The Suburbians Interview
Interview with The Suburbians
Words by Mariah Scary
The Suburbians are a band getting a lot of attention at the moment having just won the International Indie Week competition in Dublin, and are now set to headline Indie Week Festival in Canada next month. With a cracking single ‘Six In The Morning’ and debut album ’Follow The Lights’ due for release in November, it’s no wonder their fan base is doubling with almost every gig. Drawing influence from commercial rock bands such as Foo Fighters and Jimmy Eat World, each song is as catchy as the last and they produce an anthemic style of stadium rock that audiences can’t help but sing along to. Clink caught up with frontman Mark Konstantinovic to get the low-down on life as a Suburbian:
You are a band that clearly wear your influences proudly on your sleeves, who are some of those and why?
They are completely different depending on who you ask in the band… Charlie and Ben N are avid fans of rhythmically prominent bands like Blink or Biffy, and are madly into funk and jazz players, the influences they have definitely make them a really solid foundation to our tracks. Ben K just loves the 6 strings, from Rage to John Mayer, anything with great guitar parts. Just listen to the varying styles from Breathe to Slow down and you can see how his wide influences come across on record. Myself, I like lyrics and good song structures, Dave Grohl really mixes things up in the foo’s, from the massive tunes to the delicate ones. Gary lightbody also comes to mind as someone who can write really simple songs, but leave a lot to the imagination that you can sink your teeth into.
Who writes the songs?
Myself and my brother Ben K, we’ve been writing for years and have seemed to come up with a process that seems to work well… Usually he’ll come up with some awesome guitar parts stiched together into a demo MP3, which I play for about a week solid on my phone while I write lyrics and melodies then Ben K will chop it all up again until we’re both happy with it.
What does playing on an international stage in Canada mean for you guys? And how did that come about?
It’s massive! Its a great goal to aim for in terms of getting a show to the standard it needs to be to start performing internationally. It came about because we won an international competition in Dublin for the chance to be taken over to Toronto and headline Indie Week festival it felt like we’d won the lottery at the time! Now we really just can’t wait to fly over and show Canada what we can do.
At what point in your life did you decide you wanted to be a musician?
I wanted to play music all my life, but I’d say I decided I wanted to be a professional musician as a serious life ambition about mid way through my uni years when I noticed every spare evening I had was spent at an open mic night.
What equipment do you use to get those great tones?
In the studio we used mesa blended with Orange heads, with some Marshall in the mix aswell. We used a tonne of different guitars from Strats to some fantastic Gibsons, Charlie became quite a fan of the P Bass while Ben N loves his Sonar Drums.
Explain the recording experience with Romesh Dodangoda. What did he get out of you guys that perhaps wouldn’t have happened without his expertise?
I think we work really well with Romesh. His style fits with what were trying to achieve with the album. Theres no hiding behind messy effects and over processing, he get an incredible punch in his drum mixes and really knows his stuff when blending tones in guitar heads. He’s a very fluid producer and kept us all busy when we were tracking, which is really important for keeping the energy up in the studio. Also there was the small issue that we only had 10 days to record the whole album, and working with him we managed to average a song a day, so all in all I think we make a good team. Without his expertise we would have had no hope it getting “Follow the Lights” to the production standard we have now.
What is the future plan for The Suburbians?
World domination.
What is the best gig you have played so far and why?
Brighton beach 2010, Mainstage at the Marathon festival, beautiful sun, right by the sea. It’s my favourite place in the world (so far anyway). Although Camden barfly with a tonne of new fans recently was pretty incredible too.
Tell us an interesting fact about The Suburbians?
We made up the name when we were living in the Suburbs of Brighton, and me and my brother are half Serbian.
When was the last time you got home at Six In The Morning?
Funnily enough last night, Ocasan stayed round our house for a break from their tour dates, and we were indeed up until 6 in the Morning. I remember drunkenly blasting it out of the laptop because we just had the draft of our new music video back that evening! I imagine it should be online by the time your readers have this on their screens.
The Suburbians release their single ‘Six In The Morning’ on 7th October with a press launch party at The 100 Club, and following that the album launch party is set for 229 Club in London on Friday 25th November. Tickets are available now from www.ticketweb.co.uk
