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Late Night Affair


Band:

Late Night Affair

Members: Chris Buhrman, guitar and vocals; Andy Parr, drums; Brett Sheppard, guitar and vocals; Randy Smith, bass

Who we talked to: Parr, 20

How did you guys meet/how long have you been performing together? Basically, what had happened was, I'd been around in the music scene for a few years with a couple different bands. (Sheppard) was the only person who I had worked with prior. My goal was to form a band where we could reach as many people as possible but with a unique sound, not something as typical as the modern pop/punk sound. I kind of got a band together. It went through several lineup changes in the beginning looking for the right person on the right instrument. Then, we finally got to what we're settled on right now. We started to think about this project in last July and then we actually had a set, finalized lineup in probably early October. And, once we were able to bring it together, we (started) working tracks for our new EP.

How did you come up with the name? We just sat down in the basement one day in the early stages and just kind of thought about a lot of things . . . and wrote down different names that kind of are catchy. They all obviously had some meaning to them. I think why we settled on Late Night Affair, was that most of what we did or when we were all hanging out was usually, like 10 . . . at night. It always stretched into . . . 1 to 2 in the morning. Our song writing was a late-night affair. I'm more awake at night. You could say I'm a nocturnal individual.

How has the songwriting process been going for you guys? It went really, really well. When we write a song, we always like to start, you know, with something that is just rhythm and drums. The nice thing about myself and Brett is that we've always had . . . this kind of connection or just a good chemistry about us in which, you know, we both can just bring something to the table and the other person can kind of add something to that. Right there . . . we have the . . . spine of the song and we can build around that. (With) typical pop punk, you hear, you know, a nice two-step base beat on the drums and then . . . four strum chord patterns. With this, you're going to hear a lot of tambourine. You're going to hear a lot of different things (including) some gang vocals (and) shakers. I tried to incorporate a lot more technicalities into the drumbeats, and Brett really brings another level to it with harmonizing guitar and things like that.

Describe your sound and style. We do have a lot of the same qualities as All Time Low or Starting Over or Dropout Year possess, but at the same time, we kind of try to go into a different direction with it. We have two singers who alternate back and forth so that brings a different layer to it. It's kind of like Mayday Parade. But at the same time on the drums, there are a lot of fills that you might not typically expect in pop-punk music.

Who are your influences? Everybody. . . has to take their influences from the music they listen to. I know a lot of the guys in the band have liked Blink-182 and have liked them since the early days. So we try to incorporate some of the simpler riffs that they kind of brought to the table. I like Brand New and everything clear on up to Senses Fail and Paramore. They're a kind of heavier sound so I kind of bring a little bit of harder edge to the table.

You guys have just played at the Laserdome in Manheim. Was that your first show? That was our first show with the new songs. Our first show was back in August. We released our first EP (at Club 19 in York) . . . back in August, too. We were invited (to Club 19) to play a battle of the bands. We were fortunate enough to win that battle.

Who did you guys compete against in the battle of the bands? Count Me Out was there. All the bands have MySpaces. They're really great. They were good to play with, so I'd suggest checking them out, too. We've played a couple shows with Count Me Out. We've played shows . . . with Northbrooke and Starting Over. I'd have to say that probably the band that we work closely with . . . is Shades of Summer.

What are your thoughts on the local music scene? Everybody knows that the York music scene isn't really as big as maybe Baltimore or Lancaster. Lancaster is more of a metal, heavy-edged city with CI Records and some bands like August Burns Red coming out of there. Baltimore has always been churning out some really good bands. There have been bands that have come from York before like Live. Hopefully with everything we're putting down and with some good luck, we might be next. It's definitely some expanding out of York and we just hope that . . . the fans we develop relationships with in York are able to support us and follow us wherever life takes us.

- ERIN McCRACKEN, FLIPSIDE STAFF

On the Web

For details about the band, visit www.myspace.com/latenightaffairrock.

To listen to the interview, visit www.flipsidepa.com.

To read more meet-the-artist interviews, visit www.flipsidepa.com/musicdirectory.