The Status: Que

It's like this:

I was scheduled to interview this band I had never heard of called the Status. Their name gave off too many bad vibes, but I figured I would give them a listen before I wrote them off as a generic emo band. I mean, you never know who's going to end up famous these days.

Rey, the publicist, sent me a download of their album, and I tried my best to let it stay afloat in the ocean in my head. Not only listening to the music, but also listening for that unique style a band with this more emotional direction needs to stand out from all the rest.

Though their songs are catchy, the band hasn't hit their full potential. Maybe songs like the title track to the album, So This is Progress, play off a well written melody but other songs do not compare. With not only the lead singer/guitarist of the Status, Ben Grant, bellowing out lyrics, but also Anthony Raneri from Bayside was donating his voice to the song, "So This is Progress."
It seems as though the track was written to be the bands first single, and you could tell by the beat's high energy with the strong orbital vocals from either gentlemen in duet.

In all, the album wasn't too bad, but decent.

When the day came for the concert on October 8, I was in such a rush to find a new date after my girlfriend dumped me, that I ended up late to the show. Rey told me that they were to take the stage around 8pm, so when my date and I got to the venue it was only 7:33. As soon as we make our way to the ticket office, I could hear those power pop guitars crunching away at the eardrums of every fifteen-year-old kid with his mom -- the Status was already playing. I quickly asked the kid at the ticket office for my press passes, but he took my ID and couldn't find my name on any of the lists. This day was killing me, and I already had to pay $10 for parking with a spray of some 'PimpShield' on my windows from one of Detroit's local bums.

I was close to nothing in cash, and needed to get in the show.
I rang Rey.
"It's Ian," I say.
"What's up, man?" he says. "Are you going to the show?"
"Yeah, that's the thing, dude," I begin. "They said I'm not on the list."

Rey calls me back about seven minutes later saying that the tour manager, Steve, is on his way to find me. I tell him he's already gotten me inside the venue.

We stood on the right where the equipment was, and watched the Status move back and forth, pacing across the compact area that was considered a stage. They had a lot of action going on with their facial expressions, and not as much with their body movements, yet when they rocked out on a song like "The Wake of What's Been Done", they got into it. I won't say their stage presence wasn't good because they don't know how to keep up with their own music, but it was more so just as well could have been due to that elbow room they didn't seem to have enough of. Other than that, they sounded great live. Just like their CD, until Ben had to replicate Anthony's vocal part on "So This is Progress."

Their set ended, and I approached Ben coming off the stage with an amp in his hands.
Sounding like a tool, I said "Need any help?"
"No thanks," he says. "We're cool, man."

I felt a chill go down my spine as if I was just written off as some fanboy, but I took the initiative to introduce myself as the person who was going to interview him that night.
"Okay cool," he says in a surprised way. "When did you want to do this?"

We set up the interview for 8pm, and when it came time to conduct the interview, we had to find an electrical outlet for my laptop. First heading to the basement, and getting stopped on the way by security along the way, we found that the lower floor back area was just the other half of St. Andrew's, The Shelter. There were about six people down there, hanging around and making racket.

I walked into the men's bathroom, small and cluttered with a sink and a toilet stall, along with a urinal in the middle of everything.
"Well, I'm sure the bathroom is quiet," I say. "I see a place for my laptop on the head of the toilet."

We make our way to the second floor, and that security guard at the stairs stops us again.
"You can't go up there," he says, trying to be stern, but by the look of him he couldn't be more than a year or two older than I. He wasn't very intimidating.
"Come on, man," Ben says to the kid. "We have to do an interview."
"You need to get permission from the tour manager if you want up there," says the security guard.

We finally get to the second floor of St. Andrew's, after having another run-in with Steve and him giving me the "you again" look.

The space is quiet and rich. There is a stage that cuts on an angle in the corner of the room with a couple amps sitting on the floor next to it. We set up on top of an amp, and I give my lady friend the camera to record the interview.

I begin the session by asking a very obvious question for any band, but what can I say? I didn't know anything about them.

"So tell me about the Status," I say. "How did you guys become a band?"

"We started out just as friends," he begins. "Andy plays guitar and does backup vocals. Him and I just started hanging out, writing songs. We both came from other bands growing up, and then our bands just broke up. We started playing, and it was very casual. Then we got the other guys and started doing local shows."

"Where you come from, is it hard to find people who share the same interest in creating the same style of music as you?"

"Well, probably the only reason this band is a band is because it was so easy. Like when there were no arguments or band drama, it was easy; Andy and I get along, Danny, the bass player in the band and my brother, we get along already. Our

Ben and I got into discussing music in general. Both of us agreed that Weezer's new material was nowhere near Rivers Cuomo's full potential, as well the parallel between bands of older age to new; Radiohead, the Beatles of our generation?
"I would definitely agree with that statement," Ben begins. "I'm really big into Radiohead. Thom Yorke is a genius; he has great ideas and is really creative. I think that's what was so unique about the Beatles at their time. Back then they were trying to be unique, and I think that's what Radiohead does."