NARROWS is the brainchild of a couple of interesting musicians, including Jodie Cox (guit.) who brought the band to life during a visit in Seattle, as he told in the interview following the release of the debut album “The Distances”. What Mr. Cox has to say about the band’s past, present and future can be read below… Interview "New Distances" is available for some time now - how's the
feedback you've received and how are the reviews you've read?


It's all been really good and thankfully a lot more open minded than
I was, personally, expecting. Quite encouraging.



Did the album turn out the way you had envisioned it? Did you have
plan for it when you began songwriting?


There was no tightly pre-conceived plan for this record when we started. I guess there was a rough idea of things that we wanted to
do but we didn't all sit down and make a plan of sorts. There wasn't
really any time for that either. We just had lots of ideas and just
bounced those off of each other when writing. I'm stoked with how it
turned out though.



How did you work on the songs? In the classic way, jamming in the
rehearsal room or did everyone work at home on ideas and songs?


More of the latter. Lots of little ideas al recorded at home and
emailed to each other prior to meeting up and rehearsing for a few
days and then going straight into the studio to lay the tracks down.
It was an intense process once we go together because of time
restraints etc. but seemed to work out ok.



When and why did you start NARROWS? What's the purpose of the band?


Before this became NARROWS, it seems that Rob, Sam and Dave have had
different versions of this band before it actually became a band and
eventually NARROWS. It started 'officially' I guess when I was
visiting Ryan in Seattle for a few weeks. I had known Rob from our
previous band, SOME GIRLS and BULLET UNION, touring together in
Europe a little while back. I found out Rob was then living in
Seattle so told him I was coming to visit and that we should hang
out. He then asked if I was into doing a quick band type thing and I
said sure. He then asked Ryan to be in it and he was up for it too.
That was around October 2006 if I remember rightly. We recorded 3
tracks during my stay there and that became the EP we put out. I then
returned the following year in March 2007 and we laid down what
became “New Distances”. I guess the purpose of this band is to have fun
creating music with not so likely collaborators who also happen to be
good friends which is awesome.



Is NARROWS a "real" band or does it have more a project-like
character?



It's as real as it can be given our obstacles of where we live and
the lives we lead. I think that's a positive though as we don't
rehearse all of the time and haven't got sick of each other yet and
more importantly, not sick of playing the songs. It's funny really,
since we have started, we have only really been together as a band
for around 3 weeks! *laughs*.



With the background of you guys (including BOTCH and UNBROKEN)
it's easy to say that NARROWS is an all-star-band... what do you
think about that?



If that's what you want to call it that's fine but I know that we all
like to think of this as just a band that we do and is really fun for
us. Of course, this is seen differently outside of the band and
that's understandable but there are no egos or anything that we have
to work with. It's still new and fun for us but we also have years of
experience of operating in bands so that makes things easier.



Had it been easy for you to sort out how NARROWS should
sound like?



It kinda came naturally really. Lots of different influences between
what we listen to and how we all play and I think it all combines well.



The cover art of "New Distances" is really cool - who created it?


That was the work of our very own Ryan Frederiksen. We all love how
it looks and it really ties the whole of the record together.



What are the lyrics on the album about? Do you personally care
much for lyrics at all?


I'm not going to speak for Dave on this but I think they're there for
you to work out and relate to however it hits you. I never used to
care to much for lyrics a little while ago and has always been much
more fascinated and into how songs and pieces were arranged but over
the past few years I have really got into it. Even now, some lyrics
and their delivery are more important to me than some music.



Your video for "Gypsy Kids" is really strange - how did work on
the ideas you had for the video?


An old friend of mine, Craig Murray, made the video and all the
imagery and flow are solely from his mind and inspiration from the
song. It's pretty bleak and epic but we all love the job he did. Hs
other videos are awesome too and I'm excited to see the new videos
that he's doing for CONVERGE and OXBOW.



How important are music videos today for a band like yours, what
do you think?


I wouldn't necessarily say that music videos are particularly
important, but I think that if they're in tune with the song/music
enough to enhance each other to the point where both seem to be
making a bigger impact then that's awesome but I guess it depends
what you like too.



"New Distances" is available in vinyl too - do you plan to
release a 7" in the future too?


Maybe. We have already recorded 3 new tracks back in January, but I'm
not sure what we're going to do with those right now.



What are your plans for the rest of this year and 2010?


We're planning on doing an US east coast tour in November but I think
that will most likely be it. We're hoping to make some European shows
happen next year though. We're itching to play some Eureopean shows!



14. and some final words?


Thanks for taking an interest and for the questions. I hope it isn't a boring read!