We had the opportunity to chat with Justin Singh, Vocalist of The Safety. The Safety feature an alt-punk sound that will hook you instantly with great vocals and dazzling drum work, the band has some serious talent that packs a punch. Check out what Singh had to say below!
1. How did you come to pursue music and how long have you been at it?
When I was a teenager, music is what got me through most days. I realized how much of an impact it had on me and I decided that I wanted to pay that forward by inspiring others through music. I’ve been playing guitar for about 15 years, but I only got really serious about writing when The Safety formed back in 2014.
2. Could you walk us through your process of writing music?
For myself, I usually fiddle around on my guitar until I hear something that I want to expand on. Then, I’ll hum out the rest of the melody and figure out how to play it. As a band, typically, someone has a melody in mind that they bring to the group and the other members try to come up with something to match it. If the original writer has an idea for how the song should go, they might suggest it to the appropriate band member and we play it with different ideas until the whole band agrees on a song structure. We decided when the band started to make sure not to write songs that we thought just sounded cool; we want to write songs that people will enjoy, even if that means sacrificing some creativity.
3. What artists have inspired you in your career?
Thursday has always been a huge inspiration for me. I’m also heavily inspired by bands like AFI, My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday… honestly, there’s too many to name, but those bands all have great frontmen who know how to engage a crowd and keep the energy going. On a personal note, they write lyrics that are so easy to relate to, no matter what’s going on in life. 4. Do you have any favorite music gear (guitars, amps, effects pedals, keyboards, etc.) that you love to use? If so, what’s the story on them?
Personally, I’m a big fan of Gibson guitars. When I was a teenager looking to get my first guitar, I chose an Epiphone because Tom DeLonge was using Gibson at the time and I’m a huge blink 182 fan. I’ve upgraded a few times since then and am currently using a Gibson Les Paul Studio, which I used on our most recent recordings. I am also a fan of guitar players with big pedal boards, like Thomas Erak, Dave Knudson, and Will Swan, so I got an SKB pedal board and started a little collection of pedals from Boss and Digitech to try different effects.
5. Can you describe the vibe at your live shows? Also, what do you enjoy most about a venue when you do a show?
We are all about positive energy at our shows. We purposely write music that is faster-paced so the crowd has something to rock out to. Everyone should be having a good time when they go out to support local artists. As far as what I enjoy most about venues? The people. From the management, to the staff, to the fans, they’re all the best part about performing live. You can tell the difference between a venue who has management and staff that support local music and one that doesn’t. The atmosphere is so much better when the venue is excited to have you there and the fans can tell the difference. And if the fans are happy, we’re happy.
6. What is one thing that you want the public to know about your music?
We love what we do and we hope you love it too. Nothing energizes us more than getting people excited about new music and we are incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to share our work with everyone. If our music helps you get out of bed in the morning, we did our job.
7. Do you have any upcoming projects you would like fans to know about?
Absolutely! Our debut EP, Queen City, comes out October 26th. We’ve got two shows set up to promote the album the weekend it releases and we’re very excited to show our new music to our friends and fans.