| Thriving Ivory |
| November 10, 2008 |
| Drew Cribley |
Katrina: How did you come up with the name for your band?
Drew: There’s no really significance behind it, we were just kind of pairing words together and that one stuck and we thought it was a cool name so that’s
pretty much it.
Katrina: Is this your first time coming to Canada?
Drew: This is the first time we’re going through and playing real shows. Last time we went through we did some promo stuff and stopped by a few radio
stations that hopefully we will see again this time. But these are our first real dates and we’re really looking forward to playing with Midway State because those
guys have a good following so it should be a lot of fun.
Katrina: Who were your musical influences growing up and have they changed?
Drew: Growing up personally I was introduced to music through hard rock and it’s definitely changed. Now I like a lot of European music actually a lot of British
bands. U2, Radiohead, Coldplay, we got the privilege to play with one of our biggest influences as a band Sarah McLachlan last night, that was pretty
awesome. And I mean there’s tons of bands, Keane, Death Cab For Cutie, is another one, Muse. Pretty much it all falls under the category of rock.
Katrina: Which artist would you like to tour or work with?
Drew: I’d love to work with any one of those obviously, they’re huge but someone that comes to mind is we would love to play with a band like Maroon 5. Keane
would be amazing, Coldplay but at this juncture it feels a little but out of reach. Maybe down the line we’ll see, who knows. There’s so many bands. Really right
now we’re just looking to be out there for weeks and weeks on end, kind of taking whatever comes our way.
Katrina: How do you write your songs and where do you get your ideas from?
Drew: Scott the piano player is our key song writer. He I think draws a lot of inspiration from life experience, from relationships, through imagination, tv shows. It’
s hard to answer this question for him but just from listening to the lyrics over the years and stuff I ‘d say that’s where it comes from and he gets pretty focused
when he writes. He tends to lock himself up for a little while and then put the meat and potatoes of the song together and then brings it to the rest of the band
and we all start to kind of work out parts for it and stuff like that and work at arrangements.
Katrina: What’s your favorite venue to play?
Drew: Outdoors are tough, I kind of like it but at the same time if you’re playing during the day time it’s not so dramatic. I would say I like a three-hundred
person club is my favorite thing because it’s kind of big enough for you to pack a whole bunch of people and energy in but it doesn’t get lost in translation. I
mean all the energy, it just becomes this big circuit. You can really feel the difference between playing a small club or an outdoor venue.
Katrina: What’s your most memorable moment?
Drew: Last night was one. After the show we hung around and met Sarah McLachlan and she was saying something like being at it for twenty years and it was
an acoustic show so it was really stripped down and she sounded absolutely amazing and it was just her and her piano. And I was thinking to myself after
twenty years if we can sound that good that’s when you’ve developed a great career. Last night was a pretty special night.
Katrina: What’s your favorite song to perform?
Drew: Let’s see, I’d say “Long Hallway With A Broken Light” is my favorite song to play. Just because of the high energy, it actually kind of starts of at a low
point and it builds and has a lot of dynamics, it’s just fun on guitar to play so that’s probably my favorite.
Katrina: What do you think makes a good live show?
Drew: A lot of energy definitely, we always try to at least get people revved up and a few drinks on the audiences part probably makes a good show. I love
dramatic lights, even though we haven’t had that many yet because we don’t own our own lights but we do get them. And it really depends on the audience,
certain places certain nights just for some reason there’s something in the air and it totally changes the dynamic of the show.
Katrina: What advice can you give to people who are wanting to create a band?
Drew: One thing that I would really say is I see a lot of bands break up because of interpersonal stuff between band-mates and egos and creative control, stuff
like that. And there’s all sorts of compromise that goes into it and really in the long run it’s worth it. I mean unless you’re with somebody that is really conflicting
or really unhealthy to be around. I think that’s something that makes a successful band is once you learn to compromise which you have to do in life anyways.
But a lot of people in bands get very rigid and hard about changing their beliefs or the way that they think their career should be or something like that.
Obviously one of the biggest ones is stay together because the longer you stay together the better your chances are going to get. You gotta be good right but
you also have to work through the hard parts and we definitely have had some ups and downs and points as a band where we didn’t think it was going to end
up anywhere or we just didn’t see where it was going. But look at us now, those are some of the key things that helped us stay together. It’s just being able to
work through differences rather than just let them grow.
Drew: There’s no really significance behind it, we were just kind of pairing words together and that one stuck and we thought it was a cool name so that’s
pretty much it.
Katrina: Is this your first time coming to Canada?
Drew: This is the first time we’re going through and playing real shows. Last time we went through we did some promo stuff and stopped by a few radio
stations that hopefully we will see again this time. But these are our first real dates and we’re really looking forward to playing with Midway State because those
guys have a good following so it should be a lot of fun.
Katrina: Who were your musical influences growing up and have they changed?
Drew: Growing up personally I was introduced to music through hard rock and it’s definitely changed. Now I like a lot of European music actually a lot of British
bands. U2, Radiohead, Coldplay, we got the privilege to play with one of our biggest influences as a band Sarah McLachlan last night, that was pretty
awesome. And I mean there’s tons of bands, Keane, Death Cab For Cutie, is another one, Muse. Pretty much it all falls under the category of rock.
Katrina: Which artist would you like to tour or work with?
Drew: I’d love to work with any one of those obviously, they’re huge but someone that comes to mind is we would love to play with a band like Maroon 5. Keane
would be amazing, Coldplay but at this juncture it feels a little but out of reach. Maybe down the line we’ll see, who knows. There’s so many bands. Really right
now we’re just looking to be out there for weeks and weeks on end, kind of taking whatever comes our way.
Katrina: How do you write your songs and where do you get your ideas from?
Drew: Scott the piano player is our key song writer. He I think draws a lot of inspiration from life experience, from relationships, through imagination, tv shows. It’
s hard to answer this question for him but just from listening to the lyrics over the years and stuff I ‘d say that’s where it comes from and he gets pretty focused
when he writes. He tends to lock himself up for a little while and then put the meat and potatoes of the song together and then brings it to the rest of the band
and we all start to kind of work out parts for it and stuff like that and work at arrangements.
Katrina: What’s your favorite venue to play?
Drew: Outdoors are tough, I kind of like it but at the same time if you’re playing during the day time it’s not so dramatic. I would say I like a three-hundred
person club is my favorite thing because it’s kind of big enough for you to pack a whole bunch of people and energy in but it doesn’t get lost in translation. I
mean all the energy, it just becomes this big circuit. You can really feel the difference between playing a small club or an outdoor venue.
Katrina: What’s your most memorable moment?
Drew: Last night was one. After the show we hung around and met Sarah McLachlan and she was saying something like being at it for twenty years and it was
an acoustic show so it was really stripped down and she sounded absolutely amazing and it was just her and her piano. And I was thinking to myself after
twenty years if we can sound that good that’s when you’ve developed a great career. Last night was a pretty special night.
Katrina: What’s your favorite song to perform?
Drew: Let’s see, I’d say “Long Hallway With A Broken Light” is my favorite song to play. Just because of the high energy, it actually kind of starts of at a low
point and it builds and has a lot of dynamics, it’s just fun on guitar to play so that’s probably my favorite.
Katrina: What do you think makes a good live show?
Drew: A lot of energy definitely, we always try to at least get people revved up and a few drinks on the audiences part probably makes a good show. I love
dramatic lights, even though we haven’t had that many yet because we don’t own our own lights but we do get them. And it really depends on the audience,
certain places certain nights just for some reason there’s something in the air and it totally changes the dynamic of the show.
Katrina: What advice can you give to people who are wanting to create a band?
Drew: One thing that I would really say is I see a lot of bands break up because of interpersonal stuff between band-mates and egos and creative control, stuff
like that. And there’s all sorts of compromise that goes into it and really in the long run it’s worth it. I mean unless you’re with somebody that is really conflicting
or really unhealthy to be around. I think that’s something that makes a successful band is once you learn to compromise which you have to do in life anyways.
But a lot of people in bands get very rigid and hard about changing their beliefs or the way that they think their career should be or something like that.
Obviously one of the biggest ones is stay together because the longer you stay together the better your chances are going to get. You gotta be good right but
you also have to work through the hard parts and we definitely have had some ups and downs and points as a band where we didn’t think it was going to end
up anywhere or we just didn’t see where it was going. But look at us now, those are some of the key things that helped us stay together. It’s just being able to
work through differences rather than just let them grow.
