EXCLUSIVE
“ THIS WILL MORE LIKELY our LAST FULL ALBUM ” NEW YORK QUARTET REVEL 9 CALLS IT QUITS ON FULL-LENGTHS . RELEASE SEMINOLE 3rd EFFORT .
You will never find a bigger champion for independent rock bands than DJ Pearlman from Revel 9 , a Grammy-nominated band from Deer Park , New York . A trilogy of 3 great records has brought the realization that they like others in the business are changing their to-market strategies because to the constantly evolving manner in which listeners are consuming music . Make no mistake he is a straight-shooter and will tell you what ’ s what , not to gain an advantage as much as it is to educate artist on how to better conduct their business . When one band wins , we all do .
Pictured above : DJ Pearlman
Whats been your biggest lesson as a songwriter since your first release , The Razorblade Diaries ?
DJ : Easily , I am 100 times the songwriter I was back then . I look at the whole transformation from Gee Davey to Revel 9 as a coming of age kind of thing , where I had to learn to write for real . I learned the art of writing the song and editing it down . Why certain things worked and certain things didn ’ t . I learned all of this on the Razorblade Diaries . Since that time I learned how to sing better and how to work better within a tight range . You learn to let a lot of things go when working with a producer , even your favorite parts that you fight to keep . You learn how to embrace the song . You end up with a finished product that you can ’ t find much wrong with .
Are you a songwriter that carries a voice recorder to get ideas down ?
DJ : I always keep a recorder going at rehearsal . If there is an idea i ’ ll hit record and save it . There are so many notes on my phone that say like , “ Wantaugh State Parkway , 12:30am “ LOL when I recorded an idea for a song . When I do come up with a riff I ’ m usually around some recording equipment . Aside from the flashlight , I can ’ t think of a better use for the phone LOL . Maybe the calculator ?
Is there anything that got left on the cutting room floor in editing ?
DJ : A bunch of stuff . I had entire verses cut out , and the producer said there needs to be music here . I was like “ well that ’ s important to the story line ”, so I had to go back and re write that . There was this song that got left off the record called “ Clutch ” and we love that song because it ’ s very classic Iron Maiden and we love that stuff , but the problem is that it ’ s dated and doesn ’ t sound like us . The producer come in the first day and heard the stuff we had and he said ‘ nope , that goes ’, and we were like ‘ yup , okay , no problem .’