About to Pop: Single File

Who: Single File
Album: 'Common Struggles'
Video: 'Mannequin Loveseat'
Hails From: Denver, CO
For Fans Of: Fountains of Wayne and Weezer

Why They're About to Pop: Single File's frontman, Sloan Anderson, and drummer, Chris Depew, started their musical partnership in junior high, when the industrious pair pieced together a homemade drum kit from toys and household items. The fast friends met bassist Joe Ginsberg in high school, and despite separating after graduation, Anderson and Ginsberg still managed to write and record Single File's first EP, 'As You Were.' In 2004, they self-released their second EP, 'Heartbreak & Masturbation,' but were missing one vital component ?- Depew. Together, the trio put out another EP and toured the country on less than a shoestring budget. "We'd post [on MySpace] ?- 'Hey, if you want to bring non-perishables or water to the show, we'll hook you up with some free merch,'" says Ginsberg.

In 2006, the band recorded their first full-length album with Ed Rose (Motion City Soundtrack, the Get Up Kids), but decided to shelve all but one song. They posted 'Zombies At My Neighbors' on MySpace, where a local Denver radio station took notice. The song soon garnered the attention of record labels, leading to Single File's signing with Reprise Records in 2007. The band began working with Howard Benson (My Chemical Romance, All-American Rejects), but fell into "the worst writer's block of my life," says Anderson. But they regrouped, found a new state of mind and holed up in a mountain cabin owned by Ginsberg's parents to write the songs that now make up their major label debut, 'Common Struggles.' "We were going for timeless," Ginsberg says. "I don't know if we've got it or not, but damn it if we didn't try." Single File is currently on the road and will be joining the Vans Warped Tour this summer from August 2 through August 23.

In high school, we were mainly playing jazz and swing (it was during the swing "revival" -- so much for that, huh?). What we're doing nowadays is definitely more pop/rock/alternative, but if you listen hard, you can still hear quite a bit of that jazz influence.

It actually comes from a song by the Pietasters called 'Maggie Mae.' Our first van was named Monet, and when we went to name the RV, we decided to keep with the "M" theme and go with Maggie Mae. We actually have a new van now named Miss Molly Montana. Gotta love the letter M!

The two things that have probably been the biggest factors in keeping at it are the music and our friendships together. We've always believed in our music and our ability to write great songs and maintained that if our music has a chance to make it to people's ears, chances are they're going to like it when they hear it. On top of that, the three of us have always been like brothers. We always joke that being in a band is a lot like being married -- you're going to have your ups, and you're going to have your downs, but if you truly love each other and love what you do, you'll always find ways to fight through the hard times and come out on top.

We've played with so many great bands that this question becomes somewhat difficult to answer. There are bands that we all grew up listening to -- Alkaline Trio, Saves the Day and the Bouncing Souls -- [and] bands that have really come up just in the last few years like the Fray and the Plain White T's, as well as bands that not a lot of people may have heard of before like the Hanks and A Cursive Memory. It's just too hard to choose one.

Most of the writing for the record actually happened after our first couple of trips to the mountains. We had quite a bit of trouble initially with the writing process, mostly just because of the pressure that we put on ourselves to write, and not only just to write, but to write the best record we possibly could. We realized that the way that we had always written (music/arrangements first, lyrics later) just wasn't the best, or easiest, way to go about it. After about 6-8 months of struggling, we finally realized that we just needed to get back to basics: take a great hook or melody, a great guitar riff or a great line or lyric, and build a song around that rather than building a complete song and then trying to force lyrics over it. All said and done, it took us about a year to finish the writing.

We have the utmost respect for the many great songwriters that have come before us -- the Beatles, Tom Petty, Paul Simon, Tommy James. As far as contemporary artists, we love Weezer, Green Day, Say Anything, Third Eye Blind and Dashboard Confessional.

Most all of it comes from what we like to call "the human condition." When things get rough and life gets down, it's very easy to look at it all with a "when it rains, it pours" mentality, but one thing that this band has taught us is that if you can't laugh at yourself and look at the negative things that happen to you with a sense of humor, you're not going to last very long in the real world. I think that has a lot to do with the extreme gamut of emotions on the record -- almost every song attacks a different issue or "struggle," but all the while with a cynical, cheeky sense of humor. They do say laughter is the best medicine, after all.

Uh, world domination? Just kidding ... or are we? No, but seriously, we just want to continue doing this for as long as possible and get our music in as many ears as we can in the process. When we wrote this record, we did so in hopes that people would look back on it in 10-15 years the same way that we look back on Weezer's 'Blue Album' or Green Day's 'Dookie' now. I don't know if we achieved that or not, but we'll find out soon enough, right? Oh, and did I mention we want to take over the world?