Author: Emma Loggins
Date: 2007-09-10


Interview:
Jarrod Gorbel -- lead vocals and guitar, Aaron Kamstra -- bass and keyboards, Jon Wiley -- guitar, and Adam Boyd on drums, make up The Honorary Title. Based in Brooklyn, the band started in 2003 with Gorbel and Kamstra playing gigs on the New York City club circuit. In 2004 the group released their full-length debut Anything Else but the Truth. On the heels of this critically-acclaimed, Shortlist-nominated album, the group recruited Wiley and Boyd, and The Honorary Title began to tour nationally with such diverse groups as Switchfoot, Taking Back Sunday and AC Newman. We recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Jarrod Gorbel for a one-on-one interview about the band, their new album, what inspires them, and what's next for the group.

How would you describe the growth of the band and the sound of the band from the previous albums to this album?

Jarrod: Well basically the first record was more folky- intimate stripped down lo-fi indie rock kinda sound. The songs weren’t that changed from the way they started. Whereas the second record the songs were produced as a band and kind of uh... just obvious more layers, more guitar, more keyboards. It was a natural evolution of the songs and everything. It was more mature.

Right. Now was there an album that you heard, um, growing up that really like changed your life, and convinced you that music was your future?

Jarrod : Probably when I was really young and I heard Motley Crue 'Smoking in the Boys Room', and I saw that band and I like that video Home Sweet Home and it was kinda cheesy stuff like that I was like ew! You know, I thought that it seemed very intriguing and larger than life and kinda theatrical in a sense and it seemed amazing and just so close to what I’m doing right now.

What were your inspirations for the new album?

Jarrod: The standard kind of things, ah, um, heartbreak, depression, um, sexual situations, ah, drugs, um, families that are dysfunctional, that kind of stuff.