Well top of the morning to everyone today! I have been eager to get this article up and running since this band has been an underground guilty pleasure to chill out and listen to on my weekends. I am (of course) talking about Vestascension. This ongoing project, spearheaded by main man Justin Gosnell is a great example of a group not looking for that huge record deal, trying to secure as many 'likes' on Facebook or overall just whoring themselves out. This five piece "Dream Rock" group is very content just making good music and letting people share in the good vibes. Like their profile says, "If we happen to start collecting a few fans along the way, then that will be amazing. We will be extremely grateful to have you listening."
A band bio? No, thank you. It takes only a few seconds of clicking through websites and social-networking pages to witness the hilariously overinflated bios of what seem like a billion bands all vying for your attention and hard-earned dollars. They boast about all kinds of redundant accomplishments and exaggerated reviews and chart positions. They proudly list each and every member (names that mean nothing to you) and every previous band they ever played with (all ones you've never heard of or are D-list at best). If this band has John from "Deathgrinder" and Billy from "Skullraper," does it really make the music stand out and draw you in? No. Do YOU care? No. Don't feel bad because you're not alone.
The truth is NOBODY cares. While all these bands are pushing their "new album you just gotta have" and racking up MySpace, YouTube, SoundClick, and friend counts using automated play boosters, friend adders, and every other type of heinous software out there, it's easy to see that something has been lost along the way. It's all about chart numbers, Soundscan, that three-minute song with the huge hook, or being a "star." It's not about music anymore; it's about money - and it's been that way for years. What used to be only a part of the mainstream pop industry has seeped into every other genre in music. Too much time is spent trying to fit into a mold you think will sell, too much time making a "perfect" album abused with Autotune and processed to the point that it's completely lifeless, and just not enough time being "real." It's all wrong. Do you REALLY wonder why people aren't buying albums anymore?
So, what is Vestascension? Simply put, it's a group of close friends that have set out to make music we would enjoy listening to. Instead of taking this bio to tell you what we think we are, we'll tell you what we know we are not. We're not asking for your money. We're not trying to pull the wool over your eyes. We don't preview one single in hopes you will buy our album filled with nine other crappy tracks. We give you all of it. For free. We just hope you enjoy the songs as much as we enjoy creating them. If we happen to start collecting a few fans along the way, then that will be amazing. We will be extremely grateful to have you listening. What else is there to say? Nothing.
AFGM was fortunate enough to have a good, lengthy Q&A with Justin Gosnell and his ongoing endeavours.
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Justin, thanks again for taking the time sit down and answer these questions for AFGM. What are you up to today?
Working on some things for Bandhappy in preparation for The Warped Tour as well as a new promotional video. After that I'm going to be recording some guitar for a new Vestascension track. And lastly, I spent the beginning of the day filling out a baggage claim paper for U.S. Airways in hopes they'll reimburse me for my luggage they lost on my way back from Europe.
What roots of music did you grow up on that made you want to start doing this as a full time gig?
Well, I was lucky that I got into what I consider to be good music at a really young age. I don't have that period in my life where I look back and think "omg I can't believe I liked that" haha. I grew up with my dad playing Pavarotti all the time in the house-cranked way up, and my mom playing lots of Enya on long car rides. I DEFINITELY think that had a major effect on me as a child. Hearing my mom play original pieces on the piano really affected me too, she writes amazing stuff but unfortunately hasn't ever recorded an album (I hope to remedy that this year). I guess the final piece though was around age 12 when I REALLY got into NIN, Tool, Smashing Pumpkins, AIC, etc. That music is still very much a part of my life to this day.
At what age did you realize you wanted to do music as a profession?
I'd say around age 14 is when I knew with absolute certainty that this was "it" for me.
How'd it go with running 'Metalsucks' for a day?
I'd say it went great! It was really stressful in regards to getting all those interviews transcribed and edited-that was the worst part. Other that that-no complaints. I'm grateful to have been able to do that as it was really special to me.
Physical or digital music, which do you prefer?
While I do always appreciate amazing packaging it seems the reality is for me it's all about the digital these days. I get an album and it just goes right on my iPhone (which acts as my iPod of course).
So you're doing work in Vestascension, BandHappy and Periphery. Any other endeavours on the go? Any projects you're getting involved in?
Yeah. I actually just finished creating a video dance reel for an amazing dancer I know which I think turned out pretty cool. I'm also producing two different albums right now for two different artists. One's a hip hop album and one's a sort of rock/experimental/radio friendly/alternative project. Lastly, there's an album from another band coming out soon that I worked on engineering and production for along with Casey Sabol. It's straight up radio rock.
In sticking with what I said in the answer to that other question, about not getting comfortable. I ALWAYS love to do something new I've never done before and all of those things I just mentioned are just that.
Haven't been able to find much info on The Acid Lab Studio (via Justingosnell.com). Can you give us some insight/details into what's going on with this project and the vision behind it that separates you from any competition? It's the label for Vestascension right?
Yeah, that sites been just a splash page for a while. My new website is currently being built and hopefully will be out around the fall. In regards to The Acid Lab that's basically just the name I gave my studio, I wouldn't say it's a record label or anything like that. While I do the "label stuff" for Vestascension I don't do it under any sort of name/company. I have a limited liability corporation (Vestascension LLC) and a music publishing company as well, so anything business related falls under that umbrella.
Without divulging any secrets, what are you using for audio engineering equipment? I saw a screen shot but couldn't figure out the software/hardware.
I don't ever mind sharing what's going on-that's how I learned and I'm EXTREMELY grateful for anyone that taught me something along the way. I'm actually currently filming a video that breaks down the song "Until We See The Ocean" where I explain how I got certain sounds, what plugins I used, and how some of the guitar parts are played. It also has quite a bit of studio footage from the sessions as well. I should have that finished in about 3 weeks.
A basic answer to your question would be that I use Logic, an Apogee Ensemble, Axe Fx Ultra, Taylor K4, Great River ME-1NV, DynAudio monitors, various guitars-some which are pretty heavily modified, and some other stuff. For plugins I use Waves, SoundToys, Toontrack, Absynth, Reason, Omnisphere, Lexicon, and quite a few others. I also actually find quite a few uses for the built in Logic plugins.
What is your role(s) in Vestascension?
Vestascension, out of anything I do, is definitely my main focus and the project that I have the most heavy-handed involvement in. I oversee pretty much anything that goes on with the band as a whole, including business operations and what not. I'd like to think that it's not too heavy handed though. Believe me, all the other guys share their opinions too, I just really care about this project immensely and that's where my intentions stem from. It's also to the point in our relationship as both friends and businessmen that they just trust me and I think 99% of the time they agree with any thoughts/ideas I have which is really nice. We're naturally all on the same page and we all want the same outcome. Right now there's not too much going on the business side of things as we sort of took a breather just to focus all of our attention on finishing this album up with our new singer. After that's done though the business/marketing stuff will kick back into high gear.
As far as the music goes for the album, I wrote the songs, but that's only as far as the structure and guitar/keyboard instrumentation is concerned. I don't like to get too into listing specifics sometimes because I think it diminishes the roles the other guys play in the band. Since I do do the song writing and also the production/layering/fx/and oversee the final mixing it's easy to have that come off sounding like the other guys just listen to what I tell them to do when that couldn't be further from the truth. The absolute fact is that Nate, Brian, and Josh shape a HUGE portion of our sound-it just wouldn't' be the same without them. The way it's worked thus far is I'll have a song and I'll send it to them. It'll just be programmed drums and all the guitars, no bass or vocals, then they write all their shit on their own time and then we bring it all together in the end and tweak it from there. We haven't written or recorded with Andy yet as of this writing-but I'm sure once we do it'll be the same deal for him.
The reality is that if it was just me doing this solo the structure, guitars, and keys would be the same and be intact, but the drums would be programmed, the bass would just be very simple root notes, and there'd be no vocals at all. If you're familiar with our music you know that the basslines are very creative and unique and I quite frankly suck at playing bass so that signature part of our sound would be absent. It's the same deal with the vocals-those dudes are just monster writers. I always have ideas or bits of input here and there I like to share but as a whole I am one of the worst singers you could ever hear-it's miserable. But yeah, I could sit and add delay and FX to vocals or whatever all day long but if the basis for what I'm working off of-the main written part that is-sucked, then adding FX and shit would be worthless haha.
It's worth noting too that Brian and Josh both are incredible guitar players and songwriters, so I'm sure going into the future after this album's done they'll be writing more than just vocals too. I've already heard some really awesome shit they've each come up with that I'm really excited to get cracking on.
I really was intrigued by the band bio for Vestascension (and personally couldn't agree more). It almost seems like you are one of the few musicians who just like to make music for the sake of making music, regardless of recognition. Am I going in the right directions with this idea?
Thanks! I think you definitely "get it". The vast vast vast majority of musicians/bands out there are in it for the wrong reasons and sadly some of the ones that are there for the right reasons are just too lazy or unmotivated to do anything with it. For me, I'll be 31 this year and I will do this forever, no doubt. I don't carry delusions of fame and fortune. I'd feel like I "made it" if I could just cover my monthly bills I currently have. That'd be a dream come true. With that said, even if that never happens, I'll always keep going regardless. I love ramen.
How did you guys end up recruiting Brian as your new vocalist?
It's actually kind of ironic. Vestascension-unbeknownst to many-had a different singer and line up many years ago-before any of the guys from the 2011 lineup were in the band except for Chubb and I-and we used to play tons of shows. The first time I met Brian his band at the time was opening for Vestascension at a sold out show in a small club called Fletchers in Baltimore (it's since shut down). I actually remember the date, it was January 2nd, 2006. Anyways, I was upstairs in the backstage room and immediately upon hearing his voice coming through the floor I was a fan. I went down and watched the whole set and the dude just blew me away.
We were already having issues with our first singer at the time and once we fired him I keep trying to recruit Brian but he was dedicated to his own band. I tried again here and there over the years to no avail, I just knew that I REALLY wanted to be in a damn band with that guy. We ended up bringing in Mike as our new singer in 2008 and then Josh around 2009 if I recall correctly. Over the course of the last few years there were quite a few times when it was becoming clear it might not work out with Mike. Josh of course is also a singer in this band and even though he's incredible and can absolutely front a band on his own, we still wanted to keep the 2 vocal sound. So, again we approached Brian a few different times from 2009-2011and he still was always with the same band he'd been with.
When the split with Mike was finally made final in January of this year, Brian was once again the first person I called, and thankfully he was available and down to join the family. He didn't even have an audition or anything at all, we'd never even heard him sing on one of our songs before, ever.
He just came up, we had a meeting with just Nate, Josh, Brian, and I, and ended it with a big set of hugs and we moved forward from there. Sometimes you just "know" when something will work.
Regardless of any issues that occurred with Mike, I'd never say that guy was anything but an extremely talented singer as far as his ability is concerned. However-as cliched as it may sound-in my mind Brian is the guy that's always been meant to fill that position in this band and I'm beyond elated that he's finally here where he belongs.
What kind of equipment are you using for Vestascension?
The equipment I listed in that one answer covers a wide range of what we use in the studio. Nate mainly uses a Pedulla bass and Josh and Brian each use a variety of different mics/preamps. It's hard to list specifics because we use A LOT of different stuff to record with, lots of times varying it from song to song.
Why did you decide to release Vestascension tracks for free?
I just see our music as a business card. We're looking to get our income from live shows/touring. How do you get people out there? By getting them to become a fan of your music! What's the best way to get someone to give your music a shot? Give it to them for free! That's it in a nutshell!
How'd you end up getting a stringed section for "The Escape"?
"L'arrivee" is the only track from the 4 songs we released from "The Escape" that has real strings, the rest of the time you hear them it's midi based.
I'd already had that track finished using plugins for the strings. I just decided one day, kind of in the 11th hour, that I wanted real strings there. I called up Drew Mazurek and asked him to point me in the right direction since he just seems to know everyone. He put me in touch with an amazing musician by the name of Geoff Knorr. I used the Score function in Logic to put all my string section midi on paper and sent it to him. He put together a group with 3 other musicians and separated out my string layers I'd written giving each of them different parts to cover based on what made the most sense range-wise (there was Cello, Violin, and Viola). Drew teaches at Peabody Conservatory so he just set up a session there which actually became part of a classroom! It was great, they just got in there and tore it up!
How's working with Drew Mazurek? (I see from your "Thanks" section you speak very highly of him) How did that come about for him to help out in your music?
He's amazing! I could easily write 10 paragraphs explaining how much I love that guy and how great it is to work with him. He's just the epitome of the word professional for one-professional product, professional attitude, professional work ethic, etc. It's RARE to find someone in his field that isn't a "flake" in some way or another. At least that's been my experience. And not only that, he's also a great friend.
I don't remember how I heard of him but around 2005 I guess I booked time with him where we recorded the first Vestascension EP with that old lineup I was talking about earlier. It was just 3 songs. We did everything there with him and I just really liked working with him.
Once we'd gotten the band lineup retooled a couple years later, around 2008 or so, I decided to work with another producer on the new material. To sum it up, it just didn't work out-it sort of became a mess. I went running back to Drew and asked him to please forgive me for trying to cheat on him and after I swore my allegiance to him he took me back.
But yeah, he's just such an important part of this project. We've really developed a great working relationship and we know each other's in's and out's and have a very solid system in place in regards to how we go about doing things. We get the drums recorded at an outside location and give him the raw files along with the demo versions of the guitars. He'll get the drums sounding good enough to send me a single stereo track of them that I can use to dump back into my sessions here where I'll then re-record all of the guitars and keys here and then bounce them all out and send them back to him to drop them in the drum mix. Then we'll send him the bass stems to throw in and at that point a rough instrumental mix will take shape. All the vocals are tracked at his place-he just has such amazing gear and always get's a great final sound. After tracking there he'll send me the dry vocal files and I'll tweak them here adding delays/reverbs/panning/etc. then I'll shoot the files back to him where he'll drop them in the mix and then we get to work on the final mix. That's basically it!
Sometimes it works a little different as far as the order goes, but going into the future I think this will always be the solid plan of action for good. What I send him can vary, sometimes it'll just be a single guitar or lots of times I'll send him my own sub-mixes of parts. The intro of "Until We See The Ocean" for example, I mixed that intro part up until the verse kicks in at my studio and just sent him one stereo file of it that he dropped in the mix. So yeah, it really varies part by part. I've learned the balance between knowing what I want a part to sound like but also making sure I keep enough of it separated so there's plenty of room to tweak it in the mix during the final stages. Like I said, we've just developed a solid system.
Once it gets to the final mix sessions I almost feel bad for the guy. I'm extremely detail oriented and always have a clear idea of what I want so what that means is the poor guy just gets email after email after email with lists of the most minute changes I want done. One day I think it'd be funny to make a few of those public. Probably not though, Drew would just end up getting tons of cards/flowers/and chocolates sent to him from sympathetic people and nobody would ever want to work with me from there on out haha!
Who does the artwork for the site/wallpapers/singles? Where does the inspiration come from?
Our singer Josh does! I just love his work to death, he's "the guy" that's meant to be creating our visual front. As for where the inspiration comes from it'd be best if you ask him! :)
Is there a central theme behind the lyrics and the vibe of your singles or does each song tell a different story?
I'd like to think that overall there's a focus on positivity. We don't want to be one of those depressing bands that just makes you feel worse. There's enough depression in all of our lives as it is. We want people to feel good, feel inspired, feel beautiful inside, at least that's what our goal to do is.
To me each song tells a different story. We'd begun this whole "The Escape" concept where 4 of the 6 tracks were released before we took our hiatus. Even with that though it was sort of an after thought. Mike thought it'd be cool to tell a story over the course of 6 songs which is definitely a neat idea that we agreed could work. The reality though is that some of those songs were already written before that idea even came to light, and by other writers. Josh wrote the lyrics and vocals for one of the songs entirely and I'd written a large portion of the lyrics for another one of "The Escape" songs, again, prior to the idea even being around to do the 6 part concept piece which means we didn't even have anything like that in our minds at the time of those songs being written. So, while I think there may be reoccurring themes in some of our songs, even ones that weren't even meant to be part of that concept piece, I believe they each absolutely stand on their own. To me there isn't a "part 2" of a song that's necessary to finish another songs meaning.
With that said we've abandoned the whole concept of "The Escape" not only due to the fact that we don't feel the songs actually link up that well to begin with but also because the last 2 songs in that series have received MAJOR re-writes since Brian joined the band. The final piece of "The Escape", which would have been our 10th release and "final chapter" in the saga, isn't even the same song anymore. So, "The Escape" will be dropped from all of those songs titles once we re-release them.
What's your role(s) in BandHappy besides pencil sharpening (haha)?
Isn't that enough?! :)
I don't think I could give myself one specific label nor do I really want to get into giving myself any specific title at this point. It's not really one thing. I've done marketing, videos, come up with ideas, refined ideas, designed some things, etc. It's strictly on a case by case basis and it really varies day to day depending on what Bandhappy is in need of at that present time.
It's a very exciting thing to be a part of-I truly believe Bandhappy IS the future.
Are you doing lessons on BH at all?
Not at this time. I know I will at some point, I just don't think I have enough to offer yet. When the time does come where I start doing lessons it'll only be for consulting/marketing and things of that nature. I could never see myself giving a guitar lesson lol.
What duties have you been performing for Periphery?
To me my overall role with Periphery is one that I've instilled upon myself which is to do whatever it takes to see those guys succeed because I feel like they're the "exception to the rule band" that truly deserves it. Musically they're unique and the absolute best at what they do and as people they're the best people you could ever meet. THAT is what MY standards are based upon for myself, so anyone else that fits that mold will always have me in their corner.
Much like Bandhappy it's sort of on a case by case basis. In the past I've done tour management, lights, merch, driving, videos, helped with marketing ideas, work on the van, errands, business help, etc. It's just a situation where if they need or want help, advice, or input on something they know they can always call me and I'll be there for them or just straight up tell them what my honest opinion is on something-even if I know it'd piss all of them off. I think they respect and really value that honesty. They're surrounded by people that would totally just be "yes men" to them as they get quite a bit of that "idol worship"-and it's growing daily. They love that I could walk into a room with them where all 5 of them are praising this new t-shirt design or whatever and that if I thought it sucked that I'd without a second thought just tell them it's the biggest piece of shit I've ever seen, punch one of them in the nuts just because, make out with one of their girlfriends, drink the last beer in the fridge, upperdeck their toilet, and just walk out of the room like nothing happened.
Right now I'm planning to do a documentary on them, I just unfortunately haven't been able to even get started. I committed to doing it before this whole singer switch took place in my own band which set everything back in my life as a whole. They know and understand that, much like Periphery, this band is my focus. They get it. I work a ton of hours each week too in a restaurant in addition to trying to do as much as I can with Bandhappy. Lately my life's been very hectic, but after this album is done and I can take a breather for a minute I'll begin sorting through all the European footage I took-all 332 GB's of it lol.
Whether in session work or in a band, what words of wisdom can you give to inspiring musicians?
If you're an "original" band don't ever pay attention to what other bands are doing or try to be just like them. With there being thousands of new bands seemingly coming out each month originality is just about the only way you'll break through the crowd and stand out. Try to find your own sound, or if you do happen to sound like other bands then work to be the absolute best out of that genre. Practice lots, always record yourself and listen to what you can improve upon, keep your ego low and your mind open, and always keep the mindset that you can always better yourself. Don't get comfortable.
For session work I guess I'd just say practice your ass off, collect a wide range of gear so you can do lots of different sounds, and always be on time, be courteous, be easy to work with, and be professional.
And now for some fun, random questions that every musician likes to answer (or at least I like to ask haha):
If you could have a single guest member on an upcoming album/single, who would it be and why?
Trent Reznor. While I have a LONG list of people I could say I'd die to have on a song with me I'd pick him first because to me, he's the musician that encompasses EVERYTHING all in one package. He's not just a great vocalist and lyricist for example, he's EVERYTHING. He's a modern day Beethoven. I don't only have a profound respect for him as a musician, his personal ethics and business mind are something I greatly admire too. Plus, he wrote my favorite piece of music of all time ("A Warm Place"), so that alone would make him my choice.
If you had one band/musician you would be honored to share the stage with, who and why?
Gah…too many could be listed here too. I'm assuming you mean actually play together at the same time-not open for them or whatever?!
Either or, just to get some more background info on your likes and musical tastes...
I guess I'd say A Perfect Circle. They're absolutely one of my favorite bands but more importantly it'd just be a natural fit for my style to play with them. It'd blend the most. I could enjoy the experience more because I wouldn't have to be focusing on making sure my playing is stylistically fitting a sound that I wasn't naturally meant to play, if that makes sense.
Covers are always fun to do when you're jammin out in the studio or spur of the moment live, any songs in particular you like to play and have fun with or is it all original material?
It's pretty much all original music for me and really has been dating back to my very early 20's. I learned covers as a teenager-I used to know every Tool album front to back. As I got older though I just lost interest completely in learning another band's song(s). That doesn't mean I still don't know a few riffs here and there or whatever. I am actually doing a couple cover songs coming up with a couple of dudes from some other bands just for fun so that'll be the first time I've learned another bands song as a whole probably in 10 years or so lol.
Favourite band/album of 2012 so far?
Hmmm. I really don't have any idea when stuff that I'm listening to was released, a lot of the time it just slips my mind or most of the time I never care to look, I just come across something somewhere and immediately get it and listen to it. I couldn't even tell you track names of some of my favorite songs a lot of the times-I'll just know it as "track 4" or whatever.
I will just say that lately I've been listening to a lot of Anathema, Florence And The Machine, Sigur Ros, Bon Iver, Radiohead, M83, Gojira, From Monument To Masses, Devin Townsend Project, Arms And Sleepers, and Blind Melon just to name my most recent obsessions.
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I want to thank Justin for taking the time to sit down and give some great insight into himself as a musician, as well as the ongoing projects he works with. If you want to know more about Vestascension and/or how to reach these guys:
Website: www.vestascension.com
Band Camp: vestascension.bandcamp.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/vestascension
Twitter: twitter.com/#!/Vestascension
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/Vestascension
Myspace: www.myspace.com/vestascension
Booking/Management: vestascension@gmail.com
Another great interview Andrew, well done!!!!
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