We’re heading internationally for our latest Get To Know feature to ask our pressing questions of Tennessee two piece The Rival.
We’ve been secretly loving the tracks Phillip and Allen have been bringing to the table over the last few months and we think you’re going to love them too.
Join us, as we Get To Know… The Rival.
1. Band name : The Rival
2. Where are you based? Nashville, Tennessee.
3. How did you choose your band name? We had been thinking about it for quite some time and a friend of ours, Trent Dabbs (Sugar & The Hi-Lows) suggested ‘The Rival’. We thought that played well with the makeup of the band being the two of us and that we would always try to outdo our previous songs with new ones. (Allen & Phillip)
4. Give us five words to best describe you as a band. Passionate, fun, energetic, real, it is what it is. (Allen & Phillip)
5. What’s your biggest claim to fame so far? We’ve been lucky to have our songs be used in several commercials and TV shows, the biggest probably being Apple using our song ‘Run Run’ for an iPhone release video. (Allen)
6. Who are your members? Phillip LaRue and Allen Salmon.
7. How was the band formed? Phillip and I are both writers and producers here in Nashville and we were looking for a new creative outlet that could expand our horizons musically. We wrote together a few times for different projects and really enjoyed working together, I think mostly because of how our ideas bounce back and forth between us so well as the songs are forming. So we thought we’d give it a shot and start making a record together. (Allen)
8. In what ways has the band changed from when it was formed to today? Stylistically, our new EP ‘Waves’ is the most synth driven “pop” record we’ve done. So we’ve grown towards that quite a bit, yet at the same time our next EP ‘Sands’ (out later this year) will actually swing the opposite way and is the most organic, alt-rock oriented record we’ve done. So we’ve mostly been pushing our own boundaries to see what is possible. (Allen)
9. Tell us a little bit about your sound. We try not to take ourselves too seriously and really wanted to have fun making our music. So I think that comes across in how several of the songs are upbeat, fun, and positive. On ‘Waves’, we dove into a bit more ’80s synth and guitar tones and wanted it to feel a bit New Wave. (Allen)
10. What are your members’ favorite songs of all time? MAN, that’s a hard one! Allen’s : ‘God Only Knows’ by The Beach Boys, ‘Whole Lotta Love’ by Led Zeppelin, ‘For Reasons Unknown’ by The Killers, ‘Lilac Wine’ by Jeff Buckley, ‘Step’ by Vampire Weekend, ‘Gimme All Your Love’ by Alabama Shakes. Phillip’s = I’ll match Allen with ‘God Only Knows’ by the Beach Boys, ‘Beautiful Boy’ and ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon, ‘Colombia’ by Local Natives, ‘The Bird’ by Anderson Paak.
11. What’s your strangest experience as a band? I wouldn’t say “strange” would be the best way to explain it, but we played in old church in Chicago that was covered in stain glass and it was quite surreal… the natural reverb was amazing, the atmosphere was electric. It’s something I won’t forget. (Phillip)
12. Tell us about your latest release. With ‘Waves’, we really wanted it to feel like a day at the beach. Just a fun, carefree good time. Hopefully we succeeded! (Allen)
13. What do your future plans involve? This year we are releasing three five song EPs. ‘Waves’ is the first. We will follow that up with ‘Sands’ and then ‘Peaks’. Each EP will focus on a different topography and different emotions. So we’re really looking forward to see what our fans think! (Allen)
14. Where can our audience catch you live? (We’ll be playing in Nashville and we’ll keep our socials posted on any upcoming shows. (Allen)
WEBSITE : http://www.therivalmusic.com
FACEBOOK : http://www.facebook.com/therival
TWITTER : https://twitter.com/thebandtherival
SOUNDCLOUD : https://soundcloud.com/thebandtherival
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