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Bandhappy Bandchat with Dave Scmitt of Breathe Carolina

everybody, I'm thin Mackenzie. I'm the head of the music and audio channel here on Creativelive. If you're new to crave live where the world's best online classroom for you to learn how to make music so song writing, mixing engineering, mastering all that stuff. We have all the world's best teaching how to do that here for free every day. We have David from Brief Carolina here to talk to us about the band Happy Master classes he's going to be doing every day on this year's Vans Warped tour. If you want to buy a ticket for that, go to band happy dot com slash warp tour, find his master classic and sign up for it. And later on, we will be taking audience questions in the second half of this. So if you have a question for David than that's place to ask, it s O David. Aside from aside from you know, handling aside from handling the wild territory of getting Skype working on your phone, what have you been up to lately? Band Wise, Um, you've been in the past couple weeks. We've been really g...

rounded and getting everything ready for warp tour. It's kind of one of those tours where you have to prepare for so much you don't release Start preparing until two weeks before. I guess it kind of seems like that. Just been doing that. We've been doing a lot of D j shows which has been really, really fun and yeah, preparing for war D J. And it's been a wild couple months. We did worked in 2009 also, is that right? 2010 waded 2000 9010 and 2012 0 shit. Wow. Yeah, Yeah, This is, uh, man, you You may have done warped tour more than, like, almost anybody else I know it's been Ah, it's crazy too, because every time we do it, we feel like we've evolved so much since the year before. And so it's cool, Like looking back on all the other years. And when I look at 2009 I'm just like, wow, like we're just babies, Like trying to survive. Yeah, I remember 2010. I think it was you guys had. It was it was a fairly early slot. You're playing like two or 3 p.m. And he had, like, a huge crowd, and I was like, Wow, this pans going somewhere cause, you know, I knew, like, hello, fascination and stuff. And it was, like, doing well, but, like, that's when I really realized work towards a good gauge for that sort of thing. I was like, OK, these guys were going somewhere and, you know, for five years later, you definitely did. So, um, worked or paid off? Yeah. You know, this year is gonna be fun. We're bringing in, you know, we're gonna bring quite a different set than is gonna be that you're going to see on work to her out of any work to her from either past or present or anything. You know, we're, uh we're gonna be bringing some crazy stuffs were really excited. Yeah. So I wanted to ask you a little bit like musical direction and writing process wise, you know, So you really savages this year, which has some of your most accessible pop stuff. But it also has what I think is probably your heaviest song. The one he did with with Danny. I know the writing process had some twists and turns there with label situation, trying to get pushed in this way and I'm going another direction, you know? How did you end up coming up? Was the writing process, like for the songs that actually ended up made it, making it onto the record. You know, we took so long at first cause we really were kind of confused. We didn't really know what was the next step for brief Carolina and and, you know, we went through a lot of different trials and tribulations and just trying new things and, you know, got to a point where we were doing all these co writes and we never really done that before. So it wasn't really our thing and just kind of got discouraged, and so we just kind of stopped writing for a minute. We're just like, I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. And then, you know, after Kyle had left the band's there was the new burst of energy within, you know, the rest of us and we got back in the studio and, you know, it took us two months to finish it, and it was just songs that, you know, I guess we had thought in our heads and then try to make him. I don't know. It was, you know, something where we want to go. Really? You know, we've always been dancer, whatever the hell you want to call electro. Whatever. Um, until we wanted to really make that, you know, a point in this album, we wanted to make it known that, like, this is the direction we want to go and we're gonna do. But we also you know, we all grew up listening and playing in, like, heavier bands and stuff, and we didn't want toe get that aspect of us either. You know, we thought, like what better? Well, better away toe bring a heavy song toe life in tow. Have ah, Danny from asking Come and come and scream on it. So, yeah, that song turned out really crazy and then eventually knew it was gonna happen because I was just writing guitarists and I started laying them down and was like, Oh, whatever. And then started riding over it actually started turning out really sick. And we were like, I will need to figure out what we're gonna do here. Yes, we had Dan economy fucking killed it. Well, you guys have always been able to write, I guess I don't really know another way to say it like, really Dancy poppy heavy songs, you know, like tripped and fell in Portland Or the one with Danny like those air really heavy songs. But they don't They're not, like, heavy. If that makes sense or still like the accessible, I still want to dance to it. You know, that's not too many people can pull that off. You know, I think for us we always want to try to make it just out of the ordinary. You know what I mean? Like, you know, you don't want to keep hearing, you know, the same, like, 10 breakdowns that you would think you would hear and stuff like that. You know, we wanted to add little things here and there to where if we are going to do something heavy like we really needed to get it to stand out. And I think, you know, for us we you know, we're Poppy Band. In a sense, You mean like when you when it's just vocals, it's, you know, there it's pop melodies and things like that, and I think that's just kind of where my brain naturally goes when I hear anything, you know, um and so you got me. I guess we just try to bring a new element toe, anything that we're gonna do If it's heavy, we want to make it weird and crazy. Well, you mentioned that you've been deejaying a little bit. Has that changed the way you think about song writing at all? Absolutely. You know, I think the majority of the songs on the album we kind of based it from over Bill like TDM sensibility. And I think you know, that's where I wanted to take it in the beginning when I first started it. But I guess I just didn't really know how or have the right passion for it at that moment, I guess I don't know what exactly I'm trying to say, but, um, I think it really came out on the album and what we've been doing lately been doing a lot of remixes and stuff like that. And it's it's like a whole new door for us. It literally like I feel like a whole new burst of motivation and inspiration when I listen toe electronic music like I get really, really inspired. And I get really, really happy and I don't know why, but I love it. And I think that, um, definitely has a lot to do with the direction of where everything is going. I could see it also having an influence on how you structure a brief Carolina set, you know, because in a way, a deejay set is like one long song. You wanna have the flow and energy and dynamics and stuff throughout it. And a lot of bands, I think, don't necessarily think of their live set in that same way. I don't know said happen that you came across it all. Oh, I mean, you know, for us we want to make it. It's fun. It's possible, you know? I mean, we don't want to just be, you know? I mean, everyone also wants to hear, like a band come and play their songs, but it's like with that we give it a little bit of extra, I guess you know what I mean. Like, we'll start off with something crazy and will play a couple of songs, and we make our set like a deejay set would be So it's like in between we're playing our songs that will drop in a couple, you know, drops that we had made or other people's drops just to keep the energy up and to keep things unexpected, because I think that I breathe Carolina show. You never know what's gonna happen. I think we've always kind of put that effort fourth toe to make it a little bit unexpected. And you know, you're going to see things and hear things that you're not gonna see e from, you know, here in our songs or in our CDs or anything like that. You're gonna get a whole new vibe as well as everything else. Yeah, I don't know if you if you probably know this major friends with them, But, like I found out recently that cash cash are like huge like DJs now, like Ian. Yeah, they're dying in Brazil, I guess. Yeah, they're they're absolutely You know, we've been good from that those guys for a long time. And, you know, they went away for a little while and they came out so, so strong. And I think a lot of people are envious of them now because it's just They were silent for a little while, but the whole time they were silent. They were just working, working, working, working, working. And, you know, now it's just paid off tenfold. You know, they have some of the biggest remixes out right now. You know, they just did E d. C. In New York. Yeah, so I mean, huge. Congrats. Those guys, they deserve it more than anybody. And it's it's amazing to me. I love it. I could see has kind of head in the same direction there. So let's talk about your work tour class a little bit. What? What can give people a bit of a preview as to where you're gonna be teaching every day? Yeah. I mean, you know, for me, I got asked to do it. I thought about what I could give the most back of, um, you know, because people were like, Oh, we're gonna do like, a guitar class or a song writing class or vocal or whatever, and I just started looking back on everything that I've done. I wanted it to be like a band life class because, um, I've been through every stage of a band or an artist that you could ever even think of going through, you know, I mean, we went do the days of, you know, all of us don't have nowhere to sleep. We had no food or making you know, 50 bucks a night. If we're lucky for you know, the whole band and going through, You know, the grind, that hard process, that everything you have to do for that, you know, selling CDs when your own shows and shit like that. And then, you know, getting a little bit bigger to where we could be like, Oh, cool. Like, you know, now we can have a coachable with us and you can get hotel rooms and stuff like that to then you know, being on a bus full time and then going and doing all the radio stuff that happened blackout and playing with crazy artists like people of cash and all that kind of stuff, you know, and doing the work to rose also, and everything that goes in between of all those things. And I thought that would be really cool to share, you know, everything that it it comes with and it's awesome, and it sucks and it's the best thing, and it's the worst thing altogether. And I think I could just offer the best, you know, best knowledge and and life behind the scenes, what it all is and what it all means and the misconceptions and everything like that. So I'm really, really excited about. I think it's gonna be cool. I don't get a chance to talk about ever. You know, do I talk about is my band members. So you know, it's cool that I get to be able to talkto kids about it. Well, I think I think they'll be really great here because, you know, especially like back in the MySpace days, it was very easy to like convince, like, like, sort of present an image that you're like rock stars living large when you're really just a couple kids and like your bedroom, it's like I think maybe there's there's a lot of people would be really eye opening for them to understand that, like you had to eat shit for a long time to get where you are now. Yeah, absolutely. No. I mean, I think I think a lot of these people think like, oh, if you get a record deal or if you have a share in hot topic or if you, you know, on ITunes or something that it means you're all of a sudden just rich and everything is the best. You don't have to work no more. And and it's, you know, it's a human. That's not the case whatsoever. You know, like, you know, we we grinded and had all of that for three years, and we're still, you know, at that point, weren't doing anything making any money, like, you know, But it was perceived that way that it waas So it's just it's grinding harder and harder and harder to finally get to a place that we are now where I can talk about it all and and, you know, be comfortable about it in now we're really happy ending. Yes, we're gonna take audience questions in a minute. If you want to ask one. There's a little blue link right below this video that says Chat live with class participants. Just click on that on, and then you go into the chat room and ask your question there, and then I can pass it on to David before we do that. You know, you're a busy guy. You got a lot going on with the band War tourist. Crazy is crazy enough as it is. Why take an hour out of your day every day to do this class? Why is this important to you? You know, I think it's just I think it's important because I think it's gonna be a really cool thing. For, you know, all of the kids are fans of friends, whatever you we call in these days, but I think it's just gonna really cool. It's something that I wanted to do, something I feel like I could give a lot back from. And, you know, the password tour that I've done. I haven't got to do anything like this. Actually, I've never got to do anything like this. So I think for me, it was just like, this is a really cool idea. This is gonna be really fun. And I honestly can't wait. You know what I mean? With worked to his Very You're very on a schedule every day. That I mean, it's like you wake up. You find out when you're playing, you find out when presses and then you find out when you're signing Czar and it's the same thing every single day. So I think this shit is gonna be awesome, cause I'm doing all of that. And this is Well, it's gonna throw something new in the mix that's going to give me a chance to be on my toes all day and work all day long and, um, just talk about my story. I'm really, really pumped to do it. Cool. Well, we've got some questions coming in, so let's get to those, um, scream. Oh, kid wants to know what inspired you to make chasing hearts and working with Tyler Carter. Uh, I think I have been friends with Tyler for a while. Um, and when we did sleeping with sirens to our issues on it also and we just became really close became really close friends. And we know the whole entire tour because we were finished out the album after that, too. And the whole time, we were like, you wanted to do a song, You need to do a song. And it was actually if not the last one of the last songs we wrote for the album. And, um I sent him a couple tracks we had started, and we're like, we're both ago, these air cool that's working on to get there. But when he came in, we kind of just started from scratch and we just kind of sat down and thought about what would be a really cool way. A to do this collaboration, what's something unique and that's not gonna be expected. You know, it's other we do like a boy band type song or like a metal song or like a techno song, you know what I mean? So it's kind of those three things with the obvious, like, let's do this weird like R and B like Postal Service kind of experimental thing. You know, we just built the track and we just built it and we started talking about ideas and just singing over, and it flowed really easily. I mean, everything that we did right away we all loved and I don't know, it was just a really cool experience, you know, it's it's different when you know you have a feature on a song where you've already written apart and someone comes in and and six is it rather than actually writing the song with the person and I think 1000 cool experience for us and for Tyler, Cause especially doesn't get to do a lot of that. Outside of, you know, he's so busy with issues, and so I think you have a good time with it and it turned out to be really cool. I think it's so one of my favorite songs on the album was one of our favorite songs because it's very, you know, I feel like it's very unique and it's very different. I think that's the thing I love about are banned on most is that we could go in the studio. We just experiment. We just sit there for hours and play stupid instruments and try a weird since and just all day and see what see what we come up with. So it was. It was very fun. There's a good time. Well, Shadow two issues. They're friends of mine. Check out tie from issues. Scout, check out his deejay set. He's going to do in that fashion to the man, so definitely check that out. Um, so here's Here's a good question. You talked about kind of the grind and talked about like how that's affected you. Peace, Love Annemari wants to know. How has your relationship with family and friends changed as a result of being in a band? It's kind of tough being in a bubble like nine months out of the year, like you guys are, you know? Yeah. I mean, it's one of those things where I think it's much harder, you know, for for the person that has to always get home bother, then the person that's gone, even though it's the same relationship and you're still missing them. There's a lot of distractions that come in your way. You know, there's a lot of shows, and when you're not shows in your playing PAC shows and you feel you know so much love come from the crowd. You know, you kind of make up from the love that you're missing at home. But then after the show, you know, you sit down and you think about your like, damn like I miss my friends, like, you know, like my family. I don't get to see that much. I they live, you know, 2000 miles away from me when I'm gone, obviously gone so that's harder, and it really puts a strain on relationships. It really, really does. You know, I've lost a lot of friends along the way. Relationship with girlfriends have failed along the way things like that. So it's very hard. But, you know, tour in being in a band, you have to honestly be built for that kind of life. You have to be okay with All right. I'm not going to see my family for, Ah, whole year. Or, you know, that friend that I had two years to go. I have no idea where he's at now, because I didn't have time to call him or something, you know? So there's a lot of that going on and it does get tough. It's really tough. It's definitely not a normal life, but we all love it. You can ask anybody in a band that it's hard and it's the hardest thing in the world, but we love it more than anything in the world. So it's OK, Yeah, I definitely I'm not built for it. I could not You know, I go out on tour for a couple of days here and there, and that is more than enough for me. Hannah Pettitte has good question. What other band and warped tour do you think or hope you'd become closer with? So I know a lot of kind of unlikely friendships end up like being like, Man, I I'm not really into this band, but I love these guys. Like, what are some of the bands that you kind of didn't expect to end up being buddies with? That you are? Well, it's actually funny, because before, um before I had started this chat, I actually wanted to look up another chat that you guys had done just to kind of see how it goes. And I saw the Attila one with Franz. I have obviously, I'm familiar with the tiller and him, but I have never met them. Everyone I talked to all my other friends said, They're like the coolest dudes in the world, that the funnest past, the party with And you know, I think people know that that breathe. Carolina likes toe, have some fun, you know, here and there. So I think I think I'm excited. Teoh get to know those guys and hopefully you know they want toe get to know us I guess so. Franz, if you're watching, you know you've got a proposal for a bromance here way could make a romantic connection. Eso there's There's a lot of people asking about meet and greets about. Are you going to be walking around saying hi to people afterwards? So kind of talk about like how important it is? Toe Make that personal connection with your fans on warp tour? And if they wanna meet you, how they could do that? Um, well, we will be doing a signing every day. Sometimes I'm actually going to be trying to do to signings. Um, and I will let that be known, but we'll be doing a signing at the key attend every every day. And it's really important for us because I think you know, it's important for us because it's important t kid than everyone that's there at work to her to get a chance to meet us. And it it's honestly kind of hard, because during World Tour you're so, so busy that your signings on a strict time schedule and sometimes they can't get everybody in through the line or, you know everyone doesn't get a chance. Toe. I guess, Say what they want to say and you know, that kind of sucks, because I won't have to kind of get rushed. But, you know, we we do our best. And I mean, I speak on behalf of everybody that's in a band anywhere. You know, we all do our best to make sure that we get a chance to talk to each and every person. And, like I said after, you know, are scheduled signing. If I'm really gonna make it a point to do another just quick signing at the 10 afterwards like you want to come say what been try to get everybody that we couldn't get through during the day. Cool. While I'm sure that everyone you know, that's one of Cole's parts about Warped tour is that it is such a you know, you just you know, you're the guy on stage where you're still just a guy, you know, just a normal. It's cool for people to kind of see you like man. He's just sitting around like bored, texting his friends, just like I am. She had we all have to use porta potties that will help, so don't worry about that Yeah, There you go. So another question, I, unfortunately do not remember who it's from, but, you know, so we all know that blackout was a big hit, and obviously, and on the one hand, there's some pressure to make it happen again. On the other hand, that almost never works out. How are you dealing with that? Especially this record, like, you know, just kind of let it see what happens. Did you go into with the intent of making something else like that happen? No, no, we didn't at all. And, you know, like like I was many times, like, blackout for us was a fluke, you know? I mean, we didn't write that song for radio. No one wrote that song for us. We did that song by ourselves. It was the easiest time we ever wrote. Took us a day and 1/2 and it just went, you know, I mean, for a reason or something about that's on. It just went And, you know, for a long time there was pressure to do that again, and I realized that I just hated it. I didn't I didn't like that pressure. I stopped having fun making music I saw Sergeant see already already already a radio, and I job me fucking insane. And like I just I couldn't handle anymore. So no, we didn't try to do anything like that on this album. But what's cool is we're actually because a lot of different areas of radio and blackout was considered top 40. And we're actually taking one of the songs dance radio, which is all like the big GTM hits on. So we're really excited about back. It's a whole new lane. It's a whole thing, and it's really, really exciting because, yeah, I mean, it's just another chance for to do that. But in a much different realm, there's not. There's not all the fakeness and weird shit and the pressure to write another song that's everyone's gonna seeing everywhere. You know, they mean because that kind of subsidy, it really makes you jaded on music when you're trying to do that. And I got out of that mindset quick, though I was only in there for a couple months, and I was like, I fucked this like, and with more about I can't say at a time where it has ever worked out that a band was like, We're going to do something commercial And then it did. It just doesn't know Tonto, absolutely. And I think, you know, I think a lot of bands think that it's easy, you know? I mean, a lot of them that it's a goal you gotta do is sing something catchy and it gets on the radio. It's like, You know, I think I would love to talk about in my classes. It's like when we were told that blackout was going to radio, there was a lot of stuff we had to do and we were told was going radio were like Okay, cool. We have a shot. We're gonna go for it. You know? I mean, like, people like this song, Let's fucking go. And it was It was eight months of flights every single day, no sleeping, going to every radio station in the country, going to radio stations in Germany, doing all this stuff, and it warrants out. I was beat. I was dead, you know? I mean, I had no energy and it was tough. You know, there's a lot of things you have to do that go into. They don't just your song on the radio, and that's how it works like that. A lot of things that going to it that I would didn't even know until I was put in that position and really mean a whirlwind. It was It was crazy. It was an awesome experience, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. But I definitely know of a lot of ways I would do things differently if that situation presented itself again. Well, one last question on that note I got a couple, a couple of people wondering about this. You know, the last couple years you have leveled up a lot in terms of your career is a musician. What advice would you give to someone who knows Maybe five years younger than you, just out of high school who wants to get into the music business? We'd go back in time and tell yourself something, David or five years ago, what would you tell yourself? Um, I would tell myself to Don't be quick to trust people. Um, make sure take your time with every little decision you make, even if it comes down to immerses on your proving for your band or a manager you're choosing for your band. Um, engine all your heart. Honestly, you know, I don't follow what's gonna be big. Don't follow, you know? Oh, I heard this awesome metal band. I'm gonna go being a metal band, like, you know, honestly, just follow your heart. Be true to yourself. Trust yourself more than anybody in the entire world. I know that might seem a little crazy, but I promise you it's gonna help you out along the way. I will. I would have told myself that five years ago and just work hard. It's a constant grind. It's a constant work, work, work, work, work. No matter what position you're in, no matter where you get, no matter where people think you are, um, you're always working. You always have to be working like I feel weird and find not working every day. If I have, like our I'm not do anything. I freak out. I've just been trained. Teoh. Feel like you're dropping the ball? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've just been trained to live my life like that. And, um, you know, if you if you do that and you put all your energy and focus into it. There's you could do whatever the fuck you want to do. That's the best thing about life. You can do whatever you want. You've got to make it happen. Well, that's I think that's good. Note to end things on, Thanks to everybody for watching. If you want to buy a ticket to the to the class this year, worked her go to band. Happy dot com slash warp tour. Look for his master class. You can sign up there, David, Thank you so much for being on and deal. Thank you for us. We will see on warp tour. And that's a wrap. Thank you guys.