INTERVIEW: June Divided experience rebirth with ‘Body Wars’
Photo: The new EP from June Divided is called Body Wars. Photo courtesy of the band / Provided by Earshot Media with permission.
June Divided, the Philadelphia-based alternative rockers, have a new EP out and cannot wait to bring their revived sounds to audiences around the United States. Body Wars, on Revival Recordings, features seven songs that showcase the talents of band members Melissa Menago (vocals, keyboards, guitar), Chris Kissel (guitar), Keith Gill (drums) and Lenny Sasso (bass).
To celebrate the release of Body Wars, Menago and company are heading out on a tour with Shane Henderson. In the coming weeks, they make stops in North Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.
“It’s a seven-song EP,” Menago said in a recent phone interview. “Some people are calling it a mini album because it’s only seven songs, but we see it as an EP. … It was always an EP from the beginning because we really changed up our sound. This is kind of a rebirth for us a little bit. We’ve been around for a long time, and we did a whole overhaul. We realized what we were doing before wasn’t really what we wanted, and when I say before, I mean like five years ago. … We changed stuff around, and we experimented. And then we finally settled on Body Wars, and so we kind of wanted to make it an EP right out of the gate to test the waters with it. It was originally supposed to be five songs, and then two more were added.”
For the EP, June Divided kept the songs largely under wraps. They only tried one tune out on the road, and the others are brand new to fans.
“Two of the songs on the record we actually produced ourselves, so it’s very collaborative,” she said. “[‘Firestarter’], that’s probably the most collaborative track on the record, speaking of collaboration. … We used to just be two guitarists, bass, drums — that’s it. We were more of a straightforward rock band, and now we added all kinds of different elements. And to do that, we got new instruments. Now most of us are doing two instruments per person, and Keith added an electronic pad to his drum kit. So he had all these cool electronic sounds he was working on, a really cool beat that he came up with, which is in ‘Firestarter’ you’ll hear it, right in the beginning. I liked it. I was like, ‘Dude, do that again.’ He did it, and we recorded it. Then I took it back, and I kind of ran with it. Then the other guys ran with it, too.”
As June Divided have evolved over the years (releasing The Other Side of You in 2011 and Backbone in 2012), they have added experimentation to their list of skills. This means that the band members know one another quite well musically, but they are constantly challenging themselves.
“Us knowing each other musically is like the one thing that’s easier, but that’s only one element,” Menago said. “I feel like the songs come together live because we know each other better, but I feel like it’s actually hard because we definitely became more experimental. So maybe our personal bars all raised a little higher, especially with Body Wars. We were trying to change the sound, and we wanted to come up with something new. So it was actually harder because it wasn’t just a straightforward rock band. It went from pencil sketching to finger painting. All of a sudden we were like, oh my God, we can do so many things. So now it’s definitely harder because we’re kind of pushing ourselves more.”
The one constant for June Divided’s music has been their home base of Philadelphia, a city that Menago called “great.” The music scene in the city has helped many bands, and the local alternative rock station, 104.5, has shepherded the causes of local artists.
“The bands are super amazing,” the singer said. “You have a show, and you look out into the audience. And you do see a lot of other people in bands. They definitely support each other.”
Besides Philadelphia’s influence, Menago’s love for music probably comes from her father, who plays guitar and sings.
“He taught me my first song on guitar,” she said. “Probably since I can remember I think I was always plunking out melodies by ear on a piano, wherever I could get my hands on one. I taught myself how to read music by getting my friends’ hand-me-downs. My older friend was in piano lessons, and she would give me her old piano books. Or I would take them, and I taught myself how to read these from the books. My parents saw me doing that when I was probably really little, and they were like, oh, man. So they stuck me in lessons.”
Those lessons have definitely paid off.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
June Divided’s new EP is Body Wars, and the band is currently on tour with Shane Henderson. Click here for more information.
