New Paris native Eric Arnett and his band, Glass Halo, will be playing at Taffy's on Friday night, Jan. 22. The four-member rock band, based in Indianapolis, is playing an all-acoustic show at the Eaton coffee shop for the second time in six months.
Along with Arnett (rhythm guitar, lead/backing vocals), the band also includes Aaron Enneking (lead/rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Dave Grodzki (bass, backing vocals) and Jacob Then (drums, piano, backing vocals).
Glass Halo is gearing up for the release of their first full-length album, untitled as of press time, after releasing two successful EP efforts. The LP is tentatively scheduled for release sometime in March, and will be distributed through iTunes, Snocap, the band's live shows and local independent music retailers.
Arnett and Enneking, a native of Batesville, Ind., took some time last week to talk about their upcoming show, their new album and more.
Ryan Peverly: How long have you guys been together?
Aaron Enneking: Since 2002. The lineup we have now became official in March of 2009, so a little under a year ago.
Eric Arnett: We started as a college band, and as people graduate, they go their separate ways. But we've had basically the same lineup, unofficially, for a year and a half now.
AE: This lineup is really what our sound is, though.
RP: What is that sound?
EA: That's always the hardest question to answer. Some of our influences are Coldplay, Foo Fighters. We describe it as kind of American rock music.
RP: So it's mainstream-sounding, radio-friendly stuff?
AE: Yeah, definitely.
RP: You guys are working on a full-length album now, right?
EA: Yeah, our recording's done, and we should have the music ready for the public at the end of February, up on our MySpace page, and then a hard copy available in March.
RP: What's it feel like to get to that point, where you have all your songs recorded for your first LP?
EA: Oh, it feels fantastic. We went to the same studio we recorded our 2009 EP ("This Love I Can't Carry") at. We were there (recording the EP) for two weeks, and when we were done, we left with basically a full-length, ready-to-go album. This experience was a little different, though, walking out of the studio with it not complete, and having some time between recording and mixing, because everything has to be mixed right. But it's been fun.
RP: And the album is untitled as of now?
EA: Yeah. We haven't decided on an order for the songs, so once we do, we'll start talking about titles and artwork and stuff.
RP: What kind of gigs have you guys been playing lately?
AE: We're actually playing the Elbo Room in downtown Chicago (on Jan. 20). We've never played in Chicago before so we're real excited about that. And we're playing at the Emerson Theater in Indianapolis later this month (on Jan. 30). That's one of the largest all-ages venues around.
EA: That's actually our first all-ages show, and we're headlining that. We'll also be at Canal Street Tavern in Dayton on February 18.
RP: You guys won a battle of the bands in Indianapolis against 62 other bands during a four-month competition. What was that experience like?
EA: We were kind of surprised. You go out in those things and it's kind of like who brings out the most fans wins. But when people vote, they vote for the top three bands, and we didn't have the most first-place votes, but we pretty much swept the second- and third-place categories. Everyone's going to go out and vote for the band they came to see, and that's how we won, getting those votes from fans of other bands.
RP: You guys have played at Taffy's before?
EA: Yeah, probably about a year ago?
AE: August.
EA: Yeah, so it hasn't been quite a year. The thing about Taffy's, for me, isn't just seeing friends and family, but giving people a chance to hear our hard-rocking sound in acoustic format. It's a more laid-back feel.
RP: What's it like to strip down all your songs to that acoustic level? It's a different experience, isn't it?
AE: It's kind of hard. It sounds different, it's a different energy. It's a challenge.
EA: It's very revealing.
RP: You used to have a violinist, but you no longer do. You don't see a whole lot of violinists in rock bands.
EA: The thing with the violin is I was the only guitar player when we started, and then we brought the violinist in, but when we brought Aaron in to play guitar, it became difficult. They stepped on each other's toes, melodically speaking, and the more we crafted our sound the less the violin fit in.
AE: It gave the music kind of an archaic sound, and it didn't sound like anything else we were doing.
EA: It just became unnecessary.
RP: How did recording the EP prepare you for the full-length recording?
EA: It was the first time (during the EP recording) some of us had been in the studio with a studio engineer, so it was a great experience. We learned a lot, and it really gave us a much better idea of what to expect and what we wanted going into the full-length album. There's no way we would have been able to do things as quickly and efficiently if we hadn't recorded the EP. And it's been a great success for us, and we want to take that success and keep the ball rolling with the full-length album.
RP: I always ask this questions to musicians, because the answer is the same but it's always different, if that makes sense. What's the big difference between recording in the studio and playing live?
AE: I think, for most bands, playing live - it's easy to feed off the audience's energy and that fuels your performance. When you're in the studio, you're just playing for yourself and that same electricity isn't in the air. There's more energy. We have more energy playing live.
RP: You guys are both from small, rural areas. How did growing up in that kind of area influence you as musicians and songwriters?
AE: That's a good question. I think maybe because there wasn't much to do, we always would listen to music and play instruments instead of hanging out at the mall or something.
RP: So maybe all the complaining you did as a kid about how there's nothing to do paid off now?
EA: Absolutely, yeah.
RP: You've been working at this for nearly a decade now. What's the one thing you've learned over the last seven, eight years, from keeping at this and trying to make a career out of this?
EA: The only thing I'm sure of is, if you don't give it a shot, you're not going to make it. All you can do is try, and that's what we've been doing and it's gotten us this far.
AE: It's a hard challenge. Not many bands make it, and they have that attitude that they won't, and with that attitude, you won't make it. But don't regret not trying.
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