Milwaukee's Strangest Places has been around for a few years now, but is their latest disc, the accomplished "Very Loud Thoughts," released on the local Sparkler Records imprint, that will likely introduce the band to many Milwaukeeans.

Richly layered, the record is an accomplished set of modern rock songs, driven by soaring guitars. The disc, the band's second, was recorded at WMSE's studio and is among the first Sparkler releases.

We recently chatted with Strangest Places about the band, the record, working at WMSE and about their participation in Sparkler Records.

OMC: Tell us about how the band got together and especially how the current line-up came to be.

Jonathan Granger (lead vocals, keyboards): The band's seeds were planted around 1996, after (guitarist) Tim Johnson and I left a garage band to start something of our own. It was a two-man writing/performing show for years, until we started enlisting our friends to play instruments we physically couldn't play live. We were called Nowhere Fast at the time ... a very telling moniker. We just couldn't get the ball rolling.

It wasn't until about 1998 that Tim and I got this "songwriting" thing down, and really started to crank out the songs. We're a great team now. We just feed off each other's ideas and the tunes just happen.

Tim Johnson (guitar): A few months after we cut our first album in 1999, our bass player at the time decided to leave the band to pursue other interests. Luckily, we obtained Dave as our new bassist after meeting him through mutual friends.

Before we even knew that Dave could play both bass and guitar, he had already offered to design all of the artwork for our first album. We asked him to play a basement show with us when our current bassist at the time was going to be out of town, and Dave has been in the band ever since.

When it came time for us to delve into new material, it became apparent that a drum machine wasn't cutting it anymore, and the new sound needed a real drummer. We ended up recording our entire second album with former Men From Mars drummer Dan Hanke. Dan had been involved in a number of other music projects while recording and playing with us in 2001, and has since parted to concentrate on other projects.

OMC: How does the band benefit from the experiences that members like Dan Hanke and Joe Ramirez bring from previous bands?

JG: Both Dan and Joe have been playing in bands for years. People will remember Dan (drums) best from Sometime Sweet Susan, and Joe (guitar) from Dearly Beloved. Any time you get someone who has been on the scene for awhile, there are instant rewards. They know everyone: club owners, managers, other bands... you can network like no tomorrow. And they'll bring their own audiences from the bands they used to play in.

They've got experience under their belts. They bring a refined talent into the group, which makes everyone else play better. On a more rudimentary level, having these guys on board also means you can play parts you were never able to reproduce before in a live setting.

DC: It's like a melting pot of influences. I think it's amazing we can all sit down and come up with coherent songs. The experience really helps suppress egos as well; no one's trying to be the centerpiece of any song. Everyone's aware of the song as a whole. Everyone can ask "how does this fit?" and be very honest.

OMC: Your second disc "Very Loud Thoughts" was recorded at WMSE. You guys were involved in the setting up of that studio, weren't you?

JG: Well, we didn't set it up, but we were among the first to record music at WMSE studios. I think we were the first to record a full-length album there. So it was a learning experience for both the radio station and us.

DC: WMSE's studio has been around for a while. They'd record all the bands that come through and play live on the air which we had done that in early 2001. But through talking with (WMSE engineer/producer) Billy Cicerelli and (station manager) Tom Crawford, they wanted to try being an actual recording studio, and we were the guinea pigs. It was definitely a learning experience for everyone, but the whole process was a lot of fun and it turned out great. I guess in some ways we did help them figure out various things with the setup they had. I think they ended up buying a new computer and some ProTools plugins with the money we gave them, and they also proved to MSOE that they could operate as a recording studio and bring in money.