You’re Going to Want to Know About Sir, Please
[UNPUBLISHED:] How did Sir, Please begin?
[MIKE:] A few years ago, we were all musicians coming up in our local scene, and we were all looking for a group to join that we could dedicate ourselves to. We all knew of each other through the bands we had been in, and I will let the record state now that Shane slid into my DMs – you'll hear it both ways, but he slid into my DMs, and we decided to meet up to jam. The three of us, me, Shane, and Josh knew we had a special connection of some sort. A few months later, we got David in the band and it all came together.
[UNPUBLISHED:] When you began, did you ever expect that you’d eventually have a single with over 2 million streams? How does that feel?
[SHANE:] I don't think we did at all. Honestly, it was weird, because I think when we recorded Dance With Me, we were doing it for fun. David had recorded a bit with a band that he was in prior, but the rest of us hadn’t done any serious recording, so we paid a friend of ours to produce the song. Looking back, if we had known the song had the potential to get playlisted, we probably would have done it differently. A couple of weeks after it was released, the song was at a couple thousand streams, and then we woke up one day, and it had gone from 2,000 streams to 15,000 overnight -- we saw it had gotten put on a playlist. From there, it kept getting more and more streams each day, and it's still getting about 3,000 or 4,000 new streams every day two years later, which is really cool. Certain milestones were surreal. 100,000. 500,000. For one million, we had a party.
[DAVID:] It was a big moment for me when it hit two million. After we hit one million, I thought it was going to slow down a lot, so I did not think it was going to reach two million, at least not as quickly as it did. We're super blessed that it went the way it did because we never expected it at all.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What does your song making process look like? Do you each share similar or different approaches – how does that affect the process?
[MIKE:] I would say we all write the songs. Sometimes, we write by ourselves, but more often we write all together or in small groups. Often, our songs start with the chords on acoustic guitar and the vocals then the songwriters will bring it into our studio here. We'll start all working on it together, and we'll each give it our own touch. Eventually, the time comes to do a demo of it.
[SHANE:] We all have our different strengths in writing and producing songs. Michael and Josh are the poets of the band, I'd say -- not to say that David and I haven't written good lyrics, but most of our good lyrics are written by Michael and Josh. For me, I focus more on chords, arranging, and production. And, David is the captain of the ship. Once he joined, we started taking ourselves and our sound way more seriously. In the process of working on our songs, everybody's skill sets get applied, which makes it cohesive. We blend all our skills altogether, and it makes the songs feel like a little family.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Half of you have been making music since you were very young while the other half of you started making music in high school. How does your wide range of musical experiences contribute to your band’s unique sound?
[MIKE:] Well, David had the most experience when we started. We had all played shows here and there, but not as much as Dave had. So when he joined, we were taking notes from him. Now, I feel as though it's gotten to the point where we've played so many shows together that we've found this one wavelength that the four of us reside nicely on.
[SHANE:] I honestly feel like that question ties more into the music that we listen to. If you played any song from any album, I think Michael could name it – it's really strange. But, Josh and I didn't start playing music until late in our freshman year of high school. We always had instruments lying around the house, but we never really picked them up. So, Michael and David will talk about an album and I’ll feel so excluded. But, as Michael said, it's all come together at this point.
[MIKE:] Our different tastes and styles of approaching how we make music have infused into one super cohesive way of getting things done. We all influenced each other a lot, and we showed each other a lot in terms of what we love musically. If one of us thinks something is great, there's a very probable chance that the rest of us will think it's great.
[UNPUBLISHED:] How has being in a band shaped you into the people you are today? How has it shaped your relationships with one another?
[MIKE:] I would say through all the years of sharing the one common goal and also all of our different conversations on various things from music to philosophical life subjects, we've all grown a very deep respect for each other. I feel as though we've all been able to sharpen our communication skills with each other because conflicts can come up when you're trying to create music. We've gotten good at being respectful to each other and being open to trying new things, so it's been nothing but beneficial for us.
[UNPUBLISHED:] I love the line on your website: “a contemporary sound, with hints of old.” What artists do you look to as inspiration for your sound?
[DAVID:] Michael Jackson.
[SHANE:] If you'd asked the same thing three years ago, the answer would have been all over the place, and it still kind of is, but there's this group of artists that we all love: Parcels, The Beatles, The 1975, and Tame Impala, among multiple others.
[MIKE:] James Brown and Kendrick Lamar.
[MIKE:] There's a lot. Honestly, I would even go as far as to say that there are only a few musical genres that haven't inspired us in one way or another. Overall, the four of us have been touched by almost every form of music. I think that has allowed us to approach our songwriting in a unique way because of the variety of places our inspirations come from: pop, funk, blues, gospel, rap, r&b, pretty much any genre you can think of.
[UNPUBLISHED:] You’ve performed at several impressive venues including the San Jose Civic Center and you’ve opened for artists such as REO Speedwagon. What were your favorite performances?
[SHANE:] We threw a party here at our house the night after we released Dance With Me. It was Gatsby themed. So, we posted about it on Instagram expecting 70 to 100 people to show up. We reached capacity quickly and ended up having to turn down over 200 people at the door. It was insane. Everyone was wearing suits, and we decorated the whole backyard. It was the first time that people had sung our lyrics back to us and there were people crowd-surfing, and it was a great time. That was the most fun show I think.
[DAVID:] I think the show that Shane said might be my favorite show. But, to do a different one, I think I'd say the show we played at the San Jose Civic Center. The stage has been there since the 1920s or even earlier, and they have a list backstage of everyone who's played there, and there was anyone you could think of. I remember some of the coolest names were Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, Louis Armstrong, and The Rolling Stones. So, to play on that stage was emotional. That was one of my favorite shows.
[UNPUBLISHED:] I liked hearing your cover of Twist & Shout. What are your favorite covers you’ve done? What are the covers you’d like to do in the future?
[DAVID:] Gamesofluck and Myenemy by Parcels.
[SHANE:] Oh, those were fun. For me, it’s Purple Rain, and we performed it right after Kobe died, who was a big role model for me growing up. That's one of my favorite vocals ever.
[MIKE:] Yeah, I would say my favorite is Fat Bottom Girls, I Want to Be Your Lover by Prince was fun too.
[UNPUBLISHED:] You’re about to release a new single! What are your plans for the future and goals as a band?
[MIKE:] As Shane mentioned, we've been recording our debut EP, we've been hard at work trying to get it right so that we feel ready to release it – we also have a couple of singles that'll come out before that. We have a good number of songs recorded that are nearing the final stages of the process, so hopefully, it won't be long before we've got some funky tunes out.
[DAVID:] We want to release work when it feels like there's nothing more we can do to make it better.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What would you say are the ideas or emotions you try to capture in your song “Dance With Me”?
[MIKE:] I guess it's more of an emotion. A lot of our songs are about love and that excitement, we're all huge fans of the concept of love. For Dance With Me, we were trying to capture the thrill of finding somebody that you make a meaningful connection with on the dance floor.
[DAVID:] I would say a big image in my head, at least when we were writing was the idea of what happened to the days of going to a dance party, seeing someone, and being able to talk, to dance, to party with. We’re truly a bunch of hippies. Dance With Me is a party song. It's a love song. It's a disco track.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Who would you say you make music for?
[DAVID:] I would say we want to make music that everyone can listen to. Our idea of an audience is people who purely enjoy the songs that we write. We want to execute our songs the best we hear them, and that might not always be the same type of song.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Is there anything else you want to say?
[JOSH:] Also, thank you to anyone who's been riding with us since the original Dance With Me release. We know it's been a while, but we're excited to finally share what we've been working on.
You can check Sir, Please out on Instagram, Spotify, and Youtube.