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by jack marck (canopyplayer) - Apr 01, 2005
Relenter - Interview It was raining in the city of Orange and Blue. A hard rain. I pulled my bike up next to the bar where I supposed to meet my contact. And thus began a very fun and informative evening with the members of the C-U band Relenter. The history of the band as related to me by Chris Parker (vocalist/guitarist), Rob Martz (keyboardist), and Kenny Flores (drummer), was very interesting. Through the Mirror is an album three years in the making. Initially, it was intended to be a studio project only. In fact, when Martz was approached about possibly playing for this studio project, his first reaction was to decline: "I was so busy with work (Martz works at C.V. Lloyd's), that I felt I wouldn't have time for a band...a studio project wouldn't be as time consuming though and it would be good to work with other musicians." At the recommendation of a friend living in Champaign, Kenny Flores (who was living in Danville at the time and currently resides in Covington, IN), responded to a flyer. Parker and Martz were looking for something very specific and Flores fit the bill perfectly. Eventually, Parker, Martz, and Flores (formerly of Alliance) decided to take their project to a live, performance level. When asked about the band name, which I had quietly wondered about for some time, Martz replied "We looked in a dictionary, found a word that kind of fit and added 'er' to it. People ask us and I have to admit, there's no cool story, it doesn't mean anything. It just looked cool and sounded cool." Thus, in the summer of 2003, under their new name they began recording Through the Mirror at Martz's studio. Parker remembers the experience somewhat less than affectionately, but with a degree of humor: "We did vocals in July or August of 2003. Rob's A/C was not working very well and we couldn't have it on while we were recording so we had bags of ice in coolers and fans to try to keep the temperature down. If we could get it down to 97, we were doing really well. We only recorded in the evening and we turned the lights off to keep it as cool as possible. Rob has an atomic clock with a very accurate thermometer and it was around 100 pretty much the whole time." The band has been together for sometime now and has played quite a respectable number of shows, including the recent Openingbands showcase, and when asked about how they approach their live show, Martz replied "We do use some backing tracks, but even those were played by one of us at one time." Parker also emphasized the musicianship present in their live performances "We don't pretend to play anything live, we can play everything [you hear] we have played everything...It's something different, Terminus Victor and i:Scintilla are similar but we're a little lighter, more electronic rock than industrial...Very similar to Depeche Mode and The Cure." This is one band that has displayed remarkable stability and staying power. Martz mentioned how "getting to know each other and developing relationships has been a lot of fun and it's worked for a few years now...we've had a real good response." When asked about their plans for the future, Parker replied "We're working to promote out of town, especially on the Internet with sites like Myspace.com and our website. [We're] just taking it one step at a time." |