INTERVIEW: OBLIVIOUS SIGNAL

Female-fronted Florida rockers Oblivious Signal are a band determined to break down the barriers of music genres. Armed with a hard rock sound and souring vocals courtesy of Cristina T. Feliciano they have set out to bring something fresh to the rock scene, particularly with their brand new sophomore album entitled Exordium. The first single off the album “Crash’ is a promising idea of what you can expect from a group hoping to go all the way to the top. In this interview, we discussed the bands history, writing inspirations and just how much fun you can have shooting a music video…

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Hi there! For those who haven’t heard of Oblivious Signal, how would you describe your story and your sound?

Oblivious Signal is a hard rock band from Ft. Lauderdale, FL. We have influences that range from melodic metal, to a more hard rock mainstream sound. The band originally formed in the mid 2000’s and I joined in 2007. It took us a few years to finally find our niche, but we have now and we are very proud of this new album and the fan reaction we have received.

It’s refreshing to see more female-fronted hard rock acts out there, are there any female vocalists that influence you personally? 

I love female singers from all over the world, and genre spectrum. I’m a big fan of Laura Pausini, Cristina Scabbia, and even country singers like Carrie Underwood. I’m all about trying to cross genres within music. Women like these influence me to not just focus on one specific music style, but to combine different elements to create something different and fresh.

Your new album Exordium dropped recently, what are your favorite tracks from the record?

“Home” and “Medicine” are definitely my two favorite tracks from the whole album. “Home” is about speaking out and making a difference, and not letting the fear of the past come back to haunt you, and then you have “Medicine” which is about points in life that make you hit rock bottom, but not letting them deter you from the long-term goals. When things get rough, I always try to remind myself and even fans who reach out that those moments are small in the timeline of our lives. There is so much more out there in this large world, and we just have keep moving forward to succeed in what we desire.   

How do you feel this record compares to your last album Into The Night?

 This record is definitely a more mature Oblivious Signal. Our last album was very abstract, and this one is more in-your-face and real. When Nick and I sat down to think of melodies and even lyrics, we wanted to make sure what was on this album impacted people in a way a lot of music doesn’t nowadays. We wanted to make sure there was substance, and not just empty words with a good riff. We hope we delivered that with this album Exordium.   

Oblivious Signal hail from sunny Florida, would you say the environment influences your music in any way?

I love sunny South Florida when it’s sunny, and then there are the hurricanes during season. Kind of like our lives in general. That’s what we reflect in this album. In terms of social environment, like any other highly densely populated area, we see a lot. We see more in terms of social issues which is something we hit on in this album with songs like “Madeline”, “Crash” and “Medicine.” Everyone thinks living in such a gorgeous state is all fun, and don’t get me wrong it is. Everyone appears to be so happy, but we don’t see the struggles people deal with at the end of the day. We want to bring awareness to this, to show no one is alone and there is some positivity in everything we go through even if we don’t see it now.

You made a music video for the lead single off Exordium, “Crash”. Was the creation and filming an enjoyable process?

We actually did two versions of this video. There is the storyline version, and the performance version which was is the new video. Both were incredibly fun to film, and we had a great videographer, Andrew Colton, that made sure everything went as smooth possible. The guys got to flip over cars in both videos, we burned my parents cable line during a bon fire scene which caused my dad to lose internet for three days (he dealt with it a lot better when the cable company put it back on haha), and we also made some great friendships with dealerships that donated the cars and products needed. Not every day you get to have a blast while getting eaten by mosquitoes in the nice humid Florida weather. It truly was a great experience that we won’t forget though.

Oblivious Signal – “Crash” Pavement Entertainment – Official Music Video

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Your tour with Flaw and Seasons After just finished up, how do you feel the shows went and what was the best live moment for you?  

The experience was very memorable and we had a blast. The guys from Seasons After and Flaw are the nicest people and very humble. We had the opportunity to meet fans that had been asking us to come up their way for a while now, and that was priceless to us. We played many phenomenal venues, but The Machine shop was the best live moment for us next to Montage Music Hall in Rochester. There is something that gives any artist chills when they hear a few of their fans from out of state singing their lyrics. The connection we made with the old and new fans is an unbeatable experience.

You’ve also played huge festivals and events such as Warped Tour and Hard Rock Rising, what are your touring plans for the rest of the year?

We are currently planning on going back out in the Fall and are working closely with Pavement on this. We are playing regional dates right now in the South East portion of the U.S., and enjoying every moment of it.

Finally, where does the band hope to be in ten years time? 

Trying to take over the world! Sorry had a Pinky and the Brain moment! 90’s babies will know what I’m talking about haha! We can only hope, dream, and work hard to make global touring a possibility and impacting the world even more with our music.

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 by Tom Vaughan, RockRevolt Journalist