Last week we posted an interview I had with Steve Ludwig, the ex-Nations Afire frontman who’s now the full-time drummer for O.C. rock band Sederra., but today we bring you another interview with Sederra’s frontman Tom Schmitt and bassist Eric Bootow.
The guys talked about how interacting with fans is evolving and how much easier it is for people to discover a band, as well as how things have been going now that Steve is on board, the different musical tastes within the band, and what’s next for Sederra. Click here to read the full interview.
Sederra were our latest guests for the Dying Scene Sessions. The videos will be posted tomorrow, but until then, check out both interviews!
Dying Scene: What’s up, guys? thanks for talking to me today!
Eric: No Problem! We really appreciate this man, thank you!
Tom: Yeah, thanks for doing this.
Dying Scene: Cool, no problem. I spoke with Steve earlier, we had a good talk. Hopefully you guys give more insight into the band. For background info, let me get this straight. You guys were formed out of Longfellow in the 90’s…It was Tom, Mike, and Tony, right?
Eric: Yeah, and I was in Fourth In Line and As Hope Dies and other bands. Most recently I play with Jugheads Revenge as well as Sederra.
Dying Scene: So Coming from your experiences of playing in all these different bands, how different is it being in Sederra?
Tom: It’s all the same, really. Music-wise, we’re still writing the same thing and the creativity is still the same. Different in the fact of just trying to get it out there and gaining fans. Back in the 90’s when Longfellow starts we still had demo tapes, handing out flyers and all that stuff. Nowadays with MySpace, and Facebook, and all that stuff, it’s just a different process. Even with recording and getting music out there with CD’s (burning stuff) is different. Speaking for myself, i’m not very worldly when it comes to computers so it’s different to see how it’s down. I’m excited to see it all happen and come together. I’m glad we’re getting our site going and getting out there on all the media outlets and seeing how much it progresses. Now you can get fans from all over the world just by hearing a song on the computer where before you had to tour your ass off and that was the only way people would really get to know you. As far as creativity goes, it hasn’t stopped. Even when Longfellow ended, once you get involved in doing it, it’s just so much fun.
Eric: and addicting, haha.
Dying Scene: Tom, you said that you weren’t really the tech-guy of the group and I get the impression that you would prefer to not focus on the media part of being in a band and just focus on the music. I’ve been talking with mostly with Eric about the band. Do you see a progression with the way media is nowadays for bands to make themselves more available, if only for the sake of the fans, or are you comfortable just letting the rest of the band talk to the media?
Tom: Well, I have the utmost trust in them talking to people via computer. I know they’re not out there giving us a bad name so I definitely have no problem letting them do it. But I do like speaking my mind, I like being part of interviews, but I don’t necessarily have to speak one on one with every single fan. that doesn’t really bother me. Keeping a little bit of mystery and intrigue is kinda cool and exciting on that level because people are then like “hey, what’s Tom up to?” which is kind of fun.
Dying Scene: Yah, I understand. When you showed up at the shoot, I didn’t know you were a part of the band. You were wearing sunglasses with a book in hand. You were pretty quiet haha. Then when Mike introduced me and was like “He’s the singer” I was like “oh, that’s cool!”…Totally different vibe than other frontmen of bands. Now my question is, do you get inspiration for your music from these books or do you get it from experience and different bands or what?
Tom: Oh yeah, I’d say a little bit of everything. Outside of writing lyrics and stuff, I write a lot anyway. Random stories or poetry or whatever you want to call it, just keeping that going is fun. I’m inspired by other music, books, movies, and even life experience, first and foremost. As far as lyrics go, a lot of it is personal to me because I am the one writing, but I like to keep it open so everyone can give it their own spin and have their own interpretation. THat’s the point, really. You want to relate to people and have people go like “oh, crap, this guy has gone through what I’ve gone through” so some lyrics may be very personal to me but if someone can relate to it is incredible. But honestly, other lyrics are just completely random wordplay hahaha. Just a sentence that might sound cool and really have nothing to do with anything else other than it being 5 words that sounds awesome haha. I like a lot of that shit, that’s why I do read a lot. The english language is a very bizarre and complex language and just the fact that you can have 3 different words that are spelled the same but sound different is cool to me. I like that kind of stuff, I’m a nerd haha.
Dying Scene: I’m sure you guys have different musical tastes. How do you guys manage to incorporate a little bit of what you guys listen to into your music without clashing too much?
Eric: As a band, there are those concrete foundations that we all love…Like Fugazi, Hot Water Music, but there are different bands that I love that Tom might not be able to stand. But we both like The Beatles, Hendrix, classic rock stuff but there’s a lot of indie stuff we listen to that has no influence on our music aside from serving as inspiration to write good songs. I’ll go listen to Deftones and i’ll want to write a song. It’ll sound nothing like them but it makes me want to play music. Music is just such an influential part of all our lives and everything we do is based on that. With everyone in this band, no one can really say “oh, i’m only into one style of music and that’s it and fuck everything else.” Music is such an amazing thing and I can’t get enough.
Dying Scene: Yah, and that’s the thing with music, right? You want music to make you feel good. You can get inspiration from a lot of things. If it’s not invoking some sort of emotion, then music is failing. Talking with Steve earlier, he’s really into techno at the moment. What are you guys currently listening to?
Tom: My favorite band of the last few months is probably the Local Natives. Recently? I haven’t really heard much new stuff…I’ve been going back and listening to music I haven’t heard lately like Stanford Prison Experiment and Tanner. But there’s always the classics, Beatles, Beastie Boys, RHCP. Broken Social Scene is one i’ve been into, as is Justin Timberlake haha
Eric: Yeah haha, we actually covered him one. We listen to everything, we’re not elitist haha. I listened to a lot of Tom Waits, OFF!, as well as all types of stuff, going back and listening to old records. I’m all over the place, I just love music. I’ve been listening to a lot of Chuck Berry and that’s fucking rad cuz that guy is a fucking mad man. I don’t think people realize how much that band and that man made punk rock what it is today.
Dying Scene: Hell yeah, it’s totally rad. That leads me into the next question. Steve recently joined the band. Do you find it difficult for them to adjust to the band or do you just sit back and let them do their own thing, incorporate their own influences and stuff. Was it easy for Steve?
Eric: I think it was easy for Steve because he also comes from the same musical styles and background. We allow everybody who joins the band to have their own take and interpretation with our music. Music is music, it’s not like a math equation where there’s a structure, but there will always be that freeness to it. Music’s always going to be something that should be open, not something that when it’s recorded, that’s the way it should be forever. Nothing’ s permanent.
Tom: We’ve gone through 5 or 6 drummers with this band and musically, it’s never been a problem musically getting along with them, it’s always been personal. A lot of the people that have played, like Eric said, come from the same musical background. It’s all Rock and Roll. We’re not music nazi’s where we say “it has to be like that!” the point of being in a band is to have a group of people throwing out ideas and that’s what, collectively, makes the song better. Not just one person, but everybody’s. The fact that we’ve gone through a lot of drummers isn’t a testament to not giving them the freedom to do whatever they want, but it’s just personal reasons conflict. That’s the hardest thing. Finding people you get along with a) musically, and b) on a personal level. People you want to hang out with when you’re not with the band. Right now, Steve is awesome and we’re super stoked to have him with us.
Dying Scene: when you guys write new material with Steve, with him being a singer, do you anticipate any input from him regarding lyrics or will you ask for help, or what?
Tom: Yeah, definitely. I have books and books of lyrics so i’ll never be at a loss for anything, but i’ll always welcome suggestions. Even in the past, there have been a few lines that one of the members have been like “what’s that mean?” and we’ve changed it. I’m definitely looking forward to using his vocal skills and getting some things going with background sounds, and oozing’ ah’s and stuff like that. I don’t know how much he would want to be involved with lyric writing cuz that’s always been my thing, and i enjoy. But i’m completely open and willing to have him help out.
Dying Scene: This past weekend your guys’ show was more of a “coming out” show, with Steve playing his first show as a member of this brand new Sederra. But it’s been a crazy month for you guys with the new material, the OCMA nominations, which I thought was pretty cool. Congrats with that.
Eric: Thank you man, we’re totally stoked on that.
Dying Scene: So this show at the Slidebar, a lot of people came out to see you guys.
Eric and Tom: Yeah, it was crazy. A lot of people there to see us. Awesome show
Eric: We filled up the entire room, it’s packed to capacity and it’s just a cool thing to do. It was a free show but people were coming in and stage diving. With Steve in the band, it felt so natural. All of us a cohesive unit were killing it. We definitely stepped up our game.
Dying Scene: I’m definitely excited. When we had the shoot, I was definitely excited with how the songs turned out. Everything translated really well acoustically and the new songs sound great!
Tom: Thanks, man! it was cool for us to do an acoustic thing because our songs were originally written on an acoustic guitar. Then they’re brought to the room electrically and they become what they are. It was cool to strip everything down and bring it back to how it all began.
Dying Scene: What’s your favorite song from the new material?
Tom: Personally, my two favorites would have to be “The World Will Have To Wait” and “Inconsiderate.” I’m biased, I like all of our stuff.
Eric: I would also have to agree. “The World Will Have To Wait” would be #1 followed by “Actions” and “Automatic.” Sometimes we’ll know the songs by riff haha. Those are my favorite songs, it’s hard to choose. When you spend so much time with the songs, they’re like your babies
Tom: Yeah, it’s like having to choose your favorite of your 3 children haha.
Eric: “Well this one is cute, but that baby kicks more ass” haha. Each song has such a different attack and feel to it that when we play them live, it’s awesome. I still don’t get sick of them and we’ve had to practice them with diff. drummers. I still fucking love them.
Dying Scene: Do you have anything to say to the fans regarding the new Sederra?
Tom: To the fans? Just that we appreciate everything. Even after 15 years of playing music, people still support us. Even fans of Longfellow support us and still come out because they saw us 10 years ago is insane to me and it blows my mind that I’ve had any sort of impact on anybody’s life because of what I do creatively. That’s awesome, I think that’s the point of art, it’s so unselfish. The fact that some else feels the same as me is incredibly. I have the utmost thanks
Eric: Gratitude
Tom: Yeah, gratitude, that these people and fans are still coming out and supporting us.
Eric: and with so many bands around also.
Tom: Everything is so saturated but people still stick around. So what I would say is tell your friends and bring them out and keep coming! it makes us that much happier and positive.
Eric: Tom said a lot of how I feel. The response has been great, we’ve become friends with our fans. People would tell us their life stories and how our music affects them so much. They’re stoked that we talk to them online and that we’re attainable, that we’re available for them. We’re stoked that these people come out and still care and it makes it worth it for us. We’re always grateful for everything anybody has ever said and done for us!
Tom: Yeah, we much appreciate this!
Dying Scene: Well, we appreciate your time also. Thanks so much for the shoot! I’ll see you guys soon!
Eric and Tom: Thanks so much, man. We appreciate everything! See you soon.
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