{"id":3024,"date":"2011-08-03T13:43:48","date_gmt":"2011-08-03T20:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3024"},"modified":"2011-08-03T13:44:09","modified_gmt":"2011-08-03T20:44:09","slug":"tonic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/tonic\/","title":{"rendered":"TONIC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

TONIC<\/h1>\n

An extended break quickly gives way to a long-awaited renewal <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Alt-rock band Tonic didn\u2019t intend to wait eight years between albums, but side projects and growing families helped put some distance between the Los Angeles band\u2019s 2002 album Head on Straight<\/em> and its new self-titled effort. \u201cThere was no definitive moment when someone said, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s take a break,\u2019 at least not on purpose,\u201d says guitarist Jeff Russo. \u201cIt was more like, \u2018Hey man, I\u2019m going to do some stuff, why don\u2019t you go do some stuff?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, the completion of that stuff brought Russo and singer Emerson Hart back into each other\u2019s orbit and they started writing songs for what would become Tonic<\/em>. \u201cOne day Emerson was in town, he called me and said, \u2018What do you think?\u2019\u201d recalls Russo. \u201cI said, \u2018All right, let\u2019s write some songs and see how it goes.\u201d Bass player Dan Lavery then joined in the writing, some of which was conducted among the members via the Internet.<\/p>\n

After not having worked together for a few years, the band was surprised at how quickly the new record came together. Recording and mixing the 12 songs on Tonic<\/em> took only six weeks. \u201cThe songwriting was very together, and we\u2019re better musicians\u00a0than we were 10 years ago,\u201d explains\u00a0Russo. Only one song, \u201cBigger Than Both,\u201d proved itself a challenge to get right as the band tried different keys, tempos and arrangements. \u201cWe just hadn\u2019t really settled upon what we wanted the song to be,\u201d\u00a0says Russo.<\/p>\n

To capture the spark that comes with playing together as a unit, the band recorded the songs live in the studio, adding just a handful of overdubs later. \u201cMaking a record is just literally making a recording of a moment in time, and it\u2019s really important for us to capture moments,\u201d Russo says. \u201cFor us, it\u2019s always just about the song. If the song is great, the record will be great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the band is excited about playing new songs in concert, they won\u2019t be crowding older material like Tonic\u2019s signature song, 1996\u2019s \u201cIf You Could Only See,\u201d out of the set list. Russo has little patience for bands that seek to distance themselves from their hits. \u201cThis is entertainment,\u201d he says. \u201cWe go out to entertain people. We want to play the new songs because we\u2019re artists, but people love the older songs, so we play them. That\u2019s why we do what we do\u2014because we have fun doing it and people have fun coming to see us play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Eric R. Danton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TONIC An extended break quickly gives way to a long-awaited renewal Alt-rock band Tonic didn\u2019t intend to wait eight years between albums, but side projects and growing families helped put some distance between the Los Angeles band\u2019s 2002 album Head on Straight and its new self-titled effort. \u201cThere was no definitive moment when someone said, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[80,10156,2278],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3024"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3024"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3028,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3024\/revisions\/3028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}