A very humble group, each member of Iration was just as thankful and appreciative of our time as we were of theirs. They were pulled off of the stage when a thunderstorm was hitting, but kicked it right back into high energy when they were let back on. They move crowds with their smooth sounds and cool melodies. They're moving into a more rock record for their next album, and there's no doubt in our minds that they will deliver another catchy album. Anytime you can see these guys, do it. They deserve the crowds and you deserve to listen.
What is your favorite festival to perform at?
Micah Pueschel: I don’t know if we have a favorite, my favorite one that we’ve done thus far is Lollapalooza because it was a huge experience seeing all those great acts. I love Chicago, so spending time in the city was a great.
Do you try to book your schedule so that you can stay and enjoy the festivals?
Micah: We usually do. This festival we came a day early. We’ve played Sunday both times we’ve done Wakarusa, so we come in Saturday.
What can fans expect from the next album?
Micah: It’s definitely going to be a little bit of a different sound. Every album that we make we like to change it up a little bit and go in a different direction. We like to think of ourselves as a diverse band, and we like a lot of different styles of music. Every record that we’ve done, we try to do something different with it. This one is more of our rock record. We brought in Lincoln Parish from Cage the Elephant and he produced five songs with us in LA. We had Rami Jaffee from the Foo Fighters play on a track, and Jessie Green who also plays with the Foo Fighters, a great string musician. The rest of the album we did in Ventura, where we’ve recorded the rest of our records, we did a normal progression of what the rest of our music would be and paired that with rock and roll. It’s kind of rock and next step Iration.
How does the songwriting process work?
Micah: There was a different process with us this time. Kai and I wrote together, I wrote alone and Lincoln Parish wrote a little bit with us. We had all these other musicians play. We wanted to really take all the musicianship and instrumental stuff to the next level. We’ve gotten better as musicians, but we just wanted to hear different perspectives on songs and things that we wouldn’t have come up with.
Are there any particular messages you want to get across with your music?
Micah: I don’t think we’ve ever been a band that had any particular message, we just make music that we want anyone to be able to identify with. That’s our main focus; music that’s real to us - that’s about real things, our own emotions, our own experiences. I feel like when you make music that’s real to you, people identify with it. If you try to make something for someone else it’s not going to be the same thing. We just do what’s real to us, and we find that’s more successful, people identify with that more. So I think our music is for everyone, it’s about life and all aspects.
What was it like the first time you heard yourself on the radio?
Micah:It’s pretty surreal; it’s still surreal to this day. We live in Santa Barbara and the local station plays our music, and there’s this tagline of me. I’ll be (out) and I hear ‘Hey it’s Micah from Iration’ and then our music comes on….it’s still surreal.
Is there a particular song that you enjoy the crowd singing back to you?
Micah: Well ‘Falling’ is the natural one because that’s the song that most people hook onto the band through and it’s got a natural call and response thing that we’ve been doing. I mean it’s not my favorite, but it’s definitely the most noticeable.
Do you prefer festival or show venue better?
Micah:Festivals are really fun because you are with all these other artists, so you walk around with these other bands. As a musician and artist, we like watching music too, that’s why we are artists, so it’s just as cool for us to see bands that we like as it is for fans to watch bands. Just seeing bands that we look up to and have been listening to since we were teenagers and younger and get to mingle with them is a really cool experience. There’s something to be said at an intimate show when you can look everyone in the eye and the energy is high and everyone is in it together. But it’s a give and take….we love doing festivals it’s one of our favorite things to do.
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