A concerted effort: We the Living

by Roland Nimis

Thursday, November 13, 2008 22:37

Trying to find an audience among the uncanny list of bands performing in Madison this weekend is We The Living, a pop-rock band who got their start in Madison and have since moved to Los Angeles.

But the band, according to vocalist and guitarist John Paul Roney, shouldn’t have too much of a problem because We the Living’s show “is going to be the best thing to do in Madison.”

“Every time the band gets to play a show in [Madison], we try to bring something special out,” Roney guaranteed.

Roney described the process of making the band’s debut album, Heights of the Heavens (Deus ex Machina), as difficult because of its producer, Mark Needham.

“One of the kings of pop … led the band into a direction that was supremely dumbed-down pop music.”

He claimed the band’s new EP, Depths of the Earth, which was self-produced, has them sounding more like their influences.

“We listen to different music than we play right now,” Roney said, citing influences as the artists the band has covered including Thom Yorke, Coldplay and the Postal Service.

With these covers, Roney said they are trying to expose a “kind of different music that the masses aren’t really aware of right now.”

Perez Hilton, who recently featured the band’s song, “Best Laid Plans,” on his blog, associated We The Living’s sound with Lifehouse and OneRepublic, to which Roney responded, “If that’s what he heard, then I can’t argue with it. I would choose different bands, but that’s his business.”

When I asked Roney about Hilton’s suggestion that the song be used for “Beverly Hills 90210,” he replied, “We would try to do something like that — even though it’s for the least cool show.”

One thing that sets We The Living apart, though, is their philosophy, which is based, like their band name, off the work of Ayn Rand. Roney said everyone in the band realized they were all objectivists (Rand’s philosophy), and, though they don’t seek to proselytize the world view, they have “gotten a lot of meaning by having a philosophy” and having “a philosophy allowed us to do everything that we did, so we thought what everyone was lacking is having a philosophy and understanding what you believe in and stand for.”

We The Living is performing at Der Rathskeller on Friday, Nov. 14. Jeremy Messersmith will open.

Due to a reporting error, this article originally stated that Mark Needham was the producer for the band’s album Heights of the Heavens (Deus ex Machina). Needham was not the album’s producer. We regret the error.

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