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From TV to Radio and All Things In Between: A Conversation with Doug of Safetysuit By Brian Campbell  |
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 From MTV to VH1, from radio to television, Safetysuit is literally all over the place. The Nashville, Tennessee products are stepping into rock music’s oft-cruel spotlight with their excellent new release Life Left to Go. If you haven’t heard them yet, then it is pretty obvious you are either deaf, or living in a cave somewhere. Well, maybe even in a cave you might have heard them.
Safteysuit’s take on modern rock is undeniable. It will stick with you with each listen, which is something that is getting increasingly harder to do nowadays. Life Left to Go is a smart rock record that houses a stylish mature mainstream sound that is almost impossible now to enjoy. The record will make you dance, make you sing and might even go so far as to make you cry (that’s not entirely out of the question, I mean vocalist Doug Brown does have an engaging voice). Having only been out for a few months now, Life Left to Go is a record that you will surely want to take a listen to. Their debut single, Someone Like You, didn’t take long to make it into the Top 20 Alternative Rock Carts.
I had the chance to talk to Brown, and was able to learn what it was like recording their debut album, why it was important to keep Greg Archilla as their producer and just what we can expect from the boys the rest of the year.
AtHome: How did you get noticed by Universal?
Doug Brown: We had a publishing deal through Universal, which at the time was called Zomba, and our producer Greg Archilla had a lot to do with it. He was a big part in getting it all done. He helped us get the attention of the Executive VP of Universal and from there we just starting chatting with him and a few other others, but when he came down and we met him, we all knew he was the guy to go with, and then we just moved forward from there.
AH: Tell me about the recording process of Life Left To Go.
Brown: It was a lot of things; it was very long, it was a creative struggle at times, but in the end it was good. We really felt like we made something we were proud of and something worth hearing. It was just one of those brilliant things you are going to look back on and remember forever, but while you were doing it you were going crazy like mad people.
AH: Why did you decide to stick with Greg Archilla as your producer for this record?
Brown: It just came down to us feeling like he had a really clear idea of where we wanted to go with the record. He wanted to make the best record possible and he didn’t want to push it. He challenged everyone to make the best thing we all could, and we were already comfortable with him, so we didn’t want to start over. He’s super talented too, so it wasn’t a hard choice.
AH: Going into recording Life Left to Go, did you have Archilla in mind as your producer?
Brown: Oh yeah. He was definitely our front runner as our producer.
AH: Life Left to Go’s sound is definitely mature. Is there anything you can attribute that to?
Brown: Everything that sounds good would be a simple way to say it. We just listened to a ton of music. Some of it was rock, pop, R&B; it’s not pigeonholed to one specific genre. We just wanted to listen to good music and learn from it, and see if we could make something that sounds good.
AH: What inspired you to write this album musically?
Brown: I’m a huge Coldplay and U2 fan, our guitar player is a huge Police fan and Dave our drummer is really into like movie soundtracks and symphonies. All of the different likes of great music tried to come into the way the record sounded. You have a lot of different things in movie soundtracks like strings and different melodies and we sort of tried to mimic that in song so you weren’t just sitting there hearing power chords over and over. That was something we were fortunate to capture on the record. We didn’t want to sound like every other band that comes out.
AH: Do you have a favorite song off of it? Why?
Brown: I really enjoy Gone Away which is at the end of the record. It’s really nice; it’s a slower pace song that’s very nostalgic and I just enjoyed recording it and performing it live.
AH: How do you think the record turned out?
Brown: I would do it all over again. I think we’re happy with it. Anybody that’s creative will attest to that when you look back on something you see a hundred things you could do differently. When we spent the time and had our moments in the studio, when we finished we felt like it was as good as we could do it. You just have to put an end to it sometime and we did and we made something we are very proud of. I’m excited to see what the rest of the world thinks.
AH: Tell me about your current tour. How is it going?
Brown: It’s going really well. We are out on the road with Seether and they are bringing great crowds so we are just sitting back and enjoying out time. We are trying to learn as much as we can about learning how to put on the best show that we can.
AH: Were you fans of Seether before the tour?
Brown: Yes, definitely. I was at a concert of theirs back when he did Broken and it made me realize that Shaun is just a great songwriter; he understands how to write a very solid song that is immediately recognizable with great hooks. They put on a very energetic tour for the fans.
AH: How did you get picked up or the tour?
Brown: We were just fortunate. Our agent was contacted for the tour and we were sure there were a bunch of acts contacted about this tour and were just lucky to be picked for it. We’re trying to make the most of the opportunity.
AH: What can we expect from Safetysuit the rest of the year?
Brown: We will be out on the road playing for as many people as humanly possible. We have a music video coming out soon and we will be meeting with a lot of radio stations along the way. Were just digging in and trying to take advantage of all of the work we have put in order to give as many people as possible the opportunity to hear the music as we can.
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