by Jason

Hello Glider!  Would you please introduce yourselves to our audience?  How did you form and what does each of you do in the band?

Rory: I’m Rory
Brian: and I’m Brian
Both: And we’re Glider

B: Well, I was at an audition for another band one day. Their drummer didn’t show, but I had my gear set up. So I was just goofing around on my guitar and ended up writing what later became the first Glider song. I didn’t end up playing with the band I was auditioning for, though we did become friends, and one of their later drummers ended up drumming for us at one point. A month or so later Rory came home from school in Canada and we started playing music together again (we had been in bands together before) under the moniker ‘Glider’.

R: Neither of us really have defined roles. In the studio, if a song needs certain instrumentation and one of us has an idea we just pick up that instrument and play. Live is a little more defined due to in the past playing as a three piece but as we expand to having more members the roles will loosen up again.

In your bio, you print that your <I>One Day at a Time</I> disc took about two years.  Can you gives a brief rundown of some of the events involved in that?  Why so many drummers?

B: Hahahaha, well….lets just say that a lot of people think they are drummers until you make them play to a click in alternate time signatures. Plus, it always seems that we end up with drummers who are involved in other projects, which creates problems too.

R: Its funny but we only recently realized that very little of our alternate time signature stuff ended up on this album, probably due to the drummer situations.  We started writing the album amidst other songs, which are going to be on upcoming albums, in late 2003 early 2004. I think go to sleep was the first song written. Then we moved in to studio mode but didn’t have a drummer so we wrote a bunch of songs using drum loops but Over the Ocean and The Processional were the only ones that made it on ‘One Day At A Time’. A few days before our first show the drummer we had been working with bailed and we had two different drummers fill-in to play 4 songs.  One of those drummers was David Tunnell and we decided that he should play some more shows with us and then it turned onto him recording all the live drum tracks on the album.

B: The mixing ended up taking a really long time as well. We tend to take on too much all at once and get stretched pretty thin sometimes.

Your music is fantastic.  Are there any outtakes from the recording sessions that might see the light of day?  Do you plan on putting out more music in the future?  If so, when?

B: Thank you very much.

R: Thank you very much. It’s always nice to hear that people enjoy what we do.

B: Yeah, there are a few songs that got recorded and didn’t end up on the album. They are going to appear on the EP we are currently finishing up. It will be called ‘Breathe the Heartbeat’. Other than that we have another full album of songs that we’ve been playing live for the past year or two that we will be recording closer to the end of the year/beginning of next year.

R: We tend to write a ton of music and we plan to do this until we can’t write “Glider” music anymore.

You both are very involved in The Gaia Project.  How did you get involved and why did you see a need for another Indie label?  What are some of the future releases for the label and what can we look forward to in the future?

R: Brian and I decided to start the label one day while walking through the tide pools in Laguna Beach. We just wanted to release artist that we believed in and our own music. It all sort of snowballed from there.

B: We continue to give a portion of every sale to charity, which we both consider very important.

R: I personally work about 14 hours a day to keep everything going, but its worth it when I see how much it impacts people when they hear our music or see one of the bands shows. Also the bands have been so great to work with. They are all good people who make the vision we have for the label a reality.

B: As for future releases, well, you may just have to wait and see, though I can tell you there is a new Sans Arc disc, a Glider disc, and a disc by A Quiet Overcast on the way fairly soon.

How do you write songs?  What are the dynamics like between you two?

Brian: We tend to get along great and write pretty well about half of the time. The other half of the time I am screaming at him and telling him that he’s fucking the song up and I quit the band.  I’m half kidding, I do yell a bit, I’ve been told I’m high strung. I dunno, its kinda just become part of the process for each of us to disagree and then meet in the middle or find a way that we can both agree on. I think things turn out pretty well rounded that way and you don’t get an overabundance of either of our more extreme quirks. What do you think?

R: I have to constantly remind myself to accept the ideas I don’t like at that moment, over time they become the things I have really enjoyed and look forward to when listening to our music. Brian has been wonderful to work with even when he is yelling and throwing guitars at drummers for not knowing how to play. We have been friends since high school and now live together. We’ve been through a lot together and have always come out on the other side better for it. As far as writing goes it varies so much, one day we will sit together and write a song in an hour, other times one of us will bring an idea or a riff to the other and take it from there. Some times we jam, sometimes we let the other work through all their ideas on their own, its just how the creative process works for us.

You have two people listed in your press picks, but Nathaniel Wehe is also listed as a contributor.  In what capacity does he contribute and will he become a permanent member of Glider in the long run?

B: Nate is a really dedicated friend of ours. We love him dearly.

R: And he’s been a great help in getting Glider’s name out there.

B: He has at various points rehearsed and recorded with us.

R: We hope to have him involved more as we get back to having a live line-up.

Being a nu-gaze, bliss-rock band, how do you find you are received in Southern California?  What is the nu-gaze scene like there?  Where, if you could pick anywhere, would you like to play on tour?

B: Hahahaha, its always funny to hear your band labeled. I can dig on those alright though I suppose. I think we as people (and label owners) are received really well around Southern California. The scene here is pretty cool, there are some great bands. It’s a pretty tight knit scene and they are all great people who we enjoy playing with and being around. As far as Glider goes, I think we get a much better response overseas and on the east coast. I personally would love to tour Europe, maybe Scandinavia.

R: So Cal is one of those places you come to once you’ve made it, it’s quite hard to start from here and make it, but not impossible.  We have been offered a 15 date tour in China and that would be extremely fun, someday soon I hope we will be able to make it happen, maybe early next year.

B: Yeah, China would be incredible.

R: I would love to play Ireland and Iceland the landscapes there are beautiful and so inspiring, we could get some great footage for videos as well.

What artists inspire you?  Are there any authors or books that have inspired your music?  If so, whom or what?  Are there any painters you admire that might inspire your work?

R: When listening to music I search for a certain emotion, something that touches me deeply. It can come from so many different artist, though usually only a few have more than one or two songs per album or even through their career that do it for me. Brian and I tend to watch quite a few movies and T.V. series on DVD and these tend to be a big inspiration for us. I guess we take the emotion that we experience while watching them and try to express it through music. As far as books go, I tend to read a lot of non-fiction, biographies or things where I am learning something new that I can use in my life. In some way I am sure they help make me who I am so they must affect the music we make. I appreciate painting but I am not very much into it. If something stands out such as an amazing painting or photo of the sky/sunset or nature then I look at that as something that complements the music we make, sort of like writing a soundtrack to one captured moment in time.

B: For music I am really inspired by Odelia, particularly their live show. Slowdive was a big inspiration early on. There are definitely some books that have inspired Glider songs, in particular ‘Mists of Avalon’, by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I’m currently reading ‘Winters Tale’, by Mark Helprin and it’s been pretty inspirational. I admire a lot of painting though I don’t really feel like it affects my music one-way or the other at all. I kind of think of it separately. Movies inspire me a lot. In fact, most of my better songs were written after watching a particularly moving movie. I’m also a big nature fan. I love hiking and the like. I get inspired a lot by being outdoors. Sometimes we go on hikes as a band out in the canyons near our home or down by the beach.

What have you been listening to lately?

E: A. Wind, Red Walled World. Big Wreck, Overemphasizing The Commodores, Easy. Dido, Here With Me. Kate Bush, Sunset and Breathing. Marvin Gaye, Lets Get It On. Ray Charles, Georgia On My Mind. Rick James, Mary Jane. Lots of Sigur Ros, Tool and Pink Floyd. Some Trespassers William, Van Morrison and some Usher. There’s a whole lot more but you get the idea.

B: A lot of modern composers: Philip Glass, Arvo Part, and  Michael Nyman. Erik Satie. Mostly stuff like that. As for rock music….hmmm…..I recently got back into Sigur Ros in a big way. Also, a lot of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush.

R: The Gabriel rocks!

Any other comments?

R: Jason, thank you so much for all your support and for being so kind to us and the other Artists on The Gaia Project. And thank you to all our fans. We hope to meet every single one of you on the road someday.

B: Don’t smoke crack. No, seriously. Don’t smoke crack. Also, if you’d like any more information about us or would like to hear songs or purchase a CD please check out our record labels website @ www.thegaiaproject.com.