| The Unseen.
These guys have been around for over 10 years now and they prove just how successful a band can be if you just keep pushing and progressing. Mark Unseen took a moment to answer a few of my questions included the topic of “selling out.” This one is well worth the read…
Jake: I wanna start off with the generic interview question that I KNOW you love answering over and over again. Who makes up The Unseen and how did you guys get started?
Mark: The Unseen is a 5 piece, and it is Marc (me) on vocals, Scott on lead guitar, Johnny on rhythm guitar, Trip on bass, and Pat on drums. This current lineup has been going on for the last 5 years, besides Johnny who’s been with us for a year.
We basically got started out of boredom. We all grew up in the same town, a suburban town in the middle of nowhere. We just got it together through common love of the same type of music. We started hanging out and started jamming because there was nothing else to do. We were like “let’s start a band,” than “let’s release a 7 inch” and then it was like “let’s go on tour.” We just kept making goals for ourselves.
Jake: I’ve notice that you guys have released albums on a couple of different labels.As an artist, what do you look for in a label?
Mark: It depends. At the beginning when we first started we just looked for anyone who would put a record out for us. It was hard. When we wanted to do our first album we were young kids (17-18 years old) with no history. Trying to find somebody that wants to spend money and help you record was hard to do. After our first label and people started to take interest in us, then we would kinda look at the label and just jot notes down like “this is why it’s a good label, this is why it’s not,” etc. When we started working with BYO that was our first real experience with a legit label. They released two albums for us and they did A LOT for us. They got us on the map and helped us learn what it’s like to be a real touring band. We still have a ton of respect for BYO and they have helped us a lot.
Then it came time to do another album and we started talking to Hellcat/Epitaph and they just seemed like the perfect place for us to go. Their stuff is available worldwide, which is pretty rare for a punk label. Epitaph/Hellcat has offices worldwide so it just seemed like the right thing to do. Plus they have a lot of great bands.
Jake: I’m gonna tread into touchy waters a bit here...let’s talk about “selling out.” It seems to me that ever since punk has been around there have been people saying “Oh so and so sold out.” What do you think is the biggest misconception about this?
Mark: With punk it is like a touchy subject. I think it kinda changes within a person with age, ya know? Usually those people who say that are young, like 15-17 years old. If those people stay involved in the punk world (which a lot of them don’t) they tend to change their views as they get old when they see how hard it is to do certain things.
My definition of selling out personally is completely changing your image and your message and what your about just to sell more records, especially in a short period of time. If we were to put out a punk record and then 1 month later put out a pop-punk album and try to be completely different and go with what’s hip and trendy in the mainstream, that, to me is selling out.
A band that sticks to their roots and doesn’t drastically change itself over the years, and they gain success whether it’s playing a video on MTV or selling 70,000 albums, to me I don’t think that’s selling out. It’s what they deserve.
Be sure to check out The Unseen’s new album “Internal Salvation,” hitting shelves July 10th.
Myspace.com/TheUnseen |
