January 3, 2006 Fort Myers, Fla.

NEITHER

 by: T.L. Arens 

  Music is the bloodstream through which the band of Neither navigate their souls.  Their music is chaotic, energetic, savage and dark, as is the trademark of many black metal/death metal bands.  But what separates Neither from other death metal bands such as Type O Negative?  At first glance of their website, one might say it’s their cool gothic label or maybe the way the band members pose, dressed in black and looking as seriously as they take their work.

“Very much so,” the band agrees. “We have taken extra long to find a good sound for our album coming out.”  And that’s just the thing that does separate Neither from the rest: they’re serious about the music.

Click on the photo to download

"Betray Thyself" courtesy of Neither

Keyboard artist Amanda directs attention to James, co-founder of Neither, “James and Steve (who plays bass) are the backbone (of the band).  They are at every rehearsal, even when we’re just doing recordings.  (They) really hold the band together.”

     James points to vocalist Shawn, the one who’s ‘front and center’.  “Everyone hears his voice, sees him as the front man.  I handle most of the band’s business.  Shawn does merchandise, most of the recording and editing.”  and as for who writes the songs they play, James adds: “We write our own parts and parts of others.  None of our songs have been written by one person only.  We all have had ideas; we start writing a song and input from each other shapes the song.”

     Just like an artist, musicians rely on inspiration for their music.  When asked where he found his inspiration, James admits he really doesn’t know.  “I always want to play after seeing a show, or hearing a really good song.  I just play ‘cause it’s what I like to do.”  James also collects instruments such as harps, flutes, violins, even organs.

     “Although it sounds cheezy, I am inspired by life,” Amanda said.  “I strive to be an individual and love to take what already exists in the world and put my own twist on it.”  Along with her passion for music, Amanda loves riding motorcycles, writing music and watching PBS television.  On the side, she mentioned how she also enjoys ‘jamming to Phil Collins’.

     According to Amanda, James started, named ‘and maintains the direction of the band.  “He owns the label we’re on (Corpus Callosum Music),” she said.  But all the band members of Neither agree they are all the heart of the group.  “The heart has several parts to itself,” they said.  “The whole band does their part to progress and produce the feeling to the music and create the image to compliment the music."

     When asked who was the liver of the group, Amanda adds “this is more metaphorical than I was planning on delving into, but I would say James.  Since the liver is used to filter out bad stuff, I would say that any time any of us get negative vibes, he’s always there to filter it out.  I call him my instant ego boost.”

     A few things Neither would like fans to know, James says this: “Just that we play our kind of music the way we want. We do all our own art, music, recording, producing, mixing, publishing, even printing our shirts. Mostly because it’s a lot cheaper that way and we take some pride in doing whatever we can. We do have other people take the photos and we need to find someone to shoot a few videos.”

     The image Neither hopes to project through their music is strictly what they do: perform.  “Our image is us and our music. We are not into flashy over-the-top clothing. We're not into the makeup thing too much. And all our stuff is black.”  The band members of Neither work tirelessly to improve on the talent, direction and sound of their music.

     In a moment of fun, the band members were asked which of them should be in the sanitarium, the kitchen and/or the animal shelter.  Their answer: “Not sure but we've been told we all should be in a sanitarium. When someone gets to hang out with us for a while they begin to see really why we play our kind of music.”

     To check out more on Neither, check out MySpace visit their website for cool photos, blog and concert information.

Notes from Losillë

Thanks to Neither for answering our questions and being good sports about the dumb ones.

How did the band get it’s name? James: Well, a person we know mentioned that we should chose from 2 names they had and we thought they sounded funny so I said “neither”, and Shawn said “that could be a band name”. We thought of other names but nothing really hit us. Eventually we went with NEITHER thinking it wouldn’t limit us to a certain subject matter.

Now for the silly stuff !  I like to use body parts to find out more about how the people in the band interact. In all the years I have worked with bands, this is the first band that didn't think the band "liver" was the one that drank the most. (They may be a little too intellectual for this website.)

Greg was unable to participate in the interview, something about "not wanting to blow his secret agent cover", but I am not suppose to tell anyone so please keep it a secret please.

This band has a great sense of humor and I hope to meet them in person one day...especially since one questions was:    If you become very a very famous group like the Rolling Stones. Which one can I lie and  say I slept with after the virtual interview?  The answer... All of us.  Ok, I am so there! Or do you think they meant one of them at a time?

My favorite answer was to the question: What would you do for the world's best piece of chocolate? James said " If you have the worlds best piece of chocolate I’d show you…"  When I meet them I will have to remember to bring some reallllly good chocolate.

Steve did answer some questions, but insisted on having his own section. ( I'm lying, but you can pretend he did ask for his own section and give him shit about it.)

Who is the most high maintenance band member,  Steve: we all have our moments where we grate each others nerves.

What are your hobbies? Steve: whatever

Do you get nervous/more nervous if someone you care about is watching the show? Steve: nope

What do you like the do before a performance? Steve: rehearse

Finally, Shawn is the tallest member of the group and all the fan girls hit on him.