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Thursday, 24 January 2013

American Beauties Q&A


Your Name:
Michael Gray.

Where are you from?
Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Band Name:
American Beauties.

Who is in your band?
Jonas Kahn – Guitar; Justin Kolack – bass; Jeff Allison – Drums and background vocals; Amber Casares – Background vocals; and Me – Guitar, vocals, harp.
For our recent record release 'Too Worn To Mend' we had a number of additional musicians contribute. The album was co-producer and engineered by Ducky Carlisle (Mike Viola, Buddy Guy, etc.), who played drums and other instruments on the record and is an adjunct Beauty.

How would you describe yourselves?
American Beauties is somewhat of a throwback band. We play a lot of music that you might have heard out of California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. We are primarily a folk-rock band, but we venture into pop, with some country influences as well. I guess Americana is a good overall description, but I’m still not sure if that fits us perfectly. Also not exactly sure what Americana refers to since some of the greatest Americana-type artists hail from Canada and overseas, so maybe that description is a little broad… and pretentious.

Who are your main influences musically?
Our main influences are bands like Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, CSNY, and The Band. I think we also have elements of some more recent bands like The Jayhawks and Wilco.

What do you hope to achieve in music?
We recently released our debut full-length album Too Worn To Mend in October 2012 so we are still in the midst of getting the word out and building interest in the band and our music. We’ve had some really good success so far where we’ve been added and played on over 150 independent and college radio stations around the US and Canada, and have received some airplay in the UK (Brooklands Radio, Olympic Radio, and Krystal Radio) as well.
We also receive regular airplay on a few internet radio stations in the US including Wrecking Ball Radio (Chapel Hill, North Carolina), The Penguin (Asbury Park, New Jersey), and a syndicated show called New Driven CRUISIN out of Atlanta, Georgia. These are really great stations that play excellent independent music along with more mainstream artists. The station formats are very eclectic and typically have very passionate musical directors and DJs that have great taste in music and spin the music they love. It’s a growing format that can be streamed around the world and is a great way for independent artists to get their music heard.
On the live front, we typically play shows around Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville,
Massachusetts and do a few regional festivals around New England. I think for the live shows, unless something really significant happens for the band, we will probably stay pretty close to home.
All in all we want to continue to write, record, and try to have some artistic success with our music; most importantly we want to get it out so that people can hear it.

What has been the highlight of your career so far, and why?
Actually just the other day we were informed that our record was accepted by over fourteen cable TV shows in the US who have requested licensing agreements with us to use the music on their shows. This opportunity came through one of our promoters, Tinderbox Music, out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. They managed our radio campaign and they are also networked with many program and musical directors in the cable TV market to whom they submit their artists for consideration.
We were really surprised that so many shows picked up the album, some of them are pretty well-know programs in the US, such as The Kardashians (E Channel), The Real World (MTV), Teen Wolf (MTV), and the big surprise was that we were picked up by NASCAR, which is the largest auto racing organization in the US. There are no guarantees for placement, but the licensing agreements are a huge hurdle and not so common for indie bands to get. For that reason we see it as a great accomplishment for the band. The best case is that it generates an added revenue stream for the band to pursue our other endeavors.

What’s the moment you want to forget?
There haven’t been many recently, but I think it’s the typical technical snafu at the live shows. I’d gone pretty much unscathed for the last several years playing live shows; then the other night at a show in Somerville, my amplifier wouldn’t amplify! After about 10 minutes trying to figure it out I had to borrow an amp from one of the other bands and our 45-minute set became a 30-minute set, with some added anxiety. It turned-out fine, but it was certainly forgettable.

If you could choose one of your songs as an advert for your music, what would it be and why?
Snow Blind, which is the opening track on Too Worn To Mend. It was the first song that I recorded with my buddy Ducky playing drums and it was one of those songs that took us one or two takes to get all the guitars, drums, and the lead and background vocals, which were all finished in a day. We later added bass and the lead guitar, but that initial day in the studio was very creative and productive. I think the song portrays many of American Beauties’ influences and is a little off from the Americana leaning tunes on the album.
I think it’s important not to be too narrowly classified as a band or artist. Our next record is going to be much different. I think you’ll still be able to identify the American Beauties sound, but the songs may deviate a little more from the roots-type influences toward more pop influenced folk and rock.

Where can we listen to it?



Where can we find-out more about your music?

Anything else?
We hope people will get a CD copy of Too Worn To Mend to listen to. We put a lot of thought into the tracking sequence and the packaging, which we tried to make like an old school album release with lyrics, credits, etc. The album artwork is an original design by our great graphic designer Standard Design out of Northhampton, MA. I’m a big proponent of listening to an entire album in sequence to get a sense of the artist’s perspective for that recording. I also think every record deserves a few listens to see if attaches to you or not. That’s always been my experience as a listener.
Finally, I want to mention our promotions team at LadyLake Music. We just happened upon them through a CD submission for their indie music awards and have been working with them over the past few months since the album release. They have done so much for us already as far as promoting our music, the band, and the record. It’s really been a blessing to have people that are really good at what they do (A&R and marketing) in your corner. Many great promotional opportunities (including this one) have presented themselves in just the short time we’ve worked with LadyLake and we’re really happy to be on their roster.
Thanks so much for the interview. We are really appreciative of any interest in the band and we hope the next time around American Beauties will be a more familiar entity to everyone.

Sell your beats online at ReverbNation.com
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