Bonus interview with Arejay
Brendan : So just on a personal level, how have you been since February when I last saw you?
Arejay : Great, so great. I've been writing a lot mostly with chemical fire, mostly with Taylor Carroll, my band mate in that project. And just really, I feel like we're really like hitting our stride, I'm really excited, we have a single coming out at the end of April, this project-called Chemical Fire that we started working on during the pandemic.
Again, like one of those projects where we were just looking for something to do, something creatively when we were just kind of not touring, not playing shows and it felt very weird. We were like oh, but we have to get creative and do something with music, otherwise, we're going to lose our minds. And we had been friends for a while, he plays drums with lit, but he also played drums with pillar and devour the day, he's incredible drummer, but also, a great singer and guitar player and songwriter and producer.
So we put our strengths together, and we started this project during the pandemic called chemical fire, and we've been just writing and working on it. And now, it's three years later, we have finally have something to show for it, we're finally going to release a song. We're going to play a show in Nashville on “Star Wars Day”, May the fourth be with you. We did a show in LA a while back and that was kind of our debut, kind of our introduction to the world and it went so good. We were just so excited.
It's a totally different type of thing. It's more like, it's a two-piece, but it's also kind of got like more of a punk kind of thing, it's a little bit more modern sounding. But really aggressive, but also really melodic, and just very genuine and honest when it comes to the writing and the songs and all that.
So been a bit of a passion project, so I'm excited for that to finally come out, so that's what I've been doing mostly.
Brendan : I was saying to Lzzy before you jumped on, I've actually been practicing my own cover of Heart of Novocaine on the piano and vocals.
Arejay : So cool, can’t wait to hear it
Brendan : I do songwriting as well, one of the songs that I've written the lyrics to, and just starting to recording in my home studio, the opening line is ***************
Arejay : That's brilliant, I love that. Oh my God, can I write with you? That's awesome.
Brendan : Well, I mean, oh God, it would be incredible if I could, if I had you doing the drums and co-writing with me.
Arejay : That's just a cool line, I didn't want to cut you off or stop you, I just thought that was a really great lyric, really awesome.
Brendan : Thank you .t’s so personal for me, because it's both figurative and literal.
Arejay : Interesting, wow.
Brendan : *sings next few lines of original song .
Arejay : Oh, wow, that's solid. Any chance you might be releasing this song? Because I'm intrigued so far. Like coming from, like yes, from experience, like those are solid lyrics dude, those are great.
Brendan : Oh, thank you.
Arejay : It's right to the point.
Brendan : Yes. i love lyrics that can be taken multiple ways. my writing style is based around my own personal experiences and circumstances. I like to express my lyrics in a way that it can resonate with everyone to suit their own personal circumstances .
Arejay : Dude, I hope you keep at it, because you got, it I see a lot of real potential with these ideas that you have. So I hope that you continue and pursue, continue sharpening your gift, because I'm really impressed, honestly.
Brendan : Yes. So that's basically what I've been doing in the past time since you've been in Sydney.
Arejay : Nice. I hope that you stick at it, because I like what I'm hearing so far, and I like these ideas.
Brendan : That is a massive inspiration for me.
Arejay : Oh. Well, that's awesome, man.
Arejay : If you think about it, a great example I always go to is Lizzo’s, Truth Hurts ,when the most memorable line in that song is “I took a DNA test, turns out I'm 100% that bitch” Like in a way, that's even more memorable than the main chorus. I feel my mentality is like if you can hook them in the very first line, then you got them.
Like you obviously need a great hook, and I mean, for me in my experience of songwriting, it's gotten so scrutinous to the point that like every word, every line, every syllable should count. You shouldn't just settle for coming up with a line that vaguely is saying what you're trying to say, but you use it because it's a placeholder and it Rhymes, and it works rhythmically. Like no, make sure that every line means something, really important to you, that's something that I strive for anyway.
Brendan : Good, definitely. So you write lyrics as well?
Arejay : Oh yes, that's like kind of probably my main thing, especially in the Chemical Fire world .Taylor is such an incredible guitar player, and has a great ability to come up with great melodies that really work with his voice, and he's also encouraged me to do more singing and get more involved with that, because he was one of the first ones that saw that I had a voice in me. So yes, with the Chemical Fire stuff, it's both of us singing.
We're kind of like co-lead singers, I wouldn't call it that, because he's definitely the, I guess you would call the ''lead singer'', but like it is very much an equal partnership, which is really cool, it's a really cool dynamic in that sense. But I love words, I love lyrics, and that's always been my way of getting personal problems up, personal frustrations, is putting it into words.
I find that more fulfilling than just coming up with like an instrumental track or something. I would much rather come up with a story first, and then find music that also matches that story. But there's so many different ways of accomplishing that, there's no right or wrong way.
Brendan : Yes, that's really cool. Any of the Halestorm lyrics yours?
Arejay : You know what, Halestorm is another example of a very collaborative effort, which is great. Honestly, like the fact that the four of us have been doing this so long, and we can all do this together. I mean, we found out, especially pretty early on that the best way to make records is for us just to be in the room together, and just to come up with ideas and just have it be there.
But I mean, there's a million ways to do it. There's songs where I'm heavily involved, but there's songs where I'm not involved at all. There's songs that are really heavy on the co-writers, and songs that are 100% equal between all of us. So there's really no one way to do it, and it's really hard to even explain, because we've been doing it so long, we just know how to fall into that. I guess we don't really think about it, we just kind of do whatever feels right in the moment.
So yes, I mean, it rarely ever happens the same way twice with Halestorm, Chemical fire with any outside writing with any other artists or whatever. Like literally, every time is a brand new pathway to get there. You just have to trust the song. Like my favourite place to be in when writing is when all of a sudden, you go from writing the song, to the song starts writing itself, and you're just following after it. But it's different every time, some songs come out in five minutes, some songs take years, you're just kind of chipping away at it little by little.
So yes, it's really hard to tell or to say, because it's just endless the ways to do it, and the way that it's been done for all of us. Like every single song has its own way of getting there, yes, it's crazy.
Brendan : Yes, definitely. All right, that's really cool. I bought myself a Roland electronic drum kit, because I just love dabbling with as many instruments as I can. So even though my focus is on piano and vocal, I just love dabbling with all sorts of instruments. So you're like my inspiration of where I would love to be with drumming. Because I love double kick drums, but my legs don't.
Arejay : Mine too.
Brendan : So what's the technique for good rapid fire drumming?
Arejay : Oh God, I mean, my feet are not really all that fast at all. I know drummers that can just machine gun that type of technique, and my hat goes off to them. But I was a single bass player for a long time, and started re-implementing double bass like literally like going into this album cycle. So I was like oh boy, it's like riding a bike.
But for me, it just took just continuing to do it, and just continuing to work at it, to where I could kind of get back up to where I was. I feel like I'm at a point now where I feel pretty comfortable like putting in double bass fills here and there for some flavour.
One thing I definitely started doing though, and it really helped a lot, before every Halestorm show, we do an hour of warm-up just the four of us in the dressing room, and I have a little practice kit back there. And while we're jamming and I'm just playing, and my hands are like laying down the twos and fours in my kick drum is like providing that groove, I started trying to play where I'm leading with my left foot. So I'm just like trying to like work on playing the same K drum patterns I would with my right foot but with my left foot, and it's really hard, really hard. Because you'll go like da da da da but then with your left foot, you're like da da da da it can be like so muddy with your non-dominant foot.
So that's something I've actually been working on, and something that I think is a cool technique for other players to try if they're trying to get their left foot up to speed, try playing like just normal a single bass drum pattern, but try playing the single Bass with your left foot, and seeing if you can, and I started out real simple. I would just go boom, da da da da and then finally, I could get up to the point where like I'm like boom da da da da da.
So like with every step, I would try to challenge myself to be a little bit faster with my left foot. So I don't know, it's funny because no one's asked me that, this is the first I'm actually thinking about it. Like oh, I forgot I did that. So that might be something to help if someone feels like their non-dominant limb is lacking, try leading with that limb. It's very similar to like if you have a muscle imbalance, if you're in the gym or something, it's good to like start with your non-dominant side, and match the reps with your dominant side.
So that way, you're kind of developing evenly. So I think the same thing can be done with your limbs when it comes to drumming, and when it comes to developing more of a balance with speed and velocity in those senses too.
Brendan : Yes, fair enough that’s great advice. Thank you so much. I absolutely love you guys, and please, pass on my love to Lzzy.
Arejay : Oh, I'll be at rehearsal tomorrow, I'll definitely pass on the message for you for sure. I got your back, bud.
Brendan : Thank you so much, Arejay, it has been an absolute honour and take care.
Arejay : Thank you. And I can't wait to hear these songs, when you put them out, you let me know.
Brendan : Will do. Thanks again, Arejay.
Arejay : All right. Mwah, take care down there, down under. Give my best to everybody.
Brendan : Thank you so much, and see you next time.
Arejay : Well, see you soon, Brendan man, take care man.
Brendan : You too.
Arejay : Thanks bud.
Brendan : Thank you.
