Photo Credit: Samuel David Katz
Hey Guys!! You’ve been busy with music recently. Can you tell us what you’ve been up to over the past few months?
Hey thanks, how are you? We’ve been busy making recordings and touring, celebrating some birthdays. – Michael
Where did your love of music come from?
Probably from hearing great songs as a young kid and eventually sort of realizing that in my mind, there was a high conversion rate from sounds into feelings, and beyond that, you could shape feelings into sounds. There were other things, like the way the electric guitar looked and the way it could very clearly and accurately express a note given the emotional disposition of the holder. All kinds of stuff like that, maybe – Michael
How did you guys all meet & become a band?
We met in college by happenstance. We started writing and playing together, and doing gigs here and there. – Michael
What’s the meaning of the name “Juice”?
I’m sorry, I honestly don’t know. – Michael
Can you tell us a little something about each of you?
Daniel – e-boy
Christian – big moto-sports guy
Miles – fav song is “Gives You Hell”
Rami – handsome
Ben – sauce enthusiast
Kamau – deadass, the most incredible human
Me (Michael) – skeletor
You guys just released your new EP, you are simply magnificent! How excited are you guys that this project is finally out into the world?
Yeah… forsure. There’s this thing I’ve had to learn to deal with in creating anything, I think. Something I think we’ve all dealt with as a group. Everyday, you wake up and refine a vision of some sort, whether that happens in the slightest most meticulous subconscious way, or a kind of mundane chipping away at something big sort of way. While that’s happening, your brain is tracking all of that progress, mapping it out in the back of your head, in the form of a kind of evolving identity, personal and artistic. The thing is, the public doesn’t really see the bulk of that. They view you in the light of your last project or latest work. So that person or group you’ve come to see yourself as, internally, might not necessarily be on full display. Fortunately, the best way to guarantee that it will make itself apparent is to put out more great songs, which of course is easier said than done. But that’s sort of where we’ve been at. We formed in college and since graduating, a big part of cultivating our own identity has been getting as far away from that as possible. Not because that association is bad, but because that’s genuinely where we are, and the music we want to write is just very distant from that. It feels really good to have this project under our belts. A lot of our focus lately has been as recording artists. experimenting, producing, trying to make recordings that live up to the things in our heads, and this project is kind of like the first manifestation of that. – Michael
What has your reaction been to the success of the new EP?
I mean, I’m sure it’s different for the lot. Personally, I’ve recognized this little sense of quiet joy that flicks on and sort of sits with me when I can tell people are considering the songs, making them their own. The feelings, the stories. That’s been nice. I’m trying to keep my heart steady. – Michael
What do you think is the benefit of having a following on social media in the music industry?
Hmm… running bits with the boys is generally pretty rewarding, social media is good for that i guess. We’ve never been overtly political, unless through the music itself, which may or may not change as we continue to be a band. But as we close in on more and more impactful societal decisions, having a platform is really, a big deal. That’s definitely something you hear talked about more and more. In regard to the heavier stuff, making people giggle sometimes is also good. Social media is good for that too. We try not to take ourselves too seriously. If done right, the music takes care of that. – Michael
What’s the feeling you guys get when performing in front of your fans?
Whether they’re new or old fans, we have the utmost love for the people that let us
do this for a living. It’s awesome to see people who have never seen us before fall in
love with the music. With fans that have been with us for a while we’ve always seen
it as a celebration of the music that’s hopefully become a part of their lives. In either
case, it’s pretty crazy. – Daniel
Does your fanbase have a name?
Not that we’re aware of. People will always say things like “your fans should be
called the Juicers” or something weird like that. But juice puns always kinda seemed
like low hanging fruit. *punches self in face* – Daniel
How do you want your relationship to be with your fans?
Even though life takes a different shape for everyone, we want our music to
transcend those differences and to be a bridge between people, whether it’s us to
our fans or our fans to others. Honesty is a key part of the creative process when
making our music and when we talk about struggle or elation or anything really, I
think it has a way of finding common ground with all sorts of people. We love how
much our friends and fans, whatever you wanna call them, influence us and the way
we create. – Daniel
What social media platform do you use most to stay connected to your fans?
Instagram, baby. @itstimeforjuice. Don’t go to Twitter. We have a page there too, but
like you don’t need to go to it. – Daniel
What was the craziest fan encounter you guys have had?
We had a show in Washington, D.C. and a girl hopped on stage on the first song and
amidst breaking it down took an insane wipeout. We have confirmation that she is
ok, so that was sick. – Daniel
What’s an average day for you guys look like?
If its tour season –
Wake up at 10:30, call the hotel front desk cause 11AM checkout is absolutely so
deep. The concierge confirms that 12PM checkout will be ok. Nice. 12 o’clock rolls
around and we hop in one of our sweet Kia Sedona minivans to wherever our next
show may be. Sound check at the venue is at 3PM. The drive was really only three
hours but on account of winning $1 back on $1 lottery tickets 15 times in a row,
we’re now approximately one hour late. Damn, maybe late checkout wasn’t such a
great idea. Whatever. It’s fine. We sound check. Wait a minute, its 5PM and I
haven’t eaten today. There’s a Subway across the street from the venue? Black
forest ham absolutely DIMED with veggies? No question. After eating we go back to
our hotel to shower and make ourselves look pretty. We cruise back to the venue in
our endlessly graceful Kia Sedonas. After eating copious amounts of seaweed
snacks backstage, it’s show time. We arrange sounds with artistic intent for about
an hour. We thank our fans, that was fun. A couple fans come up to the merch table
to say hi and ask us if we’d care to join them for a night on the town. It’s a Tuesday
and we have a show the next day. Is this really a good idea? Wait a minute. How
could we forget? Late check out. I don’t have to be up until 11:56. Let’s have a little
fun. Now it’s time to go home. We fall asleep to the sweet sound of Jim Dale
narrating Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Wake up. Do it again. – Daniel
Where do you guys hope the band is in 5 years?
It has always been a goal of ours to play a show in space. Not sure if space travel
will be at a point at which NASA/Elon Musk will care to make this dream of ours
come true, but we can hope. – Daniel
Do you guys have any last things you want to tell your supporters?
We love you. –Daniel
