2004 05 MAY RAG - RAG Magazine

RAG: How would you describe MEG’s sound?SAMANTHA: We’ve tried at our best to describe it as a melodicrock cause it definitely has a rock feel to it but it has so muchmelody that it’s not like rock in your face, you still wanna sit backand listen… it’s got some ambience to it.LAZ: We say rock n’ roll cause it has your bass, it hasyour guitar… and then we throw in the turntable witha lot of electronica, drum n’ bass, great beat loops,you know… we throw that behind us, so it’s kindasomething new that we can’t really pinpoint…have so many stories, you know, and in a lot of ways thereare some things that they can say to me that’ll relate to meand I’m able to develop that into something that doesn’t necessarilysay he/she or this person or that person.RAG: What about touring? Is that something you’d like todo in the near future?SAMANTHA: Like an alternative melodic rock (laughs)RAG: What are some of you musical influences?LAZ: Well, I mean, it goes back to obviously the Beatles,the BeeGees, Otis Redding…SAMANTHA: …Joe Cocker… and like I’m really intoEminem now and Dr. Dre…LAZ: …Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Pearl Jam,Coldplay…SAMANTHA: …Ani DiFranco, Tom Petty…RAG: I understand the band’s been spending a lotof time in the studio, what’s that been like?LAZ: Good. We actually just finished moving here,we deconstructed the studio and we’re constructingit again, we’re building it from scratch. It’sgonna be better. We’re gonna get some new gearand we’re excited about that. It gives a chance tothe guys who’ve been really putting an effort towardthis live thing to show us what they can dobecause we’ve been working a lot with programmersdoing drums and now we have a live drummerand turntables. What I like about the turntablesis that it really tweaks with the sound wealready had.RAG: What do you plan on doing with the tracksthat you’re laying down now?LAZ: We have an EP on the way.SAMANTHA: And our album is gonna be done inprobably about 2 months.RAG: Is that something you’re going to releaseon your own?LAZ: Yeah.RAG: What’s the songwriting process like for you?LAZ: Just playing around with some ideas on guitar… if everyonelikes it, I track it and we build off of that.RAG: It sounds like a lot of the songs deal or focus onrelationships. Do you look anywhere else for inspiration?SAMANTHA: Everywhere… I’ve gone out just to a bar and satthere and written and just watched people… and my friendsLAZ: Yeah, we are looking for sponsors… and in the casethat the sponsors don’t come, like for example, we have asong called All The Time that’s being played on c895 fm inSeattle, that would be one of the first places we would hitbecause there’s actually a little push on radio…RAG: Have either of you heard of a band called FictionPlane?SAMANTHA: No, I don’t think so.RAG MAGAZINE • JULY 2004 • 41