GATES rock Chain Reaction May 1 and The Roxy May 2
New Brunswick, New Jersey-based five-piece group Gates are currently on the road promoting their first full-length album, Bloom & Breathe. They will be making two southern California stops on Fri, May 1 at the Chain Reaction in Anaheim and on Sat, May 2 at the Roxy in Hollywood.
After releasing two well-received EPs (2011’s The Sun Will Rise And Lead Me Home and 2013’s You Are All You Have Left To Fear) the band painstakingly began work on their new album. According to the group, they wanted the music to convey a vast scope of emotions that all people struggle with when trying to survive milestone moments of life and inspire awe while the listener also questions the meaning behind life itself.
Original band-members include guitarist Dan King, bassist Mike Maroney and drummer Daniel Crapanzano, who were all in a previous band and decided they wanted to start a new project in 2011. Eventually they hooked up with guitarist Ethan Koozer — who had moved to New Jersey from Nebraska — and guitarist/vocalist Kevin Dye, who had recently relocated to the East coast from Michigan.
Bloom & Breathe also marks the first time that this incredibly self-sufficient act — who handle everything from their artwork to mixing — brought someone else into the fold in the form of Mike Watts (As Tall As Lions, As Cities Burn), who co-produced the album with Dye during a six-week recording session at Vudu Studios in Port Jefferson, New York.
Concert Guide Live had the opportunity to speak to Dye during a brief break on their multi-city, national tour about the new album and what goes into their live shows.
CGL: How did the band form? Are you all from the same area in New Jersey?
KD: I’m actually from Michigan originally, and was living in upstate New York working as an intern at Levon Helm Studios when I got in contact with the guys. I was getting ready to move to New York City and thought finding a band to play with would be a good way to meet some like-minded people. I really didn’t have any intentions to be in a band at the capacity we’re at now, and was more or less looking for bands to record. I had never been a lead singer for a band prior to this, just a guitarist, but I sent them a demo regardless. Here we are, five years later, and I couldn’t be more excited about what we’ve accomplished so far and what lies ahead.
CGL: Did any of the members play in other bands before forming Gates?
KD: Ethan performed in the band Lydia during their Illuminate album cycle, and the rest of the guys were originally in a band called Bears & Bright Lights in New Jersey. I’ve been playing guitar in bands since I was in 8th-grade, but nothing anyone outside of my hometown would have heard of.
CGL: New Jersey has such a large music scene, what are the group’s biggest musical influences from the area?
KD: There are so many different facets of the New Jersey music scene that have influenced us over the course of our lives. I think if you asked each member of our band, we’d have much different answers. One band that’s been super supportive of us is The Gaslight Anthem. Knowing those guys, how genuine and rooted in the scene they are, and how much they do to continue to support and grow music in New Jersey is inspiring. It’s really awesome seeing such amazing and talented people become successful. We’ll forever be grateful for the tour they took us on.
CGL: Although the group has put out recorded material in the past Bloom & Breathe is considered your debut album, how has the band developed since its first recorded material to the first full-length LP?
KD: I think the most notable thing that we’ve learned as we’ve moved from writing the first two EPs to Bloom & Breathe was to play to each other’s strengths. In the past, we kind of all played everything at once, and although I think that created a really cool sound for our EPs, we really wanted the standout melodies to be more audible and create more depth by playing in different frequency spectrums. We also wanted to make songs that really translated live and I think we accomplished that.
CGL: What is the band’s creative process for writing new material? Do you write on the road, does every member bring material to work on; do you just get into the studio, and jam and write as a collective?
KD: Our writing process at this point is super collaborative. We’ve never really written on the road (except for lyrics, which I’m always working on), but it usually starts with a riff or a few parts that someone has, and we flesh the song out together in a room. Three of the guys live together in Bloomfield, New Jersey, and for Bloom & Breathe, we got together two days a week in that basement on a more minimal setup to work on the individual parts, and then each Sunday we’d get together on our full gear and work out the dynamic aspects of the songs. A few parts have come out of jamming, but for the most part it’s a more cerebral process.
CGL: How has this recent tour been different than past tours across the U.S.?
KD: This is our first full-US tour where we’re support for the entire run. Playing first every night is a challenge in that you really have to put on a show to elicit a crowd response. I’ve definitely liked being able to play, and then cool down and enjoy Loma Prieta and Pianos Become the Teeth’s sets afterwards as opposed to playing later in the night, since I typically have to physically and mentally prepare for the performance.
CGL: The group has developed its live performances over the years, what have you added that is new on this tour?
KD: On this tour we’re using an LED light strip that we haven’t used on a full US tour before that adds a bit more to the light show we’ve always incorporated. We’re also playing mostly Bloom & Breathe material. I think this is the first set we’ve ever played that doesn’t include material from The Sun Will Rise, and we’ve been playing the much requested “At Last the Loneliest of Them” which has been fun. That song is extremely cathartic to play live.
CGL: What does the band look forward to when touring the west coast that they do not get back home?
KD: I really enjoy hearing our guitarist King call everyone and everything “mad Chili Peps” every time we’re in Los Angeles. I also somehow manage to hear an Incubus song every day when we’re in southern California, which is awesome. We saw a drunk wanderer get punched in the face while a cover band played “The Warmth” off Incubus’ seminal album Make Yourself last time we were here with Tiny Moving Parts and Frameworks. I can only hope for an escalated version of the same scenario this time around.
CGL: If the band could put together their dream tour, what other bands would be on that tour and why?
KD: Pianos Become the Teeth is a band we’ve always wanted to tour with, so it’s really a dream and an honor for us to be able to do so for our longest tour so far as a band. I’d love to tour with Nine Inch Nails, Tycho or Death Cab for Cutie one day because I love those bands and would just want to be able to see them play every night for a month straight. If I could assemble my dream tour, our friends in Vasudeva would definitely be on it.
CGL: What is the craziest thing that has happened on this tour so far?
KD: Someone got shot a block away from the Demo in Saint Louis and the gunman was on the loose during the entire show. In Chicago, a guy cased our van while Arms and Mike were inside of it, and proceeded to jump a fence and run away when he realized it was occupied. A very crimey tour so far, a trend I hope does not continue.