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Great Shapes is a local Indie band, but their music has reached audiences all over the country in its four years of existence. The group is composed of Neil Henry, Evan Tremper, Nathan Gomez and Antonio Salazar IV. Great Shapes has toured from California all the way to New York since their beginning in 2013. The band recently released their album “Somewhere in Between.” Two founders of the band, Neil Henry (N) and Evan Tremper (E) gave insight on their hectic yet rewarding life of being in a band.
How did you guys first get together?
E: Neil was playing in another band, and I was working at a music venue. I was watching his band perform quite a bit and I was touring with my band during that time. Their drummer had quit, and my bandmate was heading back to Seattle, and we just started jamming together.
N: For me, I was in between bands too, kind of going through a weird time, and it’s kind of a funny story how I met and ran into him [Evan]. The Killers were playing this show at Lowbrow one night, like a secret show, and I was just hanging out at home and I rushed down there when I saw they were playing. I had a friend inside and we bought some drinks, and sure enough when I got down there they’re getting ready to play. I’m out of beer, and I see Evan over here by the PA speakers with a bunch of tallboys, and I was like “Hey man, can I buy one of those beers off you?” and sure enough, we hit it off from there.
How did you come up with the name of your band?
E: It was a brainstorming exercise, and the name came first, then the concept. To me, Great Shapes seemed very serendipitous, like in the right place at the right time, and you know, the stars aligning and all that jazz. It felt like a good name as a band.
What artists are you inspired by?
N: You know, I have a wide variety of music I listen to. It started off when I grew up with hip-hop and rap music, and started with my older brother. Growing up I was living with my dad for a bit in California and got into classic rock and meeting Evan got me into indie as well.
What is the process like for creating an album?
E: For this album in particular (and the other albums we’ve made) it all starts in the practice room with ideas that we try to make something that will work on the stage and sort out the songs that don’t make the cut. One of the hardest parts is figuring out what songs you are going to record and time management. You can be spending half of that ten hours of recording them figuring out the right tone. It’s a challenge but also fun to sift through the sonic possibilities. The hardest part is releasing a record because you know, the expenses for marketing and the physical product are steep.
N: I think that the heart and soul of showing up and being there, and waking up every day and continuing to be driven and wanting to make music and make it happen for ourselves. It’s hard to find, even with other bands, to find everyone to stick together and pursue this. I think everybody who is committing to it and is putting in their 10,000 hours is great.
Nationally, what are some of the most enjoyable cities to perform in?
N: You know, when we were on tour for CMJ that year and went up to New York we stopped at this place called Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was an Irish Pub, and I just remember having so much fun that night.
E: We’ve all had some love for Knoxville, TN. We’ve played there three or four times and always have a good group of friends that we crash with, and they always make it super special for us. Also, Austin, Chicago, and New York are amazing every time. It seems the smaller the cities, the more personal it is.
N: We like traveling west too because going out that way to Arizona and California we have a lot of family there.
E: Flagstaff and Los Angeles, we have a home there.
Looking forward, what is the vision for Great Shapes?
E: We want to travel more. Before the year is over we’re planning on going to Mexico City to play some shows. We’re going to increase our travel radius and we’re going to have access to a recording studio. I’m opening one with some other people so we’ll be releasing a lot more music.
N: Now our practice won’t be in a garage, it’ll be in a studio.
E: Now we’ll be able to get grade-A premium sound.
N: Our first CDs we released came from the garage and that was where it all evolved from. It’ll be nice to jam in a studio. In the next two years were going to either do a short album, a little over an EP or a full length. We’ll have done some tours also.
E: We’ll have some remixes from other artists and it will be more music coming out and also live media performances.
