Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster Interview

Interview with Kelly Scott Nunn of Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster

Words by Brendan Monteiro / photo’s by Ryan Russel

Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster are no ordinary band by any standards, their blend of ballsy rock n roll mashed with the sounds of the deep dirty south are a nasty concoction that could sometimes be described as ZZ Top on a moonshine binge with the Hazzard family, at other times though the true soul of the south seems to shine through and really mystify the ears. They have depth and meaning to their music and although this is not the greatest recipe to win over the world, it really is something special. On their recent trek to the UK they took some time out with Clink to chat about the trials and tribulations of being in a band, this is what Kelly had to say.

So let’s get this out of the way first, the main question on a lot of fans minds right now is what is going on with MATSOD now, what is behind Dallas taking time off and Schuyler Croom stepping in?

Sure, what happened is we were on tour in the summer and because of some personal stuff that Dallas was going through meant that we had to cancel the Emery tour, and we were supposed to be on that tour for 6 weeks and ended up only doing half of the tour. People don’t realise that being in a band means that you are gone for 9 – 10 months of the year and so your family life sometimes takes a toll and Dallas’ family life was suffering dramatically to the extent that him and his wife were separating and he basically needed to go home and work on his family. Yes this is our job and this is what we do for a living but at the same time if your family life is struggling, being gone isn’t going to help mend that. He came to us before the All That Remains tour and said that he didn’t think he could do the tour. Obviously with pressure from our label and the management we were running through our options and trying to get Dallas to do the tour but he just didn’t feel that it was good timing for him. So what ended up happening is that I talked to a friend of mine named Chad Johnson who used to work for Tooth And Nail and he had mentioned about getting a fill in singer and we entertained the thought for just a minute but he was like “there is one specifically that I know about, he is at home so give him a call and see if he would be interested”. Actually there were two options, we had Schuyler and we had Spencer from Underoath. He had brought up both of those names because they were at home. I called Schuyler first and talked to him and explained the situation and we gave him a day to think about it, because of the tour we needed an answer immediately and he said yeah. So we flew him down a couple of days later and and started running through songs, we had a week for rehearsals and it was hard because we as a band had to gel differently with a new front man. Because we had been with Dallas for all the time before it took a bit of getting used to and even the fans were a little curious as to what was going to happen. He Is Legend is great and they have their own finesse and it kind of fits the vernacular of Maylene as-well so it helped out a lot and Schuyler is a great singer so it enabled us to continue the tours otherwise we would of had to cancel everything including this tour and for Maylene that would of been detrimental. Especially on tour like this where some nights your getting 3 to 5 thousand and some evenings even 8 thousand fans and that is such huge exposure for us and as a band we felt it was best if we did these tours.

And is there any indication when Dallas will be back?

Dallas will be back in January after this tour so Schuyler wont be a permanent, he is just filling in for these couple of tours to help us out.

Have you noticed He Is Legend fans coming out to the shows?

Oh yeah, especially in the States, I don’t know about here as I haven’t had much time but I believe that Schuyler has got his own fan base with He Is Legend.

Do you think those fans are coming out more because of the current incidents from He Is Legend?

Well they have not broken up, that is a misunderstanding, they are just on a hiatus. Basically for them they just want to have the right opportunity’s come along and if that does then great and if not then they will just keep making music and just not tour. A lot of bands do that, if it’s not making sense for them to move forward as a band then why keep doing it. I would say that I hope He Is Legend carry on for a long time, there new album is phenomenal.

So back to MATSOD, your the guitarist, singer and the tour manager. It must be a lot of responsibility, how do you manage to do it all?

Yeah a lot of the times I’m running around like a chicken without a head. Typically it’s not too bad it’s just on days like this where it becomes retard-idly busy. I went to bed at like 4 because my times schedule is still really out and I got up at about 1 o’clock today and I have not stopped running around. My computer has been set up all day and I have only used it for 5 minutes because I have had no time. We had to go get power converters for US to UK power and I had to go buy those at Maplins. Then we had to set up and load in and get ready for sound check. Then there have been interviews and It’s been non stop for 5 and a half hours now.

You guys are mid way through the Taste Of Chaos tour now, how have you found the reception from the UK on the tour so far?

You know it’s been cool, the only thing that is really different is that obviously we are not a metal band. So for us most of the time our fans aren’t going to be the one’s out there doing the big circle pits, their going to be there just going to be bobbing their heads and enjoying the music without some of that craziness. We also have a few people and it’s their first time absorbing us as a band and they’re just taking it in and so it has been really cool and a really different vibe. You have Every Time I Die who is really heavy and you also have In Flames and Killswitch and they have their own die hard fans and so for us it has been a little different because it’s not the norm for a tour for us I think and that is kind of refreshing.

As far as my memory serves me, is this the first time back in the UK since your support slot on the Norma Jean tour?

No, we came back about 2 years ago and we were here with A Day To Remember and we did a headlining run with them. We did all the Barfly’s around the country.

And how do you feel about the artist roster for this tour, particularly Every Time I Die as they also have that southern feel about them?

To be honest with you I didn’t really know much about Every Time I Die, I knew who they were but I never listened to much of their stuff. I don’t listen to to a lot of metal or anything really heavy, I did when I was younger but not so much anymore. So I didn’t really know what was going on with them, I kind of knew what they sounded like and I had heard a couple of songs and so it has been cool getting a breath of fresh air with them.

You say that MATSOD are not metal, how would you best describe your music then?

I would say it is southern rock with a bit of an edge to it. With the new record more just southern rock, yeah there’s a couple of heavier songs but I think from start to finish their is just way more good southern rock and that record than there is on any of the previous records. Obviously the first one has that defining southern draw that we acquired but from the release of ll and now lll, we as a band when we started writing for lll we actually wanted to make it way more 70’s. It has that southern rock element to it but we wanted to go even further back and get like a marshall JMP tone, almost a live feel to it. We wanted something a lot more raw and edgier like the old 70’s recordings just to kind of get a sense of bringing back that sound and that feel and I think we accomplished what we wanted to on the record. For me as a professional it was the hardest record we have ever done, just because there was so much and a lot of butting heads and a lot of problems in the studio because we wanted the record to be defining for us and I think it did but it didn’t come without a price obviously.

So are there plans for a new album or is that not on the cards yet, and if there are plans will you call it llll?

We have got some new ideas, we are starting to write already, if it’s going to be llll we don’t know. We have already started writing for it and we are going to try, well you know Step Up went to radio and the WWE stuff. Pretty much Step Up is Maylene’s first radio single so what we are trying to do is write a couple new songs and submit them to Ferret and try to get another radio song out there just so Maylene has another continuum instead of just Step Up.

But what about Just A Shock, that to me feels like it could be on the radio.

It’s funny that you say that because WWE just requested that song, the only problem with Just A Shock is that the chorus is a little too heavy for radio from what we have heard, we don’t know specifically but that has been said. We have thought of it too because if you listen close there is no screaming in it at all, it just has a pure good rock tone to it so we have definitely thought about that one.

How do you feel with so called fans giving negative feedback after an album comes out, especially when you are straying into new waters and like you said maybe looking at getting a more radio friendly song out there?

I don’t mean this in any disrespect to anyone but when your in my shoes then come talk to me about it. We are out here trying to survive and trying to make our music go to the masses. Every band will contest to this fact, you can’t get any bigger or do anything unless you appeal to the masses and so as a band we wanted songs that would go to radio and we wanted songs that would go to our old fans. If there are any fans out there that don’t like it then don’t listen, that’s the bottom line. I can’t tell you to like our records or buy our records, I can only tell you that we are doing the best that we can to make the best record that Maylene can and if that is not good enough then there are plenty of other bands out there. We love our fans and we want them to be appreciative but this is our livelihood and if you don’t like it then that is fine. It’s funny because I have seen some of those comments, I don’t really agree with it because those same kids that are putting crap on sites are the same kids coming to the show still. With me being older, I’m 31, and some of the kids posting stuff are in their teens and I would love to say to them “does your mom know you talk like that”. It’s not cool to curse you know, you don’t have to use the f bomb. We are being offered better tours and moving along with the radio so obviously we are doing something right for our careers and that is the main goal as a band and if you don’t like that then don’t listen.

You touched on the fact that you wanted to get back to a 70”s sound, in doing so do you feel that you picked up new techniques and styles of playing at all, for instance the opening riff of Just A Shock?

That riff is all quick and very fast paced and we all came from country backgrounds and I lived in Kentucky for most of my life. When I say I lived on a farm I really mean it, a dairy farm, and my cousins and parents and I lived in a small town and those roots have been imbedded in most of our lives. For me, Dallas, Jake and Roman that has been our forefront and that is where our livelihood has come from, from those country fields. We are all big country fans. So influential wise that stuff came naturally, there are tonnes of acoustic guitars. One song in particular that was recorded but isn’t on the record, it’s a b-side, we wrote a hymn called Where The Saints Roam, we did it how we actually wanted to do a lot of the record. We sat in one of the recording rooms and I had an acoustic regular 6 string and one of the guys had a octave higher acoustic and the other had an octave lower lapse steel and we all played live and recorded it live and it came out awesome. That song is going to be used as a b-side at some point, we don’t know how that is going to go because It’s an unreleased song but it has that live and it has that feel that we were looking for when recording.

Lastly, the closing song on the album, The End Is Here…The End Is Beautiful, is an instrumental, which seems to be coming as much of a regular as the numerical album names. Was this the intention from the beginning or did this song just come about naturally that way.

Every one of our records has an instrumental on it and this one was actually constructed by a band called Acts Of Congress and their a new-grass band, instead of bluegrass it’s called new-grass because it’s a bit more modern. They’re an all acoustic band and they have a mandolin player and a violin player and they are just a phenomenal band. So they brought this idea forward for that song and we loved it. We had three songs that we were pitching to see what would work with the album and when they brought this one in we were really stoked with it and we made a few changes but it came out great though.

Posted on Monday, 18 January 2010 in Interviews, Mainarticles | 1 Comment »
Tagged as Chad Huff, Dallas Taylor, Ferret records, Kelly Scott Nunn, Matt Clark, Roman Havaland