Kyle Winterstein From Digital Summer Checks In
RN: How is the tour with “12 Stones” going?
Kyle Winterstein: It’s going ok. We hoped on the tour kind of last minute to help spread the word. It’s been cool because this tour is helping us get some of the bigger festival dates we are doing.
RN: You had Morgan Rose from Sevendust guest on you last CD “Counting The Hours”
Kyle Winterstein: He did drum tracks on “Anybody Out There” he really liked it so he did drums on the softer song on the album called “Use Me” and he did back up vocals on a song called “Playing The Saint”
RN: And fast forward to your new CD “Breaking Point” you have Clint Lowery on the song “Forget You”
Kyle Winterstein: Sevendust is one of our biggest influences developing as a band. And we got lucky, on our first big national tour we went out as support for Sevendust. It worked out really well and we became really good friends with the guys in the band and we are still very close with them now. And they respect the fact that we are doing this on our own and we turned down record labels and we choose to take a different path. They are big supporters of ours and they wanted to be involved in the project. And it has worked out both ways. I had the chance to co-write a few songs on Sevendust last album. So there has been a lot of collaboration and its really cool to have people that are really well established on the active rock scene put their stamp on it.
RN: “Breaking Point” was made with the help of your fans using Kickstater. For people that may not know, could you tell us how it works?
Kyle Winterstein: A fan suggested a “Kickstarter” campaign. Pretty much how it works is, you come up with a goal. For us it was $25,000 and you offer incentives for different dollar amounts. And you put it out there for as long as you want it to run. For us we did a 30 day campaign. If you do not make the goal no one gets charged and no one gets their incentives, the whole thing is just a wash. It was cool because a fan brought it to us. And we posted the idea on Facebook and we asked our fans what they thought. And we had an overwhelming amount of support so it worked out really well. We exceeded our goal. We raised $51,000. The money went to recording, mastering, duplication of the album and other things that go along with pushing the album.
RN: Is there going to be a video for your single?
Kyle Winterstein: We did a video for the first single called “Forget You“. We hope to have it out as soon as possible.
RN: How does this CD differ from “Cause and Effect “ and “Counting The Hours”?
Kyle Winterstein: I think it’s just broader in general. We also have a new guitar player. His name is Jon Stephenson. He is just amazing. He is an awesome guitar player so we are able to implement some different stuff that we didn’t do before. That is a whole new element that really helps on the heavier stuff. I wouldn’t say we are getting heavier, I would say we are broadening our sound and ability in all directions.
RN: How has the response been to the CD so far?
Kyle Winterstein: We are thrilled from the feed back we have received so far. The Kickstarter backers have the CD. The hard copies went out to press and the response we get from the live shows is great. We are all really happy with it. From the way we did the song writing, to making it, to the fans funding it everything has been great.
RN: Why did you decided to call the album “Breaking Point”?
Kyle Winterstein: The reason way we called this album Breaking Point is because we decided this is it. We had enough with all the legal stuff and personally I have gone through a lot of stuff over the last year. Breaking point was just where everyone was at. We were either going to band together and do this or it was just going to fall apart. And now from the fan support and how it is being received we are stoked in the direction we are headed.
RN: Kyle thank you for taking time out to talk to us.
Kyle Winterstein: Anytime take care
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