Spreading the Good Times
In 2005, Socratic’s album Lunch for the Sky provided listeners with enough colorful, smile enducing piano driven rock songs to fuel the rest of summer’s memories as they faded in the rearview mirror. Now, with their new album Spread the Rumors, the band is back for another crack at becoming your soundtrack for the three hottest months. Produced by Mark Hoppus (front man for Blink 182 and +44), Spread the Rumors is a more diversified and fleshed out album than the band’s previous effort. Catchy songs like Boy in a Magazine and Contant Apology will have you singing along with them long after the CD has stopped spinning. Long Distance Calls does a respectful job of channelling Paul Simon (without the annoying Chevy Chase bits) while bringing its own Socratic spin. Trust me. Once the steel drum kicks in, you’ll be sold on this band. Maybe the meanest trick of the entire affair is the song May I Bum a Smoke, a love letter to toking-induced, carefree daydreams. I’m as straight laced straight edge as a guy can get and I still catch myself singing this incredibly fun song out loud constantly.
The second half of the album mellows out a bit (Spread the Rumors and The Diamond in a World of Coal) and makes for perfect nighttime driving music after the fun of a summer’s day has been had. The latter song (possibly my favorite of the bunch) will have you built up and elated during its final chorus in a way that only a really great rock ballads can. All in all, if what you’re looking for is a rock album that is at times poppy toe tapping melodies and other parts reflexive lyrical and instrumental arrangements, I don’t think you can be dissapointed with Spread the Rumors. I recently got a chance to talk with Socratic’s new bassist and lead singer Louis Panico. The following is what he had to say about recording the Spread the Rumors, becoming a member of the band and what to expect when you come see them live (which I recommend to all of you):
How long have you guys been working on this thing?
We had songs for a while. The last album was Lunch for the Sky in 2005, I think. And then we did a free EP. So this our second release. We had a few demos and recorded them in Ohio with a few friends of ours. We sent them along to Mark Hoppus and he said he wanted to do our record. We were like “cool”. We had those 5 songs. He was like “you wanna come in in 2 weeks?”. We were like “sure!” . We had 5 songs and two months to write the rest of our record. It was pretty cool. I mean, we had a few songs floating around for a while and that gave us a chance to just sit down and for a few weeks straight: just play, play a bunch of new material. It was cool.
If you guys went into the studio with just five songs, how much was he involved in the songwriting to flesh out the rest of the album?
All of the songwriting is ours. We did some preproduction with him, and he listened. He gave us thoughts on arrangements and stuff. “You need to make this part shorter, this part longer.” That was basically it as far as songwriting. We came in to record the songs. And he was a cool guy to work with. He knows what he’s doing. He knows how to write songs. He’s a good songwriter, obviously. So musically, when it came down to instruments, he gave his opinion. We asked him a bunch of questions. “What do you think we should do? This or that?” You know? His influence is definitely there. And I know when it came to the lyrics, he worked on a few things with us actually. He heard a line from us and then said “you know, maybe you can try this line this way”; change a few melodies here and there. He’s an awesome guy to work with.
When you and I talked the other night, you were describing this new album, in comparison to Lunch for the Sky, as a more fleshed out, fuller sound. I don’t really know what that means. I’m not a musician at all. Nor do I aspire to be!
Lunch for the Sky was a pretty long record. I actually, personally, wasn’t even a part of the band then. I wasn’t a part of that record and just overall that record was a bit longer, was more a “let’s just go out and play” type deal. This record is a lot more cohesive. A lot of the songs are shorter. They get to the point. We’re still ridiculous in the sense that Socratic is always going to be ridiculous. It’s pretty simple. Nothing’s too long. The whole record, I think, is 40 minutes. Maybe right around 40 minutes long so it’s pretty cool. There’re 12 tracks. And it flows. It flows very nicely.
What was the process of you coming into the band and becoming a part of the songwriting?
I’ve known them my whole life. I played guitar and sang in a band called The Showcase and before that a band called Blue Star Drive. All of the bands I’ve been in, I’ve known them. I’ve played with them. I live in the same town like 5 minutes away from Duane and Vinnie. I went to school with Kevin. I went to highschool with him. I knew him for a long (time), like very well. He had another band too. We’d always hang out and play music. It was very cool. What’s cool about Socratic, I think, is that everything’s split. And it’s cool because we all contribute and we all listen to each other. Even if someone else wrote an entire song, we play it and we’re like “oh man, let’s try this. Let’s try that.” Everyone’s very open. And everyone writes. I wrote all of my songs in my last band. I would write guitar even though I write bass now. And Duane obviously writes. Vinnie writes. And Kevin writes and Tom knows what’s up; our drummer. And Tom’s actually a really good guitar player. It works out.
If some of my listeners/viewers/readers aren’t too familiar with your band, how would you recruit them into your audience? How would you sell your band?
I would just tell them to give us a chance, to check us out. Come see us play. We all like playing. We enjoy it very much. We all have a good time. So just check us out is what I would say. In terms of our music and stuff, I think we’re fun. I think we’re just real down to earth people and I think it’s more than then music too when you come to check us out. We love to just hang out too. When you come watch the show, when we’re done we’re off stage. We’re hanging out at the bar. Whatever. I think Socratic is all about having a good time. And if you want to have a good time, come hang out with Socratic. That’s what I would say.
Socratic’s new album Spread the Rumors comes out Tuesday, May 6th everywhere. For more info or to hear a few tracks visit http://www.myspace.com/socratic
