May 15, 2009 — Want to help save the world with rock and roll? Check out the exclusive 30 minute online-only concert with the Redding Brothers co-hosted by break.com and myYearbook this Friday, May 15, at 6:00 p.m. PST / 9:00 p.m. The concert is part of House Ear's "Better Hearing Month" concert series, and is EarBud.org’s latest collaborative effort to raise hearing awareness.  The House Ear Institute is dedicated to advancing hearing science through research and education to improve the quality of life for the more than 500 million people worldwide who suffer from a hearing loss. If you like what you hear, you can check out the concert on myYearbook’s EarBud profile page!

myMag spoke with Micah, Josiah, and Gabriel of the Redding Brothers about their music…

When did you guys first discover your love of music?
Josiah: Growing up, we were always involved with music. I think our band just became a natural extension of that. We did things in school when we were kids, and when we graduated we just started becoming more professional. It was a natural progression.

When did you form the band?
Micah: I guess we got started when we were living in Seattle. We had this vision of having a band, so we started writing songs spontaneously.

Who were some of the artists that you listened to growing up?
Micah: I can remember my dad played a lot of acoustic guitar when I was younger; he’d play Johnny Cash. I guess when I really started listening to music on my own; I listened to stuff in the late 90’s. Collective Soul was a band that I always liked. Matchbox 20 was big back then, too.

Have those bands helped inspire your own music?
Micah: A lot of it comes from that. It’s just filtered through your own experience. That’s always kind of the music that we admired the most and has probably been our biggest influence along the way.

As if writing and recording an album wasn’t enough of a challenge for a band, I heard that you guys created one song a week for an entire year. What was that like?
Josiah: It was pretty intense. You know, writing a new song every week is a really tough thing. Recording a new song every week is also a really tough thing.  You have this initial burst of creativity, but then 30 weeks into it you start getting worn out. You kind of have to dig down to find something new. Gabe was doing all our recording himself. So he had to look forward to a new song every week, usually with a one day turnaround.

That’s not much time at all. How did you manage to make it happen, Gabe?
Gabriel: I would often stay up until midnight trying to get the song ready for the next day’s release. Towards the end of the year, I came up with a more streamline way of getting things done. It would always wind up taking several hours trying to get it finished, but it was pretty interesting. Of course, I learned a lot.

What do you guys think you learned the most after writing songs that frequently; do you have songwriting down to a formula now?
Micah: We probably still write songs in a pretty random manner. If you listen to the Songs of the Week, we’ve done everything from standard full-blown rock songs to operatic ballads. I think we even did a reggae style song. They all came about very differently. Sometimes you start with a concept for the lyric, sometimes with a little guitar ditty. Sometimes you would even have the entire song there in your head. We probably still make music like that.

You guys kind of go against the grain as far as the rock band lifestyle of fast-living, sex and drugs is concerned. Instead, you go out and play gigs for USO tours in the Middle East and support causes like hearing loss awareness. What made you want to go this route as opposed to the other?
Micah: That’s a good question. (Everybody laughs) We always wanted to be creative and change the world around us. So we continued with that idea of wanting to inspire other people to do similarly or empower them to transform their own environment. That probably shaped our direction.

What do you think it is about music that has this ability to change the world?
Micah: Music can capture an experience in your own life and communicate that to someone else so they can experience it through you. That kind of ability to share experiences is what’s unique about music.

You will be performing an online-only concert series for the House Ear's "Better Hearing Month" concert series this Friday, May 15th. How did you get involved with that?
Micah: We’ve always been interested in being able to play music for as long as possible. It’s essential to be able to play music, to hear it well. It was kind of a unique opportunity and we were interesting to get involved with it.

Your band performs all over the world at various venues. What do you do to protect your hearing, and what tips do you have for teens to protect their own?
Micah: When you’re in a situation where you can’t control the volume, limit your exposure time. Don’t stand in front of the speakers at a heavy metal concert the entire night.  I will wear musician’s headphones at a concert, which are earplugs that allow you to hear the music but don’t expose you to extreme volumes.

Tip: If you have to raise your voice to be heard, the sound is above 85 decibels and potentially damaging to your hearing. Wear earplugs or earmuffs to reduce your exposure risk if you can’t turn the volume down.

One of the songs that you were playing while you were abroad was “Feel.” Is this one of the songs that fans can look forward to during this concert?
Micah: “Feel” was one of the most requested songs we got when we were playing in the Middle East. That is one of the songs that we’re going to be playing, as well as some from Songs of the Week and our album Physics of Immortality. There’s a good cross section of songs.

To find out more about the Redding Brothers and what you can do to prevent hearing loss, check out the following sites! www.reddingbrothers.com, www.earbud.org and www.hei.org

 Donate to Causes to Stop Hearing Loss and support hearing research.