Searching For Signal
Austin, Texas, United States | SELF
Music
Press
How did the band start? When did you get together? What kind of factors led to your coming together? Crazy cosmic destiny, the good, old friends-forever bit or just a lucky answer of some classifieds?
"This is like homework," says Matt Salois. "Did you see how long this interview is??"
We're a band; we just decided to start playing. We started playing in freshman year of high school. Matt (guitar, lead vox) and I (Benny - drums), had been good friends since 7th grade and jammed occasionally. Freshman year, we met Michael (guitar) at a Super Bowl party and we started Searching for Signal, writing songs and jamming and eventually playing shows. John (bass/vox) joined the band in junior year for the release of our full length self-titled LP and we recorded our EP Its So Bright... during senior year.
What would you say you're all about? Who your musical influences are, what you want your music to do/where do you want to take it/the genre/your audience? What genre do you consider yourself, or would you rather try and stay genre-ly undefined?
Love. We are about music and getting it to the people. We make music we like to hear and hope other people like to hear.
"We're in it for the sweat of our brow," says John.
We define ourselves as post-rock and are influenced by Explosions in the Sky, Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters, Beatles, Phoenix, Pilot Speed, Radiohead, Coldplay and local artists trying to do the same stuff we do.
John says he is personally influenced by Ronaldo and Journey.
We are post-rock but vary to indie rock and hard-pop-core.
We have been described as Explosions in the Sky meets Coldplay.
What is the best/favorite venue or show you've ever played?
The best venue we've ever played is probably House of Blues Houston or Emo's Outdoors.
Our favorite venues personally are:
Walters on Washington (Houston) - John
The original Super Happy Fun Land in Houston - Matt. "We started playing our first shows there and continued playing there all through high school. We went there to see bands we liked in high school, ended up playing there and setting up shows there. I like it for the memories."
Artmosphere in Lafayette, LA - Michael. "Best hookah bar/pizza cafe/drink bar/music venue on this side of the Mississippi. I love it when people get up to dance for us"
Emo's Outdoors - Benny.
How do you like to get ready for a show? How do you like to perform a show, what's it all about for y'all?
Trying not to sweat. Trying to comp drinks, and avoid getting x's on our hands.
Its about not messing up, not sweating, being energetic and getting the crowd involved by winning them over with our boyish good looks.
Sometimes we do themes (suits, sunglasses, hats, blazers, basketball jerseys, button-ups etc).
Is there a new album in the works? Concept phase, recording? What's the idea behind it? Tour plans?
Yes in fact. We will be recording this summer and releasing 4 or 5 songs for free by the end of the summer.
We recently went on a week long tour through Austin, New Orleans, Lafayette, Baton Rouge and Houston and will probably tour again next summer.
We tried to get a van but apparently you have to be 25 and responsible to rent one. So we took two cars and managed to fit clothes, equipment and ourselves into a Ford Escape and a Chevy HHR. We had a venture, but just to list a couple topics:
-Staying at a frat house with no running water (no bathroom aka craps in the Circle K)
-Michael getting patted down by a female LSU cop.
-Matt going on a 6 am bike ride around a lake in the clothes from a show
-and finding out John looked like Ben Linus from Lost
What are your Top 5 Desert-Island Albums?
Instead of a top 5, we each gave one:
John - Blood Bank EP by Bon Iver
Benny- Into the West by Pilot Speed
Michael- Electric President by Electric President
Matt - All of the Sudden Everyone by Explosions in the Sky
All - our personal mix of favorite Annuals songs.
Let the yellow mellow or flush it down?
Flush it down. Gross. Unless you're at a frat house with no running water and you don't have a choice.
Guiltiest-Pleasure TV show?
The Hills - John
The OC - Matt (he owns two seasons)
Keeping Up with the Kardashians - Michael
Dog the Bounty Hunter - Benny
All-time favorite movie?
Aristocats - Michael
Aladdin - John
Remember the Titans - Matt
Lord of the Rings trilogy - Benny
Do you consider Austin a part of your band? Would you be the same without this city?
"Who's Austin?" - Michael
Just kidding. We love Austin. We recently started playing here and it has a very receptive music community and enthusiastic audiences who love to support local bands. We look forward to more interviews and more exposure in Austin for many years to come. Thank you for everyone's support who is reading this and thanks to Deli Austin for doing this interview.
- The Deli Magazine
The four (very) young men who comprise Searching for Signal think of themselves as a melodic post-rock group. There is definitely a slightly dreamy aspect to their songs, complete with moody atmospherics akin to fellow Texans Explosions in the Sky. However, the only problem with their assertion is that they write pop songs — very good pop songs. Think of SfS as what might happen if the Great Machine churning out radio fodder threw off the shackles of mindless consumption while keeping the basic program of making widely appealing pop music. The band has an uncanny knack for crafting tunes that are instantly catchy without being disposable. While firmly rooted in classicist pop song-craft, SfS also has a jazzy side, with clean phrasing and 12-bar-ready chord changes. Add in the soft, breathy vocals of singer/guitarist Matt Salois, and the band seems to shift toward The Sea and Cake circa Oui. The subtle dynamics and occasional tempo shifts add flair and a bit of edge to what is otherwise almost perfectly well-rounded pop music — wouldn't you rather this be the music your children listen to? - Houston Press
More than anything else, Searching for Signal’s new EP, It’s So Bright, feels, well, deliberate. Each note feels carefully selected and placed right where guitarists Matthew Salois and Michael Aziari want them to be, anchored from floating off on its own by Benny Edaburn’s drums and John Wilhelm’s bass. The three tracks on It’s So Bright feel less like songs and more like compositions.
Not that that’s a bad thing, of course. The music flows beautifully, gently winding its way in and out, soaring when it needs to and swooping down low when it needs to do that, too. Where there’s usually at least a bit of chaos, a bit of just-in-check fury behind most atmospheric post-rock bands like this one — and make no mistake, “post-rock” is what these guys are now, the candy-coated indie-pop of their self-titled debut.
Here, though, there’s no storm brewing behind the echoey notes, no clenched fists against the sky, but rather a gentleness that runs throughout, this sort of vibe like the guys in the band have to play quietly, delicately, even when the guitars are roaring and Marshall-stacks loud (as they are on the first two tracks, to varying degrees), or the whole thing will crumble into broken shards of glass scattered across the floor.
Opener “Like a Feather” is probably the best example, drifting along smoothly like a finely-calibrated machine riding a track only it knows. The guitars simmer and shift, diving sideways into great little jazz-y melodies like the little “verse” melody that’s tucked away in there, or the cascading “waterfall” bit further in. Bright invites repeated listenings to dig out all the little nuances, even after you think you’ve finally caught ‘em all.
Salois’s vocals remind me pleasantly of Chris Higdon from Elliott (although not quite as operatic), with an odd twinge of the Riff Tiffs’ Chris Rehm thrown in there for good measure. I couldn’t tell you what he’s singing, though, despite multiple runs through the three-song EP, because honestly, that’s not really the focus of the music. It’s that gentle swoon that’s the heart of things, and the band’s intricate movements — they seem to scarcely repeat a motif for long, not even within the same song — point inexorably back at that.
Where a band like Golden Cities, Explosions in the Sky, or Co-Pilot threatens, just over the horizon, ominous and heavy and not entirely predictable, Searching for Signal is the sound of the morning after the storm, that crystalline moment when the sun comes up and reveals that yes, the world’s still there, just like you left it. - Space City Rock
Discography
Searching for Signal LP
Released Nov 2009
It's So Bright EP
Released May 2010
As If Nothing's Changing EP
Released May 2011
Photos
Bio
The Story:
Searching For Signal formed in January 2006, starting with Matt Salois, Michael Azari, and Benny Edaburn. The trio recorded and released a five-track EP within their first year together, and began to play shows around Houston, Texas. Soon enough, they were recognized on spacecityrock.com along with several other of Houston's top-ranking groups. The band then won Bellaire Men's Club Battle of the Bands in October 2007, obtaining 12 hours of recording time at the world renowned Sugarhill Studios, and released their full-length Self-Titled album in November of 2008. The Self-Titled album quickly found its way to such noteworthy site as iTunes and CDBaby. After the album's debut, S4S was reviewed by the widely popular local paper, The Houston Press, as having an "uncanny knack for crafting tunes that are instantly catchy without being disposable". During this time the boys invited their good friend John Wilhelm to join the band on bass guitar. Now having a large notoriety and following in the community, the band was invited to compete in Becca's Battle of the Bands at the House Of Blues where they placed 1st, yet again. They won the prize of opening for one the famous venue's national acts, Badfish. They have performed at arguably Houston's most sacred event, the Westheimer Block Party, several times, increasing draw year after year. The band continued to perform at every local venue, large or small, to promote themselves more as they made the transition from the high school scene at Bellaire for the much larger college crowds in Austin, Texas. The boys attend both the University of Texas at Austin and St. Edwards University. They have been invited to play Free Press Houston’s Free Press Summerfest and the Texas Heat festival. The 4-piece’s most recent album release was a 3-song EP in late summer of 2009. Reviews for the EP from Spacecityrock.com said, “Searching for Signal is the sound of the morning after the storm, that crystalline moment when the sun comes up and reveals that yes, the world's still there, just like you left it.” The local Austin music news sources, The Deli Austin and Karma City Media conducted an interview of the group as they emerged onto the Austin scene this past year, as well. Since the move to Austin, S4S has performed at notable venues ranging from Maggie Mae’s, Emo’s Outdoors with Givers, St. Edward’s campus with The Eastern Sea, Scoot Inn scare for a cure, and Red 7 for the Yellow Bike Benefit. As of late, the band has recorded and is in the production stages of a much-anticipated release of a 6-song EP coming early 2011.
The Sound:
Although their roots began with a pop sound, they have since progressed to fit into what could be best described as a melodic post-rock genre; Matt and Michael synchronize prolific melodies on their guitars while Benny lays down strong crashing beats on the drums, all over Matt's dynamic lead vocals. With the addition of John's pounding bass rhythms driving the act home, their live shows have become quite a sight to see. The band has become a friendly and well-learned group of musicians who have been often been compared to Explosions In The Sky meets This Will Destroy You or Coldplay meets Radiohead.
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