Review Fix Exclusive: Previal’s Steve Menoian Talks T-Swift, Tour And More

June 18, 2016 Patrick Hickey Jr. Music 0

Review Fix chats with Previal’s Steve Menoian (lead guitarist) to discuss their unique cover work of one of Taylor Swift’s iconic tracks, as well as their upcoming tour.

Review Fix: How did the band get together?

Steve Menoian: I think we’re kind of a new age story.  Brian (our singer) and I actually met on a band networking site.  We met up, talked influences and direction and really hit it off.  We met our screamer through a friend of a friend, and found our drummer through his channel on YouTube.  If’s funny, feels like we’ve all been friends for years now.  I think we just got really lucky.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Menoian: We always leaned toward writing in a studio environment.  I’ve always believed your mind can be more creative than your hands can be on the spot.  At lease for me anyways. So the studio has always been more conducive for us creatively.  Although we’ve had times at practice where we come across a cool riff or grove to work off of.

Review Fix: What’s your standout original song? How was it written?

Menoian: At this point I’d say our stand out original is called Love, Lust, and Liars.  It was written while our singer was dealing with a terrible ex.  We wanted it to have some heavy moments, but also a big melodic chorus with a lot of emotion.

Review Fix: What was the thought process behind covering Taylor Swift?

Menoian: It was actually almost a spur of the moment thing.  We wanted to use a cover to promote our EP which was coming out in late 2014.  T-Swift had just put out 1989 a little before that time.  We picked a song off the album and had it completely written and recorded in a long weekend.

Review Fix:What are your goals for 2016?

Menoian:Release our album and have it reach people.  We believe in our songs and our message.  We just want to have our songs to be out there for people, then give them an outlet to let loose at our shows.

Review Fix: How do you feel going into this upcoming tour?

Menoian: We feel amazing.  It’s gonna be a totally new look with a handful of new songs.  It’s a great overall lineup.  I’m really pumped.

Review Fix:How do you want your music to affect people?

Menoian:Overall we’re a band who wants to spread positivity.  We write about a lot of different things, but I would say our ultimate message is to know who you are, be proud of it and never let anyone tell you what you can’t do.

Review Fix:What’s next?

Menoian:A ton of new music and content coming very soon… stay tuned

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14316 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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