Thanks for taking some time to talk to us. Would you introduce
Yourself and the rest of the band for our readers?

What's up, my name is Britton and I play guitar for the band Smoke Signals. The other members are Rob Bollig (Bass), Nikk Esposito(Drums), Jathan Neider(Guitar), and Hayden Valentine(Vocals).

What's the story behind "Smoke Signals" who had the idea to start it and when did this all happen? 

Originally Smoke Signals was just a studio project I had started for fun after I left Bermuda. I guess about summer of 2013 is when this whole thing started. I started getting more and more people telling me that they were really into the songs and so eventually I decided to make it a real thing.

How did you guys come up with the name? It fits your sound a lot. Makes me think of bands like glass cloud and Architects.

The name came from 5 dudes on a band chat talking about what to name the band, we had the original name "CloudCity" (yeah...star wars haha)
and out of all the names "Smoke Signals" just seemed the most appropriate.

Were any of you guy's in other bands before Smoke Signals? I know you were in "Bermuda" what's it like being in another band with new faces? 

Well Rob used to play bass in Bermuda as well, we grew up together so it just makes it all that much easier. As far as the rest of the members, I couldn't ask for a better group of guys to be playing with. Everyone is always out to have fun and have a positive vibe no matter what. Coming into this band each of them worked extremely hard and they've all proven to be dedicated members, and for that I couldn't be happier. They had all also played in some Little Rock local bands like "Lucid" and "Legions Await".

So you guys are releasing an EP soon? How's that coming along? I noticed you guy's include your fans when it comes to writing ideas. 

We'll I finished writing all of the music and we started tracking vocal pre-production last week, we are going down to Orlando, FL in late July to track the album with Matt Johnson, He's worked with The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, Exotype, and some other bigger bands. His production is amazing and we couldn't be more excited to track our album with him. We feel like he is one of the few producers that can understand where we are wanting our sound to be and he will be an asset to this album.

Ok, so you have to tell me what it was like making a music video? I've always wanted to make one, describe the feelings you had, what was going on this whole time you guys were making it!  

Extremely awkward but a lot of fun haha. The location we shot was pretty close to a neighborhood and there was an older couple that kept watching us. We had worked out the story line about a month in advance and funny enough almost everything changed once the director got here. Finding the right location is probably the hardest part and it’s always the most random places that make for the best locations. As far as how I felt the whole time, it was a lot of fun and being in your first video is exciting. However, when your performance shots last all day and in the sun you get pretty tired pretty quick and you have no choice but to keep going as hard as you can haha.



You guys blew up pretty fast, I remember talking to you about it awhile back. I'm amazed how quick you guy's became recognized, Happy for you guys! Were you expecting to gain this much attention as fast as you did?

I honestly didn't know what to expect, the music video has caught some attention and I'm hoping the album will help us out as well. It's really awesome seeing all of the positive feedback from the video, and honestly that song is a year old. Our new material is a bit more mature and a whole lot more catchy, so I'm really excited to see how people react to that.

I noticed you guys have started up a kickstarter for tour along with record. Where do you guys plan on going? And who with? And for recording, is this to finish you're EP up or what? Release some details!

The kickstarter was set up by our other guitarist Jathan, It wasn't honestly planned that well so we will most likely set up an Indiegogo or something. Basically what the kickstarter is for is for us to get a new van to be able to tour and go finish this record. We've been offered a few different tours and we haven't been able to take them. If we don't reach our goal we will most likely just rent a van to go finish the album and hold off on tours until we can get a new van.  Our last one broke down almost immediately after we bought it. I lasted 2 shows and it would cost more to fix it then just to get a new one.



What are some of your main musical influences? Who got you into wanting to start a band?

Slipknot first and foremost, I remember when I was 11 years old I bought a BC Rich Warlock because of that band haha. As far as band I listen to its pretty diverse, some of my favorites are Deftones, Soilwork, older Static-X, Strapping Young Lad, Architects, Mastodon, Minus the Bear, Circa Survive, City and Colour, Dead Letter Circus, Tesseract, This Will Destroy You, and the very obvious Meshuggah.

I also just want to throw out some newer bands that are killing it right now. SYLAR, Exotype, Miss Fortune, Structures, and Cursed Sails

What would you say is the most fulfilling, exciting part about being a musician?

Interacting with the crowd, Touring, Pushing yourself constantly to be better at your instrument.
When a fan tells me that me or my band has inspired them that is the best feeling in the world.

What would be your dream tour? What bands would you like to have Smoke Signals play with?

Meshuggah, Slipknot, Deftones, and Smoke Signals haha

Is there anything else you would like our readers to know? Anything, come on!

Thanks you to anyone who took the time to read this and thank you SHDCVLT for taking the time to interview us.
Check out our Facebook at www.facebook.com/SmokeSignalsAR to keep updated for the latest news on the album and any future tours, Thank you guys so much.

Alright man, well I, along with everyone in SHDCVLT including our reader's appreciate you taking the 
Time to do this interview. You guys are definitely going to make it big and I can't wait
To see what you guys have in store.