Strange Condition

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Strange Condition—a break for Colorado Rock?

With the success of artists like The Fray, 3Oh!3 and OneRepublic many would agree that Colorado is past “the verge” of being a major player in the national music scene. These Colorado-born bands are only a few who are winning Grammys, going on major European tours and putting out No. 1 albums on the Billboard charts—leaving many to wonder, who’s next? With the exception of Boulder Hip Hop duo 3Oh!3, it seems like Colorado has a knack for producing bands with an eclectic Pop/Indie/Folk sound and style that is great for big festivals and long road trips, but we have yet to see a straight Rock band break on a national level—enter Strange Condition.

In the past year this Denver-based foursome proved that they are the real deal. They made it to the Top 10 in KTCL’s Hometown for the Holidays, produced a strong album (available only on the band’s MySpace) and put on one of the biggest local shows of the year at the Gothic Theater. If Matt Furlong (vox), Jas Kasten (guitar), Cody Kasten (drums) and Shaun Nelson (bass/vocals) keep the momentum going, 2009 won’t only be a big year for Strange Condition but quite possibly the year that Colorado’s Rock scene gets some long-awaited recognition.

I recently sat down with the guys and asked them about the past, the present and future of the band.

Q: What is the history of Strange Condition—how did the four of you come together?

Jas: "Cody and I are brothers and started playing our instruments together when we were 13. We had been through a ton of different singers and bass players through high school. The first night we met up with them there was instant chemistry and Strange Condition was born. The thing that set us apart form others at the time was the “dual” lead singer thing, with tons of harmonies. We had some success over the next year and a half but out of the blue our bass player decided to quit. Instantly Shaun came to mind and we sent him an email the very next day promising fame and prostitutes if he would join. Shaun came in to jam and right away the chemistry was incredible. The biggest surprise was his vocals. I really believe we would have all ended up together even if it weren’t through this path."

Jas: “I grew up listening to 80’s Metal. And I still do! I think another big inspiration was watching these dudes get tons of beautiful women. I’m still waiting for that to pay off. I’m pretty sure you either need to be a singer (girls love the dudes that can sing) or have the money that those rock band dudes have. I suppose I could quit eating an entire bag of Oreos at two in the morning and shed some pounds—that might help. Anyways, Cody and I pretty much grew up listening to and playing the same stuff. I think good old Heavy Metal shaped us but I think we can both say our biggest influence was a Canadian band called I Mother Earth. For years it was all we listened to.”

Shaun: “My influences? Other than alcohol and boobs? Incubus for sure, Weezer, Flea, P-nut; but my all time fav, although any time I see him play it makes me wanna quit playing, is Victor Wooten.”

Q: How would you describe your sound? Basically what is SC’s “identity”?

Jas: " I think each of us would describe [it] a little differently. The one thing we all agree on—and this has been scientifically proven—when you listen to our music it enhances the size of your breasts or penis. It also makes you appear more attractive to the opposite sex. Just the facts. I would describe SC’s stuff as straight-ahead Rock. We do have a mix of songs that rock with some a little slower, some acoustic here and there, but still just straight forward. No gimmicks – although we are pretty humorous life loving dudes our music is not what some people would consider goofy or humorous. Its super cliché to say, but we write from the heart and hope that it connects with people. Stay true to ourselves. Cliché, Cliché. But if this doesn’t work we are totally going the boy band route. A little plastic surgery, couple of stomach staples and Casio keyboards and we are there!"

Shaun: “I would compare us to a little mix of Foo Fighters and Incubus, with just a dash of Britney Spears.”

This was about the point in the interview when I put down the pen, sat back and let the guys take over—they might be the most entertaining band I’ve had the chance to interview yet…if music doesn’t pan out for these guys they might want to give comedy a shot.

Q: Getting back on track, describe how the SC sound has changed from when the band first started to what the sound is now. Many would agree that your sound now is a lot different than when you guys first came out. What do you have to say about it?

Jas: “We have for sure progressed, which is just a natural thing over a couple of records and years. I think that you never want to do the same thing twice musically and variety was always something we kind of liked, but ultimately hurt us. I think Shaun joining the band just happened to also be at the same time when the rest of us really found ourselves musically. We used to try to be too technical before. Now we just let the song do what it needs to.”

I had the pleasure of sitting in on a studio session and seeing these four musicians work on a rough track. It’s amazing how they can go from cracking (inappropriate) jokes to writing an amazing song in the same five minutes.

Q: Talk about your writing process—I got to see a little of it first hand, which was great. But go into some detail on what inspires you guys to write the music/lyrics that you do.

Jas – Usually I will come up with a couple of riffs at home on the acoustic. (all of our songs can be played acoustically by the way). If we are not having a strict rehearsal, I’ll throw the riffs out there. From there it is really an all around collaboration. For instance, the song we were working on when you were there started with a riff I had been messing with at home. Right away Shaun had a couple ideas on some of the chord changes. Cody is very unique in the way he writes. Any drummer can throw a 4/4 beat under something but Cody really analyzes and writes very “musical” sounding drums. Ryan will just get this look on his face all of a sudden and start writing down lyrics. Its like he hears the stuff we are all doing and you can see that he has all of a sudden taken to a memory or something—like he is having an out-of-body experience and re-living something. At this point it is a complete collaboration of four dudes. Everyone has ideas for everyone else’s parts. I think it makes our music very organic. And when I say organic, I mean orgasmic. We installed vibrating couch cushions just to enhance things when we have guests over to rehearsals."

Q: It’s obvious that there is no shortage of personalities in this band. How would you describe each other’s personalities/talents and what each person brings to the mix?

Jas: “Cody is the best looking, Shaun has the tallest mo hawk and I am the most naked.”

Shaun: “Jas is definitely the super goofy dude in the group…I don’t think he has progressed mentally since about 1992. I myself was a class clown of sorts through high school and I tend to be randomly funny/offensive. Cody, for the most part, is the quieter one; which just means he doesn’t have a mic in front of him at practice, so we can’t hear him.”

Q: How is the group dynamic—it seems that you all joke a lot and have really good relationships with each other but you are also very professional at the same time.

Jas: Obviously Cody and I have been best friends since we were born but its pretty crazy the chemistry that we have, not just as a band but also as friends. We have our issues but we have always been able to get past anything that has come up. The hardest thing is all the hours that have to be put in on an everyday basis on stuff that has nothing to do with actual music, playing or songwriting. I personally easily spend three hours a day on band-related “business”. Its crazy how much of that there is and we still don’t get it all done. ‘Sex, drugs and Rock ‘n Roll’ is more like: find time to masturbate, stress medication, and constant practice!"

Shaun: “We all get on each others nerves from time to time… the good thing is, we don’t hold back. If Jas gets really drunk, and starts removing his clothing in public—we grab a camera.”

Q: Tell us about your latest album and the songs you are working on.

Jas: "We have been blessed enough to have a few of our new songs make their way into the hands of some very big names in the music industry. We keep hearing “multiple hit” from these people and to be exact they are really excited about three songs in particular: Consequence, Never Fade, and the recent version of If You Fall."

Shaun: “The songs that we have recorded are all gonna be huge hits…maybe not on the charts, but I’m sure that at some point, someone will use the CD as a weapon.”

A true testament to SC’s talent is the amount of people that turned out to support them at their January CD release at the Gothic Theatre. Never before have I seen a local band pull a crowd that big and put together the caliber of show everyone witnessed that night; everything from the song selection to the performance quality to the band’s energy rivaled a major label concert experience. "The funny thing about SC is that people in the “music” scene don’t even really know who we are," says Jas. “The people that come to our shows are usually just your average music fans, not really people from the scene. I think we’ve fallen under the radar with that group for some reason. Our last show at the Gothic was right around 800 people. We owe a ton of our recent success to 93.3 KTCL. After they put us in rotation for Hometown for the Holidays our numbers really climbed. Our fans are pretty incredible. We have one fan that has only missed one or two shows over the last few years -and he even got our logo tattooed on his arm! We are really fortunate to have people support us like that and enjoy the music enough to keep helping us have large pulls when we play.”

Q: So what does the future hold for Strange Condition?

Jas: "We have some very big things in the works right now and are talking to some “people”. But it is still something we are not really at liberty to talk about. Right now the future is bright…not bright enough for sunglasses, but we definitely should squint a little…we have a lot of big things in the works, and if all goes to plan, then we will be on tour this summer, doing dive bars and strip clubs throughout the country."

The band has caught the attention of major labels and have recently added Michale Papale (formerly of Interscope Records, The Firm, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Ice Cube, and many others) to be their national manager. They are also currently talking to Rob Thomas with AEG Live to represent Strange Condition as local management.

MySpace.com/StrangeCondition