Cute Is What We Aim For
 
Origin: Buffalo, New York, USA
Years Active: 2005-Present
Label(s): Fueled By Ramen
 
Members:
Shaant Hacikyan - Vocals
Jeff Czum - Guitar
Tom Falcone - Drums
Dave Melillo - Bass
 
Discography:
Albums
2006
The Same Old Blood Rush with a
New Touch
- Producer Matt Squire
2008
Rotation (UK release date July 7th)
- Producer John Feldmann
Links:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Finally, welcome to the UK. How’s it been for you so far, especially after your passport mishaps and late arrival?
I’ve played one show so far, and it was epic. It was weird, before I was watching the band play half way round the world on YouTube. My band. I started this. It was surreal.
The kids have been really understanding though. In the States people would have just said Fuck this I want my money back!
The guys pulled it together and did a great job. I think they had a lot of fun. They got to practice the new jams live in front of kids. I just got to hit the ground running.
 
We caught the set the band played at Slamdunk Festival in Leeds. The crowd seemed so perplexed, I’m not sure they were certain who the band was playing in front of them, but it didn’t take them long to get into the Cute vibe. There was a moment when Josh from You Me At Six joined them on stage.
He sang Doctor, it was awesome. I want to get You Me At Six signed; I’ve been watching them for months now. I heard, well watched, it on YouTube. I even sent them a MySpace message on their bands page. But they didn’t reply.
 
You were in a Ska band before Cute Is What We Aim For, called Cherry Bing with Jeff. There is still a MySpace page for that band, with a track up there. It’s really strange to hear your voice, the voice of Cute, over Ska sounds.
Yeah I was. So was Dave.
I remember when we got to 100 friends on that MySpace. I was so stoked. 100 friends, 100 friends! I just sound like a little kid on the tracks.
In fact, I listened to the old record this morning, Same Old Blood Rush [With A New Touch], and I sound totally different. Everything is so different, the vocal tone, everything. I’ve just grown up; it’s not so winy anymore.
 
Cute have only been around for three years, and for a band of your status that’s no time at all. You never really did that traditional band route of forming, writing an EP, sending out demos, doing shitty shows etc. and you were signed after just five or six months of being a band.
You guys have done your homework, I love it!
We did do the shit tours; we toured a couple of times with Dave [Melillo] back in the day. The whole band in a small van with no trailer.
You came over and did a Yeovil date as part of that tour.
That was the most monumental, legendary show ever. We even tried to play there again but they’ve torn it down. That broke our hearts. We were even going to stay back so we could play it. I liked the balcony vibe, it was awesome.
 
You signed to Fueled by Ramen. Were there any other options for you at that time? Did you ever consider just waiting for another, maybe better offer?
No one else wanted us, they were the only ones. It was still a great place to be in though. Sometimes bands try to hold and use other offers as leverage, to get better deals but we never had that.
 
You’re part of that wave of Fueled by Ramen success stories such a Fall out Boy, Panic at the Disco and Paramore that put Fueled By Ramen on the map as a great alternative label, particularly here in the UK.  
Yeah here, just in the UK. In the States Panic blew up and Paramore were still really small. It was definitely Panic and Fall Out Boy that made it such a big label name.  
 
 
Although it’s an Indie Label Fueled By Ramen has the backing of Major Label Atlantic, it has had since they took them over four years ago. Do you think that had an impact on your success, as with a Major Label comes Major Label Marketing power. Do you think that your story would have been the same if Fueled By Ramen remained totally independent like say Victory Records?
And screw over their bands like you wouldn’t believe?
Absolutely. The one thing that was awesome about FBR was that it wasn’t an imprint conjured up. It was an acquired move because FBR did so much and created all this buzz on their own.
What’s awesome about the way it works is that it’s still Indie everything. The money, the mentality, everything. But, they have the Major Label with the power, the push and leverage.
It’s an awesome situation and I don’t think anyone’s upset with it. I’ve never met a band member who’s been bummed out on the label. Whereas with Victory it’s every band.
 
When speaking to The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus a few days ago it seemed they had high opinions of Victory. Up until then I don’t think we’ve ever heard a good word about that label.
I’m interested, keep going.
Well he wanted to make it clear that it was 100% fact that Hawthorne Heights had a big money offer from EMI which they would receive if they left Victory. He backed up the bands move saying that any band you stick a big cheque in front of will do all they can to get it.
Ronnie likes to preach.
 
Just after your signing, Vinnie Fiorello (one of the original founders of the label) left Fueled By Ramen because he thought it was going down the direction of style over substance. To be honest though style is part of what kids want from a band, so where Fueled By Ramen was going was where the fans were directing it. What was your take on it though?
My one interaction with Vinnie was so shitty.
I’ll even act it out.
I go up to him on Warped Tour; our record was just about to come out. I go up to the dude. Vinnie, I’m Shaant from Cute Is What We Aim For. We’re a band on your label. I just want to thank you for all your effort and everything. He goes like this, no lie. Warped Tour on the side of the stage, it’s just me and him. [crosses his arms, sighs and turns his back.]
That was it.
I called John about it to tell him. He just laughed and said Well that’s Vinnie. Two weeks later I read he was out.
So I don’t really have an opinion of him, but if he didn’t start it…
John Janick always ran it, while Vinnie was on the road. It’s John’s baby, and was just a partnership because VInnie had the leverage back then.
I hope he’s doing well you know. If he started another label now that would be epic. Another label that just slated FBR. But we’ll see.
That rudeness is something you find so often in this industry.
I find that evident in all walks of life.
Pretention.
Is that a word?
Pretentious?
Pretention?
I’ll throw it in there.

How aware are you of the changes in music, the industry and the scene?
I try and keep in the loop and the buzz; get the gossip here and there. It’s an interesting question tough because I don’t really know. I can’t really give you a gage on that. I would like to say I’m privy to what’s going on.
What about the UK Music Scene?
I don’t know shit. I guess we’re a decent size band here. I have no idea.
The UK is full of Indie Bands, like America’s Vampire Weekend. That’s the genre that gets all the airplay. Alternative bands get a look in sometimes, but the majority goes to Indie music and its sub genres.
We just had to do a think for some other magazine; the 12 singles of the month. We had to review them. We actually took away two points from a band and gave two more to Bullet for My valentine. They got a negative two. That’s the first time it’s ever been done.
But the Indie thing bothers me, it’s so pretentious.
I do love the Arctic Monkeys.
They definitely started a scene, but with that they started something horrible.
I mean that Alex [Turner]. That dude is something else.
The fact he even did the side project record [The Last Shadow Puppets], full length no less, not an EP, a full length. Then another Arctic Monkeys record after making the first ones.
That’s three records in three years.
He’s fucking 21.
It’s incredible.
With alternative music here it seems people think it is all emo. Was it the Daily Mail? That article was mind blowing. Have these reporters ever even been to a show? They’re completely uninformed. The papers just blow everything out of proportion, especially here; it’s drama everything.
If I didn’t have that aggressive outlet in my formative years of that music to allow me to feel comfortable and understand that I’m not the only one feeling that way I don’t know what I would have done.
These people just don’t get it at all. Why don’t they talk about hardcore? Why don’t they go into that?
Or dance music? That is so emo it’s unbelievable. All these tales of heart break; if you leave me now I’ll die. You could go on forever.
Totally. I find myself ending answers with I could talk about this all day.
Let’s move on.

You attribute a lot of your success in your first few months to your online presence. Communicating with fans through your MySpace page, PureVolume etc.
Now it’s impossible because everyone has a fucking MySpace or PureVolume page.
With a FriendBot?
Ah man, The Bot!
Ok, this was even before The Bot came out. This dude Ronnie Day; he was this PureVolume buzz kid. He openly told people that he hired a company to add friends for him. He was used in their advert and everything. Look what we can do for you. I remember just being shocked. It was so cool to watch the build, and it was so real. That’s the best part
Fueled By Ramen don’t add people. They just accept requests. So at least you know it’s legit.
It’s like a chick who wears too much make up. She knows she’s not really all that. We were in China Town today and we saw this woman, I mean this was such a bad decision on her behalf. She must have been 65, her skin tone was a little bit darker and she had white cover up on but only to her jaw. She looked like a fucking clown. She just didn’t get it that that’s not her shade.
You’ve been to London before, right?
Yeah, this is our fourth time. We stayed once for two weeks when we were on tour with Paramore.
I just shop and spend fucking way too much money. Last night our bar tab was £340. I don’t even remember how it got that much. That’s probably why I don’t remember.
Does the drinking affect your vocals?
I think so. I feel a bit rough right now so poor judgement on my part.
I lost my IPhone last night too. But hey, life is beautiful; you can always buy new things. I hate when people get upset about those little things. Aah man you lost you phone, that blows. What am I going to do about it, let’s just move on. You can always get a new one.

There are so many bands around at the moment that are coming out with fantastic first albums, then they fall to the second album curse. Your follow up album Rotation is out on June 24th and by the early sounds of it you’ve stuck to the successful Cute formula, just stepped it up a gear.
Dope. I’m excited.
I think at first as a band you’re a little apprehensive of it all with little confidence, but now we’re just following whatever. I’m just immersing myself in the album. I listen to it everyday and everyday without fail and I get chills.
All my friends at home hated my band.
Faggot. Cute is What We Aim For? Really?
You know the way I sang on the first record, and I don’t blame them at all. I kind of think that way too now, in retrospect.
This album though, they love it. They even ask to listen to it.
 
[The rest of the band and a few members of Boys Like Girls wander past towards the exit]
Where you guys going?
To this really rad party that you’re not invited to.
[Shrugs]

The lead singer of Boys Like Girls, Martin, his really intense.
He knows he’s the shit so he’s got that confidence.
During their sound check it looked like they were writing a new song. Well, Martin was writing a new song and the others were following his orders.
Isn’t it amazing to see that?
I’m stoked I get to see that.
He knows what he wants. He plays the director well. He’s got the individuals who listen to him, which is awesome.
What about Cute’s dynamics, are they anything like that. You write all the songs right?
I write all the guitar and that shit.
No, it’s funny I can’t play a single instrument. I just write the words and melodies.
Do you find it easy to write? Your way with words is quite unique.
I don’t know, sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t.
A lot of this record was improvised in the booth, no written down stuff. I’m excited.
We would come up with a story, what I wanted to say. We would tell John our producer, and then tell Dave and I would blurt out lines. What we all liked we kept. We would get stuck on a single word. I’m trying to say all this, I’m trying to say all of this, how do we do it? What is the word?
I hate when people abuse words, I always want to use them correctly. May I. Can I.
That’s rare for an American.
Oh man I know!
Sometimes just the little things block everything.
I’m sure for Cristiano Ronaldo soccer’s not always easy for him. That dude’s insane. He just runs down the pitch going full speed doing things that I struggle doing super slow. I was watching the guy on a highlight reel just sprinting with the ball.
That’s one thing we just abuse. Just so you know, soccer in the US is the smallest sport out of all of them. On Sports Center the European Champions League Final got a 30 second highlight spot, and then a normal baseball game got three minutes.  
I watched the game on the plane and even there I was on the edge of my seat. I saw about 80% of it and that penalty shoot out was the most nail biting thing ever. It’s crazy.
There’s a reason why it’s the biggest sport on the planet. It’s got so much to offer. It’s cheap to play, you can just, fuck it [gets two cups] there’s your goal. That’s why basketball’s such a big game. All you need is a ball and a hoop.
It’s weird to think about that stuff.
I wish hockey was bigger. Hockey’s nothing to you right? You have cricket. I don’t understand cricket at all. I’ve only ever seen a clip of it, never a match. Two minutes and I was perplexed. I have no idea. Don’t they stop playing to have a cup of tea and biscuits? What if they spill something are they out of the game? Pinkies up.
Anyway…
 
Back to the album.
The producer for Rotation was John Feldman from Goldfinger. He’s also A&R for Warner Bros. he was the one behind The Used’s signing. How did you get involved with him, and why?
Jeff sent him a random MySpace message with a link to our page and that was it. He didn’t put a word in the email; that was it.
If you go on John Feldman’s MySpace that’s what he asks you to do, but you are Cute Is What We Aim For?
This was after we sold 200,000 records. Jeff did that because John is his idol.
We got a call and John was interested. We had to pick between two dudes. [Matt] Squire the old guy, and Feldman. We made the right choice.
I think Squire was pissed off; he did get very upset, which is a shame. Boys Like Girls did work with him and I think they’ll maybe do the second record with him. Oddly enough though he’s now doing the new Used record. So him and John are kind of switching places.
John just raised the bar. He didn’t put up with any shit which I really appreciated. He’s like a tough love drill sergeant. It made me perform a step up; even though the stress was killing me at the time. In reflection it produced something awesome.
 
How long did it take you to make the record?
We had one song musically done when we arrived, and four half songs that Jeff, Dave and I had just done acoustics on. We went to John Feldman’s house to record and when he found that out he just sighed and said I’ll be back in an hour. He left for an hour and we were just like Fuck what are we going to do. He’s doesn’t want to work with us.
We were really dysfunctional before. There were two different directions the band wanted to go in. Us and then Fred [Cimato, previous bass player]. He made every point to have that, but now it’s cool. He gets to do his own band and have it his way which is great.
The writing process was really cool this time around. There was a lot of improvisation. Doctor; interesting thing. We were so frustrated. We needed to write a song. I just go to Dave, play the gay-est bass riff you can, whatever, just fuck around.
Dum Dum Dum, ok so that’s Fall Out Boy.
Anyway, he plays this bass, which I can’t remember and I just started singing I’m like a rookie… and Jeff was playing his part as a joke. It just made a song. We were just doing whatever the fuck we wanted, just said fuck it lets have fun. It was cool.
I wish more bands could do that actually.
 
Who did your album artwork?
Interesting. It’s the guy who did Lupe Fiasco’s record sleeve, Chuck Anderson. I fell in love with Lupe’s record the first time I saw it. I wanted him [Chuck] to do it so bad. The label said no, they couldn’t get him blah blah blah.
[turning to his girlfriend for re-assurance]
I thought of the images right? You gave me the butterfly but it was my idea?
She gave me the idea of the butterfly because it represents change, and that’s what the whole album is about. Just change. Personal, internal, external, environmental, global, political. That’s what all the little things in there are. I gave him a list of things I wanted to include.
You had a lot of input then?
Oh yeah. That’s what’s so cool about it. I did sketches and everything. I mean I don’t draw ever, at all. I wanted it to be like a globe spinning on a finger and then a butterfly on top on just white with a road wrapped around. That didn’t really work, the label said completely no.
I couldn’t be more happy with every single part about the record. We hated our last artwork; I mean it was great for the time. It fitted what we were doing. Now this fits because we’re actually making a point of saying something. Using words to influence almost. Evoke thought. Not necessarily complaining about a fucking chick.

Are you finding yourselves becoming a bit sick of Same Old Blood Rush?
We’re not sick of it at all.
We’ve been off the road for six months. Our first show was the other night. It’s so much fun to play those old songs now. We’ve reworked them, we’ve switched things up. I go higher, Dave sings with me.
That dude is the man. When I wasn’t here I wanted him to play a set as himself, his solo stuff. He said he didn’t want to.
The thing people don’t understand it that this record is just as much Dave’s as it is mine. HJeff and Dave wrote loads. There’s even just a Dave song on there that he wrote. It’s called Out There, no Marriage to Millions is what it’s called now. I took the verses, he did the chorus’. It’s really good to have that twist.
You’ll be intrigued. That’s when people say Oh I’m gutted, I wanted Dave to have his solo stuff. Where the fuck were you when he was doing that? You weren’t supporting him then. I mean come on.
It’s cool for even Dave to say, This is as much mine as it is yours Shaant.
 
You yourselves must have known a long while ago that Dave was going to become a full time member of Cute, long before the announcement.
We knew but we had to get him out of his contract. You know legal issues.
Did you make him cut his hair because it looked to similar to yours?
Yeah! Dude. If you want to join the band you’ve got to cut the hair.
No, straight up. He did it on the Fall Out Boy Tour just on a whim in the dressing room.
For Dave do you think he feels more that Cute is his full time job, or if his solo work is what he really does?
He’s been touring with us a year in June. Man, I don’t know. I would love to say us. I think the other night was a great example of that. When I asked him to take over the set or half the set as Dave and he said no. He wanted to straight play Cute. That’s what we needed to do and he wanted the guys to be tight musically.
Some of those songs weren’t really written for his voice, but it was great to hear his take on them.
I liked the way he switched stuff up, it was cool.
Wait until you hear the music tonight. When we travelled they gave me an extra bag to check in so we didn’t have to ship it so we brought all the pedals, cables and effects. It’s incredible to hear with all this extra stuff. Jeff is crazy with his pedals. Our touring guitarist is awesome, and Dave… it’s all just blown up into we’re now a group.
 
So after all your bass player troubles this is it now?
This is it.
This is definitely it.
This is us.
I’ve wanted Dave since the day I met him, so to now play music with him, it’s awesome.
We’ve toured together five times you know, it was almost inevitable. We always knew it. He actually called, because he knew it was always an option. Last May, I was at a golf range, I don’t know why, I think it was my third time ever going to one, and he asked if we needed a second guitarist. Yes, immediately. Ofcourse.
That’s just how the story goes.
 
[On that final note the excitable band member is called for sound check]
Thanks so much guys, really appreciate all the research and stuff, it was great.
 
That night the complete band plays to a packed London crowd, showing every single audience member that Cute Is What We Aim For are back. Their current line up is the best they will ever get. Four best friends doing what they love, and taking in every moment of it.
At the sets close the front man leaves the stage. Man, that was fun.