A Floor Below is a rock band from New Hampshire and New York, bringing their own brand of rock and roll to the scene with their EP, My Own Sea. It’s a fantastic record, full of guitars, thoughtful lyrics and emotion – as any good rock EP should be! If you’re into that style of music, you might want to consider checking out A Floor Below – find out more here!
By Jane Howkins
You released an EP titled My Own Sea. What can you tell us about the EP?
My Own Sea is our debut offering, and represents a small sample of a much larger body of work that we’ve written and recorded or are currently in development. Generally, our music revolves around themes of mental health and associated struggles therein. That’s not necessarily a novel approach to songwriting, but where we differ is that we prefer to feature that theme across all of our songs, not just a handful on any given album. That was a difficult decision for us in terms of gaining an audience because people generally don’t like to acknowledge their struggles with mental health (diagnosed or otherwise), but we all struggle. Our goal is to share our own experiences (or experiences we’ve observed with others), and in doing so hopefully encourage people to embrace their own struggles and talk freely about them. People can interpret the meaning of the songs in multiple ways, but also relate to them in a personal way.
How has the reception to My Own Sea been so far, and where can the EP be purchased?
We’re a new band (recently formed in August, 2022), so it’s been a shallow growth curve so far. But, that’s fine. We’re really not looking to get famous or anything like that. Our goal is to have fun making music and hopefully reach (and maybe help) others who are struggling to find themselves in a world that has gone mad. For those who have connected with our music and would like to buy it, it can be purchased on Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, etc.
Do you plan to release any singles in the near future?
Since the release of My Own Sea, we have released 5 singles from our up-coming LP entitled Corners Of My Frame, and we’ve been on a release schedule of every two weeks.
Are there any plans to release a full-length album anytime soon?
Following up on the previous question, yes. Corners Of My Frame will be released later this summer (2023). However, our plan is to release most, if not all, of the songs as singles first because we’re still trying to build an audience – releasing singles helps to keep our name circulating until the LP is released in full.
What is the writing and recording process like for you?
We try to keep the writing process as fluid and organic as possible. What we mean is that we really don’t have (nor want) a formal plan when it comes to songwriting. Sometimes, one of us will write a single melody that the other builds on and we iterate back and forth until we have something that we’re happy with. Other times, one of us will sketch out an entire song and the other will write a parallel melody to overlay on top of it. Because we play all of the instruments, we usually sketch out the melodies with guitars and vocals first, then come back and sketch out the drums and bass guitar and iterate until finished. We don’t always agree on how different songs come together, but we remind ourselves that we’re in this to have fun and ultimately to find a solution that we’re both happy with. As for recording, we each have our own DIY studio that we record in. We then send our own completed tracks and preliminary mixes to a professional studio to be formally mixed and mastered.
Your music has an acoustic rock sound. What/who influences you most as artists? What have you been listening to recently?
Yeah, we really love the unplugged rock sound, but that isn’t our only style. Several of the songs on our up-coming LP take a different approach, and incorporate more of a hard rock sound. We love to experiment and play around with different styles, and that will show on the LP. Because we’re not tied to music industry standards, we don’t have to worry about producing an album where all of the songs have a similar style, which is very liberating. As for influences, that’s tough to answer succinctly because we’ve been music fans for so long and have been influenced by so many different bands. A Floor Below formed with an acoustic jam session following a late night of listening to the unplugged sessions from Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam, and we think you can hear that in some of our songs. Other influences include Tool, Mad Season, Breaking Benjamin, Pink Floyd, 10 Years and Mumford & Sons to name a few.
Have you got anything else exciting coming up this year?
We’re really focused on songwriting right now, so we’re very excited to get our new music out for others to experience.
You’re based in New Hampshire. How is the local music scene faring at the moment?
We’re actually located in New Hampshire and New York and once in a while we’ll come together to jam or to write songs. The music scene in New Hampshire is as you would expect from a smaller state. It is centralised to the ‘major’ cities and towns, but there are several opportunities to get out and play; just not as many as you would find in a larger city.
Do you have any tour dates lined up for the UK?
We are a two-piece band, so we’re in the process of auditioning drummers and bassists to join us on stage. Once that’s set, we look forward to playing anywhere that will have us!
Any last words for the fans?
For those who have connected with our music, THANK YOU for your support. We love making music, but enjoy sharing it with others even more. Please feel free to reach out – we’d love to hear from you! You can reach out on our website www.afloorbelow.com or by email at afloorbelow@gmail.com