So how did the band get started, I know there have been many members come and go int he last 6
years..how did the band form?
I came to school at V.C.U., and i was working at this crap place waiting tables and I had met this
guy who introduced me to Donna and jerry, who is no loner with us.
He' s not dead, hes just not on the band ( smiles ).
I know, I didn't know how to say that! Well we just started playing around in houses and practicing
at video stores after hours and it just kind of steam rolled from there.
Who out of the five of you are original members?
Just me and Donna.
We consider Wiley like an original member, he came in
later but we really didn't start doing anything until Wiley got
in the band.
This one is for Brian, is it tough being the new guy, having learn all of the songs and trying
to find your own niche within the group?
This is my second round with Five Nine. I started with the
band around the year 2000 and played for about two years. It was hard
to learn the chord progressions to most of their songs and many times
it seemed like the songs 'ran together' and I would forget my part. Now I
have twice as many songs to learn and twice the difficulty level.
What drew you in to become a member of 59H20 again?
I am truly amazed with the every member of Five Nine. Each
individual contributes equally and each person is talented beyond
belief. I am fortunate to be a member of a great group of persons and
part of their family.
Who came up with the name of the band, how did that come about?
(laughing) That was another band
member who is no longer in the
band. His name is Andy and he
was our guitarist when we first got
started and we used to go to a
convenient store and grab drinks,
and he would say don't get me the
expensive water, get me the cheap
water, get me the fifty nine cent
water. He would say it in a way
that was funny and one day we
were like fifty nine cent water..,at
first we hated it and then it started
If someone has never been to a live 59H20 concert, what can they expect?
To anyone who asks about the band, you may not personally like our style of music, but you can
never say its not good. Thats pretty much how i describe it.
I think its a very catchy style of music, its a blend of rock and maybe with a touch of pop thats in
there, very radio friendly.
There have been allot of comparisons to allot of different bands through out the years, I can't just pin
point one. Everyone in the band has there own musical taste and influence so every just brings that
to the table when we perform live. A live show from us is an experience...
I would say we have rock, pop, alternative, strong vocals, really really good musicality. I think we
take allot of time to craft the songs and we actually take too much time sometimes, but it always pays
off.
What do you think keeps you motivated as a band pushing forward?
I think at this point we wouldn't know what to do with out it. It is
as much a part of us as everything at this point in our lives. Even
when we don't feel like doing it we do it, its not a question. I
think we all need it, we need to have people appreciate it and
listen and hope they enjoy it.
I enjoy creating music and allowing listeners get into what
sounds audible pleasing to me. I like the compliments that we
receive when we play at local clubs and expanding the numbers
of fans (even if we only gain one per performance, then it still is a
worthy cause)
Why do you think you and Kelly have stuck with it?
Addicts. (smiles) addicted.
(chimes in) For the money!
( laughs from all ) definitely not. I think we have been doing it so long now that we would not know
how to not do it.
I'd agree with that.
Its like a job, its like we have two full time jobs.
I think everyone goes through a moment where they go, Oh I
gotta go to practice, I've got three practices and a show. I
don't have time for anything -what am I doing and then you go,
I can't imagine not doing it. Thats the bottom line and that is
what its about. Your not making money, your not world
famous, your not doing those things but we're all still here doing
it. The pursuit, i think we all have our reasons, but in the end its
all about the music.
Besides famous people, do you all have someone specific in
your personal lives that may have influenced you musically?
That would have to be my mother, she is the one who discovered I had talent playing first organ
than later keyboard and progressing onto guitar and taking it from there. Without her pushing me
in that direction, I don't think I would have discovered it on my own.
My grandfather was a big influence when I was younger. He spent a lot of time teaching me the
acoustic guitar. My father took me to many lessons to Southern Music (downtown) many years later.
I don't know if I would be playing music today without their support.
My musical influence would be hard to say. My parents were always very supportive of me doing
music. I was put in piano lessons and even though I hated it, I was kept in piano lessons. I
probably wouldn't be able to play half as good as I can today if it were not for that. My dad plays
violin and my mom, my aunt, and grandmother played and taught piano. So, it’s kind of a musical
legacy that I had to continue.
I didn’t really have any body. My parents didn’t play instruments. Although, my dad always did
want to play guitar, but that has nothing to do with my singing. He was still really, really excited
about me playing music. I played the cello and he always wanted me to teach him and he wanted
me to be a writer. I always liked that about my dad. He didn’t give me junk about being a theater
major because he always understood the pursuit of art. Being a photographer and an artist, he’s all
that kind of good stuff in the art world, a painter, all of that kind of stuff. So I guess my dad, just
being supportive. Kind of digging what I do and not thinking it was a waste of time. He was always
pretty supportive. My mom had actually passed away before I had started being in a band, so she
didn’t even get to this point. It was pretty cool. Alright the end. (laughs)
My mother and father, growing up they always supported
me in what ever I did. They made sure that, you know, if
you’re not going to be famous, than you’ve got to have a
back up plan. So they were always smart about it. Even if
I were to drop out of school and pursue music, they were
always like "well make sure you have a back up career so
you can do something". So, they were always there. Very
supportive. Growing up we’d listen to everything.I listened
on the radio. My older sisters were influenced too. They listened to anything in the 80’s you could
possibly think of. They were listening to it and I heard it too. So, my whole family was probably my
biggest influence.
How have things changed over the years, is there lots of support for bands here in Richmond?
I’m not so sure because we’ve kind of just changed and moved where we played. We had our CD
release party. That was probably are greatest kind of support we’ve had. That’s kind of the key. You
have to get it out there and get fliers out and get CD’s or whatever out. And you know, just talk it up.
Our CD release party is where it got a lot out there and stuff. We’ve had people come out to the
show, we’ve played at Alley Cats. We’ve played with a couple bands that are really supportive of us
and that we really love. In Session and Steppin Stone who’s also on My Space. But, if you ask
people and you promote it and you have to tell people six times, they’ll come out. That’s my view of
it.
We started playing up in New York. We’ve started getting good responses from up there, so
hopefully we‘ll continue to do that. I think you can’t really get into market here to much in Richmond.
We can’t play here every weekend because it will effect the turn out. Because you know, people’ll
be like "OH! We can see them next week! So lets just not go this week." And it actually has
happened. We just kind of try to take it easy and move around a bit, so that maybe the people that
won’t come out to the West inn will maybe come out to Ashland, you know. So we kind of try to
mix it up a bit.
This next Question goes to Wiley. If Donna was no longer a part of the group and someone had
replaced her, what would be missing from the band?
What does Donna bring to the table? I think that Donna’s got a fantastic
voice and I think she has a really, really, really, really, good pitch. She’s
beautiful and so is Kelly. It’s a presence that you can’t really be taught. You
have to come up with it on your own. No matter how crappy a day or week
you’ve been having you have to get up on stage and do your job. She
always does it. Even when she’s got a bad back and she’s got to sit in a
chair and do the show. Or she’s got a jacked up voice and she can hardly
speak, but she’ll get up there and she’ll do a whole two in a half hours. I’m
sure there are other people that can do that. But, it wouldn’t be the same
band with out Donna.
Hey Donna, same question to you, but about Kelly and Rob, what do they bring to the table?
Kelly and Rob write most of our songs. So, you know, we all come up with most of our stuff. But,
they usually start the ball rolling. So, that would be a downer. Also, Kelly is my friend and she has
been in the band for a long time. She brings these little nuances that you wouldn’t expect would be
in a song. She kind of weaves them together and it sounds really cool. Like it may be something that
you don’t realize is there and than you go "Oh! What is that? Oh my gosh, that’s cool!" I don’t
know, it’s a given. I don’t know,I don’t like. Go away question. Just go away. (everyone laughs)
This next Question goes to Kelly. If Brian was no longer a part of the group and someone had
replaced him, what would be missing from the band?
Brian was our bassist several years ago, and we were all pretty sad to see him leave the first time.
We respected his decision to spend more time with his children, but it was still difficult to lose
someone we respected both musically and personally. Brian is unflappable where as some of us
(Kelly shifts guiltily) are overemotional at times, Brian can always be counted on to be the stoic
presence in the band. He balances out our histrionics with a much needed sense of calm. That and
his excellent playing are the two main reasons why he is valued as an alumni and the newest
member of 59H2O.
This next Question goes to Brian. If Rob was no longer a
part of the group and someone had replaced her, what
would be missing from the band?
Kelly is a valuable asset to Five Nine. Without her, we
would lose a major part to the overall music and feel of our
musical style. We would severely lack in the music
department and without her
'harmonically pure' keyboard playing, we would have a
huge void that would be hard to replace.
And the same question for Rob. What do you think Wiley
brings to the table? ( Wiley leaves to move a trailer ).
Wiley is just a great guy, first of all, he really is. Him and I butt heads a lot creatively. I think it’s
mostly because we simply just don’t understand each other when we’re trying to explain what each
one of us wants to get from each other in terms of a sound of the song and in terms of anything.
Wiley is a man of strength! (laughs) No, Wiley is the result of that tension. I think that he brings a
lot of the stage presence. He really does. I have not been in very many bands, maybe only two
quite honestly. The other ones were just hobbies more than anything else. But, to play with Wiley on
stage, I can do that whole column response thing that many other legendary bands like The Who,
Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, you know.. kind of do. We play off each other. If Wiley could,
he’d get up and walk over and stand near me. You know that’s physically impossible playing the
drums, so I go stand over by him. We obviously have a very small amount of space and sometimes
no space. Really it just wouldn’t be the same band. I don’t think I would write the same, I don’t think
I would play the same, I don’t think that any of us would do the same thing if he wasn’t in the band.
(Wiley returns) So, he’s just a great guy! SUPER! (laughs) No, it’s just, nothing would really be the
same. I don’t think any one would do the same thing. So, that’s about all I have to say about that.
Tell me a little bit about your creative process when it comes to writing songs. In general just tell me
about how you write your songs.
There are sometimes that we’ll just be messing around and
something will come out and we’ll take it and run and try to
get a structure out of it. There are other times that Rob or
Kelly or both of them will work shop together and come up
with a structure. And than introduce it to the rest of us.
Than, of course, Gus will come up with his bass line and
Wiley will come up with his drums or we’ll suggest things to
each other and basically I think, "What does this make me
feel like?" and that’s where most of the lyrics come from.
That’s about it.
Tel me about what the inspiration was for your song Walk
Outside.
I wrote the lyrics, it’s about friends of mine that basically have no lives and I love them and I wish
that they would not sit and complain about things and get out and do stuff and do things for
themselves and not be like "Oh well, my life isn’t going the way I want it to, so I guess that’s just it."
So, that’s where the lyrics came from, the feeling came from. That was a Rob starter of a song. We
like when things come out that are different from things that we usually do. We don’t usually go,
"Well that’s not a 59 song" and throw it away, We say, "Why isn’t it a 59 song?" and work to
make it something that works for all of us.
You guys have, is it 2 CD’s so far?
2 Full Lengths. Yes.
Where’s that available at?
Plan9, Tower, Amazon.com, CDBaby.com , Borders, Video
magic in Ashland, Mechanicsville Music and at all shows.
(The Richmond Buzz)
Where do you see the band in five years? Do you guys
enjoy playing at smaller venues? Or do you guys want to be
all big time Hollywood?
Well, I think that’d we’d all like to do this as a full-time career, but we know that that’s not
necessarily the way things always go. So, we’re pretty realistic about it. But, there are things/ways
to work around starting families and things of that nature. A few of us are getting to that point where
we’re like, "Okay why aren’t we getting to that point?" Wiley and I are married, Rob is married,
Kelly will probably be getting married in the next 5-10 years. I don’t know when. I’m pushing her as
much as I can, you know? (laughs) There are ways to get around that stuff and have it work out.
And we have enough support systems that I think we can get down to that. As of right now, I think
getting to be as good as we can be and enjoying it, of course because if you don’t enjoy it anymore
there’s something wrong, we’re not sitting dormant, but we’re not pushing like crazy people. We’d
love for it to go somewhere. We’re trying to step it up. Like I said, we’re heading to New York and
heading in different directions, not just staying in Richmond. Trying to hit more collage markets and
things like that. We’re trying to get a little bit more exposure.
Basically I think I second everything that Donna said. This is really what we’d love to do for a
living. I mean, that’s the obvious. However, the realism is that this doesn’t pay the bills, this doesn’t
pay the mortgage, this doesn’t pay the car off, etc. So, until we get ourselves to that point, I don’t
think anyone’s going to come up to us and be like, "Okay guys, you’re a hit. You’re up next for your
five years of fame or your 15 minutes of fame on the radio." We really do have to work at it. I’ve
personally made quite a few accomplishments in this band. I hope we continue to do this. I mean, I
love to entertain and I love to play. I think most of us do. I mean, I don’t think we could put up with
this 9-5 bullshit for all these years with out something to get it out of the way, you know?
This is the fish bowl question, Cameron Snapp from the band Signal 7, wants to know- What was
your most interesting live show experience?
There’s so many stories. One that immediately comes to mind was when we were playing at easy
street and there’s this crazily drunk guy there. I mean, beyond, and this is first set folks. He really,
really wanted us to play Ozzy Osborne's "Crazy Train" because through out the entire set and
during set breaks he was like "Crazy! HEY THAT’S HOW IT GOES!" And he just repeated that part
and than I actually think he spilled beer in our monitors, which wasn’t quite as funny when they
were smoking. But yeah, that’s a pretty good one right there.
I think there needs to be more support for local music. It seems like if you don’t play a certain style
of music, that you don’t really get the notoriety , I guess. It’s all a revolving circle, you’ve got to put
in as much as you get back. And sometimes it doesn’t happen. I don’t think there is enough bands
supporting other bands. We’re all trying to do the same thing and whether it’s fame or whatever,
there shouldn’t be a competition between how many people you had at your show last night and
how many people are at our show tonight. There shouldn’t be a competition and it should be fun.
So, support your local musicians.
www.59h2o.com
Scott E Vision Studios 2006©
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
