Band Interview: Audio Impulse

Audio Impulse is an alternative rock band that writes hard driving riffs, melodic bass lines, solid face-melting drums, and soul shattering lyrics accompanied by complex vocal harmonies.

A down to earth groove and a pure love for rock and roll, this band is an ode to all of those rock greats that came before them. Not only does the music bring you back to the glory days of rock, but it adds the next chapter. Each song is a journey into the minds and hearts of four musicians who do what they do for no other reason than the pure love of the music.

1. How did you get started as a band?

The band started out of a chance encounter between our frontman Barry and our lead guitarist Nate at a red light 4 years ago. Nate had noticed Barry had pulled up next to him, they figured out they were then living about a block away from one another, and they began to jam on a regular basis. After getting about six solid songs written out they decided to pull together a full band and recruited me on bass, we found Freeman, our drummer, on Craigslist, and boom band formed. We wrote parts to fill out the songs Nate and Barry had already written, wrote a few more together, and that’s what made up our first release “Plug In & Tune Out”.

2. How would you describe your sound?

We’re often described as punk rock and occasionally we get compared to the pop punk bands of the 90’s like Good Charlotte, Green Day, Unwritten Law, etc. We typically describe it as a continuation, or an homage, to what the artists that inspired us to pick up instruments were doing when we were young, because, and this might just be specific to me, that’s what art is all about is looking at what inspires you and further that dialogue for the next generation of artists, and in turn for them to do the same.

3. What bands/artists would you say have influenced your style of music?

Far too many to make a comprehensive list. I’d say there more obvious ones when listening to the music we have out there currently are the punk rock bands of the 90’s, as well as the alt rock and grunge bands of the same era, your Foo Fighters, Blink-182, The Subways, Nirvana, etc. Our next release we’re going to try and expand that sound and delve into some other bands that we love and really inspired us to play in the first place, so the next release could get really interesting w/ influences from The Smashing Pumpkins, At the Drive, Thrice, Rise Against just name a few.

4. Has the rise of YouTube & music streaming helped or hindered you as a band?

Well we started releasing music, at least as Audio Impulse, during the age of YouTube, Spotify, and social media, so it hasn’t really hindered us. We’ve all had projects we were a part of before everything was so internet driven, but if I’d say anything towards social media, streaming, and YouTube it’s only been a fun learning experience working with these new platforms we didn’t have available to us when we were younger. I guess it’s helped us be able to get the music out further than we could back then. As with any tools available to an upcoming artist or band it just comes down to how well you can use them and your willingness to learn how to use them properly.

5. What do you enjoy doing when you’re not making music?

Nate and I are both huge gamers, especially if you want to talk about retro JRPGs. The name Audio Impulse was almost Arc Impulse which was a nod to then Squaresoft’s “Chrono Trigger”, but another band was using it, so yea we can be a somewhat gaming nerds when not writing. Barry and Nate are both gearheads, so they’ll gladly talk shop. There’s nothing too out of the ordinary that we do outside of the band. Freeman is a big UFC guy, occasionally obsessive about trying to catch the fights. We often go hang out in our home music market and support as many of the other upcoming bands in the area when we have enough free time. There’s a few TV series we follow none that I think all four of us actually collectively watch, but yea we’re just regular folk when doing music stuff. Feel free to talk to us if you catch us at a show.

6. What are your future plans musically? Tours?

Right now we’re just going to finish out the last few show we have in October, you can always catch an updated show schedule over at AudioImpulseMusic.com, but after this month we’re breaking from performing to focus on writing our next release. We should start performing again early in 2017, and hopefully have a more solid timeframe as to when we’ll be making our next major record release. Once that’s out we’ll certainly be busy putting together tour dates and some music videos in support of that record. Until then cheers!

GBHBL would like to thank Audio Impulse for their time & Stencil PR for arranging the interview. You can find out much more about the band on their website, on Reverbnation & pick up their music on Bandcamp. You can also check the band out on Facebook, Twitter & on Instagram. Finally if you want see some of their songs played live you can check that out & more over on YouTube.