idea that we will never get signed. We are an independent band and we are doing it on our own.
“Caught Inside” is the Strive’s most personal EP yet. (Album cover courtesy of the Strive)
JE: This year, the band released its third EP, “Caught Inside,” earlier this year. What were the challenges that the band faced while recording this EP and how did you overcome them?
BS: I think that the first challenge was coming up with the money. We worked with a producer named Kevin Gates. He lives in Springfield and worked with a lot of successful acts. He always produces high quality products, which was awesome for us. But, when you have five guys that are college students, it is hard to come up with that kind of money. We did a Kickstarter and set our goals unrealistically high and it failed. The band took it as a learning experience and we now know what to expect when we go back to do another one in the future.
Another problem that we faced were our schedules. My rhythm guitarist, Greg, and I were finishing up finals while we were trying to release the album. Luke was in college and my other two band members worked 40 hours a week. Three of us went down to Springfield and knocked out drums and guitars, while I traveled by myself to do vocals and went back a week later to finish the recordings and it was a taxing process for us but it was well worth it in the end. We were very happy with what we released.
JE: One track that I enjoyed listening to was “The Way It Goes.” What is the story behind that song?
BS: “The Way It Goes” is about how the Strive has changed as a band. The chorus states, “You are pulling me up. You are pushing me down and you are a bad habit that I cannot live without.” It is music in general and it is also one of the most frustrating things in the world. We work on our product everyday and hope that someone catches on. However, when there are a lot of people doing the same thing we asked ourselves…. “How are we going to stand out?” The last line of the song states, “This game is a big black hole and that is just the way it goes.” In the music industry, you never know who’s going to be listening or who cares, but at the end of the day it is all on you as a musician.
JE: The Strive recorded a deep track on your EP called “Bury Me Under.” What was the recording process like for that song?
BS: We have recorded that song a couple of times as a demo. This track was definitely taxing on me to sing. “Bury Me Under” was about my relationship with my ex-girlfriend. We could not figure our relationship out because we could not change ourselves and at the end of the day, it was one of those things where we had to bury it and had to rebuild it.
It was weird to sing about someone who I missed. But, at the same time, I did not want to touch upon this subject again. This was a really scary thing for me to think about so it was a deeply emotional recording process for me but I am satisfied with the way the song turned out. We actually have a music video for “Bury Me Under” that is coming out at the end of the summer and it is something that are fans should look forward to.
JE: What are your favorite songs on your album?
BS: I love them all and they are my babies. “Bury Me Under” is one of them and I really enjoy performing “Rescue Me.” “Rescue Me” is a great song because I did not know what it was going to sound like when we went to the studio and we had the demo for almost two years. I was excited when we decided to explore that song. Our producer really helped us get it right to where we wanted to be.
JE: How has your songwriting process grown since the last time we talked?
BS: We always want to make the best product possible but we want to please ourselves as well. One of the biggest things that I thought about over the year was “What the difference between music and art?” Some people want their art to sit on the shelf and want no one to touch it and a lot of people treat music the same way.
In our opinion, the Strive wants to make a product that people listen to. Some times, we have to go back to make our songs catchier or even sing-along able. We understand that is not always about us, but we have noticed that other bands have problems with this issue.
We ran into that situation when we recorded “Patience,” which is probably our most pop music-oriented song. While recording it, we thought: “What would sound good on Mix 93.3?” Not that we were trying to sell out or anything, but we want to try to explore writing different type of songs whatever it be deep ballads, rock anthems or bubblegum pop dance tunes.
The Strive will be one of the acts that will be performing at the 2013 Dancefestopia! (Photo courtesy of the Strive)
JE: The Strive will be performing at this year’s Dancefestopia. How did this gig come about?
BS: We knew Dancefestopia co-founder Kevin Bordegon for a while. He e-mailed us about the possibility of getting on the 2013 Dancefestopia line-up. We reached out to him through Facebook and told him: “If you need local support, we are totally down for it.” We love that festival vibe and it is more fun to play at a festival-like setting than it is to play at in a club setting. We sent him our tracks, music videos and our performances from the Warped Tour and Red, White and Boom. We will be on Dancefestopia’s main stage and will have a 45-minute set.
JE: How has social media helped the band’s growing career?
BS: My drummer, Nick Stacy, has a YouTube channel dedicated to drum covers and he has thousands of subscribers. Nick started posting videos of our band and a lot of the viewers stated that, “These are not drum covers, but the band rocks and we will like your Facebook page.” In the first month, the video received 2,000 likes. Besides the YouTube channel, our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages also helped us connect with our fans as well. One example of how social media helped us is when we held a Facebook contest for an original copy of our “Sleepless” artwork. It was one of the water-colored paintings and we stated that the person who helped us generate the most likes would win the painting. Ryan Patterson won it because he generated 200 likes to our page in less than a week.
JE: If you had a chance to meet with bands that want to work in the music industry, what advice would you share with them?
BS: This question is the hardest to answer because we are still an aspiring band ourselves. The band is very fortunate to be in the position we are in, but we are miles away from where we want to be. My best advice is to be your own label, no one is going to hand you anything anymore. It is a miracle if someone hears your music once and says, “Alright! I am putting you on a plane to go on your world tour.” You have to be self-supportive and do not sign anything before you show this to a lawyer. Our band lost $10,000 to a promotional company that said that they were going to help us and it never happened. We spent a lot of money that we did not have on that bad deal.
I love my guys insanely and we are best friends. We do not show up to practice and have small talk; you have to grow as a group and do not lose sight of that. At the end of the day, these are the guys you get to hang out with those guys. It is not going to practice and go home, they are still going to be your best friends at the end of the day. Another piece of advice is to never give up. There have been times that each member of the Strive has wanted to throw in the towel, but we have grown stronger as a group because of those challenges.
For more information about the Strive, visit their website: http://www.wearethestrive.com/
To connect with the band on social media, visit their Facebook, Twitter & You Tube channels.
Don’t forget there is still to time purchase tickets to Dancefestopia 2013! You can do it by visiting the festival’s website: http://www.dancefestopia.com/
