Injustice Down
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Injustice Down

Seguin, Texas, United States | SELF

Seguin, Texas, United States | SELF
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"Review of debut CD "Smoke and Mirrors""

Injustice Down,"Smoke And Mirrors" (Self-released)
Hailing from Seguin, Texas, Injustice Down is a quartet that unashamedly evokes the very best of the hard rock '70s and '80s - but with a modern twist. Kind of a cross between Iron Maiden and Metalicca. With their debut disc, "Smoke And Mirrors", the band takes no prisoners, delivering an onslaught of 10 well written and arranged songs. But, this ain't your average band debut - the production is stellar! The guitar riffs shred, the bass and drums are powerful, and the voice of Carlos is one of the best metal voices I've heard in awhile. I can't wait to hear more from these guys and they are gonna have alot to live up to with a sequel!
www.injusticedown.com
Rating:
and 1/2
Review by Ronnie - Ear Candy Mag


"Interview with Matt Smithey of Injustice Down By Ronnie"

Intro:
When I first listened to Injustice Down's debut CD ("Smoke And Mirrors"), I was surprisingly impressed. Surprised in that in the 12 years I've run EAR CANDY, I've rarely come across a debut CD by a band that sounded this good (both in songs AND production). This was no "made in the garage with pro-tools" job, but a bona fide stellar studio production. But, a good studio recording can only go so far - and Injustice Down delivers great songs as well.

I recently talked to guitarist Matt Smithey about Injustice Down and found that they are a band with a plan...

EC: You guys have only been together since 2010, right? Tell me about the formation of the band?

Matt: Yes, in January of 2010 we officially formed as a three piece and began writing songs that unbeknownst to us would become the songs on our debut album. Prior to that, Carlos, Ron, and I spent the previous couple of years strumming acoustic songs on the guitar around a fire with a group of friends, singing everything from Johnny Cash to AC/DC. Friends would request a song to sing and I would learn it on the acoustic and we would be playing it by the fire that weekend. At one point, we had about 90 songs that I had learned with multiple singers.

Probably what started everything was one evening just a couple months before we officially formed “Injustice Down”, Carlos and I decided to write an acoustic song for the hell of it. Literally 25 minutes later, we had written our first song called “Broken”. It wasn’t long after that, the uncontrollable urge to plug in the electric guitar became too much to resist and brought the end to our acoustic jams. In January, Ron brought over his drums, I dusted off the electric guitar, and we began converting “Broken” from an acoustic song to a rock song and the songs kept coming. We brought in a couple of members later that didn’t work out. It wasn’t until ¾ of the way through recording that we officially brought in Chip Neighbors to play bass. Up until that point, I was recording the bass. Chip ended up recording 4 out of 10 songs on the album and that is where we stand today. A four piece rock band consisting of Carlos J. Esparza – Vocals, Matt Smithey -Guitar, Chip Neighbors – Bass, Ron Smith – Drums.

EC: What are the influences of the band?

Matt: Our influences vary so much between us. Ron listened to bands like Godsmack and Staind, while Carlos and myself were heavily influenced by the 80’s. Carlos and Chip are huge Iron Maiden fans along with bands like Rush, Black Sabbath, Ozzy, Pink Floyd, Type O Negative, while I was a bit more on the hair band influence but not entirely. I liked Dokken, Skid Row, Accept, Dio, Yngwie Malmsteen, Ratt, Great White, etc.

EC: How did you come up with the name, Injustice Down - and what does it mean?

Matt: When we wrote our first song “Broken”, the chorus used that term along with “Prejudice Down”, “Ignorance Down”, “Or Everyone Down”. In the song “Broken”, most people think it’s about a woman but it is actually about our society. In the song it refers to all the things we need to get rid of or that are “Broken” or it’s going to take us all down. When we were debating band names, we thought we had settled on “Broken” but after a little bit of research, we found out there are tons of bands called “Broken”. I kept coming back to the lyrics Carlos had written and I thought “Injustice Down” stood for something positive, it didn’t suggest or imply that we were rock, metal, thrash metal, etc. “Injustice Down” had a nice ring to it and luckily there wasn’t a band anywhere to be found with the name. So after weeks of debate and tossing around other ideas, we decided to call ourselves “Injustice Down”.

EC: You and Carlos wrote most of the songs together on the CD. Is it a case of you writing the music and Carlos writing the lyrics? Tell me more about the collaboration of an Injustice Down song.

Matt: Carlos and I wrote every song on the album together with the exception of “Narcissistic”. Carlos wrote “Narcissistic” long before we formed the band but we liked the tune and we have a lot of fun with it live, so we put it on the album. As for the rest of the album, we had a simple formula that seemed to work the best for us. Our writing process is 100% based around the guitar riffs. Carlos and I would get together and I would play until I hit on a riff or play a riff that I already had that I thought we could build on. Usually, we both would look at each other and know it was a keeper immediately. Once I had Carlos’ interest on a certain riff, he would get out his trusty notepad and I would continue playing that riff continuously, throwing in variations for possible chorus’ or bridges but always coming back to that main riff of the song. Carlos would walk outside, sit and stare at his notepad, all while he soaked up the vibe of the music. Then the vocal melody would start taking shape, and then lyrics would begin to flow. Sometimes we’d complete the song within the hour and never change it. Other times it would continue to grow and change because something didn’t feel right.

Prime examples were “The Day is Mine” which is one of my favorites. We had decided to head to the practice room on a Saturday morning to see if we could hit on a new song. I plugged in and started jamming, with nothing written, or even an idea of what I wanted to do. By the time Carlos came in, I was jamming the riffs to “The Day is Mine”. Carlos instantly heard something he liked and began writing. About an hour later, we were done. The other side to that is the song “Dementia”. It was originally written as an acoustic song and later rocked out. We continued to drop it back in the recording schedule because it just didn’t feel right to me. Finally, after numerous tweaking, I wrote the bridge riff, plugged it in after the chorus to change the dynamic and I was instantly happier with the song. I introduced it to everyone and suddenly that song took on a different feel. The bottom line for us is chemistry.

EC: I was really impressed by your debut CD - it really has a high quality production. How long did it take to put the CD together? We're ya'll experienced in recording studios before this project?

Matt: It took us right a year to complete. We began recording on August 20, 2010 and completed our last recording session in July 2011, not counting mixing, mastering, and replication. We decided ahead of time to do this album right, which meant finding a top level studio and credible engineer. With everyone on board I set out to find that place and person. Luckily, I found Stuart Sullivan who owns Wire Recording in Austin, Texas. Stuart’s credentials blew me away. From winning a Grammy for his work with Sublime on their Multi-Platinum album “Sublime”, to working with artists like, The Meat Puppets, Jimmy Vaughn, Willie Nelson, Butthole Surfers, and many more. Fortunately, Stuart was all for it. We laid out our plan to schedule a session once a month and record one song each time, not counting mixing. I could tell he liked the idea. It meant we weren’t coming in to rush through 2 or 3 songs and leave with poor recordings. With only one song on the agenda, it meant we would be prepared each time we showed up. We spent about 12-14 hours each session and by the time we would leave we would have a rough mix version of the song to listen to and critique. We continued the process month after month until we were done.

Then the stress kicked in as all the behind the scenes stuff had to fall into place in order to hit our scheduled August 20th, 2011 release date. Artwork was in process, we spent 4 consecutive days mixing and then spent another couple days mastering. Finally about the 3rd week of July, we had final proofs of artwork for the CD layout complete, the album was mastered, and it was sent off for replication. We received the final product back one week before our scheduled release date and CD release party. We cut it close but everything fell into place as planned.

As far as our previous experience in the studio, Carlos and I had done a couple demos from a previous band that we were in many years ago but nothing like what we did for this. This was the real deal. It was a great experience that all of us will cherish forever.

EC: I really like your guitar style, you get such a full sound - you actually don't need a second guitarist. Was that ever a thought? Or did you just want to keep it simple?

Matt: We actually started out with Carlos playing the rhythm guitar but it wasn’t long before Carlos realized he wanted to free himself up as vocalist and put the guitar down. Shortly after that we brought in a friend of ours to pick up the rhythm. Around the same time we brought in our first bassist. Unfortunately things didn’t work out with either of them. We stuck with the rhythm guitarist and the idea of a rhythm guitarist for a while but eventually decided to stick to a one guitar band. It probably hampers us a little live when it comes to solos but the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

I definitely like the freedom that being a one guitar band gives me. I can write a riff and never think about whether the other guitarist can play it with me or not. I like to have energy in the music. I want every song we do to be able to grab your attention long before the vocals kick in. I might not always be successful but that is the attempt. As for your question, yes, I like the idea of keeping it simple.

EC: Does being based in a small town hamper your gigs?

Matt: It definitely plays a factor. It’s nice to be able to play where you know you can rally the fans to come out and support us. It’s a little harder to do if we play somewhere that is out of reach to our fans but that’s all part of the process. We have to go out and play these places and try and build that fan base. Hopefully we can win over a few fans each time we go play and continue to build that network.

EC: If you could tour with any artist/band - what would be your dream tour?

Matt: Without a doubt, Iron Maiden. Up the irons……

EC: Can we expect any videos from the band?

Matt: Other than the live stuff we have put on Youtube, we are always discussing the idea of a video and that is definitely in our future. That is one of the tough challenges we face being an independent artist. Everything we do is financed by the band itself. No investors behind the scenes, just the four of us putting our own money behind the band. I hope to see a video in production by next spring. We will see.

EC: What does the future hold for Injustice Down - live shows/possible tour? A second CD?

Matt: Live shows are a definite. Obviously we would love to tour and promote our debut album but only time will tell whether we get that opportunity or not. As far as a second CD, Carlos and I have already started writing material and I don’t have a doubt that we will be back at Wire Recording starting the next album next year. For now though, we will continue to promote our first album “Smoke and Mirrors” and continue writing the next one. - Ear Candy Mag


Discography

Debut Album - Smoke and Mirrors - Released August 20th, 2011.
Available on Itunes, Rhapsody, Amazonmp3, Spotify, Napster, etc. Also available on our website at www.injusticedown.com
Current Airplay - www.clawradio.net, C101 Corpus Christi, WGRP South Florida University, Social Radio Network

Photos

Bio

Formed in January of 2010, Injustice Down is a 4 piece rock band from Seguin, Texas. With songs written around driving guitar riffs and melodic vocal melodies, it’s no wonder why the response to this band has been tremendous. Fans across the nation and world have found themselves compelled to support Injustice Down. With website hits from over 30 countries, every state in the US, and over 5,000 fans on Facebook, its obvious people are attracted to Injustice Down’s approach to straight forward, rock n roll. Injustice Down recently completed their debut album “Smoke and Mirrors”, which was recorded at Wire Recording in Austin, Texas. Although an Independent artist, Injustice Down set out to create an album of epic proportions. The band started by hiring Grammy Award winning Engineer, Stuart Sullivan, who also owns Wire Recording and spent almost a year recording and mixing “Smoke and Mirrors”. From CD Layout to replication, this album is “Major Label” quality.