Muen Magazine

June 29, 2011

BRIAN BUCKLEY BAND

Brian Buckley

Brian Buckley (Vocals/Acoustic guitar)
Mike McGraw (Lead Guitar)
Albert Estiamba, Jr. (Drums)
Daniel Bodeman (Bass/Keys)

Los Angeles, CA

www.brianbuckleyband.com

By: Shauna O’Donnell

On June 23^rd I had the honor and privilege of attending the CD release show for the Brian Buckley Band’s latest album titled Hysterical Blindness at the Viper Room in Hollywood. It was the first time I had seen a line wrapped around the corner for a show there. I quickly realized there was something special about this band. I had already fallen in love with their music and now it was time to experience the live show. The band has an incredible following including fans of the show Supernatural. On this particular night, one of the stars of the show Jared Padalecki attended the show as well. There was an incredible energy in the room that night and the performance was extraordinary. It was one of those experiences that you just don’t want to end. The guys invited me out to one of their rehearsals a couple days later where we all sat down and talked. I found all of them to be wonderful people as well as incredibly talented songwriters and musicians. We spent most of the night not only talking, but laughing, as they have a great sense of humor. It was one of the most enjoyable times I have spent with a band. This girl is a fan for life!

THANKS FOR TALKING WITH ME. WE ARE HERE IN NORTH HOLLYWOOD AT A PLACE CALLED THUD. TELL ME A LITTLE ABOUT WHERE WE ARE. I KNOW IT IS A REHEARSAL STUDIO, BUT DO THEY DO ANYTHING ELSE LIKE PRODUCING?

They do quite a lot of producing here at THUD. They have various rooms. Jeff who is the bassist of Fuel owns the building. He also owns another space called THUD I, we are actually in THUD II. All of the different rooms have different producers. One guy does mastering here, another guy does electronica. There are bands that actually rehearse up in the front. We have the space with the producer of our record Hysterical Blindness. We tracked the record here and are also using it as a rehearsal space as well, so we are very lucky. We are actually moving to another space, but it was really nice while we had it for the past year. We are going to go to another space and see how that works. At THUD I there was a more sound proof space that was available, but we are going to see how this new space works out.

TECHNICALLY YOU HAVE THREE ALBUMS UNDER YOUR BELT CORRECT? OR AM I MISSING SOMETHING?

(Laughing) Yes, that’s right, technically.

YOU HAVE AN ALBUM TITLED WITHOUT INJURING ETERNITY THAT IS UNRELEASED. WHY HAS IT NOT BEEN RELEASED?

That’s a really great question Shauna. We had some issues with our old label as most artists do. That is kind of a general statement across the board I assume or at least that is what I’ve read. When you hear about Pearl Jam having difficulty with their record label, it kind of makes you feel okay about having problems with your own. We didn’t see eye to eye on certain things so they are holding the record right now. Hopefully sooner rather than later we can get it out to people because we are very proud of it. We did it with Mark Howard who engineered U2 and produced Tom Waite as well as a lot of other amazing people. We had an amazing time recording that album and we really want people to hear it.

WHEN WAS IT RECORDED?

It was after For Her and before this album that we released last week. Eventually it will be For Her, Hysterical Blindness and then Without Injuring Eternity. We are hoping to get it out soon.

I HEARD SOME OF THE TRACKS AND IT’S AWESOME.

Thank you very much! I think it shows another side of what the band can do. There is definitely a different vibe from For Her to Without Injuring Eternity. There is a certain sound that you’ll hear that sort of changed a bit.

SORT OF A MATURING OF THE BAND’S SOUND?

Yes and definitely more atmospheric. It’s more of a meditation I think. For Her was more of an opening of a diary. Hysterical Blindness is more in your face.

WHEN I SAW THE TITLE OF YOUR ALBUM HYSTERICAL BLINDNESS, THE FIRST THING I THOUGHT OF WAS THAT MADE FOR HBO MOVIE WITH THE SAME TITLE. IT HAD UMA THURMAN IN IT.

Daniel: I don’t know if I ever saw the movie, but I was just Googling it one time to see what would come up. The movie came up and I was like “Uma Thurman, I’ve got to watch this!”

Brian: Great movie! They used “Love is a Battlefield” like it was a John Williams Orchestra. They used that song so brilliantly in the movie. I had completely forgot about it until I was speaking with my lady and she was like “Hey! You better make sure there are no other albums titled Hysterical Blindness.” I was like “You’re right!” I looked it up and I was like “Oh God! There’s that movie. I think that’s all there is.” She said “Well you better be careful.” I said “Who would remember a 2002 HBO film? Sure enough Shauna, you have achieved it!” (Laughing)

I KNOW ALL! WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THIS TITLE FOR THE ALBUM?

We always have struggles with the album title. For Without Injuring Eternity, I think we went through fifteen different titles that we had bounced around. Al had eventually came up with that one. For this one, we had the working title of Boom Goes the Dynamite, which was kind of our feeling while we were producing the record, but once we were done we just didn’t feel like it fit the record as well as we would like it to. We bounced around a few ideas and came up with Hysterical Blindness. We were calling it Boom Goes the Dynamite for a year or so and strangely enough, B.J. our manager would never refer to it as Boom Goes the Dynamite. (Everyone is laughing) He said “The reason I’m not doing that is because you never know, you might change the record title.” We were like “No, B.J.,we are sold on it!”

BRIAN, AS A SONGWRITER, DO THINGS COME REALLY EASILY AND FLOW FOR YOU?

Yes they do when I let the muse in. As I have told the guys before, whenever I try to sit down and force a song it is literally the worst thing anyone has ever heard. It sounds like I’m trying, which I just despise, but if I let it just come to me when it comes to me it becomes more involuntary like vomiting really. It’s like blinking, you don’t think about it. You get that queasy feeling and you know a song is coming! In the past I’ve learned my lesson, I’ve sat down and tried to write songs and I’ve always thrown them away. The great thing about us is that we work together so democratically. They always put their creativity on each track when we layer it. I can’t play the guitar like Mike can, I can’t play the drums like Al or the bass like Dan. We all come up with what we are feeling. I will lay a song down, they will lay their ideas down and then we will all manage to manipulate the track as a whole. We are all bringing songs in now, whereas before it used to just be me.

DAN, YOU PULL DOUBLE DUTY BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT ONLY PLAYING BASS, BUT YOU ALSO PLAY KEYBOARD.

I used to be a one-man band. I wasn’t good enough to play in any real bands when I was in high school. When I started playing I had to learn to play everything because I wanted to record and see how it would sound with drums and things. I ended up picking them up along the way. I’m actually a songwriter/guitarist by origin, but then in the band I ended up being a bass player and falling in love with that. We have all been writing recently. I sent a song I wrote to the band the other day. I took a picture of it because I didn’t have any chords. I had this polyrhythm with it and I was like “I know this is going to go somewhere.” I finally just drew a picture of it and sent it to them.

Mike: You had written on it “There’s no chords, take that Brian!” (Everyone laughing)

Brian: As I recall I replied to you “Leave it to Dan to write a song with no chords.”

Al: I think I said something like “This is the first time I have ever “seen” a song.”

Brian: That one is still in the works, we are not going to play that tonight for you Shauna!

I’D LIKE TO SEE THAT PICTURE. BRIAN AT THE CD RELEASE PARTY YOUR PARENTS WERE THERE. THEY SHOWED SO MUCH SUPPORT. HAVE ALL OF YOU HAD THE SAME KIND OF SUPPORT?

Dan: No, my parents disowned me. (Laughing)

Mike: I think all across the board our parents have been awesome. Our entire families have shown support and done as much as they could. Having your parents come out to shows is the most awesome thing. It’s the extension of the garage. They’d be in the living room and hear you in the garage banging away. They’d be like “Oh! That’s my son! Someday, he’ll get somewhere.”

IMAGINE THE PARENTS OF THE DEATH METAL BANDS. YOU DON’T SEE MANY PARENTS AT THOSE SHOWS.

Yes, that’s true! That is a helluva point. We are all very lucky with our families being incredibly supportive.

WHO DID YOU GET TO PRODUCE THE RECORD? HAVE YOU WORKED WITH THEM BEFORE?

Brian: Christopher Hughes who we share this space with and us. He engineered and co-produced. It was a new experience for us because on For Her we had worked with a guy named Arthur Barrow. He was Frank Zappa’s bassist and he helped produce Billy Idol and Diana Ross. We had someone who had a lot of experience. In this particular situation we wanted to kind of run with it ourselves and see what we could do with it on our own. Chris is amazing, he is just an incredible producer. The great thing about him is that he is totally open to whatever ideas we had. He is like a blank page and you are allowed to come in and write. It was really a great process for us.

Dan: Mike and I ended up going in during the mixing process and sitting down with just the three of us. I don’t know what it was about the three of us, but we all had different ideas that seemed to balance each other out well.

Mike: It would be like I would have an idea that needed the tweaking from those two as well. It would go to Dan and then to Chris. We had this kind of team work thing that we would do. It’s the same way that we work up songs for each other. We basically worked up mixes that way.

Brian: What they are trying to say is that they didn’t invite Al and I in on it.

Dan: We banned Brian from the mixing process and Al was like “Eh! I’m tired.” No, they were both very supportive. If they had ideas that they wanted to bring to us, it was fully open that way.

Mike: We did a song called “With Grace” off the record and out of necessity we ended up needing to mix it. It turned out really well.

Brian: We were licensing it for a movie and they needed it for a certain time. We recorded it in one day and mixed it the next.

IS THE MOVIE OUT?

No I don’t think so, it’s Hal Holbrook and Maggie Grace in the movie Flying Lessons. It had premiered at the Santa Barbara Film Festival and then they have been working with distributors to try and get that. We don’t know all the details.

YOU GUYS JUST MADE A NEW MUSIC VIDEO. WHICH SONG DID YOU MAKE IT FOR?

Al: We made it for the song “As If” which is the fourth track on Hysterical Blindness. It is one of my favorites. I really love Brian’s lyrics on that song. For me personally, they conjure up a lot of emotions that I had about my mother actually. She passed away a couple years ago and there are a few lines in there. I still get really emotional when I hear it. I don’t think he intended the song for that sort of thing. It’s more of a love song.

WELL EVERYONE INTERPRETS SONGS DIFFERENTLY.

Absolutely! The video actually releases tonight. It is actually loading as we speak. We are launching our first website that isn’t a social media outlet. We are launching www.brianbuckleyband.com. The website is almost finished, you can go to it now, but we are going to do the big Facebook, Twitter email blast in about three or four days.

WHAT IS THE PLAN AS FAR AS TOURING IS CONCERNED FOR THIS ALBUM?

We are definitely going to go up the west coast and also do Sacramento, San Francisco and Santa Barbara later in the summer. Right now we are doing a few shows in New Jersey and New York in July. We are doing Chicago in October. We just won this House of Blues contest. The House of Blues had done this “New Music Nights” contest and they had selected ten bands, three bands from each city San Diego, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. It was an honor to be selected and then we ended up winning the thing, so we are going to play those three cities in July as well.

YOU GUYS ARE ALSO GOING TO BE PERFORMING AT THE SUPERNATURAL CONVENTIONS TOO.

Yes, which has been amazing to say the least. We are going to be doing the New Jersey one in July aside from a New York show as well. The Supernatural fans have been incredible to us. They are amazing and loyal fans. They are also some of the most incredible people. Jared Padalecki was obviously instrumental in making that happen and it has just been a wildfire since then. It’s been very organic because you have to convert everybody in there. They are there for the show; they are not there to watch you.

We went up to San Francisco, we were playing in this hotel and we brought all this equipment to set up. We hadn’t met any of these people before, they don’t know our music and they don’t know who we were. When we got up there we could feel the eyes watching us. They could go either way. They could be like “This isn’t my music and I don’t know what you guys are doing here.” They could be like “You’re not that Supernatural!” We started playing and by the third song it just felt like the whole crowd was with us and they were involved in the show with us. It was a really intimate show and a lovely experience. We normally play shows where people know us and they come to watch us. Playing a show where there are 300-400 people watching you that have zero idea of who you are and didn’t come for you, I mean you have nothing to lose, you just have fun.

IT’S GREAT THAT YOU HAVE BEEN EMBRACED BY THE SUPERNATURAL FANS.

Yeah it’s been really nice. It’s been a lovely experience. Now we just want to have world domination, but that will be next year. It’s coming!

I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO ONE OF THEM. HOW MANY PEOPLE SHOW UP?

Thousands of people show up. The fans come out for it.

I GO TO NAMM EVERY YEAR AND IT IS INSANE. THERE ARE SO MANY VENDORS. WHAT DO THEY DO AT THE SUPERNATURAL CONVENTIONS?

It’s mostly round table conversations where like Jared for instance, will come out. People basically wait in line to ask questions. It is also like a community experience where people share this thing in common. They get together, make new friends and old ones are reunited. It’s almost like summer camp.

DO THEY MAKE CRAFTS LIKE LITTLE JARED DOLLS?

They actually did! They made little dioramas from scenes from the show. It was amazing. You should have seen some of these, they were incredible.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE INTERVIEW. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN TALKING WITH YOU. WOULD YOU LIKE TO ADD OR SAY ANYTHING?

Thank you for doing this. It is really incredibly kind of you and we were so happy to meet you. All that you have done to support us so far has been wonderful. We really appreciate you Shauna, so thank you.