Murfreesboro band We Were the States picked a fitting moniker, considering it once went by simply The States. Upon discovering that there was a New York band of the same name, We Are the States was adopted for a stint but then discarded after the band heard its name announced one night at Mercy Lounge’s Eight off Eighth.
It took a while to get the verb form right, but playing music was something that came much more naturally. Its members brought together primarily through attendance at MTSU, the current WWTS lineup has played together for two years.
The band has spent that time building a fan base in the Boro, achieved through the help of friends and friends of friends, according to WWTS guitarist Jay Stoyanov.
“I haven’t seen anybody become that popular in Murfreesboro just through normal promotion,” he says. “It generally has to be a word-of-mouth friend thing.”
Stoyanov, in his final semester at MTSU, is a friendly type of guy and he is more than willing to tell a story or two whether it concerns the repercussions of posting his phone number on WWTS Web site or the value of variety in a record.
WWTS is currently in a transitional phase of sorts, working on a new album with no set show dates at present.
The band has been spending its time in Nashville, recording a little album – which is nameless as of yet – that has a big change in it compared to what fans may be used to hearing from the band.
The upcoming record swallows a concept that bands generally explore later in the game, after they have weathered a few more albums than WWTS have. Stoyanov is very particular in providing an explanation for it.
“The last record was very much a garage rock record in the way we recorded it,” he says. “There weren’t many overdubs.”
“We just did it live in a room together. This project is more of a full-figured rock record. We’re not opposed to any kind of instrumentation we can put on it this time.”
Stoyanov describes “electronic beats, real big rock songs and bigger choruses on some songs,” which all have a place on the new record. We Were the States is expanding in the sense that it is breaking out of its own niche to write a varied collection of songs that are not all of the same strain, and instead embrace a range of colors and tempos.
“I think the way we described it one time is, it’s more like a four-course-meal kind of album,” Stoyanov says. “It’s not a concept record or anything, but it’s definitely going back to what I liked in high school, where there were bands like Smashing Pumpkins who could do a slow song – we’re not going to do any sappy slow songs, that would never happen – but they would have a slow song here, a 30-second song here, a giant rock song here. It’s more well-rounded.”
As a result, Stoyanov has somewhat relinquished his unofficial role as primary composer. There is less dictation and format as songs come together, and the band is figuring out the beautyof improvisation.
“I started writing riffs and writing parts and when I brought the songs to the band, I didn’t know what to tell them, so I’d just start playing and they would play whatever came to their heads,” Stoyanov says. “I realized these songs are pretty open-ended. Anything could go here.”
The album is expected to see the light of day in March 2010. In the current stages, it is clear that song and album titles have not been at the forefront priority-wise, as Stoyanov describes a song he is excited about that has been unofficially titled “Bitch Poison.”
“That’s just something you do when you’re drunk in the studio,” he says.
“Bitch Poison” aside, one of WWTS’ most innovative and ambitious ideas for the record includes releasing the album as a two-sided disc. One side would play the album and the other would feature videos to accompany each song. Stoyanov says that money determines whether this comes to be, but the band still plans to have accompanying videos to at least be downloadable from the Web site.
The videos are not the only apparent signs of ambition. The band has gained credibility at SXSW in Austin, where its label, Chicken Ranch, is based, and gained approval through Next Big Nashville.
However, We Were the States has not reached the caliber of success at which Stoyanov posting his phone number to the band Web site would not be prudent.The guitarist has heard the matter of his phone number available to the public brought up in interviews before, and says that he would still post his number simply as a way to have another connection with fans.
“But I have a funny story about that,” he offers.
He delves into an entertaining tale of an Atlanta transplant looking to start a band in Murfreesboro, who mistook We Were the States’ posted invitation of “Give us a call, we’d love to hear your pretty voice” to be a want ad for a singer.
“He wanted to sing to me over the phone,” Stoyanov laughs. “I called like three people right after that happened. I had to tell them about that.”
When Stoyanov is not taking odd calls, he focuses on expanding the musical range of We Were the States past the pop songs he grew sick of writing. He maintains the sole goal of making the band into a sustaining career.
“I’ll be happy if I can be a musician for a living,” he says. “Anything that comes after that is just icing.”
We Were the States rocks the Boro
Published: Thursday, November 12, 2009
Updated: Thursday, November 12, 2009 17:11
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