The music industry has changed over the years; artists can be discovered with the simple upload of a video or auditioning for a reality TV show. But even with all of the technology and changes, some bands decided that heading out on tour and winning over fans one city at a time is still the way to go. Dinner and a Suit are proving that they can concur the rock ‘n’ roll industry with a combination of new school and old school methods.
Dinner and a Suit first formed back in 2008 in Nashville, Tennessee. The band includes cousins Jonathan Capeci, Joey Beretta, Anthony Genca, and Drew Scheuer. As a group they started out playing smaller venues and touring all across the United States, now in 2014, the band has gone global and are discovering and introducing their music to new fans night after night on tour. The band has combined new school outreach by utilizing social media and online streaming services for music but they are also dedicated to life on the road and their rock ‘n’ roll indie sound.
Along with being on tour and recording new music, the group was able to perform live in India for brand new fans. Dinner and a Suit was invited by VH1 to take part in the ‘Emerge’ which features new artists performing in India with the hopes that a music scene could start to develop.
“We played two festival shows over there and it was an honor and privilege to be able to play over there. It wasn’t something that we ever expected to do at this stage as a band,” said Jonathan Capeci, lead singer.
The band has been dedicated to life on the road but they took time as a group to return to Nashville and focus on recording their latest EP Stay. The EP was recorded at The Smokestack Studios in Nashville and the band said that the vibe of the studio and the passion for new music is what helped to create this latest EP.
“It is a really old school vibe; they do everything to tape and all of this vintage gear. It is a really sought after studio in Nashville and a lot of artists will stop by and record there,” Capeci explained. “It was a pretty cool thing for us to be able to record at Smokestack. We wrote a bunch of songs and narrowed it down to four. We had been touring to that non-stop and we decided it was time to write new music. So we cleared our schedules and everyone just stayed in Nashville until we were done.”
With a new EP, more new music on the way and many more shows left on the bands touring schedule, it is no surprise that Dinner and a Suit are right on the edge of becoming a mainstream rock band in the music industry. Their passion and dedication to music can be heard in their music and live on stage night after night.
Chelsea Lewis from TheCelebrityCafe.com sat down with the band when they arrived in Lansing, MI on tour. The following is the entire interview with Dinner and a Suit below.
C: We last spoke back in April of last year. What has been happening with the band since we last talked?
DAS: We have just touring, writing new music. We put out a new EP a few weeks ago, which is pretty much it. We have done a lot since that last conversation, we played a local venues here in Lansing and we have gone to India. We played two shows over there.
C: What was it like to perform and play for fans over in India?
DAS: We played two festival shows over there and it was an honor and privilege to be able to play over there. It wasn’t something that we ever expected to do at this stage as a band. VH1 has a program over in India because as a country they don’t get a lot of bands touring, people from the U.K and the U.S. don’t play India often, so they have a program called Emerge where they expose new artists over in India with the hopes that would develop a music scene. We did two days and two shows over in India.
It was a culture shock and the food was so good. Eating over in India was one of the best nights of our lives.
C: Could you talk about the new EP and what the recording process was like?
DAS: We are really excited bout it. We have not put out music in a little while, it took us a little while to figure out how we wanted to record the album but we ended up doing it at a studio in Nashville called Smokestack. It is a really old school vibe; they do everything to tape and all of this vintage gear. It is a really sought after studio in Nashville and a lot of artists will stop by and record there.
It was a pretty cool thing for us to be able to record at Smokestack. We wrote a bunch of songs and narrowed it down to four. We had been touring to that non-stop and we decided it was time to write new music. So we cleared our schedules and everyone just stayed in Nashville until we were done. We wrote over twenty songs for the EP.
C: Have you gotten good reception about the album from fans?
DAS: We have, it’s been good and our moms like it. So far it has been pretty good and we hope to get more touring in next year and be able to promote it more. We recorded over twenty songs and we are sure to release more music coming up.
C: What song would you cover if you could cover any song? Any modern songs that you would like to cover?
DAS: “Sweet Home Alabama” or anything by Tears for Fears, maybe “Dance With Somebody.” We are going to cover that tonight now actually. Modern is difficult because if a song is currently on the radio its hard to hear a cover of it but a dramatic reading of Miley Cryus’ “Wrecking Ball” might work. Our first cover ever was Kings of Leon, we basically want to be them.