 "Photo: Photos courtesy of Bang Bang Bang")
The popular Nashville venue Exit/In was stacked to the rafters on a humid Friday night. Once inside the doors, you had to shimmy your way between throngs of people in order to see the band playing on stage. The fans' sweaty dancing, loud singing and the stage lights trained on the headlining act intensified the warmth of the large room.
But this was not a touring band on stop in Nashville - on this Friday night, folks from Nashville, Murfreesboro and other surrounding towns turned out to see local rock act Bang Bang Bang. Barely over a year since its inception, Bang Bang Bang has opened for Shooter Jennings, Lynyrd Sknyrd and has sold out the 450-capacity Exit/In without the assistance of a record label. The band has officially announced they signed a deal with Warner Brothers Records on Aug. 28.
Bang Bang Bang, comprised of Ben Brown (guitar), Kelby Caldwell (bass), Jaren Johnston (lead singer/guitar) and Neil Mason (drums), knows how to make the local scene work for them. When they aren't playing, they are supporting other local artists or creating opportunities for themselves and Movement Nashville. Whether you love them or hate them, they have made themselves a fixture on the local and regional scene and are prepared to continue their work for a major-label, national level.
Although all the members hail from Nashville, three of the four members attended MTSU and count Murfreesboro as part of the band's touring circuit. Neil Mason explains the band's origins, work and record deal, amongst other things, in an interview with Exposure.
Exposure: How did Bang Bang Bang come together?
Neil Mason: We've known each other for about 10 years, since high school. Ben & I used to play in another [local] band called Llama. We did that for a long time. Kelby and Jaren played in other bands and we used to play shows together. Actually, Kelby used to play in Silent Friction with [Pink Spiders lead singer/guitarist] Matt Friction. We all met there, grew up jamming together and goofing off. We still do that. [laughs]
A little over a year ago, Jaren & I were hanging out at my work . . . he gave me a CD one day and said, "I'm kinda thinking about starting a thing up. Would you be interested?" We just got together and started talking about the kind of sound we would like to have and goals we would like to accomplish. We're both getting to the point where we're like, "We're both 24, 25. This needs to work." [laughs] "It needs to be a real happening thing."
So we started talking about who might good for the band; we brought Ben in first. We had another bass player - actually, when Kelby started, he played guitar and then the bass player ended up leaving, so he moved to bass.
We played our first show on July 4, 2005, at a party at Ben's parents' house. We put out a CD in October. All the promotion, all the booking, putting out the CD - everything up until the last month or so has been on our own. We ran around hanging posters and trying to book as many shows as possible around town. We made enough money playing shows that we bought a van, so then we were able to go wherever as much as we could.
Exposure: How do you describe BBB's sound and what are the influences?
NM: We've got a ton of influences that are pretty far outside that whole Southern rock vibe. I describe it as a Black Crowes meets Lenny Kravitz . . . I see it as a rock 'n' roll thing. Jaren has a bit of that Southern thing going on. He's from Nashville, so it's kind of impossible to not draw comparisons [to local act Kings of Leon]. But, at the same time, it's not a terrible comparison. They're a really great band. I think that we're all into that new, up and coming stuff, like Wolfmother and The Raconteurs, but I also like Paul Simon and other random stuff. It goes back to Led Zeppelin and Sabbath, and even the pop side of it, such as Michael Jackson.
Exposure: So, the first record label we heard you were signing with was Sony. How did the deal with Warner Brothers come about?
NM: We had been talking to Sony since about March. It was about two weeks ago, the day the Sony deal was done, [Sony] called us and said, "We're sending copies of the contract for you to sign." At the same time, we had been playing for a bunch of guys at Warner Brothers the past couple of months and we got an offer from them right then. It kind of came out of nowhere, but we knew it was a possibility. We had a lot of people say a lot of things they would do and then it never happened, so we didn't really expect anything. Then it happened and it was a better deal. It gave us more creative freedom and it set up the whole situation the way that we wanted it.
So after some debating and whatnot, we decided we wanted to go with the Warner deal and not the Sony deal. We really wanted to get to work and we couldn't keep doing the back and forth, fighting between labels. It can be fun, but it can also be a pain in the ass.
Exposure: When do you plan on returning to the studio?
NM: The new album will probably be a combination of both [new and previously released material]. It'll probably be about a year before the record comes out, but we're going to put out a CD in the meantime, probably around November. We'll keep selling that at shows, and then throughout the next six months we'll be working on the record while on the road.
Exposure: BBB has t-shirts for sale; how did you, as an unsigned band, end up with merchandise?
NM: We hooked up with this really good merchandise company called Zambooie. It's here in town and they're good friends of ours. Merchandise is kind of having the Bang Bang Bang thing more of a brand; it's a big part of what we're trying to do. No matter who you are, whether you like us or not, you know who we are.
We had a CD, then the t-shirts and the stickers and all that kind of stuff. We're playing around with more creative ideas with merch.
Exposure: The Bang Bang Bang thong mentioned at the show?
NM: Yeah, the Bang thong. That was the running joke of the night. [laughs] We are doing some shorts, so we'll see if we get to the thong eventually. Pink Spiders are one of them[who sells thongs]. They are good friends of ours and they do well with the thongs. It's certainly not a bad idea.
Exposure: What do you think about the local bands being signed?
NM: I think it's great. We're all from Nashville and playing in bands ten years ago in Nashville, there was no camaraderie; there were no bands working together to make things happen. It's been really good the last two years, three years. You see bands really coming around and supporting each other.
A couple of weeks ago, the Pink Spiders had an interview in Rolling Stone and they mentioned our band. I think it's all about that kind of stuff. The Pink Spiders are a great band. They're really nothing like us, but they're also good friends of ours. I think their music is pretty good. We get out there and perform with each other and make sure everyone supports each other. If everyone is doing that, then it's all going to come around and it is going to be a better thing. Ultimately, it's going to be a really great thing for Nashville.
Exposure: Tell us a little about Movement Nashville.
NM: It's been a big thing that's really helped us - we started the Movement Nashville with AutoVaughn, Jeremy Lister and Kyle Andrews [Nashville solo artists]. Now there are a handful of others, such as Luna Halo, but there are about nine bands now. We do shows together, different groups of us, and it's been a great launching pad for new fans to hear different bands. All our fans would come, Autovaughn's fans would come and they all see it. It's not like, "Hey Autovaughn's ripping off Bang Bang Bang," or vice versa; it's "This is good music and this is good music - wow what a great show!" It's been a really big thing for us. We're doing another one of those at the end of October at Exit/In on the 27th. It'll be a big Halloween party.
Exposure: Speaking of fans, your fans are enthusiastic. How does that make the band feel?
NM: As far as that show the other night [Sept. 1 at Exit/In], we're hoping for it to be the kind of night it turned out to be but you never know. Right now, we're at a good pace where it's really growing, by about a couple hundred fans each show. That's a really thing and we've had really great opportunities, such as the Lynyrd Skynyrd show out at Starwood [Aug. 12].
I noticed at the Exit/In the other night when we played "Turn It Up," it was one where everyone knew the words, knew what was going on. The point of that song is - not about making money and all the stuff that everyone thinks about - but about the fans and making something that's bigger than the four guys on stage.
It's great that after playing for an hour in one of the hottest rooms I've ever been in my entire life, that anyone is still there chanting anything. [laughs] We're definitely stoked and want to go out there and play some more.
Exposure: How did Bang Bang Bang get the gig with Lynyrd Skynyrd?
NM: They were looking for a local band to be the opener and there were a handful of people that were called by the promoter, asking "Who would be good?" We were recommended by all of them. We started making phone callsthinking, "Who do we know that knows someone else?"
We figured, "Hey, we'll get out here and play for a couple thousand people." Ah, there were like 10,000 people there when we started playing, and even more than that by the time it was done. It was a wild and really good experience. We got to see what that was all about and then go back to where we're really at and try to grow to that point.
Exposure: Tell us about the song "Nashville."
NM: Jaren wrote that one...It's just a way to say thanks to Nashville and the community, but also to all the people, while pointing out there is a really cool thing going on here. People are being really supportive of it.
In the second verse, there's this lyric: "Don't get me wrong/Johnny Cash till the end/Waylon was my idol/And Shooter's my friend." That kind of thing! Shooter Jennings is a great example. Here's a guy born in Nashville and who now lives in L.A. He plays country music and he plays rock. I knew Shooter when he was 16 years old and his music sounded like Nine Inch Nails. But now he's going more country. It's important for people to realize that there is a broad spectrum in Nashville, just like there is anywhere else in the world. Stigmas suck, man, and we're all about breaking them.
Exposure: What is the band's goal?
NM: We know what we're trying to accomplish and the things it is going to take to make it all come true. I think that we want to be in a rock band that makes great records and tours successfully regardless whether there's a song on the radio or not. But we also want to write songs that anyone would love to hear at the same time. We're trying to do a balancing act, but at the same time, in order to do that our top priority needs to be songs.
That's why we're playing as much as can, flyering as much as we can, and talking about the band as much as we can. I don't expect that a record label or a manager or lawyer or a publicist or anyone else is going to be able to describe my band better than I can. I think that a lot of people assume that you have great music that it's going to be enough. I don't want to work a nine to five unless it's with my band because otherwise it feels like it's a waste of time. Luckily, now, we're at a place where we won't have to do that.
If you would like to catch Bang Bang Bang in Murfreesboro, the guys will be playing Bluesboro on Sept. 27 with AutoVaughn. If you would like to purchase a copy of their independent disc, "I Shot the King," check the merchandise table at their shows, Grimey's Preloved Music Record Store and CDbaby.com. For more information on Bang Bang Bang's show dates or other information, visit www.myspace.com/bangrock.
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