Hard Talk

THE NOWHERE KIDS

Interview with SMILE EMPTY SOUL

by Don Sill

"We have an obscene amount of fireworks on our bus," says Smile Empty Soul bassist, Ryan Martin, with a twisted chuckle during their recent stop in NYC. "I'm not talking about those cheap fireworks, I mean we have the illegal fireworks that are only legal in certain parts of the country. Like bottle rockets and mortars that are ridiculous. We were in Metrle Beach the other day and our bus was parked behind the House of Blues and there was this big line of people all lined up waiting to get in and we ended up getting drunk and we just starting lighting off the fireworks. [Laughs] we did our own firework show for all the fans."

California's hard rocking trio are certainly making sparks fly with their debut album off Lava Records. Their album, perhaps known best for their song "Bottom Of A Bottle" which vocalist Sean Danielsen declares that he "did it all for the drugs," is fueled by misguided youthful experiences and personal beliefs against the norms of society. Track after track rages with personal and emotional rock tunes made to open the eyes and hearts of everyone who has encountered such dilemmas in their teen years, ranging from religion, family feuds, to war.

Danielsen's resentment of authority figures, and societal hypocrisy can be traced back to a sketchy childhood. At the age of 7, his very religious mother and stepfather took him to live in an abandoned summer camp in Maine. The cult like atmosphere led the young boy to ultimately revolt and rebel against religion and is still an obvious force in his lyrical content.

Smile Empty Soul initially formed while attending rival high schools in the bedroom community of Santa Clarita. The diverse trio came together four years ago through a "mutual love of music." Drummer Derek Gledhill played in bands throughout his high school years; bassist Ryan Martin was in his first band at the age of 12 and Singer/guitarist Sean Danielsen began playing in a rock band at age 11. Smile Empty Soul slowly evolved and perfected its sound over the next four years, regularly playing the two small clubs in Santa Clarita and making the trek to the Sunset Strip. Their demo came to the attention of Todd Parker, an A&R man for ThroBack Records, and the band eventually hooked up with producer/songwriter John Lewis Parker. Parker worked with the band for almost 2 years, and signed them to his ThroBack label before subsequently signing a deal with Lava Records.

Indeed, the band's music is full of memorable hooks and melodies as Danielsen's lyrics eloquently speak to a new generation of disenfranchised youth. Their first single "Bottom of the Bottle" exploded onto heavy rotation on MTV to radio stations all over the world and soon Smile Empty Soul would become the next breakout band for kids to worship. Now, riding the hype wave, they just released their second single "Nowhere Kids" which they are hoping will do the same. "That tune is impacting radio now," Martin said. "We just shot the video for that a few weeks ago and that video has been getting good reviews and stuff. We just want to go into this next single seamlessly."

It seems that Smile Empty Soul don't really do it "ALL for the drugs" but mostly for the fans as they are currently touring their hearts out with radio rock sensations, Fuel. "Yeah, it's great because we're playing for an audience that normally wouldn't come out to see us. Sometimes it's a rough crowd but we win them over," says Martin. "It's awesome, you know, having a great time out there. Fuel, those guys are cool as shit, dude. There so down to earth and they're great guys, totally. The shows with Fuel, as we moved from the West Coast into the Mid West and into the South and into the East Coast it's like the shows are getting way more energetic and stuff. It's been awesome and this Fuel tour is just going a lot better than we all expected."

For now, Smile Empty Soul have far surpassed their goals and are living out the dreams and fantasy's they had when they were just beginning. They never foresaw this kind of stardom and success in their future, never. "It's just crazy," Martin gushed. "It's hard for us to really gauge how everything is until we do a show. Man, the shows are just getting way more intense everyday and more and more kids are singing along to our songs and it's just mind blowing, man."

As for the fray and madness that brought them here, Martin says that it in retrospect, it all wasn't really that bad. "Well, at the risk of sounding corny, I think it's that life isn't as bad as you may think it is and that sometimes you're really more fortunate then you may realize," he explained. "You gotta take things one day at a time and realize that life is a beautiful thing.That was cheesy as hell."

Cheesy or not, I'm still wondering how they got those Fireworks into NYC? For updates and tour info log to: http://www.smileemptysoul.com