Road Crew Magazine
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While there was a great prize on the table, and only one of six bands would walk away with it, the crowd that gathered for the 2nd annual Teen Board Battle of the Bands were the true winners.  Braving the wintry weather that blasted the state, covering much of Oklahoma with rain and snow, fans showed up to cheer their favorite local bands on to victory, and were not disappointed with the performances given.

Originally set for an outside performance, the battle moved indoors when the Gaylord-Pickens Museum opened it’s doors, bringing the music inside due to the inclement weather.  Although the museum’s ballroom was not quite equipped to handle the musical onslaught, all six performances still rocked the house.

The bands would be judged in five areas, including:  presentation, originality, musicianship, over all quality of performance and audience response by a panel of judges hailing from different areas of the entertainment industry in Oklahoma:  Joe Wertz, Entertainment Editor for the Oklahoma Gazette, Patrick with The Lost Ogle, Kate Wimberly with radio station KJ103 and Daniel Lapham, Entertainment Editor with TV station OETA.  The audience would act as the final judge and chose an overall “crowd favorite” by donating money to the cause in baskets displaying their favorite band’s name, with the money raised going to fund Oklahoma history education for adults and students, through both the Gaylord-Pickens Oklahoma Heritage Museum and the Association.

At the end of the night, it was Native American band Injunuity who became the 2009 Teen Board Battle of the Bands champions, winning the $1000 prize.  Jordan Bailey, voted crowd favorite, took 2nd, and teen band Forevermore came in 3rd.

Road Crew had the opportunity to sit down with all six bands to find out a little more about them, and also had the opportunity to talk with last year’s battle winner Hollow.  So grab yourself something to drink, then sit back and enjoy the ride as we introduce you to some of Oklahoma's hottest new bands.

Injunuity is a Native American band that while their music has a Native sound, the sources they pull from spans from genres all across the music realm.

Road Crew:  What are the names and ages of each band member and what instrument do each of you play?

Jeff:  I'm Jeff Carpenter and I play acoustic and electric guitar (Brad: and sax), and, but not tonight, and I'm officially 23.

Brad:   Hi, I'm Brad Clonch, tonight I will only be playing native flute, but I'm also a keyboard player and I am 28.

James:  I'm James Purdy and I'm 30 and I play the drums and percussion.

Robby:  I'm Robby Blair and I'm 32 and I play bass.

Road Crew:   How did you guys come about choosing your band name and what does it mean?

Brad:   Our band name, well, it actually started years ago when I was just a solo native flute, American Indian, native flute performer, and I met with Jeff, and Jeff started working with me.
And I had a gig coming up and I said, "Hey do you wanna try to learn some of my stuff on acoustic guitar so I don't have to play solo."  And Jeff agreed to it and learned, what, 5 or 6 pieces we did, and kind of hit it off.  And the crowd enjoyed it and so from there, long story short, it grew to include other Native American musicians, and actually, a Chickasaw composer by the name of Jared Tate, he just finished recording with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, a big name in what is now becoming Native American Classical music told us we needed to  go with the name Injunity and give it a positive meaning, because it somewhat comes from a word that was derogatory to our culture.  And so we're taking it with positive music, traveling around and showcasing it as a positive thing, that we're doing positive things under that name. And we're all of Native American, American Indian decent.  I myself am Mississippi Choctaw, Robby Blair is Chickasaw, James Purdy is Oklahoma Choctaw and Jeff here is Chickasaw, and  we're all from Ada, Oklahoma.

Robby:   And when you listen to the music, you have kind of a hodge-podge kind of self built style to it, so that kind of fits in with the name.

Brad:   And then the purpose of actually playing it is actually to preserve the Native American flute because it was almost lost this past century in our culture.  It was re-introduced back to us.  It is primarily used as a solo instrument, but we've taken it into a new genre of music to incorporate folk, rock, some blues stuff.  Anything that we write we can go from string quartet with the native flute all the way up to heavy rock with the native flute.  We're gonna showcase a few of those songs tonight.  And it replaces vocals, so it's the vocal line, the Native American flute is.

Road Crew:  A little bit of everybody's style all rolled into one.

Brad:  Yeah, exactly.

Road Crew:  I like that.

Brad:  The Native Jethro Tull, I guess you could say.

Road Crew:  Who are you guys' individual influences and the band's influences?

Jeff:  I come from a more rock, a heavier hard rock type background and I never really listened or was into this kind of music, especially Native music.  I've never had any background in that, whatsoever.  So with me, meeting up with Brad and he comes from maybe a little softer, orchestral background, classical, the two of us kind of merged and kind of met halfway in the middle.  So we've got the rock element over here and with the classical and the native kind of thing as well, with the string orchestra and that kind of thing.  So, my influences are a little heavier, but I've really found, I think we've found a good medium between, you know, just coming together and taking our influences and merging them together.

Brad:  And it will be very prevalent on the next album, ‘cause I'm orchestrating actual quartet string parts, where Jeff's gonna be doing the heavy rock guitar, so it's gonna be I guess similar to Avenged Sevenfold's last album where they incorporate the strings in, and Metallica has done it too.  But we're doing the native flute side.  I come from a classical movie score background.  I listened to a lot of classical and movie scores growing up.  That's ultimately what I do as a main job, is score music for TV and commercials.  That's my area, but these guys, meeting them, they've introduced me to their little realms of music too.  So I'm learning to pick up other influences.

James:  My influences, I grew up of course on Classic rock.  My parents always had me listen to The Eagles, the Doobie Bothers and all those guys.  Then a few years ago I really got into Dave Matthews Band.  Carter Beauford is just an unbelievable drummer.  And then I really got into jazzy funk, real laid back, just grooving stuff with Steve Jordan and stuff, with what he did with John Mayer and stuff like that.  That's primarily what I really enjoy.  And I started actually, I  actually play with another band and do Red Dirt music, so, and that's Southern Rock.  I was heavily influenced by Southern Rock and blues and stuff.  I'm a melting pot of styles of music, I guess, that I play.

It was interesting getting with these guys.  I had actually met Jeff, we were working on a project with somebody else a couple of years ago, two or three years ago in Dallas, when I was in school down there.  and I guess that's how I kind of got in with these guys.  He knew that I played drums.  They were looking for somebody to play a couple of shows.

Brad:  We were looking for a Native drummer.  Not only was it hard to find a drummer, but to also make sure they were Native American.

James:  I lucked out.  It's been a lot of fun.  I'm really enjoying it.  It's different, I really enjoy it.

Robby:  I grew up on the west coast, so all my influences are like, Chili Peppers, a lot of skunk funk, from the mid 90's and then a lot of hip hop, a lot of east coast stuff that used a lot of jazz , blues and base lines in their repertoire.  So I ended up listening to a lot of like, Charles Mingus and guys on that line there, that's a little way more advanced than what I like, but just the way they fit in their music, and they don't have to overplay and that's really important with the bass.  And then  blues and rock-a-billy.  I listen to everything out there.  It's nice the way the music in this band works.  Every song is so different.  So you can find your little place and play something really super complex or you can just kind of lay back and kind of fit in, and let someone else kind of take over. A little bit of everything kind of molded my playing style.

Road Crew:  Are you self taught or did you have formal instruction?

Robby:  I'm self taught.

Jeff:  No real formal instruction.  A few lesson when I started playing guitar, but nothing major.

Brad:  My primary instrument was the piano.  I went to a summer camp and saw a counselor playing and said, "Ooh, I wanna do that."  So I began teaching myself from a little red book and went on from there.  When I started college, I took four months from a music chair there in Ada, and he passed away, so there went my music lesson right there.  Everything else has been self taught.

James:  My parents are both band directors, so I kind of got smacked around with music instruction my whole life.  It wasn't until about 10 years ago I really got into drums and really started wanting to pursue it,  I wanted to pursue it growing up, but my parents wanted me playing something other than drums.  Can't get good scholarships for drums, that's what their idea was.  So, I was trombone and piano growing up. My dad's a drummer, so which I thought was weird, he wouldn't let me play drums.  So I kind of, I knew how to play drums all my life, but 10 years ago really pushed it and started getting after it.  Now it's all I do.  I manage a music store and play drums.

When the dust had settled and Injunity came away on top, we sat down with the band a second time to find out a little more about what the future holds for this very amazing, unique band.

Road Crew:  Where do you go from here?  What's the next stop?

Brad:  The next stop, we go and play in front of the largest crowd we've every played in front of, which is about 18,000 people in Albuquerque, for Gathering of Nations.  They put us on the actual pit floor to be the band before the "Grand Entry" and that's when all the tribes across North America meet.

Robby:  Yeah, it's the largest pow wow in the country.

Brad:  Yeah, the North American Continent.

Road Crew:  When is this?

Brad:  April 23rd, 24th and 25th is when we'll be out there.

Robby:  We play Friday in the morning in the pit and then in the afternoon, they have a stage outside.

Brad:  The university of New Mexico pit.  They have a stage set up on the center floor and we play, and like I said, then all nations from across, the Native American Nations come in from all four angles , representing the four directions.  So, we were honored.  We get that honor of playing before them.  We're very stoked about that.

Jeff:  We gotta play more than 3 songs...

(laughter)

Road Crew:  Will you be playing any of the local pow wows, like in September?

Brad:  We started getting contacted, a lot of our stuff, believe it or not, a lot of people locally don't know about us.  The only big show we've really done in Oklahoma has been for Red Earth, and we've played that two years in a row.  But a lot of people don't know we exist.  But we did start getting a few invitations to pow wows.  I know we've got one in Ada that's coming up and we started getting calls a lot to play out of state.  But out of state is where we do most of our performances.

Road Crew:  So what message or advice do you have for other Oklahoma bands, with this being focused on Oklahoma heritage?

Brad:  Well, I guess you'll say both, find out what your roots are and make that a part of your life.  Whether it's art or with philosophy or poetry or drama.   I was a musician for so long, like I said earlier, my main instrument was piano and I started getting more in tune with my tribal culture through my aunt, and was introduced to the native flute.  And from there, I hardly touch a keyboard unless I'm composing or scoring.  My main instrument now is the native flute.  You guys?

James:  You know, just really find that one thing you're really passionate about and go as hard as you can at that.  'Cause, I mean, for a long time I thought sports was the way that I wanted to go, so I just went after that.  And then a few years ago, about 10 years ago, I really got my focus changed back towards music and that's all I focus on, just music, music, music, everything, and now that's all I do.  And that's pretty much what I identify with only, is music stuff.  Just find that one thing that gets you going more than anything and just work as hard as you can.  I think that's what's gonna help you more than anything, 'cause that's what's gonna drive you.  If you're getting to find what your passion is that's what's gonna continue, you're not gonna want to do anything but that.  If you know what you're passionate about don't let anything hold you back.  Just go as hard as you can at it.

Brad:  And you can't put bars on yourself either, musically speaking, to musicians.  Because as you heard earlier, we're all four from different musical backgrounds.  Music's the universal language, no matter what you speak, if it's Arabic, or English or Chinese, music is universal and it's brought us four together from four different backgrounds.

Road Crew:  And it works.  What you guys have really works well.

Robby:  I think to other musicians, whatever your style or whatever you like to play, keep playing it, but be open to collaboration.  That's how this group came together.  It was just let's get together and jam and see what everybody brings to the table.

Jeff:  Nobody really grew up listening to native music.

James:  You know, the thing I've noticed, with every practice that we've gotten together and somebody will be setting up or something and the others will be ready to go, we'll all just kind of start playing around, and every single time it's like somebody will start playing something and we'll just kind of go into this little jam session.  And something new comes out of it or like was it earlier this week, or a couple of weeks ago, we were practicing and I just started playing this groove that I enjoyed.  It's like a salsa type groove.  I get done playing it and they're going, "That's like the exact groove we put on a recording at work down there that we're working on."  You know, it was just something that I had been working on having fun with and started playing it.  And they started playing the song they had been writing with it and it's just stuff like that that's just really cool, you know, when accidents turn into really good things.

Road Crew:  So how does your song writing process work?

Robby:  Brad tells us what to play.

(laughter)

Jeff:  Okay  basically we picked these guys up probably for a show at the beginning of this year, so Brad and I came up with most of the material before, because we had been playing as a duo beforehand.  And we were, you know, we need other musicians to play with, ‘cause it's not the same without a percussion instrument or a base player.

Brad:  And they add their own flair.  I mean we'll write the base notes or the rhythm and they'll add their own flair to it, so it turns into something different than what Jeff and I wrote.

Jeff:  The chord progression, it usually comes up here, then they add their own flavor to it.  But you know, we're looking forward to writing stuff with them in the future, for sure.

Robby:  It all has to kind of start with Brad, because he knows what he can play.  It's not really limited, but style wise and just pure exhaustedness, if we play a certain thing and it's where he has to play super fast.  It kind of works best if he starts, if he brings us what he's working on.  We can fill in where we need to.

Brad:  And all the flutes, I don't know if we told you guys earlier, you can get them in different keys and they're all pentatonic minor type scales.  But you can play major type scales with them too.  So tonight, I think I played an F# minor flute, a D minor flute, and an A minor flute, so it depends on what the song key is and I'll try to arrange that to with what flute I use.

Road Crew:  Do you draw most of your inspiration from the Native American culture?

Brad:  I do.  When we first started writing together, Jeff and I just started making my way back from a Homelands trip.  Mississippi is where our tribe evolved from, came from before Removal.  That's where they placed us, the Mississippi River Valley.  We took a trip back there to see all the cultural side with our job and I wrote a lot of music after getting back from that trip.  A lot of it I wanna say is not me, it's stuff, something, that, I don't know how you explain it.

Road Crew:  It inspires you.

Brad:  Yeah, it's just there.

Road Crew:  As a lot of the radio stations just play rock to country or oldies, how do you plan on trying to push your music into more of the secular realm?

Brad:  Well, we've got XM Satellite Radio, we've been on there.  They have "Fine Tuning", they do a program called Hand of Grandfather and she puts us on there, the DJ.  There are actually a lot of Naive American FM radio stations that push Native music.  For instance, we're about to have in Ada that's gonna be pushing Native American Music, there are a lot of AM too.  Of course, Native Radio, is the largest, online internet music source.  They play all types of native genres or blues or rock or country, the traditional pow wow, for vocal or story telling.  They'll feature all that.  So the actual transmission setups are there. It's just a matter of us getting heard and people saying, "hey, we want your music on our show."

Road Crew:  Not necessarily a fan base, but a listening base, I guess for lack of a better word,  to get the word out there, that, hey this is there and this is good.

Brad:  We had a great response after playing last year in Albuquerque.  Last year we just played on the outdoor stage and of course this eyar we'll play on the big indoor stage show, but from that we got a great response and actually gigs out of that in Santa Fe, Akama New Mexico and a larger fan listening base.  It's slowly growing and it's nothing mainstream, and we don't want to be mainstream.  It's something in my eyes, preserving that piece of our culture and like I said earlier, it almost disappeared from our culture just his past century.

Road Crew:  Not to be exploited, to be appreciated.

Brad:  Exactly.

Road Crew:  Do you have actual tour plans?

Brad:  Rob, Jeff and I, we all work for a multimedia company, Chickasaw multimedia, so we all do video and music for a living.  We do a lot of local PSA stuff.  More of our stuff has to do with cultural preservation, whether it's shooting a language and event, or a lot of in house video for conferencing that they do.

Robby:  A lot of elder interviews and documentaries, life stories of our elders.  We do a lot of preservation.

Brad:  And we're on the road so much doing that, when we do get spare time, they're very supportive in letting us travel.  We have 3 main events we do every year.  Usually Read Earth, the Gathering of Nations and they have a festival in Alabama, we play that.  A lot of times when we're on trips and when they have large conferences we'll get to play, plus be at work.  So it's kind of cool, we're all together.  We can throw out instrumentation and play there, but it's still part of the work.  Maybe one day we can take a summer off and do a summer tour.

Road Crew:  You mentioned you guys are gonna try for a Grammy?

Brad:  We are, that's our ultimate goal.  This last, I wanna say this last winter, the winner in the Native American category, it was a non native, but he had native artists come in.  Not that I'm completely against that, but I think that it needs to be an actual Native American performer that's written the music, that’s something from them and their culture, whether, whichever one of the 500 tribes it is there.  It think it needs to be that, but that's our goal.  We want to shoot for that.

Robby:  If you can get to that level, you can get a lot of people hearing it.  It's a win-win situation.

Brad:  And it brings, we want to push Native music and our culture as far as we can to let people know, you know, our culture doesn't belong in a museum, that we're up here playing it.

Road Crew:  (pointing at James) What do you, (at Robby, James and Brad) Let's see, you three work together, right?

James:  I manage a music store.

Robby:  He works down the street from us.

Road Crew:  So you're a music store manager?

James:  Yeah, and I play drums on the weekend.

Robby:  When we're at work, we all have our instruments at work.  So, if we're taking a break we'll go down and maybe we'll do a rehearsal and build it into a work day.  Or if we're working on something, a little riff or something, I'll take it to Jeff and let him hear it.  Then we have our official practice after work, or whenever, kind of work on it more then.  When you get the spark of the moment, and "Hey, I got this little thing I'm working on."

Road Crew:  Yeah, it's always good to do it right there so you don't forget.  Put it down before it's lost, heck yeah.

Brad:  I think one of the cool things we do when working together, we can take a lot of things we've written turning orchestral scores and actual string orchestra and it can find it's way into some of the pieces we actually produce at work, and vice versa, we might write something at work, we may take a version of it and make it to fit us.  I guess you could say we're lucky and get to be paid to be creative.

Jordan Bailey was the only finalist that appeared as a solo artist, belting out some original tunes with just the help of her acoustic guitar.

Road Crew:  Who are your influences?

Jordan:  I have a lot, my influences, the music I listen to, is a very wide range, kind of like my mood of the day.  Taylor Swift is one.  I like her music writing aspect of it.  Colbie Caillat and Ron Pope.  And I like basically anybody that is really mellow and acoustic.  I automatically, I’m a sucker for anything acoustic.  So that’s a lot of my influences, are just people that are songwriters and that are trying to relate to people and stuff,  mostly anybody like that are my influences.

Road Crew:  Do you write your own music?  I knew the second song was kind of an original.  What was the name of that one again?

Jordan:  Yeah, I had 3 originals.  The second one was, “Why Can’t You Be Mine?”

Road Crew:  You said that was the first one you wrote?

Jordan:  That was the very first song that I ever wrote with my guitar.  That was the reason I started playing guitar, I had been, writing songs and stuff and am really into poetry and stuff and when I’d write these songs, I was like “I have nothing to put with these.” So that’s why on my 15th birthday, I had some money for my birthday and I was, I’m gonna go buy me a guitar.  And I taught myself to play.

Road Crew:  And you’re how old now?

Jordan:  I’m 18.  I’ve been playing for 2 years.

Road Crew:  So, other than music, do you have any hobbies?

Jordan:  I am very wide ranged.  I also play basketball, I did play basketball, our season just recently ended.  I work out, I hang out with friends, basically a high school girl.

Road Crew:  What do you have on your iPod?

Jordan:  Pretty much everything.  From hip hop music that we’re gonna blast in the car just  dancin around and goofin, to like really mellow stuff, acoustic like country basically anything.  Whatever my mood is at the time, to what I’m feeling.  I’m just like, “I’m feelin like this today.”

Road Crew:  You’re a Senior this year?

Jordan:  Yeah, I’m a senior.

Road Crew:  Do you have any plans to further this career, or try to?

Jordan:  I, actually for music, yes.  But it’s kind of different from your typical  main stream music.  It’s kind of actually a new field, it’s called music therapy.  They go to hospitals and stuff.  I really love kids and I like working with kids.  It’s either hospitals or nursing homes, ‘cause the rhythmic exercises will help with maybe, some of, lesson some of the symptoms of certain cancers and stuff and like other diseases.  Working with them on rhythmic exercises , not just playing for them, but it’s like working through them with music.  It will not cure, but it will help a lot, and you can help to take their mind off of it, if not anything else.

Road Crew:  But a treatment non the less.

Jordan: Yeah. That’s what I really want to go into.

Road Crew:  Interesting, I’ve never heard of that.

Jordan:  I hadn’t either until, I’m in a family/marriage class and we do career searches and I was looking through stuff with music and that kind of caught my eye, so I read the description of it and stuff and I was, “this is really cool, I ‘d like something like that.”

Road Crew:  Is this something that will be offered around here, that you will try to go into here, or do you have to travel?

Jordan:  Yeah, they have, it’s a little rarer here and more in the north east it’s more prevalent, but I can study for it.  Like, I’m going to Southwestern next year and I would have to major in human studies and psychology. 

Road Crew:  That’s interesting.  I’ll have to read up on that.

Forevermore is a band composed of teenagers who prove that you can be a Christan, working towards reaching people and still rock.

Road Crew: What are the names and ages of each band member and what instrument does each person play?

Aaryn:  I’m Aaryn  Lee and I play guitar and I am 18.

Collin:  I’m Collin Low and I’m 17 years old and I play guitar and keys.

Ethan:  I’m Ethan Low and I play bass.

Travis:  I’m Travis Gold  and I’m 17 and I play drums.

Road Crew:  So, how did you guys choose the name Forevermore and what does it mean?

Collin:  Ok, I have loved music forever, I always wanted to be in a band and so I’m also a Christian, so I’m very strong in my faith.  I had just prayed about it and came across the name one day and it just really stood out to me and thought, that would be a really cool band name.  So I kind of just picked it before I even had a band.  I knew that’s what I wanted our name to be.  So I guess that’s kind of how we came across it.  There’s a verse that talks about God speaking through his people to help others forevermore.  And that’s kind of my mission as a musician, to help other people.

Road Crew:  Who are your different influences?

Collin:   My biggest influence is a band from San Diego called Switchfoot. I am also a huge fan of a band called Between The Trees. I like all kinds of music though, I'm just a fan. I also draw a lot of what I write from life experiences. Whether they be mine or someone else’s. The stories are original and that’s what I’m aiming for.

Ethan:  I basically share the same influences as Collin. I am also influences heavily by a band called Anberlin.

Aaryn:  I am a big fan of heavy metal. It's not the style we play but It still influences me. I like all kinds of music though, even some classical stuff.

Travis:  I just love music. I listen to pretty much everything. From hard rock to some classical to Indie, just whatever.

Collin:  We don't all go to the same church but we are involved in our churches worship groups as well. Whether it be in youth group or onstage Sunday morning. You get cool experiences playing in church that you don't get anywhere else so we all share that.

Road Crew:  So, do you plan to pursue music when you get out of college, or make that a major?

Collin:  I actually have a music scholarship to East Central University so I will be attending there and plan to major in a music/worship degree.

Ethan:  I'm not sure if I'm going to Pursue music through college, I mean, I want to be involved in music still but I don't know if I will major in it.

Aaryn:   I plan on majoring in art. I have talent in this area so that’s what I’m going to do. I still want to play though.

Travis:   Well, I'm still not really sure what I'm going to major in although I think music will be a part of it.

Tritium is a band made up of Jr High students, but don't let their ages fool you, because these kids can rock with big boys.

Road Crew:  How did you choose the name Tritium and what does it mean?

Riley:  Tritium is a radioactive element that consists of 3 hydrogen atoms and since there were originally 3 of us, that’s how we came about it.

Road Crew:  What are the names and ages of each band member and what does each person play?

Caden:  I’m Caden Castelli and I’m 13 and I play bass.

Riley:  I’m Riley Honnewell and I’m 13 and I play the guitar.

Carson:  I’m Carson Hawkins and I’m 13 and I play the drums.

Jordan:  I’m Jordan Lindley and I’m 12 and I sing and play guitar.

Road Crew:  Who are your individual influences?

Caden:  I like Coldplay a lot, The Beatles and Red Hot Chili Peppers.  And then, Radiohead’s really good too.

Riley:  I like Led Zeppelin and AC/DC.

Carson:  I like Led Zeppelin and The Ramones.

Jordan:  I like Bowling For Soup, Green Day, We The Kings.  I like a lot of unknown bands.

Road Crew:  How did you get started in music?

Caden:  Well, in the 5th grade, no the 4th grade, my music teacher had a flier out for guitar lessons, and I started talking to my mom like, “I really wanna play guitar” and then she said finally said yes.  We got a guitar and I called the person and started taking lessons.  Then they (Tritum) needed a bass player.  They were in the 6th grade talent show and I just came up to them and asked them if they wanted a bass player and they said sure, so I tried out for it.

Riley:  I’ve played guitar since 2nd grade, and one of my teachers went to college and I got a new teacher in the 5th grade for the talent show and in 6th grade we played in the talent show.

Carson:  Well, me and Riley were playing Leggos one day in 5th grade whenever we had recess and then we were like, “Hey, do you wanna start a band?” and he was like, “Yeah, I play guitar.”  And I was like, “Well, I guess I could learn how to play drums.”  Then we needed a singer , then Jordan said he sung.  And he had this little CD from whenever he was 7, so then we made a little band and then we went to the talent show.

Jordan:  I got my first guitar the Christmas of 1st grade and I started lessons right after first grade got let out.

Road Crew:  Do you write all your own music?

Caden:  He (Jordan) writes all the songs.

Road Crew:  How do you work school activities around practicing?

Jordan:  We have practice every Sunday for 3 hours, unless we’re playing that weekend or something.l  We’ll all go over to Caden’s during the week after school.

Caden:  We’ll just practice for awhile, make sure we have everything down for the gig or whatever we’re gonna be playing.  None of our school stuff is usually on Sundays.  That’s why we kind of chose that.

Hold 'Em High is a teenage band that plays shows all over the Oklahoma City area, leaving their fans yelling for more.

Road Crew: What are the names and ages of each band member, and what instrument does each person play?

Harrison: I’m Harrison and I’m the vocalist, (and I’m) 17.

Zach: I’m Zach and I play the lead guitar and I just turned 16.

Tyler: I’m Tyler and I play drums and I’m 16.

Kyle: I’m Kyle and I play bass and I’m 16.

Road Crew: How did you guys choose the name Hold ‘Em High and what does it mean?

Kyle: Honestly, we just went with it. We really don’t have a meaning for it. We wanted something kind of positive and just, I don’t know, something to stand out. Kind of catchy.

Harrison: I just think it’s a really cool, flashy name!

Road Crew: Who brought it up?

Tyler: Kyle.

Road Crew: Who are your individual influences?

Harrison: I would have to say, what’s really cool about our band is we come from different backgrounds. But, I would have to say, Maroon 5, their vocalist , Adam Levine, is one of my favorite singers. The lead singer from Say Anything, Max Bemis, I love him, love his lyrics, awesome and creative. And Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance is another great influence for me.

Zach: the first band that influenced me to even start and pick up the guitar was Guns N Roses. And then from there I started getting more into the metal scene and got into Tool.

Tyler: What made me start drumming, was my dad. He played drums and I just kind of caught on to it. My favorite drummer would be Aaron Gillespie

Kyle: Honestly, I pretty much listen to everything. I like a wide range of music. I listen to a lot of bands.


Road Crew: What kind of gear and equipment do you guys use?


Zach: I have a Mesa Boogie half stack and I play a white Les Paul Gibson. I like it a lot. I’ve had it for 2 or 3 years.

Tyler: I play a Gretch drum set, but I’m saving up for probably a custom kit.

Kyle: I play a Schecter bass. I just like the way it sounds. And I also play an ibanez.

The Transit Message took the stage with force, their fans were crowd surfing and they closed the show with a high energy performance. 

Road Crew: What are the names and ages of each band member and what instrument does each person play?

James: I’m James Borders and I play keys.

Tony: I’m Tony Romano and I’m 17 and I play drums.

Tim: I’m Timothy (Burgess), I’m 17 and I’m the lead vocalist.

Ben: I’m Ben (Renfrow), I play lead guitar and I just turned 15 about four weeks ago.

Joe: I’m Joe (Greiner) and I’m 17 too, and I play bass.

Cody: And I’m Cody Carson and I’m 17 years old and I play guitar and sing.

Road Crew: How did you choose the name The Transit Message and what does it mean?

Joe: We came up with it, we needed a name before one of our very first shows. We were trying to find what would be a really good name, so we made a Facebook group and we opened up Transit Message and we were like, let’s go with that one. It’s a good one and it stuck. It’s been a good one, we don’t really know exactly what it means.

Tim: I actually joined the band recently and I asked them what the band name meant and they basically told me they had no idea. So in writing lyrics for a song we’re actually going to be performing today, I had sort of thought about it when I was in school, I incorporated the lyrics. Transit means “motion or moving”, message is just, you know, straight up a message. So, it’s like poetry in motion, it’s music, it’s what we are, it’s what we’re here to deliver. It’s what we sing and it’s what we’re doing. It’s what we are, we are music.

Road Crew: Who are your individual influences?

Joe: We all have different musical tastes. Tony and I were brought up on Blink 182, a lot more punkish music. And these two are a little more poppy and Tim is just all over the place and has a lot of classical feel to his music.

Tim: I’m the odd man out, I really am.

Cody: We really cam together around a lot of pop/punk music like Blink 182, Cute Is What We Aim For, Artic Monkeys. That’s when we were forming, that was the common interest we really shared, before we started writing music. And then as we sort of grew, we branched out a lot. All the way to anything, like, I don’t even know. I listen to Dragonforce.

Ben: Yeah, I listen to Dragonforce. I have to say my guitar style kind of originated from them, a lot of tapping involved so, there’s a lot of Dragonforce blood in me.

Joe: We like to keep our melodies pure, to get fast with it, but we also like to get slow. We like to have fun with our music. Our music kind of has a really upbeat feel that makes you happy, you know.

Ben: It just brings me joy. I’m just gonna say it, it makes me feel happy.

Tim: I’ve been a member of the band for just a couple of months, but as I’ve been a part of it, I’ve started writing new music. Basically our stuff sounds a lot like Motion City Soundtrack and a lot of bands like that. I want to be able to be clever and lyrically intense, and steer away from the more cliché sounding “I love the girl, she loves me back, we ran away together.”

Road Crew: When you get to college do you play to keep pursing music, to try to keep the band together?

Cody: I don’t know about keeping the band together. I’d really prefer to have it, but everybody plans to go to different colleges, possibly to different states.

Tim: I’m a senior this year, so I will be graduation in May. They’re all actually Juniors. They’re younger than I am. I’m going to UCO. I’m actually going to major in Theater Ed, but I’ll be pursuing music on the side. I’m gonna room with a guy that’s a music major.

James: For sure a couple of more years we can keep going.

Road Crew: Where are you guys from again?

(group) Oklahoma City and Edmond.

Cody: Naturally there’s gonna have to be some changes made once people go to different colleges. There’s defiantly odds some of us will leave Oklahoma and pursue other places and stuff. But we’re gonna try and see what we can do to keep everything as local and together as we can for as long as we can. But there’s always gonna come a point when you can’t really pursue that anymore, but we’re gonna see.  You know it’s kind of always about enjoying the ride, as we go. It’s not something we try and think about. We just try to think about having fun with it.

James: Yeah, we just love what we do.

Oklahoma City band Hollow took home the prize from last year's battle of the bands and came back for an encore performance.  Jordan and Will kindly took some time to sit down with us and fill us in on what's happened since their win at the 2008 Battle of the Bands.

Road Crew:  Hollow, how did you guys come up with the name?  Where did it come from?

Jordan:  Really, we started out, we were all in Christian bands.  We wanted to come together, but we didn’t necessarily want to be a Christian band.  Yet we wanted it to still influence our music.  Just kind of have a meaning behind our name as well.  So, Hollow stands for just emptying yourself out of sin and out of band things in your life and allow Christ to come into your hear.  Just kind of empty yourself out first, that’s kind of our message. 

Road Crew:  How many members are in your band?

Will: There is, 2, 4, 6.…

Jordan:  5

(laughter)

Will:  We’re a family band, so as far as the instruments, there’s a 3 piece band.  We’re brother-in-law.  We have 2 lead vocalists.  My wife and his wife, but my wife is actually his sister.  The drummer is not related.

Road Crew:  How old are you guys?

Will:  I’m 27.

Jordan:  I’m 28.

Road Crew:  So you’re all mid 20’s?

Jordan:  We’re the oldest ones in the band.

Will:  The drummer’s then young one, he’s 20.

Road Crew:  How long have you guys been together?

Jordan:  About 5 years now, wouldn’t you say?

Will:  4 ½ - 5, closer to 5.

Road Crew:  Going back to last year’s Battle of the Bands, what was it like getting from - how many start out last year?

Will:  I think it was 5 or 6 bands, wasn’t it?  About the same as it is this year.

Road Crew:  I mean over all.

Will:  As far as that, we just came in and auditioned and then they called us back again saying, “You’re in the battle.”

Road Crew:  So what was it like winning the whole thing?

Jordan:  It was really awesome.  It was really cold out though, that was probably the coldest weather we’ve ever played in.  It was still really awesome.

Road Crew:  How have progressed from the battle last year up to now?

Will:  Well, we’ve done a lot more, things keep changing.  We’ve incorporated some more production things in our music, as far as like, background tracks, kind of enhanced the sound.  Written a lot since then, changed drummers since then.  Our old drummer moved away.

Road Crew:  It’s probably a little easier, being in a family band to try to keep it together and keep going.  Do you do this primarily, is your band what you do?

Jordan:  I would say we defiantly make our band a priority.  We still have to have day jobs, unfortunately, but just to help us pay for our bills and our band at this point, but we’re looking to record again in the near future.

Road Crew:  That was my next question, any offers on the table for recording?

Jordan:  We’re working with a  guy named James Williams from Edmond.  He’s got a new studio he’s put together.  He’s done some really big bands in this area like Luma.  They’re a big local band.  We’re really excited about that project with him.

Will:  We lucked out on our previous recordings that are on our myspace website and stuff.

Road Crew:  Are you guys primarily the songwriters?

Will:  Jordan and his sister do a lot of the songwriting and we as far as the musical side of it, we kind of all work together.  Kind of make that happen.

I want to extend a HUGE thank you to Butch, aka The Lord from over in The Lord's Labyrinth for helping with the interviews and bringing it from audio to print, as well as all of the bands for taking the time to sit and chat with us.  Be sure to go check out their myspace pages and please no matter where you're at, support your local artists.