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Archive for the ‘Behind The Scenes’ Category
Recording at Diamond City Studio
Tuesday, December 20th, 2016PHOTOS: The Joy Formidable Tour
Wednesday, November 20th, 2013
Coming Home.
Monday, April 15th, 2013Tour was a whirlwind. Thanks to The Joy Formidable and crew for treating us like family and showing us an incredible time on the road. We’re grateful for all the new friends, fans, and memories we’ve made along the way and can’t wait to get back out again to meet even more of you. Until then…
RIBS is now a three piece.
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012We wish Justin the best of luck and I’m sure you’ll be hearing from him in the future. More announcements coming soon.
-Keith
Interview with DIY Magazine (UK)
Monday, July 16th, 2012
Unknown in the UK and even unremarked in their home town of Boston, American alternative rock band RIBS have nevertheless made huge waves in their career so far. After an exhaustive, obsessive gestation period for their first EP, ‘British Brains’ frontman and architect of the band’s sound Keith Freund posted the download link for the recordings on Reddit. A flurry of activity later and RIBS were in possession of both a cult fanbase and the bizarre honour of claiming the most popular music post of all time on the service. Two years on and they’ve released the follow-up, ‘Russian Blood’, which again takes its name from the same Stalin quote as ‘British Brains’.
“He said that World War II was being won with British Brains, American Brawn, and Russian Blood,” explains Keith. “That said, we don’t have any plans for an ‘American Brawn’ EP. First off, we’re planning our next release being a full length. Second, as an American band, a release titled ‘American Brawn,’ without the context of the other two EPs, would probably be interpreted in a way we didn’t intend. Plus the word “Brawn” kind of grosses me out.”
Conceptually, there was a desire to move away slightly from the full-on, intense listening experience of ‘British Brains’: “originally [it was] going to be a vocal-based record,” says Keith, “I thought we could use our voices as the main compositional instrument, and treat the guitar as a harmony instrument to fill in the spaces–the reverse of how you’d normally do it.” Fans of their modern rock sound, fear not; the band that melded the transatlantic influences of Failure, Far, Vex Red and Hundred Reasons have not cashed in their chips yet. “We learned pretty quickly that they’re really not interchangeable at all. Even with distortion, the human voice is much smoother than an electric guitar, and less biting, less percussive.”
“You’ll hear hints of that concept throughout” continues Keith, contrasting the dynamics and tone with the first EP, “more rhythm, more riffs, less power chords. [You] get to hear Blake’s piano playing on ‘Gateway Drug’, acoustic guitar on ‘Kiss’, and harmony vocals from Justin and Chris on ‘Destructo’.” The lyrics are changed too – far from the veiled, passive aggressive metaphorical sketches of ‘Silencer’, ‘Even’ and ‘Queen of Hearts’ from their début, this time the specifics are writ large in the music: “My pre-RIBS songwriting was very responsible…’Russian Blood’ is very much the opposite. Most of these songs come from that immediate, irrational gut reaction. There’s a different kind of truth you’ll get in those moments that you won’t have looking back a year later. For example, I was at a club one night and got an idea for the bridge to ‘Kiss’. I walked outside to sing into my phone and write down some lyrics. By coincidence at that exact moment I saw the girl I was writing about walking away with her new boyfriend. So in those 45 seconds I was literally writing in real time.”
If that may sound overly dramatic, it only goes to illustrate just what a change has come over the band. It’s not just NIN-lite ‘Kiss’ that wears its genesis on its sleeve either; the anthemic high-water mark of the EP, ‘Alarms’, triggers another recollection.
“[That] was a reaction to hearing the song that the girl from ‘Kiss’ wrote with her new boyfriend. Their musical collaboration was how they got to know each other, and she left me for him a few months after that collaboration started. Anyway, I thought their song was absolute shit. In a moment of arrogance I thought to myself “I bet I could write a song that would just destroy their song”. I spent the weekend demoing out what I thought was my song destroyer and that eventually became ‘Alarms’. During the ‘British Brains’ days, I probably would’ve let the feelings pass first, to get some perspective on that situation. And I probably would’ve realized hey, maybe their song isn’t so bad, maybe I should be more understanding of why she had to cut me off, maybe those feelings were only a defence mechanism… but if I hadn’t allowed myself that moment of bitterness, “Alarms” never would’ve happened.”
Finally, there’s the subject of Reddit. It seems like every band, artist, brand, magician, school, magazine or business is trying to ‘go viral’ – so what’s it actually like to be an internet sensation? “Blowing up on Reddit only helped us, as a band” Keith remembers. “It didn’t catapult us to super stardom but it gave us a taste… and it’s quite a rush.” Taking from it “how important die-hard music lovers are”, the ones that are “motivated they are to tell everyone they know” has been a humbling experience in some ways – as well as a learning one. “These are not the same people who will turn your song off if the hook doesn’t come in within 30 seconds,” Keith states proudly. “Before ‘British Brains’ came out we thought no one would listen to ‘Queen of Hearts’ because there’s two minutes of droning at the beginning, but we’ve probably gotten as many fans from that song as we have ‘Brains Out’ – if not more.”
So despite the early successes it’s still clearly been a rollercoaster couple of years for the band; contemplating a long-player after two meticulous EPs, how do Keith and the boys stay motivated? “There’s nothing like having someone tell you that your music got them through a hard time or helped them in some way. I’m addicted to that feeling.”
FULL ARTICLE: http://diymag.com/archive/ribs-our-next-release-will-be-a-full-length
Latest Disgrace: Now Hear This: RIBS
Friday, February 25th, 2011This is our first interview with Atlanta press (where 3/4 of us are originally from). Moe Castro of latestdisgrace.com talks with us about growing up in the South and making the move to Boston.
Formed by Atlanta transplants Keith Freund and Blake Fusilier, RIBS is fast becoming one of Boston’s most popular and acclaimed bands. The group’s 2010 debut EP, British Brains, was lauded by both fans and critics alike for its dynamic blend of hard-edged aggression and moody atmospheric rock, an expansive sonic template that has earned the band comparisons to both forward-thinking alt rockers Queens of the Stone Age and Deftones, as well as gloom merchants Joy Division and the Cure. But long before the group could take the Hub by storm, Freund and Fusilier first had to make their way out of the ATL.
Growing up in Dunwoody, in the shadow of downtown Atlanta, the two longtime friends spent most of high school writing songs together and dreaming of the day they might escape their hometown. This was the early 2000s and Dunwoody offered few opportunities for an underage rock band. As a result, most of their music never saw the light of the day and the two rarely performed live. Even going to see shows was difficult.
“If you wanted to see all ages shows,” Freund recalls, “you had to go to Norcross or Marietta, which was mostly punk or hardcore. Blake and I tried to go to as many shows downtown as we could, but we weren’t old enough to get into most of the clubs, so we had to get to know the bands and convince them to sneak us in.”
For a couple of ambitious musicians eager to strike out on their own, it was an incredibly frustrating time. The Atlanta rap scene was at the apex of it strength and power and rock music had taken a definitive backseat in the city. As the two neared the end of their senior year at Dunwoody High School, it became clear that if they were serious about their aspirations they would need to move somewhere where their style of music would be more welcome and appreciated. So rather than fight against tall odds, Freund and Fusilier decided to leave Atlanta and attend college in the much more rock friendly city of Boston.
“When we moved to Boston in ’05, it seemed like the best decision in the world,” Freund confesses. “I remember telling people that the Atlanta rock scene was pretty much non-existent.”
The duo spent the next couple of years trading demos back and forth, sharpening the minimal, bass guitar-oriented sound they had developed in high school into something much louder and darkly energetic. After gathering a solid stable of songs, they recruited guitar prodigy Justin Tolan and drummer Chris Oquist to fill out the lineup. The musical vision, at least in Freund’s mind, was simple:
“Personally, I just wanted to write rock music that would give me chills, which usually involved something dark, and going from quiet to loud in a short period of time. A lot of my favorite songs do that — “Soma” by Smashing Pumpkins, “New Noise” by Refused, “Only Shallow” by My Bloody Valentine. That’s where most of British Brains came from. We get compared to bands like Deftones, Muse, Queens of the Stone Age. I’m fine with that.”
While British Brains brought RIBS significant local success, including being named one of Boston’s best new bands by the Boston Phoenix, the group was never quite satisfied with the record’s sometimes cold and mechanical atmosphere. They wanted something warmer and more organic. Something that, in the words of Freund, would contain “shades of optimism, things that are fun, things that are more rhythmic.”
The immediate result of this new focus is Locrian Singles, a two-song effort the band is offering for free on their website. Whereas British Brains was in many ways a traditional, guitar-driven rock record, Locrian Singles is much more informed by industrial and post-punk. It’s still dark and moody, but there’s much more of a dance vibe there, a Cure-like melding of hypnotic, effects-laden pop with goth overtones. It’s a considerable dynamic shift from their previous work, but so far it has been well embraced by fans.
“The response from Boston has been tremendous,” says Freund. “We’ve made some new fans, and it has allowed us to do more with our live sets, and play with different types of artists who might not have fit on a bill with us in the past. Some of our fans outside of Boston are asking what happened to the old sound, but there will be some British Brains-type material on our next EP, plus some new musical directions no one has heard before.”
As 2011 unfolds, RIBS will continue work on their follow-up EP, Russian Blood, due out later this year. The band also has an East Coast tour planned for May, a two-week stint that will include the band’s first shows in Atlanta and Athens. Given their history, you might think that the group would want to avoid Atlanta altogether, but Freund is emphatically positive when he talks about how much the city has changed since he left six years ago.
“It’s amazing to see how vibrant the scene has become since then! I love going to shows there now. The crowds are refreshingly open-minded. The vibe is great. There’s so much good music!”
[UPDATED] Archived Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20160603203229/http://latestdisgrace.com/2011/now-hear-this-ribs-out-of-atlanta
RIBS: Sonicbids Indie Pick of the Week (INTERVIEW)
Monday, October 4th, 2010SOURCE: http://blogs.sonicbids.com/blog/indie-pick-of-the-week-ribs/
Revenge, obsession, and betrayal are the themes of the music of the band RIBS. The band was formed by two friends with a common love of music in a high school in Atlanta. But soon after moving to Boston and fleshing out the rest of the group, they have taken the city by storm. Darkly energetic and possessing a shifting ambiance, the band has drawn approval in its year of performing for increasingly rabid audiences. We had a chance to talk with Keith Freund (lead vocals/guitars) and Chris Oquist (drums) about their best gig, their success with social media, and where they’re heading to next.
When/How did you first start playing music?
Keith: [Bassist] Blake [Fusilier] played violin when I met him. Then out of nowhere he picked up a bass and informed me that we were starting a band, and that I had better figure out how to play my guitar or else he would be kicking me out of our band. We played with a couple drummers throughout high school, did a couple gigs, but mostly focused on writing songs. Then we moved from Atlanta to Boston and met [guitarist] Justin [Tolan], who had just been featured in Guitar Player magazine as this shred guitar prodigy, so I didn’t think much of it until I heard he was actually into a lot of the stuff I was into at the time like Muse and Radiohead, not metal. That instantly piqued my interest. And Chris was the same way. He came out of the metal scene but was always talking to us about Paul Simon and pop stuff.
What’s the best gig you ever played?
Chris: Newbury Comics invited us to play their flagship store for Record Store Day this year, opening up for Circa Survive. We got to celebrate independent music, support maybe the best indie retailer in the country, and play with a band we look up to all at once. That’s probably been my favorite show so far.
Keith: Yeah, that one was a lot of fun. And it was an interesting contrast since normally we’re in some dark club with bright lights, going on late, but this was a bright, well-lit record store with a bunch of young kids that can’t wait to see Anthony Green a foot away at 4:30 in the afternoon. And all the guys in Circa Survive were humble, laid back dudes. I thought they were roadies until they hopped on stage and the crowd started going crazy.
How has social media affected the way you market/promote your music?
Keith: Social media is a multiplier of all the real-life stuff we do. When we play a good show, everyone can instantly Twitpic it and everyone that follows them can say “Oh wow, I didn’t know RIBS has live piranhas on stage. I’m totally bringing my grandmother to the next show because she loves wildlife” or whatever. And when someone gets a flyer from us, they can scan a QR code on it with their phone, which allows them to listen to us right there and RSVP to the Facebook event.
Chris: It’s like the digital and physical realities are coming together. Combining social media with the support we’ve gotten from local retail and press made British Brains a really successful debut release. It’s pretty crazy that our first album was one of Boston’s biggest releases that week. Things like Reddit have had a lot to do with that.
Keith: Yeah, we have to give a shout out to the Reddit community specifically. Reddit is a “social news aggregator.” Meaning people submit news stories from other sites, then users can “up-vote” the stories they find interesting and “down-vote” the stuff they don’t. After I posted our EP there, it became the top-voted music post of all time. 10,000 people listened to our EP in the first day. It was an unbelievable thing, really. I don’t think so much could have ever happened so quickly for us if this weren’t 2010. Reddit was our Ed Sullivan show.
What’s your prediction for the next big advancement in how we find/listen to/share music?
Chris: I don’t know if there’s one next big thing. Right now there’s this amazing convergence of places where music fans can connect with bands whether its tools for discovering new music, like Pandora, Grooveshark, Jango, or Shazam; ways to connect, like Facebook and Twitter; ways to sell music or tickets like Bandcamp and Eventbrite. That combined with the tidal wave of people who can now blog, post pictures or video online, and share new bands they’re psyched about are where we’re at right now. Finding out how to spin it all together to reach new fans and connect with the people who love your music is a really exciting thing.
Keith: I think from an artist’s perspective, we should all cross our fingers and hope that fans and bigger artists start using Bandcamp to share music instead of Youtube. And Bandcamp is making that prospect tastier and tastier every day by improving their widgets and not overcomplicating things. But I also think the music industry needs to calm down about finding the next big thing. Let’s improve the things we have. Facebook pages are getting really, really close to being amazing. And you’ve got to go where the fans are. If people could buy our music with one click on Facebook the way they can on Bandcamp, without ever leaving the page, I think it’d be unbeatable. I love the idea of Pandora and Last.fm, but I think what we’re finding now is that for people that aren’t music obsessive, word of mouth is still what people trust above everything else. That, and Grey’s Anatomy.
What’s your next big gig coming up? When/Where?
Chris: October 6th at the Middle East Downstairs in Boston. Pirate!, the Middle East, and Well-Rounded Radio put an event on each month called Rock Shop, where panelists and musicians get together to share ideas about the music business. Keith will be sitting on a panel talking about our experience with Reddit, and we’ll be playing the party afterwards. It should be awesome. We’ll also be opening for Helmet at the Middle East Downstairs on Oct. 20th.
Check out more on RIBS here.
Background.
Monday, July 12th, 2010http://cerebraldriftwood.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/ribs-releases-british-brains/
How the band formed, Mongooses, etc.
Drums Drums Drums
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009Spent a day tracking drums for British Brains at the studio of Scott Riebling (Fall Out Boy, Cobra Starship, The Von Bondies) in Raynham, MA:
Chris built this kit entirely by hand aside from the Pearl Steve Ferrone Signature snare drum. Thanks to Scott, our tracking engineer Alex Prieto (above), and our drum tech Andrew Nault for making this happen.
More EP updates coming soon.
A Dead Format
Saturday, October 10th, 2009A few nights ago, RIBS had a writing session for Russian Blood, our second EP (coming 2010). We were working on an outro section for one of the songs when Chris stopped us in the middle of playing, paused for a moment, and posed a question to the three of us: “Are we just pushing a dead format?”
We responded with blank stares.
“You know… drums, bass, guitars? A ‘rock band?’ Isn’t this a dead format?”
“Yes.” And without another word, we went back to playing the new section.