HOW TO GO
What: The Broken Lights with Good English
Where: Canal Street Tavern, 308 E. First St., Dayton
When: 9 p.m. Friday, March 15. Doors open at 8 p.m.
Cost: $5
More info: (937) 461-9343 or www.canalstreettavern.com
Artist info:
Debut albums are often unfocused, especially when the musicians creating them are in their late teens and early 20s. However, that wasn’t a problem for local trio The Broken Lights, which formed in July 2010.
The Broken Lights’ new self-titled CD, getting its official release at Canal Street Tavern in Dayton on Friday, is a cohesive blast of blues-rock that draws inspiration from bands from the past while managing to sound completely contemporary.
Band members Tyler Cochran, 20 (vocals, guitar), bassist Andy Uzzel, 17, and drummer Zach Grove, 18, sat down recently in the library at Sinclair Community College to discuss the band’s new full-length.
Life-altering sessions
Grove: “Working with Steve (Falearos) at Babblefish (Studios in Franklin) was life-changing. It opened up all of our eyes and exposed us to things we needed to work on individually, and the atmosphere there was really sweet.”
Cochran: “It was a lot more than any of us expected. Not only going into the studio and the atmosphere but working with Steve was another level for us. He knew how to technically get to the sounds that we had in our heads.”
Live vs. recording
Cochran: “I’ve always been very disappointed when I listen to an album cut and then go see someone live and the synth is gone, the violin is gone or whatever. If we didn’t have it for the live show, I really didn’t want to put it in there.”
Uzzel: “Our biggest focus was trying to get all that energy from the live show into the CD. It turned out to be a lot more difficult than we thought.”
Cochran: “The songs have definitely been polished and sound a lot better than when we first started recording them. But what I did like about the studio is the songs did still retain the character they originally had when we wrote them, which was very important to me.”
Studio demands
Grove: “With the CD, we had to very technical and very demanding on the things we had to do. Live there’s a little bit more freedom. We wanted to capture that live energy but also sound professional and that was tough.”
Cochran: “When you’re playing live, the tempo can fluctuate a little bit and stuff like that. A little bit of the sloppiness is what makes the show to me, especially with us being more of a blues-rock type band. In the studio you’re under a magnifying glass and that sloppiness doesn’t cut it there. That’s something we had to adjust to.”
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