Parachute Frontman Will Anderson Talks Touring, New Music, and Not Taking Things Too Serious

In 2009 Parachute blew everyone away and made their mark with their single “She is Love” and have since been constantly entertaining their audience. Currently, they’re touring with Mat Kearney. Before they make their stop here in Los Angeles at the Wiltern on March 11, lead vocalist Will Anderson sat down with Entertainment Voice to discuss the journey he’s had with his band mates and the progress they’ve made over the years.

Entertainment Voice: Parachute was born out of a high school friendship between you and the rest of the band, how did you decide you were all interested in pursuing music?

Will Anderson: We all really liked going to shows, it was one of those things where if you see it enough, eventually you want to do it. We were all freshman in high school when we tried to start playing together and it was really bad, but I think by the time we were sophomores and juniors we started getting, at least, a tiny bit better. It was like a bug; we just caught it and really enjoyed doing it. We just wanted to play music and talk to girls, it was great. We weren’t sports guys, none of us were very scholastic minded, we weren’t bad students, but we weren’t very good, so for us it was our little addiction after school every day.

EV: You all started so young, how would you say your relationship has grown as friends and as band mates?

WA: Our pace in the studio is so fast now because we’re all on the same page for pretty much everything. It’s funny, it’s kind of unspoken now, once you get to know somebody that well, and know how each other thinks,  you can anticipate that and for us our music is very much really tight knit. In a lot of ways it sometimes feels like we’re thinking with one mind when it comes to decisions to be made or creative stuff, or what certain things need attention, whether that’s with recording or business. It’s almost like we are way closer than we’ve ever been.

EV: Your song, “She is Love” from your debut album really put you on the map, what inspired that song and its lyrics?

WA: Man, I was just trying to impress a girl. I’ll be real, it literally was like, what would she want to hear? And it didn’t work, but we got a good song out of it, so it worked out.

EV: How do you approach writing a new song or album and how collaborative is the process?

WA: Pretty much just me in my room, like for our new album I sat in my room for a couple months and sat down every day at my piano and tried to write something new. I’ve luckily gotten to the point where I know a handful of people who I really enjoy writing with, so when I do want to collaborate I can call them and say “Hey let’s do something next week.” Being in Nashville, where I live, is very nice because you have so many people that are really good songwriters, but I kind of have my four or five people. And I’ll know it’s going to be good song, or if it’s not a good song a really good time. So it’s pretty much just me, like the other guys obviously come in later and do their thing to it, but it really does come down to just the lonely musings of a semi-professional songwriter.

EV: Who has been your most memorable touring partner or what’s your most memorable touring story?

WA: We’ve had a lot of really bad tours, most of the memorable ones I think are, like the good ones are amazing, but the ones that really stick out to me are the ones that are really bad. We had one tour where there were a couple bands that were breaking up as we did the tour, like both bands were breaking up and we watched it happen, and we were just trying to stay out of the way. One of the strangest situations you find yourself in where you never forget that feeling. It’s like watching the Titanic go down. They’re all great guys but it’s like watching a marriage break up in front of your eyes. So awkward, but we’ve had plenty of great tours, too. I love Kelly Clarkson, I really enjoyed touring last spring with Gavin DeGraw, I’m a huge fan of pop music so it’s good to play with people I genuinely love.

EV: How do you feel your sound has changed and developed from your debut, “Losing Sleep” in 2009 to your most recent album “Overnight”?

WA: I think it’s more focused. It’s funny when we were doing that album [“Losing Sleep”] it’s so clear we didn’t know what we were doing, which can create I think a lot of the charm, out of this weird naivety, but for us now, with the upcoming album, I feel that it’s more pop. The thing that interests me is really well crafted pop songs, so to me this next album is a sound that’s kind of complementary to those songs, if that makes sense. [Before] we were so interested in having the song and we would record whatever we just want to record, but now it’s very much working on bare bones. I think we realized the sound has to complement the song, it’s something we’ve learned and it’s so funny, it’s so simple, but something we focus on more and more as we get older.

EV: You’re currently on a national tour, what are the best parts of taking the show on the road? Anywhere in particular you’re looking forward to playing?

WA: It’s just nice to get out of the studio and play in front of people. It’s like music, for me. I think my ego needs a boost every now and then, if that makes sense. So I think the live aspect is the best part for us. It’s the mix of the creativity, like I wrote this song, now we’re playing this song, now you get the feedback of people being like “yes I like it” or “no I don’t” immediately. For us, it’s that instant response, and not in a ‘shower me with attention’ kind of way, but it is fun playing new songs. I think this tour that we’re doing with Mat Kearney is nice because we have all these new songs we can try and you don’t have to guess, we can play it, [the audience] will respond and you know it’s good and if they don’t you know something’s off. I think that’s our favorite part of it, the feedback, the reward, so to speak.

EV: What kind of energy do you try to convey when performing or what can fans expect?

WA: Hopefully fun, we’re having more fun than ever and I think it’s pretty apparent when you watch us. We’ve always taken it very seriously in a lot of ways, and now we’re more loose than ever and we understand it’s not life or death. It’s funny the longer you go on, the more you realize “my job is to entertain these people for an hour” and that’s kind of it. It’s nothing wildly significant, in the big scheme of world history, it’s not going to be crazy, but for that hour, we just want to make sure everyone is having a good time. I think when you’re younger you’re like “I’m in a band and we’re going to make this music” you know, you get this elated sense of self that I think a lot of artists have, but it’s like man, it’s just music. It’s great, it is the best thing in the world and my life literally revolves around it, but people are coming to the show to be entertained and hear good music. That’s kind of our philosophy these days, just have good time, make sure everyone else is having a good time, you know, take the music seriously, but at the same time realize it’s not life or death.

EV: With the success of “Overnight” are there any plans for a new album?

WA: Yeah, we just got out of the studio, we did a couple songs, a couple singles. We’ll go back in probably April or May and just knock it out, but yeah, we’re ready and itching to go. It’s been a long couple months of writing, and writing’s fun but you get to a point where you’re like “yeah I have the album; these are the songs and now let’s get to work.”

Parachute is currently on tour with Mat Kearney.