the spotlight on the winston audio is now archived. please hit the sidebar to get a hold of that page.

so if you missed our initial post on this lively young band, you can find that here. in any sense, winston audio is a straight rock and roll, no bullshit band out of atlanta, georgia. the band currently finished up a HUGE tour opening for the likes of the audrye sessions, fun. and manchester orchestra.

speaking of manchester orchestra, the group is also signed to favorite gentleman, the label run by andy hull and jeremiah of the band. the tour was in support of their debut full length, the red rhythm, which is an album for the summer time, the winter time or just plain beer time.

i got the chance to talk to dan gleason, the keyboard/guitar/backing vocalist for winston audio right before they hit the stage at the houston stop of the tour on may 28. we talked about the new album, R.E.M. and their immediate future’s touring plans.

check out the interview below.
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Roshan Bhatt, WWM: For the record, state your name and position in Winston Audio.

Dan Gleason, Winston Audio: My name is Dan Gleason, I play guitar and keys, and I sing every once in a while.

WWM: How’s the current tour going for you guys? It’s a pretty big lineup, so how does it feel to set things off every night?

DG: It’s cool man. All the bands are really good. We’ve never played to this many people per night and it’s just good to get out there to the West Coast and stuff. It’s cool to get your music out there and see people respond to it. It’s tough being the first of four, though. I feel like people aren’t ready for music yet. They’ve just kinda gotten there and want to hang out and talk to their friends, but it’s been an honor to play for all these bands.

WWM: So there’s like an underlying pressure playing first? Or maybe not so underlying.

DG: [Laughs] Nah, I don’t think so. Maybe the first few shows, you want to prove yourself and let the other bands know you’re legit. I think our music is one of those things that you like or you don’t, so if you don’t, then whatever. We do what we do and leave it up to the people, but we don’t feel the pressure to play any better.

WWM: I guess I’m fairly new to the band, but is this your first national tour?

DG: Yeah yeah. We’ve done East coast stuff, but this is the first 6-week full US tour we’ve done.

WWM: Any interesting tour stories?

DG: Oh man, I’m sure there are plenty but I don’t know how many I’d actually share. We’ve had a lot of birthdays. Oh, and we definitely saw Billy Ray Cyrus at our hotel in Seattle, so that was pretty crazy.

WWM: [Laughs] That’s wild. Well, let’s get into your album. Your first full length, The Red Rhythm, just dropped in February. Was it a long time coming for you guys? I know the EP [Come on, Hibernate] came out in 2006.

DG: Yeah, and we had been a band for two months when we recorded [the EP]. That EP was never intended to still be around. We thought we’d sell it on a couple tours and move on. The full length took us almost two years to complete. For a lot of reasons, though. Member changes, we had all of our gear stolen at one point. We had our producer [Dan Hannon] doing it on spec, and was basically doing it for free. He just did it for the love of the music. It was just hard for him to find time to work for free. We started recording in summer of 2007 and it just finished in 2009, so it’s pretty long.

WWM: Where did all your gear get jacked?

DG: [Laughs] Out of my driveway in Atlanta.

WWM: Awwwwwwwwww.

DG: I know, but…We got it back. I forgot to mention that part. I figured out who did it and I confronted him. I didn’t have any proof that he did it, I was just pretty sure. My bluff worked. I told him we were gonna turn him in to the cops, and he gave it back.

WWM: How has the response been for the record?

DG: Awesome, it’s been very good. You never really know what to expect, especially after working on it for two years. It’s almost like you’re over it, but the response has been a second wind for us and our appreciation for the songs on it. Yeah, we couldn’t have asked for anything better. Some people don’t like it, but that’s to be expected. We don’t play music for everyone.

WWM: A lot of the new bands coming out tend to take on a clusterfuck of genres, whether it’s a good or bad thing. So it’s refreshing to see a band playing rock music for a change. What are your biggest influences when you’re writing music?

DG: Man, all the stuff from the 90s. Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam are all huge influences on our sound. Radiohead is a huge one. The Pixes are also big, too. Older stuff like Bob Dylan and the Beatles. And as for newer stuff, I’d have to say Wilco, Kings of Leon and The Black Keys. I feel like every song has an influence. Like ‘This song has a so-and-so influence, so let’s try to understand where they were coming from.

WWM: Ha, yeah. Me and A.J. were talking about it beforehand. I was saying if he doesn’t talk about the 90s, we’ll ask him about that. I even put 10 bucks on the fact that you’d say Soundgarden. Mainly because the lead singer…

DG: He’s also a Dan.

WWM: Right. He sounds a lot like Chris Cornell sometimes.

DG: Definitely, he gets that all the time. We’ll take it though. Chris Cornell can sing.

WWM: Just the Soundgarden Cornell, though. Not that Audioslave shit.

DG: [Laughs] I agree with you completely. Soundgarden was sick, the rest of the stuff…not so much. All that 90s stuff, that’s what we wanted to do. If someone asked us what we sounded like, we usually say ‘southern grunge.’ We have a lot of 90s overtones and some bluesy, southern undertones.

WWM: What was it like coming together as a band in the Atlanta music scene?

DG: Well, you know, it’s tough. People in Atlanta just don’t really care. They only care if you give them a reason to. Now, they care about us, but only because we’re on a really good tour. Manchester has been huge in bringing us in and putting us out there. That was early on, too. The band formed in 06, and we began being friends with them right when Virgin was released. So we had already started playing shows with Manchester before we had even been a band for a year. It’s one of the main reasons we’re on this tour.

WWM: I guess being a young band from the city, who are some of the bands you look up to from Atlanta?

DG: Well, Manchester’s definitely one. They do whatever they want and still have tons of credibility and are loved more than ever. It’s tough, cause I’m not from Atlanta. But R.E.M. They’re not from Atlanta, but Athens. They’ve been a huge influence on our band. They released a bunch of albums before they got big and they’ve been constantly growing.

A.J., WWM: Quick, what’s your favorite R.E.M. record?

DG: Tough one, but I’m gonna say Automatic for the People.

A.J., WWM: Yeah, for me, it’s either that or Murmur.

DG: I was gonna say Murmur, but Automatic for the People just spans so many different sounds that R.E.M. is capable of doing, which is probably why that’s my choice. I also love Document, too. The new one is [Accelerate] really good, by the way.

A.J., WWM: Yeah, I haven’t gotten around to it yet.
RB, WWM: Same here. I probably haven’t even heard the one before it.
DG: It’s some of the best straight-forward rock R.E.M. has ever done, so check it out.

WWM: Word, well how did your relationship with Andy and Jeremiah of Favorite Gentleman come about?

DG: Our friend Andy Lee, he used to be in the band Cartel. He played on their Virgin album.

WWM: Whoa, definitely didn’t know that.

DG: Yeah, I know. [Andy Hull] was a friend of [Lee’s], so I went and introduced myself. A couple months later, Andy [Hull] reached out to us and said he liked our music and that we were making honest music, so he told us that we should play some shows together. It was kinda from his end, in theory. He just reached out and that’s that.

WWM: Well, I guess the tour’s coming to an end next week, right?
DG: Yep, next Thursday.

WWM: What are your plans post-tour?

DG: We’re gonna do a Southeast tour. Hit Dallas, Austin and Houston in July. Then we’re doing a Northeast tour with another Favorite Gentleman band, All Get Out. Then in October, we’re hoping to do another national tour with Audrye Sessions, so a bunch of touring really.

WWM: Cool, we’ll definitely have to come back and see you guys. That’s pretty much it man. Thanks for talking to us. Any last words for the readers of weworemasks?

DG: Download our record, burn it for your friends!

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winston audio has teamed up with weworemasks to put together an album sampler, with four songs from their album, the red rhythm.

download:

winston audio on myspace.

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check out some live videos from san francisco:

“hey ann”:

“on my trail”:

“nothing to hide”:

courtesy of music induced euphoria.

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that’ll do it. be sure to grab the red rhythm and enjoy!

-grizzly