The band “Or Nothing” is out of Boston, and released their new album “Stag Nation” on ITunes.  You can find out more about this band through their website http://www.ornothing.com or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ornothing.

1. Do you remember how the idea of forming the band first came up?

We were in a band before Or Nothing that was a collective effort of four people. We practiced every week for around 6 months, until we played one big show that we publicized like crazy. The setlist was four originals that we wrote together, and it was an epic event. To everyone in the audience, we looked pretty calm and collected, and the music rocked, but offstage we could never get along. It fell apart in such a way where lawsuits were being threatened, so we dismantled the music, instrument by instrument, and shelved it all. Shortly thereafter, not feeling up to another band dynamic, we created Or Nothing’s myspace in early 2007 and began to record things under that name.

2.How long after you formed was it until you played your first live show?

Playing live shows became rather difficult at this point, because it’s harder to find people willing to play shows without connections to the writing process. It must have been a little after a year of the formation, that we played our first show.

3.What are your memories of the performance?

It was an interesting place, we played at a little club called All Asia in Cambridge. A few friends came here and there, and there were a bunch of bands that were playing there too. I believe half the club was filled with drum pieces at the time. We played pretty well, there was a decent cover of the Hand that Feeds by Nine Inch Nails.

4.Tell us about the band’s name?

We threw around a bunch of names that sounded good at the time, All Or Nothing was one that stuck around, but we agreed that it didn’t give enough of a message. So we decided that a fragment would be cooler, because it would leave it up to interpretation. So we chopped the all off and got Or Nothing. A name that we started to think more about and found that it was perfect. It represents an extreme that is very rarely seen in todays society and culture.

5.What is your latest album and why should people buy it?

Stag Nation. It came out October 16th, it is by far the most cohesive album we’ve done so far. It is a concept album and the music and lyrics on the album sound way more defined as to what we always wanted to sound like. The production value has also increased greatly since our first effort. It’s definitely worth picking up.

6.How would you categorize the style of the band? And did you ever consider or try playing other styles of music than the one you are playing now?

The style of the band varies here and there but we always categorize our genre as Alternative Industrial Funk Rock. But Stag Nation expanded that into a few new areas including rap and dub-step. Or Nothing is an amazing amalgam of everything we liked to listen to and play. If we ever wanted to play another style, you’d be sure to see it come out in our next album.

7.Can you share with us one or two of your favorite moments with the band?

Justin: Seeing our first album on iTunes was absolutely incredible. Especially considering we self produced the whole thing.

Joshua: Seeing our song used as the backdrop for someone’s Naruto music video on YouTube. To know that we’re helping to fuel other peoples artistic endeavors is very exciting.

8. Does the entire band contribute to the writing process?

The writing process is a very simple one for the majority of our songs. Joshua sits down and writes a draft of the music and then Justin will come in and add additional keys and atmospheric sounds, as well as the vocals. That is the current writing process, but with the addition of Liam into the mix, it’s bound to switch around a bit.

9.How important do you rate the lyrical side of your albums?

We consider our songs to be comprised of two equally important pieces. Instrumentation and vocals (this includes the lyrics). The instrumentation is Josh’s creative response to his influences while the lyrics and vocals are Justin’s response to problems he observes.

10.What are your current tour plans or upcoming shows, if any?

We just released our fourth album “Stag Nation” and plan on touring around Boston to promote it. At the moment both Josh and Justin are full time college students and therefor have limited time to promote and play out. Hopefully this will change in the summer and next year once Justin has graduated.

11.Describe your live performance?

Our live performance is what we like to call an “Audio Visual Experience”. While we play through our songs we have two sets of warm and cool sound activated lights flanking the band. Behind us is a projector screen that alternates between a dynamically changing sound activated visual matrix and custom slide shows that relate directly to the song we’re performing. Its been a lot of work getting all of this organized and running, but we think it’s more than worth it.

12.What one Album should everyone have in their collection?

Justin: The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails

Joshua: Mobile Estates by Citizen King

Liam: Enema of the State by Blink-182

13.Tell us about your local music scene?

Right now the Boston music scene is so over saturated that it’s difficult to identify one good band from another. This can be frustrating and is something we’re trying to understand and combat on a daily basis.

14.Why do you think people are into your music?

It comes directly from our experiences. We like to think that that sincerity resonates with the people who enjoy it.

15.If we were to look at your IPod, what would we find in your music collection?

It’s constantly changing but at the moment these are three bands each of us are listening to:

Justin: Glen Hansard, Incubus, Gorillaz

Joshua: Elliott Smith, Iron and Wine, Our Lady Peace

Liam: Limp Bizkit, Blink-182, Chevelle

16.Would there be any one band or musician that would surprise us that you are listening to them?  

Justin: The Lonely Island

Joshua: Maroon 5

Liam: Beastie Boys

17.Where can our readers find your band on the internet?

http://www.ornothing.com

18.How has Social Networking (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) impacted your band?

In a word, immensely. Social networking has given us a means to advertise our music for free and communicate with the people who enjoy it. We’ve been avidly implementing the use of social networking sites since 2007 and I don’t know how we would even subsist without them.

19.Thanks for answering these questions. Do you have any last comments or words of advice for the readers of Project Backstage?

Thank you for the opportunity to answer these questions, we hope you like our message and our music.

James Lowe
Project Backstage Contributor