Composed of four Berklee College of Music graduates, Via Audio aren't short on talent. In fact, they've become fast favorites of Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla and Spoon drummer Jim Eno. Eno produced both 2007's Say Something and Animalore, the disc they're releasing March 9 during a cross-country tour.
I spoke with bassist David Lizmi about the tour, the new album and Via Audio's new promotion: raffling off a trip to Brooklyn, N.Y., where band members will serve as the winner's tour guides.
How has your sound evolved since Say Something?
Most of the songs for that album were written three years before it came out, which means they're about seven years old. So we've grown up, and our tastes have changed a little bit. Our original drummer, who wrote most of those songs, isn't in the band anymore, so [singer/guitarist] Tom [Deis] is writing a lot of them now.
What else was different about recording Animalore?
We had 45 days to record and mix it, as opposed to 14. And we did it in chunks, so we could get some perspective in the time between.
It was also our second time working with Jim [Eno]. We'd gotten to know him pretty well on Say Something, so we were able to be even more open on Animalore, and I think he felt the same way. He didn't have to try to please us, so he could do more quality control.
How'd you come up with your "win a trip to Brooklyn" promotion?
Our manager and I had been hanging out, watching these films about New York in the '70s. Pretty soon we were joking around, like, "What if we created this ghetto Brooklyn experience where we staged a fake mugging by a hipster?" Then we realized it would be great to have a contest that shows off the local spots here. So many people see the tourist attractions, but there's so much more.
So how can fans enter the raffle?
Anyone who preorders Animalore gets entered automatically, and anyone who comes to one of our shows can enter, too. The whole spiel is on our website.
