House of Blues, Orlando, Florida – Feb 22, 2019

by Barry Nadler

Orlando got a visit from the New York-based band, Year of the Locust, on their last two nights of a tour supporting late 80’s and early 90’s iconic rock band, Tesla, who was out supporting their new album, Shock.

Year of the Locust (YOTL) released their first EP, Home, in 2014. They are currently supporting their newest EP, simply titled Year of the Locust.

Their seven-song set list focused mostly on their most current music. However, they did fit it one song from their debut EP, Movin On.

Nestled right in the middle of their set was their current single, Stay Alive. This song is unique because it features guest appearances from Tesla drummer Troy Luccketta, Ex-Florida Georgia Line guitarist Brian Bonds, and was produced by Brett Hestla of Dark new Day.

YOTL is: Scotty Mac (Lead Vox), Fred Sorrow (Bass), Chevy Hyde (Lead Guitar), The Outlaw (Rhythm Guitar) and Dusty Winterrowd (Drums).

Their setlist for their first of two nights in Orlando:

1. Sunrise – 2018
2. Broken Now
3. Sorry – 2019
4. Movin On – 2016
5. Stay Alive – 2019
6. Whispers in the Dark – 2019
7. Line Em Up – 2019

Year of the Locust Live in St. Louis, several nights prior.

Daily’s Place Amphitheater, Jacksonville, FL, US, September 12, 2018

By Barry Nadler

About two years ago, a cousin of mine was sharing a story with me about one of her famous neighbors. She asked me if I had ever heard of a band called “Judas Priest.” I think I coughed and probably choked on whatever I was drinking at the time. Turns out she was neighbors with a past drummer for the band and they socialized regularly. She actually wasn’t really a fan of the band.

But, of course, I knew Judas Priest!

I currently have 111 Judas Priest tracks on my phone in my MP3 collection. Of all the bands in my collection, I have more Priest songs than any other artist.

She didn’t know that I have had a long history with “The Priest”. At the age of 12, they scared me. I was not rally into the heavy metal scene yet, but artists like Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest were making an impact on my friends, so I knew it was coming. At that time, Judas Priest was all about the black leather, screaming guitars with vocals to match, and motorcycles. In my early youth, this was a lot for me to take in and I wasn’t quite ready for it.

Of course, by 1986, things were different. I was totally bought into the heavy metal scene of my youth and there was no turning back. Judas Priest released their

Judas Priest (credit: Barry Nadler)

controversial Turbo that year, which I fell in love with. I had no issue with the keyboards, which bothered the heavier fans. To me, it made it  more accessible to me. Tracks like “Turbo Lover,” “Locked In,” and “Out in the Cold” were on heavy rotation in my cassette player. Shortly after, they released Priest Live! and I was a fan. I loved the big stage, the robotic creature that appeared behind the drums and lifted Rob Halford and the twin guitarist, K.K. Downing and Glen Tipton above the stage in a mix of flames and fireworks. I had tickets to see them at the Lakeland Civic Center, that year, as well. I was so amped to see this show, with Dokken as the opening band, who I also loved. Then, it happened! Car accident…trying to find my way to the venue. Unfortunately seeing Priest on the Turbo tour would elude me.

Something pretty popular at this time was laser shows at the local planetarium. They would regularly include music by Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, and The Doors. One night, they had a show to Judas Priest. I took my younger brother, so he could experience it. Half-way through…he passed out and fell asleep. To this day, I don’t understand how you fall asleep to the sound of Judas Priest.

The release of Ram It Down about two years later, allowed me to finally experienced a Judas Priest show. I didn’t have a camera at that time and very little video of that show exists of that tour. Considering that I was completely sober at the show, for some reason, I have very little memory of it. What I did remember was that they played stuff I was unfamiliar with. At this point, I had probably not gone into their back catalog beyond Screaming For Vengeance. With the help of the Internet, today, I can identify that I knew maybe 8 out of almost 20 songs they played. This is probably why I have little memory of the show.

I loved the album Painkiller. Rob Halford just screaming in a way that no other can replicate. It also had a slightly heavier sound – which was great! “A Touch of

Judas Priest (credit: Barry Nadler)

Evil” is still one of my favorite songs of theirs.

Many years have since passed and I have not had an opportunity to see Judas Priest since that show.

In that time period, Rob Halford left the band and he was replaced with vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens, who I didn’t really get into. But, my understanding is that he did a fine job replacing Halford. To this day, I have not picked up either of their two albums with him and have not heard a single song from this time period.

In 2005, Angel of Retribution was released and Rob Halford was back. I was back as a fan, as well. I really enjoyed this album. Something that caught me off guard though was the live DVD (Rising in the East) that came with the CD. I hadn’t seen Rob Halford perform live in many years. I found a Rob Halford that I had a hard time recognizing in this performance. His voice was the same, but his physical performance was very different. When you watch his earlier performances, you see a man that owns the stage and prowls around. It may be youth, it may be something else. I don’t know. But, I saw a Rob Halford that was looking down a lot, standing still a lot, and just seemed out of place for some reason.

To this day, I don’t know what occurred that changed his stage presence so drastically from what I remember.

Fast forward to 2010. Judas Priest announced that their Epitaph World Tour would be their Farewell tour and it looked like I would never get a chance to see the Metal Gods live again. However, about a year later, they announced that K.K. Downing was stepping down and retiring from the band. They replaced him with a young guitarist, Richie Faulkner, who is responsible for breathing life back into the iconic band. As a fan, I can’t even imagine what it was like to come into a band with the history and stature in the music industry, let alone breathe new life into a band with a 40-year history and give it enough energy to knock out what would be regarded as two of the best metal albums of their release year (Redeemer of Souls in 2015 and Firepower in 2018).

“You’re approved to shoot Judas Priest” my editor told me over the phone…I was speechless. I hope this is a conversation I never forget. I had been waiting for this call for most of my life. Now, it was happening and I didn’t know how to respond.

Which brings us to Judas Priest in Jacksonville, for my next opportunity to experience Judas Priest, live.

Judas Priest (credit: Barry Nadler)

The lineup was a strange one, in my opinion – Judas Priest and Deep Purple. These bands couldn’t have been further apart musically. Personally, I would much rather have seen the lineup for the European leg of this tour – they are on a bill with Ozzy Osbourne.

I have been shooting concerts for three years, at this point. I have only been nervous two other times – shooting my first arena show and shooting my first time at the Orlando House of Blues. As I drove from Orlando to Jacksonville, I was nervous all the way. I was going to be shooting Heavy Metal royalty! This is the band that created the look of heavy metal – black leather. What if the show wasn’t as good as I had hoped? What if all the red light they are using caused my images to not come out as good as I wanted? What if something happened to my camera? I knew this was probably the biggest artist I would have photographed in my career as a concert photographer. It might possibly be the biggest I ever shoot. It needed to be special for me. This was an important event for me in many respects. All I really wanted was a quality shot of Rob Halford screaming into his mic. I got that – in spades.

Along with the lineup being a strange combination, it was certainly off-putting to find that Judas Priest was playing as the opening act to Deep Purple. I get that Deep Purple has been around longer, but the energy that Judas Priest puts out is so much more than what you get from Deep Purple. It was essentially two different audiences for this show.

mphitheater.

The venue was cool. I had never been there before. The only experience I have had at an amphitheater has been with the one in Tampa that hosts lots of concerts. Daily’s Place is not in the same league as the Tampa Amphitheater. It’s better!  It is really more like an outside playhouse with two upper level balcony areas. You can find this venue, just outside the Jacksonville Stadium, where the Jaguars NFL team plays. I don’t think there was a bad seat in the place. All seats were covered and able to handle inclement Florida weather. There is even a full-on convenience store in the venue.

There was almost no experience I can compare having the opening riffs of the song “Firepower” kick in and being right at the feet of the mighty Rob Halford as he walked out and started just screaming the lyrics to the title track of their new album. I was there…and I was shooting Judas Priest. It was almost surreal. I had pictures of these guys on my wall as a kid. I drew their logo on book covers in high school. I was here, as an official guest, as an adult.

This was still the Rob Halford I saw in 2005 that didn’t prowl the stage much, but his voice was incredible. I have a hard time believing a 67-year old man can still scream and hit the notes this guy hits. Absolutely incredible.

This time around, I knew 14 of the 15 songs included in the set. I believe they had three songs from the current album as part of their set – “Firepower,” “Lightning Strike,” and “Rising from Ruins.” When you have a back catalog as rich as they do and only 15 songs to play, I can’t imagine it is easy to pick. There were certainly large holes in the set list. But, classics, such as “Desert Plains”, “Turbo Lover”, “Painkiller”, “Electric Eye”, “Breaking the Law”, and “Living After Midnight” were included. There was also the customary and expected appearance of the Harley on stage for Hell Bent for Leather.

I was really surprised how much I enjoyed watching Richie Faulkner perform. He was bending himself backwards, pointing to the sky, pointing at fans in the front rows and interacting with them, as well peeking out over his reflective sunglasses and waving at people as he performed. Ian Hill, their bass player carried the bottom-end of the music from back in the right-hand corner of the stage, where he typically hangs – rocking back and forth. There were a few times when Rob Halford would go back there and rock out with him, which was cool to watch. One of my favorite parts of the show is when they give their drummer, Scott Travis, the mic and introduce “Painkiller.” He had the audience chanting and he was yelling to the crowd “Scream louder! I can’t hear you! I am a rock drummer for crying out loud!”

A personal moment that I hope I remember for a long time was as the photographers were being removed from the pit, Rob Halford was looking at all of us and he pointed at me. He gave me a thumbs up and a quizzical look, as if to say “Did you get it?” I gave him the horns up and continued out of the pit. I had done it!

The band is classy and it was definitely a family-friendly show. They are more than aware that fans are important and that their fans that have supported them over the years now bring their kids to the shows to experience this spectacle of a band.

After the final shouts of “Living After Midnight” and the band came out for a final bow, the whole feel of the show changed.

Judas Priest (credit: Barry Nadler)

Half the venue emptied out. Many were not there to see the headline band, Deep Purple. I am only a very casual fan of this band. I know about five or six of their songs, most were represented in this set list. I was really surprised by how much of a prog, jam band feel they had. The energy of their set was totally different from what had just graced the stage before them. This was a more keyboard/organ heavy sound, supported by guitar, bass, drums, and the very recognizable vocals of Ian Gillian.

Its really crazy to think back to this show and realize I had just watched a band that came onto the scene at the same time as Led Zepplin and Black Sabbath. This is a band that truely defined the 70’s rock scene and paved the way for second generation British metal bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Dio, and Def Leppard.

To be honest, this band was not impressive to me as I was watching them live. I certainly would not have trekked two hours to experience Deep Purple. This one took a little time for me to respect it as I should.

It was about a week later, when I was thinking back and realizing what I had seen. It dawned on me and I was in a little bit of awe. Given that I wasn’t a large Deep Purple fan, I didn’t even realize that some of the members performing that night were long-time band members – Ian Gillian, Ian Paice, Roger Glover, and Steve Morse are all names I have heard and with which I was familiar with.

It is nice to see this type of show and realize a group of five guys can just jam some classic tunes and it can sound good. You don’t need all the lights, the auto tune, the backing tracks, and such. Five guys on a stage, just jamming still works in the early 200’s. Many people don’t get the pleasure of experiencing this, and they should. It allows you to understand the roots of what you see and hear today.

With my lack of interest in this band…I was there to see Judas Priest, if that wasn’t obvious by this point…I was looking forward to a few specific tunes. I wanted to hear “Perfect Strangers” and “Knocking At Your Back Door.” Of course, “Smoke on the Water” was a required song, as well.

Along with these songs, their set list included “Pictures of Home”, “Space Truckin’”, and “Highway Star,” and “Hush.”

It was a good night and I would recommend the show to anyone that asks. You will not be disappointed.

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[srizonfbalbum id=387]

Interview conducted Sept. 20, 2018

by Barry Nadler

• Tara Lightfoot – Vocals/Guitar
• Matthew Movens – Guitar
• Jason Lemrod – Guitar
• Nick Scout – Bass
• Chris Lane – Drums

BARRY: How long have you been A Brilliant Lie?

TARA: A Brilliant Lie has been a brainchild since about 2010ish. But, there was a lot of sitting in a room and playing the same three songs we had written over and over again. We finally found the proper members that could get us off the ground and playing out live. That lineup then dissolved. But, I think the actual representation of what we are doing now is only a few years old.

MATTHEW: Yeah. So, it was around that time when all the people here right now [in the room] kind of collectively committed and figured out what the band’s style and sound was, and where we wanted it to go. That’s really where we consider us starting.

CHRIS: I always like to think the band really started like five years ago. We were getting our feet wet with the original lineup. And, it kind of blew up because of…life. When that happened, and we regrouped, I think there was like an, “All right, what are we really doing? If we are going to do this thing, let’s do the thing!”

BARRY: Obviously you are all not original members. Who are the original members?

A Brilliant Lies (credit: Barry Nadler)

TARA: I remember sitting at a bar with you (Chris) and Zack and you all were like “Let’s start a band!” So, Chris and I were founders.

CHRIS: I remember I met Tara somewhere in the blur of alcohol that was the local scene. The first time we really talked, it was me and Zack. We were playing in that other band. We were like “We have to do something bigger. This isn’t working.” We wanted to start a band fresh. That’s when we actually started to talk to Tara. I called her on the phone. We talked for, like, hours.

TARA: We also had a huge conversation at the bar. They had those drinks for like $2.00. We were like “Let’s…start…a…band…” (LAUGHS)

CHRIS: Fun story about this. When we left my other friends were like “Man, you were like totally jiving on that that girl!” and I was like “No, we’re going to start a band together.” They were like bummed out like “Aw man!” (LAUGHS)

TARA: Later, we found Jason on Craigslist. He came with a free couch.

JASON: Yup. I came with the couch.

MATTHEW: And then, later, I came to the band. So, the band expanded to a five-piece. Tara needing to play guitar all the time became unnecessary. Nick joined us about a year after I came in. We put a bottle of whiskey and a bunch of beer under a box with a stick holding it up (LAUGHS).

NICK: I went under to drink the shot and they just pulled the string. I was done!

MATTHEW: I met Tara about 12 or 13 years ago. I would see her in different bands. Chris, I met but didn’t know him well enough. I met Nick when I was working on a show. Nick was playing bass in a band called Cover Story. His bass string broke on stage, and I was helping him fix it while they were playing a song. And, we have been friends since then.

CHRIS: I met Nick at Matt’s birthday party, I think.

NICK: I didn’t know anyone, except for Matt. I was standing there awkwardly, with my drink. These two together (Chris and Jason) came up and were like “Hey!” and they introduced themselves.

CHRIS: I remember Zack was drunk and in the living room. We were trying to get Nick to do bass tricks. “Show them that thing I have been telling them about!” Zack just pulls out his bass and we were standing in the living room, which was our rehearsal space. Nick was like “Are you sure?” He was so NOT cool with it. It was Zack’s Fender 5-string.

NICK: Not a scratch on it! He hands it to me. “Throw this around!” I was like “I just met you, man. You’re pretty big. I don’t think this is a good idea.” A few more drinks later, I was all “Give me that fucking thing!”

BARRY: What do you think makes A Brilliant Lie unique in the music scene?

CHRIS: I think the people, more than anything. I think musically, we are one of the few real rock bands rolling around town. There are a few bands that you might call “rock,” but it’s only really us and a handful of people.

BARRY: When you say “rock band,” what does that mean to you?

CHRIS: Straight up rock and roll. Loud. Straight-forward. Fun.

MATTHEW: Not metal. Not indie. Not prog.

CHRIS: When I think of straight-up rock bands, I think of bands like Foo Fighters or Eagles of Death Metal. It’s just rock…fucking rock! It’s not tons of

A Brilliant Lies (credit: Barry Nadler)

frills. They have really neat moments, but at the end of the day, it’s loud guitars and dudes hitting cymbals.

NICK: If you like indie, you’ll like what we do. If you like punk, you’ll like what we do. There are so many things we take from them and just make what our version of rock is. You can listen to us and go “Oh, there is so much about this that I like!” and not feel like “Oh, its too much this or too much of that.” There are so many sub-categories. “This has apart from every single piece of these sub-genres” and that is what makes it what it is. It’s tangible. It’s easy to digest.

TARA: And, it’s relatable to a lot of people. At the end of the day, there are a multitude of moments in our songs, whether its musical or lyrical. When we have the ability to play in front of new audiences, its kind of neat when people come up and they love the energy, or they love that meticulous guitar part, or they go back and listen to your CDs and read the lyrics. They say “This was really thoughtful.” They appreciate the moments created. It doesn’t have to appease a certain genre or audience.

NICK: Whether the melody is catchy or the guitar is heavy or the drums beat intricately…or a combination of all three.

TARA: So, what we are saying is that everyone should love us!

JASON: If you like music, you should maybe go to Spotify and type in “A Brilliant Lie.”

BARRY: Who would you say, as a band, are the influences of the band?

CHRIS: I think Thrice is pretty heavy in the mix.

NICK: Yeah, I think Thrice and Foo Fighters are the two main things that everyone in this band listens to. Everyone in this band can draw influence from them.

MATTHEW: I think we all listen to very different stuff. I listen to bands from 311, Death Cab for Cutie, and Anberlin.

TARA: Thrice and Foo Fighters are a good start. I think Anberlin, too. It’s funny, because between the five of us, if we made a Venn diagram of all of our individual influences, there would only be a couple of similarities.

NICK: On tour, we have to consider “what would someone put on the van radio and no one would heckle?” What would someone put on, and everyone would be like “Alright!” and we would start singing.

TARA: Yeah, we do this thing in the van, where, if we have a seven-hour drive or something like that, we pass around a phone and make a playlist. Everyone picks, like, ten songs. We play a game and we have to figure out whose song [choice] it was. (LAUGHS)

JASON: The three bands I always go with are Thrice, Foo Fighters, and Paramore…old Paramore, because new Paramore is very different.

TARA: Yeah someone at Rocklahoma said: “If Thrice and Foo Fighters had a baby with a female singer…”

BARRY: So, individually, what are your influences?

A Brilliant Lies (credit: Barry Nadler)

CHRIS: Super easy, man! Thrice is a big one. Foo Fighters. Closure to Moscow – They are a crazy awesome band. I am really into them. I am super into Manchester Orchestra. I love that freaking band! The Ocean, which is a killer band.

NICK: I like a bunch of stuff. I listen to a lot of accordion music. Like from the 1930’s. I hear stuff in there that I would never think to do. When I come to the bass, or guitar, when I’m writing, I ask “What’s going to make this completely different? Can I throw in a curveball that no one will guess would happen?” They did it in the 30’s and either it didn’t work out for them there or it wasn’t good enough to continue to work. But, you know…I can throw this cord in there…and we will look at each other and go “that DEFINITELY does not work.” Or, you throw it in there and because it’s so odd it works. You’re like “FUCK! Where did that come from?” and you’re like “Oh…not from a punk band or a metalcore band. But, it’s from some 1930’s French accordion-playing woman.” I think there’s a lot of stuff I listen to, be it accordion music or fast, dumb punk music that I really like. All those things influence me. Pretty much, everything that doesn’t sound like what we sound like influences me to help us sound like what we sound like. I think its more like cherry-picking from Jazz or classic gypsy jazz or metal or hard-core punk, and even hip-hop. I like saying “We might be able to get away with this” or “what if I use what I like about punk music and what Jason likes about jazz music,” and we put those together and all of a sudden, we have something that’s very ABL (A Brilliant Lie). So, I don’t think there is a single answer on what influences me the most. I feel like its just this amalgamation of a 600-song playlist on shuffle.
Musicals rule my life! Whether it be Disney or anything on Broadway right now. 90’s Disney! A lot of that is “Well if they can get away with it, why can’t we?”

JASON: The major influences for me, when I was first learning to play guitar were Taking Back Sunday, Coheed and Cambria, and John Mayer. Now, I kind of reference a lot of bands like Manchester Orchestra, My Chemical Romance, along with my original influences.

CHRIS: And to be fair…all three of us have sat in a room and had a discussion like “What would Manchester do right now?” That’s a real thing that happens.

NICK: The bridge to “This Means War.” That’s what we did!

MATTHEW: The first rock CD I had was Aerosmith’s “Pump.” So, I got influenced by guys like Joe Perry and Brad Whitford. Right after that was 311’s Blue album. Old 311, like the tone. It would go from rock to ska to punk. But, also Carlos Santana-like solos. “How does this all work?” I don’t care, but I like it. Later on, Joseph Milligan, who is with Anberlin. He would write guitar parts for two people and it would be this other guitar player going in and out for a little bit. Until the guy from Acceptance joined the band. I always loved the fact that he would write left-brain/right-brain and write two different parts and track them. You would be like “Oh! I would never do that.” That comes back to another influence, Taking Back Sunday when Fred was in the band. Just the way he would write the counter melodies. One more would be Collective Soul. They are a three-guitar band. Somehow they would weave three guitars together and you would be like “How!?!” And bands that are really guitar-driven. Not just the musical part, but the way the guitar tone sounds.

JASON: What Matt’s trying to say is that “drums don’t matter”

CHRIS: It’s true. With each show, it becomes more and truer. (LAUGHS) “You guys are really good! I love your bass player!” DAMNIT!

NICK: One time we played this show and someone was like “Can we get a picture with the band?” They gave Chris the camera and were all “Can you take a photo for us?”

CHRIS: I just took it, too! I didn’t even think about it. “Yeah, alright! This band’s great!” We were in the van later and Jason was like “Dude? Why weren’t you in the photo?” “Oh…yeah…MAN! You’re right! I wasn’t in that photo!”

TARA: I am embarrassed by one of my initial influences because it was Metallica. The other one is Michael Jackson. Other bands that inspire me lyrically/vocally are At the Drive-In and Mewithoutyou. That’s some of the most poetic stuff I have ever heard. It’s AMAZING! But, I think, moving forward with A Brilliant Lie, when it comes to writing melodies and stuff, it would have to be AFI. Like older AFI. If I could do a duet with anybody, it would be Davey Havoc. It’s thoughtful. It’s dark. It’s anthemic. Everything sounds big. He makes all his feelings sound big. That’s something I try to do, too.

BARRY: How many albums do you have out now?

CHRIS: Oh, man…there are four. Technically there is a fifth that exists out there in the world. We have a three-song EP that is under a rock.

JASON: I have not heard this, by the way! There are a couple of songs that me, as a band member, have actually not heard…because I am not allowed to. (LAUGHS) If there are any aspiring artists out there, and you want to be like ABL, and you suck…it gets better! (LAUGHS) So, just keep sucking! And eventually, you will be like, “This is almost listenable.”

MATTHEW: The EP “Waking Vessels” is kind of when things started making a little more sense.

TARA: That’s when we started to work with James Paul Wisner, who was the producer of Paramore, Hands Like Houses, Underoath, and Dashboard Confessional.

JASON: He is a better musician than the five of us combined.

MATTHEW: “Waking Vessels” was kind of like where the band was starting to find it’s “point.” That’s also when the big lineup shift happened. Then, we put out two EPs after that, with the new lineup shift. Those two EPs are part of a three-part series, consisting of Threads: Cutter, Threads: Spinner, and then there is a third one that we can’t put out yet because of “reasons.” But, it’s really good! Trust me!

BARRY: Who were the writers on the albums? Is there a primary writing team or is it everybody?

A Brilliant Lies (credit: Barry Nadler)

TARA: It’s everybody. We are a democracy…to a fault.

JASON: For better or for worse, all five people in this band can be the primary writer in any other band. And, we are all trying to be the primary writer for this band.

MATTHEW: With the writing process, it’s different for like every song. Sometimes some stuff will happen in the room. Sometimes someone will do a demo – verse/chorus – and we are like “Oh, we just need to figure out a bridge.” It really just depends on the song. But, everyone contributes to it. It’s just battling over what we think needs to be in there. And sometimes, we are like “No, that really doesn’t need to be in there.” Sometimes, you have your sixth member, James (Wisner), say “Nope! Write it again.”

CHRIS: Around the meeting of James Wisner, he changed our perspective on how you write a song. What’s the purpose of the whole thing? He kind of opened up this whole bag where I was like “Oh man! I never really thought of any of that stuff.” When we regrouped from there and started this three-EP set, we took everything we had learned from him and that’s kind of where this whole thing started. That’s really where the band begins – on the EPs. That was actually the point of the three EPs. We wanted to put out multiple CDs in a row, over a short period of time. The idea was to show how we grow as a band. There’s a meaning behind that. The first record, which is Cutter, is us cutting away the old and starting fresh. That’s ABL, like “Here it is! Here’s the band!” This lineup was mostly there.

TARA: It’s a rebirth.

MATTHEW: It shows our growth and how we write together. The third album we have that’s done, that’s not yet out there, it’s the culmination of the first two EPs. When you listen to it, it’s like “Oh! OK. I see how we got here. I’m glad we’re here. I can’t wait to see where we’re going next.” For me, the album that we have finished, just kind of rocks and kicks butt. I am proud of what we did on it.

TARA: One of the initial intentions of doing the trilogy was so the audience could grow with us. I remember it being me and Chris and Zack sitting in the room and being like “Well, do we just stop?” We knew we had something that we felt was bigger than ourselves. It meant something to other people, besides the three of us. If we change our sound slightly, if we change members…it’s OK, because the whole point is that we are supposed to grow. And [with the collection of EPs], the audience can be part of the process. It just…took a little longer than we thought it would (LAUGHS).

CHRIS: We were so ambitious. We were so full of it! We didn’t really do the math very well. “We’re going to release this record! We’re going to tour on it. Go right back to the studio. Record. Tour again!” On paper, it made total sense. When we started recording the first record, I and Jason had a time when we were like “This is never going to fucking work!” It takes a long time to write and record a CD.

JASON: In total fairness, the original idea was to do four songs per EP. At some point, we changed it to five, which is an even worse idea. Then, the idea was that we would write over the course of a year. We would continue to write the songs that we sort of wrote for the first EP and put that on the second EP. That didn’t work out. As soon as we finished the first record, we trashed all the extra songs we had been working on.

CHRIS: Nothing ever works out as you planned it would be. EVER. We released three CDs, but we wrote like 50 songs altogether. For every five songs you hear, there are at least 20 dead ones rolling around somewhere.

NICK: That’s pretty accurate. For every one song, there were five ideas that did not make it. We will each put something out and one of those will get worked on and one will get pushed because those were the best.

JASON: Eventually, we all end up here…arguing about which song we should put on the record. It’s a lot of fun.

BARRY: What’s your favorite tour story? Or, we can go the other way and tell your worst tour story.

NICK: So, I have a lot of stories about touring that I remember. For me, one of my most interesting stories. We had played this show and I was very drunk (pick a show!). I am peeing in this bathroom and these two people barge in. They come in and are like “Whoa! Hey!” I am standing there, “dick in hand,” and these people come. They are all like “You aren’t using the bathroom, are you?” They close the door. I am all like “Nah!” They pull out this bag and they make these lines of blow on the sink. “You cool, dude?” Weiner still in hand, I am like drip…drip…drip “Yeah, man…I’m cool with it.” They were like “You want one?” and they proceeded to snort it up. “Nah, man. I’m just gonna pee.” While this is happening, I take my phone out and take a selfie. It’s just me (no dick…well, I’m a dick) and I am like…“What’s HAPPENING right now!?” I’m like “OK, I pissed on my hands, so I am just going to slide in here and wash them over here…away from your noses.”
Another time, me and Matt got really drunk in Murfreesboro, TN. It’s raining. The show is not going well. There’s a lot of assholes there. This guy is standing in the doorway. We are loading in and out in this pouring rain. Each time we pass by, we are like “Excuse me. Pardon me.” We are going in and out, and this guy is still standing in the fucking doorway. We come out with one or two loads of gear. We had finished playing. This guy was just sitting there, wearing these high tops (I really remember this guy) and a leather jacket. He’s smoking a cigarette. He says “I’m probably in the way, huh?” “No fucking shit! Dude! You’re in the FUCKING WAY!” He says that and moves out of the way. We go to go back in when we are done. Guess who’s in the fucking way again. The same fucking dude! He just didn’t get that he was in the way! He knew he was in the way!

MATTHEW: I felt like every time he looked at me, he was giving me this look like I was inconveniencing him being able to stand in the doorway. I just wanted to put the stuff in the van.

NICK: I just think of [the movie] Scott Pilgrim – “This club sucks! You’re pretentious! I got beef!” That night, I stepped in a puddle, and I cried like there was no tomorrow. It got weird.

CHRIS: Basically, no one gave a crap that we were playing. We were the most “pop” band there. We finished playing and there was, like, one guy clapping. We were supposed to stay at that house. We were like “We do not want to stay here! There is no way.” We drove to some hotel room. It was a weird show.

JASON: I got no stories.

CHRIS: The one we always tell is in South Carolina, and we had a blast there. But, there were cords all over the place. It was kind of like a big event. There was a great crowd there. There were more photographers than I think I have ever seen in a small club. I mean that! There were like four or five photographers and two guys doing videography. Nick, at some point, gets twisted up in the lines and goes backward onto me. He lands on my kit and looks over at me. He could see the rage in my eyes. I reached down and grabbed him and threw him off my kit. I try to assemble the kit in mid-song. The song doesn’t stop. This all happens in an instant. Not a single photographer got a photo of it. No one got video of it. Nothing!

NICK: It was like it never happened. But, they got all the photos of Matt making stupid faces. And, Tara being dumb. And, Jason being like “I hit the wrong note.” Every fucking photo! If your face was looking wrong…nailed it! But, any photo of me dive-bombing on Chris’ expensive, new drum set…just happened to miss it.

JASON: I just remember that I was standing at the front of the stage and suddenly the entire rhythm section just drops out. Chris stopped playing drums, obviously, because he had a bass player laying on his kit. The three of us are playing guitar and I turn to look at these two (Tara and Matthew) and we just shrugged at each other and kept playing. “Alright! We got this!”

TARA: Jason, you have a vest story!

JASON: Oh, I do have a vest story! So, this is my very first adventure with ABL. My first shows were out of state. We were in Atlanta and we had some time to kill before the show. So, we went shopping. Tara brings this vest up to me. “I think this is going to fit you! And, it’s really cool!” She knew all about the brand and everything. I was like “Um…Cool! I’ll get the vest…apparently, it’s cool…”
So, I buy the vest. We throw it in the van. Then, the next day, we were in Birmingham. Our other bass player at the time, Zack, gets on the mic “Everyone, I would like to introduce our new guitarist, Jason Lemrond. Everybody buy him a shot!” During the set, shots just start showing up on stage. I’m like “OK. Here we go!” After the show, shots just keep coming my way. At this point, I’m done. We get in the van and the vehicle starts moving. I’m like “Nope! This is not staying down.” I need to throw up and the van is going. Zack just grabs a bag, hands it to me, and I throw up in the bag.

CHRIS: (LAUGHS) He [Zack] just opens the door to the van, while we’re moving, and sails it out onto the street.

JASON: Then, the next day, we’re driving back to Orlando. I’m starting to pack things up. I’m getting my stuff organized because we are going home. “Where’s my vest? Hmmm. Where’s my vest?” And it hit me…
My vest is in Birmingham…covered in vomit…on the side of the road!”

CHRIS: I always wondered if some homeless guy was like “Worth it!” (LAUGHS) “This is nice!”

BARRY: Is there anything where you look at it and go “That was really cool! I can’t believe we did that!”?

A Brilliant Lies (credit: Barry Nadler)

MATTHEW: We were direct support for Our Lady Peace. For a few of us, they are an influence. They were a band we really looked up to and they were outside the box of regular rock, at the time.

TARA: They were badass dudes, too!

CHRIS: Yeah, we got to hang out and eat pizza with them. When we finished the show, they were like, “Hey, come back and have some pizzas with us.” We sat there, while they told us way cooler stories than we will EVER have. “On our first tour, with Van Halen…blah blah blah.”

MATTHEW: Um…Rocklahoma was rad!

CHRIS: Yeah! You go there, and you’re seeing these huge bands, like Underoath, play…or A Perfect Circle…Ghost…and you’re like, “Holy crap! I’m playing this festival.” And a shocking amount of people paid attention to us.

MATTHEW: Everyone there was super cool! Every person we met was super genuine. We played our set, and did a meet and greet afterwards – taking photos, signing posters, signing CDs, and just having conversations with people we had never met…and we were thousands of miles from home! Except, we were all dying because it was hot as “who knows what.” We were all just panting.

JASON: We were playing on the sun, basically.

NICK: It’s very fair to say that we were just as excited to talk to these people as they were to talk to us.

TARA: We have been lucky to open up for bigger bands and festivals and blah blah blah. But, I think one of the coolest things was when we were in DC, on one of our last tours. We played this show and people we didn’t even know were singing along to our songs. That was really humbling and cool. Strangers would come up and say, “I’ve been watching you on YouTube!” It’s so kind and so welcoming. While touring, sometimes we’ll have spent a couple of weeks feeling kind of alone (outside of having each other). And then, you see people singing along to your songs…and you don’t feel so detached anymore.

MATTHEW: As musicians, we all have songs that mean something to us. To have people make a Facebook comment or say something like “This song means whatever reason…it could be anything” That moment is the most rewarding. It’s the highlight of it all. That’s why you do it.

BARRY: Let’s talk about Toto and your current cover song (“Africa”).

JASON: This is Chris’ brain-child so we will let him answer the question.

CHRIS: I don’t know…I like Toto. I think when you do a cover, you want to do something that everyone knows, so it always lands. And, that’s a tough thing because you think of a song and you’re like “Everyone knows that song!” but then you start talking to people about it and no, they don’t. Toto, “Africa” – everyone knows that freaking song. It’s tough to find a cover like that and then trying to think of a way to do it in a way that doesn’t sound like the same song. We’ve done a lot of covers, but I still think Toto is our best.

NICK: I think we’ve put a lot of ourselves into that cover. When you hear the Toto cover, you’re like “This is obviously something ABL would do.” We changed it enough where you can see Toto, but you can also see ABL. We aren’t doing fucking Toto karaoke. I think that’s what makes it cool.

MATTHEW: It’s a fun cover and hopefully, at some point, we put out our own version of it. We’ll see.

BARRY: Is there anything about the music industry that surprised you, now that you are starting to get some traction?

CHRIS: Nobody has any idea how they did anything. No one! It’s crazy. You talk to a guy who’s a millionaire and has had a bunch of gold records – “How’d you do it?” “I don’t know…I don’t know how this happened.”

NICK: There’s no algorithm.

MATT: There’s no right way to do it. You have people tell you that. “So, what do you do?” “Oh, you can do this…or that…or that…or that…” An hour and a half later, you are like “So, there is no answer. OK. Good to know.”

CHRIS: We are in the wild west of the music world right now. Nobody knows exactly how to monetize streaming completely. All the artists are getting boned. Physical record sales have gone off the map. LPs or actual records have come back a little bit, but it’s still not enough to level the playing field. I always thought you write a really great record and people buy it, and we buy Ferraris. That’s supposed to be how it works. Now, there are bands out there who are huge names but they have second jobs. It’s a crazy-town.

NICK: There are so many variables now. Not only does music popularity come in waves, but how music is consumed has come in bigger waves. There’s a really interesting book called Wired. It talks about how the internet changed the music industry. Eventually, as a band, when we consider how we create music, we start having discussions about what to do with the next record. “Should it be on USB? Should it be for free download? Should it be on CD? Should it be an LP?

CHRIS: I just thought more people would know what’s up. We would get to this level, there would be an office we walk into, and this guy named Brian would be sitting there. “Alight, you guys have made it to that point! Sign here and we’ll take care of the rest.” You just go “Oh! That’s how this works! We’ve done all the work. Here you go.” We would then walk through this other door, and some dude puts a guitar on Jason, I get like a leopard suit, my kit immediately has extra kick drums and toms on it for no fucking reason, and there’s just a crowd waiting outside our first arena show (which happens right after we walk out of Brian’s office). Then, it’s just smooth sailing and I go buy my gold-plated Lamborghini. Tara owns her harem of cats. Jason starts his drug addiction…
That’s how I imagined the whole thing worked. Until recently, when I realized that’s not how it worked. That was a surprise to me. That even at the top, it’s a crap-shoot.

BARRY: Knowing all that, is there anything you would have done differently?

JASON: Honest answer? I would have gotten these five people together and said “Instead of putting a band together, let’s put together some weird business and the five of us can put that much time into it and actually make money.

CHRIS: I think I would have skipped a couple of lineups. Like, if that was a reality, I could have gone “Alright, here’s the perfect band!” If I had known what we would be, I would have tried to pull that off. I’m glad it happened the way it did. I don’t know if we would have ended up being the same band that we did, but I wish we had met each other sooner.

TARA: I think I would be unabashed, in the sense of what we post and how we present ourselves earlier on in this social media climate. It’s very naked but curated too. I think everyone gets really hung up on “Oh, make your feet look beautiful. Don’t post anything unless its perfect.” I think people are craving authenticity.

CHRIS: I think I would have learned to be more selfish, too. I know that sounds really terrible. But, for a long time, I think we were trying to please everybody else and also try to move forward. I think its ok, as a project, that we be selfish. We need to make decisions that are going to help us out and then, if it helps other people, it’s great. I don’t think we were necessarily hurt by it, but, we might have gotten places quicker if we were more selfish in the past.

MATT: You try to be a team player amongst each other and “Well, you know what? We didn’t need to do that. We wasted time on that.” But, you learn. You learn a little from everything you do.

BARRY: What’s on your playlist in heavy rotation?

MATT: Plini’s “Hand Made Cities” and the last two Ghost albums. Plini is all instrumental and proggy and Ghost is…Ghost. Very cinematic. For me, it’s like those two vast differences between bands is really cool. I thrive on both those things. Also, I am looking forward to the new Death Cab for Cutie that’s coming out. That band always kind of sticks out in my eyes. They evolve, but in a weird way.

JASON: I’ve been listening to a lot of Manchester Orchestra lately. I’m really stoked about the new Hands Like Houses album. Our good buddy, James Paul Wisner mixed it.

CHRIS: I never stop listening to Closure in Moscow. Been listening to a lot of Plini lately. I’ve also been listening to a ton of Manchester Orchestra.

TARA: “Bones” by Son Lux. The last Woodkid album. But then, I always listen to my Less Than Jake, Ghost, and stuff like that.

BARRY: One thing you do that’s different, in your live show, is Chris plays drums sideways, rather than facing the crowd. Why did you make that choice?

CHRIS: The reason I play that way is, I think, visually, it offers a lot more. As a drummer, you get stuck behind the cymbals and you’re just like a weird, floating head. I think it adds more to the live show because people can see what you’re doing. By seeing that, people hear more of what you’re doing. A lot of people hear what they see. When they can’t see you doing a lot, they don’t hear all the little things you add into the music. Plus, when I do backup vocals, it’s nice to face the audience, rather than facing my hi-hat.

MATT: Also, it’s fun when one of us messes up. We can easily just scowl at each other.

BARRY: Are there any other interesting facts or fun stories you want to share?

MATT: We are on tour with Rookie of the Year, from the middle of September all the way through the middle of October. We are going up the eastern coast, over to the Midwest states,

TARA: I would say that playing the Warped tour has been a life goal [and that just happened].

JASON: And we managed to just sneak it in! Barely!

NICK: One time, I ordered a hot dog while we were playing. It was in Georgia. There was a window behind us. I got my wireless and just walked out into the street. Chris was so mad. I came back and was like “What’s the fucking problem? I was just getting some food!”

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Interview Conducted during the month of July 2018

by Barry Nadler

Band members

Tara Lightfoot – Vocals/Guitar

• Matthew Movens – Guitar
• Jason Lemrod – Guitar
• Nick Scout – Bass
• Chris Lane – Drums

BARRY: How long have you been A Brilliant Lie?

TARA: A Brilliant Lie has been a brainchild since about 2010ish. But, there was a lot of sitting in a room and playing the same three songs we had written over and over again.

CHRIS: And in the middle of that, me and the previous bass player (Zack), were playing in another project. So, it was like the thing we did when we weren’t doing other things. So, we would have a practice like once every two weeks. I would smoke like 35,000 cigarettes with Zack, and we would wander in and play the three songs. Then, we would sit and talk about those three songs. We couldn’t really write the stupid riff for “Kitchen Light.” I remember that! It took forever. “

TARA: We finally found the proper members that lasted for a while that could get us off the ground and playing out live. That was really cool.  We had an original lineup, and then that dissolved. With any band, you have people that come and go. But, I think the actual representation of what we are doing now is only about three to four years old. So, maybe 2015?

MATTHEW: Yeah. So, it was around that time when all the people here right now kind of collectively committed and figured out what the band’s style and sound was and where we wanted it to go. That’s really where we consider us starting. If you look at everything up until that point, there’s a lot of stuff that happened, but it never started doing what it is doing until we hit that point where all the people currently here came together.

CHRIS: I always like to think the band really started like five years ago. We were getting our feet wet with the original lineup. And, it kind of blew up because of life. When that happened and we regrouped, I think there was like an “All right, what are we really doing? If we are going to do this thing, let’s do the thing!” I think that whenever that happened is when this band really started.

Obviously you are all not original members. Who are the original members?

A Brilliant Lie (credit: Barry Nadler)

TARA: I remember sitting at a bar with you (Chris) and Zack and you all were like “Let’s start a band!” And, then you moved away…and came back.

MATTHEW:  Tara and Chris were the only original members. Tara is the longest running member since Chris disappeared and came back.

MATTHEW: And then, later, as the band was expanding the sound and trying to figure out what was what, I came to the band.

TARA: That was when we decided to expand to a five-piece.

CHRIS: We were in the studio and were like “Well, we’ll have to figure that out later. Hmmm…how are we going to play all these parts?”

MATTHEW: So, the band expanded to a five-piece. And, it helps with the whole dynamic of the band. Tara needing to play guitar all the time became unnecessary. Nick joined us about a year after I came in. We put a bottle of whisky and a bunch of beer next to a box with a stick in it (LAUGHS).

NICK: I went under to drink the shot and they just pulled the string. I was done!

MATTHEW: I met Tara about 12 or 13 years ago. I would see her in different bands. Chris, I met, but didn’t know him well enough.

TARA: The three of us were in different local bands. We all kind of hung in the same circles.

MATTHEW: I met Nick when I was working a show. Nick was playing bass in a band called Cover Story. His bass string broke on stage. I was helping him fix it while they were playing a song. Literally, it was like I had enough gaff tape to fix it. I got him back and running. And, we have been friends since then.

CHRIS: I remember I met Tara somewhere in the blur of alcohol that was the local scene. The first time we really talked, it was me and Zack. We were playing in that other band. We were like “We have to do something bigger. This isn’t working. We wanted to start a band fresh. For me, my career has been a lot of like “Hey, they need a drummer!” and I would be like “Yeah, I can learn songs really quick.” You just kind of dive into these projects. So, we wanted to start something from the ground up. That’s when we actually started to talk to Tara. I know Zack had talked to her at some point. I called her on the phone. We talked for like hours.

TARA: We had a huge conversation at the bar. They had those drinks for like $2.00. We were like “Let’s…start…a…band…” (LAUGHS)

CHRIS: Fun story about this. When we left my other friends were like “Man, you were like totally jiving on that that girl!” and I was like “No, we’re going to start a band together.” They were like bummed out like “Aw man!” (LAUGHS)

TARA: Fast forward like eight years and here…we…are.”

MATTHEW: We found Jason on CraigsList, because we were looking for a couch.

JASON: Yup. I came with the couch.

TARA: But, Jason was really great friends with the folks in Anyone’s Guess (EDITOR NOTE: a band that is no longer together) and Leaving Haven. So, it was like “OK, you’re good people. Can I come play guitar?” We were like “You’re pretty cool.” (LAUGHS) “Let’s do it!”

CHRIS: I met Nick at Matt’s birthday party, I think.

NICK: I didn’t know anyone, except for Matt. I was standing there awkwardly, with my drink. These two together (Chris and Jason) came up and were like “Hey!” and they introduced themselves.

CHRIS: I remember Zack was drunk and in the living room. We were trying to get Nick to do bass tricks. “Show them that thing I have been telling them about!” Zack just pulls out his bass and we were standing in the living room, which was our rehearsal space. Nick was like “Are you sure?” He was so NOT cool with it. It was Zack’s Fender 5-string.

NICK: Not a scratch on it! He hands it to me. “Throw this around!” I was like “I just met you, man. You’re pretty big. I don’t think this is a good idea.” A few more drinks later, I was all “Give me that fucking thing!”

What do you think makes A Brilliant Lie unique in the music scene?

CHRIS: I think the people, more than anything. I think musically, we are one of the few real rock bands rolling around town. There are a few bands that you might call “rock,” but it’s only really us and a handful of people.

When you say “rock band,” what does that mean to you?

CHRIS: Straight up rock and roll.

MATTHEW: Modern rock

CHRIS: Loud. Straight-forward. Fun.

MATTHEW: Not metal.  Not indie. Not prog.

TARA: Its kind of hard when you are trying to make a lineup for a show, for example. “Well, where do we actually fit?” We are just straight rock. I think people enjoy it.

CHRIS: When I think of straight up rock bands, I think of bands like Foo Fighters or Eagles of Death Metal. It’s just rock…fucking rock! It’s not tons of frills. They have really neat moments, but at the end of the day, it’s loud guitars and dudes hitting cymbals.

NICK: If you like indie, you’ll like what we do. If you like punk, you’ll like what we do. There are so many things we take from them and just make what our version of rock is. You can listen to us and go “Oh, there is so much about this that I like!” and not feel like “Oh, its too much this or too much of that.” There are so many sub-categories. “This has a part from every single piece of these sub-genres” and that is what makes it what it is. It’s tangible. It’s easy to digest.

TARA: And, it’s relatable to a lot of people. At the end of the day, there are a multitude of moments in our songs, whether its musical or lyrical. When we have the ability to play in front of new audiences, its kind of neat when some people come up and they love the energy or they love that meticulous guitar part or they go back and listen to your CDs and read the lyrics. They say “This was really thoughtful.” They appreciate the moments regardless of what they were. It doesn’t have to appease a certain genre or audience.

NICK: Whether the melody is catchy or the guitar is heavy or the drums beat intricately…or a combination of all three.

TARA: So, what we are saying is that everyone should love us!

JASON: If you like music, you should maybe go to Spotify and type in “A Brilliant Lie.”

MATTHEW: The quickest example is a song we have called “Pieces.” If you listen to it, up to the bridge, you are like “Oh, this is a straight up kind of punky rock song.” And, then the bridge goes “Hey, what’s time? What’s this? What’s that?”  It’s the weird moment that gets thrown in there, but people get it and think it’s cool because it’s a different element to the music. It creates this unique thing.

CHRIS: I think the other half that makes this band cool is that I think we are all such different people. Sometimes its even to our own demise and it’s hard to move forward. Without this set of people, I don’t think this band would sound the way it does.

Who would you say, as a band, are the influences of the band?

A Brilliant Lie (credit: Barry Nadler)

CHRIS: I think Thrice is pretty heavy in the mix.

NICK: Yeah, I think Thrice and Foo Fighters are the two main things that everyone in this band listens to. Everyone in this band can draw influence from them.

MATTHEW: I think we all listen to very different stuff. I listen to stuff from 311, Deathcab for Cutie, and bands like Amberlin. Even with Amberlin, some of the guitar stuff. Even when you listen to it, you can go “Oh, I was influenced by that bit or that thought or that rhythm thing.” So, its different for everybody.

TARA: Thrice and Foo Fighters are a good start. I think Amberlin. It’s funny, because we say these things and between the five of us, if we made a Venn diagram of all the things, there would be a couple of things as far as influences. But, I think that’s why it turns out to be this unique baby and there’s like “Oh! Ok. Well, that kind of works.”

NICK: On tour, what would someone put on the van radio and no one would heckle? If Matt put on Amberlin, everyone else would be like “This is DUMB!” What would someone put on and everyone would be like “Alright!” and we would start singing. That’s something we can all get behind. We all would really dig it enough to draw influence from it. Would Chris be like “Play something heavier!”?

TARA: We do this thing in the van, where, if we have a seven-hour drive or something like that, we pass around a phone and make a playlist. Everyone picks like ten songs. We play a game and we have to figure out whose song it was. I feel like I have had moments like when you’re driving and it’s like three in the morning…and everyone is just chilling…and you have these bands, like Deathcab or Band of Horses, or something like that. Everyone’s listening to it and the entire band is jiving on it. Nobody dislikes it. But, do we sound like that…No. (LAUGHS).

MATTHEW: We’re all very different influences, so its hard to put your finger on it. But, when someone says Foo Fighters, I always say “Yeah, I can agree with that. For sure.”

JASON: The three bands I always go with are Thrice, Foo Fighters, and Paramore…old Paramore, because new Paramore is very different.

TARA: Someone at Rocklahoma said “If Thrice, Foo Fighters, and Paramore had a baby…

So, individually, what are your influences?

A Brilliant Lie (credit: Barry Nadler)

CHRIS: Super easy, man! Thrice is a big one. Foo Fighters. Closure to Moscow – They are a crazy awesome band. I am really into them. I am super into Manchester Orchestra. I love that freaking band! The Ocean, which is a killer band.

NICK: I like a bunch of stuff. I listen to a lot of accordion music. Like from the 1930’s. I hear stuff in there that I would never think to do. When I come to the bass, or guitar, when I’m writing, I ask “What’s going to make this completely different? Can I throw in a curveball that no one will guess would happen?” They did it in the 30’s and either it didn’t work out for them there or it wasn’t good enough to continue to work. But, you know…I can throw this cord in there…and we will look at each other and go “that DEFINITELY does not work.” Or, you throw it in there and because it’s so odd it works. You’re like “FUCK! Where did that come from?” and you’re like “Oh…not from a punk band or a metalcore band. But, its from some 1930’s French accordion-playing woman.” I think there’s a lot of stuff I listen to, be it accordion music or fast, dumb punk music that I really like. All those things influence me. Pretty much, everything that doesn’t sound like what we sound like influences me to help us sound like what we sound like. Obviously, we don’t play everything in double-time, like a punk band. But, I want to bring what I like of those bands here. Obviously, we don’t play accordion, but I think that’s really cool – some of the progressions they used, or the chords in Jazz. I think its more like cherry-picking from Jazz or classic gypsy jazz or metal or hard-core punk, and even hip hop. I like saying “We might be able to get away with this” or “what if I use what I like about punk music and what Jason likes about jazz music” and we put those together and all of a sudden, we have something that’s very ABL (A Brilliant Lie). So, I don’t think there is a single answer on what influences me the most. I feel like its just this amalgamation of a 600-song playlist on shuffle.

Musicals rule my life! Whether it be Disney or anything on Broadway right now. 90’s Disney! A lot of that is “Well, if they can get away with it, why can’t we?”

MATTHEW: Movie soundtracks too. You hear it and go “Whoa! That was cool! What if we did that, but as a band?”

NICK: Today, I fell asleep to the Interstellar soundtrack.

JASON: The major influences for me, when I was first learning to play guitar were Taking Back Sunday, Coheed and Cambria, and John Mayer. Now, I kind of reference a lot of bands like Manchester Orchestra, My Chemical Romance, along with my original influences.

CHRIS: And to be fair…all three of us have sat in a room and had a discussion like “What would Manchester do right now?” That’s a real thing that happens.

NICK: The bridge to “War.” That’s what we did!

MATTHEW: The first rock CD I had was Aerosmith’s “Pump.” So, I got influenced by guys like Joe Perry and Brad Whitford. Right after that was 311’s Blue album. Old 311, like the tone. It would go from rock to ska to punk. But, also Carlos Santana-like solos. “How does this all work?” I don’t care, but I like it. Later on, Joseph Milligan, who is with Amberlin. He would write guitar parts for two people and it would be this other guitar player going in and out for a little bit. Until the guy from Acceptance joined the band. I always loved the fact that he would write left-brain/right-brain and write two different parts and track them. You would be like “Oh! I would never do that.” That comes back to another influence, Taking Back Sunday, when Fred was in the band. Just the way he would write the counter melodies. One more would be Collective Soul. They are a three-guitar band. Somehow they would weave three guitars together and you would be like “How? Ok, cool.” There was some neat stuff. Their first major label record, with “Shine” on it, was a demo. The drums weren’t even real. Drum pads and stuff. The label was so excited to get it out, they didn’t get to re-record it. Bands that are really guitar driven. Not just the musical part, but the way the guitar sounded.

JASON: What Matt’s trying to say is that “drums don’t matter”

CHRIS: It’s true. With each show, it becomes more and more true. (LAUGHS) “You guys are really good! I love your bass player!” DAMMIT!

NICK: One time we played this show and someone was like “Can we get a picture with the band?” They gave Chris the camera and were all “Can you take a photo for us?”

CHRIS: I just took it, too! I didn’t even think about it. “Yeah, alright! This band’s great!” We were in the van later and Jason was like “Dude? Why weren’t you in the photo?” “Oh…yeah….MAN! You’re right! I wasn’t in that photo!”

TARA: I am embarrassed by one of my initial influences, because it was Metallica. The other one is Michael Jackson. As a pre-teen, a tween… Bands that I thought lyrically, as far as the composition of the entire song, that challenged what I liked, and knew about – where I was like “What the hell are you guys doing?” – are At the Drive-In and Be Without You. That’s some of the most poetic stuff I have ever heard. It’s AMAZING! But, I think, moving forward with A Brilliant Lie, when it comes to writing melodies and stuff, it would have to be AFI. Like older AFI. If I could do a duet with anybody, it would be Davey Havoc. It’s thoughtful. It’s dark. It’s anthemic. Everything sounds big. He makes all his feelings sound big. That’s something I try to do too.

How many albums do you have out now?

CHRIS: Oh, man…there are four. Technically there is a fifth that exists out there in the world. We have a three-song EP that is under a rock.

JASON: I have not heard this, by the way!

CHRIS: There’s a picture of another guy, on the record, but I played most of the drums on it. We were recording it right before I left.

JASON: There are a couple of songs that me, as a band member, have actually not heard…because I am not allowed to. (LAUGHS) If there are any aspiring artists out there, and you want to be like ABL, and you suck…it gets better! (LAUGHS) So, just keep sucking! And eventually, you will be like “This is almost listenable.”

MATTHEW: There are four that are out. There’s one called the Guarding Area Line that is pre-this version and there is another one called Waking Vessels, which is kind of when things started making a little more sense.

TARA: That’s when we started to work with James Paul Wisner, who was the producer of Paramore, Hands Like Houses, Underoath, Dashboard Confessional.

JASON: He is a better musician than the five of us combined.

MATTHEW: Waking Vessels was kind of like where the band was still starting to find it’s point. That’s when the big lineup shift happened. Then, we put out two Eps after that, with the new lineup shift. Those two EPs are part of a three-part series, consisting of Threads: Cutter, Threads: Spinner, and then there is a third one that we can’t put out yet because of “reasons.” But, its really good! Trust me!

Who were the writers on the albums? Is there a primary writing team or is it everybody?A Brilliant Lie (credit: Barry Nadler)

A Brilliant Lie (credit: Barry Nadler)

MATTHEW: It’s everybody!

TARA: We are a democracy…to a fault.

JASON: For better or for worse, all five people in this band can be the primary writer in any other band. And, we are all trying to be the primary writer for this band.

MATTHEW:  With the writing process, it’s different for like every song. Sometimes some stuff will happen in the room. Sometimes someone will do a demo – verse/chorus – and we are like “Oh, we just need to figure out a bridge.” It really just depends on the song. But, everyone contributes to it. It’s just battles over what we think need to be in there. And sometimes, we are like “No, that really doesn’t need to be in there.” Sometimes, you have your sixth member, James, say “Nope!” or “Yep!”

TARA: It really helps to have an outside perspective. It’s nice.

MATTHEW: For us, its really democratic. Sometimes it happens in the room, sometimes someone has a crazy idea, or one of us will walk in on two people playing a part together and we’re like “Wait! I have an idea for that!”

CHRIS: Around the meeting of James Wisner, he changed our perspective on how you write a song. What’s the purpose of the whole thing? He kind of opened up this whole bag where I was like “Oh man! I never really thought of any of that stuff.” When we regrouped from there, and started this three-EP set, we took everything we had learned from him and that’s kind of where this whole thing started. That’s really where the band begins – on the EPs. That was the point of the three EPs. We wanted to put out multiple CDs in a row, over a short period of time. The idea was to show how we grow as a band. There’s meaning behind that. The first record, which is Cutter, is us cutting away the old and starting fresh. That’s ABL, like “Here it is! Here’s the band!” This lineup was mostly there.

TARA: It’s a rebirth.

MATTHEW: It shows our growth and how we write together. The third album we have that’s done, that’s not yet out there, it’s the culmination of the first two EPs. When you listen to it, it’s like “Oh! OK. I see how it got there. I’m glad we’re here. I can’t wait to see where we’re going next.” For me, the album that we have finished, just kind of rocks and kicks butt. I am proud of what we did on it. It goes from a point in time where we all connected as a band.  It’s like a relationship with four other people to create a five-person band. You have to learn how that works and how other people write. Everyone writes differently. It’s all encompassing. Just hearing it is unique, when you go back to square one. “Oh, this was the first one. Here we are now.”

TARA: One of the initial intentions of doing the trilogy was so the audience could grow with us. I remember it being me and Chris and Zack sitting in the room and being like “Well, do we just stop?” We knew we had something that we felt was bigger than ourselves. It was growing into an entity. It was exciting and cool. But, it meant something to other people, besides the three of us. How do you not spend a gajillion dollars making multiple albums? “Gosh, we are doing this ourselves, so why don’t we do a collection of EPs?” If we change sound slightly, if we change members…it’s OK, because the whole point is that we are supposed to grow. You can be part of the process. You can listen along with us. That was kind of the whole thing. But, it took a little longer than we thought it would (LAUGHS)

CHRIS: We were so ambitious. If you could see the charts…We were like “18 months! We will be standing on top of a mountain!” We were so full of it! We didn’t really do the math very well. “We’re going to release this record! We’re going to tour on it. Go right back to the studio. Record. Tour again!” On paper, it made total sense. At the time, we all agreed it was going to work. We thought “Oh yeah! We can totally do this!” When we started recording the first record, me and Jason had a time when we were like “This is never going to fucking work!” We are like halfway through drums and we’re like “Nope.” It takes a long time to write and record a record. Then, you have to go and tour behind it. And then, to start that process all over again…we were like “CRAP!” By the time we got to the second record, we were like “AHHHHHH!!!!” So, it got pushed back.

TARA: We were on tour and in the back of the van, they would be just playing acoustic guitar, trying to record stuff. We would be like “OK! We have to do it!” We did get some good stuff though.

JASON: In total fairness, the original idea was to do four songs per EP. At some point we changed it to five, which is an even worse idea. Then, the idea was that we would write over the course of a year. We would continue to write the songs that we sort of wrote for the first EP and put that on the second EP. That didn’t work out. As soon as we finished the first record, we trashed all the extra songs we had been working on.

CHRIS: Nothing ever works out as you planned it would be. EVER.We released three CDs, but we wrote like 50 songs altogether. For every five songs you hear, there are at least 20 dead ones rolling around somewhere.

NICK: That’s pretty accurate. For every one song, there were five ideas that did not make it. We will each put something out and one of those will get worked on and one will get pushed because those were the best. That whole thing gets moved over and we are like “Well, those are all OK” and we will work on another group. This time, Tara’s will be the best, so let’s work on that. Then, if something really sticks out from round 2, that will become round 3. But, round 3 will also have four other contenders. So, its definitely a back and forth on things like that.

JASON: Eventually, we all end up here…arguing about which song we should put on the record. It’s a lot of fun.

What’s your favorite tour story? Or, we can go the other way and tell your worst tour story.

A Brilliant Lie (credit: Barry Nadler)

NICK: So, I have a lot of stories about touring that I remember. This is really memorable. For me, one of my most interesting stories. We had played this show and I was very drunk (Pick a show!). I am peeing in this bathroom and these two people barge in. They come in and are like “Whoa! Hey!” I am standing there “dick in hand” and these people come. They are all like “You aren’t using the bathroom, are you?” They close the door. I am all like “Nah!” They pull out this bag and they make these lines of blow on the sink. “You cool, dude?” Weiner still in hand, I am like drip…drip…drip “Yeah, man…I’m cool with it.” They were like “You want one?” and they proceeded to snort it up. “Nah, man. I’m just gonna pee.” While this is happening, I take my phone out and take a selfie. It’s just me (no dick…well, I’m a dick) and I am like “What’s happening?” There is this guy and girl snorting blow like they were mowing a lawn behind me. I’m like “OK, I pissed on my hands, so I am just going to slide in here and wash them over here…away from your noses.”

NICK: Another time, me and Matt got really drunk in Murphysboro, TN. It’s raining. The show is not going well. There’s a lot of assholes there. This guy is standing in the doorway. We are loading in and out in this pouring rain. Each time we pass by, we are like “Excuse me. Pardon me.” We are going in and out and this guy is still standing in the fucking doorway.  We come out with one or two loads of gear. We had finished playing. This guy was just sitting there, wearing these high tops (I really remember this guy!) and a leather jacket. He’s smoking a cigarette. He says “I’m probably in the way, huh?” “No fucking shit! Dude! You’re in the FUCKING WAY!” He says that and moves out of the way. We go to go back in when we are done. Guess who’s in the fucking way again. The same fucking dude! He just didn’t get that he was in the way! He knew he was in the way!

MATTHEW: I felt like every time he looked at me, he was giving me this look like I was inconveniencing him being able to stand in the doorway. I just wanted to put the stuff in the van. “It’s monsooning in Tennessee…OK?”

NICK: I just think of Scott Pilgram – “This club sucks! You’re pretentious! I got beef!” That night, I stepped in a puddle, I cried like there was no tomorrow. We tried to get a hotel. It’s weird!

CHRIS: We got this house party. We were playing there, and we were loading in. Basically, no one gave a crap that we were playing. We were the most pop band there. We finished playing and there is like one guy clapping. We were supposed to stay at that house. We were like “We do not want to stay here! There is no way.” Then, these two get super loaded in the van, where it wasn’t raining. We drove to some hotel room. It was a weird show.

MATTHEW: The thing about the hotel room, is the stairs. In Florida, we are all used to flat surfaces and hotels being first floor, second floor, etc. The lobby and the first floor, at the backside of the hotel, is like the third floor.

NICK: It made no sense! Hearing him tell that still makes no sense! So, floor 1 was actually floor 3. But where we parked, should have been floor 1.

MATTHEW: So, we were trying to find our room and Nick had a little too much to drink.

JASON: I got no stories.

CHRIS: The one we always tell is in South Carolina, and we had a blast there. But, there were cords all over the place. It was kind of like a big event. There was a great crowd there. There were more photographers than I think I have ever seen in a small club. I mean that! There were like four or five photographers and two guys doing videography. Nick, at some point, gets twisted up in the lines and goes backwards onto me. He lands on my kit and looks over at me. He could see the rage in my eyes. I reached down and grabbed him and threw him off my kit. I try to assemble the kit in mid-song.

MATTHEW: We are all still playing!

CHRIS: The song doesn’t stop. This all happens in an instant. Not a single photographer got a photo of it. No one got video of it. Nothing!

NICK: It was like it never happened.

CHRIS: I have no idea how that is even humanly possible.

NICK: But, they got all the photos of Matt making stupid faces. And, Tara being dumb. And, Jason being like “I hit the wrong note.” Every fucking photo! If your face was looking wrong…nailed it! But, any photo of me dive-bombing on Chris’ expensive, new drum set…just happened to miss it.

JASON: I just remember that I was standing at the front of the stage and suddenly the entire rhythm section just drops out. Chris stopped playing drums, obviously, because he had a bass player laying on his kit. The three of us are playing guitar and I turn to look at these two (Tara and Matthew) and we just shrugged at each other and kept playing. “Allright! We got this!”

TARA: Jason, you have a vest story!

JASON: I do have a vest story. So, this is my very first adventure with ABL. My first shows. They were out of state. We were in Atlanta and we had some time to kill before the show. So, we went shopping. Tara brings this vest up to me. “I think this is going to fit you! And, it’s really cool!” She knew all about the brand and everything., I was like “Um…Cool! I’ll get the vest…apparently, it’s cool…” So, I buy the vest. We throw it in the van. Then, the next day, we were in Birmingham. Our other bass player at the time, Zack, gets on the mic “Everyone, I would like to introduce our new guitarist, Jason Lemrod. Everybody buy him a shot!” During the set, shots just start showing up on stage. I’m like “OK. Here we go!” After the show, shots just keep coming my way. At this point, I’m done. We get in the van and the vehicle starts moving. I’m like “Nope! This is not staying down.” I need to throw up and the van is going. Zack just grabs a bag, hands it to me, and I throw up in the bag.

CHRIS: (LAUGHS) He just opens the door to the van, while we’re moving, and sails it out onto the street. This is just what Zack does. He’s like “Whatever!” Then, he closes the door.

JASON: Then, the next day, we’re driving back to Orlando. I’m starting to pack things up. I’m getting my stuff organized because we are going home. “Where’s my vest? Hmmm. Where’s my vest?” And it hit me… My vest is in Birmingham…covered in vomit…on the side of the road!”

CHRIS: I always wondered if some homeless guy was like “Worth it!” (LAUGHS) “This is nice!”

Is there anything where you look at it and go “That was really cool! I can’t believe we did that!”?

MATTHEW: We were direct support for Our Lady Peace. For a few of us, they are an influence. They were a band we really looked up to and they were outside the box of regular rock, at the time.

TARA: They were bad ass dudes, too!

CHRIS: Yeah, we got to hang out and eat pizza with them. That was rad! When you go to the House of Blues, sometime you hear “Oh, you finished your set? Don’t go up the stairs. Don’t go anywhere near the green rooms.” We’ve heard a lot of stories around packing your stuff up and don’t go upstairs.

JASON: When a certain local band played with some bigger bands, they were told that they had to use the public bathroom to get ready. They weren’t allowed to go upstairs or talk to the band or do anything.

CHRIS: When we played with Our Lady Peace, they let us have one of the other green rooms. “Oh, that’s kind of cool!” When we finished, and then they finished, they were like “Hey, come back and have some pizzas with us.” “Really? Cool!” We sat there, while they told us way cooler stories than we will ever have. “On our first tour, with Van Halen…blah blah blah”

MATTHEW: It was interesting because they were asking us stuff like “How do you do this stuff now? Like, how do you get into that?” They came out when we still had radio, records and tapes. Now, it’s a different field and they are still in it. “That’s really cool because you’ve already been there and you’re still curious about what works today.” It was really fun because they were all just super nice.

CHRIS: I think, with that question, you have to throw Rocklahoma out there. It was a really cool show!

MATTHEW: Rocklahoma was rad!

CHRIS: Just to get put on a show in a city that shows up every year for a festival…that’s really rad! You go there, and you’re seeing these huge bands, like Underoath, play…or A Perfect Circle….Ghost…and you’re like “holy crap! I’m playing this festival.” You’re playing the next stage over and people legitimately came and watched us. People legitimately came to the meet and greet. A shocking amount of people paid attention to us.

MATTHEW: It was cool because people came and started camping out a week before when the show starts. People set up these camps. You kind of have to. It’s in Oklahoma, in the middle of nowhere. These are elaborate camps that have AC and all this crazy nonsense. This is their vacation. People come from all these different states, like Texas and Arkansas for this thing. But, playing the festival…first…you’re on with big bands, like Chris said…Underoath…Ghost…The Used…Vince Neil…Poison…Stone Temple Pilots…and you’re all sharing the same space. Everyone there was super cool! Every person we met was super genuine. We’re 1,500 miles from home. We play this stage, we play our set, and you do a meet and greet afterwards. We’re all dying because it was hot as “who knows what.” We are all just panting.

JASON: We’re playing on the sun, basically.

MATTHEW: We were like having heat stroke of some form. I walked over to the merch area and there is a line of people just waiting to say hello or whatever. They want to get a photo. I walk back and was like “Guys!” I was trying to say words between dying. “People!” “Meet and Greet!” “C’mon!” We played a 30-minute set and spent an hour in the meet and greet booth talking to people, taking photos, signing posters, signing CDs, and just having conversations with people we had never met…and we were thousands of miles from home. That was a really unique experience, for sure.

CHRIS: It was cool to meet so many people and have them genuinely connect with it. We talked with the guy running the stage. He talked about our set with us because he legitimately sat and watched us. He gave us a few tips. It’s always neat when someone like that takes the time and gives you feedback about what they liked about your set and what they didn’t. It was just kind of a shock. “Man! This is how things run! This is kind of cool! It didn’t feel like it was slapped together. It felt like it was a well-oiled machine. People seemed to enjoy what we did, which made it even better. Even if they hadn’t, the whole experience was really neat.

MATTHEW: We played the third day of the festival. But, we had VIP camping for the entire thing. We camped out, in tents, and watched all the bands. We got to meet people. By Day 2 or Day 3, they were all like “Hey! You’re playing Sunday!” People actually remembered and we aren’t even from anywhere near here.

TARA: Basically, they just recognize his beard.

JASON: Yeah, I don’t get any of that…They ask me to get them water.

MATTHEW: Having people genuinely come see you and they don’t even know what you sound like…and then, after, wait to talk to you and tell you what they thought about your music and how cool it was is definitely awesome! “You didn’t know anything about us, you watched us, and you actually came over and talked, and wanted photos, and bought CDs to learn more about it.”

NICK: It’s very fair to say that we were just as excited to talk to these people as they were to talk to us. We spent two other days at this festival promoting and talking to, and networking, and all of a sudden we were the people that everyone wanted to do that with. We were just like “What? You want to talk to us? Fuck, man! We have been wanting to talk to you this whole time!”

MATTHEW: You could feel the community vibe of it, which was big! It just felt like there were people that have gone to the show for 8, 9, 10 years. They all know each other. This is their deal.

TARA: We have been lucky to open up for bigger bands and festivals and blah blah blah. But, I think one of the coolest things is even like when we were in DC, on one of our last tours. We played this show and people we didn’t even know were singing along to our songs. That was really humbling and cool. I was just like “Whoooo are you?” They were like “I’ve been watching you on YouTube!” You’re like “THANK YOU! OH MY GOD!” It’s so kind and so welcoming. You come into a different city, while you are touring, and you have spent a couple of weeks feeling kind of alone, outside of having each other. And then, you see people singing along to your songs…and it’s not a cover.

MATTHEW: It’s definitely more rewarding when you go and play places that are farther from home and people know the singles you put out and you see them singing and getting into those songs…or sometimes even more. You’re like “how do you know that song? I don’t even know that song and I’m playing it.”

TARA: But, why? Why does that song mean something to them. What do they take from it?

MATTHEW: As musicians, we all have songs that mean something to us. To have people make a Facebook comment or say something like “This song means whatever reason…it could be anything” That moment is the most rewarding. It’s the highlight of it all. That’s why you do it.

Let’s talk about Toto and your current cover song (“Africa”)

MATTHEW:. Instead of just covering it verbatim, like Weezer does, it is a much more rock/punk version. We have fun with it. In the middle, we do a manual fade out.

JASON: This is Chris’ brain-child, so we will let him answer the question.

CHRIS: I don’t know…I like Toto. I think when you do a cover, you want to do something that everyone knows, so it always lands. And, that’s a tough thing because you think of a song and you’re like “Everyone knows that song!” but then you start talking to people about it and no, they don’t. Toto, “Africa” – everyone knows that freaking song. It’s tough to find a cover like that and then trying to think of a way to do it in a way that doesn’t sound like the same song. We’ve done a lot of covers, but I still think Toto is our best cover.

NICK: I think we’ve put a lot of ourselves into that cover. When you hear the Toto cover, you’re like “This is obviously something ABL would do.” We changed it enough where you can see Toto, but you can also see ABL. We aren’t doing fucking Toto karaoke. I think that’s what makes it cool. When you hear a really good cover that’s different enough, but at the same time, it’s still understandable…You hear it and you are like “Oh, this is like the original…well, at least the words are like the original…and its really fun to listen to. I get the idea and I remember it after hearing it.” As soon as the chorus kicks in, everyone always grabs it. “FUCK! That’s what they’re doing!” I think that’s a really big thing. You hear it and go “Oh, this is fucking cool! It’s familiar. It’s fun!” Then you hit the chorus and they are like “You guys!” and everyone wants to shake your hand.

MATTHEW: During the intro, everyone is like “I know that pattern” and its usually like the first verse or line or two in and everyone is like “Oh!” That’s where you see people connect with what’s happening on stage.

CHRIS: There’s always one guy who gets it right when we start. That’s my favorite guy. He’s tapping his friend and doing the thing! Everyone else is like “What the fuck are you talking about?”

MATTHEW: It’s a fun cover and hopefully, at some point, we put out our own version of it. We’ll see.

Is there anything about the music industry that surprised you, now that you are starting to get some traction?

CHRIS: Nobody has any idea how they did anything. No one! It’s crazy. You talk to a guy who’s a millionaire and has had a bunch of gold records – “How’d you do it?” “I don’t know…I don’t know how this happened.”

NICK: There’s no algorithm.

MATT: There’s no right way to do it. You have people tell you that. “So, what do you do?” “Oh, you can do this…or that…or that…or that…” An hour and a half later, you are like “So, there is no answer. OK. Good to know.”

CHRIS: We are in the wild west of the music world right now. Nobody knows exactly how to monetize streaming completely. All the artists are getting boned. Physical record sales have gone off the map. LPs or actual records have come back a little bit, but its still not enough to level the playing field. I always thought you write a really great record and people buy it, and we buy Ferraris. That’s supposed to be how it works. Now, there’s bands out there who are huge names but they have second jobs. It’s crazy town.

MATT: I know there is legislature from 1972, where it describes how much you get per record…the standards. But, there’s no standard for streaming. That’s where it shifted. You don’t get anything from that. But then the RIAA has a standard where X amount of streams equals a gold record now. But, you aren’t selling that many records. You aren’t making that.

NICK: There’s so many variables now. Not only does music popularity come in waves, but how music is consumed has come in bigger waves. There’s a really interesting book called Wired. It talks about how the internet changed the music industry. Eventually, as a band, when we consider how we create music, we start having discussions about what to do with the next record. “Should it be on USB? Should it be for free download? Should it be on CD? Should it be an LP?

MATT: Should it be a single, single, single, single…

NICK: The majority of music is consumed in the world of singles now. That’s what Apple has done to the industry, through iTunes and stuff like that. On top of that, you have to consider the kind of music you are making. It has a huge contribution to that equation. If you are making music that was popular five years ago, it’s completely different. In another two years, it will be completely different again. It might even be completely different in six months. To say that anyone has a thumb down on the industry at this point… Who thought we would be having these crazy dub step moments between metal core Korn style stuff? Who saw that coming? Who saw rap/metal and EDM combining at this point, based on where we were ten years ago? So, it’s really hard to say “Oh, yeah, we have this totally pegged. This is how you make it these days. You fucking don’t! No one does.

CHRIS: I just thought more people would know what’s up. We would get to this level, there would be an office we walk into, and this guy named Brian would be sitting there. “Alight, you guys have made it to that point! Sign here and we’ll take care of the rest.” You just go “Oh! That’s how this works! We’ve done all the work. Here you go.” We would then walk through this other door and some dude puts a guitar on Jason, I get like a leopard suit, my kit immediately has extra kick drums and toms on it for no fucking reason, and there’s just a crowd waiting outside our first arena show, which happens right after we walk out of Brian’s office. Then, it’s just smooth sailing and I go buy my gold-plated Lamborghini. Tara owns her harem of cats. Jason starts his drug addiction. That’s how I imagined the whole thing worked. Until recently, when I realized that’s not how it worked. That was a surprise to me. That even at the top, it’s a crap shoot.

MATT: With rock music, I think it’s different. Pop is something they know how to market really well. They single-handedly create this person, at least it seems to be that way. You can’t do that with rock bands. No one really knows how that works.

Knowing all that, is there anything you would have done differently?

JASON: Honest answer? I would have gotten these five people together and said “Instead of putting a band together, let’s put together some weird business and the five of us can put that much time into it and actually make money.

CHRIS: I think I would have skipped a couple of lineups. Like, if that was a reality, I could have gone “Alright, here’s the perfect band!” If I had known what we would be, I would have tried to pull that off. I’m glad it happened the way it did. I don’t know if we would have ended up being the same band that we did, but I wish we had met each other sooner. I don’t know that age is a thing in it. We’re all young, spry people…because that’s what young people say. How much further along could we have been, if we were another 3-4 years in at this point?

MATT: For me, I see people starting music way younger than I did.

NICK: And they’re better than we were at that age. At least I feel that way.

MATT: I see 10-year olds that slay people on guitar and I’m like “I didn’t start playing guitar at 10. That wasn’t even a thing I cared about.” You didn’t know you wanted to do that. It’s like “You’re how old? You’re 12? Ok…cool!”

TARA: I think I would be unabashed, in the sense of what we post and how we present ourselves in this social media climate. It’s very naked, but curated too. I think everyone gets really hung up on “Oh, make your feed look beautiful. Don’t post anything unless its perfect.” I think people are craving authenticity. So, maybe being one of those people that never really fed into that crap from the get-go would have been cool.

CHRIS: I think I would have learned to be more selfish, too. I know that sounds really terrible. But, for a long time, I think we were trying to please everybody else and also try to move ourselves forward. I think its ok, as a project, that we be selfish. We need to make decisions that are going to help us out and then, if it helps other people, it’s great. I don’t think we were necessarily hurt by it, but, we might have gotten places quicker if we were more selfish in the past.

MATT: You try to be a team player amongst each other and “Well, you know what? We didn’t need to do that. We wasted time on that.” We’ve done stuff where nobody else was involved and we didn’t need to waste our own time on that. It’s across the board. But, you learn. Once again, nobody has the answer to do it. So, you learn a little from everything you do.

What’s on your playlist in heavy rotation?

MATT: Palini and Made Cities. The new Ghost album. The new Palini, which just came out a few days ago. That’s really it…and Meliora, by Ghost. Palini is all instrumental and proggy and Ghost is…Ghost. Very cinematic. For me, it’s like those two vast differences of bands is really cool. I thrive on both those things. All the bands I grew up with have put out stuff lately and I have been like “Ummm…I don’t think I’m really into that anymore.” Also, I am looking forward to the new Death Cab for Cutie that’s coming out. That band always kind of sticks in my eyesight. They evolve, but in a weird way. I am kind of excited to hear their new album.

JASON: I’ve been listening to a lot of Manchester Orchestra lately. I’m really stoked about the new Hands Like Houses album. Our good buddy, James Paul Wisner mixed it.

CHRIS: I never stop listening to Closure in Moscow. Been listening to a lot of Palini lately. I’ve also been listening to a ton of Manchester Orchestra.

TARA: Bones, by Sunlux. The last Woodkid album. But then, I always listen to my Less Than Jake, Hello Rockview, and stuff like that.

MATT: Woodkid is really cool. I always forget about that. It’s just really unique sounding.

One thing you do that’s different, in your live show, is Chris plays drums sideways, rather than facing the crowd. Why did you make that choice?

CHRIS: The reason I play that way is, I think, visually, it offers a lot more. As a drummer, you get stuck behind the cymbals and you’re just like a weird, floating head. I think it adds more to the live show because people can see what you’re doing. By seeing that, people hear more of what you’re doing. A lot of people hear what they see. When they can’t see you doing a lot, they don’t hear all the little things you add into the music. Plus, when I do backup vocals, it’s nice to face the audience, rather than facing my hi-hat.

MATT: Honestly, I like it. I always look at Chris for certain moments or parts. For me, it’s fun. Like, in “Pieces” at the very end. I change my pattern to match his pattern. Also, it’s fun when one of us messes up. We can easily just scowl at each other.

Are there any other interesting facts or fun stories you want to share?

MATT: We are on tour with Rookie of the Year, from the middle of September all the way through the middle of October. We are going up the eastern coast, over to the Midwest states,

TARA: I would say that playing the Warped tour has been a life goal.

JASON: And we managed to just sneak it in! Barely!

CHRIS: We are on the last day of the Vans Warped Tour. We expect it to be great!

MATT: At the end of Warped Tour, they were like “A Brilliant Lie…OK. I guess you can play just one.”

CHRIS: The crazy part is that the only way it could be any closer to the line would be if we were playing after whoever was the closing band. “Yeah, you guys can jump on stage after everyone’s done.” They would be cleaning up to us playing. That’s the only way we could play any later.

JASON: We did actually play a show in Daytona, where they were literally closing the bar down around us. “No, guys! You’re good! Just keep playing.”

CHRIS: There were like these storm gates they were closing. “No, you guys are fine!”

NICK: We asked multiple times “Are you sure? There’s no one here.”

MATT: We played at The Windjammer, in the Carolinas. It was the night before Halloween and nobody’s there.  But, they paid us to play for two hours.

CHRIS: We played two hours to this empty fucking room!

MATT: But there was like random rich dudes giving us big tips. During the second half of the set, the bartenders are cleaning and we were like “Do you just want us to stop so you can go home?” “Nah! Keep going!” “OK! For you and the seven other people here.

CHRIS: The Windjammer is this two-story building and up above all that is this sound booth. It’s way up. We couldn’t see him. He would just yell stuff down at us. It was like the Wizard of Oz. “Yeah, OK dude! Whatever you need us to do. Where the fuck are you, man?” But, yeah, there was nobody there. It started off with just a few people there and it was like a Halloween costume party. Those people slowly went away. It was just two people and one of our friends. We just did countless covers.

CHRIS: We had to do this crazy, two-hour set. We thought the place would be packed. Every cover we knew.

NICK: One time, I ordered a hot dog while we were playing. It was in Georgia. There was a window behind us. I got my wireless and just walked out into the street. Chris was so mad. I came back and was like “What’s the fucking problem? I was just getting some food!”

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By Barry Nadler

April 29, 2018 https://welcometorockvillefestival.com/

Day three of the festival was a slower paced day. The hit list included the newer band, Gretta Van Fleet. I was pretty interested to see what this band was like live. Anyone familiar with this band is aware that they are four young guys whose music have an uncanny resemblance to the sound of Led Zeppelin. It also included Bullet For My Valentine, Thrice, Billy Idol, and Foo Fighters.

This was an interesting day. Gretta Van Fleet has an incredible sound. Live and recorded, if you close your eyes, it is absolutely like going back in a time machine and seeing a young Led Zeppelin. But, if you open your eyes, what you see is a very young band that definitely needs some work on stage presence and style. I expect that will come and they will come into their own. Again, I lost my daughter to her friends after Gretta Van Fleet.

I was not familiar with Bullet For My Valentine. They have been around for a while, but I never really got into them. I thoroughly enjoyed their set and have been converted into a fan.

There were two disappointments for me on Day 3. The first was Thrice. I have a friend that is a huge fan of theirs and talks about how great they are a lot. They even played WJRR 101.1’s Earthday Birthday show last year (which I was at), but I did not see them at that time. I expected this incredible sound and stage show for them. Their sound was good, but their stage show did not impress. This was definitely a band that I was simply happy listening to their albums.

One of the things my daughter was quick to identify was that there were many mothers in the crowd for Thrice. They tended to protect the younger girls from the mosh pits during their set.

The other disappointment was Billy Idol. I think, based on the crowds varying responses on Facebook, they felt he was a mixed bag. I grew up in the 80’s and Billy Idol was huge! His guitarist, Steve Stevens, has a unique sound and I was looking forward to seeing him. However, I was a little surprised by the choice of songs for his set. I only knew half the music in his 10-song set. He has at least 9-10 songs I can immediately identify by name. So, he didn’t include songs such as “Cradle of Love,” “Mony Mony,” and

“Hot In the City.” His closing song was what you would expect… “White Wedding.” But, it was acoustic, which was weird. I even turned to a friend I was with and said “Man, it would have been cool to have Steve Stevens up there with him…” and later came to find out that he did. So, needless to say, his entire set was underwhelming to me.

There was a third disappointment that occurred, in that Killswitch Engage was supposed to be part of the lineup for the festival, but due to a medical situation, had to cancel. I have never seen this band and would have liked to.

At this point, it was time to start a mission and find that hidden gem that was Island Noodles. I did end up finding them in a corner of the festival and was treated to some very good noodles worth the search.

The band that closed out the festival was Foo Fighters. I will be honest, I wasn’t that excited about it. They were slated for a two-hour set (which is highly abnormal for a festival set). I can’t say I have ever been a huge fan of the band. I think I could identify two or three songs of theirs. However, I think I am in the minority for that one. I know a friend that literally saw them three times in one week on this current tour. Another friend had seen them a few days prior and was just singing their praises as the greatest band ever. So, the bar was set pretty high and I was prepared to be feeling just ho-hum about their set.

90,000 people showed up for the Foo Fighters. People sat the whole day at the main stage to have a good spot. It was unreal. Then it happened! They hit the stage and totally won me over as a fan. I had not seen a straight-up, old-fashioned rock show like that in a long time. They had a ton of hits I knew, the crowd was into every song, and they played several covers in a unique way…but still recognizable. There was literally something in this show for everyone. The drums were on hydraulics, so they raised to almost mid-way up the backdrop screen. They did a mash-up of John Lennon’s “Imagine” and Van Halen’s “Panama.” Dave and his drummer switched positions and he drummed for this song, while his drummer took center stage. After which, Dave Grohl said, “And they said it would suck!” He has a strong sense of humor about it all too. At one point, he asked the crowd to scream if this was their first Foo Fighters show, and a large percentage of the crowd roared. His response… “What the hell has taken you so long? We have been around for 24 fucking years!” I had to check that myself – I didn’t realize they had been around that long. These guys went on for two hours and never stopped for a breather! Another surprise included a duet with Billy Idol. The last surprise of the evening was when they started playing some of the music from the movie “Grease” and John Travolta walked out on stage and danced with Dave Grohl. How surreal is that? Billy Idol and John Travolta on stage with Foo Fighters at the same show. Needless to say, I am now a Foo Fighters fan and would say I would absolutely see that show again.

The end of the story about how the simple meeting between my daughter and the guy that put her on his shoulders for Ozzy is that they kept in touch and she now has a new boyfriend from that chance meeting. I have repeatedly written about how, in the end, music festivals are not just about the music. They are about the relationships and experiences people have during their time at the festival. This is what keeps people coming back over and over. Many are willing to buy their tickets without even knowing the lineups…because it’s about their time with the other people. Welcome to Rockville proved to be no different this year.

Bullet For My Valentine

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Greta Van Fleet

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Thrice

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By Barry Nadler

April 27, 28, and 29, 2018

Little did I know, when I called my daughter and told her to get in her car and meet me in Jacksonville, Florida, that it would change the course of her summer.

My daughter is 20 years old and is both a rock fan and a K-pop fan (Korean Pop music). Sometimes she surprises me with what excites her. For example, a while back, we talked about her going to the festival with me and without hesitation, she responded with “Hell yes! I get to see Ozzy! Going off the rails of the crazy train!” and then proceeded to play air guitar for me.

So, when I knew I had a ticket for her, I surprised her by telling her to skip a day of college and come for the weekend to Welcome to Rockville.

She did indeed get to experience the heavy metal legend, Ozzy Osbourne, for the first time, with Zakk Wylde at his side.

Welcome to Rockville was a three-day music festival this year. The lineup contained over 50 bands, including some interesting surprises, such as Billy Idol.

One the first day, we arrived mid-day. It is a two-hour drive from Orlando, where I was and approximately the same distance from Tallahassee, where my daughter was.

We had a hit list of five bands to see on Friday. We successfully saw most of the full sets of Trivium, The Used, Halestorm, Five Finger Death Punch, and Ozzy

Halestorm (credit: Barry Nadler)

Osbourne. Personally, I was most excited to see Five Finger Death Punch. I know they put on a great show because I had covered them two years prior – without Ivan Moody. So, the opportunity to see them as a full band was exciting to me. I had seen Ozzy twice prior, so I knew what to expect with him. I was actually pretty surprised by how much I liked Trivium and Halestorm. Trivium was a local band from Orlando. They were part of the scene here before I was involved. Many of the local bands I cover know them from the bar scene.

Speaking of the local music scene, we were greeted by a nice surprise as we walked up to the ticket booth to get our media badges. Several people in front of us were Bobby Keller and Meka Kyoto of the band Meka Nism. It was great to have friends I could wander the festival with and have some people that could hang out with my daughter while I was shooting the various shows. Over time, this small group became a group of about 10-12 people that made up various friends from the local music scene.

One of the interesting moments in Ozzy’s set was a 20-minute guitar solo by Zakk Wylde. He came off the stage and went up and down the center aisle of the crowd. As great as a good guitar solo is, it probably was longer than necessary. Ozzy has a catalog of music that could easily fill three hours of time. I suspect he needed the break. It’s hard to believe the man is still doing this at 79 years old. But, he is still killing it and he deserves every ounce of respect he gets.

We closed out our evening, before Ozzy’s set by sampling some pizza from one of the vendors. It was actually pretty good pizza too.

When I asked my daughter who she liked most from the day, her response was quick – Ozzy! Interestingly, something else happened at Ozzy that would be the thing that later would impact her summer. A young man that was slightly older than her offered to put her on his shoulders. This action became the start of a friendship that would last for the three days of the festival for her.

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Trivium

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The Used

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Halestorm

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Five Finger Death Punch

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Central Florida Fairgrounds, Orlando, FL, USA, April 21, 2018

By Barry Nadler

Clouds covered the sky and it was threatening to rain. But, to the good fortune of the crowd and the bands performing, the rain didn’t come. The clouds and breeze kept the heat away also. This made for a very pleasant festival experience.

At one moment, the woman sitting next to us was discussing her family vacation they had just gone on and the next, she is acting like a teenager again, bouncing and singing to every song Seether played for their full set. Mind you, this woman was in her mid-forties. But, that seemed normal for this crowd. The average age was probably mid-twenties to mid-forties.

At one point, we were walking around exploring the various artist vendors and at another point, we were singing along with Three Days Grace or All That Remains or Shinedown or Nonpoint. At another point, we were chatting it up with a friend who is a stilt walker. At yet another time, we were popping into the Thirty-Six Black tattoo parlor tent to say hello to an older friend, Tom Huestis (ex-frontman for local favorite band, SoulSwitch. This band performed on the main stage the previous year).

This show has an interesting personality. Nostalgia can successfully intermingle right next to musical artists that are

WJRR 101.1 Earthday Birthday 25 (credit: Barry Nadler)

current and in the midst of releasing new material. In my personal opinion, nostalgia is not a bad thing. Part of the fun of seeing a live show is being able to join in the crowd as the mass of people sing along to music they are familiar with. There is a comfort to hearing songs like “Machinehead” or “Comedown” by Bush and “Animal I Have Become” or “Riot” by Three Days Grace. We know these songs and have been hearing them on the radio for years. On the other hand, it can be exciting to hear new songs by familiar artists like Shinedown, who just released their new album “Attention! Attention!” and are touring to support that album.

Where it gets interesting is when you put that alongside artists that may be newer or lesser known, like Red, Fozzy, Starset, and Dead Girls Academy. There are also bands that have been around for a bit, but aren’t as mainstream, such as 10 Years and Powerman 5000.

As a participant in the festival, I really don’t think I would enjoy a festival full of artists that I was not familiar with. This is probably an age-related thing. However, I probably would have been totally fine if the bill was just a bunch of bands that I had grown up with and enjoyed seeing. For a successful festival, I think it is important to have both aspects, because the discovery of new artists is fun for participants.

One of the things I have seen at this festival that I have not seen at other festivals I have attended were a body painting booth for women. This means that there were women everywhere that were walking around topless – but painted…obviously. However, it still is eye catching and interesting for people-watching. If you are bringing smaller children (and there were plenty of them there), expect to have to explain this to them.

The other thing that comes with a festival is various mosh pits and crowd surfers. This festival, like the others I have attended, have this in spades. If you plan to try and muscle into the middle of the crowds expect that this could become part of the experience, as well.

This year, there was a noticeable lack of local artists performing. Last year, there were at least four or five top local rock artists represented in the lineup. This seems like an important oversight this year due to the fact that this is Orlando’s primary rock festival and it is hosted by the main Orlando modern rock station, WJRR 101.1. This station even has a show on Sunday nights focused on local rock bands, called Native Noise. Represented this year were two local rock bands. Meka Kyoto, frontwoman of Meka Nism, was asked to sing the national anthem. They are currently promoting the release of their most current album “The War Inside.” Notably, she is the first human to sing the national anthem at this festival. In the past, it was a guitar player playing the anthem. She killed it with her mix of operatic vocals and metal growling at the appropriate times. The other local band Nirvanna, a Nirvana tribute band, opened the main stage. This addition of a 90’s tribute band should have been everyone’s clue that this was a festival whose main acts were going to lean towards the nostalgia direction.

Like last year, there was an acoustic stage. However, last year, this was where you were most likely to find the local artists. This year, the acoustic stage was for various national acts that were also performing during the main portion of the festival. This year, you could find 10 Years, Nonpoint, Dead Girls Academy, and Blender on this stage. I did not take the time to check out this stage due to my wanting to focus on the two large stages.

Like last year, there seemed to be a pretty solid representation of the fans of the local music scene. Being a part of

Shinedown (credit: Barry Nadler)

this community myself, I ran into people I knew at every turn. This meant fans, as well as members of other local bands. When I was backstage, waiting to meet up with Meka Kyoto, I also ran into a few other members of Meka Nism. I know I saw people from at least three or four other local bands wandering around as well. As people were waiting in line to enter the festival, the members of Felicity were handing out free tickets to their upcoming show.

Something I had not seen before had to do with how the attendees of the festival paid for food from the seven or eight available food trucks and food booths. The operators of the festival required the attendees to purchase “funny money” or “Bucks” at a large tent. You could not purchase food from the various food trucks with regular cash or debit card. You needed to use the festival’s “bucks.” I assume this had to do with how the festival made sure their payouts were correct…but it was different than anything I had seen at a festival before.

From a musical standpoint, I took the time to check out Nonpoint, Red, All That Remains, Fozzy, Three Days Grace, Bush, Seether, and Shinedown.

I have never really been a big fan of Bush or Seether. They have their hits I know, but there was never enough in their catalog of music to really attract me to their style that was popular in the mid 90’s and early 2000’s. However, I was impressed by how popular these bands actually were with the crowd. At one point, Gavin Rossdale, of Bush, came off the stage and wandered down the middle path to sing with the crowd, who loved it. The woman and her friends that were next to us for most of the day were proof to the popularity of Seether. Her and her friends knew all the songs! They were jumping and singing. They were even sporting Seether wristbands.

The big surprise for me was how much I enjoyed Fozzy. The lead singer is Chris Jericho. He is known for his time as

Fozzy (credit: Barry Nadler)

a professional wrestler in the WWE. Given that I was never a fan of the WWE, I didn’t really give his band much attention. However, recently, their song, “Judas,” caught my attention. I realized that he had taken much of what he learned during his WWE years and applied it to his rock band’s show. This, for me, was the most fun of all the artists. He had smoke cannons and a fire extinguisher type of fog gun he was blasting repeatedly. As a photographer of the show, there was an added treat. Typically, a show photographer gets to shoot three songs in the photo pit. As we were leaving, we were greeted by the tour manager who hurriedly directed us all to head onto the stage and the band proceeded to intermingle and perform facing all the photographers, with the large crowd behind them. It was a unique opportunity that many of the photographers, including myself, were happy to have been a part of.

The other bands I was truly looking forward to seeing were Three Days Grace and Shinedown. Neither of these bands disappointed. I happen to have a personal story with each of these bands, which made it more fun to see them again.

In the early 2000’s, I was taking a break from the music scene and that’s when both of these bands hit. So, I sort of missed them when they were all over the radio. I knew the music in passing, but the band names all meshed together and I couldn’t tie any of them to a specific song.

Last year, I was introduced to Three Days Grace, at Welcome to Rockville (a rock festival that happens in Jacksonville, FL). I knew that I had a song or two of theirs that I knew, but I found that I actually knew many of their songs and was actually a fan of this band. My wife’s favorite song, “I Am Machine” is actually a Three Days Grace song. Given that I was not familiar with them the first time I saw them, it was exciting to be able to see them a second time with a better feel for their catalog of songs. Along with her favorite song, they also had “Pain,” “Animal I Have Become,” “The Good Life,” “I Hate Everything About You,” and “Riot.”

The first arena show I photographed was two years ago. On that bill was Sixx AM, Shinedown, and Five Finger Death Punch. I was not familiar with Shinedown and was totally blown away by the quality of their sound, the catalog of music they had, and the classy level of their show. I appreciated the fact that Brent Smith would take the time to shake the hand of all the photographers. So, I was excited to see them again with a knowledge of their catalog behind me. Brent again shook all the photographers’ hands. Their set did not disappoint and as you would expect, it contained a few songs from their new album. I was really looking forward to hearing “Sound of Madness,” “Cut the Cord,” “Diamond Eyes,” “Unity,” and “Second Chance.” They were all in the setlist.

One thing I found to be a little unnecessary and obnoxious was that at least three bands (there may have even been a fourth band) closed out their set with a power chord that was left hanging in the air and near a speaker to create feedback. They let this loud ringing play for about two or three minutes after the bands left the stage. I get it when it happens once for impact and as an exclamation point at the end of a big show. But, for several bands to do this as part of a larger show, it got to be more than was needed. As a side note, I was at another festival the next weekend and I never heard it happen once. So, it is not something that is because it was a festival.

The evening closed with a firework show matched to Shinedown’s closing song, “Devil”.

Comparatively, this is certainly a smaller festival than Welcome to Rockville (a three-day festival in Jacksonville, FL, with 90,000 people in attendance) or Ft. Rock ( a two-day festival in Ft. Lauderdale, FL).  I would recommend this festival as good starter festival or the first in a series if you plan to attend one of the others in the state. You can expect an attendance crowd of about 15,000 people or so. Overall, it was a good show and well worth the price of admission. I really enjoyed the unique mix of nostalgia and newer artists.

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All That Remains

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Fozzy

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Nonpoint

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Shinedown

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Three Days Grace

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House of Blues, Orlando, Florida USA, November 24, 2017

By Barry Nadler

Confetti reigns down on the audience as the opening night of the Alter Bridge US tour closes down. The Orlando House of Blues is filled to almost sold-out venue and so many people wearing Alter Bridge tour shirts.

About a month prior, they had played their last show on the European tour, in Lisbon, Portugal. Alter Bridge has just come off their overseas portion of the tour and starting their US tour with two shows in Florida – Orlando and Tampa.

For those that are unaware of Alter Bridge’s roots, they consist of three members from Creed (Mark Tremonti – lead guitar, Brian Marshall – bass guitar, and Scott Philips (Flip) – drums) and Myles Kennedy – lead vocals and rhythm guitar. They have been a band for about 13 years.

They are currently supporting their latest studio album, The Last Hero, which was released in 2016. This album reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Charts.

In November of 2017, they also released their newest live album, Live at the O2 Arena. This album is a 3-CD set, with one CD being rarities.

This was a special show because Creed was essentially a local band, from Orlando. This, in turn, makes the roots of Alter Bridge local to Orlando, as well. The result is that many of the local musicians know various members of this band. While at the show, I was constantly running into people I knew from some of the local scene. I can identify at least four local bands that had members attending the show. Alter Bridge also played in the Central Florida region less than a year ago – and they were part of my reviews for both WJRR 101.1’s Earthday Birthday and the large music festival in Jacksonville, Welcome to Rockville.

Supporting acts on this tour were Sons of Texas and All That Remains.

The Son of Texas (credit: Barry Nadler)

The Sons of Texas are a newer band, formed in 2013. Their first album was released in 2015. They are currently supporting their second album, Forged By Fortitude, released in September of this year. Their current album was produced by the same producer that worked with All That Remains. This five-piece band was a nice surprise. I was not aware of them and thoroughly enjoyed their style of metal. It is a mix of blues, melodies, and metal. I would also suggest that there was a touch of southern rock in their sound as well. They performed about six songs, to complete a 30-minute set. About half their set covered songs from each of their two albums. Within days of the show, I was on Spotify checking out more of their music and will definitely be adding them to my collection.

All That Remains is fronted by Phillip Labonte, who stepped in on vocals with Five Finger Death Punch, when Ivan Moody needed to step away about a year ago. They are currently supporting their album Madness, which was released earlier this year. I was actually really looking forward to seeing them, since I had recently gotten a listen to some of their CDs and really liked what I heard.

The All That Remains set consisted of 11 songs, including their hit and cover of Garth Brooks’ The Thunder Rolls

All That Remains (credit: Barry Nadler)

. Interestingly, their set list only contained two other songs from their current album – Madness and Halo. They leaned more on their older catalog for the rest of the songs in their set. Their style seems to have moved from more of a metalcore band with growling vocals to a harmonic heavy metal band. This show was definitely heavier than what I expected. There was a mosh pit and many heavier songs. Outside of what I already listed, some of the songs in their setlist included “The Last Time”, “ This Probably Won’t End Well”, “Hold On, Six”, and “Two Weeks.”

Alter Bridge was the main course of this show. As I stated earlier, I had already seen them twice previously before this show, so I sort of knew what to expect. I have several of their albums in my personal collection, so I was familiar with a lot of their catalog. In regards to that, I would assume they have a pretty solid set list that doesn’t change much from show to show. After picking up Live At O2 Arena, it was clear to me that most of the songs they performed on stage at the House of Blues are the same songs on this live album. The one thing that has consistently stood out about Alter Bridge is Myles Kennedy’s voice. He has a voice that is instantly recognizable when you hear it. I am not going to claim that it is a voice everyone will like. But, if you have heard his voice, you know it when you hear it. The first time I had heard any of their music (last year, at WJRR Earthday Birthday) I instantly recognized his voice from his work with Slash, of Guns and Roses.

Their set opened with The Writing on the Wall. From there it included Come to Life, Farther Than the Sun, Ghosts of Days Gone By (a personal favorite), Cry of Achilles, Ties that Bind, and Crows on a Wire (another personal favorite).

Alter Bridge (credit: Barry Nadler)

They slowed down the show for the middle chunk of their set.  This allowed a little time to enjoy a duet of acoustic songs with just Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy – Watch Over You and In Loving.

The second half of their show included the crowd favorite, Blackbird. It also contained other favorites such as Isolation and Metalingus. They closed the show out with Show Me a Leader, one of the lead tracks from The Last Hero.

The only disappointment I had was that they did not include one of my favorites in the setlist. I really enjoy the song, My Champion.

I have been completely satisfied with their show every time I have seen them, and I am lucky enough to say I have seen Alter Bridge three times in one year. I can also say that I saw Philip Labonte perform three times in a year as well, since I got to see him fill in for Ivan Moody of Five Finger Death Punch on two of their last stops in 2016.

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All That Remains – Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram |

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Sons of Texas – Website | Facebook | YouTube |

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Central Park Performing Arts Center, Largo, FL, USA, September 22

Concert review by Barry Nadler

I remember back in 1987 hanging out with one of my best friends, in high school, and hearing “Rock Me,” by Great White, for the first time. It was smooth and bluesy, but it just killed when the song climaxed. This was my beginning of a fandom for the groove and blues that made Great White!

Great White was something unique in the 80’s hair metal scene. This was the time of Motley Crue, Poison, Ratt, Guns and Roses, and Metallica.  None of them had that that special groove and vocal combination of Great White.

Great White during the late 1980’s Hair Metal Scene

In the very late 80’s, probably 1989 (maybe even 1990), I had floor seats for a Scorpions show.  However, I was just as excited about the opening act – Great White.  This was a large arena show and I was in college.  I really was looking forward to seeing them for the first time.  I can still see Jack Russell sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar and dedicating “Save All Your Love” to the women whose husbands and boyfriends were in Iraq during the first Iraq War.

Great White During the 1990s

Fast forward ten years to 1999. I got another opportunity to see Great White open for Poison and Ratt on the Great Hairball tour.  Again, another arena show.  My memory from that show is me and another great friend just dancing away to “Once Bitten Twice Shy.”

Today, I still have a catalog of over 100 songs by Great White on my phone, in MP3 format.

I was very excited to get the opportunity to see Jack Russell again with his newest incarnation of Great White. But, it was still Jack Russell and that voice that was made for a smokey, blues bar. To me, he was always the heart of the band, because of his voice.

I really didn’t do much research before going to the show – I was just excited to see this band one more time and get to photograph a band I had grown up with. I didn’t know what to expect, but what I got was certainly not what I thought I might get. This was both good and bad.

Central Park Performing Arts Center

The venue, Central Park Performing Arts Center, was not a bar or a small arena, which is kind of what I expected it to be – rows of seats, like a theatre.  It was a local performing arts center, in Largo, FL – essentially in the the Tampa/St. Petersburg area.  I showed up late because I was coming from Orlando, at rush hour (over a two-hour drive).  Upon talking to the venue representative, I learned that there was no opening act and that the show had been going for about an hour. They said there were no photo restrictions and I could shoot the whole show from the audience – so I still got to shoot the show.

I walked into the venue area expecting a full house of seats (as I stated), like a theatre.  Instead, it was rows of circular tables with people sitting at them with a portable bar in the middle.  There were about 100 people at the tables and maybe another 100 up around the stage.  This was a much more intimate show than I thought I was getting. This is not much different than the crowd that shows up for a local rock show – much smaller than I expected.

I look to the stage and I see Jack Russell, but he is a very different looking person than I remember.  As I came to the stage, Jack is telling a story about being ill and that he didn’t know who he originally wrote the next song for, but he found out who only a few years ago.  It was a nurse that took care of him and he eventually married.  The band then started into “Save All Your Love.”  This was the song as I remembered it and the crowd loved every minute of it.  His singing voice was still there.

I observed the rest of the band and realized that I didn’t recognize any of them from the past.  I later learned that this was incorrect and had seen at least one of them live, in the past.

What unfolded was a journey through the hits of Great White, including House of Broken Love, Desert Moon, Mista Bone (the number one song in strip bars for the early 90’s), Rock Me, and Once Bitten Twice Shy.  Along with these hits, there were covers of Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin as well.  Jack talked about the time they did a cover of Peter, Paul and Mary and told a story of “Puff the Magic Dragon” that blasted into the high screams of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song.” They even played two newer songs I was not familiar with – “My Addiction” and “Sign of the Times.”

This show was a shining example of the sound of Great White.  But, like I said, the man I saw on stage was not the Jack Russell I remembered.  He looked old and slightly broken, but held the stage and the fans.  He would stretch out his arms, he would hold the mic out for the crowd to sing along, interact with the band members.  But, something was not right.  He held his head low, he slumped, and I couldn’t place it.  It was as if he had an illness of some sort.  He did talk of his wife – the nurse. There had to be something, but I didn’t know what.

After the show, most all the fans stayed around to meet the band and chat.  The drummer Dicki Fliszar and bass player Dan McNay were the first to come out and shake hands.  Both literally walked the entire line of people and spoke to everyone. Then, his lead guitarist Robby Lochner came out and he did the same – giving everyone there an individual thank you for coming out.  Tony Montana then came out to greet everyone, but he went to a table to sit and sign autographs.  Lastly, Jack Russell came out. Again, this was not the man I just saw on stage.

Another observation I made is this man was hunched over and walking with a cane. It was definitely something I didn’t understand and had a hard time grasping.  It was a challenge speaking with him. I wanted to share my stories of my youth and seeing Great White several times in the past.  I hoped to share some of my photos from the evening with him (I enjoy doing that when I meet band members).  But, his attention was not there.

Upon further research, I learned a few things. Tony Montana is actually the bass player from the version of Great White I saw many years ago.  He is in various music videos, as well.  I didn’t catch it because he was on guitar now.  I also learned that Robby Lochner was critical in saving Jack Russell’s career and life.  I spoke to a gentleman waiting to meet the band and learned that Jack told a lot of stories in the portion of the show that I had missed.  My guess is that I would have been more aware of his overall story, had I gotten to the show on time.

The Jack Russell who I met in Largo, FL was a product of a very sad and unfortunate series of events that occurred in the early 2000’s.  In 2003, Jack Russell’s Great White was involved in causing a fire at The Station, a Rhode Island club, which caused the death of 100 people, including then band member, Ty Longley.  Jack essentially took the brunt of fan hatred that still lingers to this day.  In 2009, he fell and injured himself, he cracked two vertebrae and had a herniated disc.  This led to multiple back surgeries and lots of pain medications.  Add to this an addiction to alcohol. And to place one more puzzle piece, his good friend Jani Lane, vocalist of Warrant, passed away.  This all led to a downward spiral that practically cost Jack his life.

On or about 2009, Russell met his current wife and current guitarist, Robby Lochner. These two people are the reason I was lucky enough to get to see Jack Russell’s Great White one more time.  I am pleased that I did. Getting to meet the band and learning this backstory to their current incarnation of the band has added great respect from me to them.  They are working very hard to build back their fan base and personally make time for everyone that comes to their shows.

Jack Russel’s Great White band line up is Jack Russell (Vocals), Tony Montana (Guitar), Robby Lochner (Guitar), Dan McNay (Bass) and Dicki Fliszar (Drums).

Jack Russell Great White | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube |

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Welcome to Rockville – http://welcometorockvillefestival.com/

This year, I was lucky enough to attend three outdoor music festivals within about a month’s worth of time. Each festival was unique and got its own write-up. By far, the biggest, most taxing festival was Welcome to Rockville.  This festival occurs in Jacksonville, Florida, in Metropolitan Park.  This is a large park, right on the St. John’s River, and directly across the street from the football stadium.  This year, the festival ran from Saturday, April 29 to Sunday, April 30.

The festival is part of a trilogy of rock festivals, in the southern portion of the United States. Welcome to Rockville is

Crowd at Rockville

in Jacksonville, Ft. Rock is in Fort Walton Beach, and Carolina Rebellion is in South Carolina.  Essentially, the same bands play all three shows. I believe it is also related to the Ohio festival, Rock on the Range.  There are some differences, but most bands remain part of all the lineups.  This year, the main headliners were Soundgarden and Def Leppard. Unfortunately for many, this set of festivals would be their last opportunity to see Soundgarden, due to the alleged suicide of their lead singer, Chris Cornell, not long after these shows.  Other acts performing at this festival included A Perfect Circle, Seether, Chevelle, Mastadon, The Offspring, Papa Roach, Three Days Grace, Alter Bridge, In this Moment, All that Remains, Coheed & Cambria, Attilla, Amon Amaroth, Pierce the Veil, As Lions, I Prevail, In Flames, and many others. There were over 40 bands in the lineup, across three stages.

So, with such a huge event, there is not really a good way to review all the acts and their performances. Therefore, I will share a list of the 10 things I learned in my time at Welcome to Rockville.

1) It is physically impossible to see the full set of every band in the lineup.

There are three stages that run shows all day long. Each stage runs about 20-25 minutes after the previous one starts. Therefore, if the sets are 45 minutes in length, you need to jump from stage to stage before sets end.  At 40 bands over two days, it requires a little per-planning to see the bands you want to see.  I honestly don’t think I saw the full set of any artist, except for Def Leppard, because they were the last band to perform on Sunday.

Besides the timing of sets, you also have to eat. So, at some point, you are probably stepping away from a stage and getting food. You can certainly plop down on the grass somewhere near a stage to eat, but most likely you will not be viewing the show, only hearing it due to crowds around the stage.

2) Outdoor festivals are really hot and you are on your feet a lot.

At Welcome to Rockville, the three stages are fairly large and a good distance apart.  You will get your steps in for the day as you move from one stage to the other.  One of the stages is in a little valley, within the park.  That means you are walking up a hill to go down a hill on the other side to get to the stage.  This adds to the physical activity required to get from stage to stage.  Over two days, I walked 25,000 steps, according to my pedometer – that’s 12 miles in two days.  I saw a total of 9-10 bands in that time.  That is only a fourth of the total lineup.  The lesson here – wear comfortable shoes and be careful about chafing (if that’s a challenge for you).

The heat was also pretty vicious.  We are in Florida and I am pretty sure the temperature was in the high 90’s that weekend, plus humidity.  There was very little relief from the heat all weekend.  You essentially just got used to being hot and sweaty.  The biggest thing to remember was to keep hydrated.  It is very easy to get caught up in running from show to show and not remembering to get a drink.  Luckily, I was part of the media staff, so I was able to have access to the media tent.  This was a permanent, wooden structure that sat two stories high, near the water. It got some breeze, so as part of that team, I could escape the heat…sort of.  Add to the fact that you are in a large crowd that is tightly packed, the heat is amplified due to tight quarters.  If you are part of a mosh pit, you are working extra hard, and getting extra hot.

So, yeah…it was hot.

3) Watch out for crowd surfers!

I was at two other festivals this year – a country music festival and a local rock festival.  There were obviously not crowd surfers at the country music festival.  The local rock festival had crowd surfers, but due to my location during the show, it did not really impact me and it kind of faded into the background for me.  So, to be in the photo pit and the crowd and constantly have crowd surfers going past or a steady stream of them coming over the barricade was a bit surprising.

When I say constantly, I mean like waves at the beach.  One right after another.  Over and over and over.  I was pretty sure that the crowd for Def Leppard would be different.  They aren’t a heavy band that inspires this kind of activity.  I have seen them several times in the past and from what I can recall, this is the first time I saw crowd surfers during their show.  I was standing next to a gentleman in his late 40’s and he was taller than me. So, he would tap me on the shoulder and point backwards when one was coming, so I didn’t get kicked in the head by accident.

Joe Elliott, of Def Leppard, even made comments about how they had not been at a festival in a while and had forgotten about the crowd surfing.  He stopped the show repeatedly to verify that everyone was still alright in the crowd.

The variety of crowd surfers was interesting also.  There were men and women.  They were young, and old.  There was a guy in a wheelchair there is always a guy in a wheelchair).  There was a guy with a cast, a body brace, and a breathing tube.  There was a guy dressed up as Jesus.  There were ninja turtles and super heroes. It was simply something that was much more than I expected.  Lots of times, the crowd surfer had their phone out and was filming the experience, so they may not have been fully paying attention to what was going on around or under them.

4) Mosh pits are a big deal at festivals.

Along with crowd surfing, at most every show, there was a large mosh pit happening in the middle of the crowd. One stage had a dry, dirt area in the middle, so there was a large dust cloud that would form as the audience was moshing.

This is something that is actively encouraged by many of the artists, so if it isn’t your thing, you best stay away from the middle of the crowds.  At one point, Attilla announced that they were going to set a world record for the largest mosh pit.  They whipped the crowd into the largest mosh pit I had ever seen.  I have no idea if it was really a world record.  This pit was so big and moving at such a pace that it just didn’t even seem safe. I can say that I never saw anyone actually get carted out of a mosh pit on a stretcher or badly injured.  This leads me to believe that the people in the pit take care of each other in a way that most outside of that activity don’t see happen.  However, my lack of seeing this does not mean it didn’t happen, so be aware and careful.

5) The food at the festival was actually pretty good

I was expecting to be eating mostly stereotypical fair-style food all weekend (hot dogs, funnel cakes, dry burgers and the like).  But, festival food is definitely a step up from that. I had lunch at the festival on Saturday and dinner there on Sunday.  There are dozens of food vendors located around all three stages. Whatever food you want, you can mostly get.

Saturday’s meal was a slice of pizza. This slice of pizza was equivalent to two or three normal slices.  You certainly got your money’s worth. Also, it was cooked in a portable, coal fired oven. So, it was really good. As I was walking with my pizza and drink, I had at least four people stop me and ask me where I got it from.

On Sunday, I had a BBQ pork sandwich and fries.  Again, once you add the sauce on the sandwich, it was huge – at least enough for two people to eat.  Another good value for the money (which was a little more on the expensive side).  A very popular BBQ item was a boat of fries covered in cheese, pulled pork, BBQ sauce, and crumbled bacon. I tried some of a friend of mine’s and it was pretty dang good.  But, it was also pretty dang pricey (about $15, I think). Expect to spend some money on food!

6) There are unannounced artists that perform at the FYE Artist Experience.

This is an added bonus that you need to plan for. Unfortunately, I was unaware that this was happening, so I missed out on a potential treat.

I was in the FYE Artist Experience tent at one point to look at the CDs and albums that were available from the various artists.  I saw a stool and an amp, but there was nobody there and there was no roster of performers that I saw.

At one point, later in the day on Sunday, I ran into some friends that are part of a local band. They said they had gotten to play at the FYE Artist Experience, so technically, they got to perform at Rockville.

On a side note, to prove how much of a treat this can be, my editor for UnRated Magazine was at a different festival and was at the FYE Artist Experience there. He saw a woman perform that turned out to be the guitarist for Alice Cooper’s band. (Orianthi Panagaris, known professionally as Orianthi, is an Australian musician, singer and songwriter known for performing with Michael Jackson as part of his This Is It concert series, and with Alice Cooper’s touring band).  So, you never know what gem will show up here.

7) You also never know who you will run into at the festival.

Music festivals are a large gathering of people and therefore attract unexpected people.  On my first day at the

Crowd at Rockville

festival, I really thought it to be a mostly solitary experience and I would not know many people.  However, I found that as a member of the press that was there, I knew several of the other media members.  This included various local photographers and bloggers with whom I was friends.  Along with that, shows like this attract many of the local bands and their fans. I ran into members of Meka Nism, Martyrs Asylum, Vertebreaker, and Breathing Theory. I knew there were a few others there, including some of the members of Kill the Sound, but we never crossed paths at the actual festival. I also ran into several people that were regulars in the local music scene.  This was absolutely not the solitary event I expected and was happy to see friendly faces.

I have now been part of the music scene for about a year and because of that, I have had the opportunity to work with some national acts – in this case, it was As Lions and In Flames.  I had the opportunity to speak with both of them in the media tent and to my surprise, they remembered our previous working together. So, that was a bonus surprise for me.

8) It is a great opportunity to discover new artists.

With 40 bands on the lineup, it is very likely that you will not know all the artists.  You may know their names, but I seriously doubt you will be aware of the music from all the bands.

A festival is a great opportunity to wander from stage to stage and see what bands interest you. I  went to this festival with some level of familiarity of about eight of the 40 artists.  I left with a list of about another six bands I wanted to learn more about.  It’s not a large list, but I didn’t see all of the artists at the festival.  I suspect that if I had given the event more time in the earlier parts of the day, I might have come away with at least 7-10 more bands I was interested in learning more about.  That would be a familiarity with about half of the artists at the show.

For the record, the bands I wanted to learn more about included I Prevail, Volumes, All That Remains, In This Moment, Mastodon, and Motionless in White.

9) Don’t forget the pre-parties.

Usually, there is one or two official pre-parties that happen at local bars within Jacksonville.  This is a great place to check out local talent. This time, I went to a show that showcased a band that I do a lot of work for and am pretty close with – Kill the Sound. It was a cool opportunity to see them in a new venue with a new crowd.  They were happy to see an unexpected friend in the audience as well. There were several other bands on the bill at this party that I had heard of but had not gotten to see.

10) #RockTitsSumBitch and Rockvillians

Welcome to Rockville has a subculture within it of people that are diehards and come every year.  They know each other, go to other festivals and shows together, and keep in touch online via different social media communities.

According to the online Urban Dictionary, it defines a Rockvillain as “an individual of a larger group of die hard rock-and-roll fans that flock together in the masses every year at the end of April for a 2-day outdoor concert called Welcome to Rockville, which is held in Jacksonville, Florida.  Every year at Welcome to Rockville, you can easily find the infamous group of Rockvillains by listening to their war cry of ROCK TITS SUMBITCH”

They also use this hashtag to tag all their social media posts.

The Facebook group Welcome to Rockville – RockVillains even has over 8.5 thousand members.  You will find band videos, photos, show announcements, and anything metal related in this group.

As I slowly drug my weary and hot self back to my car after the lights went out on the final stage, where Def Leppard had played, my inner teenager was still excited about what I had just experienced.  Up till this point, I can’t say I had experienced anything like the different levels of emotions I had experienced at this festival.  It was different than the local festival I had been at a matter of weeks prior.  I had gotten to see the first band I ever fell in love with as a youngster in a way I had not in the past (I was about 30 rows back from the barricade).  I had gotten to see some bands a second time, now that I was more familiar with who they were. I had run into friends I knew from the local scene, and I got to find some new bands to look into and add to my growing collection.  And, I was hot and exhausted from everything. But, I had a great time doing it. I guess I am now officially a Rockvillain!

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