RED LETTER LIFE ARE:
Bruce Hubbard - Vocals/Piano
Gabriele Steriti - Guitar/Vocals
Brien Mick - Bass
Dave Goodman - Drums
WHAT IS YOUR DREAM VENUE TO PERFORM IN?
(Brien): "The Tower, that would be awesome."
(Dave): "The Keswick would be awesome too. Probably Madison Square Garden."
(Bruce): "Wembley stadium."
(Gabe): "Madison Square Garden, The Tower, but I would really love to play Royal Albert Hall."
(Brien): "There's this town in Switzerland that has this festival (Buchserfest), an outdoor festival. We gotta make that happen."
(Dave): "Gabe's family lives in Switzerland and we have an opportunity to play there."
Bruce Hubbard - Vocals/Piano
Gabriele Steriti - Guitar/Vocals
Brien Mick - Bass
Dave Goodman - Drums
WHAT IS YOUR DREAM VENUE TO PERFORM IN?
(Brien): "The Tower, that would be awesome."
(Dave): "The Keswick would be awesome too. Probably Madison Square Garden."
(Bruce): "Wembley stadium."
(Gabe): "Madison Square Garden, The Tower, but I would really love to play Royal Albert Hall."
(Brien): "There's this town in Switzerland that has this festival (Buchserfest), an outdoor festival. We gotta make that happen."
(Dave): "Gabe's family lives in Switzerland and we have an opportunity to play there."
WHEN WAS RED LETTER LIFE BORN?
(Brien): "Well, I joined the band about 7 months ago and that's pretty much when the band became a band."
(Bruce) "Yeah, we went through five bass players. But we started in 2008. That's when Dave (drummer) joined the band."
SO 3 OF YOU ARE ORIGINAL MEMBERS?
(Bruce): "We went through an acoustic phase and decided that acoustic was not working. We sat down during one of our acoustic songs...did a tap by tap with a drum machine and did it electric and were like, "wow this sounds like something good. So, what could be better than the Tascam!?"
(Dave): "I heard them on Craigslist and I loved their music and I killed the audition."
(Bruce): "Well, the guy before him smelled like manure. And he was playing with something that wasn't even drumsticks."
(Gabe) "Well, he came from work. He was a landscaper!"
(Bruce): "Yeah, but it's funnier the way I say it."
(Dave): "I was definitely a step up from manure."
"We were really impressed with Dave's chops. It's gone downhill since... No, we were really impressed with his audition."
HOW DID BRIEN COME INTO THE BAND?
"Brien auditioned and nailed it 'cause he's awesome. It was a little more artistic and avant-garde....but we liked what we heard. To be quite honest, he was REALLY good because every bass player we heard was good, but he was excellent, had great artistry."
SO YOU DIDN'T HAVE A HARD TIME FINDING PEOPLE TO AUDITION?
"Shortly after we opened for Scott Weiland (former Stone Temple Pilots frontman) at the Trocadero, we put the ad out and mentioned that, and everyone showed up."
DID YOU HAVE A DIFFICULT TIME PRIOR TO THAT, FINDING NEW MUSICIANS?
(Bruce): "No, we could always seem to find a new bass player, it was keeping them that was the issue."
(Gabe): "There were always legitimate reasons, it seemed."
DO YOU WRITE YOUR OWN MUSIC?
(Bruce): "Right now we're peppering in our influences where we'll do like 3 Beatles songs in the middle of a set. The few shows we've done since we started doing this, they've gone over really well. It has to be the right balance though. Done well, tasteful. We also do a little web series. Every month or so we go into the studio and record these influences our way, live."
IS ONE OF YOU THE PRIMARY SONG WRITER IN THE GROUP?
(Bruce): "Originally it kind of started that way, but it's changed a great deal as the band's evolved. And now Gabe will have an idea, I'll have an idea, Brien will have an idea, then Dave will have an idea and it just grows like a little seed into songs. So, everybody plays together and it goes through generations."
(Dave): "I think it works better. As a drummer...I can think of an arrangement more when there's a melody going on. It's a lot easier. Sometimes it happens that way, it can start from a drum pattern. It's very complimentary to each other."
WHAT ARE YOUR MUSICAL INFLUENCES?
"Beatles, Led Zep, Floyd, Cream, Genesis, The Police, U2, INXS, grunge, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden... So how do they mesh? He (Bruce) usually brings The Beatles, and I (Gabe) usually bring the grunge. We mash it up together. Then that doesn't work so we sprinkle it here and there."
(Dave): "I think over the years, it's gotten frustrating that you aesthetically wanna please yourself with the music. But it gets all mushy, like you may be onto something and then you're like screw it."
(Gabe): "I don't ever worry about what somebody's gonna think about it until we're happy with it. When it's ready to leave our little nest, that's when I care what other people think."
(Bruce): "Reality is, if we had all the time in the world, we could come up with ideas all the time. But a lot of them get swept under the table. We can't record everything cause these only so much time in the day. And there's only so many times we can get together. If we had our way, we could be full time musicians, many of these ideas would be recorded."
(David): "We'd be on our second album."
ARE THERE EVER ARGUMENTS BETWEEN YOU?
(Gabe): "Only in practice. That's where we have our differences and heated discussions. All of our differences are mostly my fault."
(Brien): "It's passion."
(Gabe): "It really is. And if you can recognize it for what it is, get over the temper tantrum, it usually works out for the best."
(Dave): "And it usually blows over very quickly."
(Gabe): "And it never leaves practice. It stays there. It's passion, artistic, aesthetics. You want it to sound the best."
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS RLL'S BEST QUALITY? WHAT SETS YOU APART?
(Dave): "Look at these faces."
(Bruce): "I personally think one of the coolest things about our band is that we take the influences that made rock and roll great and we modernize it. Our influences are deeply rooted in blues rock and old rock and roll. We take that sound and all the influences that have inspired us over the years and make it sound like something new."
(Brien): "Well, I joined the band about 7 months ago and that's pretty much when the band became a band."
(Bruce) "Yeah, we went through five bass players. But we started in 2008. That's when Dave (drummer) joined the band."
SO 3 OF YOU ARE ORIGINAL MEMBERS?
(Bruce): "We went through an acoustic phase and decided that acoustic was not working. We sat down during one of our acoustic songs...did a tap by tap with a drum machine and did it electric and were like, "wow this sounds like something good. So, what could be better than the Tascam!?"
(Dave): "I heard them on Craigslist and I loved their music and I killed the audition."
(Bruce): "Well, the guy before him smelled like manure. And he was playing with something that wasn't even drumsticks."
(Gabe) "Well, he came from work. He was a landscaper!"
(Bruce): "Yeah, but it's funnier the way I say it."
(Dave): "I was definitely a step up from manure."
"We were really impressed with Dave's chops. It's gone downhill since... No, we were really impressed with his audition."
HOW DID BRIEN COME INTO THE BAND?
"Brien auditioned and nailed it 'cause he's awesome. It was a little more artistic and avant-garde....but we liked what we heard. To be quite honest, he was REALLY good because every bass player we heard was good, but he was excellent, had great artistry."
SO YOU DIDN'T HAVE A HARD TIME FINDING PEOPLE TO AUDITION?
"Shortly after we opened for Scott Weiland (former Stone Temple Pilots frontman) at the Trocadero, we put the ad out and mentioned that, and everyone showed up."
DID YOU HAVE A DIFFICULT TIME PRIOR TO THAT, FINDING NEW MUSICIANS?
(Bruce): "No, we could always seem to find a new bass player, it was keeping them that was the issue."
(Gabe): "There were always legitimate reasons, it seemed."
DO YOU WRITE YOUR OWN MUSIC?
(Bruce): "Right now we're peppering in our influences where we'll do like 3 Beatles songs in the middle of a set. The few shows we've done since we started doing this, they've gone over really well. It has to be the right balance though. Done well, tasteful. We also do a little web series. Every month or so we go into the studio and record these influences our way, live."
IS ONE OF YOU THE PRIMARY SONG WRITER IN THE GROUP?
(Bruce): "Originally it kind of started that way, but it's changed a great deal as the band's evolved. And now Gabe will have an idea, I'll have an idea, Brien will have an idea, then Dave will have an idea and it just grows like a little seed into songs. So, everybody plays together and it goes through generations."
(Dave): "I think it works better. As a drummer...I can think of an arrangement more when there's a melody going on. It's a lot easier. Sometimes it happens that way, it can start from a drum pattern. It's very complimentary to each other."
WHAT ARE YOUR MUSICAL INFLUENCES?
"Beatles, Led Zep, Floyd, Cream, Genesis, The Police, U2, INXS, grunge, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden... So how do they mesh? He (Bruce) usually brings The Beatles, and I (Gabe) usually bring the grunge. We mash it up together. Then that doesn't work so we sprinkle it here and there."
(Dave): "I think over the years, it's gotten frustrating that you aesthetically wanna please yourself with the music. But it gets all mushy, like you may be onto something and then you're like screw it."
(Gabe): "I don't ever worry about what somebody's gonna think about it until we're happy with it. When it's ready to leave our little nest, that's when I care what other people think."
(Bruce): "Reality is, if we had all the time in the world, we could come up with ideas all the time. But a lot of them get swept under the table. We can't record everything cause these only so much time in the day. And there's only so many times we can get together. If we had our way, we could be full time musicians, many of these ideas would be recorded."
(David): "We'd be on our second album."
ARE THERE EVER ARGUMENTS BETWEEN YOU?
(Gabe): "Only in practice. That's where we have our differences and heated discussions. All of our differences are mostly my fault."
(Brien): "It's passion."
(Gabe): "It really is. And if you can recognize it for what it is, get over the temper tantrum, it usually works out for the best."
(Dave): "And it usually blows over very quickly."
(Gabe): "And it never leaves practice. It stays there. It's passion, artistic, aesthetics. You want it to sound the best."
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS RLL'S BEST QUALITY? WHAT SETS YOU APART?
(Dave): "Look at these faces."
(Bruce): "I personally think one of the coolest things about our band is that we take the influences that made rock and roll great and we modernize it. Our influences are deeply rooted in blues rock and old rock and roll. We take that sound and all the influences that have inspired us over the years and make it sound like something new."
WHAT DO YOU WANT PEOPLE TO COME AWAY WITH FROM YOUR SHOW?
(Gabe): "Tonight's kind of a different atmosphere, being a benefit (Jam for Jeff 4), but if people come out and have a good time in service of that benefit, that's all I'm really looking to get out of it. Just have a good time. I just want to them to become fans of the music."
(Bruce): "I like them to come away embarrassed really. I'll go down off stage and go up to them and engage them, so I like them to be mortified."
(Dave): "And we ARE mortified by you." [laughter]
(Gabe): "But ya know what, Bruce is a really great front man. He really engages the audience.
(Bruce): I want the people to feel they were part of something real. A lot of people get up on stage and act like robots, just going through the motions. If I see something happening, I get engaged in it and get involved in it. I want people to go away and be like 'that was awesome'!"
(Gabe): "Tonight's kind of a different atmosphere, being a benefit (Jam for Jeff 4), but if people come out and have a good time in service of that benefit, that's all I'm really looking to get out of it. Just have a good time. I just want to them to become fans of the music."
(Bruce): "I like them to come away embarrassed really. I'll go down off stage and go up to them and engage them, so I like them to be mortified."
(Dave): "And we ARE mortified by you." [laughter]
(Gabe): "But ya know what, Bruce is a really great front man. He really engages the audience.
(Bruce): I want the people to feel they were part of something real. A lot of people get up on stage and act like robots, just going through the motions. If I see something happening, I get engaged in it and get involved in it. I want people to go away and be like 'that was awesome'!"
