Exhale is:
Corey McLane - Vocals/Rhythm Guitar/Songwriter
John Burns - Drums/Backing Vocals/Songwriter
Matt Vigeant - Bassist/Backing Vocals
Mike Fintonis - Lead Guitar
Buy Music Here:
BOOTLEG METAL: So let’s get things started with the name. Who came up with the name and what’s behind it?
EXHALE: What's in a name? Well, our original drummer
and close friend, Ken Billingsley, came up with the band name 'Exhale'.. We
wanted something easy to spell, say and understand.. Plus, we were all partial
to the idea of having a one word band name. I suppose you can get all deep and
meaningful about it and say things like, "It's the last thing we do before
we die." Or "It's an'exhale' of notes".. but really, we just
thought 'Exhale' sounded like a pretty cool band name.
BOOTLEG METAL:
Where is the band from?
EXHALE: Exhale is a 4-piece, hard rock/grunge band
from Boston, MA.
BOOTLEG METAL: Is this the original line up and
how did you guys find yourselves in the same band ?
EXHALE: This is not the original lineup. I think we
pretty much got together one member at a time to assemble our current lineup,
but Matt Vigeant(Bass) and John Burns(Drums) have been with me for about 6+
years or so and our Lead Guitarist, Mike Fintonis(Finny) was our latest and
final addition and he started sometime around March, 2017... So we are creeping
up on about a year soon.
BOOTLEG METAL: How long has (the band) been
around and how long after your first rehearsal was it before the first show?
EXHALE: The band originally formed in 2004 and our
current lineup has been together for just about a year. If I can recall, I
think we took about 5-6 months of rehearsing after Fin joined the band, before
we decided to book our first show.
BOOTLEG METAL: Does everyone contribute to the
writing process or does someone generally write the lyrics and/or music?
EXHALE: I do the majority of the writing and our
drummer, John, wrote a handful of our songs, but I think it's safe to say that
everyone partakes in the creative aspect of our music after the initial 'proof
of concept' has been written. Sometimes that's a format idea or it could be
more of a complete rewrite of a section of a song. We are not the type of band
where everyone has free rein to play whatever they want while the rest of us
accept it as is. We often remind each other that our creative choices should
always be made to benefit the song as a whole, not just the instrument that
each of us is playing in the song. We are frequently working on each others
instrumental parts so things sound more 'composed' and less 'show boat-like'
than they would probably sound otherwise. We think it helps us maintain healthy
working relationships within our band to be able to hash out ideas for each
instrument, but doing so as a full band, while sharing the mindset that we are
trying to create the best product possible, within our means.
BOOTLEG METAL: What are your songs about?
Fact? Fiction? Personal experiences?
EXHALE: It truly depends on the song. Most of our
lyrics are about personal experiences or emotions. Although, I have definitely
written songs about an event or experience that a close friend or relative has
gone through, but then I'll change some pronouns around so it sounds like the
'writer' is the one that went through the experience. As a fan of music, I tend
to feel closer to lyrics when I think the story is being told about the writer,
by the writer.. Simply put; using 'I' or 'me' instead of 'he' or 'him' is more
impactful to a listener, in my opinion..
BOOTLEG METAL: What genre do you feel (the band)
fit’s in the best and what influenced your writing to get you there?
EXHALE: I prefer to group 'Exhale' in as a 'Grunge'
band, primarily, but a lot of people these days are big on using 'proper'
labels, so I suppose we are more accurately described as a 'Post Grunge' band.
To make things easy, we usually say, "We're a hard rock/grunge
band".. and not surprisingly, I grew up obsessing over grunge bands like
Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, etc.. Today, I still love all
of those bands, but I also praise bands such as: A Perfect Circle, HURT,
Seether & Breaking Benjamin.. All of which are influenced by the grunge
era, in my opinion.. I think the main reason why I love grunge is because I
think of it as being the least-restrictive genre of rock music. As a writer,
you can branch out and use ideas from a very wide variety of other genres and
at the end of the day, you can still call it grunge. I love that!
Bootleg Metal: So I really felt Count The Days
man. Just a sweet vibe here. Any back story to it?
EXHALE: Thank you! I actually wrote 'Count The Days'
more than a decade ago, but I never felt like it reached it's full potential
until we just finished tracking it as our main single for our first full-length
album. The lyrics to 'Count the Days' are primarily about losing someone close
to you and from that, finding the different ways to mourn and cope with the
aftermath.. Some people turn to drugs or booze to numb themselves, while others
might use the severity of the loss to turn his/her life around to start making
the best of it, in order to honor the deceased.. Sort of a; 'what would this
person want me to do with my life?', kind of thing.. Then I did everything I
could to cram it with double meanings to essentially disguise it as a sad love
song, which I'm pretty sure is the most common interpretation of 'Count The
Days' and I'm totally comfortable with that.
I've
always had an appreciation for songs that could be interpreted as a simple love
song, but if the listener digs deeper into the lyrics, they can feel something
dark and tragic behind the meaning. BOOTLEG METAL:
Nice man and wow, 10 years on the back burner. Good move holding on to
that one.
Bootleg Metal: So yeah, the Count The Days video.
Nicely done. Anything you can tell us about making it?
EXHALE: It was a total blast to make the video,
despite the fact that our whole band was sick with a head-cold at the time. It
took about 9 hours of filming, 2 dozen donuts and the brilliant mind of our
director, Jay Golde(www.JayGolde.com), to make the 'Count The Days' music video
happen. I actually spent some time walking around with my own video camera to
get some behind the scenes/the making of, type of footage, which we plan to
upload to our youtube channel in the near future.
BOOTLEG METAL: What was your latest gig?
EXHALE: Our latest gig was up at Jewel in Manchester,
NH.. which, if you ask me, is definitely one of the best venues to play in the
New England area.. We performed a full-band acoustic set as direct support for
the band 'Trapt', which was very cool! I remember listening to 'Trapt' when I
was a teenager, so sharing the stage with those guys was a very humbling
experience.
BOOTLEG METAL: Where have you played live this
year?
EXHALE: Since we've been gigging for less than a year
now, we've stuck to the New England area for shows so far, but we are in the
midst of planning an east coast tour down to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and back
up home to Boston, MA. As of now, we're looking at the month of August, 2018. Bootleg Metal: Good luck on the road, I will have
to keep an eye out for that.
BOOTLEG METAL: Is there a favorite cover that
always finds it’s way on your set list and is there a story behind it?
EXHALE: We actually don't play any cover songs...
yet.. We wrote and recorded over 30 tracks, so we've been solely focused on
completing those before we start hashing out ideas for adding any cover tunes.
BOOTLEG METAL: Is there a past show that stands
out from the rest?
EXHALE: New York! The place above the venue we were
playing at caught on fire. The Fire Department showed up and told us to get
outside. We hadn't even performed yet at this point, but of course all of our
gear was in the club. Our brothers from the band 'Virtue Falls' were somewhere
in the middle of their set, which was incredible by the way.. Anyway, so
someone from the venue managed to talk the Fire Department into letting us all
run back inside to get our equipment. They had been spraying water on the floor
above us, so it was on its way to start pouring through the ceiling and onto our
gear. I have never seen that much gear unloaded that quickly in my life. It was
remarkable. The other bands, the crowd and the venue's staff were all rushing
the gear out onto the street. We were boxed in by the Fire Department outside
the venue for about 2 hours before we could load our gear into our van and
drive back home. It was certainly a night we'll remember forever. BOOTLEG METAL: Wow
man, that’s horrible… although it makes for a pretty cool story. Glad everyone
got out ok.
BOOTLEG METAL: So what’s in the works for (the
band)?
EXHALE: Well, we are planning that east coast tour in
August! Plus, we plan to finish mixing and mastering the rest of our first
album, which includes a total of 13 tracks. After that, we'll move onto our 2nd
album, which we already recorded, but we will still need to mix and master it
before we release it to the public. -our 2nd album is also 13 tracks.
Additionally,
we plan to have our first line of girl's tank tops available just in time for
summer and we will also have Exhale hoodies available some time in the late
fall.
On top
of that, we have a very big show coming up in May, with 2 huge national acts
headlining the night. That show will be up at Jewel in Manchester, NH.. but we
aren't permitted to say anything else about it just yet...
BOOTLEG METAL: What are your thoughts on your
local music scene?
EXHALE: I love our music scene up here! Seldom do we
play with any bands that we aren't impressed by and given how much we gig, I
think that says a lot about how ridiculously talented most of our local bands
are. It may have become much more difficult to get people to pile into a venue
for a local show, but the plus side is that I think it's bonded the bands
together in a different way. It's definitely much more of a community than it
was 10+ years ago when I was gigging locally. Part of that could be the age
thing, but I think a lot of it is that musicians have been sort of forced to
realize the importance of promoting and supporting each other at this point; in
order to continue putting on great local shows that can draw large crowds of
music lovers. To anyone complaining about how they think new music sucks.. My
advice to you is to start going to local shows and I'm confident that you'll be
pleasantly shocked at how amazing a lot of these bands are and how hard they
work just to be heard. Incredible music is still being made! It's just not
being recognized as easily these days.. You've got to look for it!
BOOTLEG METAL: Is there a recent album/EP release
you’d like to tell us about and where can we get it?
EXHALE: Absolutely! So our 3-song ep is completely
free if you join our mailing list: www.exhalemusic.com/mailinglist
As for
our other tracks, they are available to purchase through our bandcamp page: www.exhalemusic.bandcamp.com/ as well as almost all other music
distribution platforms: itunes, amazonmusic, googlemusic, etc..
Or to
listen to our songs for free, we have everything up on spotify as well.. Plus,
our youtube channel includes a lyric video for every single that we've
released. Our youtube channel can be found at: www.youtube.com/c/exhalevideo
BOOTLEG METAL: Do you have merchandise for sale?
EXHALE: We do! We have Men's T-shirts, Women's V-Neck
T-shirts & our very popular Exhale Koozie's, which come in a wide
assortment of colors! All of our merch is available at: www.exhalemusic.com/merch
However,
we offer our merch at a fraction of the price if you make your purchase at an
Exhale show.
BOOTLEG METAL: Where can you be found online?
BOOTLEG METAL: As far as videos, sites, merch,
ect. Are you guys more of a DIY band or do you hire out?
EXHALE: A little of both. We work with a company over
in the UK to create all of our lyric videos. Our official music video for our
single, 'Count The Days', was directed and filmed by a friend of ours, Jay
Golde and we couldn't be happier with the way Jay's vision for the video came
out! Our social media sites are run by us and I coded our website myself, from
scratch, in notepad, using mostly old school HTML because that's what I'm
familiar with. It was the cheapest option, but I don't recommend taking on that
adventure to anyone.. it took a long time and wasn't a whole lot of fun.. Our
merch is done by our friend Ivy, from UCMerch! She's been amazing to work with!
Her prices are shockingly affordable and the quality is perfect every time! You
can get in touch with Ivy at: www.UCMerch.com
As far
as our music goes.. We record and mix everything ourselves in our home studio.
BOOTLEG METAL: Do you have or are you looking for
a label/manager?
EXHALE: Not actively, no. We plan to stay
self-managed for as long as we can endure it and if we are ever offered
anything from a label, we will definitely consider our options carefully.
BOOTLEG METAL: One question I like to ask. What
song (if any) by another artist do you wish you wrote?
EXHALE: There are many songs I could list here, but
the first few that come to mind are:
'FMLYHM' by 'Seether' (I don't even know why,
exactly. I think it's funny and extremely clever!)
'Pet'
by 'A Perfect Circle' (Such a unique piece of music and the vocals are equal
parts - badass and haunting)
'That(Such
A Thing)' by 'HURT' (This song is incredibly real and holds so much beauty in
its meaning. The fact that such a gloomy, dark band like 'HURT' could create
something so uplifting and positive is truly remarkable in my opinion..)
BOOTLEG METAL: Is there another artist or band
that is totally not your genre that you listen to?
EXHALE: Most definitely! I am obsessed with Karen
Marie Garrett's work! Plus, I still stand by Sarah Brightman as being the
greatest female vocalist of all time.
BOOTLEG
METAL: If you could pick, past or present, would there be a dream collaborator
(artist/producer) you would like to work with?
EXHALE: James Michael from Sixx: A.M. I think his
work is brilliant and he seems like he'd be a really cool dude to make music
with. BOOTLEG METAL: James Michael,
nice choice.
BOOTLEG METAL: How do you think downloading music
whether legal or illegal affected the music community?
EXHALE: I am torn on this one, honestly. There are
many benefits to downloadable music for us local bands, but I can imagine the
frustration of being a bigger band and having everything that you worked really
hard on get stolen from you, essentially. From our end though, we're just
grateful that people are listening to our music =)
BOOTLEG METAL:
Thanks for taking the time to talk with us and answering the questions. Is
there anything you’d like to add?
EXHALE: Well I'd very much like to thank you PJ and
the rest of you guys over at Bootleg Metal for spending some of your time with
Exhale and allowing me to answer your questions. I hope that any hard
rock/grunge fans that are reading this will take the time to listen to our
music. www.ExhaleMusic.com
Please
go support your local music scene and try to get out to as many shows as you
can!
Thanks
again!
-Corey
McLane from Exhale
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