Interview with local band, Life in a Glass House

Written by Patrick Fort in Features, Front Page on Apr 13, 2012 4:28 / comments

Many great bands have come from the bustling Denver/Boulder Metro music scenes. Devotchka, The Apples in Stereo, The String Cheese Incident and The Yonder Mountain String Band have all come out of our great state. One band that has been recently making noise on the local scene is Life in a Glass House.

Life in a Glass House could be described as a hybrid of the bands Brand New and Circa Survive. They are melodic, yet their guitar playing can be downright brutal. To counter this, the band also incorporates many acoustic instruments into their music with strings and light-hearted percussion are always in the background.

Three of the five members of Glass House who go to CU from left, Thomas Miller, Mickey Postillion and Tom Casey. (CU Independent/Patrick Fort)

On Saturday April 7^th, I spoke with all five members of the up-and-coming band: John Anderson (JA), Joey Glassman (JG), Thomas Miller (TM), Tommy Casey (TC) and Mickey Postillion (MP), all CU students.

How long have you guys been playing together?

TM: “We have been playing…well, we have been together since our freshmen year in high school, so about six years, but with the current band, about two years.”

So this is not the original lineup?

JG: “We started in high school with myself, Thomas, Mickey, and John sometimes (laughter). There was this other dude named Cameron who we called “Chooby” and then Al Buck…well, we had two bass players. So there was that in high school, and near the end of it, we kicked John out a couple of times.”

Long story short, right? You just released your first full length album entitled “Wires in Nature”. What was that writing process like during the two and a half years that it took to produce it?

JA: “It sucked ass. It sucked, really bad. Hashing out the album, beforehand especially, was really grueling. We had decided to have all of our parts down live before we recorded anything. Especially with “The Artifice” (a track on their album Wires in Nature), it wasn’t even written the whole way really, so we started on drums pretty much the day before we started recording or something like that. And that process was just grueling.”

TM: “I thought it was great. I didn’t have any troubles with it necessarily. I mean, the way I wrote all of the bass parts was like…’Yo I came up with this idea. Play bass to it’. And then in about thirty seconds I would learn it. And then I would forget the part. And we wouldn’t play it at live shows because of it. So I would just have to rewrite the part. I ended up rewriting the entire part for ‘Even the Liar’ (another track on Wires).”

TC: “On a serious note, I think that the coolest thing about writing and recording the album is that we had made the songs already, but once we played the songs and practiced them together, they took on a completely new essence. Once it was a collaborative effort, it made the songs better and better every time that we added something. It was amazing. When Mickey wrote “The Artifice,” he came to us and said, ‘Guys, I need help with this part,’ and we all came together to form the entire second half of that song.”

JG: “Did you want particulars as to how we wrote?”

Sure.

JG: “Well what I remember doing, is I would play a groove on the drums and someone would play the chords on guitar or something. And the other two people, the other two guitars, would write their parts as we were just looping those few chords. After they found something they liked, they would keep practicing it and memorize it.”

The name of your band is a Radiohead song. How much of an influence does Radiohead have on your music?

JG: “Yes, yes and more yes. I just recently got into Radiohead and that song is on their like, least famous record. It is the last song [off the album "Amnesiac"], and it is just so cool. And it makes me really proud, because I know that all of these guys have been listening to Radiohead since they were like, conceived. The song is really cool, and it’s really cool that they have such a big influence on us”

MP: “It is hard finding bands that have the same setup as us; three guitars is a really hard thing to work with and manage, so every time I hear a band with three guitars I automatically…” (he is interrupted)

Rest of Band: “Like Lynard Skynard?!”

MP: “Just like Lynard Skynard. But yeah Radiohead was a big influence. Receiving End of Sirens, a whole bunch of them. They have their own dynamics and we kind of need to find our own. So seeing how they incorporate so many sounds at once is really inspiring to me.”

What other bands have influenced your style?

JG: “I already mentioned Radiohead, but aside from that I am really inspired by some of my drummer friends at DU. I am also really into jazz. I play a lot of jazz at school. Even The Deerhunter and Circa Survive. I even had a bunch of angry music: Mudvayne, Between the Buried and Me, a whole bunch of other ones.”

MP: “Death Cab for Cutie for their ambience and space. Even the bass guitar. Sigur Ros, I like them a lot. Circa Survive is our main influence though. And Thrice is huge for us. The more we make music, the more Thrice we put in.”

You have a show on Tuesday in Englewood at Moe’s Original BBQ and Bowl. Do you have any other shows in the Denver/Boulder area?

TM: “May 19^th at the Hi-Dive, 18 and up.”

JA: “I think first we just really want to get out there and play more. We just love playing and performing. It is just so much fun, but the exposure, I guess, would be nice.”

JG: “I think we just wanna play, especially because we just released this album. There are a few more shows coming soon as well.”

Be sure to check out this local band this spring in some of the most intimate venues in Denver and Boulder.

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Patrick Fort at [email protected].