Interview with Pete Devine of Pete’s Rock News and Views (http://petesrocknewsandviews.com)
PD: What type of artist are you?
Ryan: The genius kind, wasn’t that obvious? We debate endlessly about how to describe ourselves. We’re a rock band with elements of punk and metal; we’re heavy and heady, energetic and intensely truthful.
Randy: We’re an emotive, heavy rock band with attitude. Nothing more. No subgenre nonsense. Rock and Roll.
Gino: I would describe our sound as heavy alternative rock.
PD: Tell us the brief history of the project.
Currently we’re operating as a threesome, er, three-piece, although that will be changing hopefully in the near future. Currently we have Ryan Stringer on Lead Vocals and Bass, Gino Klein on Guitar, and Randy Camponi on Drums.
The three of us first got together as a unit around the fall of 2015. Ryan had played in different bands separately with Gino and Randy in the past, and introduced the two of them when he got married that summer. We got together and started jamming and *poof*, here we are still doing it seven years later!
We released our first album a couple of years ago with our former lead singer, Connor, but after COVID lockdowns made it difficult to do normal band stuff, he left the band and Ryan took over the lead vocal role as a stop-gap. We eventually decided to make it a permanent move and we’re now on the hunt for a new bassist as we get ready to drop our fabulous new tunes.
PD: Who are your musical and non-musical Influences?
Ryan: I can’t deny my love for 80’s new wave stuff; Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears, The Cure, Platinum Blonde, all of that stuff. I also take a lot of inspiration from more contemporary alt-rock stuff like Muse, White Lies, Mother Mother, Queens of the Stoneage, Nine Inch Nails, and Pendulum.
Non-musically speaking: Humanism, dogs, 80’s sci-fi movies, fantasy novels, learning about social welfare within the context of current geopolitical structures, video games. You know, the classics.
Gino: Musically, so many to name, but early on I was really into Neil Young, Faith No Morre, Nirvana, and Led Zeppelin, and I got into Tool and System of a Down a little bit later.
Randy: Musically: Herbie Hancock, Gil Scott Heron, Parliament, Public Enemy, Red Hot Chili Peppers… This could go on for days.
Non-musically: All the assholes in the world that have shot abuses my way. Without you I probably wouldn’t have the rage and anger to make heavy music.
PD: Who writes your songs, what are they About?
A lot of our songs start out with an improvised guitar or bass riff, or even just a drum beat that we all build on together until we have a skeleton of a song that we then put the meat on – vocals, lyrics, and arrangement details, etc. Other times one of us will have a more fully-formed idea that the band will work together to make into the best song possible.
As a band we are pretty fixated on exploring human nature and what it means to be good humans, which also means calling out bad actors, even when those actors are ourselves. Apart from that, we also like to find answers within
ourselves by finding meaning in our unique experiences and points of view.
Ryan: One of the things I love about this band is that I get to truly collaborate with two of my favourite musicians of all time, and we’ve built a platform together that gives all of us the opportunity to create songs together that are better than any of us could do by ourselves.
I really love writing lyrics and putting vocal parts together, and so I do a lot of that, along with crafting bass parts, of course.
PD: How do you promote your band and Shows?
Up to this point it has been primarily word of mouth, although COVID really put the kibosh on most of our normal band activities. Now that we’re coming out the other side of this thing we’re excited to be working with some kick ass management who is helping us do a better job on the PR front.
PD: What do you think about downloading music online?
Ryan: I personally think it’s great from an accessibility standpoint. The easier we can make it for people to hear our music, the better. Having said that, the current payment models need a major overhaul if independent artists have any chance of surviving.
Randy: It’s both propelled and destroyed the music industry, which may not be a bad thing. But being a freelance artist is not a way to make a living and being an industry sycophant is just soul sucking so I guess I’m on the fence.
Gino: It’s never been this easy to get music out into the world, even though a large amount of it is, well…
PD: What song do you wish you’d written and Why?
Ryan: Hmm, I’d have to say ‘Hysteria’ by Muse. That bass line is just too school for cool, and I wish I had come up with it.
Gino: I really can’t think of a single song. There are too many to pick from.
Randy: Wanna Be Startin’ Something ~ Micheal Jackson. Arguably the best pop R&B song ever written.
PD: What is your proudest moment in music?
Ryan: Every one of this new batch of songs that we produce is my proudest moment, honestly. We’ve worked really hard at developing our songwriting skills as well as our DIY production, and I think it shows.
Randy: I think releasing the album a few years back. It gave me a sense of achievement, though in hindsight it isn’t comparable to the quality of jams we’re currently producing. It was very DIY and we did awesome I think despite that.
Gino: I think when our first single Blinding Lights was released and we had a release party for it. The only down side is that I think maybe the same day The Weeknd released his single titled.. Blinding Lights!
Ryan: Oh yeah, he totally did. I remember hearing that Blinding Lights was #1 and momentarily got excited until I realized it wasn’t ours.
PD: So what are you working on at the Moment?
Our new single and video ‘Objects of Affection’ drops on November 25th, and is the first of several new songs we’ll be releasing that we wrote and produced while locked away in our underground band bunker trying to avoid the COVID.
The song is aimed at predatory individuals who use their power and influence to groom and manipulate others into exploitative and abusive relationships, and the title alludes to the idea that what a predator will try to frame as “affection” is really just a rationalization for abuse.
Musically the song is pretty intense with a punk-y energy that doesn’t pull punches, and hopefully everybody agrees with us that it’s pretty rad!
PD: What music have you available online and where can we buy it from?
You can find us at our website (http://signal-static.com) as well as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Bandcamp, etc. And of course our music, including our debut album can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music, and all of the usual platforms where awesome music is found.
You can also Pre-Save “Objects of Affection” on Spotify here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/signalstatic/objects-of-affection
Signal Static links:
Band/Artist location – Victoria, BC, Canada.
Website – Facebook – You Tube – Bandcamp –
Twitter – Instagram – Apple – Spotify – Amazon – Deezer – DistroKid –
Check our page for Signal Static
