Led by singer/guitarist Josh Verbanets, local pop rockers Meeting of Important People will release new album My Ears Are Having a Heart Attack this Friday.
The new album has a more, dare I say, mature quality to it, both musically and lyrically, than past recordings.
Everything about my approach to music has matured a bit. I'm even writing three-minute songs instead of two, for God's sake. The first album had songs that were written when I was still a teen-ager. I now have all these boring late-20s and early-30s things to think about. So it's the perfect counter-piece to the first album, which was all about happy-go-lucky suburban times.
How else did this recording experience differ?
We attempted this time to do less "three-piece garage rock" stuff and make a much more groove-oriented album: lots of shakers and controlled rhythms, almost like demented island music in places. Our other albums have been attempts to preserve our live sound as much as possible, while this was conceived from the ground up as a stand-alone recording project.
MOIP used the Kickstarter site to help fund this album. How was that experience?
I had been a [Kickstarter] skeptic for several years, but we honestly had such an overwhelmingly positive response from our campaign. I'm still beyond words with thanks to the friends, family, community members and musicians who contributed and allowed us to make what I believe is our best project yet.
