Chicago foursome Phosphene have come a long way for a band barely two years old. Thanks to their enormous drive and passion for what they do, lead singer Jeni Leigh, drummer Andrew, guitarist Dan Bikar and bassist Michael Salazar have amassed a cult following and have done what other musicians only dream about: headline the Chicago House of Blues. Besides being one of Illinois’ go-to rock bands, Phosphene has been in heavy rotation on local radio, and have also featured on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights. Jeni took the time to walk us through how Phosphene came together and what a typical Phosphene day is like.
You guys seem to have quite a hectic schedule. You’ve basically been on the road since February and have been featured in a number of festivals. Is it true that y’all are the hardest working band in Chicago?
Absolutely, I know there are other hardworking bands in Chicago and I’m not undermining them in anyway when I say I believe our band is definitely among the most persistent, tenacious, and resilient of the group. All of us have a strong work ethic and have put so much time and money into our project. Phosphene is truly the heart and soul of every member in our band. We take Phosphene seriously and put 100% of ourselves into it because everyone’s dreams and future career is on the line, why wouldn’t you give it everything you’ve got?
Phosphene is referred to as the “Phosphene Machine” because all of us eat, sleep and dream Phosphene. Everyday we go to our day jobs to help fund the band and when we come home we are working on new music, updating our social media, booking shows and festivals, rehearsing and researching the industry to stay on point. If you really want something you will give everything you have to achieve it and every one of our members live by that every day.
We came into this project to be more than just another rock band. We want to make a difference. We want to give our fans comfort in our lyrics, tenacity in our melodies, and inspiration in our performances. Our purpose is more than just creating music. Our real purpose is to illuminate the hearts and minds of our fans, to create light when there is no light seen. That is why we are named Phosphene and why we have chosen to dedicate our lives… everything we are and everything we have…to be heard
What’s a typical Phosphene day like?
Basically a typical day is: wake up, go work out, update social media/answer emails and interviews, go to work, come home change, go to rehearsal, write new music, shower, eat, sleep, repeat. On days we are in the studio, life is much more simple: wake up, have breakfast, record for 12-14 hours, eat, sleep, repeat.
Kind of boring I know but when you are a “do it yourself” band you have to dedicate all your time to do the things huge label heads may have 6-10 people doing for you. This band does not give us much of a personal life or social life for that matter outside of our shows. That is a sacrifice we all had to make and is part of the trials of being in a band. We miss out on family parties, weddings, birthdays, and holidays because we are either at a show, on tour, or in the studio. Close friends and relatives understand that we have to work at this everyday, a full time job on top of our full time jobs, in order to ensure success. However there are also those with the mind frame that the music industry is not a “ Real” job or is a highly unlikely profession. We take the doubters with a grain of salt.
To us, this band is no different than any start up business and you have to lose a lot to gain a little and then eventually that little becomes a lot. At the end of the day, our fan’s testimonials on our music and performances remind us that our hard work is paying off because our music means something more to them than just a song. Whether that figure is one person or 100,000 , it is worth it!
And the hard work has paid off. You’ve come quite a long way for a band that’s been around for little more than two years.
Less than two years actually! (laughs) And yes it has definitely paid off! Because of everything we have accomplished in this past year, we are even more motivated and dedicated to Phosphene than ever before.
In just about a year and a half we played six of the best festivals in Illinois including Vans Warped Tour. We have made four Television appearances on Fox News, ABC News, The Mancow Show, and ESPN Friday Night Fights. We have had in studio interviews at radio stations and our music is being played on a bunch of stations all over the world. We have played with over 20 well-known national acts and have traveled the U.S. to play shows for our fans nationwide including our showcase at SXSW. We have rocked some of the most accredited venues in the U.S. and met so many influential industry professionals.
We did all of this and more, but i’m not saying all this to brag. My point is that we were able to accomplish so much on our own with just our willpower and a strong belief in our music to fuel us. So when we start to let the music industry’s biggest killer, DOUBT, creep in our minds we think of how far we have come and what we are capable of. Our next step is to see where our limitations are and… if we can… break them!
Phosphene – Let You Go
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When you’re not in the studio or onstage, where can the members of Phosphene be found? Any other interests beside music?
I wish I had a cool answer for this, but as i said before we all really have no life outside of our band lives. We are all nerds though and read comic books, play games, and watch our favorite TV shows in what little spare time we get. Michael is big on Reddit, Dan is huge on sports especially DA BEARS, I (Jeni) am big on reading whether it’s a self-help book, a romantic novel, or a timeless classic, and Andrew is usually reading the latest DC/Marvel universe comics. We all also spend a lot of spare time checking on the music industry professionals that inspire us and try to learn a thing or two.
Other than that, if our schedule allows, one might be able to catch us at a concert supporting our friends in the industry.
From your profile it’s clear that each one of you was involved with other bands before fate brought y’all together under the Phosphene umbrella. When did the falling apart and coming together happen? How did it happen for each of you?
It happened when we all least expected it to. Dan and I (Jeni) were in a band that played a few shows with a band that Joey and Andrew were in. None of us expected to be in a band together. In fact, if you would have told us that then, I doubt any of us would believe you because it would have seemed very random.
As it turns out there was a very specific reason for our meeting. I met Dan on Craigslist when I was searching for a new band to join. He reached out to me and boom we were in a band. Andrew and Joey were both searching a musician classified site and just so happened to join the same band where they first met. Being that the music industry in Chicago is pretty tight knit, like a small town where everyone knows or has heard of each other, our bands met and decided to play a few shows together.
Months later I (Jeni) left my band. I reached out to Andrew of whom I kept in contact with. He had also left his band and was currently in a new project with Joey. I spoke with them both in a lengthy conversation of goals and ambition. We all felt that we were in search of the same thing and not to long after our talk the two of them left their band and joined me to start a project of our own. At that time Dan was starting a new project with the members of our old band so we remained a three-piece.
Not too long after writing our first couple of songs, Joey’s brother Michael graduated college and was moving back home. Joey told us how good of a bass player Michael was so we invited him to “ jam” with us which was really a secret audition. His talent and personality just clicked and we were officially a 4 piece. After we wrote some music and started to build our name we decided it was time to add a guitarist and of course Dan was first on the list. We reached out to him and it just so happened that he was leaving his band. He joined and we never looked back.
The CD release show for your debut LP Any Last Words at the House of Blues in Chicago at the beginning of the year seems to have been quite dramatic even before you stepped on stage. Tell us about that.
Oh yes, I have spoken of all the great things we have accomplished but there were definitely many hardships we have had to face and still face. Our very first show was planned to be a huge success. There were over 1000 pre sold tickets at one of Chicago’s best venues, House Of Blues. Suddenly our CD distributors packages of 1000 CD’s went missing the day before our CD Release. Only one box was recovered in time for the show so we had 250 CD’s which was terrible.
Then on the day of the show, there was one of the worst snow storms of 2014 so many people were snowed in their house and couldn’t travel even if they wanted too. We still made the trip and after a lot of deliberating with the venue on if we should cancel and do a makeup date, we decided we couldn’t do that to the people who did weather the storm to see us. So we still played our hearts out and had a blast. The venue workers were very kind and helpful and our fans enjoyed themselves as did we! We also put on 2 FREE makeup shows later in the year for people who bought tickets but couldn’t make it. So in the end we overcame our very first of the many obstacles we had to face this past year.
You sing a lot about relationships, are these all from personal experience?
Absolutely! I hate to admit it but I have had my heart broken MANY times. Relationships are my comfort zone to write about because of how emotionally invested I am with those I love. Raw emotion does not have to be fabricated if you lived the experience because you know EXACTLY what it feels like. So coming up with the words to describe that feeling is like ripping open a scar and bleeding the words on the paper. Everything I write lyrically comes from a personal place. If it is not from my own life, it is from stories/lives of people close to me. When it is time to lay down lyrics for a song I like to dig deep down past the surface and into the stronger emotions buried within me. I want people to not only relate to what i am singing about but i also want them to feel the underlying theme of empowerment. I want them to know that i not only understand what they feel but I survived it and they can too. Or if it is a happy song, then I want to celebrate with the listener.
Lyrics are a very personal experience for me and I hope that everyone who listens to Phosphene gets to enjoy the ride, the ups and downs of life’s emotional roller coaster, together.
Who does the songwriting for the group or does everyone chip in?
Everyone. We work as one unit, basically a committee. When someone comes up with an individual idea they record it and send it to the others to add or take away from it. Then we meet for a writing session and start to work the idea molding it into a song. That song then goes to the studio where we get a great scratch track that we all take home to listen and come up with more changes or additions. Then we go back to the studio to record the final track and add the changes and additions we all came up with, which then bring about more ideas. We keep adding and subtracting until finally with the magical final touches of our producer/sound engineer, a new Phosphene song is born.
There’s a sort of cultured aggression to Phosphene’s style. Some have likened you Paramore. Who would you say are your influences?
Well firstly we appreciate that comment because power and aggression in our music is definitely important to us . Also we are flattered that fans bring up Paramore since they are an awesome band who is very hardworking.
All the members of Phosphene are influenced by different artists. Michael has a lot of punk and funk influences with bands like Blink 182 and MXPX, Dan has a lot of metal influence with bands like August Burns Red and Killswitch Engage, Andrew has classic influences as well as some rap influences including Little Wayne and Huey Lewis, and I (Jeni) have a lot of influences from Broadway, pop, and alternative rock like 30 Seconds To Mars, HIM, and many musicals especially those done by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Although our tastes vary, we can all, for the most part, find things or specific songs we like in each others preferred genre and I think that is something that makes our band special. We challenge each other and help each other grow by showing each other different styles and ways to hear music.
Your new album should be out early 2015, what are your future plans for the band beyond that?
Tons! Our album of course comes first and above all else. Our graphic designer is currently working on our album art designs and we are in and out of the studio for the next three months writing and finishing our sophomore LP. On top of that we have been working with our endorsers upgrading and casing our gear to prepare for the new year and touring! We are also working with EC Stage Art and others on stage design. On top of all that we are booking our spring/summer tour jammed packed with shows and festivals around the U.S. which are looking to start as soon as April 2015 right after our CD release. So much as happening behind the scenes so things may seem slow on the home front but that is just to make sure we are 100% ready for Phosphene’s BIG comeback in 2015. New look, New music, New merchandise, Phosphene is turning everything up for the new year and we cannot wait to share it with all of you!
Thanks for taking the time!
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