Jeff Sahyoun - letlive. (09/07/2013)
Fresh off the release of their latest album, The Blackest Beautiful, The 59th Sound had a chat with Jeff Sahyoun of letlive. about their recording process, and touring with Deftones.
Hey Jeff, how's it going?
Good buddy. How are you?
I'm good thanks. Let's get straight into it with the new album, The Blackest Beautiful. Where did that name come from?
Oh that's a good Jason Butler (vocals) question (laughs) but I think it's related to what him and the rest of the band have been through as individuals. Jason tackles a lot of lyrical content, he puts himself out there and kind of opens doors and opens himself up to his audience to kind of give them a better understanding of what we've been through travelling the world. Things like politics, love, hate, greed, just things you go through as a human being in life but Jason would have a better understanding of that, from the writer's point of view.
So you don't really help out with the writing?
Lyrically not really. I more so engineer the album with the structuring and mixing. Melodies and lyrics is Jason's little world.
What was the recording process like for the album?
Crazy. It took a long while. The record was recorded partly in a studio back in Los Angeles and the other half was on tour. The main goal with this record was to capture the sonic energy and translate into an analogue realm. We didn't want to rely on digital technology because then the record pretty much would've turned into a box puzzle piece I guess, like a lot of engineers and songwriters sit behind a screen and kind of put together a puzzle. I'm not saying I don't respect the way other people do their formulas and the ways they do things because there are some damn geniuses out there who are killing it in the industry that do things like that but we're a different sort of band that have a different sort of approach to anything in our realm whether it be recording, marketing or touring or even being a band in general (laughs) so we wanted to make the record sound as organic as possible. We're humans not machines after all. If you've ever experienced us playing live we're no where near perfect but there's a lot of soul and a lot of energy on the stage and that's what we tried to capture and that's what made it The Blackest Beautiful, which may be where Jason got the title from as well. We really took our time with this record because I don't think art should ever be rushed which is why it took eight months to a year to record it and then when we started going on tour again it opened up a lot of doors to different situations, different sounds and different ideas so me being an engineer I packed up all my stuff from home and put it all in the trailer and whenever we were out and had an idea I'd set up all my equipment whether it be in a parking lot, a trailer, someone's bathroom even, a house, a bar, a music school or an after party we'd go to work and just try to capture those moments and that's how the record came about. It took a while (laughs)
It sounds like it! Just before you mentioned your live shows, I've never seen you guys live but how would you describe a live show from letlive?
Let's see....how can I put this into words....it's energetic, an emotional roller coaster, it can be scary at times (laughs) Our main goal is to make people feel something when we're playing live. To let out your inner demons you could say, whether they're happy, emotional, evil (laughs) it's just whatever we're feeling at that time. There are some days where the band might be mellowed out, we all have bad days, or we're hyped as fuck and we just wanna get on stage and destroy everything which is sometimes what we're more known for (laughs) It's a very high energy experience, we always give one hundred and ten percent and pretty much play every every show like it's our last show. That's what live shows are all about, just letting go.
Continuing on the live show discussion, what was the recent Australian tour with Deftones like?
Oh my god it was so surreal that I just can't put that tour into words. It almost doesn't feel like it happened. Every single one of us in the band has been a fan of Deftones since we were kids back in high school which is more than a decade ago so to be part of a tour like that is so surreal and we're just so thankful to be part of such a beautiful experience that we're never, ever going to forget. They were so cool too, they treated us so well and we became really good friends and to stand side stage and watch professionals deliver pretty much how the art is supposed to be crafted it was truly a mind blowing experience every night. Even now we're on Warped tour and we're still talking about it, it's insane.
Just on Warped tour, what's that like?
Again, it's another surreal experience. We didn't really know what to really expect from a tour like this to be honest. In the beginning, when we got the offer, it's not that we were skeptical it's just we didn't know how we'd be received by the kids on the tour because we're a little different but we jumped on the tour and after the second show we actually got bumped up to the main stage which was another surreal experience. I've been going to Warped tour since 2000 when I saw Green Day for the first time in my life and it's amazing to think that I'm playing on the same stage I saw those guys play on. We're having the time of our lives out here. The record drops in a week but we've actually started selling hard copies of it on Warped and to watch the reaction of the kids when they watch us is crazy, I wish you were here, dude (laughs)
Same! Warped tour is actually coming back to Australia later this year.
Oh, no way. It hasn't always been in Australia? How many have you had?
Only one or two I think.
Wow, yeah I don't think I've ever even heard of Warped being in Australia.
The lineup comes out next week (July 10th) so it'll be very interesting to see who's on it.
Yeah, man, me too. It's a very cool festival. I'm meeting a lot of kids which are at their first Warped tour ever and to be part of that experience is awesome and beautiful. I remember my first Warped tour and the bands I saw and those are the days that I'll never forget even a decade later. It's awesome.
Yeah, I bet. Speak of Australia, are there any plans to come back soon?
Uhhh, I don't know if I'm allowed to say....but yes! We will be seeing you very soon.Probably not allowed to say that though. (laughs)
Alright, we'll leave it there then (laughs) What band would you say has been the most fun to tour with?
Oh my god that's so hard. That's a hard question. Well, actually, Deftones one hundred percent guaranteed Deftones but we've shared the stage with a lot of bands that we look up to but Every Time I Die and Deftones I'd say would take the cake so we'll leave the answer at that.
Ok. You joined letlive a few years ago now, how did you come to be in the band?
Well I work as a session player and an engineer back in LA and I was a frontman myself and Jason and I grew up together but I was more into the pop-punk scene and he was more into the hardcore and punk realm and back in December of 2010 the guys were just finishing recording their Fake History album and they asked if they could finish it in my studio so I said hell yeah they could. We worked together for about a month and Jason and I couldn't believe we'd never worked together before when we'd been in the same scene for the past ten years. We were always at each others shows and at the time their old guitarist left so Jason asked me to fill in for Warped tour which was a week long spot so I said yes and their energy was just insane, it was something that was missing from the projects I'd been working on so when I got home and toured with a project I was working on it just didn't feel right so before I knew it a month later I was back in letlive and I've never looked back. Three hundred shows a year non stop, these guys are my family.
From the way you were just talking it sounds like you're pretty much touring non stop, what country would you say is the best to tour in?
Oh you're asking all the hard questions (laughs) Australia, and not because you're on the phone with me (laughs) it's because I love it out there, it's so beautiful. Every time we tour Australia it never feels like a tour, it feels like a vacation where I get to play music with my buddies for fun. The UK is another one, all of Europe is beautiful. London is possibly my favourite city in the whole world but I'm gonna say Australia (laughs)
Awesome. This may or may not be another hard question, but what would you say is the best and worst thing about being in letlive?
The best thing, obviously, is that I get to play music every single day of my life. To get to travel, meet new people, experience new experiences and see things that a lot of other people don't get to see with their own eyes is amazing. Just to travel the world is definitely my favourite thing. On the flip side, the only negative thing about being in letlive I'd say is the emotional aspect. Things like missing home, missing my mother's cooking back at home or waking up in a warm bed, my own bed. You also don't get to go to the bathroom or eat whenever you want. That's all the negative aspects of being on tour so much. Leaving all your friends and family at home is tough. Missing out on weddings, your nieces and nephews being born, even death. Sometimes there are unfortunate losses back at home which you sometimes have to deal with on the road. Other than all that we're born to tour like this, I've been doing this since I was fourteen and I'm thirty now so it's kinda all I know. I wouldn't have life any other way.
So when you do get some time off what do you like to get up to?
I have a residency at a studio in LA so I just sit in the studio all the time, which is completely true. I also build guitars. I love getting my hands on all different things, making mistakes but coming out with new pedals or switches is great. I'm a songwriter too so I'm always writing songs, usually at the beach. I live a block away from the ocean so I'll shout myself some ice cream and I'll go down with my notepad and laptop and write music. Music is my life, as cliché as that sounds I really couldn't do anything else (laughs) Even when my friends visit me it's always at the studio. I know how exciting that sounds (laughs)
It sounds like you just live and breathe music.
I do. Since I was two years old. My mother tells me I learnt to put together melodies before I learnt how to talk (laughs) I mean I also grew up with sports so I love surfing, playing basketball, baseball and even football but I'm getting older and I think my body is getting a little tired so I don't partake in those activities as often as I'd like.
I'll ask one last question, what bands are you currently loving right now?
Oh....that is really hard (laughs) Ok, as odd as this is going to sound, I just got my hands on the new Kanye West record and we've been pumping that out left and right on the bus. It's crazy. It's just an awesome album (laughs) And to be perfectly honest with you, I've spent the last eight months working on the letlive record and I have a tenancy to kind of shut myself off to the outside world when I'm working on an album. I want it all to be my vision, not influenced by anything else. When we started Warped tour there was all this excitement about certain bands with new albums and it's funny you asked me that question because just yesterday I was asking everybody what's new in the scene right now so now I can start making a list of things I wanna listen to. Actually, just before Warped I got my hands on the new Daft Punk record which is a little odd, a little out of our realm, but over the next couple of weeks I'll have a great answer to this question (laughs) As soon as I have a list of like twenty bands I'll give you a call and tell you (laughs)
Well we'll wrap it up there. Good luck with the new album and have fun on the rest of Warped and hopefully we'll see you here soon.
Alright, man. Thanks so much.
Matt Barton
Hey Jeff, how's it going?
Good buddy. How are you?
I'm good thanks. Let's get straight into it with the new album, The Blackest Beautiful. Where did that name come from?
Oh that's a good Jason Butler (vocals) question (laughs) but I think it's related to what him and the rest of the band have been through as individuals. Jason tackles a lot of lyrical content, he puts himself out there and kind of opens doors and opens himself up to his audience to kind of give them a better understanding of what we've been through travelling the world. Things like politics, love, hate, greed, just things you go through as a human being in life but Jason would have a better understanding of that, from the writer's point of view.
So you don't really help out with the writing?
Lyrically not really. I more so engineer the album with the structuring and mixing. Melodies and lyrics is Jason's little world.
What was the recording process like for the album?
Crazy. It took a long while. The record was recorded partly in a studio back in Los Angeles and the other half was on tour. The main goal with this record was to capture the sonic energy and translate into an analogue realm. We didn't want to rely on digital technology because then the record pretty much would've turned into a box puzzle piece I guess, like a lot of engineers and songwriters sit behind a screen and kind of put together a puzzle. I'm not saying I don't respect the way other people do their formulas and the ways they do things because there are some damn geniuses out there who are killing it in the industry that do things like that but we're a different sort of band that have a different sort of approach to anything in our realm whether it be recording, marketing or touring or even being a band in general (laughs) so we wanted to make the record sound as organic as possible. We're humans not machines after all. If you've ever experienced us playing live we're no where near perfect but there's a lot of soul and a lot of energy on the stage and that's what we tried to capture and that's what made it The Blackest Beautiful, which may be where Jason got the title from as well. We really took our time with this record because I don't think art should ever be rushed which is why it took eight months to a year to record it and then when we started going on tour again it opened up a lot of doors to different situations, different sounds and different ideas so me being an engineer I packed up all my stuff from home and put it all in the trailer and whenever we were out and had an idea I'd set up all my equipment whether it be in a parking lot, a trailer, someone's bathroom even, a house, a bar, a music school or an after party we'd go to work and just try to capture those moments and that's how the record came about. It took a while (laughs)
It sounds like it! Just before you mentioned your live shows, I've never seen you guys live but how would you describe a live show from letlive?
Let's see....how can I put this into words....it's energetic, an emotional roller coaster, it can be scary at times (laughs) Our main goal is to make people feel something when we're playing live. To let out your inner demons you could say, whether they're happy, emotional, evil (laughs) it's just whatever we're feeling at that time. There are some days where the band might be mellowed out, we all have bad days, or we're hyped as fuck and we just wanna get on stage and destroy everything which is sometimes what we're more known for (laughs) It's a very high energy experience, we always give one hundred and ten percent and pretty much play every every show like it's our last show. That's what live shows are all about, just letting go.
Continuing on the live show discussion, what was the recent Australian tour with Deftones like?
Oh my god it was so surreal that I just can't put that tour into words. It almost doesn't feel like it happened. Every single one of us in the band has been a fan of Deftones since we were kids back in high school which is more than a decade ago so to be part of a tour like that is so surreal and we're just so thankful to be part of such a beautiful experience that we're never, ever going to forget. They were so cool too, they treated us so well and we became really good friends and to stand side stage and watch professionals deliver pretty much how the art is supposed to be crafted it was truly a mind blowing experience every night. Even now we're on Warped tour and we're still talking about it, it's insane.
Just on Warped tour, what's that like?
Again, it's another surreal experience. We didn't really know what to really expect from a tour like this to be honest. In the beginning, when we got the offer, it's not that we were skeptical it's just we didn't know how we'd be received by the kids on the tour because we're a little different but we jumped on the tour and after the second show we actually got bumped up to the main stage which was another surreal experience. I've been going to Warped tour since 2000 when I saw Green Day for the first time in my life and it's amazing to think that I'm playing on the same stage I saw those guys play on. We're having the time of our lives out here. The record drops in a week but we've actually started selling hard copies of it on Warped and to watch the reaction of the kids when they watch us is crazy, I wish you were here, dude (laughs)
Same! Warped tour is actually coming back to Australia later this year.
Oh, no way. It hasn't always been in Australia? How many have you had?
Only one or two I think.
Wow, yeah I don't think I've ever even heard of Warped being in Australia.
The lineup comes out next week (July 10th) so it'll be very interesting to see who's on it.
Yeah, man, me too. It's a very cool festival. I'm meeting a lot of kids which are at their first Warped tour ever and to be part of that experience is awesome and beautiful. I remember my first Warped tour and the bands I saw and those are the days that I'll never forget even a decade later. It's awesome.
Yeah, I bet. Speak of Australia, are there any plans to come back soon?
Uhhh, I don't know if I'm allowed to say....but yes! We will be seeing you very soon.Probably not allowed to say that though. (laughs)
Alright, we'll leave it there then (laughs) What band would you say has been the most fun to tour with?
Oh my god that's so hard. That's a hard question. Well, actually, Deftones one hundred percent guaranteed Deftones but we've shared the stage with a lot of bands that we look up to but Every Time I Die and Deftones I'd say would take the cake so we'll leave the answer at that.
Ok. You joined letlive a few years ago now, how did you come to be in the band?
Well I work as a session player and an engineer back in LA and I was a frontman myself and Jason and I grew up together but I was more into the pop-punk scene and he was more into the hardcore and punk realm and back in December of 2010 the guys were just finishing recording their Fake History album and they asked if they could finish it in my studio so I said hell yeah they could. We worked together for about a month and Jason and I couldn't believe we'd never worked together before when we'd been in the same scene for the past ten years. We were always at each others shows and at the time their old guitarist left so Jason asked me to fill in for Warped tour which was a week long spot so I said yes and their energy was just insane, it was something that was missing from the projects I'd been working on so when I got home and toured with a project I was working on it just didn't feel right so before I knew it a month later I was back in letlive and I've never looked back. Three hundred shows a year non stop, these guys are my family.
From the way you were just talking it sounds like you're pretty much touring non stop, what country would you say is the best to tour in?
Oh you're asking all the hard questions (laughs) Australia, and not because you're on the phone with me (laughs) it's because I love it out there, it's so beautiful. Every time we tour Australia it never feels like a tour, it feels like a vacation where I get to play music with my buddies for fun. The UK is another one, all of Europe is beautiful. London is possibly my favourite city in the whole world but I'm gonna say Australia (laughs)
Awesome. This may or may not be another hard question, but what would you say is the best and worst thing about being in letlive?
The best thing, obviously, is that I get to play music every single day of my life. To get to travel, meet new people, experience new experiences and see things that a lot of other people don't get to see with their own eyes is amazing. Just to travel the world is definitely my favourite thing. On the flip side, the only negative thing about being in letlive I'd say is the emotional aspect. Things like missing home, missing my mother's cooking back at home or waking up in a warm bed, my own bed. You also don't get to go to the bathroom or eat whenever you want. That's all the negative aspects of being on tour so much. Leaving all your friends and family at home is tough. Missing out on weddings, your nieces and nephews being born, even death. Sometimes there are unfortunate losses back at home which you sometimes have to deal with on the road. Other than all that we're born to tour like this, I've been doing this since I was fourteen and I'm thirty now so it's kinda all I know. I wouldn't have life any other way.
So when you do get some time off what do you like to get up to?
I have a residency at a studio in LA so I just sit in the studio all the time, which is completely true. I also build guitars. I love getting my hands on all different things, making mistakes but coming out with new pedals or switches is great. I'm a songwriter too so I'm always writing songs, usually at the beach. I live a block away from the ocean so I'll shout myself some ice cream and I'll go down with my notepad and laptop and write music. Music is my life, as cliché as that sounds I really couldn't do anything else (laughs) Even when my friends visit me it's always at the studio. I know how exciting that sounds (laughs)
It sounds like you just live and breathe music.
I do. Since I was two years old. My mother tells me I learnt to put together melodies before I learnt how to talk (laughs) I mean I also grew up with sports so I love surfing, playing basketball, baseball and even football but I'm getting older and I think my body is getting a little tired so I don't partake in those activities as often as I'd like.
I'll ask one last question, what bands are you currently loving right now?
Oh....that is really hard (laughs) Ok, as odd as this is going to sound, I just got my hands on the new Kanye West record and we've been pumping that out left and right on the bus. It's crazy. It's just an awesome album (laughs) And to be perfectly honest with you, I've spent the last eight months working on the letlive record and I have a tenancy to kind of shut myself off to the outside world when I'm working on an album. I want it all to be my vision, not influenced by anything else. When we started Warped tour there was all this excitement about certain bands with new albums and it's funny you asked me that question because just yesterday I was asking everybody what's new in the scene right now so now I can start making a list of things I wanna listen to. Actually, just before Warped I got my hands on the new Daft Punk record which is a little odd, a little out of our realm, but over the next couple of weeks I'll have a great answer to this question (laughs) As soon as I have a list of like twenty bands I'll give you a call and tell you (laughs)
Well we'll wrap it up there. Good luck with the new album and have fun on the rest of Warped and hopefully we'll see you here soon.
Alright, man. Thanks so much.
Matt Barton