Drayter is a high-energy American pop/rock band from Dallas, Texas fronted by lead singer Liv Miner and lead guitarist Cole Schwartz. The band takes modern pop-rock to new heights with its infectious mashup of pop angst and rock swagger. Drayter’s newest release “Nine” comes out December 18, 2015.
Side Stage Magazine: Can you give me a brief history of your band?
Cole: So basically when I was eight or nine, our former bass player and I both were playing guitar at the time and thought it would be pretty cool to play music together. He had a step dad who owned this clothing store who got us a gig playing launch parties. From there we went on doing covers and stuff. That’s how it started. Over time, the band evolved because people started liking the fact that we were playing covers. Obviously that’s not what we intended to be, a cover band. We started writing originals. Again, over time, things started evolving and that led us to where we are now.
You have a new CD “Nine” coming out on December 18, 2015. What was your inspiration when writing the new CD?
Liv: I joined the band in February 2015. About half the album was already written before I got into the band. We decided we wanted to go out to California to record with Matt Squire who produced the other half of our album. We started to write songs. Basically we just wanted to have a lot fun with it. We wanted to go into a little more pop direction because the last few years Drayter has been pretty hard rock. We wanted to lighten things up a bit and go into a pop direction. So that’s what we did. That’s what really inspired us, you know, uplifting vibes, being positive, being happy. That’s why I’m really excited about this album because it’s very diverse. There’s just a mixture of different genres in there that really came out really cool. So I’m excited about it.
Can you tell me a little about your writing/recording process? Do you write all the songs yourselves or do you have outside help?
Cole: It’s a collaborative process. We all work together as a team. We work with great people as a team effort to make the songs the best they can be.
Who produced the new CD?
Cole: Matt Squire and Dave Forman.
What label are you on?
Cole: We are not. We are 100% independent.
What’s your favorite song on the new CD?
Liv: I really like “Mother Says” because of sentimental value for me. That’s the song I auditioned with to get into the band. I loved it the second I heard it. It’s just so emotional. Sometimes even to this day I cry when I hear it. It’s such a powerful song and I can’t wait for others to hear it. But really, that’s a hard question because I LOVE so many other songs on the album but just because of sentimental value I have to say “Mother Says”.
Cole: For me, it’s probably “Best I’ve Had” just because it’s so fast and uplifting. It’s probably the most driving song on the record. So, “Best I’ve Had” for me.
What’s coming up in the future for Drayter?
Cole: In 2016 what people can expect most is a lot of live shows. That’s really going to be our main focus for next year. Just really getting out and playing in front of as many people as possible, meeting as many new fans and connecting with as many people as possible.
Do you have any upcoming tours planned?
Cole: We are currently working on it, but I cannot give out any details at this time.
If you could put together a tour, what band or bands would you have on the bill?
Cole: I could speak for Liv and probably say Avenged Sevenfold, Metallica, and Slipknot. Any of those would be fine with me.
Liv: That’s exactly what I was thinking. Yes, yes, yes! Slipknot has the most amazing live show. I love them.
If you work with any producer, who would you like to work with?
Cole: There’s a lot of really cool producers, and I’m sure I will get a lot of hate for this, but I think it would be really cool to work with Kanye West. I know he’s a really big controversial person. He’s not necessarily the best person, but I personally enjoy his music and think he’s a creative guy. I know he’s very hands on in the studio as far as producing. He’s produced a bunch of other artists that have been very successful including himself. So, it would be cool to take a very different approach than what we’re doing.
Do you have anything you would like to pass along to your fans?
Liv: We just want to convey a sense of hope for everybody. We just want to be positive. There’s so much negativity going on in the world currently and we don’t want to be any part of that. People are going to throw hate at us. It’s just what comes with being in the entertainment industry. We’re not here to tell anyone how to live their lives. We can definitely lead by example and just be very positive and very accepting. Be truly ourselves. We just want people to be themselves because we are going to be ourselves and we aren’t going to apologize for it. We just want people to feel comfortable being themselves as well.
Be sure to grab Drayter’s new CD “Nine” when it hits the shelves on December 18, 2015. Keep up with Drayter on their Facebook page Facebook.com/Drayter.
