IndiePulse Interviews: Count Me In

Posted on December 4, 2018 by Joseph Timmons in featured, Featured Content, Interviews, news // 0 Comments

On occasion, IndiePulse Music Magazine interviews artists with a flair for the unique, the interesting and the funny, during our interview with David of the band known as Count Me In. during our correspondence David responded in a way that was very much like a “self-interview” which I personally found introspective and insightful, so, as something new, I have taken the interview and stripped out the questions, and left just the answers, along with the tone of a conversation not between magazine and artist, but possibly as two people meeting for the first time, in a candid and honest approach.

In addition to some videos and images, as with all our interviews, there is a very special something about this band I feel you should seek out for yourself. Without further delay, I introduce David of Count Me In

Hi, we’re Count Me In, nice to meet you.

What do we sound like? Take the pop punk glory days of the late 90’s and early 2000’s; the songwriting, the catchy hooks, and all of the memories those songs were the soundtrack to, and sprinkle in a dash of our modernized flavor. That’s us!

Hailing from Kelowna Canada and Reykjavik Iceland, comes the pop punk sound you know and love, with a slightly grown up and matured twist (but definitely NOT too mature!).

Featuring members of Internationally renowned acts Shreddy Krueger (InVogue Records) and Secret & Whisper (Tooth & Nail Records), the boys are out to make another giant footprint in the music scene with Count Me In.

With uniquely complimenting dual lead vocalists, bright crunchy guitars that make you want to start playing an instrument, smooth and low chunky bass, and more tasteful mind bending drum fills than you can shake a stick at, you’ll find yourself singing along to a catchy chorus that’ll be stuck in your head in no time.

Please sit back and enjoy our first 12 song full length record entitled, “How’s Your Heart, Kid?”, a question that anyone who made it through adolescence has asked themselves at least once or twice.

This is the style of music that we grew up with, the style that holds some of the best memories of our lives, and the style that got us all inspired enough to play instruments many years ago. Even though a few of us took a direction in the more heavier sense in our previous bands, we always wanted to come full circle and create the music that made us want to create music for others. 15 years later, we finally found ourselves in the right place and the right time and did it, we made the pop punk record our junior high selves would’ve wanted to listen to. We always joke and say that we’d be our own favorite band when we were 14 (ha ha!)

About me, well, I’m David, I play the lead guitar and do most of the song writing and I produce the band too. Then we have Jason, our rhythm guitarist and the little higher pitched of the 2 vocalists. Alex is our bass player and the second of our dual wielding vocalists. And then we have Ryan slapping the drums and being the voice of reason when we’re all losing our minds. Ryan and I have played together in professional bands for 10+ years… we know exactly how we work and how to collaborate together to write a song and him and I are very in sync on the details that make a song really good. Jason, Alex and myself have all been friends for years upon years, since high school with Alex and Jason and I since we were 5 years old. We’re all pretty much the same dude and are in it to just write the best song possible and to have as much fun as we can while doing it. Everyone contributes, and since we all have the same common goal and really understand our sound and process, it makes things go very smooth so we can focus on the creative side of it. Still takes us like 100 hours to write a single song though, but hey, you can’t rush solid gold.

We really have our process worked out. This was something Ryan and I really brought to the band and it was totally different than what Jason and Alex had done previously. Those 2 guys have actually been the original dudes in Count Me In for like 5 years, but they never had a solid lineup other than that. Once our previous band Shreddy Krueger took a break for about half a year, I asked the guys if they wanted to start it back up and write a record. It was a lot of putting a “method to the madness” and really owning that vision of what the sound should be. It’s something I’ve had a lot of experience with in music and in my day job, and Alex and Jason just instantly picked it up and it became second nature to them. We were all on board with exactly what we wanted to create almost form day 1 and actually accomplished it.

Funny thing… we’ve never played a show after the record came out! The 3 guys live in Western Canada in our hometown, and a month after we finished tracking the album I moved to Reykjavik Iceland for a job. BUT, I’ll be going back to play some shows and I’m not moved away forever and we’ll be spreading the live show shortly. Actually probably in Iceland before Canada haha! The closest thing we have to a performance is us facetiming or skyping with guitars just making a ton of noise… so kind of cool if you would really want to hear it!

In August we just released a 12 song album called How’s Your Heart, Kid? Of all the albums I’ve been a part of over the years, I was just SO proud to put this one out… all of us guys were. We have a few singles and videos for the title track and another one called No Surprise. We had some friends since on a few songs as well, Jordan Chase from Shreddy Krueger/Secret and Whisper, Stu McKillop from Daggermouth / Youth Decay and Joshua Herzer from Lions Lions. It was really sweet to get our good friends to lend their voices and they just nailed their parts. They all have big features… full bridge, full verse, etc, so you really get to hear them shine. The one song on the album, the closer, called Thawed is my favorite. Alex and I wrote the start to that one at about 2:30am after just finishing another song, and after drinking about 100 beers. The next morning we listened back and were like…. whoa…. this one is good. Ended up being both of our favorites!

Since we haven’t played outside of our jam space or the internet… nothing too wild (ha ha!) When we were just finishing up writing one of the last songs, My Paradise, Alex and I were in the studio and we had to get up to Jason’s house about 1km down the road for his baby gender reveal… he was having his first child. BUT we couldn’t leave with the song 99% finished, that’s impossible. So I recorded possibly one of the most ripping bass tracks I’ve ever done in one take, rendered out the song, threw it in google drive, and we ran to Alex’s car. We drove so fast in his little VW Golf that we were basically hovering. The song is screaming through the speakers since the upload just finished, and then we get a notification from Facebook that the gender reveal is Live. We ended up drifting into Jason’s driveway while everyone is on the front lawn, our own band max volume through the speakers, and missed it by 30 seconds. All the friends and family were just in shock and staring at us… ruining it for everyone. In our defense, they did do the reveal 2 minutes early and we were technically on time! Oh well, he had a rad baby girl and we partied.

Honestly… just to get these songs out there and heard by as many people as possible. To inspire just 1 kid to pick up an instrument and love the music he listens to and creates. We’ve started writing a second full length, and then I need to get my ass back to Canada to really get everything in action. But not before those guys come to Iceland and play… there’s an awesome music scene here and some really cool bands we gotta play with first.

I would like you all to know that this is honest music. These are real guys playing their instruments, singing with their voices, and writing songs as 4 guys locked in a 500sq ft studio for basically an entire year. We don’t have any tricks up our sleeves or “recording magic”, it’s us being real and creating the good old fashioned pop punk sound that we all know and love, which is harder and harder to find nowadays in its true form. We hope you lend 3 minutes of your time to check out a song and hopefully dig it enough to share with a friend.