Tell Me Something Beautiful - NEBA Int.

“Tell Me Something Beautiful”
- Moosh Music interviews David Owens, singer and guitarist of NEBA.
(photo by: Joel Ekdahl)

MM: Okay, so I have to get this one out of the way first. Not only because we want to know, but I’m sure other people that are familiar with your music want to know/have wondered as well. What is NEBA, and how did you come up with that for the name of this band?
DAVID: A lot of people do ask us this question...and as always we leave them highly disappointed. Before NEBA and after Mourning Maxwell we had a band called The Crab Nebula...somehow we simplified “nebula” by taking out the "U" and the "L”. I wish I could tell you the thought process on that one but we were probably out there... Now its more fun because we use it as slang for words like "never"...for example “neba say neba”...”neba gonna get it”...or for a terrible word created by idiots in our past...ya feel me neba?

MM: [laughs] Though it is obviously the same band, your music has noticeably changed from record to record. Not only in sound and style, but lyrically as well. Can you
tell us more about that?
DAVID: Well besides never wanting to do the same thing over and over again...I think life and its experiences just have a natural effect on your music...I felt that my lyrics were definitely more positive earlier on...as I got older and things got more real my lyrics changed...I feel I’ve always tried to make a positive out of a negative...and most of my lyrics come from finding that kind of clarity in my experiences

MM: NEBA's sound is pretty detailed. How does the band generally approach the process
of writing new music?
DAVID: There's definitely different ways we write our music. Most of the time, we just jam. Then take our favorite parts from those jams and construct them into a song. Some of those parts that we construct together are sometimes taken from different jams over long periods of time. They just come together after awhile. Everyone in our band is also capable of bringing a song or an idea to the table.

MM: In both songs, “Gold” as well as “Sex:30”, I noticed you managed to work the bands name into the lyrics. Is that a clever marketing technique on the bands part or
coincidental after thought?
DAVID: I use the word everyday I might as well use it in my songs.

MM: One track that majorly stood out to me while going through your discography
was the last track on your second release (My Heart Always Beats Her)
"Love Is Greater Than Power". Wow! That’s quite the song at whopping "10:48".
Was that all recorded live?
DAVID: All the music on every one of our cds has been recorded live whether it’s
to a metronome or not. Feeling Reducer and My Heart Always Beats Her are metronome free.

MM: It must have been a bitch to play, huh?
DAVID: Yes it was! Of course recording a song that long there's little spots you just have to punch in sometimes to fix things. Not going try and act like we are perfect...the whole point of recording live is to capture everyone's
energy and feeling.

MM: I guess that’s what you get for trying to show off!
DAVID: [laughs] Yes sometimes our creations put us in our place.

MM: I definitely agree. Let’s talk about the band itself a little. NEBA is made up of yourself, the bass player, Michael, and your two brothers, Jonathan (drums) and Cory (keys). Does working so closely with family aid or put strain on the process of creating music?
DAVID: It makes everything so much easier when you have that kind of connection in your band. Even with Mike, I’ve known him for over 10 years. He might as well be one of my brothers. There's so many talented people out there that you could put in your band just to not have it flow right.

MM: How long has NEBA been a band?
DAVID: Since 2005

MM: What is your favorite song to perform live, and why?
DAVID: Probably "Feel my love". It’s a song we haven’t recorded yet. If a person inspires the lyrics from one of our songs I usually end up being a super douche and telling them that they inspired it...with this one I haven’t...so it feels that much closer to me every time I sing it.

MM: [laughs] “super douche”, that’s a new one. I think it’s great to see a band so closely attached to their music. What do you think has been NEBA’s most notable show to date?
DAVID: I guess I would say The SoCo (Southern Comfort) Music Festival with the Cold War Kids and Girl Talk. I always have the best time playing shows at the Yucca being around good people and friends too.

MM: Your newest single “Gold” recently came out on the release of the compilation
This Is Flying Blanket, Vol.2 (2010), which was engineered by Bob Hoag. Your album
Sorry, I Don’t Speak Binary (2008) was also engineered by Hoag. Can you tell us a little more about working with him on NEBA’s music?
DAVID: Bob's an amazing dude. To me he doesn't feel like a producer he feels like another band member. He always has great ideas and suggestions and he's preformed some of those on our tracks. He's very meticulous with sound. Both times we've recorded with him the whole first day was spent on sound alone. He just shows you that he really cares about your songs sounding the best they possibly can.

MM: Should we expect a new album in the near future?
DAVID: We always have new stuff in the works. We've been working on a new song for awhile titled "Start Living". We might get it out there soon or release it on an album later this year.

MM: What local bands are you currently into?
DAVID: There is so many but i guess some of our favs are…Tugboat, Coats and Villa, Black Carl, Small Leaks Sink Ships, Dry River Yacht Club, What Laura Says, Kirkwood Dellinger, Sleepwalk a Robot, and Dear and the Headlights.

MM: Anything else you want to add before we wrap this up?
DAVID: There's a lot of crap going on in Arizona right now...music is powerful...

More info:
NEBA MySpace | Facebook