Post by Heather on Nov 12, 2010 20:01:51 GMT -5
AloneMusic (11/8/10)
Alone Music interviews Jason "Cone" McCaslin, bassist of Sum 41 and co-founder, together with Todd Morse, of Operation MD.
Both you and Todd Morse are part of two famous rock bands. What brought you two together to form Operation MD?
We met each other on the Warped Tour in 2001 and then did some more tours together after that. We became really good friends during that time and decided to start writing music together.
The original name for the band was "The Operation MD," what made you choose to remove "The" from the title?
Not really sure. I think Todd one day just said "hey we should just drop the "The" and be called Operation MD". I said "ok"
What does the "MD" stand for?
Medical Doctor
What made you consider a medical themed name?
We wanted to perform as doctors and have nurses on stage so we decided to go with a medical themed name.
So you live in Toronto and Todd lives in Los Angeles; how does the distance affect your success in collaborating together?
It does and it doesn't. We don't get together and record or play shows as much as we'd like but so its tough to do a lot of things but with email we can send each other ideas for songs and go back and forth and talk about songs.
Do you manage to appear at all of your bands' commitments?
I Try to.
What made you decide to release the second Operation MD album worldwide as opposed to in only a few countries like you did with the first one?
On this new one we first decided to release it just as a digital release which made it a lot easier to release it world wide. We wanted to release the last one world wide too but it just never happened. We are now looking at releasing this new album as a physical copy in stores in Canada and also world wide from our Kill The 8 merch store. Hopefully November will be the release for that. Maybe later on we'll release our first album digitally world wide or something.
Operation MD's musical style is very different from Sum 41's; were you ever afraid that your fans would not appreciate the vast difference between the two?
Never really thought of that. I didn't want to make OpMD's style like Sum 41 because I was already doing Sum 41. I wanted it to be something different than I was already doing.
Do you and Todd intend to continue making music together?
I hope so. Its pretty fun. We haven't talked about anything but I'm sure we will.
What inspires your lyrics?
Mostly everyday life and things that have happened to me. I'm not very good at just making up stories so I have to write about things that have happened in my life.
Many songwriting teams have one partner who continually creates the music, and one partner who writes the lyrics; in your case, who is the musician and who is the lyricist?
We both do both. Sometimes I will have some music and Todd writes some lyrics and melodies for it or vise versa and sometimes either one of us brings a full song already done to the table.
Many popular bands in the past formed in high school and were discovered by talent scouts; now the situation is different. What do you think of this change, and, if any, what advice do you have to emerging bands such as these?
There are so many different ways to get "noticed" as a band these days. The internet has really brought a whole way to get your music out there. I would say use them all. Do your own videos on You Tube, Record songs and post them on Myspace, Tweet everyday all day. None of these things were around when Sum 41 started and now that there's sites like these, bands have to use them. You have to create your own buzz, no one will do it for you.
Alone Music interviews Jason "Cone" McCaslin, bassist of Sum 41 and co-founder, together with Todd Morse, of Operation MD.
Both you and Todd Morse are part of two famous rock bands. What brought you two together to form Operation MD?
We met each other on the Warped Tour in 2001 and then did some more tours together after that. We became really good friends during that time and decided to start writing music together.
The original name for the band was "The Operation MD," what made you choose to remove "The" from the title?
Not really sure. I think Todd one day just said "hey we should just drop the "The" and be called Operation MD". I said "ok"
What does the "MD" stand for?
Medical Doctor
What made you consider a medical themed name?
We wanted to perform as doctors and have nurses on stage so we decided to go with a medical themed name.
So you live in Toronto and Todd lives in Los Angeles; how does the distance affect your success in collaborating together?
It does and it doesn't. We don't get together and record or play shows as much as we'd like but so its tough to do a lot of things but with email we can send each other ideas for songs and go back and forth and talk about songs.
Do you manage to appear at all of your bands' commitments?
I Try to.
What made you decide to release the second Operation MD album worldwide as opposed to in only a few countries like you did with the first one?
On this new one we first decided to release it just as a digital release which made it a lot easier to release it world wide. We wanted to release the last one world wide too but it just never happened. We are now looking at releasing this new album as a physical copy in stores in Canada and also world wide from our Kill The 8 merch store. Hopefully November will be the release for that. Maybe later on we'll release our first album digitally world wide or something.
Operation MD's musical style is very different from Sum 41's; were you ever afraid that your fans would not appreciate the vast difference between the two?
Never really thought of that. I didn't want to make OpMD's style like Sum 41 because I was already doing Sum 41. I wanted it to be something different than I was already doing.
Do you and Todd intend to continue making music together?
I hope so. Its pretty fun. We haven't talked about anything but I'm sure we will.
What inspires your lyrics?
Mostly everyday life and things that have happened to me. I'm not very good at just making up stories so I have to write about things that have happened in my life.
Many songwriting teams have one partner who continually creates the music, and one partner who writes the lyrics; in your case, who is the musician and who is the lyricist?
We both do both. Sometimes I will have some music and Todd writes some lyrics and melodies for it or vise versa and sometimes either one of us brings a full song already done to the table.
Many popular bands in the past formed in high school and were discovered by talent scouts; now the situation is different. What do you think of this change, and, if any, what advice do you have to emerging bands such as these?
There are so many different ways to get "noticed" as a band these days. The internet has really brought a whole way to get your music out there. I would say use them all. Do your own videos on You Tube, Record songs and post them on Myspace, Tweet everyday all day. None of these things were around when Sum 41 started and now that there's sites like these, bands have to use them. You have to create your own buzz, no one will do it for you.