Stoneshiver's Jesse Wilkin; on scrapping songs, live-band karaoke and the album release show
Also, a new single from Travis Brooks and your weekly events list.
Stoneshiver is out with its sixth recorded release, a five song EP that delivers on what fans have come to expect from the south Valley rock band.
It’s a well produced package of heavy riff rock, met with moments of quieter introspection. There’s a disco cover too, because, “I mean, c’mon, burn that mother down,” says Jesse Wilkin, the band’s frontman/singer.
Here, Wilkin talks in advance of the band’s album release, 7:30 p.m. Friday Oct. 22 at Fulton 55.
How does “Showdown” fit in with the stuff the band has done before?
It’s a natural progression, when you examine the ideas in our previous releases in order. It’s easy for me to make the comparison of all these albums and EP’s released over the years to a journal of my life’s circumstances at the time. Sure, they are poetic and paint word pictures and stuff, but I can pick every line apart and tell you what I was thinking and what life looked like.
I’ve been working my way out of a really dark place these last couple years and this collection of songs, I think, accurately portrays the journey.
The theme this time around is how we confront the obstacles that come up in life. Do we ignore them and hope they go away? Do we cower or cave under pressure? Do we apologize when we wrong someone? Do we meet challenges head on and push through or even just stand our ground?
This particular record, when going back and picking apart the lyrics, explores that moment when you have to make a decision of how you are going to let the world treat you and, more importantly, how you are going to treat the world in response.
What’s the songwriting process for you guys these days?
Since our last release we had added a new member to our band. The dynamics of a group of musicians can change when you throw someone new into the mix.
In the past, I would generally come to the band with an idea or even a full song and the rest of the guys would flesh it out and relatively quickly we would have a completed song.
This time around, we started by just bringing some riffs and hashing them out collectively to see what would happen. Once we got a feel for the new dynamics, we essentially scrapped a bunch of material and started over.
The first round was kind of a practice run at seeing how we could make this work.
There is a temptation to just want to put everything you create out there, but we wanted to put our best foot forward and that meant really sifting through the material we had demoed and leaving some songs behind.
Our previous two releases had my brother, Wyley Wilkin, orchestrating strings and keys and that had added so much depth. This time around our schedules wouldn’t allow for that same level of collaboration, but we knew we wanted to bring in some friends to keep things interesting and fresh.
So, we have a handful of featured artists including Justin Mauriello of I Hate Kate, Art Machuca from Art & the Resistance and Kevin A. Memley, who is a a nationally recognized composer.
I often categorize bands (maybe incorrectly) as live bands or recorded bands. A lot of local bands naturally get lumped into the first category, but you guys have always seemed to make recording a priority.
We love performing live and do everything we can to bring our best efforts to the stage and make sure everyone is having a good time.
That being said, shows come and go and are fantastic in that moment, but recordings last forever. We have always taken our recording process seriously and have tried many new things over the years to improve with each new release we put out. This is our sixth record, so we’ve had a lot of opportunities for improvement.
We love going into Triple 7 Recordings in Bakersfield with our good friend and engineer, Pariecee McGriff.
It is so freeing as musicians to be able to go into an environment like that and focus solely on performing. And you can’t argue with the results. Whether you like our music or not, at least we can confidently say it sounds good. That’s all due to P. We come with a road map and he gets us to our destination.
Do the songs get changed between what you’re able to record and what you present on stage?
We’ve been using samples and backing tracks all the way back to our earliest songs. So, we have been able to faithfully recreate live what we do in the studio. But sometimes we write new arrangements or acoustic versions, depending on what the set calls for. [From the new album] “Shortline,” in particular, has to be modified because none of us can play piano like Kevin [Memley].
We don’t want to nix the song, but we don’t want Stoneshiver karaoke up on stage in the middle of the set either. So, you make compromises and figure out how to deliver the music to the audience in the best way possible while staying true to the song. It’s a challenge but we love it.
Tell us about the release show.
We will be sharing the stage with Art & the Resistance and The Stereo Hopeful. Both of those acts are fantastic so don’t sleep on it.
There’s a costume contest so you can get a little extra use out of that Halloween costume.
We’ll have our new EP, “Showdown,” available for the first time. We also have a new product line for our merch, which includes new shirts, sticker packs, tote bags, etc.
Please come and have a good time. Support the local music scene and let’s be reminded that we love being around each other and celebrating good times.
New music: Travis Brooks, “Leave this Town”
As the title suggests, Travis Brooks’ new single is about leaving.
It is also about need.
“This song is about the need for something better,” Brooks says.
“The need to reconcile and mend your past. The need to connect and love. The need to leave where you are to get where you want to be.”
The song, which Brooks has been teasing all month (it is available for streaming on Friday), is a folk song, or at least in the folk vein, with Brooks singing over acoustic guitar strums. It was recorded, as a challenge of sorts, over a single day, at The Rabbit Hole studio.
“I love this song because it invigorates hope while also invoking the fear of leaving everything you know behind. You ever feel like that?”
Events list Oct. 17-23
Fiesta Day at the Big Fresno Fair, with El Dasa, Gabriela Sepulveda, Mariachi Oro de Mexico and Teocali Ballet Folklorico and Miguel Aguirre. 1 p.m. Oct. 17, Big Fresno Fair. Free with paid admission.
Hail the Sun, 7 p.m. Oct. 19, Strummer’s. $20, all ages.
D.R.I., 5:30 p.m. Oct. 21, Full Circle Brewery District. $15-$20, all ages.
Prawg Dawg, Scoundrel, Note of Terra, Hyacinth, Beyond California, 8 p.m. Oct. 21, Strummer’s. $10.
Fashawn, album release, 8 p.m. Oct. 22, Strummer’s. $10-$12, all ages.
King Daweed Music Festival, 5 p.m. Oct. 23, Full Circle Brewery District. $10-$15, all ages.
Betrayel, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 23, Fulton 55. $10-$15.
High Voltage, AC/DC tribute, 8 p.m. Oct. 23, Strummer’s. $10-$12, all ages.
Taco Truck Throwdown, with Ginuwine and Mi Banda El Mexicano, The Box and Patrick Contreras. 5 p.m. Oct. 23, Chukchansi Park. $36-$99.
That’s it for this week. If you have anything you think I need to be looking at or listening to, feel free to let me know: jtehee@gmail.com