Vocalist Drew Duddy (D.Duddy-the new P.Diddy!) has a somewhat laid back delivery at times that almost reminded me of Liar's Academy, but these guys are much more soaring and way less misanthropic than that former underrated Equal Vision act. Drew can also really climb out from behind the guitars and launch a powerful chorus sure to rally kids up. Still, the band's sound is so big it's hard to imagine them playing many basement shows, though it isn't to their detriment, really.

Producer Rob Freeman's work (Armor For Sleep, Cobra Starship) is deftly suited for this group. He has extended his talent to collaborating with the Throwing Color guys on seeing their vision through in a way that sharpens dynamics yet doesn't cheapen the songwriting. Hells yeah! That right there is the difference between a real pop approach and one that makes everything so much sonic Styrofoam.

"All I Know" kicks in with power pop know-how, dolled up with impressive flourishes and accents plus chugged guitars that sound just plain huge underneath. The album cover evokes thought provoking fine art, or a zen koan, with birds taking off through paint swipes of various hues. It could be a shifting sky or states of awareness.

The Static Seas is anything but static, and I spoke with Dave Ryan (guitar) about all the emotion, color and rapid movement going on within this promising new group.

MORGAN Y. EVANS: The EP sounds great. It is a very full experience. It reminds me of how Saosin can sound very big and yet catchy.

DAVE RYAN: Thanks, man.

MYE: Everything is up in the mix and you can hear a balance well. What were you aiming for going into it?

DR: Going into recording, the whole point...Recording The Static Seas, I wanted to have all the aspects of bands I like and artists we loved growing up—a lot of energy and a lot of emotion. Not so much technicality. Not so much riffs. You know how Saosin's, like, overly busy sometimes with how much stuff they are doing? We didn't want the cluttered sound as much as we wanted, just, like clean rock. That was pretty much the aim of the sound we were going for.

MYE: Was this always the goal since you started the band or what you ended up sounding like through a process over time?

DR: As far as writing goes, I've always been into that sort of style. I was in a band with Drew, our singer, for a while and it wasn't working out with the drummer and some of the other guys in the band. They didn't see our vision as to what the sound was. We always wanted this but other guys didn't really give us the opportunity, so we decided to go our own way. Make our vision come true and not worry about anyone else.

MYE: Life is short, man.

DR: Yeah.

MYE: How'd you and Drew meet up?

DR: I used to see one of his old bands play and I think our old bass player knew him, some guy we knew. I just showed Drew some songs I wrote and we just bro'd down from there and wrote some songs, you know? We're good friends. We became best friends since then. I sent him my songs and he was like, "Holy crap! I'll be there tomorrow!" And that was really it.

MYE: How would you say that sort of songwriting or world outlook fits into your band name?

DR: The band name, Throwing Color is basically about "throwing color into shadows". Taking passages from life that were horrible and making them colorful and the way they were supposed to be seen.

MYE: Learning from it.

DR: Growing from it, exactly.

MYE: That's interesting. I thought of it as not so much about shadows but going through your day and making sure you put your best energy and mindset out there. But I guess that is pretty much the same thing anyway.

DR: Yeah.

MYE: Can you describe how hard it was getting to this point? How does it feel?

DR: Recording the album was pretty much a personal triumph for me more than anything. I was in the position for four or five years with a band and I was writing songs. And it was a mental block with these other guys I was playing with. I just had to go off and do it on my own. I spoke to Drew a lot about it and Matt (Kulper-bass), who was also a big part of starting this band. Musically, I've started working on a bunch of new stuff for a full-length or another EP. Musically, I'm really excited and proud of how The Static Seas sounds but it is a triumph, most of all, that we went off and did it for ourselves rather than feeling we had to do it for someone else.

MYE: All of a sudden you get a liberating WOOSH! of productivity!

DR: Exactly, man. I can't even express the joy! [laughing] The joy and the anguish before I decided! We'd broken up for a while, our old band, and I called up Drew and said, "Man, we gotta play rock n' roll again." And he agreed. "Yeah, we really do." We're super excited about it all and playing shows. The Static Seas is our first effort, so...

MYE: It sounds realized. A lot of EP's are clunkier than a full-length or just set the stage, but it's cool when a band...doesn't do that. [laughing]

DR: It's weird, because, when you listen to the EP, I've been in so many bands where people didn't trust me or wanted to play a ten minute drum solo or whatever, right in the middle of a great part. Annoying people we've all been in bands with. This process was so much more positive with trusting each other, and that feels so great and unreal to have while writing.

MYE: What about the title, The Static Seas? It's interesting because seas are always changing.

DR: Static is something with no motion and a sea with no motion and stuff we were going through with my old band. Or Drew's life, it was a sea with no motion. A static sea would be a really unpleasant thing to look at and defines what came before this band for us. I guess you could say it is pretty much a horrible thing. It has a deep meaning to it.

MYE: It's a contradiction of words, but also made me think of static between radio stations. Like, you are listening to the radio and spinning the dial (if you have an old car!) and it is static, static, static, and then maybe a good song if you are lucky. Seas of static.You hope something good comes out of that.

DR: I know exactly what you're talking about. Whatever it means to listeners is cool. Growing up my favorite bands were bands I had my own meanings for. I never wanted to know what they meant, you know? It's cool to have your own meaning.

MYE: What can you tell us about working with Rob Freeman? I'm a big Armor For Sleep fan.

DR: Right on. Working with Rob was great. He didn't try to change our songs. He was supportive and would listen to parts and say, "That's cool," and say, "Let's put this effect on it," or whatever. He was very hands on and super into helping us get cool sounds and tones. As far as that goes, he's one of the coolest people I know, hands down. He's so into music and so pumped about music. Working with him is like taking your songs and putting them on steroids.

MYE: How'd you get involved with him?

DR: I got these random offers to play with some dance bands. It wasn't really my thing but they were my friends so, you know... I filled in and there was a rock band more on the lighter side of poppy rock and Rob was filling in on drums. He was friends with the guitar player of the band I was also playing the shows with. We were just practicing and I met Rob through him and we set up in the drum room, jamming in his studio. The drums sounded awesome! I said I wanted to record there because the drums sounded so good and we weren't even recording. [laughing] Rob's drum sound is awesome. I called him and said I was in a band and wanted to do a record. I don't know how well he knew me before going into it, but now I know him pretty well and stop by fairly regularly and stuff.

MYE: For people who haven't heard you, I like Drew's vocals. They sound laid back and mixed with the sort of emo/pop/catchy parts, his delivery sounds large in the soaring parts, the verses are more laid back but still very present. How would you describe what separates you, with so many bands coming out these days, from the pack? For people who haven't heard you?

DR: I think what separates our band is we're not afraid to embrace anything. We're not afraid to play quietly or loud, We understand rock’n’roll is not just screaming and as far as this CD goes, with this CD I think compared to all the other bands coming out, we're not worried about trying to be anything. Most bands coming out, as soon as you look at them you know what they are going to sound like, you know? It's like their style. Oh, you're this kind of band. With us, we have our sound and that's it. This is us. That's the difference between us and every other band out. Not every other band, because there are a lot of really unique bands that are rad as hell, but we're gonna be us. We're not looking to be cool like some band out already. This is what we do and we're not gonna try and sound like another band because it is gonna get us plays on MySpace. We're gonna do our own way, and I have faith people are gonna like it.

MYE: That usually has more impact in the long run, anyway. Maybe not to some people who are really young, but later they will remember what stayed with them more.

DR: Growing up, you remember the first time you heard something new and cool. "Shit, that's awesome!" Not, like, something you like just 'cuz it sounds like so and so and you put it on every once in awhile when you drive.

MYE: What are you rockin' these days?

DR: Ummm....Actually, I've been listening to a lot of Blink 182.

MYE: Going back? Right on. I hope Travis is better.

DR: Yeah, he's alright. He had to get some surgery and stuff for his nerves but he is better. Tattoos, third degree burns, I’m sure there's something, but I think tattoos usually go a little bit deeper.

MYE: What can you tell me about "How To Feed A Skeleton?" The title before I heard it, I thought it was about anorexia, maybe?

DR: It's actually about drug addicts.

MYE: Hence the lyric,"You're too high to figure it out".

DR: Yeah, it's about people, pretty much, a bunch of kids who used to be friends of Drew's and they love drugs and stupid stuff and changed so much because of it. It's just like...people change 'cuz of it.

MYE: You hope your friendship works out in the end and they come back around.

DR: Yeah, but it never usually does.

MYE: It's a blessing when it does.

DR: For sure.

MYE: Do you hope the song will have an impact on them?

DR: I hope so. I don't think it will. Some people are too far gone. I mean, it has. We had someone come up to us at a show one time and said, "When you started singing that song it hit me so hard." I guess it will have an impact on somebody. Everything has an impact on somebody somewhere, but hopefully certain people. It's about extreme cases too, but also people who let things change for no reason at all and just smoke pot all day in their basement and think it's cool. You're wasting your life. We're not against drugs. Go ahead, have a good time. We're not dudes that go around and do heroin and do crazy drugs. We don't support it at all but aren't straight edge. It's about trying to be smart about it. Don't throw your life away to some kind of drug.

MYE: What does "The Weather Patterns" mean to you? Is it about changing times? The name sounds like change.

DR: That track is about...uh...Drew had a problem with going out drinking too much. "The weather patterns start to show." It's about him calling out his problems, you know. The big thing was facing his issues.

MYE: What mad scientist schemes do you have planned for your next release?

DR: A lot of CD's now have been opening up with these big intros. The fact of the matter is the band is usually not behind it. Some program or plug in. Reason. Our next release is gonna be way more dynamic in the aspect there will probably be acoustic songs and something so balls-to-the-wall you seriously wanna rip your head off when you listen to it. Not metal, but we wanna embrace that crazy side we have and the much lighter side. Stick with the pop/rock stuff I also generally like.

MYE: You think you'll do a three second long intro to psyche everyone out?

DR: I have a cool idea, so I'm not gonna let it go. It'll be cool. Well, I kinda wanna do a vocal intro, for the beginning to the CD. Something different.

MYE: Almost shock the listener.

DR: Something cool. Wow. What was that! One of the coolest intros ever was Green Day's "Burnout" from Dookie. "I declare I don't care no more!" That's awesome to me. I think the feeling I get from that...it's so anthemic. That's something we'll do, but a little different. In-your-face, but also quieter stuff. Really dynamic. Really cool, hopefully.

MYE: What is the main philosophy of Throwing Color?

DR: The biggest philosophy behind our band is to do your own thing and walk your way. Be you and don't be afraid to embrace anything, musically...except for annoying synth dance/pop! Don't embrace that! [laughing]