by Kenneth Morton

Goodnight Sunrise is from Montana, yet they hardly see their home state anymore - as these guys always find themselves on the road touring and promoting their band in the grand DIY spirit. Their latest EP Stop, Drop & Roll has been released, and judging by the reaction at a recent live Key Club show on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, Goodnight Sunrise is going to shine out in a big and glorious way. Here is a recent interview we conducted with two of the members. Catch a rising star and read on...

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Goodnight Sunrise, and tell me the most embarrassing song you have on your IPOD...
Dan: I'm Dan - I sing and play guitar in Goodnight Sunrise - and I have so much embarrassing music on my IPOD, it's ridiculous. I have old disco hits, which are really awesome! I have a 35-minute disco medley, which is pretty popular when we're on a long drive.
Sam: I'm Sam - I play bass for Goodnight Sunrise. And the most embarrassing song - probably anything by Daughtry. I gotta couple of his songs...
Dan: (laughs) You have Daughtry?
Sam: Dude, you should laugh...
Dan: Okay Daughtry. That's good. I have a bunch of jock jams - I don't know if that's embarrassing because I actually love it. But yeah, jock jams - the early 90's hits - the old school rap for sure.

Where are you guys from and what is your local music scene like there?
Dan: We are from Helena, Montana - which is a very strange place I guess to start a touring band out of. Local music scene is pretty weak, man - we don't have a lot of bands. We are the only touring band out of the State. And there really aren't a lot of venues. We have to rent out a lot of places to throw shows. It's kind of rough, but it's been good. We've been doing it for quite a few years now. We've developed a good fan base, but it's not a hot point for a lot of new music.
Sam: Definitely not a great scene in Montana, but we do a lot of traveling - especially throughout the Northwest - and Washington's gotten to be pretty cool for us.
Dan: I kind of consider Washington to be our home region - as much or more than Montana because of our draw there.

So how long have you guys been together?
Dan: This project has been going since November 06. Coming on three years. We put our first EP out in June of 2007 - just dropped the new EP in June of 2009. We've been playing together for a long time. Sam and I went to middle school together. We didn't really know each other that well till High School. Mike is my cousin and Justin and I went to Middle School. We all kind of grew up together. Three of us started playing in a band together in 6th grade - so I've been with the same three guys since 6th grade and Sam joined on late in High School. And after High School we've been taking it seriously - doing the touring thing - and really trying to make it happen.

Have you had any label interest at this point or do you want to just keep it DIY?
Dan: We have had label interest. We've had quite a few offers from smaller labels who wanted to work with us. We've looked over a lot of paperwork - but really at this point, we've had a lot of success touring unsigned and keeping all the percentages and doing the merch all ourselves. I design all the merch and we can keep all the profit from it. We've got good management and a lawyer. I kind of feel, at this point, we've got everything we need as an unsigned band - so until the right deal comes up and the percentages are right, I don't really see a point with signing with anyone.
Sam: So far we've been happy to do it without a label. Unless something enticing comes along, we're probably going to stick with that.

A lot of bands are making it that way...
Dan: Yeah, it's been different. You gotta have to adapt to this crazy music scene I guess.

Your music has been on a few MTV shows such as The Real World and The Kardashians. How did that come about, and did you get to meet The Kardashians?
Dan: (Laughs) No. It came about just through meeting random people. A good friend of mine - Peter from here in LA - I met him through some friends. That's how we got licensed from the Road Rules thing, The Kardashians and The Bad Girls Club. We're also on that 16 and Pregnant - a new MTV show. We just got hooked up because we met the right people in the right places and they've been good to us. It's been pretty cool - some good exposure. We get a lot of feedback from kids who randomly watch MTV and hear the music in the background. We even had the whole band name pop up on the bottom, so it's been good. It definitely has gotten a little more exposure for us...

...but no Kardashians...
Dan: I would love to meet The Kardashians man! That would be absolutely amazing!
Sam: But not yet...

What made you decide to cover the Jessica Simpson song, and do you know if she's heard it?
Dan: It's so funny you said that - because Jessica Simpson's dad, Joe Simpson, was at the show tonight. So before we played, I was like, "Oh, man, what is this guy gonna think?" I came up to him before we played and I was like, "Hey man, just heads up - we're gonna cover one of your daughters songs." He stuck around for it. I was really curious to see what he said. Apparently everybody said he gave two thumbs up and then he held up the rock fist afterwards. I guess that's a good sign. We went with that cover because we were asked to be a part of a Romance Compilation CD. They sent us a list of a bunch of them that they wanted us to do - and we didn't really like any of them. I actually really like With You - that song has always been really cool.
Sam: It's a really super well-written pop song.
Dan: I loved it. We just put our own twist on it and made it a little heavier. I had a ton of fun recording that - it was a blast, man. I love playing that song live too. It's been a good time.

Pick two songs from your new EP and tell me where you got the lyrical ideas from...
Dan: Wouldn't Change A Thing - which is the last song off our record - it's a little different than a lot of the stuff we've done. It's more mellow at the beginning and it builds a lot more - it's a lot more progressive. We've a pop band - but we're not like a lot of pop bands because not all of our songs are about girls and love and all that stuff. Wouldn't Change A Thing has to do with just being on the road and you miss things at home. You gotta give up things - it's basically about being in a touring band, missing a girlfriend or whatever at home - and giving up some things to get what you really want to accomplish. That song is more of a love song than any of our other ones. Spirit Fingers - that's the second-to-last song. Basically, I went to a Christian concert with a bunch of Tooth and Nail bands in Montana. I always think it's kind of funny - the draw - when a bunch of youth group kids come out and see these bands and they've never heard of them before - but they just go crazy because they can worship through it. Spirit Fingers is just about a girl I saw at this show - and she was just having a freakin' blast and dancing - and didn't care what anybody was thinking. She was just seriously having the time of her life. And it was cool to watch her - even if she's not familiar with the music - it's just somebody having that much fun by listening to music. Something that simple - and it made that girl so happy. So that's kind of where that idea came from and I kind of expanded on it a little bit.

Any strange or unusual Myspace stories you could share with us?
Sam: We get asked advice on relationships...
Dan: People are always, "Hey, my boyfriend just dumped me. What do I do?" We have so many relationship and counseling questions all of the time. We're just a band with your same problems. It's funny what kids will say to you.

That's your next career if this doesn't work out...
Dan: Yeah, I'll go into counseling. I'm thinking about it. (Much laughter.)

What advice would you give new bands just getting ready to go on the road for the very first time?
Sam: Be patient and be persistent. It's a pain in the ass to start booking your own tours. When you start going on the road, it's not going to come easy - unless you're a lucky bastard...
Dan: It's super discouraging to some people when they sent out five messages and they get one response or no responses. But that's just how it is. You're going to send out a million messages and hit up a million promoters and venues and get no response. But you just gotta be persistent and keep hitting them up. Your first tour is going to obviously be your worst - but literally, it gets better after every tour just a little bit. This is our somewhere around 14th West Coast tour. It's been getting better and better. This tour has been amazing - and I think everything we've done up to this point has just built it a little bit. Just patience and persistence is the best thing I could suggest to anyone. And find some local bands to be friendly with. It's all about communicating and networking with bands and becoming friends with who you need to be. One thing I like to say about being in a band - it's literally a big life video game. You drop out of school while all your friends are doing that - and you're stuck in a van with four smelly dudes - and you have to take on this country by somehow booking all these crazy venues. When you're booking these venues, you go through crazy promoters and a sound guy who usually doesn't know what he's doing. And everyday you have a different stage that's like shaped differently. So you have to somehow play Tetris with your equipment and arrange everything so it works every night. And then unload it and do the same thing day after day. So it really is like a video game. We're working up the stages - and I think we're on Level 4 right now.
Sam: There must be about 400 levels, man...
Dan: 400 levels! I love that analogy. It's pretty fun.

Do you have any messages for people reading this who might want to check you guys out?
Dan: For sure, man. Basically, we just came out with a new EP called Stop, Drop & Roll. It's 7 songs and it's available on Itunes - you can get it on gomerch.com/goodnightsunrise, which is our official merchandiser - so you could get CD's, tee shirts, posters, stickers - all that good stuff. Pick it up! We're doing a national tour. And we'll be touring non-stop throughout the rest of the year - and hopefully anybody that reads this - we'll see you very soon. We'll be back in LA in the fall.
Sam: Just keep in touch on myspace.com/goodnightsunrise - it's where we keep the most up to date...

Goodnight Sunrise links

Goodnight Sunrise on Myspace: The Official Myspace Page for Goodnight Sunrise!
The Highwire Daze Home Page: Return to the Main Page!

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