Interview: PlayRadioPlay!

For our first ever interview we had a chance to breifly chat with Daniel Hunter from PlayRadioPlay!. Check out the interview below.

The Album Project: For people newer to PlayRadioPlay, could you give a brief overview of how you got started and then how you got signed.

PRP: Like 3 years ago I started making music alone, I had been playing music in bands in high school before that, and I started making demos in my garage on my laptop. Eventually I started posting them on myspace and not really seeking an audience but just putting them out there and having them download-able for free. I would post a new song every every two weeks or so, just some new stuff that I had recorded at my house.  Every time I would post a song more and more people would come listen to it. After a year of that or so I started playing shows and touring. About 6 months after I started touring, record labels started contacting me and saw that the myspace thing was kind of serious and I was actually drawing crowds. I ended up getting a record deal my senior year of high school and now I’m on Island Records.

TAP: That seems pretty unlikely for a band to go straight to a major label.

PRP: I did release an EP on an indie label a year before my debut on Island so I had something to tour on while we were making the full length.

TAP: Can you talk a little bit about the current tour with Yellowcard and how its been?

PRP: We’ve toured with The Spill Canvas and Treaty of Paris before so we know those guys really well. Treaty of Paris is some really really good friends of ours so it’s been a lot of fun. It’s about a month and a half or two month tour and I think 3 quarters of the shows have been sold out. The crowds have been really good.

TAP: Any interesting stops or some of the favorites places to play?

PRP: Dallas was awesome which is the closest we played to my home town of Fort Worth. Seattle was really good this year on this tour, those were probably the two major shows.

TAP: It’s always interesting to see a primarily electronic band recreate their sound live.  What goes into that, and is it something that’s constantly evolving?

PRP: As far as the members that play with me live, its been everything from a 3 piece all the way up to a 6 piece. We’ve had two guitars, a bassists, and keyboardist at one point as well as a drummer obviously. Currently we only have a keyboardist and a drummer, we got rid of the 2 guitarists and the bassist so I mean it’s been in so many different forms. I think the way it is now is definitely the way we feel works best and comes across best live.

TAP: Does the different variations of how many people play live affect which songs you play at a show?

PRP: No not really, well I mean there are a few songs from the new record that we haven’t started playing yet just because were not exactly sure how were gonna do the guitar with me playing by myself but we’ll figure it out and start playing all the songs from the new record soon hopefully.

TAP: So what’s next for the band? Have you already started writing new material?

PRP: I’m personally always writing while on the road I’m gonna hopefully record some demos of stuff that I’ve been writing but touring is definitely the main priority right now. tonight’s actually the last show, but I’ll be on tour all year probably.

TAP: Cool, Thanks for your time

PRP: no problem, thanks

Check out PlayRadioPlay on their Myspace page

[Thanks to both Daniel and Island Records as well as Karli and Geoff for setting this up. ]