The Ross Livermore Band are gifted live performers. How do I know this without ever seeing them live? Their unique approach to getting their music out is what has convinced me. They have been releasing a steady stream of high quality music videos with ‘live off the floor’ studio quality sound.
The first video I watched was Valerie, and immediately sent Ross a message to tell him that his band’s groove was “deeper in the pocket than grains of sand in the back pocket of my jeans after a day at the beach.”
For more on their unique live video series doing check this video out:
Luke: Briefly elaborate on a few of the positives of releasing live videos as opposed to a traditional album.
Ross: Releasing an album like this has been great for a few reasons; the this campaign has given us the opportunity to work with a bunch of super talented people that we have been wanting to work with for a long time. We also are recording it all live, with no overdubs so that has been a bit of a challenge. You set up in a room, hit record and play. It’s forced us to step our game up in a performance setting and we have noticed a great improvement to our live show because of it.
Luke: What is the best response you have received from releasing these high quality live videos?
Ross: I don’t know if we have have had one singular response that I can think of. Before we released this campaign, Paul (Drums) and I talked about what our tendencies are as fans. What do we look for from a band. When ever I hear of a new band, the first thing that I do is look them up on youtube. If they have a bunch of videos, I will sit, watch, and learn about this band because I want to feel like an insider. We see if now with most of the entertainment industry. People build relationships with their favorite band, actor, or even athlete or team. We don’t just want people to listen to our music, we want them in our corner, and by doing this project it’s allowed us to do that.
Luke: Your version of Oh! Darling has an incredible feel. You mentioned in your promo video that you need to be careful when covering a Beatles tune. You did great job! You mastered the late sixties rock sentiment. Has this type of rock been your main influence, and why?
Ross: Thank you! It’s always touchy when you take a song from The Beatles and change it, but we put a lot of time and effort into that one and are extremely proud of how it came out. The great thing about our band is that our influences range so much. I think its very important to be well rounded as a musician and as a listener. We absolutely take some ques from late sixties rock, but we also take from soul, funk, folk and even progressive metal. I know the metal thing doesn’t reflect in our music, but if Neil (Bass) is in the back of the Element (RLB Tour Bus) and he say’s “lets listen to Dream Theatre”, you know we’re all going to be like “Hell Yeah”. There is so much amazing music to listen to, and we can always learn from it.
Luke: I’m sure that rehearsing songs to perfection for these videos has had a positive effect on your live performances. Am I right here? What’s the response like at your live shows?
Ross: Totally! Recording live has forced us to do way more rehearsing for studio, than we have done in the past. On our last couple of albums we have done Pre-production but also allowed a good deal of the creativity to happen in the moment while recording. Doing it live like this is the opposite; we did at least 10-15 rehearsals for each session to pick apart every little section of the songs. Like I said before, this has made us so much better as a live band because we now have every song dialed in just the way we want it and we are comfortable performing them live.
Luke: Welcome to the Stonebridge family! You recently picked up a Stonebridge D31SR from us. Tell me what happened when your Stonebridge arrived?
Ross: Well, I got home and my roommate told me it had arrived. It was like Christmas. I actually hadn’t played a Stonebridge until this one, but I had read up about them and asked a lot of my guitar geek friends about this artist collaberation opportunity and all the signs pointed to yes. I took it out of its packaging and it smelled like a new acoustic. I played a big open E chord and I instantly got the chills. The low end and warmth was something I hadn’t heard from any acoustic I’ve played. My Martin is a 000 body style so I was set on getting a Dreadnaught from Stonebridge. I just put a nice K&K pure mini in it and I have to tell you, it feels amazing and it sounds great in any setting. I’m so stoked to start playing, writing, and recording with this beautiful instrument!
Luke: Thanks for taking the time to check in with me, and I look forward to the appearance of your D31SR in one of these awesome videos. One last question, what is next? Will you go back to making a traditional album now, or do you have another inventive project up your sleeve?
No Problem, Luke. It’s my pleasure. I look forward to playing the new axe in some new videos and live. I’m sure we will be getting back to the studio sometime by the start of 2015, but I definitely don’t see us doing another full length for a while. The next thing on the horizon though it touring. We have developed our sound so much through live shows and it’s what we enjoy doing the most. Now that we’ve let everyone into what we are all about via our videos; we need to start bringing it to the people, and thats what we plan to do.
Visit Ross Livermore Band at http://www.rosslivermoreband.com
