Exclusive Interview With Florida Rockers Oblivious Signal

Making a name for themselves quickly, Florida-based rock/metal band Oblivious Signal have played such notable shows as the 2009 Rock the Planet Festival at Revolution Live, Florida Power Metal Fest, Femme Fest, regional Hot Topic In-Store Performances, and headlining Hollywood’s The Viper Room.

I was lucky enough to sit down with Cristina Feliciano, the lead singer of Oblivious Signal, and get her thoughts on the past, present, and future of the band and their new album, Into the Night.

OV: More and more women seem to be members of rock and metal bands recently…Grace Perry [Landmine Marathon], Michele Walter [Farewell to Freeway], Maria Brink [In This Moment], and plenty more. When did you first become interested in this genre of music and/or know that this is what you wanted to do?

CF: I started off in music 7 years ago and started out doing contemporary pop. I played rock covers with my first band at a skatepark in South Florida and that is when I realized I had a way much more fun doing rock. It gave me such a rush as opposed to the mellow music I was doing before. It gave my parents, at the time, a headache though! [laughs]

OV: Being a female-fronted band, do you find yourself automatically thrown into a category with bands such as Lacuna Coil and Evanescence?

CF: This happens all the time! Frankly I am okay with it now. But I think a lot of female musicians get upset at first because they want to be classified as different. Over time though I came to realize that it is really no big deal because bands like Lacuna Coil and Evanescence really did pave the way for a lot of other female fronted bands. These bands are great and have amazing female vocalists which I am proud to be categorized with. I just hope one day I have the same recognition to where other bands starting out can be categorized with Oblivious Signal.

OV: Although you’ve been around since 2003, it seems like after your lineup was finalized in 2007 things really started to take off. Were you at all surprised at how quickly things seemed to fall into place?

CF: I am a little surprised, but not too much. I had good success with previous projects I had been in before and I was doing studio work at the time, which allowed me to develop credibility in the industry. When I came into Oblivious Signal the guys and I basically just used all the resources I had previously to give life to the project.

The guys will admit to the fact that the first year we were together they hated me. Being the girl I did keep a lot in check. I hated wasting time goofing off at practice when I felt we needed to be a lot better and I was really tough on the business aspect too. I used to make calendars with symbols so they knew whose day it was to reach out to fans, keep up with the websites, promoting etc. I won’t leave out the obvious though, that going from a male to female singer also helped. Before me Oblivious Signal was a screamer metal band. I attempted to incorporate melodic pop hooks with heavier vocals in order to appeal to a larger audience. Before me the Florida scene did not have a female fronted band that could do both; this helped us out a lot.

OV: I see that out of the 12 tracks that will appear on Into the Night, three or four will be in both English and Spanish…does this mean that you will record versions in each language, or intermix both languages throughout one track?

CF: For now this is still in talks. We have had a couple of setbacks. We do perform the songs live, which our Latin crowd loves. We have had several talks about this and we keep flippin back and forth with the idea. Nick (guitars) and I are attempting to reach as many people as possible and weather we do the songs as acoustic, studio, or live tracks we will have something for everyone.

OV: What new ideas/creativity does John Tovar bring to the table that you feel Oblivious Signal was lacking previously?

CF: When John came into our lives, the Oblivious Signal world was kinda rocked. He came in, we signed with him on the presumption he was going to cut some of the stuff we had going on and make improvements for the best…and he has done just that. John basically came in and got rid of the excess weight the band was carrying, and is now at the point where he is molding us to be at the level we need to be to compete with the industry on a national and global scale. We had great recognition before and now we are just stepping it up. Nick and I have had to deal with line-up changes, musical composition restructuring, and everyone’s hands in our “baby” (as we call the project), but honestly we love it. We need all the direction we can get and professional help, and John is a straight shooter. He says what he thinks and acts upon it. Nick and I tend to procrastinate.

OV: Some fans have wondered if, now that you have John, you will stray from your roots and become a more radio-friendly version of your former selves. Any comforting words for them?

CF: John was the brain child behind Marilyn Manson and The Spooky Kids…I know a lot of people thought back in the day, how can that be radio friendly?! I can assure our fans, that with the killer team we have between Static Management and Tovar Management Group, we will redefine what radio friendly means.

For more information on Oblivious Signal and to check out their music, visit the Oblivious Signal MySpace Page. Expect Into the Night, the band’s second album, to hit stores this summer.