New Found Glory Interview

Posted on by Michael Edney

This month I had the pleasure of interview Jordan Pundik of New Found Glory for Mixdown Magazine Australia. Head over to mixdownmagazine.com.au to see the October edition of the Mag.

New Found Glory has been a house­hold name in the punk scene across two decades, cre­at­ing genre-defying music while tour­ing relentlessly  Now, after 17 years of cir­cle pits and sing-alongs, the band are set to release their 8th full length stu­dio album, Res­ur­rec­tion. Mix­down were lucky enough to chat with lead singer Jor­dan Pundik about the new album, life as a four-piece and his per­sonal reflec­tions on the band’s pro­gres­sion over the years.

Res­ur­rec­tion is set for release next month, what can we expect from the new album?

Well now that we are a four piece, we are def­i­nitely com­mit­ted to that. You’re going to hear riffs as catchy as the vocal melodies, up-lifting lyrics, songs you can mosh to and sing along to.

How did you find the writ­ing process for this album, com­pared to your pre­vi­ous releases?

This is the most pre­pared that we ever were for writ­ing a record. Cyrus (drums) and I would go up to Chad’s (lead gui­tarist) house like once a week and sit at the din­ing room table. We would write and talk about how we want the songs to sound, what we want to write about, and what we want to say. By the time we got to the stu­dio we were pretty much all done, and we could actu­ally focus on mak­ing the songs sound good with­out hav­ing to think about lyrics or melodies. It was a really good expe­ri­ence. The last few records were like “AH! We have to fin­ish this record, we only have 3 songs done and we only have one week of record­ing left.”

You recorded Res­ur­rec­tion with Paul Mil­ner (Death by Stereo). How was that expe­ri­ence? What did Paul bring to the table with this record that dif­fers from other producers?

Paul’s great. He helps me keep my con­fi­dence in the stu­dio, as I tend to get into my own head. My voice starts to suf­fer because I’m think­ing about it too much, and I try to think of a melody or har­mony, and I piss my self off and get frus­trated and punch walls or what­ever. Paul is really good at step­ping out of the con­trol room and calm­ing me down by talk­ing me through it. He has always been good with that. He also has a lot of dirty jokes; we are always hav­ing a laugh.

When lis­ten­ing to Res­ur­rec­tion, I can’t help but feel nos­tal­gic and rem­i­nis­cent of ear­lier 2000s New Found Glory, revis­it­ing old punk roots whilst still main­tain­ing a fun pop sound. Was this the intended direc­tion of the album or a by-product of your writing?

I think it was a lit­tle of both. We com­mit­ted to only hav­ing one gui­tar, a bass and drums. In past records we had a rhythm gui­tarist, and we would just layer gui­tars to make it sound full and heavy. Going into this record know­ing we were going to be a four-piece and write that way, we wanted to make the riffs equally as pitchy as the melodies. I remem­ber just lis­ten­ing to Cow­boys From Hell (Pan­tera) and hear­ing what Dime­bag did. We would just lis­ten to those riffs. They only had one gui­tar player and look what they did. They were a four piece. They were fuck­ing bru­tal. Not say­ing that New Found Glory is bru­tal, but we have always been known to have heavy gui­tar parts with melodic vocals, and we wanted to still stay true to what peo­ple like about our band, but with this new formation.

We will see you back in Aus­tralia for Sound­wave 2015. It has been a few years since you have been on our shores. What can your fans expect this time around?

Well, a lot of the same, we are just more over­weight [laughs]. It will be the first time that peo­ple are see­ing us as a four piece, and I just feel that based on the feed­back that I have been hear­ing from other bands and other peo­ple that have seen us lately when we have been doing one off shows here and there, they are say­ing that we are sound­ing tighter and are hav­ing more fun as a band. For me, that’s all I needed, and the con­fi­dence I needed. Before, I was a lit­tle skep­ti­cal on what peo­ple were going to think, like that we aren’t as heavy any­more or that we sound wimpy, but I haven’t heard any­thing like that, it’s been all pos­i­tive. Peo­ple can expect the same, but in a good way.

What gear will you guys be bring­ing down with you?

Ian, our bass player uses Ampeg. A drum com­pany called SJC, which makes really cool cus­tom drums, spon­sors Cyrus. They are based out of Mass­a­chu­setts. Chad will prob­a­bly be using his Mesa Boo­gie, but he likes to change it up once in a while. There are songs where he will want to change the tone of it and will use like a Bad Cat or his Vox, but most of the time it’s a Mesa Boo­gie, Dual Rec­ti­fier. I’m not really par­tic­u­lar with Mics. Most of the time I end up break­ing every­thing, so the band really never spends money on me for gear [laughs] because I’m always smash­ing it or drop­ping it or like, rip­ping the cable out.

How do you pre­pare your voice for a live show?

I’ll try any voodoo there is, espe­cially when I’m on tour for a long time. Most of the time I like to relax with red wine for some rea­son. A cou­ple of glasses helps me relax and relaxes my vocal chords. I mean it dries it out a lit­tle bit, but I sup­ple­ment the dry­ness with throat coat… or I’ll just pound water all day. So I’m just con­stantly piss­ing and drink­ing water [laughs]. I also do a warm up called Voix­Tek by Ron Ander­son, who is a well-known vocal coach here in Cal­i­for­nia. His warm ups are great. That’s pretty much it. I try and not think about it, because when I do, I get in my head and just sing like shit.

You’ve been around for 17 years now, how do you feel the punk scene has evolved in your time? How are NFG able to stay rel­e­vant in the scene after so many years?

As far as the rel­e­vancy goes, I def­i­nitely think it has to do with how we engage with our fans and how we are as peo­ple. I feel like I’m pretty mod­est. I feel super awk­ward when peo­ple treat me like a rock star. I don’t feel like I am. Peo­ple that don’t know me or see me prob­a­bly view me as one, but I just don’t really feel like I am. None of us in the band really have that men­tal­ity. We are just like every­one else, only we started a band, got lucky, and fol­lowed our dreams. We are fans of music and are always search­ing for new music to lis­ten to and new bands. We are always giv­ing new bands a shot and take them on tour like A Story So Far, The Won­der Years and Man Over­board. All of these bands are becom­ing pop­u­lar now, and I feel like we are able to take bands on tour that peo­ple care about. That to me also helps us stay relevant.

TOUR DATES

Feb­ru­ary 21 — Sound­wave Fes­ti­val, Bonython Park, Ade­laide SA

Feb­ru­ary 22 — Sound­wave Fes­ti­val, Flem­ing­ton Race­course, Mel­bourne VIC

Feb­ru­ary 28 — Sound­wave Fes­ti­val, Olympic Park, Syd­ney NSW

March 1 — Sound­wave Fes­ti­val, Bris­bane Show­grounds, Bris­bane QLD

BY MICHAEL EDNEY

Seminar Review: On The Line

Posted on by Michael Edney

Great start to the seminar. The set was decorated really well, and the green lighting really conveyed the matrix theme. I enjoyed the ‘red or blue’ lollie choice when entering, it was a nice quirky touch to the seminar theme. The crew were appropriately dressed in ‘Matrix’ attire.The visuals for the seminar were brilliant! The online interrogation introduction was constructed really well, with a DNA analysis and finger print scanner conveying a ‘wanted’ criminal profile. The guests for the seminar were Beatrix Coles, Anna Horen and Reuben Ruiter.

The first segment of the seminar focused on the transition from traditional forms of media such as print to the new digital format. Reuben explained that the reach of news and media has expanded so much from the digital revolution, and now your writing has potential to reach a global audience. Anna suggested that eye catching titles are how you get views, or ‘clicks’, which is your ultimate goal when producing online content. Beatrix has a great concept about the online sphere. She has combined the film industry and online media together to produce her own content. She explained that there are issues with online content and selling it as there is a loss of control over the content as the audience have a lot of power online, and are able to modify or produce their own content.

Entering the work force was the next section in the seminar. Reuben and Beatrix were really strongly minded about the exploitation of internships, and how breaking through the industry is quite hard and free work is really the only way. Reuben suggested that interning whilst at Uni is the best possible scenario, as you are able to study and gain experience at the same time, which allows you to find paid work once completing your course. Anna explained that you should only do a internship if you are getting something out of it. If you feel that you aren’t benefiting from it don’t stick it out! She explained how they are great for networking however. Beatrix made a great point how Linked In is the best way to find paid work once you have experience, as it is a big online network with employers looking to hire every day. In terms of funding, Anna suggested that advertising is the way to make money, however it will effect your content as you will have to make compromises for the companies that pay for advertising.

Overall, this was a really informative lecture. The hosts did really well to keep the flow of the seminar smooth and engaging. The guests were really well chosen. They were well spoken, were really engaged with the questions and had a lot of interesting points about the industry.

Week 9: Julia Cleghorn

Posted on by Michael Edney

In this week’s class, we were lucky enough to have Julia Cleghorn from Channel 10’s ‘Scope’ come speak to us about translating science to an audio visual product. Julia has had many years of experience in television production, and also has a background in science, therefore I was particularly interested in what she had to say about the translation of this technical topic.

Julia’s work on Scope is quite similar to what we are currently doing with Games Lab. With Scope, they are required to report and present information on scientific facts to their intended target audience of children 8-13 years old. Although our research piece for Tim Ryan is aimed at a much older audience, the same principals still apply. Julia explained that you always have to keep in mind the intended audience. They are the ones that are going to be watching the video, therefore they need to be able to understand it. One important aspect she raised about scientific videos is that they must be informative, but also entertaining. In terms of our project with Tim, I feel that we have definitely mastered the entertaining aspect of his work. However, I feel that it is perhaps not as informative as it could be on the research of his work. The same applies to our work with Jonathan Duckworth and his research with rehabilitation for brain injuries. Our piece is focusing on the entertainment aspect of the band Amplified Elephants and their ability to use Jonathan’s Resonance table as a form of musical expression. I think that we need a good and positive balance of entertainment and information throughout the short documentary in order to achieve our intended goals of the project.

Another point Julia raised referred to what makes a good and comprehensive script. Julia explained that you need to identify aspects that will engage your audience, and focus on that. She also suggested that the use of technical words can alienate your audience, and a more simplistic approach is more receptive to audiences. However, it is important to not ‘dumb down’ the piece too much, otherwise audience’s may find it patronising. The ideal outcome is that once watching the content, the viewer is than able to communicate the concept of the piece to another person coherently.

Seminar Review: Reel Crimes

Posted on by Michael Edney

The “Wanted” seminars continued this week, with Reel Crimes focusing on the Australian film industry. For this seminar, the team decided to have three guests, which included Nadia Tass, Trevor Blainey and Veronica Gleeson. On arrival, the team greeted us, and handed us a lollie cup with a information slip on the seminar. unlike previous seminars, the treat didn’t have any particular theme to it.

Unfortunately, the group had problems with the audio in the first half of the seminar, which made it hard to hear the guests. The group decided to use three wireless lapel microphones, which weren’t set up correctly and projected little to no sound. Therefore, by turning the gain to full on the mixing desk, the sound quality had diminished in the stage sound. However, with this problem aside, the group did well to continue on with the seminar and conduct themselves in a professional manner.

I quite liked there stage setup, with their guests positioned along a table as if they were at film conference. The guests had some very informative tips on the film industry, and were all very passionate about their jobs. What was evident from the seminar is that filmmakers have to be passionate about their script and film in order to succeed. Nadia explained how she went to the extremes just to be noticed, which was humorous but very inspiring. She demonstrated a hard working professional that wouldn’t take no for an answer.

What was interesting was the teams decision to have a Veronica Gleeson, the Senior Development Executive of Screen Australia on the panel. It appeared that Nadia and Trevor had quite conflicting views to Screen Australia, which sparked engaging debates about topics such as funding, cutting costs and budgeting. What was apparent is that filmmakers are very proud of their work, and ideally would like to create there work to their vision, without a higher authority cutting or changing the script.

Despite the technical problems, the crew had done well in presenting an informative seminar. The format could have been a bit more engaging, by perhaps changing it up from the previous seminars and presenting a more unique style.

Week 8: Ryan Jasper Walsh

Posted on by Michael Edney

Editor and Cinematographer Ryan Walsh came to speak to the Games Lab Production Project class this week, and brought a lot of technical and creative knowledge with him. Aspiring to be an editor, I found that Ryan was an inspiring figure in where I would like my standard of skills to be in the near future, and therefore I was very engaged with his talk to the class.

For the first half of the class, Ryan spoke about the technical specifications with editing, giving great tips that will create a easier and more efficient work flow in the post production stages of a production. Ryan explained that when using Final Cut or Premiere, you should always be exporting content in Pro Res format. He also explained how there should be two edits – one offline and one online. The offline edit was the low resolution edit form. Ryan explained that low res editing is important as it is quicker to cut all of your footage and will reduce rendering time. He suggested that we should all cut and piece together our timeline with low res footage, and then sync the timeline with the high resolution files once the rough cut has been made. I found this to be a very helpful tip, which will definitely help reduce the rendering and conversion time spent in the suite.

Another great editing pointer he made was that we should always colour grade a film in the original format it was recorded in. He explained that this format contains all the image data, and when converting the file, we lose all of this information. This is another concept that I previously did not know, and will definitely help improve the quality of my work.

Ryan’s final tip was associated with the production stage of film production. He explained that it is important for an editor to be apart of a production from the start, as they are knowledgeable with the technical aspects of shooting. He explained that it is important to have all the cameras on set synced together, meaning they were filming in a similar format, as well as similar shooting settings. This will make for a more consistent final product that will flow throughout. It will also make an editors job A LOT less complicated in the post production stages.

When asking about time lapses, Ryan also had some good pointers. As our basketball project piece will feature a time lapse, Ryan suggested that we set up a camera on continuous interval shooting, with a preset ISO and automatic shutter speed. This will produce a more crisp and high quality time lapse.

Breaking In: Show Time – Week 6 Reflection

Posted on by Michael Edney

The day had arrived and we were ready to present our Breaking In seminar. It had been quite a remarkable turn out for the second seminar in the Wanted series, and our guests and audience were excited for the show to start. Before the production, I helped the crew set up the set, as well as lighting, before tending to the door to greet the audience as they arrived, handing out pamphlets and rock candy. I also greeted our guests and attended to their needs. As the seminar started, I then took photos to comply with the documentation requirements.

I believe our seminar was a great success. The guests were all very engaged with the seminar and the questions that were posed, with them all having great responses and giving in depth answers. The light hearted game show gave a nice touch to the seminar, with a great response coming from the audience. Our costumes for the host and the cop really enhanced the Wanted theme, and I felt that the set portrayed that of a living room in a house. The seminar ran really smoothly, with the audio having no issues at all. One criticism that we did receive was that the guests were hard to see from the back of the room, which was an issue that we may have been able to avoid if we had higher seats.

Judging by the responses on the seminar, I think that overall it ran well, and it was informative for our audience. The task of running a seminar was a great learning curb for me. I loved connecting with people in the industry and generating and expanding my network. Although I only received a few responses, these people have a potential to be a future employer of mine, and making a great first impression was key to taking entry steps into the industry. I also learnt to redefine my role within a group. Throughout the planning, I found myself organising the next step for the group to make sure we were on track and were keeping to our tight schedule. I found that my organising skills and leadership qualities helped the seminar run a flow in a seamless manner, therefore making me a valuable member of the group.

What I gained from this experience were enhanced communication skills, in particular, in approaching people within the industry to seek help and advice. Before this unit, I was quite shy and nervous to email a complete stranger, although this class has taught me that the industry is one big community, with many willing to help the next line of workers out.

I felt that the seminar was really well organised, due to the efficient work and great communication within the group. Each member knew their role, and completed it sufficiently, allowing for the seminar to be well planned. Overall, this was a great experience and one that will definitely help me to advance my career in the media industry. I think that this experience will help me with my confidence in the work force, which will allow for me to approach either employers or clients.

Breaking In from Michael Edney on Vimeo.

Week 6: Adam Nash

Posted on by Michael Edney

This week in Production Project 2: Games Lab, Adam Nash came to speak to us about the evolving form of Digital Media, in particular how digital culture interacts with broadcast and cinema. Adam had a background in game design, exploring how game engines are an art form.

An interesting point Adam made about game design that can be applied to any medium of media was “how will this enhance the audience’s experience?” This question really made me think about projects I’ve worked on in the past. What were their purpose? Who were I making them for? These are questions that I have now started to ask myself before producing work. Adam reiterated that the audience are always the focus for production.

The next point that Adam spoke about was “flow”, which he described was a state of the audience that is associated with deep concentration. He described flow as the point when the audience forget themselves and become submerged by the content that they are consuming. Relating to gaming, this is the stage when gamers complete tasks effortless, and become one with the game. Adam explained that this is the point that games seek to achieve, as the game creates a emotional engagement with the consumer. The consumer will also constantly achieve goals, therefore producing a higher sense of self esteem. Adam stated that this is what most companies are seeking to achieve with physical activity  games and the associated health benefits of them. This was an excellent point that relates to Tim Ryan’s research from games lab. Tim’s project is fantastic in making users more engaged with the new basketball courts at RMIT. However what are the benefits of his project and why is it relevant?

Tim’s project rewards aren’t perceived digitally, however users, similar to video games, gain skills, particular to basketball. The individual will practice more as a result to the soundscape, and therefore gain greater basketball skills.

I found Adam to be a great speaker about ‘Gamification’. He was very passionate about the topic, and had some interesting points about aspects I had not previously thought about, in particular ‘Flow’. I love how he completely dismissed the theory as it does not think about flow, and only focuses on the reward structure.

Breaking In: One Week To Go – Reflection Week 5

Posted on by Michael Edney

With only a week to go until the seminar, we kicked it up in to 4th gear and really started to get a move on with the planning of the seminar. This week, we confirmed the attendance of our four guests, and began refining the seminar’s fine details. The group in charge of the seminar style had completed the promotional video and quiz over the last week, and out poster and pamphlets had also been completed. The content for the seminar was pretty much all done, now it was time to delegate roles, sharpen up the seminar.

In this weeks class, we began to run through the seminar and determine who was in charge of what. As I had planned for these roles the night before, I took charge of this section and helped delegate the roles, by clarifying what each role requires. This proved to be quick and efficient, with each group member happy to volunteer for each role. Our guests team also decided that personalised laniards would be a nice touch for the guests, and will also help identify them for our audience. The catering team had organised sandwiches for our audience, as well as some other small snacks and sweets.

For the set, the group had decided that RMIT TV was the best place to source props from, so we all took a trip after class to check out what props we could use. Here we found couches, rugs and coffee tables that all helped create the home theme.

It looks like our group is all set for the seminar, with it all coming together in the last few weeks. It has been quite smooth planning the event once we had our guests confirmed. I am quite excited yet nervous to see how it turns out!

Seminar Review: Non-Fiction

Posted on by Michael Edney

First up for the RMIT Wanted Seminar series was Non-Fiction, which explored to Documentary Film industry. With only 3 weeks to plan, the team did a fantastic job in organising four guests, which included Terry Cantwell, Genevieve Bailey, John Hughes and Maya Gnyp.

When walking into the seminar, I received a information slip and a bag of nuts with a funny pun on it. The group were quite effective at portraying the Wanted theme, with the repetition of their logo, and the pulp fiction theme present throughout. The set was quite simple, and wasn’t too decorative. However this was effective in the communicating their Q and A and pitch type seminar.

I found the seminar very informative. The selection of guests were fantastic, with each guest having a knowledgeable background in film-making and documentary. From the first pitch segment, the message I took from it was that you must be passionate about the issue that you have to communicate. You then need to think about how you want to communicate it, by finding an angle that you find interesting and feel that has a story that needs to be told. Lastly, you need to figure out how you are going to communicate that to your selected audience. What was fascinating about this segment is that each guest had a different approach to the asylum seeker documentary pitch. Their approaches ranged from personally connecting with the issue, to stepping back and letting the subjects construct the narrative. This variety gave a comprehensive insight into the creativity of documentary filmmaking.

The technical aspect of the seminar was very well organised also. Being the first seminar, the crew did well to have a decent audio setup that didn’t have any recognisable issues, as well as a good range of filming and photography equipment to document the seminar. Non-Fiction definitely set a high standard for the rest of the seminars to follow.

Breaking In: Piecing It Together – Reflection Week 4

Posted on by Michael Edney

There was a lot of progress this week, with our seminar finding its own identity! To comply with the “WANTED” theme of the seminar series, our group decided to model our seminar on the critically acclaimed television series: Breaking Bad. We came up with the title: Breaking In, with the seminar focusing on how students can “break in” to the industry. We came to an agreement that the game show needs to be theatrical and engaging to our audience, as this will keep them alert and engaged with our seminar, and also be entertaining. One group member had an idea that we should decorate the set as a ‘home’, and then Conor our host will break into the set as a criminal, who which then takes on the role as game show host when the the cops rock up to hide his identity. We also decided to enhance the Breaking Bad Theme, with having Blue rock candy at the door to represent the Blue Meth that is featured in the show. Rob and Connor were also going to make promotional video the mimicked Breaking Bad characters Walter White and Jesse Pinkman.

We have also started to have some luck with our guests, with Anna Gregory, Jeff Shenker, Ron Frim and Lucy Maclaren all showing interest in participating in the seminar. Each of the guests have quite a diverse background in the industry, with Anna being an Executive Producer at Freemantle Media, Jeff a Line Producer and Production Manager for Channel 9, Ron a Senior News Director at ABC and Lucy a producer for Renegade Films. We are quite excited of the potential of having these guests at our seminar as they all share a wealth of experience and knowledge in the television industry. During class, our group also decided on catering, the poster and pamphlet design, the novelty snack, as well as the novelty gift that will feature in our seminars game show.

This week, I began planning the day of the seminar, planning out what roles we need filled and how the show will be organised accordingly. I placed myself in to photography, and collated a list of what needs to be done to document the seminar, including DOP and Audio Tech. I also wrote out a list of what roles were needed on the day of the seminar to make sure it runs smoothly. These roles include: Host, Catering, Welcoming Guests, Welcoming Audiences and people to hand out pamphlets and snacks.