Sounds & Sciences

By: Jillian Carney

I first heard of Sounds & Sciences when they @ replied me on Twitter asking me to view a video of theirs along with their Myspace. It took me a few days to actually get around to viewing their profile because, as a promoter, I am frequently asked to do that by a lot of bands. I finally went to their web site and was really, really impressed. This is quite the feat, considering I usually don’t get impressed too quickly with alternative rock bands. However, they sounded different than any band I’ve heard before. The fact that they are a relatively new band blew me away even more. So who is this band and what is their story?

Sounds & Sciences consists of four guys from Dinuba, California. Anthony, Andy, and Justin all grew up in the same schools and were in a worship band together in early high school. From there the guys morphed into a Christian Metalcore band. They played a lot of shows over the span of about a year and a half, including Warped Tour in Fresno 2008 on the Kevin Says Stage. Shortly after playing Warped, the band parted ways with two other members and met Tyler Huebert after seeing him play drums for a worship team at a The Fold/Ever Stays Red concert. Thus, started Sounds & Sciences.

Anthony was the vocalist and Justin was the bassist in the previous band, but Anthony grew up playing bass and was playing in other performing acts. Justin had an amazing voice and was in choir his whole life, so they switched roles in an effort to make the lineup as musically professional as possible.

They spent about a year devoted entirely to writing songs and making them as perfect as possible. The goal in starting the band was to make music that crossed the line and ventured into new ideas compositionally and aesthetically, and to make a package that is always a few steps ahead of what everyone else is doing. They figured if they could do that, they’d have the opportunity to open up to fans on many different levels.

The band saw first-hand how dry and self-righteous the image of a Christian Metal ministry band was getting after spending so much time in it. They still wanted to reach kids at the heart but without distancing themselves from them. So they decided to make their lives their ministries and let the band be about the music.

When they started writing, Anthony and Andy sat down with the music they loved and decided that the music would be outlined by a few key things. They loved what Norma Jean did with their first two albums, and they loved classical and baroque-period composers. They would take the progressions and compositional ideas from early composers like Bela Bartok, Krysztof Penderecki, and the like, and allow that to be a major influence on their composing style. As for the music, they’d take the high-intensity, technical ideas that Norma Jean did so well and let them influence the core of their musical notation.

They’d known their manager Frank Velasco for years, as he was the drummer for a band called Cityfire and their previous band had shared a lot of shows with them. Frank would eventually record Sounds & Sciences’ debut album in December of 2009 and would become a key asset for the guys.

The album that would go on to be titled The Sapling has since been released and Sounds & Sciences have been doing their best to promote themselves, and get into bigger shows and festivals such as Spirit West Coast.

When asked about their journey as a band, Anthony of Sounds & Sciences says, “It’s tough. . .being we’re all still youngins, but it’s definitely an adventure. We all see the potential for success with this record, and our music to come, and want to see it through. We’re excited about getting as many people to hear it as possible, because of how much work we put into it.”

Be sure to check out Sounds & Sciences’ album The Sapling on iTunes. - The Sound Alarm