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ON THE COUCH WITH: Saving Abel

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ARTIST INTERVIEW

Access All Areas.net.au: Hey Jared, hows it going?
Saving Abel – Jared: Hey man, yeah i’m doing fine thanks, just here in Alabama hanging out & doing a bunch of interviews.

Access All Areas.net.au: Now firstly you guys have been together & playing since around 2004, however only in the last few months have we seen you here in Australia. For those who are into you, can you give a brief background of the band for them
Saving Abel – Jared: Lets see, the background, ok well me & Jason formed the band when we got together about 5 years ago in our hometown in Mississippi & we got on real well & started playing together. We just did acoustic stuff, jamming out together & playing music we liked, of course in time we got sick of just hearing our music only when we played, so we went out & did some acoustic shows together to make some money to get some stuff recorded. Once we had enough money we went to Memphis to 747 studios where we met a producer by the name of Skidd Mills who recorded the sessions for us. About 2 or 3 weeks later we got a call from him saying “i like the material & i’d like to sign a producing contract for a band” and we were interested so we went for it. We slowly recruited the other members, but eventually we had the band together & we got our songs recorded & we are the band we are today, so thats pretty much it really.

Access All Areas.net.au: Now lets turn to your debut release, With the writing of the songs on the record, was there difficult times coming up with songs or did things just come together for you guys?
Saving Abel – Jared: Well actually thing really just came together you know, like we were writing songs as a band with little problem & we found that we could really write some stuff that was fun. Of course, some of the songs i came up with by myself, but then the guys gave input & things were changed around to benefit my writing. So yeah, writing for the record wasn’t really a problem for us.

Access All Areas.net.au: Now with the music, it seems to fit the lyrical content exactly, with this Sound, was it pulled together naturally or found through any influencing artists of yours?
Saving Abel – Jared: Well to be honest, we’re from the south, so music is an instinct for us, you know its like in our dna. We found ourselves putting together some great music in our early times & we enjoyed playing it, music similar to say the black crows you know what i mean. When we came to writing for the record, with songs like addicted, in god’s eyes & new tattoo we put a harder & more raw-edged sound to our songs & really took things up a notch to really show ourselves as what we really have the potential to be. Of course, we’re only a new band really, so we’ve got a lot of time left to grow, its not like we’ve been around for 20 years or something, we know we’ve got to make our way up & we will have fun doing so.

Access All Areas.net.au: Now your first single of the record here in Australia is the song “addicted”, can you tell me a bit about this one?
Saving Abel – Jared: Yeah sure, this song is actually one of the ones i wrote myself, i wrote it while i was working in a local hospital where i would take blood from people & do other hospital stuff. I got the song & had it stuck in my head for like 2 weeks & then one day Jason caught me singing it & was like “hey man, who’s that, its a cool song” and i was like “its one of mine”. The lyrics for the song were written one night when i was singing it on a hospital round, i wrote the lyrics down on a doctors notepad & kept it for the band & now its one of our songs & i’m really proud of it.

Access All Areas.net.au: Your record was produced by skid mills, who was responsible for your previous recordings, was it planned to continue with Skidd or just how it worked out?
Saving Abel – Jared: Well actually as i said earlier, we had the production contract with him from a couple years before & so we had recorded our first demos & our first ep with him, so we decided to continue the working relationship with him & we feel it definitely worked out for us. Skidd has been amazing for our band, from the beginning where he gave us his time in the studio to helping us with making it as our band to helping us through this record, we feel we have had the best help & hopefully it can continue into the near future.

Access All Areas.net.au: Now your debut album was released on virgin records, how do you guys feel about being on the label & how has the label benefited you guys?
Saving Abel – Jared: We are so thankful to be able to have the opportunity to be on a label such as virgin, they have been so good to us. We’ve had so many people from the label work with us & the doors they’ve opened up for us, as well as the distribution of the record to so many countries to expose our music to so many people is just so amazing. Of course we have all these interviews & radio appearances & acoustic show appearances, but we enjoy them & just balance them out so they don’t get overbearing to us & it is all just so great for us & we hope to continue with the guys at virgin for as long as we can.

Access All Areas.net.au: In the near future, you will be going out on Tour with seether & nickelback, are you guys excited about the tour?
Saving Abel – Jared: Oh man, we are so looking forward to the tour coming up, we really can’t wait. With touring for us, its been a lot of stages & just moving up each one over time. We’ve had the chance to tour with a lot of bands we grew up listening to such as buckcheery & puddle of mud & to tour with these guys has been amazing. I must say though, the tour with Nickelback is the big one, i say this as they are the big name in our style & will no doubt sell out pretty much every sho on the tour, which will allow us to play our music to so many more people than we could possibly imagine, so hopefully it goes well.

Access All Areas.net.au: In the near future, are there any plans for a possible Australian tour?
Saving Abel – Jared: Yeah definitely, i was actually just talking to our manager the other day about this & apparently we’re selling really well down there so we’re really hoping to get something organised with management which will allow us to come down & play to our Australian fans. It would be great to come, just to travel somewhere outside of our home country to play our music will be amazing & from what we here from the people we’ve met from down there its a great place to come, so hopefully by the end of this year we’ll get there.

Access All Areas.net.au: Well Jared, i’d like to hank you for your time & for a great interview, do you have anything else you’d like to say?
Saving Abel – Jared: Yeah i’d just like to say to everyone down there, thank you so much for taking the time to listen to our songs, we love playing them so we hope you enjoy hearing them & we hope to get there soon. Also i’d like to thank you for your time today & hope to see you when we come down.

Interview By: Ben Coby

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

“You know when you hear a song on the radio and you don’t know who it is, but you love it and feel like you’ve heard it before? That’s our band! The first time someone hears us, they go, ‘I know that band!’ Then someone explains, ‘no, it’s a brand-new song and band.’ Saving Abel has an accessible and comfortable sound---you HAVE heard us before,” states lead singer Jared Weeks. On their self-titled Virgin Records debut, songs range from the wild road tale in “New Tattoo” to the sexual innuendos of the aptly titled first single, “Addicted.”

Weeks and Jason Null formed the band in their small hometown of Corinth, Mississippi in 2004. They met when Weeks, who was in a band, was playing guitar at his best friend’s house, when Null, who was in a rival local group, walked in to rehearse with his band. Within days of that meeting, Null and Weeks were writing and honing the intimate writing style that now defines Saving Abel. In early 2005, the pair’s songs caught the ear of noted producer Skidd Mills (12 Stones, Saliva, Submersed), who took the band into his 747 Studios in Memphis. Mills notes, “It was ‘18 Days’ that hooked me. The first time I heard it I was like, ‘these guys are the real deal; they’ll be doing this for a long time.’ Jason and Jared have always understood that the most important part of the music business is having great songs.”

Saving Abel gradually came together in the final electric line up of guitarist Scott Bartlett, bassist Eric Taylor, and drummer Blake Dixon, and the band paid its dues both onstage and off. Weeks would toss Saving Abel demos onto the stage when bigger bands played in town, and between playing gigs, working day jobs, and Weeks and Null constantly driving from Mississippi to Memphis to record their self-titled EP with Mills, it was a busy and prolific couple of years. Weeks remembers; “I used to work at a hospital. I’d have to be there at 4:30 in the morning drawing blood. I’d wake people up and stick a needle in their arm. I’d be walking around the hospital, singing ‘Addicted’ in my head, writing down the lyrics on patients’ clipboards and doctor script pads.”

Null and Weeks bring in differing songwriting approaches influences, giving Saving Abel a well-rounded sound. Null comes from a musical family, and recalls Saturday nights at the local community centre as a child. “We didn’t miss it, ever! It was bluegrass band after bluegrass band. We’d hoot and holler, as we used to say. My brother traded my bike for a guitar for me when I was 6, and I learned ‘Johnny B. Goode’ that night! I go back to Willie and Waylon, but as a kid of the ‘80s, I also love Metallica. Also, Angus Young is one of my main influences, as well as the guitar sound and solos of Seattle bands like Soundgarden and Alice in Chains.” For his part, a teenage Weeks played basketball and went to state twice in tennis before music consumed his life. A big fan of the blues and Southern Rock, Weeks calls himself the more “literal” songwriter of the two, explaining, “If something is really bothering me, or how I’m feeling at that moment, I’ll write about it. For me to get the most out of a song, I have to get it almost to the point I’m ready to cry if I can’t get it out, and that makes people relate to it.”

After shopping their indie EP for almost a year, a copy of ‘Addicted’ found its way to one-time Virgin A&R Consultant Scott Frazier and manager partner Rick Smith. They were so excited that they sent the song to the label’s Chairman/CEO Jason Flom. Flom was impressed upon first listen and immediately sent A&R vet Kim Stephens (Collective Soul, Matchbox 20, Edwin McCain) to see the band in Jackson, Tennessee. The band was signed the next day. Says Stephens, “I was sold on the merit of the songs and instantly recognised this was a band with huge potential.”

Saving Abel, the Virgin debut produced by Mills, features mostly brand-new tunes, plus a few favourites from the indie EP, including the poignant, perfectly crafted “18 Days,” “Running From You,” and “Drowning Face Down.” Null explains that “18 Days” was lyrically inspired by sheriff Buford Pusser of ‘Walking Tall’ fame, while laughingly admitting that the rowdy road trip in “New Tattoo” (“The blue is for the bruise you left in my heart / and the red is for the colour we’re about to paint this town”) is “based on a true story.” Null furthers: “Our goals are always to concentrate on the song, not just one cool part to make a kid bop his head. Every person I talk to loves a different song of ours.” Null was also the one who gave the band its name: “I Googled the story of Cain and Abel and found a line about ‘there was no Saving Abel,’ which just jumped out at me.” Everyone agreed and the name stuck…much like Saving Abel's songs get instantly stuck in the minds and ears of everyone who hears them. With a radio-ready sound combining big riffs and memorable melodies, Saving Abel has created a polished combination of Southern and Alternative rock…. 2008 style. Get Addicted. Get Saving Abel.

SELF TITLED ALBUM – RELEASED FEBRUARY 28

www.savingabel.com

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MY FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE

Behind Crimson Eyes
We did a festival in melbourne and it was a great. We got to hang out with Grinspoon and drink with those guys.

What are your tips for attending Music Festivals?Don't get drunk to quick. Pace yourself. So many people drink really quick at the start and it always ends up messy.

Favourite Music Festival?
I would have to say 'Big Day Out'. To any band it is great to be able to perform there its an honor. I was happy because when we did it 'Rage Against The Machine' were also playing that year and it was just one band I had always wanted to see play.

What's your ideal music festival line-up?Blink 182, Greenday and if I gould dig Jeff Buckley up, I would have him there to.

Favourite artist you’ve seen at a Music Festival?
Rage Against The Machine.