Muen Magazine

June 1, 2010

FRAMING HANLEY

Silent Majority Group

NIXON (Vocals, Piano, Guitar)

Nashville, Tennessee

Myspace.com/framinghanley

By: Shauna O’Donnell

THIS IS SHAUNA O’DONNELL AND YOU ARE LISTENING TO MUEN TALK. I HAVE NIXON OF FRAMING HANLEY ON THE PHONE.

MUEN: HI NIXON, THANKS FOR CALLING IN. HOW ARE YOU?

I’m doing good, we are actually out traveling on the road right now. It’s another rainy day; it seems like its rained everyday of the tour so far.

MUEN: WHERE ARE YOU?

We are in Mobile, Alabama. We have a show here tomorrow.

MUEN: HAVE YOU SEEN SOME REALLY BAD THUNDERSTORMS?

No, the tour just started. We were at home for a little bit in Nashville, there was the terrible flood that happened a month or so ago. There hasn’t been anything terrible yet on the road, but I’m sure we will run into it. Things always seem to find us wherever we go.

MUEN: WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT HAS HAPPENED?

On this one, so far we’ve been lucky except for some rain everyday when we are loading in, but this is the very beginning of the tour. Our drummer Chris has been mugged at gun point before in the back of our trailer.

MUEN: DID THEY WANT YOUR GEAR?

Our gear was onstage, it was actually before we even played the show that night. He had gone out to get some hoodies for our merch guy and they followed him into the trailer. Luckily, all they got away with was his cell phone and wallet.

MUEN: HOW SCARY THAT THOSE THINGS HAPPEN OUT THERE.

Yeah, it’s pretty crazy.

MUEN: FRAMING HANLEY IS QUITE AN UNUSUAL NAME, HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH IT?

It is based on someone very close to us, we would call her the sixth member of our band and she supported us from day one. Her name was Ashley Hanley. She was everyone’s best friend and she was also that person that would always be the one to push us to keep going and not give up on things.  She passed away in a car accident in October of 2006. She also did among other things photography for the band, so that’s where the word Framing comes from and Hanley being her last name. We felt it was the least we could do for someone who meant so much to us. It was definitely something that was unexpected, but she is still here with us in a lot of ways.

MUEN: YOUR SOPHMORE RELEASE A PROMISE TO BURN HAS BEEN OUT FOR ONE WEEK TODAY.

Yeah, it’s been out a week.

MUEN: WHAT HAS BEEN THE INITIAL RESPONSE TO IT?

We find out officially tomorrow, but I know it was ranked in the top 15 overall albums on ITunes the first few days. I think a lot of people picked it up. We’ve definitely explained it as being a little bit of a departure from our first record, but that is also due large in fact to Ryan not being in our band on the first record. This is the first record that we have done with this line up, so of course, there are going to be some differences in sound. Everyone seems to be enjoying it.

MUEN: I THINK WITH EACH ALBUM THE BAND SHOWS MATURITY BECAUSE YOU GROW AS A BAND.

That has been one thing that has been an unspoken goal for us as musicians, with every record that we continue to put out, we want it to be something where we evolve musically with each record. I think a great example of a couple bands that do that is Thrice or Incubus. I think both of those bands continue to evolve with every record that they put out. I think we’d be selling ourselves short to not at least have those aspirations. Luke our bass player says “Touring is a musician’s boot camp.” When you stay out on the road doing nothing but playing every night and you are surrounded by great musicians, it’s going to rub off on you.

MUEN: DOES THIS ALBUM HAVE A STORY TO TELL?

I wouldn’t pinpoint it as a story. I think it’s more of a theme that a lot of people can relate to. A lot of times it’s easy to let the minor, little things ruin the big picture. I think for me personally, the business of this industry can really start to tarnish a lot of the things that you set out to do or that you’ve had dreams of doing your entire life. We just wanted to get back to where we were in the beginning, having fun again and not letting all the business stuff ruin it. We realize how lucky we are to even be here and to have this opportunity. It can be over any day so we want to live it up while we can. When you’re on the road for long periods of time, you’re going to miss people, things are going to change and people continue to grow older whether you are there or not. It was easy to let all of these things pile up with the negative side of things and let that over shadow the fact that you are able to live your dream and you are able to go out there and play music that you are writing for people that come whether it be five people or five hundred people on any given night. We realized that we need to focus on this instead of all the negative stuff.

MUEN: THERE IS ALSO A DVD INCLUDED WITH THE ALBUM. WHAT’S ON IT?

Yes, it’s just all of us being idiots. It’s hanging out with us in the studio. We toured about 250 days out of the year last year; as soon as we were done we had a week off at home and then we went right into the studio. Mason Dixon who makes all of our videos joined us when we started doing pre-production and writing on this record. He got all the way up until the very end so it’s kind of cool because it is definitely an introduction to all of us as individuals and not just as a band.

MUEN: YOU WORKED WITH BRETT HESTLA ON THIS RECORD. HE IS SO COOL.

Yes, he’s awesome; he’s that guy that I thank everyday for us being able to do this. He is the dude that took what we had and harnessed it into what we became so to speak. He showed us what to eliminate in our songwriting, what to focus on in our songwriting and how to properly go about things in general. I think he’s everything that a band could possibly look for in a producer and more. He is one of my best friends.

MUEN: THAT IS SO COOL AND HE HAS BEEN WITH YOU ALL ALONG.

Yes, from the very beginning before we were ever signed. We cut a demo, which ended up being “Hear Me Now” with him and that’s when the journey began.

MUEN: ALSO WITH “LOLLIPOP,” WOULD YOU SAY THAT WAS THE SONG THAT PUT YOU GUYS ON THE MAP IN THE INDUSTRY?

Yes, most definitely, but “Lollipop” came a year and a half to two years after we had already recorded and released the record with him as well. There is no doubt that “Lollipop” is what put us on the map. That is why we are out here now with A Promise to Burn, to show people that we write our own songs too. We don’t just cover rap songs.

MUEN: I LOVE YOUR VERSION OF IT, I THINK IT’S AWESOME.

Thank you very much.

MUEN: YOU ARE VERY WELCOME. I’M SURE YOU HAVE BEEN OUT THERE PLAYING THE NEW SONGS. WHICH SONG OFF THE NEW ALBUM IS YOUR FAVORITE TO PLAY AND WHICH SEEMS TO BE THE FANS FAVORITE?

We are kind of in the mode where we are getting used to playing these songs live. We just finished doing four shows in a row the day before yesterday and that’s all we’ve done on this record so far. As far as picking which songs are our favorite to play, I would say “Warzone” off of the new record, it is also one of my favorite songs on the record. That song and “Photographs and Gasoline” are two of my top favorites on the record and to play live.

MUEN: MTV2 DEBUTED THE VIDEO FOR THE SONG “YOU STUPID GIRL.”

LET’S TALK ABOUT THE VIDEO. WHAT’S HAPPENING? WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CHAMPAGNE AND DO YOU BOTH DIE IN THE END? FOR THOSE READING THIS HERE IS THE LINK SO YOU CAN WATCH IT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ048znpl6k

It actually turns out that I have a severe allergic reaction to the champagne that we were drinking. No, I’m kidding, the premise is that the bottle was poisoned the entire time and I knew that going in. It’s kind of the whole Romeo and Juliet approach.

MUEN: THAT IS WHAT I GOT OUT OF IT WHEN I WATCHED IT.

I think a lot of people just think “Man, he’s an idiot. Why would he drink that poison?”

MUEN: YOU ARE ON TOUR, ARE YOU HEADLINING?

Yes, we are.

MUEN: WHO ARE YOU OUT WITH?

Right now we have our friends in Transmit Now out with us and The Veer Union who are some of our best buddies. They actually start tomorrow I believe and then a band called Against the Wall.

MUEN: YOU ARE FRIENDS WITH SOME OF MY FRIENDS. I NOTICED THAT YOU HAVE SORE EYES IN YOUR TOP FRIENDS, I LOVE THEM.

Oh yes, the first four shows that we did on this tour, they were on. Those dudes are some of my good friends as well.

MUEN: YOU’RE GOING TO THE UK IN SEPTEMBER, IS THIS YOUR FIRST TIME OVERSEAS?

Yeah it is and I’m so stoked. My birthday is September 7^th, so we get to go a few days later. What better birthday present than leaving the country for the first time. Well, unless you consider going to Canada leaving the country.

MUEN: I ANTICIPATE YOU DOING REALLY WELL OVER THERE.

Either way it is going to be fun. We are excited about seeing all these places that have been there thousands of years. They’ve been established much longer than here in the U.S., so I think it is going to be kind of a mind trip.

MUEN: DID YOU GUYS PLAY ANY FESTIVALS THIS YEAR?

So far this year we haven’t, we did some at the end of last year. The last festival we did was in December, actually I take that back we did a festival in Tuffalo. Festivals are always my favorite shows to play because you get a chance to see some of your favorite bands play as well. You also get to play in front of a lot of people.

MUEN: ARE YOU GOING TO PLAY ANY THIS SUMMER?

There are a lot right now that are definitely intriguing that we would love to be a part of. We have our touring booked up until September when we leave for the UK and when we come back hopefully we will be on some of the fall festivals.

MUEN: WOULD YOU SAY THAT THE MAJORITY OF YOUR FANS ARE GIRLS OR DO YOU SEE JUST AS MANY GUYS IN THE AUDIENCE?

At festivals it’s usually pretty diverse, but at our normal shows it’s usually just pets. No females or males, just animals.

MUEN: FOR SOME REASON I PICTURE A SEA OF SCREAMING GIRLS WHEN YOU GO OUT ON STAGE.

At festivals they are there to see a large majority of bands. That’s my favorite thing about playing at festivals is that you get to play in front of a crowd that would not normally come see your band. We thrive in those situations where we have to go out and win somebody over, those are always more fun.

MUEN: ARE YOU STILL HANGING OUT AT THE MERCH BOOTH AFTER SHOWS?

Yes, every night we hang out there for about an hour after the show.

MUEN: WAS THE FIRST TIME SOMEONE ASKED FOR YOUR AUTOGRAPH SURREAL?

I still don’t know why people would want that. You can’t read what it says; it’s a giant check mark on a sheet of paper.

MUEN: YOU PUT A CHECK MARK?

It basically looks like that, I try to explain it to everyone whenever I do it and they say something about it. I’m like look “There’s the N, there’s the I, the X, come back and cross the X after I do the last N and dot the I.” They say that it just looks like one line so that’s pretty crazy. It was definitely something that takes getting used to. As far as going  out to merch every night, sometimes when we are a little further into tour, if my voice is bothering me and I know we have two more shows, I can’t go into a funky club and yell over music. It bums me out when I don’t get to do that because these people are the reason why we get a chance to do this even. The least I can do is thank them.

MUEN: WHAT DO YOU DO TO ENTERTAIN YOURSELF OUT ON THE ROAD?

We play a lot of video games.

MUEN: WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH PLAY N TRADE VIDEO GAMES? YOU HAVE A BANNER ON YOUR PAGE.

Yeah, our friend Michael Henry in Little Rock owns a Play N Trade store out there. He has helped us out a lot and makes sure that we know when there are some awesome video games coming out. It’s the best place to get your video games. We love video games and we love Michael Henry.

MUEN: I TAKE IT YOU RIDE IN A BUS THEN.

We spent last year in a bus, but right now we are in an RV that we have owned for a few years now. The economy is not the greatest right now, so we are doing everything we can to pinch pennies. Touring is not cheap contrary to popular belief.

MUEN: WHAT IS THE KEY TO GETTING ALONG WITH EACH OTHER ON THE ROAD?

Headphones, soundproof headphones! It’s a group of best friends and obviously we are all dudes, so the testosterone levels are going to get a little high sometimes and people are going to get angry for no reason. I’m temperamental, especially in the mornings. We are all best friends so we have come to learn how to deal with each other. So far there hasn’t been a knock out brawl with anybody in our band, knock on wood. Hopefully, if it does come to that, it will at least happen on stage. That would be awesome publicity.

MUEN: THAT WOULD DEFINITELY BE AWESOME PUBLICITY. IS THERE A LOT OF FAST FOOD EATEN OR DO YOU TRY AND EAT HEALTHY?

That is a loaded question because we try and eat healthy, but we eat a lot of fast food regardless. I think I’m addicted to fast food more than caffeine. That says a lot because caffeine is right underneath heroine on how addictive substances are. I love fast food.

MUEN: THERE ARE VERY FEW FAST FOOD PLACES OPEN REALLY LATE SO IF YOU ARE OUT DRIVING AT 1 IN THE MORNING THERE ISN’T MUCH TO CHOOSE FROM.

Exactly

MUEN: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE INTERVIEW, IT WAS A LOT OF FUN AND YOU ARE AWESOME.

Thank you very much!

MUEN: YOU ARE VERY WELCOME. BEFORE I LET YOU GO DID YOU WANT TO ADD OR SAY ANYTHING?

Hopefully everyone comes out to see us on the road. It’s going to be a long year and a half of our lives and our career. We would love to have you guys come out and experience it with us every night.

MUEN: I WOULD LOVE TO COME OUT, ARE YOU COMING TO CALIFORNIA?

I think the plan is that we come home for a week at the end of July and then we start heading out west in August before we go to the UK in September.