Carefully curling a raspy croon around poignant melodies, light-footed rhythms, and resonant lyrics, Cloverleaf captures a scene and a story in every song. Whether it's the sonic tide of "Forever Lost," the simple subtlety of "As The Ceiling Falls," or the wistfully autumnal "Hopeless Romantic," Cloverleaf matches sound and semantics to draw the curtain and bring the tale to your ears.
The Overcast talked to Cloverleaf's T.J. Cornwall (vocals/piano/acoustic guitar) for his side of story, from the band's attack on the music industry to their attack on college.
The Overcast: First, tell us a little about the background of your band. Did you guys seriously meet on facebook?
T.J.: Yes... Garrett and I actually met on Myspace. I had my solo music put up on Myspace and I stated that I was attending Penn State University and would be looking for a band. So he sent me a message and gave me some of his musical background and asked me if he could try out for my band...so he tried out...and I thought he was awesome. So that's how we met...and then when we got up to school, we searched people who played guitar and bass on Facebook and held tryouts. We had many people lined up for tryouts but found that Ted and Jon were amazing. So we selected them, and there started Cloverleaf.
And you recently added a new member, right?
T.J.: Yes we did. We call him by his last name Hollis. He went to my high school and we were really good friends with him up at college. He plays the synth, piano, and trumpet...he basically makes our sound much fuller than it was before.
So how is balancing the band with college?
T.J.: Well, we're all really focused on our school work but we always somehow find time to play numerous shows, and practice as much as we could... I mean, I think I speak for the rest of the band and for all young musicians...it's a dream to make it big one day and live off our music, but for now we have to concentrate on our schoolwork since that is a sure thing. I think it actually helped our transition into college easier as well--we made a lot of new friends up there because of our music and people coming to shows and really makes our college experience well-rounded. Also we were in this huge contest ran by mtvU called "Best Music On Campus" and we were selected as one of the top 50 bands in the country that had at least one member in a college. That was pretty exciting and gave us huge exposure.
You were leading in votes for awhile in that contest, weren't you? What happened?
T.J.: Yeah...it said we were leading in votes...it said the contest was judged solely on online voting...so the question is why didn't we make it to the next round? No idea. I thought that was kind of unfair, but, I guess that's life. It wasn't our time and there will be many more opportunities. I mean, we were crushed at the time, but now we look at it as a huge accomplishment and an honor.
Yeah, for a band that isn't really that old, you still look like you're doing pretty well, with your album first.class.mind.ride and with a few big shows already.
T.J.: Oh no doubt about it. We feel that we're maximizing our opportunity in being a band. We've played with some huge national artists and a couple sold out shows, and we've been getting amazing feedback for our CD. It's thrilling actually.
All right, now for a downer. The Crowbar?
T.J.: Ouch. Yes...basically...our main venue, our favorite venue, our home at Penn State closed the other day. It pretty much destroyed the State College music scene because there are no other amazing venues that will bring in national artists to play. It's really depressing because it came completely by surprise. It not only hurts us and the other local Penn State bands, but it really hurts all of our fans and all the music lovers at Penn State because that is the place to go to see shows.
Ouch. Why?
T.J.: According to The Crowbar's website...they said they had to close because they couldn't compete with the competition of the surrounding venues in the area with bringing in national artists and couldn't afford national artists. I find that hard to believe that they weren't making much money there. I personally believe that it is a goldmine, every show I've been to has plenty of people in attendance...but what do I know? I'm just in a band.
It really kills the music scene up there. The Crowbar gave us some of our best memories, and we thought we would have a bright future hoping to sell out The Crowbar in the future, but obviously that isn't happening. We heard a rumor that it was turning into apartments...which completely sucks, but we'll see what happens. I guess we'll just have to hope that the university does something about it and has many shows throughout the year that we can play.
On a happier note, influences?
T.J.: My personal influences actually differ from the rest of the band. My favorite band and the reason why I started dreaming about being in a band is because of Dave Matthews Band. Then I have all these other influences such as Ben Folds, Goo Goo Dolls, Counting Crows, Better Than Ezra, Third Eye Blind, The Fray, The Beatles...and the list goes on and on...
For the rest of the band... I know Ted and Garrett are really into the punk/emo scene but they love a wide range of music, Jon Rigatti also likes all kinds of music but he is more of a metal head and likes progressive rock, Hollis is also a metalhead but he is also very fond of Billy Joel and likes a variety of music as well.
It's weird how we can all agree on the music that we play. We are all in love with it, but especially in the newer songs we are writing. Although our songs still sound universal and pop/rockish, we actually have many different time changes and show our talent and our metal influences actually show through our music, which is pretty cool.
If given the choice, major label or indie?
T.J.: That's a really good question... Right now, I would go with indie because we would most likely be able to keep our sound and have liberty to write whatever kind of music we want without much of the label's say involved. But eventually...after we are established, I would definitely like a major record deal. I mean who wouldnt want to play sold out crowds and get a ton of money for it at the same time?
For time's being, we're going to be recording 2 or 3 new songs in July and adding a couple off of our CD and we'll be making a 4 song promotional CD that we will be sending off to labels that will hopefully find it to be marketable. It's almost impossible to get signed to a major label from being unsigned, so we'll probably have to work our way up.
Anything else you want to say?
T.J.: Basically...our main goal is to turn this music industry around. We hope we can make it to the top one day and stick to our style of music. We do it for the love of music, and we honestly do it for all of our fans. If it wasn't for them, we would be nowhere.