Taddy Porter on stage at the Machine Shop
Tracy Heck
Before the show, the band took some time to sit down and talk about the tour, their music and life on the road.
It is clear that they enjoy what they are doing and enjoy working together as they laughed, joked and talked over and with each other.
Taddy Porter formed in Stillwater, Oklahoma in 1997 after vocalist Andy Brewer and drummer Doug Jones decided to form a duo.
However, after taking guitar lessons from Joe Selby, Brewer decided to bring him on as lead guitarist and the three invited Jones' brother, Kevin, to fill out the quartet.
After releasing a 2007 EP, Monocle, the band was discovered by Overtone Music Group and have not looked back.
After touring extensively over the last couple of years, Taddy Porter recently released their debut album.
While in its first week at radio, the lead single “Shake Me” debuted as the #3 Most Added track at Active Rock.
"We're proud that it shows that we're a rock and roll band and it's funny because the songs that we wrote on it were written when we were 20 years old; when we were young anyways, I myself was 20 years old." explained Brewer as Kevin piped in with, "I was 17."
Brewer picked up the conversation with, "It's cool to see what we were doing back then and it also makes us excited for all of the new songs that we've been writing to see a progression for us. I can't wait for other people to hear our music and I can't wait for us to write new music. It's been great because we're a high energy band and we play our songs with much enthusiasm. People like us and you know we're not bad!"
The band worked with producer Skidd Mills on their debut who also worked on Saving Abel's latest album Miss America.
Taddy Porter’s music has been heard everywhere lately, at Citi Field in New York where “Shake Me” is Mets pitcher Mike Pelfrey’s at bat and warm up song and all over broadcast and cable.
The band had two songs featured in the Entourage season premiere – “King Louie” and “Mean B*tch”.
Their songs have also appeared on Monday Night Football, ESPN’s SportsCenter, ABC’s Cougartown, and the WWE film Legendary.
The band has been winning fans and garnering rave reviews mostly due to their explosive live shows.
Brewer explained, "Whenever we're on stage we really enjoy what we're doing and it gets more and more exciting as we go. There's a point in time where you do something different and you get off stage and you go, "That was awesome. I'm going to do that every time" and sooner or later it's just a big giant I guess it seems like it is orchestrated because we move together so well but it's really just that we've been doing it for so long that we know what we're going to do."
Selby described it best when he went on to say, "It's organized chaos."
The band has done quite a bit of touring mostly with Saving Abel including a jaunt last year on the inaugural Class of 2009 tour, which was conceived as a way to get a bunch of bands who have been in the Top 10 all year together with a new rookie rock band. For that tour, Taddy Porter was the rookie and the tour got them quite a bit exposure.
"We were on tour with Red and Pop Evil and Saving Abel. It was good. It was like our first true touring experience and it got our music out there." said Brewer.
Selby added, "The people working with us did a good job spreading our name out there."
Brewer added, "This tour is going very well. We recently had our album come out about a month ago so it's been fun because before we were just touring without an album. It was kind of just us touring just for the sake of playing live. Now with our album out it's awesome. We've seen lots of people come out to our shows with the album to get it signed and stuff. It's comforting and it shows that we're doing our job."
After this tour, the band will be heading out with classic guitarist Slash, who is touring in support of his latest solo album.
When asked how they managed to get a spot on that tour Brewer said, "You know I think it was because we shared the same uh..." (looks to the others as Kevin and Doug tell him "Radio promotions!") Nodding Andy continued, "Radio promotions, thank you. The same distribution with Slash."
Kevin went on to add, "They were like you've done really well with us and we like your style let's go ahead and throw them on this tour and we were like yeah. They don't have to ask us twice!"
The band says that they are working on new material but probably won't get back into the studio for another year after they finish touring in promotion of their debut, "The next one's going to be pretty insane. The next one's going to have more rocks. It's gonna have more stones...let's just say that" exclaimed Brewer.
All of the band members agreed that they would like to tour Europe where the vibe for rock music is different from what they are used to.
When asked if they thought growing up in the South influenced their music they all agreed that it had, "You know I would say so yes. And you know it's funny I feel like it's just the way you grow up. If you're in the South that's just going to be a factor. The way I grew up was in a small town by a lake so all I had to do was you know I'd go to school and then go to whatever sport practice and then I'd go down to the lake and go fishing. We didn't have like movie theaters and stuff so we just grew up with that kind of mentality and the fact that my father listened to classic rock and southern rock music kind of molded it into that. That's just myself." said Brewer.
Kevin added, "I think that classic Southern rock speaks to where we're all from."
The band went on to have a hilarious exchange over who their major Southern rock influences were. In the end they all agreed on the classics like Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers and Thin Lizzy.
Selby threw out Them, a Irish rock band featuring Van Morrison but went on to say that since they were from Ireland they didn't really count but Doug offered that they are still Southern rock. Brewer on the other hand argued that they are from Northern Ireland which prompted Kevin to add, "It's political Southern rock!"
Doug finished the discussion with, "It's a different part of the world like the South but not the South!"
Hinder, Them Crooked Vultures, Queens of A Stone Age, White Stripes and Kings of Leon were brought up as bands that the members of Taddy Porter would like to tour with in the future.
When asked where they enjoy playing the most, Brewer paused as he slyly looked at the rest of the band, "Um, Flint, Michigan! Flint's where we have the most fun. Michigan is where we have the most fun in a state. We get a good response because it seems like there's something about the Motor City that loves rock and roll music." (the rest of the band echoed with a chorus of yeahs) "They're receptive to our music which is great because some places you go they have a genre that they like but here in Michigan they just rock. They love to rock."
The band says they don't get out too often into the cities they visit but on this tour they've been hitting a lot of gyms with members from the other bands.
When asked about their strangest fan encounter Kevin shared, "We had some girls figure out that we were sponsored by Motel 6 so they found out what Motel 6 we were at and booked the room right in between our two rooms and like slammed on the walls at six in the morning. They called our rooms and eventually made us get up and come out and sign some things."
Selby went on to add, "We got recognized at the gas station the other day that was cool. (the others nod) First time outside of Oklahoma."
Finally, the band was asked how they would describe their music to new listeners which immediately had Brewer grinning at the others as he burst into a clearly thought through answer, "If I were to describe our music I'd have to say that if you've ever seen the Silver Bullet train just show up out of nowhere you know like the Coors Lite train all of a sudden someone goes "Are you thirsty?" and somebody goes "I've got a Coors Light!" and the bullet train comes up and everyone goes "Whoohoo!". I just like to imagine it that way. It's a Taddy Porter locomotive. It's just a bullet party. Just high energy rock and roll: swagger music."
No comments:
Post a Comment