Confide | A Constant Reinvention
w/ Avery Parkway
Joel Piper is the man behind the kit for Confide. He also puts his soaring pipes to use in the less brutal side project Avery Pkwy. Piper constructs some upbeat hits and at least one stellar cover in his newly released collection of tracks. This motivated young rocker took some time out of preparing to write a new record with Confide to answer some of our questions on his solo endeavors.
You’re in two bands and you’re a producer. How do you balance your very busy life?
Joel Piper: It can be very hard sometimes balancing everything out. I work about 100 hours a week in my studio when I’m not on tour. Lets just say I’m super passionate about my goals, or super stupid (laughs). I don’t sleep very much at all. But I always make sure I can hang out with my friends too.
What made you want to start a project like Avery Pkwy?
JP: Basically after God healed my stomach straight up and gave me a new sense of hope in my life when I was going through a depression in my life and running an audio company at 19 that was too much for me to handle.
You have a great quote on your page from C.S. Lewis. How important is originality and truth to you when it comes to creating music? Do you think that these ideals are something that are lost in today’s music scene?
JP: I love that quote so much because originality isn’t really important to me. I just like writing what truly moves me. People worry so much and hate on so many popular bands these days calling them unoriginal and it really doesn’t matter to me because they are obviously doing something right if kids are connecting with the songs. That quote reminds me to keep focused on just staying true to myself and writing from my heart and try to put it in a song that will be easy and interesting for kids to take in and catch on to.
hether change shows its face as a new vocalist, a genre switch or as an always elusive scene Confide has proven time and time again that they will stand firm in the face of it. Over the years Confide has made a switch from what could be described as death-core to more of a screamo flavor but lead man Ross Kenyon assures us that they will not sit there long either. Most fans would not be able to handle so much change but as long as Confide continues to produce quality music then we will continue to listen intently.
Confide has been around for awhile. Can you tell us a bit about your origins and how you decided on this style of music?
Ross Kenyon: When I was a kid, all I listened to was whatever was on the radio or TV. It was when I started high school I was introduced to different types of music. A bunch of kids at my high school liked heavy music and I slowly got into it. I went from a Blink 182 cover band to an Incubus cover band to being in a metal band and now I’m in Confide.
Choosing to re-release an album can be a bit of a gamble sometimes. How did you spice up this release to ensure that fans were getting something new and exciting?
RK: We decided to re-release our album because we felt it didn’t get enough of a push the first time we released it. We went back into the studio and our drummer, Joel re-did the singing vocals through out the whole album. We also added 3 bonus songs, one of them being our cover of “Such great heights” by The Postal Service.
What inspired you guys to create that amazing cover?
RK: To be honest, that was the only song we could all agree on. Every band is doing cover songs these days and we thought it couldn’t hurt to give it a try. We were all sat in the studio one night trying to think of songs to cover and the only song we could all agree on was “Such Great Heights”. We managed to cover the song and record it in one night and we’re super stoked on how it came out.
We saw that you guys had to cancel your UK tour, so what is happening instead?
RK: We’re really bummed out that our UK/Europe tour had to be cancelled but I think it was a blessing in disguise. We’re going to be at home and in the studio writing for our second album which we are recording in December. We’ve got around half of the album written so far and it sounds amazing.
What direction do you see the next record heading?
RK: Our next album is going to be heavier but catchier at the same time. Our verses are going to be heavy and our choruses are going to sound like pop ballads! (laughs) I would be lying if I said it was going to sound anything like Shout the Truth. We’ve been through a lot in the past year including member changes, record label changes and we’ve grown up a lot too and I think all of it is going to reflect on the new album.
I would say that you guys really stand out in this genre. Where do you see this scene heading as far as trends go? Where do you see Confide fitting in?
RK: That’s a hard question. I’ve noticed a lot of kids are into electronic types of bands ranging from Breathe Carolina to Owl City and I can see the scene heading in that direction for sure. I’m not sure where Confide will fit in but I’m sure when people hear our new album, they’ll decide for us.
