I sit down with Alexander Oakley, one of the principal songwriters and founding members of Voted Down, an active Columbus Ohio garage band. They’ve recently gotten back the masters for their upcoming album. 

TUNED UP: So you guys just recorded in the studio? How was the process.

Alexander Oakley: Um, it was pretty organic. I mean for it we, like we tracked things instead of doing live recordings of things as we’ve done in the past. And we were still really satisfied with how everything turned out.

TUNED UP: What was the name of the studio?

Alexander Oakley: Its called National Audio Preservation Society in Heath, Ohio.

TUNED UP: Are you guys doing a CD release show?

Alexander Oakley: Yeah, we’re planning on doing one in early October. And we want it to be at Victory’s but we haven’t confirmed a date with anyone yet.

TUNED UP: That’ll be sweet. How about tour plans?

Alexander Oakley: None really down yet. Its something that we’re all trying to push for because we still have certain things that we need to get together. We still need merchandise so we can actually make money out there but its all something that we’re working hard at.

TUNED UP: What are three cool anecdotes / stories from the recording process?

Alexander Oakley: Um… let me think. I don’t know, I think once we got there, I mean ’cause at first we just pulled up to this house.. and we were kindof wondering if it was actually going to be someones basement. But then they took us back, and there was this path that we followed and this cabin they built form the ground up. And once we got inside it was relaxing and awesome.

It was also… when we went to stat laying down the bass, we realized the strings were too close to the frets so they were all pretty much dead. So we were like “who here knows someone who has a bass?,” but we ended up fixing it which was pretty cool.

And really just hearing everything for the first time after we had laid everything down was great… It was an awesome feeling knowing that we had made something that we’re all proud of.

TUNED UP: Whats next?

Alexander Oakley: Well since we just got a bassist, I think that we want to sort of solidify our live performances as a band, so we’re probably going to play around Columbus some more and try to get into bigger events and festivals and whatnot throughout the city. And once we feel comfortable I think we’ll try to get out there and tour.

Relevant Links
https://www.facebook.com/VotedDown
https://voteddown.bandcamp.com
https://www.voteddownband.com

Written by Sandeep Sehbi