The 88 are an indie pop band based out of Los Angeles California. Their sound is 60′s pop mixed in with some good old basic garage rock. You may have heard their songs being played in such TV shows as “How I Met Your Mother” and films such as “You, Me and Dupree”. The 88 have a new album coming out called “Not Only… But Also” on October 28th. The record was produced by R&B legend Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, who in the past has worked with everyone from Whitney Houston to Eric Clapton. I had the pleasure of speaking with The 88 keyboard player Adam Merrin via the telephone and here is what Adam had to say. Your new album was produced by Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds. He really isn’t known for working with indie rock bands, he’s more known for working with people such as Madonna and Boys 2 Men. How did “Babyface” come to produce this new album? Well basically the way the “Babyface” thing came about is that he is managed by the same management company that manages The 88. And he has been trying to do other rock projects in addition to the R&B producing that he has done in the past and he came to see us perform at a show in LA. And he liked what he heard and so we met with him in the studio the next day and we just really hit it off! He was talking about his love for the Beatles, which is one of our favorite bands and we just clicked right away. It was unanimous at the end of the meeting we were all like let’s do this! It does sound a little but funny for us to be working with him but we just really loved his ideas. He basically told us that he wanted us to sound like The 88 but a lot bigger and that really appealed to us. He didn’t talk about changing anything or doing anything terribly different, we all really liked that! Did you find that “Babyface” brought a soulful popish element to your sound? Well he played guitar on one of our songs and he is a great guitar player! As I said he really kept the sound of The 88…he just made it really big. In your own words how would you describe the sound of the new album? It sounds a lot like the stuff that we’ve always done….it just sounds bigger. And I think the songs are a little bit more thought out as far as the arrangements go. And the songs are a little more layered with all the sounds we tried on this album like new keyboard sounds and it definitely sounds like The 88. It’s just a really good rock record! I was able to hear one of the new songs off the album “Go Go Go”! and it’s very cool! What’s the story behind that song? That song came about when we rented a house up in Lake Arrowhead which is in the mountains two hours away from LA. We did a bunch of writing there and brought up a bunch of recording equipment and recorded a bunch of demos and that one came about up there. We were setting up to record another song , while everything was being set up we were toying around with the idea and we listened back to it and all the parts were all there and we worked it out and recorded it pretty much immediately after. What inspires you musically, Adam Merrin? Well the other guys in the band really inspire me! We just play off of each other really well and listen to each other. Keith Slettedahl (the lead vocalist and guitar player for The 88) have been playing together for years, we know each other so well! I know what cord changes Keith is going to be going to next and he knows what I’m going to be doing. It’s the years of playing together that makes it what it is. And Anthony Zimmitti our drummer, even though he’s been playing with us for four years now it feels like he’s been playing with us since the being of time! We just really click well together! Chemistry is important in any band… It really is! That’s where a lot of the inspiration comes from. One of the things that fascinates me about The 88, is that you guys have gained most of your popularity through placing your songs in films and TV shows. It has defiantly helped. Just recently, we had a song in a show called “Gossip Girl” that’s very popular and the night that the song aired on the show the myspace page went through the roof! So many people looked us up afterward which is awesome! At the end of the show they plugged our new album “Not Only But Also” . I just can’t tell you what a great affect that has on this band. We just played in Chicago a few weeks ago and there were all these people coming up to us afterward saying “We heard you in a Sears commercial” or “We know you from “The OC”, it just really helps when we are touring in markets that we’ve never played before! People are coming up to us afterwards saying they knew us or I see them singing along in the crowd… it’s been awesome! Not to mention licensing our music has helped us do music as a living, we don’t have to work day jobs! It’s interesting to me that licensing is the way that you guys have gotten known amongst the public. What’s even more interesting is that we never had licensing in the plan at the start. We always had the goal and the big dreams of where we wanted to be and how to get there. But licensing our music at the start was never part of it… it just happened! It’s a good sign for people to know, if you work really hard at something and really believe in it then things will come to you if your planning it or not! You just gotta put yourself out there. Are there any plans to tour in support of this new album? And are you coming to New York real soon? Well we’re starting off with a little West Coast run after the record release. We don’t have an exact date but we’ll be coming to New York for sure very soon!
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 08:03:58 +0000
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