During the promotion of their album Wading In Time rock band Shipwreck Motel was interviewed by Yvonne Han of The Sound of Modesty. Lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Sam Scarpelli offered insight into his reclusive music group, the creative process and future plans...
How did you go about creating Wading In Time? What was your process? Was it similar to all your other bodies of work?
Wading In Time has been an interesting album for me, mostly because it consists of a bunch of songs that I abandoned and kind of forgot about. I originally wrote them back in 2013, so it's been a few years, and then this year I realized it's a shame to sit on that many songs and just forget about it, ya know? So I went back and added bass and vocals and guitar, and kind of called it good. I've been doing a lot of recording for other bands this past year, so it's definitely helped a lot in terms of remixing the songs and mastering them. When it comes to the process for all of these songs, I wrote them on acoustic guitar, and then once I really got the song down in my head I sat down on the drum kit and actually played drums first. I found that if you lay down the beat it's a great foundation for the song, and then you can build everything off of it. Like a one man band kind of thing.
Was it like that with other songs and albums? Or did it take you a while to find what worked for you in terms of creating tracks?
I think in the past most of my material has kind of been recording just solo acoustic songs, and I never really felt like they were done, I kind of just considered them as demos. But then as time went on I kind of looked back and realized I was never going to record them again, so I might as well release it. And I'd say that's about at least half of all the albums I've released, where demos ended up being the final version. In terms of other albums I think this album is just weird because it was kind of scatter brained all around, and peace meal when I put it together, but I think the end result turned out organized.
Was there anything you had to do when promoting your new album?
I mostly stuck to Instagram. I'm pretty tech savvy, ya know, 'cause it's part of this generation. Instagram I've become pretty attached to, I think it's a great way to bring other people on board, especially since it's more a close community kind of thing, and YouTube is also. It's much more open, but I'm not very video savvy, not too good at the visual end. I've been able to put together some promotional snippets of each song with some concept artwork and photos I've been taking to kind of fit the concept of the album
Why did you choose Bandcamp to release your music?
I really like Bandcamp, I'm kind of connected to it because I was there when it first came out in like 2009 or whatever, and it's a very organized platform which I appreciate, it's very easy to navigate for people. I sort of consider it to be more like an archive for my band, I sort of see it like a discography, because unfortunately up to this point it hasn't really generated much money in terms of that end of things, but I still really like it, I think it's a great website, a great thing for indie artists. I definitely need to expand and probably think about iTunes and Spotify exposure, they're definitely big, but honestly I just haven't really looked into that yet.
Why did you want to release Wading In Time?
To me it's more like I needed to. I've just always been an artist. It started with poetry and then I moved into music, and so I just find myself generating all this artwork and music and I just feel like I need to get it out there. I don't want to squander an opportunity and a gift, but I'm also not necessarily like a very public type person, definitely more of a shy kind of person, so it's always something I'm working towards. I mean the most important thing with music to me, it's sort of selfish, I make music mostly for myself, because you know, why would you make music that you don't like listening to? And so I just kind of hope that if I like it someone else will have similar taste and like it as well. Of course, who wouldn't like to make money from music, that's always the dream!
What is it like organizing an album release party?
So far it's all new to me, but I think my main focus is gonna be just to have fun, really embgrace the party aspect of it. I find it's really great to perform for people, exhilerating, and I'm excited to perform new songs and hoping for a good response. You never can tell how some things will turn out, some shows. I've played a handful of shows with bands in the past, and sometimes the crowd is really into it, sometimes they 're just kind of standing there confused, but it's all good! I just relish the opportunity to play my music for people, even if just one person cares, it makes it all worth it.
Were there any challenges with setting it up and promotion?
I feel like word of mouth is definitely important. In whatever hometown someone is in, if they're in a band then of course flyers around town are always good. We're definitely in the internet age, so social media can be helpful for that sort of thing, but honestly I think just having a band playing shows is the best thing for you to get the word out there. Just keep playing shows and try to play shows that aren't just at bars.
If you were to do this process for the album release over again, what would you change?
I think if I did it again I would make everything much more cohesive. If I actually had a band together first before recording the album then it would be easier for us to move forward together, because it can be tough having an album complete and then having to teach it to someone else, it's kind of interesting.