“We feel as though the music business is at a point of evolution. Artists have better technology these days. You can produce your own music and spread it so much easier with streaming services. ” – @ESOproductions

Listen to the interview:
Episode #291 : A.V.A Live Radio Behind The Music with Jacqueline Jax : http://www.blogtalkradio.com/avaliveradio/2016/01/21/episode-291-ava-live-radio-behind-the-music-with-jacqueline-jax

GETTING TO KNOW EARTH SPUN OCCUPANTS
by Jacqueline Jax host of A.V.A Live Radio
Interviewing: Garret Murdock, Matt Wargin

We feel as though the music business is…
at a point of evolution. Artists have better technology these days. You can produce your own music and spread it so much easier with streaming services. It’s harder to sell psychical copies since streaming has been introduced. In terms of selling psychical copies there is a niche group of people who still believe in buying vinyls, which we plan on making sometime in the near future. There is just something about the way vinyl sounds that you can’t beat. In recent years there have been record shops showing up around Kansas City. Those record shops also allow local artists to sell their music and they act as venues. One of our favorites is Records With Merritt who have been so supportive to the local music scene. There are also a few radio stations you can reach out to like 90.1 KKFI who have a segment called, “Under The Radar” for local music. We had the chance to go on their show and play some songs from the new record. They’re really dedicated to supporting and growing the local music scene.

Social media…
is a great resource for keeping listeners informed about new material and upcoming shows. Facebooks advertising tool is very helpful. It really helps reach out and grab new listeners. It’s also fun to be able to post funny videos and vlogs on Youtube. That kind of thing gets the attention of people. At least it does to us when we see other groups doing the same.
You get that behind the scenes kind of look. We have always done funny announcement videos and vlogs.

We’ve always had a positive experience with social media. It’s there if you need it, so why not use it!

Singles vs Albums…
It kinds of goes hand and hand for us. We use singles to promote the album so that there is minimal downtime between releases. That way there is always something new and people don’t lose interest.

We have several people we would love to spend 5 minute…
with including John Frusciante (THE FRUSC!) Stevie wonder, Damon Albarn, Marvin Gaye and Sam Mahon from Sextonic Plates. John Frusciante has inspired us composition wise, technically, and has guided us in terms of guitar tone. How could you not love Stevie Wonder. He is a musical genius and his vocal style is prolific. All modern pop and hip hop are based on what Stevie Wonder did.

Music trends…
We have always tried to write what comes to mind. We don’t try to blend in with the latest trends or anything like that because we feel all trends are cyclic. Trends tend to repeat. Also, a lot of successful bands or people were less interested in being the status quote and more interest ed in being on the cusp of the next big wave. Not saying that trends are a bad thing. They work and they don’t. As an artist you should always be aware of the trends that are going around. For example the 90’s grunge scene was a trend but that was how they were as people. They weren’t trying to be trendy. They just were. It seemed like people tried to bring it into the 2000’s and that’s where is kind of died out. There is an interesting documentary called “The Culture Of Cool” which explains that once something is labeled as cool it becomes uncool.

Our biggest fear is…
showing our work to people we respect and having them tell us it sucks. It would be awful if John Frusciante came up to us and said our music was shit. It wouldn’t feel very good.

We feel as though success is…
getting to see that you are getting better or improving. That feeling you get when you accomplish the next step. Hearing this album verses the last album is an example of that. The quality, composition, and performance are all better this time around. A big achievement of ours was the first time one of our songs got played on live radio. We were just sitting there in the studio and couldn’t really believe it. It felt very surreal.

It would be amazing…
if we could create a life where we get paid to play and make music every day. That is our definition of success. Of course it would amazing be to win some Grammys, play Madison square garden, and tour the world.

A. We challenge ourselves by questioning our motives and getting clear with what we are doing and why we are doing it. It helps us stay genuine towards our music which is really important in terms of people being able to feel the emotion behind it.

B. We also try to stay connected and make new connections, whether that is people or places. When we play shows we introduce ourselves and make those connections. A lot of the bands around Kansas City know each other and play shows together.

C. The biggest challenge is to always stay busy. We try to write, record, and play shows year round

As kids we always enjoyed listening to music…
so it seemed like a natural progression that we would pick up instruments and start playing. It was really the same scenario for the both of us. Our parents were always a big influence on the music we listened to. They would always play music in the car weather it was Led Zeppelin or Jimmy Buffett. They ended up sticking us in lessons/choir. We dabbled around with the basics of music at first until we picked up instruments.

In terms of creating…
we wanted more. We knew we could express ourselves more and in better ways. We both played
in different bands until we ended up in the same band called, The Monarchs. It was a three piece band that had a good
run. We eventually parted ways but because we both complimented each others writing style we stuck together and that’s how we ended up in Earth Spun Occupants.

We chose the intro song Golden (1922)…
We feel as though it has the best story. It was originally written to be on the monarch’s next album but that didn’t happen because of the split. The song itself has an interesting story. We were in Florida recording at Full Sail University and we had this conversation about how awesome the 1920’s were and how we wished we could go back in time.

Nothing that’s pure seems to last very long. The second verse of the song has a double meaning.

The Monarchs were a famous Kansas City baseball team who had a good run during the 1920’s and our old band was named The Monarchs. In 1922 The Monarchs baseball team had to part ways with some management just like we had to split up as a band. So 1922 represented us. It was also the year before they won the league title. Ironically, our home team The Kansas City Royals won the World Series this year which was a cool affirmation for us.

The best thing we here about is that it’s eclectic..
The album has a little bit of every genre in it. We try to use our intuition to make our music personable and relatable to everyone listening, especially when it comes to the instruments used. For example, you can hear a mandolin on the track, Eighth Moon and then a tabala which is a drum out of India on the track, Lost In The Light. Both of those tracks can be
found on our Spotify, Soundcloud, Youtube, ect. About how it’s meant to be heard. LISTEN TO IT ON
GOOD SPEAKERS.

We were both born and raised in the Kansas City area.
Kansas City has an interesting music scene. We feel like the city is like a vain of magma about to erupt. There is a lot of people involved in different things and they are all connected through music. The city has a very diverse alternative scene. And because of the jazz influence that Kansas City has, there is a lot of jam influence and improvisation in the alternative music.

Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/earthspunoccupants/?ref=hl
Twitter: Earth Spun Occupants (@ESOproductions) | Twitter
Instagram: Earth Spun Occupants (@earthspunoccupants) • Instagram photos and videos
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa84pJxp2Czm1l6wx3r6DgQ
Golden (1922): https://soundcloud.com/earth-spun-occupants/01-earth-spun-occupants-golden-1922?in=earth-spun-occupants/sets/sun-songs-moon-rhythms
Golden Youtube Video: Earth Spun Occupants – Golden (1922)
The Whole Album: https://soundcloud.com/earth-spun-occupants/01-earth-spun-occupants-golden-1922?in=earth-spun-occupants/sets/sun-songs-moon-rhythms
Our Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/earth-spun-occupants