Music: Special Interview with "Your Song Project" creators (from UK Band Panic Island)

It's February, the month of love, the month of Valentine's. And so we found out about "Your Song Project", a love song factory that was set up to give people a fun experience to share with their loved ones.  Two cupid wannabes from North London band Panic Island, Arron and Vinnie, decided to take people’s stories and turn them into personalized songs. We couldn't resist interviewing them about it! Read on to find more! With us, Vinnie and Arron, from Panic Island!

This is a pretty nifty project, what inspired you to launch this project?

Thanks, I suppose you could say me (Arron) and Vinnie inspired the project. It was Fernanda Marth's idea initially. She knows exactly how Vinnie and me tick. She had that eureka moment in the middle of the night and just knew we were the guys to do it. As soon as she mentioned it to us we immediately thought, yeah, we're gonna get a kick out of doing this!

It sounds like you guys are having so much fun with it! Are you doing this as a Valentine's project only, or are you going to continue with the promotion for other special dates?

We weren't sure, we wanted to see how the response was... It has been amazing and so much fun so it would be great to think we can do something similar again but for now the we've done as many requests as possible...we've had so many, some silly, some very sentimental and others really romantic...it is great to see so many stories about love and people caring about each other! We'll see, the 13th is our last day of writing and recording. We'll see if anymore can come in the last stretch but afterwards it will be nice to just take a break and enjoy the main day!

And what is your favorite song from the project so far, and why?

We've been working on one called "Thirsty Kiss", I have a feeling that will be a winner... personally I really liked one we did today called "Perfect Moments". It is frustrating because you wish you had more time to get more out of a song or to get the perfect take but I suppose that's also the magic of the project, the limitation of time keeps it real! "Timeline of Love" has been the most inspiring so far, simply because their story was so beautiful. So much happiness is out there, pain too but clearly lots of love to share.

So who is involved in this project? Can you tell us a little about the team's background?

Myself (Arron) and Vinnie are musicians from the band Panic Island. We've been making music together for almost 3 yrs now. Fernanda Marth is an incredibly talented art director. She really brought the project together with her designs and art direction online and on the sets. She's one half of the brain behind the scenes. The other half is Liv Love, she's our manager and PR, so has been setting deadlines and targets and making sure everything is in place while letting myself and Vin focus on dealing with requests.

The whole thing couldn't have been possible if it wasn't for Taylan Mutaf. He's a very skilled filmmaker. As soon as he was asked to take part, he jumped at it. He has helped bring a professional quality to each of the videos. His consistency is amazing and personally I thought it was great to work with him, he directed us so well and I think that shows on the videos. And we also had Periklis Balafas, our mighty webmaster all the way down in Brazil working round the clock to make sure everything is functioning and sharing the videos as we deliver them.

What a great group of international talent! What genre do you consider yourself and who is your greatest influence?

As a band, we have to be Alternative Rock, we're not quite indie rock nor pop rock, but we have a flavor of most guitar based genres. We're influenced by iconic musicians, great artists who realize that the music is as important as the visual performance you give and the expression you put out there, there are so many influential creatives who have this ethos, from David Bowie to Guns and Roses, Freddie Mercury to Lady Gaga, they have all got the theater and drama of music as well as the songs to back it up. When we write we visualize things because we want to project with energy. But like we've proven with this project, inspiration can come from anywhere, your fans, even from a stranger's story who lives on the other side of the planet!

This sounds like a great opportunity to get to know your audience! What do you enjoy the most between the interaction with your fans?

We are yet to explore that further, we have a single available as a free download on our website www.panicisland.com, so we hope to bring more and more to the table to give the fans something to hold on to. For us, the important thing is that we keep writing so we can keep reaching them. To play in front of everyone would be good, we're aiming for world tours asap ;) so we're pretty realistic, Haha! The best thing at the moment is obviously social media, to really link everyone together, it is great to see people reacting to the project and hopefully making long lasting connections. Music has always and will always bring people together!

Who is your target audience?

The project was aimed at everyone and anyone. But as a band we have a high energy level, we're emotive and, like I mentioned earlier, we're dramatic, powerful on stage. So the audience we're aiming for are those who love to see and hear anthems, music lovers who are looking for the 21st century Rockstars, we're writing songs that speak from the heart and soul so people who seek to be moved always find a friend in Panic Island.

What are your plans for the coming year?

The plan is to release some more music. But that's a bit of a secret at the moment. We have a few things in the making that we’ll be announcing soon on the band’s social media pages.

So how do we request a song for Valentine's?

I'm not sure when you are publishing this but the 13th is the very last day for us to be able to write and record in time for the 14th. But please don't let that put you off sending a request. Like I said, everyone's stories are amazing and we're having a little think about what we can do for those who don't get theirs turned into a video.

(We’ve been releasing loads of videos, but this was a really popular one and close to our hearts due to their story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA9Xbc8M4s4 

And I think our fellow Americans will enjoy finding out the little secrets Britain holds on this one…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I_WyqkUPs4 )

That's great to know, because we're on different time zones and time is running... Anything else you'd like to let us know?

Other than to tell you all that you're pretty amazing people! We've been incredibly moved with this project. So thanks. You can check our project website for more videos and also get in touch with us through it: www.yoursongproject.co.uk  

We wish you all an amazing Valentine’s day!

Thank you and much success to you with this project and the band!

Get your free download of “We Start Fires” at www.panicisland.co.uk