Banding with Butterfield – Bleeding in Stereo

author: ethan butterfield | a&c writer

Brand new album, same old rock n’ roll.

Bleeding in Stereo brings a new grunge flavor to rock and roll.

Hey everyone! So it’s that time again. This week, I spoke with Brian Woodward, the guitarist for an amazing hard rock group by the name of Bleeding in Stereo. Here are some of the highlights:

Bleeding in Stereo has an awesome kick to it. I’m curious; where did the band come up with its name?

The meaning is very simple. It just means expression of emotion through music. We live up to that name in every piece of music we write.

The band’s sound is a solid hard rock crunch with a mix of beautifully harmonized vocals. Why does the band perform the style of music that it does? Where do you guys draw inspiration from when creating it?

We have a wide range of inspiration between all four members. We all grew up during the ‘90s grunge explosion out of Seattle, so grunge for sure is a big influence pulling from Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, etc. with our gritty guitar tones. We are all fans of classic rock as well. Big influences are Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Rush, The Doors. I could write a book on influences because we are all so open minded to music in general, so I’ll leave it at that, haha.

Speaking of performing, how does it feel when you guys perform live? 

Performing live…there is nothing else like it. It is like a drug. The high from performing on a stage is very hard to describe and for people to understand, unless they’ve done it themselves. It is personally my favorite part of being in a band.

Are there any covers that the band plays when on stage? Or do you stick to your own material?

We stick to mostly original material, but we tend to throw in a cover here and there to pay homage to some of our favorite bands. We’ve thrown in a few Alice in Chains tunes (“Rooster,” “Dam that River”). We’ve gone classic rock and pulled some Jimi Hendrix (“All Along the Watchtower”) out before, as well as Tom Petty (“Last Dance with Mary Jane”). My favorite would have to be “The Hollow” by A Perfect Circle. It definitely gets the best live reaction when we play it.

As a fan question, I loved the song “Distance” from Wound & the Echo. I was wondering, how was it working on that track?   Are there any stories you could share about the song or album?

“Distance” is a great song. As for the writing process, I was not part of the band when that was written. In fact, Bleeding In Stereo wasn’t even formed yet. Our vocalist, Keith, wrote and arranged “Distance” along with the rest of the Wound & the Echo album and took it to the studio. The band was formed after all the recordings were finished. As for the story behind the song, in short, at the time, Keith and his daughter lived in two different states, so the whole song is him speaking to her and hoping she knows that he still loves her and cares for her and hasn’t given up on her, even though they are so far apart.

Going back to live shows, if you can, what have been some of your favourite bands to share the stage with?

By far my personal favorite band we’ve shared the stage with would be Sevendust. Great dudes and really down to earth. To name a few more…Candlebox, Sick Puppies, Nonpoint were all fantastic people.

Also, what have been some of the biggest highlights of the bands career?

I would definitely have to say one of the biggest highlights would be our song “Black or White” getting picked up and used by World Wrestling Entertainment. It was a very cool feeling knowing 15-30k were hearing our music nightly at WWE events. The track was also featured on WWE ‘12, the multi platform video game that was distributed worldwide. It exposed us to a worldwide audience for sure. Other great things have been festival shows we’ve been a part of with some of the industry’s best. We’ve been featured on the cover of ION Indie magazine, also.

Last question, if you can, what does the future hold for Bleeding in Stereo?

The future…well, of course, the big goal in mind would be to make Bleeding in Stereo our full time job. We all work day jobs currently to fund Bleeding in Stereo, so definitely would love to see this take off. But we’d like to get better exposure by radio play and definitely get more time in out on the road touring. We don’t plan on going anywhere but up!

So there you have it! Do yourself a favour and be sure to check out this awesome group’s material. Until next time!