Collins And Streiss

Interview With Collins And Streiss

SBS:  Welcome to our pages!  Whether you’ve been here with us in some way before, or you’re brand-new to the site, it’s probably best to get an introduction from you so that we get everyone on the same page to start.  Tell us a little bit about the history of your music, and what’s happening with it lately!?!

Collins And Streiss:  First, we would like to express our gratitude for this opportunity to share, and to all the listeners/readers who take the time to interact with us here, thank you!  It means a lot.

Since 2012, while managing full-time teaching careers, part-time weekend jobs, church music, family commitments, particularly with aging parents, and just hanging out as good friends, we’ve managed to produce and release, on average, one song per year.  These songs arise from the creation and composition of many song ideas and partial demo productions.  As the songs have evolved over time, we’ve been very privileged to have other amazing musicians work with us: Davide DiRenzo on drums, Steve Wingfield on sax, Rob Vendrasco on guitar, David Dawe on bass, and Sebastian Meadows-Helmer on violin.  Without these guys, many of our songs would lack their groove and texture.  We must also recognize our mastering engineer — Joao Carvalho — for his marvelous finishing touches.  At this time, there is our usual current and ever-growing priority list of songs.  Some will see formal production and release, and others won’t.  This continues to be our natural pace and evolution, as we constantly come up with new ideas: themes, lyrical phrases, riffs, chord progressions, and new or unused instruments to experiment with.

SBS:  Let’s talk about the before and after of where you’re currently at.  What’s something about the music that you’re making now that you don’t think you could have done five years ago, and what’s something you think you’ll be able to do with your music five years from now that you can’t do today?  How have you grown as an artist/band, and what steps do you take to continue your artistic evolution?

Collins And Streiss:  We’ve always approached each song as its own entity of genre and style.  All songs are very different, yet each one sounding like one of our songs.  These days, there might be a more conscious effort to simplify things — less complex song structure and chord arrangements, or more relatable, poignant and simple lyrics.  We’re not young musicians; therefore, we tend to be more set in our ways and inspired by the music we grew up with long ago, but with so many enduring influences, we don’t worry about potential drawbacks.  We just are who we are, writing and producing what we do — it’s fun and rewarding to us personally.

SBS:  If you were to assess the overall health of the independent music scene right now, what would you say?  What are the positives and the negatives about the current state of independent music, and what do you feel like artists & bands can do to contribute to the community & help it grow beyond the music being made?  If you’re not actively looking to listen to the music of other independent artists/bands, is it really all that fair to expect anyone would listen to yours?  How do you help the scene around you grow?

Collins And Streiss:  From our perspective, the independent music scene is like a huge, over-crowded, never-ending party with lots of interesting people having a great time.  You can only spend so much quality time with a select few people; then it’s time to go home, escaping the happy, noisy, sometimes rowdy crowd, yet anticipating your return.  These days, it seems like almost anyone can create a Tik Tok video or a YouTube channel, make kitchen demos on their iPhones or laptops, and draw enough plays and subscribers to be set for life financially.  Therefore, we have no expectations or prescriptions in such an actively evolving, dynamic global music community.  Given the unknowns of artificial intelligence, and its encroachment into the music scene, anything seems possible and unpredictable.  We are determined to remain sober-minded and organic in our approach to things, as we interact with and admire those who are in the same room at the party.

SBS:  What do you consider to be the biggest accomplishment or achievement you’ve had with your music to-date?  How do you personally measure your own success – is that something that even can be measured?  Is it awards, accolades, chart position…or is your definition of success based on something entirely different?  Should success, however you define it, be something that artists are continually focused on – or is success something that naturally occurs in the course of doing what you love to do?

Collins And Streiss:  Perhaps our biggest accomplishment is remaining good friends who inspire and challenge each other to evolve creatively.  Twelve years (and counting) of Collins and Streiss is a long time in the music business, with lots of ups and downs, but we’ve known each other since high school, too.  That’s an impressive background and timeline of friendship and creativity for two very different musicians and personalities.  The fact that we desire to continue writing, producing, and releasing songs together, while gaining some listeners and fans along the way, is very rewarding and successful in our estimation.

SBS:  When you’re working on something brand-new, and something about it just doesn’t feel like it’s coming together the way that you think it should, how do you know when it’s time to give up on it, or how do you know that it’s time to dig in even harder and find a way to make it work?  Are there distinct red flags you can hear when something’s not working?  What are the signs you look for that tell you to stop forcing the material?  What would actually encourage you to keep going with the process instead?

Collins And Streiss:  Our demo production process is lengthy enough to allow songs to take on lives of their own.  They grow and mature without pressure, naturally over time, which is a luxury afforded by unlimited studio access.  There is a lot of listening, reconsidering, talking through ideas, and experimentation with arrangement and structural components, tempo, and lyrics over time.  Anton invests considerable time making a lot of demo CDs!  Thankfully, they provide the inspiration for reflection and reconsideration.

SBS:  One of the points of general consensus in the art of making music, is that we all get our sound from somewhere…we hear what we like, then more often than not, we take tiny pieces of what we love to find our own voice & approach to go on and make music in our own way.  Essentially, what I’m saying is that it’s absolutely natural to be inspired by other artists/bands, and almost every artist/band ends up having that inspiration show up in their own work in some way, shape, or form.  What the real key is though, is retaining your own organic perspective – you still wanna be original too, right?  So how do you go about doing that?  Are there artists or bands that you know have been an influence on your style & sound?  How were you able to incorporate that influence without becoming too noticeably derivative and still be yourself?  Should we embrace and celebrate our influences more than we do?  It’s almost like we try not to admit influences exist in the pursuit of being original, but it’s like, bruh…if it’s there, we can hear it.  We all borrow something from those that came before us to some extent, don’t we?

Collins And Streiss:  We try to be very conscious about our musical influences and how they inspire and guide us.  We are definitely encouraged by those listeners who hear our influences coming through in our songs, and we’re also glad that while some will hear them, others will not.  Our latest song release — “The Balcony Above” — is a testimony to our appreciation of the musical era we grew up in.  There’s a shift from major to minor.  There are variants of three well-known guitar licks — one British, one American, and one Canadian.  Then there’s the slide guitar solo, which is very reminiscent of at least two well-known guitarists, and we love that about it.  The sax solo hearkens back to some of our earliest Rock and Roll influences of the 1950s.  Since our songs are all so different, and there are so many influences embedded in each one, we enjoy and embrace the various echoes of our influences with gratitude, hoping they catch each listener in some meaningful, enjoyable way.

SBS:  Has there ever been a time where you wrote something inside one of your songs…maybe it’s a lyrical line, or maybe it’s a riff of some kind…something that you did, where you surprised yourself?  I like to think we all have a moment or two where we can stand back and be amazed by something we created, and appreciate the fact that maybe, just maybe, we exceeded our own expectations of what we thought we could accomplish – you know what I mean?  Get as specific as you can so the fans out there know what they should be paying attention to when they hear it – what’s your favorite thing that you’ve written on the inside of one of your songs, and why does this particular piece resonate so much to you?

Collins And Streiss:  The double-tracking of the slide guitar solo in “The Balcony Above” was naturally performed, having great tone on a special guitar set up for that purpose.  We were surprised and happy with that challenging, yet efficient performance.  The readiness of other musicians (previously listed) inspires us to be ready, too.  While vocal parts are sometimes worked out in the studio, we’re encouraged that our vocal harmonies make us and our listeners happy, as they are naturally performed and produced.  We like the blend of our voices, as we often remark how the sum is greater than the parts, and we feel very fortunate about that.

SBS:  I’ve been having a lot of great debates lately about whether or not everybody that’s making music has the right to be heard…and you’d probably be surprised by how different people seem to feel about this issue.  I know where I stand on it, and I think you can all probably get an idea of what my position would be from this free interview we’re doing here & the way we run things at sleepingbagstudios…but regardless, I’m putting this question out there to you, because I’m interested in YOUR perspective.  Just because you’ve made a song, does that mean people should listen?  If your answer is yes, do your best to explain why you feel that way & why we should make a sincere effort to listen to the music of others.  If your answer is no, explain why you feel that way, but also explain why people should still be listening to your music if that’s the case – what would make your music the exception, and not follow the rule?  Is there any value to an idea that’s not finished, or a song in its demo stages, or maybe something that’s not recorded in a top-shelf studio or with good equipment – somebody still took the time to make that song to the best of their ability with the means they had to create it – should that be listened to, or not?

Collins And Streiss:  Come one, come all…give it a go and let the chips fall!  It’s mostly about the freedom to create, find your voice, be heard, accepted, rejected, criticized, praised, ridiculed, etc.  It’s also about risk, which is inescapable in life, especially if you are living it to the max.  Whether or not people should listen to kitchen demos is up for individuals to decide — those who make them and those who listen.  We have no expectations, no defined goals; although, it would be nice if a signed artist remade one of our songs their own way.

SBS:  There are ups and downs in the dynamics of almost every album we listen to, with very few exceptions.  Even those exceptions, probably still come down to more of a personal preference about what we enjoy about music and how we personally hear it, rather than anything being completely and totally “perfect” – you know what I mean?  Does an album actually need to have some kind of up/down dynamics in terms of what’s appealing to the masses in order for the best of the best songs in a lineup to be fully appreciated?  Wouldn’t every artist & band avoid the ‘down’ side (less accessible/less popular for example) if they could?  Does the ‘down’ side represent something else perhaps, like the story of an album or journey of an artist?  Is the ‘up’ side of a record as potent or noticeable if it doesn’t have a ‘down’ side to go with it?  Would a completely balanced album somehow be boring if it didn’t have the ups/downs that most have?  Do we HAVE to like every single song on a record for it to be considered complete?  Are the dynamics of an album something anyone can really steer in the direction they want to, or are all artists & bands simply going with the strongest material they have created at the time?

Collins And Streiss:  It seems like today’s music business, given the current evolving nature of creating and accessing music, has, in a way, reverted back to singles.  They need covers and artwork now more than ever.  There isn’t even a “B side” like there used to be on those 45 rpm records.  We remember discovering or appreciating some amazing B sides long after purchase, or getting tired of the A side hit song.  Singles used to be a true microcosm of an album, which would often inspire us to buy it, especially if the hit single became a double.  Arguably, the album is still a necessary and essential rite of passage, and risk, in the development of a band or artist though.  You just aren’t taken seriously until your first album release.  While new independent bands with album releases appear to be a rarity, artists or bands with their latest song appear to be the more common and attainable occurrence.  Some great songs don’t get heard until the album comes out.  That’s a good thing, just as those old B sides grew on us, or a single was released later because it was an unexpected hit (Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” comes to mind here), all albums are inherently eclectic to some degree.  Every listener has their favourites or songs they might skip, so there’s no magic formula.  We’ve released 12 very different singles to date, and those songs will soon be compiled on our first album — One in the Pocket.  Of those 12 songs, about half of them have been heard substantially more than the others.  It will be interesting to see if there are any trends that emerge, or if the album release really makes any difference regarding the popularity of any particular single.  In any case, we remember buying albums initially because of a couple of songs, only to find hidden gems we would grow to appreciate more because of how different they were.  Of course, some albums sound the same from beginning to end, largely because of band members who perform live, having a certain chemistry, with their distinct instrumentation and playing styles.  Everyone has their strengths and limitations, so if you exploit your strengths and know your limitations, the album experience can be more worthwhile than just an unpredictable guessing game.

SBS:  I wanna send out a shout-out to YOU from me personally – I appreciate everyone that has taken the time to talk tunes with me throughout the years, and I appreciate the time YOU have taken with this interview too.  Because this one’s a little different in the sense that it’s been sent out to multiple people and is a little more generic in that regard, I have no doubt whatsoever that we probably didn’t get to talk to you about something you wanted to talk about – so let’s fix that!  This final space is what we call the SBS Open Floor – a spot where you can say anything else you want to say to the people out there.  It can be anything at all…your main websites…something else you want them to know about you and/or your music…your favorite bands in the scene right now…the secret 11 herbs and spices to the Colonel’s secret recipe – you get the idea, and it’s probably best you choose something that suits you rather than take any of my suggestions, but feel free to take the SBS Open Floor for a ride.  Whatever it is you want the people to know, now is the prime time for you to tell’em!  Thanks again for everything – keep in touch!

Collins And Streiss:  Once again, thank you Jer and everyone taking the time and energy to read this.  We appreciate the opportunity to share our music and thoughts on the process, inspiration, and risks, etc.  It takes commitment, determination and courage to become proficient enough to put your stuff out there, accepting the ups and downs along the way, learning from them, and moving on to new challenges.  The key is love, with patience, gentleness and perseverance flowing from it.  Our creativity and unity depend on these things more than raw talent, as important as that may be.  As we learn about ourselves, we learn how to reach others more effectively.  We will be forgotten more quickly than we know, but we will enjoy and make the most of each step of the journey we have left.  Cheers!

Find out more about Collins And Streiss from their official page at Facebook here:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063250957972

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