Heavy Rotations Record rep and student Dan Sigman interviews Red Oblivion (HRR) in anticipation of their set at our Berklee CMJ Music Marathon Showcase.

Red Oblivion includes Berklee alumni Emma Torres (guitar), Zach Adams (lead vocals/bass), and Carson Groenewold (drums). The Boston-based band made a splash at Lollapalooza Chicago in 2012, and also performed at Lollapalooza Chile and Brazil this year. The group is a trio with backgrounds in classical, metal, pop, electronic, and world music. Red Oblivion recorded with producer Paul Kolderie (Radiohead, Portugal. The Man, Pixies) for HRR’s Dorm Sessions 8 CD.

1. From your experiences, what is the best way to get your music out to people?
Mostly we use social media, and internet media vehicles such as: Youtube, Facebook, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, and Twitter. Our live performances also go great lengths to turn people on to our music.
2. Do you feel that being connected to Berklee alumni has helped your band?We recently moved to New York, and you run into Berklee alumni all the time. You never know when that guy from your harmony 2 class is going to see you in the subway, and offer you a gig, or come and see your show.
3. Heavy Rotations has brought you to several places such as Lollapalooza in Chicago and Chile, what makes CMJ interesting compared to other festivals around the world?
CMJ is different than the Lollapaloozas, because it isn’t really in a confined space. It is just in random bars scattered around New York, which is a great way to see new places and new bands. Lollapalooza is more like 100,000 crazy people just running around in the mud which is also great fun. You don’t really get that at CMJ. If I had to compare CMJ to another festival that we have played, I would compare it to SXSW, but smaller.
4. Any artists you plan on seeing at CMJ?
We would like to catch Speedy Ortiz. They are a Boston band that we didn’t really find out about until after we moved away from Boston.
5. What plans does Red Oblivion have for 2014?
For the end of 2013, and early 2014, we are going to make a new music video for our song “Don’t Let Go”, which was just released last week. That is in the works right now, and we are also working on recording a full length album. We have a bunch of new songs that we wrote over the summer, and we are going to try them out at CMJ, and see the reaction. We are also working on getting back to Latin America, because we were very well received down there. The details of all of these events are going to be released soon.

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