Wednesday 10 December 2014

Two State Nation Q&A

Band name:
Two State Nation.

Where are you from?
Birmingham, Alabama US.

Who else is in your band?
Shellina Ryals - Lead Singer
Steven Ryals - Guitar (spouse to Shellina)
Jesslyn Parmley - Guitar
Isaac Mixon - Drums
Amanda Miller - Bass

How would you describe yourselves and your music?
We are a garage rock/indie rock band. Many of us have played music together for years in various other projects. Shellina and Jesslyn began working on a new sound that would take a deeper rock sound than what any of us had previously performed together.
We formed the band in January, worked on songs in Feb-April, went into Studio in May-June, mixed July-Aug, released the debut and began touring.

Who are your main influences musically?
Five people in this band with almost opposing musical tastes but we found our unique sound began to form at times when we covered a little band called...The Dead Weather...or as we like to call it our favorite Jack White side project. Our personal main musical influences are a bit mix matched, our bass player is a huge Manchester Orchestra/Kings of Leon fan, our lead guitar player Johnny Greenwood(Radiohead) /John Frusciante(Red Hot Chili Peppers) our rhythm guitar player Damien Rice/Glen Hansard, our drummer a bit of Dave Matthews Band/Avenge Sevenfold, and our lead singer anyone from Bjork/Ani Difranco/Robert Plant.

What do you hope to achieve in music?
As songwriters and musicians our goal is to play and be heard like anyone else. We had a goal to record, tour, and perform our original songs. We have been honored to get to keep doing that with our fall tour, and are now booking into our spring/summer tour. For us to play and to be able to have a moment in front of  an audience is why we do what we do...it's a wonderful blessing every time we play! We are terrified, we perform, it feels like an electrical boost, and we blink it's over and we want it again.

What has been the highlight of your career so far, and why?
Our initial album release party was the first time many of our songs had ever been played before anyone. We had our closest family and friends that packed themselves into our favorite little punk dive called The Syndicate Lounge. To hear everyone singing our songs back and jumping up and down to 10 Foot Golden made every moment of work worth it for us! It was a surreal moment to hear people connect to your music. 

And what’s the moment you want to forget?
Hahaha...well I'm not sure we can say as we must protect the innocent..but without those moments of disaster on a tour you don't really have the laughs have after you have survived it all...but a few eager male fans at times that have lead to a few interesting or cringeworthy moments I could desire to forget.

If you had to pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and why?
That's hard as each person in the band seems to have their favorite for various moments, however as a band we tend to all agree that "Fool On Fire" is us at our most natural relaxed state. We began a jam in practice with the intro riff and that lead to the entire song coming together almost instantly. 

Where can we listen to it? 


Where can we find out more about your music?

Anything else you’d like to say about your music that I forgot to ask?
We are having  the time of our lives! We hope our music connects that attitude to our fans. We are a very close family and we love to play...the audience is always our focus. We have and always will be a live band! Our goal is to make you laugh, make you sing, make you jump up and down, give you a song when you cry, a song when you are pissed, a song when you don't know your name, and a song to play for mom to show her how evolved you have become...or that band you play when you just need a smile!


No comments:

Post a Comment