by Morgan Y. Evans
Poughkeepsie's Sugar Red Drive are a young, inspired and hard working four piece cutting their teeth on unapologetic hard rock. Their self-titled forthcoming debut on Sugar Bear records showcases a blend of modern influences and yet the band’s own voice shines through. Perhaps it's Sugar Red Drive's hungry, up and coming status, but the music has more attitude than most bands playing straight up hard rock. They come across as less sterilized and more genuine than the glut of Nickelback imitators out there while still sounding like you could hear them on the radio. Also, the band employs rich background effects and sonic twists that make their songs more rewarding. Besides the main aspects of each song you'll hear things go by quickly that you'll want to go back and listen for again.
The band may be on the younger side, but the core instrumentalists worked hard for 5 years under the name Mercury Rising. I would always see their fliers and name in regional Upstate papers or online. Mercury didn't rise too far though before their original singer left to join the Army and the band was left scratching their heads and trying to decide the next step to take. Determined to not give up, the band soldiered on themselves and used the Internet to find new and current singer Archit Tripathi. The first and last guy they tried out, it turns out that he was more than just a college kid attending school nearby. Archit had the range and focus the band was hoping for, as well as a similar appreciation for classic rock, grunge bands, and pop/alternative. They hit it off and Sugar Red Drive was born, the new name signalling a new sound and a fresh start with determination intact. Sugar Red Drive may have had some good things going for them from the start, like the fact that drummer PJ Gasperini's dad Pat is an industry vet best known for playing guitar with bands like Pound and respected alterna-grungers Flywheel, but no one can say they haven't worked really hard themselves and had everything handed to them. The band rehearses nearly every night of the week and when you talk to them you can really tell how much their musical efforts and friendships mean to the guys.
The band has already won over fans of bands like Seether and Theory of A Deadman, who they cite as major influences of their own. You can tell Sugar Red Drive are honored to have already played with some bands they really enjoy but also exhibit a confidence that, as cool as it is, is telling of the group's goals. These guys aren't trying to vanish anytime soon and are aiming to get used to sharing the stage with big bands and hopefully creating more fans of their own.
Sugar Bear Records has been formed by Pat Gasperini as an indie/major to showcase his son’s band the way they deserve, with the backing similar to a bigger label but with the freedom and integrity of an indie. Pat produced Sugar Red Drive's debut but also made sure the band was in a top notch studio environment. Woodstock, NY's Applehead Studios is the best studio in the region for bands of various levels whether you're looking for a huge sound, progressive escapes or a punk edge. Applehead is best known for most of emo/proggers Coheed and Cambria's records (including their best In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth:3) and edgy yet catchy introspective records like The Static Age's Blank Screens or The Sleeping's Questions Ans Answers. The staff are very skilled in creating giant sounds that don't lose a sense of urgency often squashed out of hi-fi recordings, and the quiet horse ranch location outside the famous arts colony of Woodstock is a perfect retreat for groups with a lot to buckle down and work on. Sugar Red Drive had a great time at Applehead and the feeling was mutual.
"Even as studio novices, The guys showed a professionalism that bands twice their age don't," says engineer Chris Bittner."Great tunes, great players and great energy. These guys have a bright future."
First single "One More Time" is an unapologetic stomper, but with a clean tone that suddenly cuts through the volume really nice in the guitar solo. The song’s intro begs to be played on a movie soundtrack, reminiscent of some of Pearl Jam's Yield before exploding into nu-metal meets grunge. "Overdrive" shows off some southern rock elements a la Kid Rock or Saliva over a simple yet effective riff that alternates between catchy twang and muscular romp. It's followed up with a catchy soaring chorus reminiscent of a more hard rock LIVE, a band who Sugar Red Drive have also already opened for. There's even a cowbell, and as someone who has been to Applehead myself, I'm eager to know if that was planned ahead of time for the song or not. There's a big box of cow bells there that is difficult for hard rockers to resist! "Overdrive" is interesting because at first the simplicity of guitarist Jim Knauss' riff almost seems a bit naive, until you realize how well it works as the foundation for the whole song.
"Velvet Leash" is likely to appeal to fans of Buck Cherry and (ahem) Velvet Revolver, with a sort of glammy, swinging tension. "Grace" is probably my favorite musically, an uplifting mid-paced rock song with flourishes of balladry and nice, dark chords. "Grace" is very clean sounding and yet the majestic mood seems like it really comes from a place within the band rather than a pandering to AlterBridge fans or something. The song sounds crystalline and yet releasing, like after rain passes. The band is earnest and well-meaning even when Archit is singing about emotions you might wonder if he has enough experience with to be an authority on. Well, despite his age, the singer has seen a lot travelling the world and living in different countries every few years of his childhood as a diplomat's son, so perhaps that explains some of it. While the band are not as grungy and metal as some of their influences, like the peerless and truly emotionally damaged and fucked up Alice In Chains, they are still definitely coming from a solid, hard rock background. If Chains’ songs were the reference point, think a younger take on a sunnier version of "Heaven Beside You" rather than the murky "Frogs". Sugar Red Drive just don't go to as ugly places inside, though they can still pack a punch with the big arena metal riffing on "One More Time" and still have a lot to say. Even when Trepathi is just letting out a long, melodic scream like in the beginning of "One More Time", you are probably going to take notice. People new to the band or even hardened skeptics in a crowd at a show to see another band are usually nodding their head along to the music in no short time, so it seems like these guys are not gonna be at a loss for listeners!
I met up with drummer PJ Gasperini and guitarist Jim Knauss at a diner in New Paltz, NY near their hometown of Poughkeepsie and grilled them about their influences, aspirations, being in the studio for their first album, and how they started down this musical road.
MORGAN Y. EVANS: Well, you were Mercury Rising for a
while and some of you went to high school together. How did the change
come about that led up to you making this album?
JIM KNAUSS (Guitar): Dave and PJ and this other kid who was our own singer Johnny had been playing together for a while now. Johnny wanted to join the Army and so he left
PJ GASPERINI (drums): He went to Missouri for basic training.
JK: We used MySpace as a tool to find a singer. We met Archit and that was it. We had a try out and didn't try anyone else out after that.
PJ: We got in contact with him and we did acoustic covers of STP and Alice In Chains and we were like "Fuck! he's the dude!"
MYE: How much material did you have written before you met him?
PJ: We had a full record and scrapped it all and rewrote it.
JK: Well, we didn't rewrite everything, we just wrote new songs. We wrote 8 songs with the old singer and it didn't really suit Archit's voice so we wrote new songs with him.
MYE: You got excited?
PJ: Yeah, it was a whole new kind of thing.
MYE: I wanted to ask because your sound has interesting and big hooks to it, but you guys are kind of younger. Your rep said I couldn't meet you at a bar!
PJ: Yeah. [laughing]
MYE: No, but it's cool 'cuz you're doing hard rock and some of it has that energy to it and some maybe more mature big rock influences. I guess my question is, why aren't you guys a shitty emo band at your age? [laughing]
PJ: Yeah. [laughing] To answer that question...I like good music. Why would I want to play something that isn't good?
JK: If I came up to the rehearsal space with a nice, sweet emo riff for the guys I'd probably get punched in the face.
MYE: It's all about if it is good, whatever the style, of course.
PJ: Yeah. Yeah. We all just love it and have our influences personally and it all comes out together.
MYE: I definitely hear an STP vibe in some songs and some older alternative.
PJ: My influences personally are Alice In Chains, STP, old Nirvana to, like, Tool.
JK: David Bowie.
PJ: Dave Matthews.
JK: A lot of acoustic stuff too, like Goo Goo Dolls. Everyone loves their STP. I'm a big Collective Soul fan.
MYE: You guys have a ballad, "Miller's Child", and Goo Goo Dolls were from more of a hard rock background and when they went pop it was still more gritty.
JK: Goo Goo Dolls used to be named The Sex Maggots.
MYE: Dave Matthews bass player did some stuff at Applehead also.
PJ: Oh yeah? Dave Matthews band is amazing. That drummer Carter is amazing.
MYE: Once you got to the point of being ready, how did you get involved with picking a studio? Your dad was also involved in the production.
JK: Yeah, PJ's dad produced the whole record.
MYE: Right. And the studio?
PJ: My dad actually knows a lot of studios and called Applehead up to see their rate. We called them up and found out what was up and it felt good.
MYE: They are really good with younger bands, also.
JK: They are really cool guys, too. We took a stop up there to meet everyone. The place is just awesome. The live room is great.
MYE: I could tell right away from having done records there myself or my friend’s bands having worked there, the drum room sounds they get really fit you guys. They can get raw sounds on the guitar, too. Like with you guys on "One More Time", it sounds raw but still hi-fi which sometimes studios lose the balls in the cleaner mix. I think they balance that really well.
PJ: Yeah! There were like 22 mics on my drum kit.
MYE: Did you go up the spiral staircase to the loft above the drum/live room and look down?
PJ: I didn;t go up there. That reminds me of Led Zeppelin recording in a room with high ceilings and a spiral staircase on one of their first records.
MYE: You gotta watch out for that if you ever go up after too much wine. [laughing]
PJ: Yeah, right.
JK: I used to go up there and throw stuff at Dave, our bass player. Like paper balls and stuff.
MYE: He didn't know you were up there?
JK: [laughing] No. he would look up and be like "Huh!?"
MYE: How much dialogue was there between you guys and your dad and Mike and Chris? How much did you all talk about stuff and work together?
PJ: Musically, my father produced and guided us through it all.
JK: They would have thoughts here and there but we'd done a lot of pre-production with Pat and so it was pretty much ready to go. Chris engineered the whole record and he has an ear like you wouldn't believe.
MYE: Yeah, he's a monster to work with. He is so fast, too. Chris spoiled me in bands of mine that worked there and made me hate most other engineers and think they are fuckin' boneheads. [laughing]
JK: He'll hear things even Pat wouldn't hear.
MYE: His editing skills are retarded.
JK: It's bananas. That's what they always used to say.
MYE: [laughing] "One More Time" had cool vocal treatments on it. I think they are a good studio for putting polish on things but it doesn't sound fake or so auto tuned that it interferes.
PJ: Archit did two or three takes on each song and nailed it pretty well. I cut six songs in one day. We don't want to be just a ProTools band. All of it is minimal on the record. It's there but...
MYE: There's still an energy too it.
[Note: At this point we are interrupted as food comes and Jim starts making fun of PJ for eating a Reuben sandwich. A few minutes later we get back into it.]
MYE: I wanted to ask you about the band name. Was it a street name like it sounds? There was a band Ana Divine who also recorded at Applehead and were named after a school from around Upstate,NY.
PJ: We picked three words that best describe us. Sugar, like we are sweet, or whatever...like that...Red is our passion for the music and Drive is our drive to do it. We came to Sugar Red Drive.
MYE: You should Google it. You'll probably come up first, but...
JK: There's a Sugar Maple Drive in Minnesota or something. I used to Google it before we had all the stuff up but now we come first so that's good.
MYE: Tell me about some of the big shows you've done already. You've played recently with LIVE? That's very cool.
PJ: We played with LIVE at the Chance in Poughkeepsie. It was awesome.
JK: August 10th, last year.
PJ: We played with Theory. [Note: Theory Of A Deadman] and Framing Hanley just a few weeks ago. That was a good show. Then over the summer we played with Seether and Finger Eleven at the Mid Hudson Civic Center.
MYE: Framing Hanley are catchy but it is done well. They are a good band.
PJ: Yeah. They are starting to pick up.
JK: They are cool guys and are getting there, man. I've seen them multiple times. We're playing with them February 14th at the Millennium Music Conference in Harrisburg, PA.
MYE: LIVE is a band that is so big but is also under-rated. They are really mature songwriters who are often lumped in with random alternative bands and people don't realize Ed Kowalczyk is a really poetic dude.
JK: I'd put them on the same level as Pearl Jam and Soundgarden and they pull it off live too.
PJ: Yeah..."LIVE" [grinning]
JK: (rolling eyes at PJ)
MYE: How did their audience gel with you guys?
PJ: They loved us. By the first couple of songs they were getting into us and by the end they were nuts.
JK: Yeah, it was funny 'cuz the curtain opens and people have arms folded and are looking and thinking "that's not LIVE." And then they finally realize we aren't just a crappy local opening act.
MYE: You've played together a while, but how did you get the confidence on stage?
PJ: How did we start to feel comfortable? I've been playing with Dave since 9th grade and known Jimmy since high school. This is what we love to do, so we're comfortable. There wasn't any time of being nervous, you know?
JK: Some bands are like that, but as far as being comfortable on stage, anyway, that's just something...You're either afraid or you're not. Fortunately we are. We're also really good friends and were before this. They were playing a while before I joined up.
MYE: Except for your singer. He travelled all over to different country after different country growing up, like Venezuela, right?
PJ: Yeah, his father is a diplomat so every three years he had to relocate since he was born. So he's lived everywhere!
MYE: Good. You've gotta be able to travel and play out.
PJ: He has the experience!
JK: He loves travelling, so...
MYE: He's got enough stamps on his passport. What do you think about the area music scene near Poughkeepsie? It was getting bland for a while but some good bands have been coming up like This Island Earth, who are really indie and interesting.
PJ: I think rock is coming back, which is great for us 'cuz we're rock. We've got a few different faces to our record. We can do melodic or heavy or a ballad, all different styles, but ultimately we're just a rock band and I think it's perfect for the times, to come out now.
JK: Especially with all the video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band coming out.
MYE: It used to be bands would be suspicious to be marketed like that and now you almost have to to survive, depending on your priorities, of course.
JK: I think it's an old fad dying out, the underground thing. I think most people want to be mainstream these days and if they don't it's something I don't really understand.
PJ: Mainstream, you know, without selling out, of course. You can be as big as you want but don't give up what you want to do musically.
MYE: Right. A lot of bands, even weirder ones, want to be comfortable. No one wants to live in a trailer, well...some bands do. [laughing]
PJ: If it makes you happy!
MYE: Which one of you guys was inviting fans to play X Box with them? I saw that on your MySpace and that cracked me up. That's one way to get close to your fans!
JK: Dave. He loves video games. It's funny. We're at the studio recording over the summer and the bass tracks were done in a day but Dave would come up the rest of the time too while I was tracking guitars, which takes forever. I'm the only guitar player so I have to do all the rhythm tracks, all the solos. Everyday we would hear this noise from somewhere else and it was Dave on his laptop and we'd say "What are you doing?" He'd say "I'm trying to play video games, so shut up!"
MYE: [laughing] Not like you had anything important to do!
JK: He was bored.
PJ: "We're trying to make the record, dude!"
MYE: What was it like for you making your first big studio record?
PJ: It was completely different than live. Everything was perfect. For me, it went fine. It was fun. I had no problem with a click, playing to it.
MYE: Some drummers hate it, but it can be really good as long as you don't sound too boring. It depends on what the music needs.
PJ: Yeah. Some of the time I would sub the click out with a tambourine so I could play to the groove but it would have less digital energy in my ears.
MYE: How did you first decide what instruments to play when younger?
JK: I wanted a guitar when I was eight and my grandma accidentally bought me a bass, so I played that a few years. On bass you can play a D but on guitar you can play all kinds of D's, minor, major, and mess with it more.
PJ: For me, drums; my cousin is a drum instructor to begin with. Joe Corraza. My whole family are guitarists and drummers so I've been around it as a baby and fell in love. My first kit was a pile of crap, a Pearl I beat up on. Then when I got good I got a new one.
MYE: Something kind of embarrassing is I never got the record title. [laughing]
JK: Something kind of embarrassing is we never did either. [laughing]
PJ: [laughing] Yeah, it's self-titled for now.
MYE: One thing that is important is you guys have worked hard and opportunity hasn't just been handed to you. I remember seeing your old band name, Mercury Rising, on fliers and websites for a long time.
PJ: Oh yeah, that's cool. Yeah, we are completely serious about it. We might be young but we write and rehearse all the time.
JK: We're all tight and that's the way it is.
MYE: What do you want to do with college?
PJ: Archit had a prior commitment with his family and is almost done. so...
JK: He is getting his Bachelors and getting it out of the way, but for us, this is it.
MYE: You gotta make a run for your dream, right?
JK: Yeah, we gotta do this while we have the opportunity.
MYE: What songs are you happiest with? Did you write the songs together?
PJ: Usually we'll have the song in place and Archit will start singing to it. The record is gonna be out in late Spring along with the single for "One More Time". We're definitely going to be on tour this summer and are looking forward to getting the band on the road and getting out there.