Rabbits With Glasses
At The Metro
- November 8, 2006
- 0 Comments
- By Story By Jeff Nall
With the exception of vocalist Jamie Sparks originally of Columbus, GA, everyone in the band has a college degree in music. Founding members and guitarists Lee Ritter and Jason Diana both graduated from the Berklee College of Music while bassist Jason Premo and drummer Jeremy Lupa each graduated with a degree in Music Industry from SUNY Oneonta.
But guitarist and music-teacher Jason Diana downplays the overall importance of professional training when it comes down to writing great music.
“Creativity just hits you,” he said. “It’s not so much a studied thing. I can tell you theories of this is what we’re doing and such when we’re sitting down and picking stuff out: ‘OK, here’s what we’re going to do. Were going to do this and this and this.’ Granted sometimes we come into a practice with ideas we want to try. But it’s mostly organic.
“Creativity hits you when you don’t think about it.”
In addition to the creativity and training the band also draws on a variety of influences to craft a sound Diana believes isn’t easily pigeonholed.
“If we have to have a tag it’s straight-up rock and roll. Not the easy flavor of the month, what is being force-fed to people. We come together with different influences: Blind Melon, Guns and Roses, Tool. Rage Against the Machine, Black Crows, Led Zeppelin, and Incubus.”
With two-and-a-half-years at their back and a slew of high-profile gigs at venues such as the Hard Rock Live and the House of Blues, Diana said the band’s success is due to its aim to make a music that transcends trends and the short-lived styles that come with them.
“When we sit down and write, we write rock and roll. A lot of the stuff you hear on the radio or MTV or VH1 is pop punk stuff, guys wearing girls jeans. I’m not about to do that.
“We’re trying to bring back good old fashion rock and roll. No frills. We’re not reinventing the wheel, just putting our spin on it.”
According to Diana the band’s latest song, “For Days,” exemplifies the band’s music-writing goals.
“We just came up with a song we’ve played out live three times so far called “For Days” which is really happening for me. When we play it we get a really, really good response. The dynamics are really happening, the groove is really, really hot. There’s nice breakdown where our bass player Premo does this sick bass line. It starts off with just the drums.
“We’re not the same kind of cookie-cutter band. We like to vary our stuff. You know when you listen to a Godsmack CD it all sounds like one big frickin song; or you go see a band and you feel like you’re seeing 45 minutes of the same song? We don’t do that we. We want to vary our tunes.
And if you’re wondering where the guys came up with the name Rabbits with Glasses, there are two explanations but only one at the root of the group’s decision.
“Rabbits with Glasses is a hidden track on the Tool album “Undertow,” track 69. In the song (Tool vocalist) Maynard goes on this rant about harvest time and letting the Rabbits wear glasses and such. One day our bass player said, what about Rabbits with Glasses and it stuck.
“Some people kind of think we’re going for the whole Alice and Wonderland thing, which is cool to. But we got it from the hidden track off of Undertow.”