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It's not everyday that you get to interview a famous American Rock Star in the making, our Ed, Jed catches up with one of America's biggest up and coming bands 'UNIFIED THEORY'.
Jed: When did the band form?
Chris: In late 98.
J: How did you all get to meet each other?
C: Chris Thorn lived in LA and found an EP that Chris’s band had done in LA (Celia Green) – he listened to that and proceeded to find out who I was. We got together to discuss band possibilities of something different. I Flew to Seattle to meet Brad and within 1 week had written and we have recorded ‘Cessna’ and ‘Passive’. It all came together so fast.
J: Has having members from big rock bands helped you towards gaining success in the states?
C: Yeah in same sense a lot of people never liked blind melon. On one level it helped but a lot of people that might not have liked Blind Melon could love UT. It did help to start the band. We are going down well, had a few management problems and stuff, but we dealt with them, kept on the road and had a lot of support from the label which is important.
J: Who thought of band name and what does it mean?
C: It came from a song that Brad had written called Unified Theory. At time the time Brad was reading a lot on Einstein, Einstein’s last statement before he died was about the ‘Unified Field Theory’ which was the concept behind was proving that everything was from one day unified and one and that’s what the band believe in.
J: What comparisons can you draw between the US and UK music scenes?
C: Music scene in states consist of a lot of Hip Hop, it’s not really so big in the alternative scene like it used to be.
J: What are your main musical influences?
C: Curve, Massive Attack, Elizabeth Frasier, Peter Gabriel, Coldplay, Travis is good but they don’t blow my mind, but good.
J: How would you describe your music?
C: Extremely honest music and that’s why I like being in band. No pre-conceived ideas going into songs. We don’t try to make a hit single. We all love bands like Janes Addiction, Jeff Buckley and Radiohead. Each song is different.
J: Which band did you enjoy supporting most out of Live and Counting Crows?
C: Live I’ve never been a Counting Crow fan at all really but they are the sweetest guys on this planet. We are still hoping to tour with Live again.
J: What plans do you have with regards to promoting, distributing and touring in Europe?
C: We are hoping to get over there soon and want to make sure can get a record over there.
J: What's your favourite Unified Theory song and why?
C: I actually have 2 favourites.
Fin – Because it was our 1st song that all 3 of us had an (chris /brad/ and Chris) combined effort on every level. We wrote the song in the Bahamas on my parents boat and it was a turning point where first met. It’s the Anthem for the band. This is us taking on a whole new life and moving forward.
The second is Keep on because it was when Christopher brought in the piano part – others helped bring in chorus’s and verse but it was my first song I ever wrote from another persons point of view.
J: What advice would you give to young bands starting out?
C: Set smaller goals, don’t base success on magazine covers and commercial success. If you really want to make success you must be doing it for all the right reasons. You should love the people you are making music with, and playing to. I remind the band before every show we play that it’s not how we play the songs it’s why we play the songs. If the energy is good then that’s all that counts.
J: Is there anything now that you wish you could have done different?
C: NO – Happy with life and with the people in it.
J: Re-mixing songs is the new rock 'n' roll, who would you have remix your songs out of Moby, Fatboy slim or Trent Reznor?
C: Moby , Flood and maybe peter Gabriel. They are my dream choice.
J: How many copies of the album have you sold so far?
C: 15,000 which was released in August 2000.
J: What's the next single to be released off the album?
Wither – was released yesterday for radio plugging – haven’t released as CD yet - in the UK will be different.
J: Who do you think has made the biggest contribution to music in the past 20 years?
C: The Beatles, they completely set the ground workings for everything studio work is based on now. They didn’t have anything else to work with so they were creating sounds.
J: If there was any band or artist you would play a gig with, who would it be?
C: I would have loved to play with Geff Buckly, Bjork (I’m a huge Bjork fan) and Emily Anna Torini.
J: What are your aims over the next 2 years?
C: To keep touring to keep building on the fan base and eventually start next record.
J: Meaning of life?
C: No answer…..
J: Best band experience?
C: Touring with Live and Counting Crows, playing the most beautiful venues, big outdoor places of which we played to 20,000 (bigger ones). It’s surreal like a dream and we got a great response. Played ‘ Gorge’ which was right outside Seattle – outside on river looks like Grand Canyon there’s desert and it’s the most beautiful place. We usually play to 400 which is a good night.
J: Worst band experience?
C: Industry gig we played for radio people to come and hear new bands and decide who they are going to airplay. We played the show and everything went wrong things weren’t plugged in right, the set was cut in in half, we didn’t get sound checked, everything that could of went wrong, went wrong. No one was watching they were all busy with business it was just crap. I hate commercial shows that are just so impersonal. No love from the crowd so wasn’t much love coming off the stage. People still say it was a great show though which was really weird. We don’t get pissed on stage or anything like that.
J: Worst band habit?
C: Health Nuts. We get on each others case when on tour for eating junk food. We are always calorie checking each others food, we’ll always try and beat the others persons food when at convienient stores but don’t always eat the food we buy. After gigs we go back into the van and have to use handy wipes to keep hands clean from germs as your always out there shaking each others hand. Handy wipes keep hands clean.
Thanks to Dan our other Ed for help in question construction and Chris Shinn for taking the time out for this interview.