Qwestion
(March - 2003)


- First of all, would you like to introduce Qwestion to our readers? There is a big journey to tell, you will feel like Homer (the Greek writer, not Homer Simpson, ehehhehe)!

Answer: Yes, that would be awesome, and hopefully one day we’ll be able to play live in Italy.

- Why did you choose to call your band Qwestion with the W? And why did you choose a title like "Y"?

Answer: I’d always wanted to name a band just the symbol ?, and then in looking for domain names realized that couldn’t happen and question was already taken. So knowing that, I tried to think of how I could still use the name, and the first thing that I thought of was to use a W instead. Some people have said that the name isn’t metal enough, and to some extent they’re right, but the whole philosophy of this album was based on experimenting and it just seems to fit the music, as well as always wanting to name a band Question. Plus it has been quite a journey to get to this point and the songs are sort of like going on a journey, so the “qwest” part just really grew on me.

And the title has something to do with why I’ve always wanted to name a band Qwestion as well. I’ve always thought it would be really cool to make several albums with the first one being “why” and then it became just “y”. I guess it’s a concept thing. The next albums could be named, for instance, “them”, “us”, “it”, etc., and then it be fun to do one attempting to tie it all together with “answers” of some sort. I love concept albums. They don’t sound as scripted as conventional “mainstream” albums do. The music really is able to take on a life of its own, because the writer(s) aren’t thinking about what will sell or sound like what’s popular. One of my most favorite concept albums ever was Dream Theater’s SFAM. I think music in general has lost some of its originality, at least here in the states where music is so corporate, they find something that makes them money and they just reproduce it with different faces and it seems like music takes forever to evolve here. Heck it sometimes regresses. I’ve heard bands that are “mainstream” now, that are really just garage bands from the past, the new generation hasn’t heard it, so its seems “original” to them, but the ones that have know that its just repeating itself, and that’s fine, but it just hasn’t seemed to evolve into its own new sound. LOL, really the only thing “new” about it is they call it Nu-Garage.

- We want to give you our best compliments for your determination and perseverance to keep your band alive! A lot of bands have to learn this lesson... Where did you find the incentives to go on with this project, even you had to face a lot of troubles?

Answer: That’s about right too, it does seem like sometime that’s exactly what were doing “keeping the band alive”. Its definitely been putting everything in right now, but we hope that one day we’ll be able to do what we love and make a living from it, isn’t that really what we all want, earn a living doing what ya love. And if you can do that and have others enjoy what your doing it makes it that much sweeter. Creating music for a living just has a really good ring to it, but if it doesn’t work out, I’ll still be writing and recording. I’ve got some side projects that I’ve worked on which sound completely different than this album. One of them was with a buddy of mine that needed some ideas on a Pink Floyd concept remix album (www.floydhead.com) that turned out really cool. If you’re a knowledgeable Floyd fan, this album will trip you out. We will probably always collaborate on things hear and there, so music will always be a part of my life somehow.

I think I was just determined, if I wouldn’t have gotten laid off it may have taken another 4 years to finish it. I had moved here to Muskegon, MI, for the sole purpose of hooking back up with a good friend and someone that I played with in a former band (John Hall). We had such good chemistry with our first project, (Hall and Griffith Project) and then he had to leave (we were in Mississippi at the time) back to Muskegon and it was several years before we decided to hook back up and I was able to move up here. Once I got here, it was like riff heaven, me and John (I know John and I, lol) were so starved to play and write together that ideas just flew in from everywhere. I had bought in preparation for this Roland’s VS 1680 and every time we jammed and wrote, I recorded it digitally which came in real handy and probably had a lot to do with why the album ever got finished and the way the sound of the album came about.

- Can you tell us something about the recordings of "Y"? Did something strange happen during them?

Answer: The sound of the album for one has a different feel to it than most albums and that takes people by surprise sometimes. I’ve had people (a reviewer for one) that if he had wrote his review without listening to it more than once would have written a bad review, but he said after listening to it a few more times it grew on him. Plus without having a drummer, the programmed drums give a whole new feel to it, which I had never done before. There were a lot of firsts on this album. I’ve always been one to just make do with what I had for equipment. I had recorded one of my old bands (Famine) with an old Tascam 388 ¼” 8-Track and once I got into the digital age it became so much easier and you could do more with less time, but anyways, lol, the drums were a challenge. I have always had a great feel for rhythm, but could never play the drums (properly), and figuring out how to translate things that I heard and felt into something that I was actually hearing was a huge part of the experiment. I wish I could have spent more time on drum sounds, although making them sound real wasn’t a goal, I was just trying to make them do what I was feeling. It would have been nice to have one of Mike Portnoy’s studio sound check recordings, I sometimes wonder if I would have had all real drum sounds, would it sound programmed? Actually some of them were real sounds, the snare is actually partly Dave Matthew’s drummer sound from the beginning of “Ants Marching” mixed with my drum machines sound. The toms evolved into some real sounds mixed with drum machine sounds, so they definitely ended up with their own sound, but also gave a different dynamic to the album.

I would say the strangest thing that happened was something that I had thought about doing for a long time. I had always thought it would be cool to use as an intro, someone singing in a shower, like a lot of us do and have a song go from the shower into the song. I wasn’t really happy with the way “Forest of the Norm” started and I thought this might be the time to try it. Well with no vocals on the album, I couldn’t really sing, so I decided to hum, lol, and set up a couple of mics in the bathroom one day and hummed the beginning of Forest like I was coming up with it or something, just another one of the experiments I was trying out. It turned out to be hilarious and I mixed some of the different takes together (don’t worry its not me and John in the shower, lol) and added the ever powerful saying of, “Hannnkkyyyyy” and it turned out and added a little humor to the album. Hey “y” not….Music doesn’t have to be so serious all the time.

Another strange thing was deciding to try to put some “scratching” on the album. I didn’t want to sound anything like Nu-Metal or Rapcore and I didn’t want the turntable to give that appearance. But I had a friend of mine (Jimmy Rad) do some scratching on the Pink Floyd album I talked about earlier and he gave me the full take of that recording. Well I figured if I was gonna use it that I would have to edit the heck out of it to make it fit. And I swear this is how it happened, the very first time I played it along with “freeProv” it matched just as if he had actually scratched to it live and it totally freaked me out. I think that’s probably why I included more than I had planned, but it just fit so perfect that I went with it. All I did was adjust some levels and pan, but the way it goes from “freeProv” into “Chaos Theory” is no different than his actual take that he played for something else. If that’s not meant to be, I don’t know what is….


- How do you compose your songs?

Answer: Once I got comfortable with the process of programming the drums it got easier and easier, and I was really able to just put it all together without limiting my thoughts, lol, I listen to it sometimes and wonder what the heck I was thinking. The whole drum process played a big part in the sound for sure. Going back and editing the guitar the way I did, I found riffs within the riffs and that led to more ideas and the song would just evolve. I didn’t think so much about how things would tie together, and that has come to some criticism, but wanted to just trust what I was feeling. I’ve beat the heck out of my chair coming up with rhythms, and that’s basically what I did. Find a cool riff, play it over and over on my computer, beating on my chair and desk and once I was happy with a feel, broke down the different ideas “notes” and made the software, lol, do it. First I’d lay out the kick and snare and then I would go back and fill in everything else. I still wonder how I did it myself, but there was a great deal of focus going on that’s for sure and the feeling when a part was done and I was able to listen to it was better than any drug.

- Is there a reason that moved you to play instrumental metal based only on rhythmics and without solos?

Answer: Not specifically. There are a few solos, which John did a great job with. I would have liked more as well, but time and money played a big factor in that. He solos on “Chaos Theory” and “3oNe2” and “freeProv” which is nothing but a cool jazzy free spirited light solo jam. I didn’t want the album to be about solos completely. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good solo, but sometimes originality can get lost with leads all over a song. I tried to use the percussion as sort of the “solos” as well, not at first so much, but as I went along, I realized that a rhythm section could be just as interesting. But a few more leads would have been nice. The album wouldn’t be out right now though if we had put everything that we wanted in it.

- Will you continue on this way in the future? Or will you try other experiments, like including vocals or other instruments?

Answer: I will always be experimenting with new sounds and trying to compose in different ways to achieve something different. Not sure that will always happen, but at least I know my heart will always be in the right place, lol.

Actually there are a lot of vocals already written for most of the songs, some arranging to do, but without being able to sing them and the length of time it took to get it to the point that it is, I didn’t want to put vocals on it to just have them. It would have sound forced and ruined the vibe of the album. What I was hearing would probably take more than one singer, or one person who had a wide range and many different styles of singing to do it justice and trying to find that at the time would had taken forever, so I opted to release it instrumental…for now. Maybe there will be a “y2” one day complete with vocals, more solos and some bonus tracks, I’m open to that for sure.

- Are you a duo for choice? What would you do if you find a good drummer?

Answer: I think we’re a duo more out of convenience and simplification. We communicate musically so well that as long as it’s flowing there’s no need to interrupt that. I love drummers don’t get me wrong, but they’ve been known to out of nowhere just start going off on their drums and ideas can get lost that way. And I’ve also noticed, at least for me, that the more minds that are contributing, ideas can get simplified in order to make it fit rather than allow something to go wherever its gonna lead ya, if that makes any sense. But writing with a drummer also gives songs a whole different feel and flow that was hard to capture programming them, so I guess there’s a trade off as well.

Actually the other half of the “Hall” in the “Hall and Griffith Project” is an awesome drummer and worked quite well with us (Vincent Hall). If things were to all fall in place perfectly he would probably fill that role, but then a lot of things would have to happen (He lives in Atlanta for one). But things are always doable when finances and dreams come together, we’ll see….But as far as if a good drummer were to fall in our laps, we’d welcome him/her with open arms…It would be nice to have a record deal fall into our laps as well, lol.

- I think your music can be considered as being part of the techno-metal movement. Do you agree? And what do you think about this kind of bands? Do you like WatchTower, Sieges Even, Spastic Ink and Spiral Architect?

Answer: There are some industrial influences in the album. Just by the fact of having to program the drums, there is a techno feel to the album in some parts. But there are really heavy parts as well. I’ve always loved all different kinds of music and felt that as humans we have many different emotions and that music is just the way that they sound. None of our emotions should be denied and I feel that should translate into the music as well. If money wasn’t such a big factor, music would reflect that idea more I believe.

Magellan is a really cool band, Trent Gardner, is one of the most under exposed musical genius’s that are out there. Some of his albums had the drums programmed and sounded great. I’m not sure of what other Progressive Metal bands program their drums, would be interesting to know if there’s any. When people ask who we sound like, that’s a hard ? to answer, but it’s also what makes us original. We have a “Who do you think we sound like?” section @ our website where you can submit your opinion and there are almost 20 different bands with very different styles suggested there. Watchtower, Spastic Ink and Spiral Architect are on that list and Sieges Even is great as well. To be mentioned with bands like that is a great honor. I’m not sure that we belong in their league, but certainly appreciate being compared to them.

- We really appreciated the artwork of "Y". Who had the idea for it?

Answer: I put all the artwork for the album together, once again in the spirit of the album, experimentation. It’s amazing what you come up with when you play on a computer long enough, lol.

- We have been quite surprised when we saw that the Italian magazine Metal Shock gave you a rating of 3/10... it was really sad. Can you summarize how "Y" has been welcomed by magazines and fans? Did you get other bad reviews?

Answer: I wish I could read it, they never sent it to me, but to be honest we expected some bad reviews. The sound of the album is so different from anything else out there, that it can be hard to get used to. Plus, some people I think are expecting vocals. We knew that going in, but overall the response has been much better than we ever thought it would be. I’d estimate 80% of the reviews have been positive. One thing that has been interesting is that no one has hated it all. There’s always one part that they appreciated so that’s encouraging. But for someone that wants to listen to the same thing over and over, this album could be a bit too much for them.

- Can you tell us something about the underground scene in your country? Are you in contact with other bands? Are there good bands you want to suggest us?

Answer: I wish I was in better contact with it to be honest. I’ve been working on this project for so long that it’s hard to keep up with it all.

Usually the underground scenes flourish in the bigger cities and Muskegon isn’t very big, so nothing to report from this area. In promoting our band on the web, I came into contact with quite of few cool bands, one that really stands out at the moment is a do-it-yourselfer like we are, but he does it all himself, drums, guitar bass and its super impressive, its called Enditol out of Canada, there are samples @ http://www.mp3.com/Enditol, highly recommend.

- Are there some Italian bands you like?

Answer: I’m sure I do but just don’t realize they’re from Italy, can’t think of any of the top of my head.

- What do you think about internet? Is it helpful for a band?

Answer: It’s the only thing keeping us afloat right now. Without touring there’s no other way to get heard in other parts of the world, so it’s been great for that kind of outreach. We’ve gotten airplay in Holland, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile to think of a few and still actively promoting, so there will be more to come on that front. Plus it gives you an outlet to sell your cds, provide info about yourself, and post samples of your music for people to hear. I think that 5 years ago there were more places to promote music. Since a lot of the music promotion websites have gone out of business or scaled back on their services it’s really hurt the independent artist. And now that a lot of the really cool independent internet radio stations have shut down because of having to pay licensing fees that has hurt as well. So the climate is not as good as it was, but there are still a ton of resources out there, you just got to find them and utilize them.

- Suppose that there would be a law saying that all answers are forbidden, and only questions are allowed. What would you do in this case?

Question: Lol, I’m not sure that we’d be missing much to be honest. But we’d (Qwestion) be in good shape, that’s for sure.

- Ok, we are at the end... you can close this interview as you want!

I’d like to say Thanks for taking the time to come up with some very fun to answer questions and for the great review of our album and hopefully we’ll be playing live in Italy sooner than later, we’d love to visit your country and rock out with ya. Anyone interested in joining our mailing list to keep up with the journey may do so @ our website.


Mail: general@qwestion.net
Website: http://www.qwestion.net/