Buffalo Rising Online

Jan 8th 2007, 2:34pm By Joseph DiDomizio

I recently got the chance to sit down and chat with Janessa, Don, Dan, Steve and Tom of Buffalo's own Ice Cream Social. After we played a few rounds of Mad Libs, we got into their energetic sets, their songs and their New Year's Resolutions.

You are extremely energetic during your shows, if it is not Tom Bouncing around on the stage, its everybody else looking really, really excited playing their instruments. How do you keep that energy up during your set?

Steven: The music,AeP Don: It's the music,AeP Dan: We actually have fun when we play, yeah, for me it's like trying something new every night. When we hear hiccups, I just look at everyone else and just smile. I know that they're not going to like look at me, they're going to laugh. We're just there to have fun. We're not taking ourselves that seriously. Tom: There's no message behind what we're doing so we don't have to put on a face, we just do whatever we want and it turns out we all like to Jive. Dan: I think we feed off of each other as well, every time I see Tom jumping around, or Janessa smiling at me or dancing, I just want to have more fun. Its just hanging out with your friends on stage.

When you guys recorded the CD [The Kitten And The Butterfly, released in December 2006] did you try to bring a lot of that energy into the recording sessions? Dan: A lot of people were concerned about that if our energy on stage would translate well to the CD. Tom and I would record vocals, late at night, in my house, and we would get kind of crazy, and you know. "Lets just start screamin" Tom: Yeah there's one, I did a backup vocal track that I yelled in. And Janessa said she didn't like the yell. So I took that as she didn't want me to yell. So-- Janessa: Which wasn't the case, I just didn't like the pitch of yell cause it was like a "YEAAAHHG" Tom: Yeah, so I did just one track with the yelling, that was "Domicile of the Eagle", where you can go "YEAAAHHG" in the back, all just because I was tired, Janessa: To spite me [laughs] Tom: To spite Janessa, 50 % of the things I do in the band are to spite Janessa.

How do you guys write your songs? Janessa: Well we have different ways we write our music. One of the ways we use the most is one of us has an idea for a song. A bunch of us have 4-tracks and things like that, so we would record multiple parts for a song, and then we would bring it in and play it and be like "Hey guys what do you think of this?" and we would play it or try to anyway, and I know this happened to me, where I would have an idea for a song, show everyone, and by the end of the night, the song was completely different. It sounded nothing like I originally intended, but I liked it nonetheless, and so it worked. Don: Multi-colored Rainbows. Janessa: Well every song I've written now, for Ice Cream Social does not sound like the song on the 4 track. Yeah, that's the way we do, someone has a pretty cool idea, and they bring it to the table, and we kinda tweak it and make it our own. But then we also actually write songs while we're together. We might be fooling around or jamming and someone will be like "Hey I like that" and then we'll write a song, I think that's how "Letters" came about. Yeah? Maybe? Dan: Yeah Don: Yep. Janessa: The song "Letters" which is track 2 on the CD, um, that might be the only one. And our new song "Treasures On The Back Of Horses" I just wrote that at Don's house, and isn't on the CD, but it will be on uh,AeP Tom: Our following EP, "Checks and Talonses" [laughter from everyone] Janessa: The name is up for,AeP Don: Discussion. The name is up for discussion [laughs] Tom: It's going to have this screaming eagle coming down, with the talons out in front and in between the 2 talons is going to be a scroll that says "ice cream social". [Laughter] And there's going to be a,AePtrident. Steven: Somewhere,AeP Dan: I'll get to work on that,AeP Janessa: It'll be perched on the trident Tom: The eagle can be perched on the trident. Which will be held by a dolphin. [laughter] Now as far as the lyrics, when we're playing them live, the lyrics are constantly changing. A lot of the stuff you hear on the album have never been used before we recorded it, because I get bored with lyrics really fast. About half the album is just stuff that I wrote that I was thinking up,AeP Don: I think the most obvious example of that is "The Kitten And The Butterfly". Tom: Yeah, the song used to be about a kitten and a butterfly and now it,AePI think it is about a computer programmer. ,AeP Janessa: Steven wrote the lyrics for a couple of songs too. Steven: I did? Dan & Janessa: "Worry and Regret" Steven: We did that song a while ago,AeP Janessa: You still get cred,AeP Dan: That was the first song we wrote, was "Worry and Regret" Don: You wrote that before I joined the band. Dan: Yeah we started out the band, we wanted it, it was just the 4 of us and a drum machine, but none of us could figure out Fruity Loops. [laughter]

Do you have any new year's resolutions you are working on? Tom: For the band, I think we want to keep playing out of town more. Janessa: Get our stuff out there. Tom: It's more fun that way, though playing in town is fun too. Janessa: We want to send our record out, and get picked up, ideally, we would get picked up by a small indie label. Tom: Epic records is where Rage Against The Machine was signed to. Dan: That's what we're trying to do, be like rage against the machine. Don: I thought we were trying to be like Death Row,AeP Tom: What about personal ones? Personal resolutions. I know I wanna keep going to consumer beverages, or premiere,AeP Don: Premier Gourmet Tom: and keep trying them until I've tried every beer from around the world,AeP Janessa: Anybody else? Steven: I'm going try to catch all the Pokemon on my Nintendo DS Janessa: I think that, aside from putting every amount of energy I have into ICS, which I do. Tom: she does but,AeP Janessa: I bust my butt, we all bust our butt in different ways for the band. Tom: Especially Janessa, I think. And Don. Don: I'm still in therapy for that. [laughter] Tom: Yeah Don mixed our entire album. Don: Recorded and mixed. Janessa: I'd really like to travel, so I mean then if I can travel with Ice cream social that'll work and then if Ice Cream Social is not traveling then,AeP Tom: Are we really going on a cruise to Beleize? Janessa: We want to go on a cruise in February. It's only $199! $179 if you get a window! Dan: Are there any cruise companies you'd like to pimp Janessa, while we're at it? Janessa: No, yeah Carnival , that would be great. I think we could ride the Excalibur. Tom: Maybe if we don't get picked up by a label, we'll get picked up by a cruise line, we'll be the house band. Dan: That's the resolution! Don: We'll be opening for Kathy Lee? Tom: We'll be the back up band for Kathy Lee.

Ice Cream Social just released their first LP in December of 2006. You can purchase it online, at any of their upcoming shows or sometime soon on the infrequently updated icecreamsocialize.com.