'We're Not A Punk Band... But We're Not
The Jonas Brothers either... '
A Cursive Memory And The Brave New World of
Emo Pop
Although three of its four members are
only a year out of high school, A Cursive
Memory are living the life of full-time rock
n rollers. Growing up in the suburbs of L.A.
the band puts its proximity to Tinseltown
to good use, creating a video for their song
"Everything" by stalking various
A- and B-list celebrities like papparazzi
and making them unwilling guest stars in the
video. "Everything" became a viral
video (it broke the record for first-week
viewings of a rock video on MySpace) and brought
them instant national attention (you can see
the video here.)
But the seeds for A Cursive Memory's success
were planted long before the video. The band
signed with Bunim Murray management (the same
company that makes those cheesy reality shows
about the Lohans and Kardashians, and most
notoriously, MTV's Real World franchise) while
only in 10th grade. The band spent its senior
year of high school recording its debut CD
Changes "in between classes, afterschool
sports, and homework," and shortly after
graduating, signed to Vagrant Records. Changes
came out in February 2008... and the band's
been on the road almost constantly since then,
including a stint on this summer's Warped
Tour, an appearance at Bamboozle Left, and
a supporting slot on the Simon dTour (with
All American Rejects) of 24 of America's biggest
malls. Radio Disney has also embraced the
band's fresh-faced teen appeal, which combines
twee emo vocals with giddy synths and a relentlessly
sugar-coated vibe.
Clearly this band is living a life that most
19 year olds would kill for, but we wondered,
what sort of brave new world have we here?
A Cursive Memory writes their own songs and
plays their own instruments, so they're not
a manufactured boy band like the Monkees (or
'N Sync) - yet they've seemingly been groomed
for stardom since puberty. And while they
may play clubs and tour in a van with bands
like Jimmy Eat World and Hello Goodbye, charting
alongside Hannah Montana and the High School
Musical soundtrack on Radio Disney removes
them from the trajectory of what we'd consider
the typical American punk band, doesn't it?
Welcome to the world of A Cursive Memory:
Is this the future of rock 'n' roll?
- Jim Testa
Q: Please introduce the members of
the band: Name, age, instrument, and favorite
action figure
I am Shaun Profeta I will be doing the interview
. I am 19 years old, I play guitar and my
favorite action figure would have to be Gumby…he
works well as a doorstop.
Colin Baylen, 19, guitar
Mark Borst-Smith, 19, bass, keyboards
Dillan Wheeler, 21, drums
Q: If I read your bio correctly, you
guys started playing together in junior high
which would have been about 2002, so I’m
guess that you were listening to a lot of
Blink-182 and Sum-41 back then. What were
some of the influences and favorite bands
that we might not think you’d listen
to?
Shaun: Yes those were defiantly the Blink
years! We’ve listened to a lot of different
things over the years. Stuff from like Blink
182, Jimmy Eat World, Death Cab for Cutie,
to things like The Beach Boys, The Beatles,
The Kooks, John Mayor, Tahiti 80, Copeland,
Minus the Bear, The Cardigans...etc.
Q: When most of your friends were
getting ready to spend their last summer home
before leaving for college, you guys were
on the Warped Tour. What was it like being
away like that at such a young age and how
much were you able to connect with friends
and family while you were on tour? Do you
have any family members or management with
you on tour or are the four of you on your
own?
Shaun: Leaving home is a bittersweet sort
of feeling. I love touring for a lot of reasons:
I see a new city pretty much every day, I’m
with my band who are all my best friends,
and we get to play music and somehow it’s
called our “job”. It’s an
awesome thing. However, leaving Southern California
during the summer is never easy. Friendships
and relationships with family members sort
of revolve around phone calls when we’re
gone, that isn’t always easy either,
but I guess it’s all part of it. The
only help we’ve ever had on tour is
if we bring out a friend to sell our T-shirts.
Q: You guys remind me a lot of Saves
The Day, another band that signed to Vagrant
as teenagers, but I think it's safe to say
that most fans thought of STD as a punk band,
and you guys seem to fall into some new category.
Granted, you did the Warped Tour but you’re
also being played on Radio Disney and being
heavily marketed to the 'tween audience. What’s
separates A Cursive Memory from Hannah Montana
or High School Musical? Is there any difference
in 2008 between being a punk band or the Jonas
Brothers?
Shaun: We grew up listening to a lot of Vagrant
bands like STD and The Get Up Kids. We also
grew up listening to other stuff like I said
earlier The Beatles and The Beach Boys. With
that said, we’ve always been able to
keep things in perspective as far what kind
of band we are. I wouldn’t label our
band as a punk band, though we might have
listened to a lot of those bands growing up,
we just don’t fall into that genre.
I also wouldn’t put us in the same category
as the Jonas Brothers or Hannah Montana for
a lot of reasons. We do everything ourselves,
our vision for what we want our band to be
and how it is represented is what you see.
For example, the music video for our song
“Everything” was an unorthodox
idea that we wanted to pursue so we did. We’ve
never tried to fit a trend or follow a pattern
like I see a lot of bands doing. We strive
to just simply do what we think is creative,
unique and fun. I also think the term “punk
band” is thrown around lightly these
days, in my mind a punk band are bands like
The Dead Kennedys and Black Flag, so to ask
the difference between those bands and The
Jonas Brothers seems to be a bit extreme.
Q:
Are there any funny stories about making the
“Everything” video that we might
not have heard? Which celebrities gave you
the most trouble, and did you hear from any
of them after the video became such a huge
hit on YouTube and MySpace?
Shaun: The whole process was a pretty hilarious
and ironic thing. Sometimes we would spend
time during the day trying to research what
movie premieres were happening and where,
who’s making an appearance and where…etc.
We would end up going out that night to get
some footage and end up getting nothing ...
5 hours of standing around. Some nights we
would be 100% unprepared and get lucky at
a random restaurant or club getting sometimes
three celebrities in one night. It slowly
started directing itself; we just had to be
ready for the 10-second window we MIGHT be
able to finagle with each celebrity.
Q: How hard has it been to have a
private life with the year you’ve had?
Shaun: Being on tour definitely puts a strain
on trying to have a private life. Since we
aren’t stationary and we are all over
the map it makes thing a lot more difficult.
Q: I like the fact that you guys seem
pretty serious about being accepted for your
music when there are some very successful
pop-punk-emo-whatever bands (I’m sure
you know who I mean) who sell records by posing
in their underwear and whatnot. Have you ever
said “no” to anybody who wanted
you to do a photo shoot or an ad or something
that you felt didn’t represent the band
properly? How important is your image (vs
your music) to your overall career?
Shaun: I think saying “No” to
certain things is sometimes more important
than saying “yes” to others. Keeping
your band’s integrity is so important.
Yes we have said “no” to plenty
of things that wouldn’t have represented
our band in the way we would want to be represented.
We take our music seriously, I mean we’re
not Radiohead (who is a good example of a
band with commercial success and artistic
integrity) but we take pride in writing songs
and being professional about it. We don’t
take ourselves too seriously to begin with
so a lot of things we do are just for our
own humor and enjoyment….like our music
videos.
Q:
Pete Townshend once said that rock and roll
bands get 18 years to write their first record,
and six months to write their second. You’re
in that position now - how has it been trying
to write your next album when you’ve
been so busy marketing the first one?
Shaun: My dad used to always remind me of
that quote and it’s so true. It’s
a great quote. In comparison to our band it’s
not as relatable as some bands. We are constantly
writing new songs. Writing is my favorite
part of being in a band. There is something
about creating songs that is so gratifying
and liberating. We take acoustic guitars on
tour and mini recording set up’s to
lay down demos. We write during sound checks
and if we ever have time off at home we are
in the studio at my house jamming on new stuff.
In comparison to “Changes”, I
feel like we are going to have lot more songs
and ideas to choose from for the new record.
That’s still a ways in the future.
Q: Have you given any thought to what
you’d like to be doing five years from
now? Is more school in any of your plans?
What goals and ambitions do you have for the
immediate future, and long term for the band?
Shaun: I guess I’m the type person
that tries to set short term goals to accomplish
as oppose to giant long-term goals. It always
seems so much more realistic that way. I think
it would be awesome to play some shows overseas,
that’s definitely a goal of ours. Going
to school has always been something I’ve
wanted to stay involved in. It never hurts
to learn. Right now I’m currently enrolled
in some online classes through Santa Monica
city-college. It’s perfect for me; I
can stay educated while touring.
Q: Please tell people how they can
find you on the Internet and what you have
coming up.
On October 13th we are premiering our new
Music Video on Myspace for our single “Perfect
Company”. We went to Alaska and battled
the wild…. see what happens in our new
video we call Band vs. Wild.
You can find more information and
tour dates at
myspace.com/acursivememory.
