Echo Park - June 2013
Echo Park has been on my radar for quite a while, I was contacted by James, the bass player in February, asking if I would blog about the band. Four months later and here we are, James has kept in contact and Echo Park has released a music video for their single "Circles". Guess a lot can happen in four months.
Echo Park is a five piece band consisting of Laurence Brundson, Michael Walden, Jordan Buck, Max Santos and James Gregory. They are currently getting ready to release their E.P. and have been touring quite a bit here in the UK. They were kind enough to find the time to do an interview with me, they are full of jokes and laughs and a band many people will get along well with. This is my EXCLUSIVE with these guys, and something totally new for Artist Of The Month.
The Band Members:
Name: Laurence
Age: 23
Role in Band: Vocals
Fear: Cockroaches
One Wish: Double length weekends
All-time favourite song: Newton Faulkner - To The Light
Guilty Pleasure song: t.A.T.u. - All The Things She Said
Something Surprising: My mother dropped me in a river when I was 6 months old, that's not even a joke!
If you had a magic power what would it be? Ice Powers!
If you were invisible for the day what would you do? Spend a lot more time at Jessica Alba’s house. That's right….. MORE time!
Name: Michael
Age: 24
Role in Band: Guitar
Fear: George Michael hiding in my closet
One Wish: A packet of Hobnobs
All-time favourite song: The Beatles - Got To Get You Into My Life
Guilty Pleasure song: Bruno Mars - Locked Out Of Heaven
Something Surprising: Mother of eight
If you had magic powers what would it be? Loads of arms and legs so I could play all instruments at the same time so I can ditch all these guys who are just holding me back
If you were invisible for the day what would you do? A Jigsaw
Name: Jordan
Age: 24
Role in Band: Guitar
Fear: Scary Spice
One Wish: Tea with the queen
All-time favourite song: Echo Park - Circles
Guilty Pleasure song: The Saturdays Featuring Sean Paul - What About Us
Something Surprising: Divorced four times
If you had a magic power what would it be? Also loads of arms and legs but not for playing instruments…
If you were invisible for the day what would you do? S*** on Max
Name: Max
Age: 24
Role in Band: Drums
Fear: Justin Bieber’s next album
One Wish: For Jordan to become mute
All-time favourite song: Fleetwood Mac - Second Hand News
Guilty Pleasure song: Will Smith - Miami
Something Surprising: I'm actually a woman
If you had a magic power what would it be? To make women orgasm at a glance (still trying)
If you were invisible for the day what would you do? S*** myself
Name: James
Age: 24
Role in Band: Bass
Fear: Snapping my banjo string
One Wish: For every person to hear Echo Park!
All-time favourite song: Led Zeppelin - What Is And What Should Never Be
Guilty Pleasure song: Craig David - 7 Days
Something Surprising: Hand Model
If you had a magic power what would it be? Pause Time
If you were invisible for the day what would you do? Steal the crown jewels
How did you guys meet?
Jordan: Getting this line-up together has been a long time in the making! Michael, Max and I were friends from school and had been in a few bands over the years with various different line ups. We struggled over the years to find a singer but eventually met Laurence through mutual friends. I met James snowboarding of all places! Although not a great a boarder, he made up for it on the bass so we let him join.
How did you come up with the name Echo Park?
Unfortunately there's no real story behind the name, Echo Park sounded cool to us so we just rolled with it.
What is the funniest thing you've done since you've been together?
Probably our night out after our first gig, it was pound a pint night at the Pav Tav which got pretty crazy very quickly! If you were there for that, sorry!
You've performed at a number of places so far, what was your favourite venue?
Probably our second ever gig at the 100 Club – It was absolutely packed and loads of our friends and family came down to support. Good party after!
Are you friends with anyone famous?
James’ Great Aunt lives next door to Robert Plant… if that counts?
Yes it does count. So who writes your songs? Who wrote "Circles"?
Recently,
song writing has been a collaborative effort. One of us comes up with a
riff, melody or chord progression, then we jam it and the song
gradually develops. For Circles in particular, Mike wrote the song base whilst being majorly influenced by Jordan and the rest of the band through the various sections.
What is "Circles" about? It’s about being fatally attracted to someone you can’t have and you know will only be bad for you.
What has been the biggest challenge as a band so far?
At the moment we're all pretty spread out from each other, so arranging stuff can be a bit of a nightmare! As musicians we're not the most organised bunch… There's definitely some pro's though, Laurence lives in Southampton and has good relationships with promoters so there's never any shortage of gigs down there! We just played an awesome show at the Joiners and heading back in a few weeks as part of our EP launch, we'll keep you posted…
At the moment we're all pretty spread out from each other, so arranging stuff can be a bit of a nightmare! As musicians we're not the most organised bunch… There's definitely some pro's though, Laurence lives in Southampton and has good relationships with promoters so there's never any shortage of gigs down there! We just played an awesome show at the Joiners and heading back in a few weeks as part of our EP launch, we'll keep you posted…
Who are your main influences?
I'm not sure we have a main influence, we're pretty broad when it comes to music taste. I guess anything from 60's Rock right through to Radio 1 Charts. Hopefully this weird mixture creates something cool?!
And finally... What is your advice for anyone starting up their own band?
Don't Start A Band
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