Winslow
Austin, TX // SXSW
Interviewed by Jordan Fischels
Q: Is this your first time playing SXSW? How has the experience been treating you? How does it compare to other shows/festivals you guys have played?
A: Yes, first time. I think we’ve all been energized from the experience. It’s our first time down here and we are just taking everything in. SXSW is definitely the biggest by far. Everything is bigger in Texas. Just the scale is insane. Last night we were out for a little bit and the streets were just packed with people. You couldn’t move at all. Incredible amounts of people everywhere.
Q: You have a new album due to be released this month, Left To The Right Direction. How are you feeling about it? What can you tell us about it? I know you worked industry recognized names on this album – For instance, Grammy-winning Producer Edwin “Tony” Nicholas. What was that like? How has it been working with such industry recognized people?
A: It’s going to be awesome! We just did a local release and had a great reaction to it. So far, everyone that we have been talking to loves it. We’re feeling good about it. All the reviews have been positive. The album itself is soul music meets pop music meets rock music. So there’s a little something for everybody. There is a lot of music there. It’s due to be released on the 26th. Working with Tony Nicholas was a little bit intimidating, but he was very laid back though. Most of us went to school for music or had taken lessons. We just tried to take everything in, ask a lot of questions, and make sure we were on the same page with them. We just tried to learn as much as we can. I think that they added a lot to the experience, and then we self-produced the rest of the album. So, we took every little bit of our experience with them and then applied it on our own. I think it shows on the album.
Q: You’ve earned a lot of praise locally in your hometown of Cleveland – such as Best Local Band. How does it feel to have such overwhelming support from your hometown? How does that fuel you guys?
A: It feels good. You know you’re doing something right. You’ve got to have the hometown love before you can really branch out. It’s really good knowing that we can have Cleveland as our backbone, Akron as our backbone; and from there, we know we can build our home areas so now we can branch out and build these other areas, too. We’ve been around for a few years, and we’ve toured a lot. We kind of wanted to go back and focus on home and rebuilding home before we went out. I think it’s working so far.
Q: Any other plans for the rest of your stay in Austin?
A: Heading out and driving 23 hours. We’ve been here since Wednesday, so we’ve seen a lot of showcases. Best show we saw was just now, Teenage Kicks out of Canada. They were really good. Wednesday night we saw a band called Shivering Timbers out of Akron. We wanted to support some of the locals and they put on a crazy show. It was really good.
Q: What has been the “Highlight” of your career? Personally and collectively.
A: Being here in Austin is pretty awesome. Something of this magnitude is definitely a highlight. Lifetime career though was when we opened for Earth, Wind & Fire. That was awesome. Those guys are our heroes. That was pretty amazing. Hopefully, everyone listens to it. Listen with an open mind, because we are different than most other bands out there. We are trying to do something unique, so give it a listen and you’ll probably find something on the album you’ll like.
