My Favorite Highway Interview - April 22, 2009

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I recently had the oppurtunity to conduct an interview with David Cook of one of Virgin records latest signee’s My Favorite Highway. We discuss signing to a major label, flavour of the week scene bands, and Demi Lovato. Special thanks goes out to David and Frank at Empire Media Management for allowing this to happen

Please Introduce yourself and what you do in My Favorite Highway.

My name is David Cook and I sing lead vocals and play guitar and piano in MFH.

How does it feel being with Virgin records? was it an intimidating experience diving into the world of major labels after trying for so long to get signed?

It feels great! No, it was very intimidating at all actually, we’ve been dipping our toes in and out of that world for over three years now so we’re pretty comfortable with the entire industry and the way it operates.

Signing to a major label has always carried a stigma to it, in relation to “selling out” (in the past more, but now not as much) How do you feel your fans have felt about your signing?

I think that our fans are very supportive of us signing to a major label and everything that we do. It’s no secret that since day one of MFH one of our first major goals and priorities was to sign to a major label, we worked very hard to get to where we are now and we’re prepared to work even harder to achieve the rest of our goals.

Why was “Say So” chosen as the first single? And what was it like filming the live video in New York?

I think “Say So” was chosen because it’s a very catchy song, it’s a great break out song and I think it gives a great first impression of the band for new listeners. To be honest… I wasn’t even aware we were filming that video, haha, that video is actually just a little something to get you by for now, we’re making the real video out in LA in June, which will be a lot of fun.

How important do you believe it is for bands to stay true to themselves and make songs they love, then songs that a label would want to hear and suggest a band create? Do fans feel when a song is true to the artist then one that isn’t?

I think that’s very important, before signing to Virgin we tried for a very long time to write songs that would appeal to record labels, but we ended up not liking those songs or even tossing them, when we wrote How To Call A Bluff the approach was that we wanted to write songs that we loved and that we knew our fans would love, and I think that’s the best way to stay true to yourself.

You’re going to be on tour with Danger Radio and Stereo Skyline starting May 5th, how do you feel about the bands you are going to be touring with?

That tour is going to be a lot of fun, I think both bands are very talented and they seem like really stand up guys.

What was the influence behind your cover of “Don’t Forget” by Demi Lovato? If you could choose one of your songs for her to cover, which do you think it would be?

To be completely honest I just really liked the song and couldn’t get it out of my head one day, so I said to myself, “I bet I can play that.” So I did and made a video of it, and I think it’s gotten a lot more attention than I intended, haha. I would ask her to cover “Steel City”, I think that song would be great for her voice and I think she’d enjoy singing it.

If you could be responsible for the creation of any one-hit wonder in history, which would it be?

Oh my, there are a lot, but probably “Closing Time” by Semisonic.

Three of your songs have been featured on MTV programs (The Hills and The City) How do you feel MTV and other networks that play music during their programs help bands and artists? Did you find that it generated a lot of buzz for you guys?

Actually five songs, but who’s counting! I think getting placements in popular TV shows like that can be a great opportunity, and in my experience the people working at the networks who are responsible for placing the songs are all about helping the artists succeed. When people hear your song for the first time and it’s associated with an emotion they felt while watching a particular scene in a TV show or movie it will always resonate with them. Having our songs on those shows didn’t necessarily generate a ton of buzz for us, but it definitely increased the amount of songs we sold on iTunes during those weeks!

On your blog, you’ve been quoted as saying “Scene kids and hip-hop beats were never meant to breed, I can’t wait until the “party emo” trend is dead”. Do you feel at all cheated at seeing bands like these get signed and become accomplished so soon after only playing a couple shows and posting some “fun” songs on myspace, seeing how much you’ve had to go through to get to the level you’re at?

No, I don’t feel cheated, because I know that they’ll all be changing my oil at Jiffy Lube in a few years. Sorry, that was harsh, I just mean to say that those bands aren’t career bands, they’re the flavor of the week and will be hear today and gone tomorrow, there’s no real talent or effort involved. It’s not real music and I’m pretty sure that 95% of music listeners hate it and the other 5% don’t know any better.

How do you feel about sites like Myspace or Purevolume, like how they can allow for a directory of all different kinds of bands to put there songs out there and be discovered, while at the same time allowing bands like Brokencyde and Millionaires to exist and become successful in the same environment? is it just as much of a blessing as it is a curse?

That’s a really good question, and I have mixed feelings. Without websites like MySpace we would have never had a foundation to build our fan base or an outlet to sell our music and market our tours. The problem definitely is that now your friend Tommy across the hall can record himself farting, get someone to design him an awesome MySpace and sell 100,000 downloads of “Tommy’s Farts” on iTunes and make $70,000 doing so. The beauty of it is that anyone with an entrepreneurial mindset can turn their “music” into a semi-successful business rather quickly. The problem is that there are SO many bands out there that music in general is very over saturated right now, but the bottom line is that the real artists that have great songs will rise to the top and the ones who don’t will get to have some fun making their music.

Your band has been through a lot before you achieved the recognition you deserved by being signed to Virgin records, what kind of wisdom can you impart on bands that are trying to get signed while facing the same trials and tribulations you have?

The best advice I can give anyone is to write as many songs as you can until you write that one undeniably great song. Write a great song and you will always win. The songs are all that matter, everything else is just details.

What would be one thing that you would want listeners to take away from How To Call A Bluff?

I hope that when people listen to HTCAB they gain and sense of hope and are inspired. I think that the songs we write are very uplifting and I really hope that they encourage people and when they’re driving down the highway listening to our songs that it makes them feel genuinely happy.

Thank you very much for taking time out for this interview, any last words for everyone at Driven Far Off?

Thank you so much for some great questions! May 5th, How To Call A Bluff, make sure you get a copy and come check us out on tour this summer!

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