Artist Q&A: Standing Shadows

Originally published in The Deli, Issue #7 (Fall 2010).
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The alternative-rock 4-piece Standing Shadows has been keeping busy with the release of an EP, full-length album and 7". With plans to release a remix EP in late November and another album next year, the band has also had the joy of hearing their music on TV shows like the new "90210" and "The Shield," in addition to a few video games.

How was your experience of writing, engineering and producing the new album yourself?

David Miltenberger: "Five Years of Darkness" was a record that took us about five years to complete, hence the name of the record. We initially started writing and recording the demos in Missouri, where I was currently living, and Los Angeles, where Dan was living. I was working in the oil industry with my family and I would drive a lot to see my customers. This allowed me to listen to our demos in the car, work on lyrics, vocal melodies and whatever else we could possibly add to make the song better. I was listening to a lot of Arcade Fire, Muse, Flaming Lips, and of course, Pink Floyd and Radiohead at that time and would try to make sure our album was as creative and interesting as theirs. Dan was doing the same thing out here in LA. Since he works in the music business, he has a great ear and a sense of how to make sure the song is creative, unique and something people can hold on to.

Dan Silver: We recorded, engineered and produced the record between my studio in Los Angeles and, at the time, Dave’s studio in Missouri. Our process quickly became a ‘postal service’ style record and we had an amazing time putting the pieces together. I spent a lot of time pre-producing the demos with Dave, trying to get all the best ideas in place to eventually re-record the instruments properly. The first few years was all about flying back and forth every few months to create the songs.

David: Once I moved back to Los Angeles in 2009, we re-recorded almost all of the vocals, lots of the guitar parts, added two female background singers, who are in the band SONOS and cello player Ken Oak. Dan found our drummer, got him to record all our drum parts and email them back to us. It's kind of crazy, but I still have not yet met that drummer in person! We sent him the songs, told him what to play and he rocked it within a week or so!

Dan: A friend of mine turned me on to a great drummer, Blair Sinta, who was absolutely incredible to work with in the process. We did the whole thing online through the power of the Internet, sending sessions back and forth until everything was solid.

David: Overall, this recording process was a great experience for us. Sure, it took a lot longer than we wanted, but we are really happy with the results. We focused in on how we wanted this record to sound, what instrumentations to use and how to keep the entire record creative and interesting. Everything on this record has a purpose. With that said, we are definitely not planning on taking another five years to release the next record! We plan on releasing an EP sometime in early 2011.

Dan: This is one of my favorite albums to produce, especially considering all the elements and the way we put this together. It was an unbelievable yet rewarding haul. Regardless if anyone realizes what went into this, we hope people fall in love with the final picture.

In celebration of your 7" release, you did a special set at Origami Vinyl with an expanded line-up of violin and cello. How did that go and is that something you'd like to experiment with more in the future for shows?

David: That show was amazing! We had an awesome cello player, Jeness Johnson, who had just come back from playing in Italy for a few years to join us. She was amazing, such a beautiful tone on that cello. I remember she came in to rehearse with us and we of course asked her to play a song. I think she played some Bach piece and our jaws just dropped. We could sit there for hours listening to that great instrument. We will be adding cello and violin to more of our shows. We hope the fans are as excited as we are to keep our shows unique and as different as possible. With so many great bands out here, we really have to keep our shows exciting and different, so our fans get a new show every time they come and see us. With over 50 shows this past year, we are constantly working to make the shows bigger and better, and this means adding in more -- more synths, live cello and violin, beautiful and melodic female background singers, and more.

What parts of LA did you shoot the video for "Get it Together" and what was the inspiration behind the video?

Dan: We had several locations for the video shoot around Los Angeles. We shot the entire video in one day. We started in Hollywood and then went downtown to the Fashion District. We were hoping to find a place where there was a built in crowd and so we dove right into the massive crowd at Santee Alley. We had a small film crew with us. For a while, the entire crowd surrounding us got really into what we were doing. I was actually playing live guitar while Dave was singing out loud, so the people thought they were part of some live event being filmed. With in minutes, we were stopped by security and got kicked out. Luckily the surrounding areas are ‘public’ streets and we finished several more takes in the area. The inspiration comes from the lyrics of the song. The hook of the song is “we gotta get together," which is what we were trying to get the people on the streets to do.

Dave: The inspiration was to do a video that we're walking down the streets, hanging out, with crazy things going on around us. Lots of different cultures and by the end of the video, everyone is singing along with us when we sing "we gotta get together." It's a positive song about LA and hoping that people can 'get together,' be friends and hang out. We didn't get people to sing with us, but I do think that the result still works. We are walking through all these people, with their lives going on, and we're singing how we want to 'get together' and hang out.

Can you describe the remix contest that you recently held?

Dave: Ever since we started the song "One Way Ride," we had always felt that this song could work well in a DJ/rave type environment. We don't go to rave parties that often, but between Dan and I, we've hit some cool raves across the globe. Punta del Este in Uruguay, Ibiza, London, LA, and more. Once the record was done, we could finally put the word out, and get some great DJ's to do some remixes. Our PR company recommended the online site Indabamusic.com. We put the song up there and offered some prizes to the winners. That site worked great for us. We got some great remixes and worked with people from all over the world. Dan is endorsed by FXpansion and got the winner an awesome software package.

Dan: We spent a lot of time this summer letting the remixes sink in and deciding how to release them. In the meantime, we also worked with some of our amazing producer friends to also come up with a few remixes that would complete the EP. It’s interesting to see how many ways you can produce the same song. We’re just now finishing the final touches and excited to share with the world soon.

Dave: The ‘One Way Ride Remix EP’ will be released digitally on iTunes on November 30th and includes an amazing variety of remixes. Everything from a DJ house party, to an epic orchestra, to UK techno and more.

What is it about your music that makes it fit for TV and video game synchs?

Dan: Every scene on TV has a specific musical need. With the amount of music being released every day, it’s tough to stand out. The right song gets picked because the hook is saying something about what is going on, the tempo works with the rhythm of the action happening, the tone of the instruments play into the mood of the scenario and so on. The music we write has great energy, whether it’s slow or fast, there’s an emotional quality that drives the music and works well in a cinematic use. Most importantly, we’re writing about messages that everyone can relate to and the sound has something unique that audiences can gravitate to.