Sound the Alarm

Sound the Alarm are a new band thats just starting to make some waves. They released Stay Inside on July 17, and its a pretty solid album. This interview went down shortly after they finished their set on September 15 at Lupo's in Providence, RI with guitarists Brian Chiusano and Joe Brule (who looks like a young Anthony Kedis) answering the questions. Vocalist Cody Jancovic came in about half way through, and didn't know it was an interview until he saw my voice recorder.

PL: State your name and something interesting about yourselves.
BC: My name is Brian, and I'm the guitarist of Sound the Alarm, and the majority of my time at home is spent playing Playstation 3.
JB: My name is Joe. I play guitar and sing harmonies for Sound the Alarm, and I like to drive.
PL: Do you drive the most on tour?
JB: No, thats actually our drummer Rick.

PL: Whats your first thought when you just finish a set?
BC: I don't know. You have a lot of adrenaline pumping, so its a very intense feeling. I walk around for awhile and let it wear down. I don't know. Do you want to add anything to that, Joe?
JB: I'm just hoping kids dug it. I'm hoping that they enjoyed the set and we can go out there and sell some CDs.

PL: What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a really young band?
BC: I think the disadvantages would be people see how young we are and write us off as some band stuck in the scene that doesn't know how to play their instruments. I think if you give the CD a listen through, you would think otherwise.
JB: The advantages are that we've been playing together for a long time and we didn't have to worry about dropping out of college. We all graduated high school together and we knew that this was what we were going to do.
BC: It gave us a head start.

PL: Whats one aspect of being a successful or popular band that you wouldn't be looking forward to?
BC: Probably having to tour on a bus (laughs)
JB: Yeah, right.
BC: We've been on tour for a few months right now. Probably not being home for awhile; not being able to see your friends and your family and stuff like that. Thats a definite negative. Its great; we love doing this.
JB: Thats probably the only negative I can really see; not seeing your friends and family for awhile.
BC: This is definitely what we want to do: hanging out with our best friends and playing music every night.
JB: Always using public bathrooms kind of sucks after awhile.
BC: We've seen some gross shit, literally.

PL: How do you think you'll feel about Stay Inside ten years from now?
BC: We'll look back on it and be pretty proud of it, knowing that we recorded it when we were 20 years old. It kind of speaks for the last four years of us being in a band, so I bet we'll be pretty happy about it. It'll be a good memory.

PL: Whats the most exciting thing about playing or seeing a new city?
BC: Turning new people onto our music is one of the things. I like to walk around the mall or walk around and see how each city differs from each other.
JB: Each city has its own personality, so there's different attractions that each city has. I know when we were driving up through our last tour coming from Phoenix, we went and saw the Grand Canyon, which we wouldn't have been able to see otherwise. Some of us went to Vegas and partied
BC: We always enjoy a good party.
JB: We went to the Grand Canyon and hiked for 12 miles.
BC: You've got to enjoy the shit while you're seeing it.
PL: Do you get a lot of time to see stuff?
JB: It depends, honestly. If you get a day off, we like to hang around the city, but most of the time, its just wake up, drive, get to the show, play the show, wake up, drive. Sometimes we get to see a lot of things and sometimes we don't get to see a lot of things.

PL: What bands do you listen to to cheer yourself up.
JB: Michael Jackson. Thats a good one for me.
CJ: La Bouche.
BC: Yeah, we've got some La Bouche. Dance party.
CJ: Paulson.
BC: Yeah, there's certain CDs that put us in a good mood.
JB: Incubus.
BC: Third Eye Blind.
CJ: Dr. Dre.
BC: Something a little different than what you'd normally listen to.

PL: Who gets to control the radio in the van?
BC: Whoever's sitting shotgun.
JB: Yeah, its usually whoever is sitting shotgun. People can have requests and stuff like that. We just got satellite radio, so we've been listening to a lot of Howard Stern, and that shits hilarous.
BC: We don't have an iPod like a lot of bands. We have CD booklets.
CJ: I've got a Zune, but I haven't taken it out of the box.

PL: Whats a little known fact about Pennsylvania?
BC: Um...
JB: At least where we're from.
BC: We're from the middle of nowhere. There's a lot of deer. We'll drive for ten minutes, and we'll have to slam on the brakes four times for deer.

PL: Whats one album, besides your own, you think people should have in their collection?
JB: Science.
BC: Self titled Third Eye Blind. I know thats two albums now.
CJ: A little Alanis Morrisette.
JB: Tyler Read-Only Rock and Roll Can Save Us.

PL: Is there anything else you want to say?
BC: Stop by a show. We always hang out afterwards. We'd love to meet you, and I hope you dig the album. It should be everywhere.
CJ: We party and we have a good time. We like partying with other people as well. Invite us to a party. Don't be shy.
JB: Buy our record. Thats all I can say.

Interviewed by: RF
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