In the current world we live in, music is literally at your fingertips. With so much accessibility, it would seem more competitive to be in a new band right now, but John Kunkel of Los Angeles’ The New Division seems to disagree, crediting the “Internet Age” with his band’s climbing success. Though his electronic outfit’s most apparent influence is ‘80s New Wave, the vocalist always tries to incorporate the old with the new, and by embracing both sides, he may be able to give his group the push it needs to break into indie stardom. During the holidays, Kunkel was nice enough to chat with me about The New Division’s new EP, Night Escape, starting his own record label, and how his band has benefited from the Internet.

Katrina Nattress: How did the four of you meet and begin playing music together?

John Kunkel: Janzie and I [have known] each since about 2006, and we started jamming together in our dorm room in college. After awhile, we started to perform little acoustic shows, and eventually Brock, our guitarist, saw us playing one day and we started chatting and asked him to join us for an on campus battle of the bands. We won.

Shortly thereafter, about a year later, we met Mark at a show we were playing in Riverside, CA, and he had come to see us. He introduced himself after the show, and we started talking about music and realized we had a lot in common. We asked him if he wanted to join a couple of days later, and the rest just leads up to where we’re at today.

KN: You list Joy Division and New Order as influences. Is this how the band got its name?

JK: That’s right. The New Division was originally a project title I had set for a series of songs I’d written back in 2005. I chose the artist title “The New Division” because I’d been listening to NO, and JD a lot at the time. When the other band members came along I had actually considered for a second to give our group a different name, but I think we never got around to changing it and everyone already seemed really pleased with the name. After playing a few shows under that title, it stuck and I really believe it helped shape our identity as a band, as far as moving towards an electronic sound and other concepts.

KN: Your influences are in ‘80s new wave. How do you feel your band has been able to pay homage to the genre without being a copycat?

JK: I think we’ve been able to do it by not being solely influenced by ‘80s new wave. Yes, it is a big part of who we are, but we also listen to a variety of music from different eras.

I think people sometimes assume that because of our name we strive to sound like we’re from the ‘80s. That’s not the case, as we’re heavily influenced by modern electronic music, particularly in the genres of house and trance. It may not be immediately evident when you listen to our albums, but a lot of our ideas come from combining the “new with the old,” and always striving to be as progressive as possible. I think our new album that will be coming out in 2013 will really solidify this notion, and we’re excited to showcase our potential.

KN: You recently released your second EP, Night Escape. How does this album differ from your full-length and debut EP from 2011?

JK: When I listen to Shadows or “The Rookie,” the first thing that always grabs my attention is how different each song is from the next in terms of genres/styles. When we made those albums I don’t think any of us had this realization, we just thought they were great songs and they needed to be together.

With Night Escape, the approach was to make an EP that somehow captured an emotive tone and sound that was coherent across the board. I think every song on there was intentionally written to have a positive vibe, as opposed to Shadows and The Rookie, which were at times pretty dark.

KN: This EP’s title track is beautiful and guest stars Keep Shelly In Athens on vocals. How did this collaboration come about?

JK: The music for that song was written pretty early on in 2012, and I remember having a hard time writing lyrics for it. One day, I believe it was Mark, suggested that we hit up KSIA to write the words and sing over the track. It was a brilliant idea, because the moment we got back their vocal recording we knew we’d achieved something really special.

KN: You created your own record label, Division 87 Records. What made you decide to do this?

JK: Besides the legal (and boring) reasons for setting it up, Division 87 had always been a dream of mine. I created it not only for our band, but also for artists around the globe. I love being part of other projects, whether it involves producing, mixing, mastering, or songwriting, and I think that Division 87 will one day be a collaborative hub whereby artists can work together, share their music amongst each other, and create unique releases that go beyond the “here’s my album for $7.99 on iTunes,” concept.

KN: You live in the Los Angeles area, which is flourishing with musical acts. Do you ever find it to be too competitive?

JK: I think music is competitive across the world these days. Yes, L.A. does have a lot of flourishing musical acts, but at the same time, we’re not competing with L.A. artists, we’re competing with people all the way out in Sweden, the UK, Canada, so forth. That’s sort of the beauty of the Internet Age, I guess. If our success depended on how well we were doing in Los Angeles, I’m afraid to say that we wouldn’t be where we’re at today.

KN: What are some under the radar L.A. bands that we should know about?

JK: Our guitarist, Brock, also plays in another great band called Francisco the Man, who we’d recommend along with 2 Hearts & Chemicals. Very different styles, but worth checking out.

KN: It’s the New Year. What were your Top Five albums of 2012?

JK: It’s honestly been a strange year for indie music in my opinion, and by strange I mean I wasn’t swept off my feet by anything in particular. I guess I normally look for good electronic music, but within the indie realm, I couldn’t find anything that really drew me in.

Everything that was good was “okay,” but not mind blowing like I feel some previous years were (i.e. 2008), although there were some records that stood out. My favorite album of 2012 though wasn’t indie; it was an electronic dance album by Eric Prydz. But nonetheless, here’s the list:

1. Eric Prydz – Pres. Pryda

2. Sun Airway – Soft Fall

3. Beach House – Bloom

4. Mat Zo – Bipolar EP

5. Diiv – Oshin & Tame Impala – Lonerism

KN: What’s next for The New Division in 2013?

JK: We’re finishing up our new LP, which is probably the most exciting thing going on for us right now. It looks like we’ll be releasing about 10 songs on this next album, and it’s going to be a lot more dance-oriented than our previous work. It’s funny to say that wasn’t our intention, but that’s how it’s turning out. We also hope to possibly tour near the latter half of 2013, but we can’t make any promises quite yet!

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