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| Sean Danielson- lead vocals, guitar |
Their lyrics are honest and deeply personal. Their music is haunting and raw. It's no wonder Smile Empty Soul has been compared
to Nirvana; many times. To say that this band has had to overcome some obstacles would be an understatement. Their own Myspace
page describes them as "the band that wouldn't die." With that said, what I found with Smile Empty Soul was a band
that reflects their fans. Lead vocalist and songwriter Sean Danielson is not afraid to open up wounds, put it in his lyrics
and share that with them. That kind of honesty has created a bond with their followers that won't easily be broken.
Sean Danielson and Jake Kilmer sat down with Rock On Request to talk about career, their fans, and much more. Here's
what they had to say:
Sean Danielson - Vocals, Guitar
Ryan Martin - Bass
Jake Kilmer - Drums
ROCK ON REQUEST: First of all, I'd like to start by getting some band history from you guys. I know you're from California;
you went from a trio to four-piece; I want to give the readers a little background on Smile Empty Soul.
SD: We're actually from Santa Clarita, outside Hollywood, the Valley area. Me and Ryan started the band. We had a different
drummer in the beginning, we got rid of him. We had some changes; we got Jake. Then we added Mike as our guitar player,
but on this tour Mike hasn't worked out. So we've actually moved back to a three piece.
ROR: Okay. You've been compared to bands like Nirvana and others on the whole grunge scene. Were those your influences
mainly, or did you have other ones that people just aren't recognizing?
JK: They were definitely a big influence. We were all about 9 or 10 when we really started digging into our musical
roots.
ROR: You've said that Santa Clarita was really a kind of party city. A lot of that going on and not much else, right?
Did that influence your first album heavily?
SD: Yeah, that definitely had an influence on all of our music. We sing about drugs, drinking and that stuff a lot.
ROR: Do you think that's changed over the years? Do you have the same fan base, or do you think that's changed at all?
SD: I think that we have a lot of the same fan base. Our fans tend to be very dedicated. We still sing about stuff
like that but from different perspectives. We've grown and matured.
ROR: Sean, do you do all of the songwriting?
SD: I do the basic lyrics, melodies, put the guitar parts together and then give it to these two guys. They get the
rhythm section going.
ROR: I've read that your lyrics are very personal; I know that was true on your first album. Do you think you've branched
out a little bit more since there with this album that you have out now? Is there anything that's new and different for you
this time around?
SD: I try to just sing about whatever I have going on in my life. It's definitely different than our first record.
ROR: Your first album was very successful. It went gold, right?
SD: Yeah.
ROR: Then your second album never got released. Can you tell me what happened with that?
SD: The guy that signed us to Lava records, he ended up parting ways with the label. When that happened a couple of
things didn't go our way and we started not seeing eye to eye with the label. They kept pushing back our album release date,
that happened about three times. We just decided that it wasn't the place for us anymore so we did everything we could to
get off the label and hit the road. Late in 2005 we basically sold copies of the record just to survive.
ROR: How many copies were printed? It couldn't have been that many?
SD: How many have we sold?
ROR: Yeah, of that album that wasn't widely released...'Anxiety,' right?
SD: We only sell it on the road, but we've done pretty well with it.
ROR: I bet your fans were very disappointed though; unless they go to a show they can't get it.
SD: That's true; at the same time though it makes the people who have it feel like they've latched onto us a little bit
more.
ROR: How hard was it to stay focused during all that? You guys probably worked your asses off to get your album out
and then all of a sudden that happens. After that was it kind of like, "What the hell do we do now?"
SD: Yeah, it was definitely a crazy transition period for us. That's actually when we got Jake and Mike; we figured
we'd never be able to get the rights back to that record, and we were right. So we just dove in and started writing a whole
new record.
ROR: So, did you have to give up all the songs off 'Anxiety'?
SD: Yep.
ROR: Wow, that sucks. When did you sign with your new label that you have now?
SD: We signed with them in late 2006.
ROR: And your new album, 'Vultures', came out last October? How's it doing so far?
SD: Good, for an independent record label with zero anything. Our promotion right now is Sirius radio, XM, and old songs
of ours still play on radio stations everywhere. So our main promotion is touring.
ROR: Well, Myspace probably does a lot for bands now in general, just getting the word out there to people who don't
know you.
SD: Oh yeah.
ROR: Speaking of fans and the differences between your self-titled and 'Vultures', what would you say are some differences,
or what would you say is maybe better about 'Vultures'? You have some dedicated fans that are pretty hardcore about your
self-titled album.
SD: That's true. Everything is different about it; everything except where the songs are coming from, my voice, Ryan's
playing, etc. I think 'Vultures' is more rock and is more of a straightforward rock record, but at the same time it was thrown
together really fast.
ROR: How long were you recording it?
SD: Two weeks.
ROR: Wow, that's fast. That is raw when you do it in two weeks.
JK: Recorded, mixed, mastered...
SD: Everything was done in five months.
ROR: That's pretty incredible. Now your fans, how are your old fans receiving your new record?
SD: Really well.
ROR: That's good, because you always worry about the diehard fans saying, "I wanted it to be more like the old stuff."
SD: I haven't heard any complaints like that. I was expecting to hear that, because like you said there are a lot of
dedicated fans from the first record. But it seems like everyone who picks up 'Vultures' seems to at least appreciate the
direction it's going in and they seem to dig it.
ROR: I don't think people give music fans credit for being smart enough to adjust to stuff like that or to appreciate
when an artist grows.
SD: Yeah, to be able to grow with an artist...
ROR: The things I was reading about mostly were people saying from the first album was that it was either political,
or religious, or about drugs...do you think you made a decision to kind of get away from that on this record? Do you think
that hurt you in any way before?
SD: I mean, I haven't made any conscious decision to go in a new direction. 'Vultures' has a lot of political, social
and religious statements in it too, they're just a little more hidden this time.
ROR: You just have to dig a little bit deeper. What song off the new album gets the biggest response live, and what's
your favorite to play live?
JK: That's a good question. I think maybe the best received song off of 'Vultures' is 'Out to Sea'.
SD: 'Adjustments' gets a good response.
ROR: What about for you guys? What song do you just love to play?
SD: I like to play 'Loser'.
JK: I like to play all of them. It's hard to pick.
ROR: What's coming up for you guys after this tour?
SD: It's not official, but I think we're going out with Puddle of Mudd.
ROR: That would be amazing. I love Puddle of Mudd.
SD: They're good guys, definitely.
ROR: When would that tour be?
SD: July. This tour is going until the end of June.
ROR: I want to ask you some off the wall questions if that's okay. Nothing too weird. When I was doing research before
this interview I came across a review; this guy just did not like you guys at all.
SD: Oh yeah, we've had some awful reviews.
ROR: This guy wasn't a professional critic; he was just a person giving his opinion and boy...
SD: Boy howdy.
ROR: It was bad. Nothing about you musically, but the biggest issue he had...
SD: My lyrics?
ROR: No, not your lyrics. He was pretty much saying that any comparison made to Nirvana or any other grunge bands was
totally not warranted; that it was just an act. Then some of the comments people made following his review were kind of agreeing
with him, saying that you guys maybe aren't as "hardcore" as you pretend to be. What do you say to people like
that, or to critics who are judging your sincerity, because that's how it came across to me. It kind of pissed me off.
SD: Right.
ROR: How do you react to that?
SD: Well, they're completely and totally wrong; so I really don't give a fuck. If you read stupid reviews all the time
you're just going to get fucking down. You can't really care. I don't even read any reviews. Critics can suck my balls.
ROR: Exactly. I can't stand critics. I have more respect for what you guys do than what a critic sits down there and
does, critiquing everybody else's shit.
SD: Exactly.
ROR: Let them work as hard as you guys do. They just don't get it.
SD: Yep.
ROR: This has to do with a stalker fan of yours. When I say that, I'm just wondering if you already know who I'm talking
about.
SD: Is she from Charlotte?
ROR: Yes she is. I bring this up because I had a very interesting encounter with her in Charlotte when I was down there.
SD: Right.
ROR: She followed me and my son around, followed me to a bar, poured out all sorts of details that I didn't need to know.
SD: About what?
ROR: Things about you, so she says.
SD: She doesn't know anything about me.
ROR: I kind of gathered that. We went into the bar and I went to go use the restroom. My son was waiting for me and
when I came out she was crying on shoulder, all over him. Then she followed us into the restroom where we were going to eat
and I thought she was going to come all the way and sit down with us at our table. I had to turn around and tell her to stay
put. Now that was just a brief moment in time for me, so for you guys it must be real interesting. She was making every
attempt to get close to you that day.
SD: She's fucked with my life pretty hard.
ROR: That's the way it sounded.
SD: She somehow got my house phone and my drummer's house phone and his cell phone number. She started calling all these
people pretending to be my ex-girlfriend.
ROR: According to her you two had a relationship for two years.
SD: No, no. I barely met that girl.
ROR: I could tell it was more like a dream in her head than reality.
JK: She's not attractive.
SD: She called my family and my drummer's family, claimed to be my ex and said that she was pregnant. She convinced
my dad to the point where my dad was calling me saying, "Hey, I just have to tell you your ex called me." That
really freaked me out.
ROR: Is she just one example of something you guys have gone through? That's something I don't always ask artists, but
you must deal with a lot of crazy fans.
SD: That's the worst case. That's how I knew it was her.
ROR: I knew you would as soon as I mentioned her. Do you think she would drive out here for tonight's show?
SD: How far is it?
ROR: It's about an hour further.
JK: That's all?
SD: It doesn't always matter.
ROR: How do you deal with things like that? You don't have security or anything around you, right?
SD: No, no. I just stay the fuck away. She tried to chase me through the club in Charlotte.
ROR: I saw her in there, yeah. My son was just like, "Get her away from me."
SD: I told her to fuck off earlier in the day and we filmed it. Ryan has it on video. She came to the bus and said,
"I just want to talk to you." I was just like, I, I am not ever going to talk to you.
ROR: I was eating dinner right next to you guys that night. That's when she tried to come in with us as we were going
to sit down, because they were seating us right next to you guys.
SD: Wow.
ROR: I just wanted to throw that out there to you because that must be real tough to deal with.
SD: We just run.
ROR: Okay, last question. If you were to start the band over again, what would you do differently?
SD: We would have never signed the initial production deal that we signed. That was the first step toward getting a
record deal and it turned out to be a raw deal for us. I think if we would have held out a little bit longer...he did help
us a lot though.
ROR: So you did get something out of it.
SD: Yeah. I don't know, I'm pretty happy with where we are right now. We're having a good time.
ROR: Is there anything you want to say to your fans?
JK: You're all bitchin.
SD: Yeah, thank you for your dedication.
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