The Exit fucking rocks their hometown of New York City. Their latest album is Home for an Island which was released by Some Records. Apparently Exit members Gunnar, Ben Brewer, Jeff DaRosa and Tim Shaya are getting along better than ever so I decided to talk to guitarist and vocalist Ben Brewer while on a quick break from their latest tour.
Check out the official site of The Exit
Daniel Robert Epstein: Where are you today?
Ben Brewer: Im in Nashville on tour. I wouldnt mind staying here for a month because its crazy.
DRE: How is Nashville compared to New York City?
BB: The attitude is totally different. In New York they have a lot of attitude but in Nashville they dont have a lot of attitude but they have a lot of chops. You will see a lot of bands that suck but everyone in the band are still really good musicians.
Also I just woke up and Im playing my guitar. I always try to play when I first wake up.
DRE: What do you play?
BB: I just knock around on it. We have another album weve written but not released yet so Im just playing with those tunes. There is some silly stuff Im still trying to learn too.
DRE: Who are you touring with?
BB: We just played three Nashville shows with Muse and weve had some pretty big crowds. The guitar player from Muse is really fucking amazing so watching him every night is fun. They are a musicians band so our drummer looks to their drummer and I will look to their guitar player. Its cool.
DRE: Where are you going next?
BB: Were going down to Orlando Florida then we have to drive to LA.
DRE: Thats fucked up.
BB: Yeah but we have our own gig in LA at The Wiltern so thats cool.
DRE: What inspired the latest album?
BB: A lot of Jeffs lyrics are pretty post 9/11. Jeffs lyrics talk about the anxiety from that because it was stressful touring during that time then coming home to New York. Its basically just about love and politics.
DRE: Whats the songwriting process for The Exit?
BB: The song, Dont Push, was written three days before we went into the studio because we needed a solid song. We went to go see the Bad Brains with our producer Ron [Saint-Germain] who produced the Bad Brains album Eye Against Eye. When we went into preproduction with him he was giving us shit about our formats so we figured we needed one last awesome number. So I wrote Dont Push and that became the first track on the album. We put that one together really quick and it came out real fresh.
DRE: So all of you are really collaborative?
BB: Yeah we get it together.
DRE: Has it always been like that?
BB: Yeah, also at this point its a necessary component. The best way for our unit to work is for everyone to contribute. To me its all about harmony.
DRE: Besides that one thing how was it working with Ron Saint-Germain as producer?
BB: It was pretty stressful and really difficult. The day we went into the studio I was in the hospital because I came down with the flu. I had a 104 fever and I was sweating through the sheets. For the first four days in the studio I wasnt there so the band recorded a lot of music with me not there. Ron was a stressed out cat because he normally makes records for half a million dollars. But we had like 1/25 of a million dollars. That was a lot of money for us but for him it was like nothing. He was yelling at me on the phone telling me to get the hell down there. I was like, yo man I cant move. He kept telling me we couldnt push it back. Since were such a tight band I told him to have everyone else lay their stuff down. That was probably a decision I shouldnt have had to make. But then later when I came in, it was difficult because there were all these spaces on the tracks. Where normally I would just do one guitar I had to record different harmonies of the same parts to fill it in. It became this really tedious thing but it was also cool because it was kind of like painting with music. It was difficult but I learned a lot from it. Even though I have certain qualms about the record its solid and people are into it.
DRE: Whats up with that album you said you finished but its not coming out?
BB: Were trying to figure it out since we recorded it in our practice space its more like a demo album. Its starting to sound really good. We recorded it right after Home for an Island and were just starting to put vocals on it. Were like that, so we will work hard and just put out some more music. We played our first song from it the other night and it was cool. The 700 people at the show were down with it.
DRE: Who brings the reggae beats to your songs?
BB: Gunnar brings the reggae, Jeff brings the reggae bass and I bring the reggae guitar. Well get all tribal with it. Thats whats cool about being in New York because weve developed this urban sound. A lot of hip-hop heads, like Keziah Jones, came into the studio while we were playing and told us we sounded funky.
DRE: Where does it come from though?
BB: When I was a kid I wasnt walking around with dreads or anything but I was always into reggae. I had this one Rastafarian babysitter named Linda that was always taking me to see her boyfriends reggae band named Lions Den. Also Gunnar and I used to play in ska band so we always dug those grooves.
DRE: What was the first place you played in New York City?
BB: It was Fat Gat Billiards Hall with a hardcore band called De La Hoya. That was three and a half years ago.
DRE: How is it working with your label, Some Records?
BB: They are a really cool label that works hard. They arent about any kind of scene but are just into signing good music.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the official site of The Exit
Daniel Robert Epstein: Where are you today?
Ben Brewer: Im in Nashville on tour. I wouldnt mind staying here for a month because its crazy.
DRE: How is Nashville compared to New York City?
BB: The attitude is totally different. In New York they have a lot of attitude but in Nashville they dont have a lot of attitude but they have a lot of chops. You will see a lot of bands that suck but everyone in the band are still really good musicians.
Also I just woke up and Im playing my guitar. I always try to play when I first wake up.
DRE: What do you play?
BB: I just knock around on it. We have another album weve written but not released yet so Im just playing with those tunes. There is some silly stuff Im still trying to learn too.
DRE: Who are you touring with?
BB: We just played three Nashville shows with Muse and weve had some pretty big crowds. The guitar player from Muse is really fucking amazing so watching him every night is fun. They are a musicians band so our drummer looks to their drummer and I will look to their guitar player. Its cool.
DRE: Where are you going next?
BB: Were going down to Orlando Florida then we have to drive to LA.
DRE: Thats fucked up.
BB: Yeah but we have our own gig in LA at The Wiltern so thats cool.
DRE: What inspired the latest album?
BB: A lot of Jeffs lyrics are pretty post 9/11. Jeffs lyrics talk about the anxiety from that because it was stressful touring during that time then coming home to New York. Its basically just about love and politics.
DRE: Whats the songwriting process for The Exit?
BB: The song, Dont Push, was written three days before we went into the studio because we needed a solid song. We went to go see the Bad Brains with our producer Ron [Saint-Germain] who produced the Bad Brains album Eye Against Eye. When we went into preproduction with him he was giving us shit about our formats so we figured we needed one last awesome number. So I wrote Dont Push and that became the first track on the album. We put that one together really quick and it came out real fresh.
DRE: So all of you are really collaborative?
BB: Yeah we get it together.
DRE: Has it always been like that?
BB: Yeah, also at this point its a necessary component. The best way for our unit to work is for everyone to contribute. To me its all about harmony.
DRE: Besides that one thing how was it working with Ron Saint-Germain as producer?
BB: It was pretty stressful and really difficult. The day we went into the studio I was in the hospital because I came down with the flu. I had a 104 fever and I was sweating through the sheets. For the first four days in the studio I wasnt there so the band recorded a lot of music with me not there. Ron was a stressed out cat because he normally makes records for half a million dollars. But we had like 1/25 of a million dollars. That was a lot of money for us but for him it was like nothing. He was yelling at me on the phone telling me to get the hell down there. I was like, yo man I cant move. He kept telling me we couldnt push it back. Since were such a tight band I told him to have everyone else lay their stuff down. That was probably a decision I shouldnt have had to make. But then later when I came in, it was difficult because there were all these spaces on the tracks. Where normally I would just do one guitar I had to record different harmonies of the same parts to fill it in. It became this really tedious thing but it was also cool because it was kind of like painting with music. It was difficult but I learned a lot from it. Even though I have certain qualms about the record its solid and people are into it.
DRE: Whats up with that album you said you finished but its not coming out?
BB: Were trying to figure it out since we recorded it in our practice space its more like a demo album. Its starting to sound really good. We recorded it right after Home for an Island and were just starting to put vocals on it. Were like that, so we will work hard and just put out some more music. We played our first song from it the other night and it was cool. The 700 people at the show were down with it.
DRE: Who brings the reggae beats to your songs?
BB: Gunnar brings the reggae, Jeff brings the reggae bass and I bring the reggae guitar. Well get all tribal with it. Thats whats cool about being in New York because weve developed this urban sound. A lot of hip-hop heads, like Keziah Jones, came into the studio while we were playing and told us we sounded funky.
DRE: Where does it come from though?
BB: When I was a kid I wasnt walking around with dreads or anything but I was always into reggae. I had this one Rastafarian babysitter named Linda that was always taking me to see her boyfriends reggae band named Lions Den. Also Gunnar and I used to play in ska band so we always dug those grooves.
DRE: What was the first place you played in New York City?
BB: It was Fat Gat Billiards Hall with a hardcore band called De La Hoya. That was three and a half years ago.
DRE: How is it working with your label, Some Records?
BB: They are a really cool label that works hard. They arent about any kind of scene but are just into signing good music.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck