A Talk w/Kelly from 'Maylene and the Sons of Disaster'

 

If you could state your name, what you play, what band you're in.

My name is Kelly, I play guitar for Maylene and the sons of disaster.

Cool, the last time we got to speak with you guys was Warped tour so about July.

Oh, wow. Yeah.

Yeah, Its been awhile. So what's been going on since then?

Uh, we just finished up writing for the new record. We got ten or eleven new songs ready to go, at least enough to go into the studio with. We've got two weeks left of this tour. No wait, I'm sorry. We've got a week left of this tour. Then we go to the studio December 1st, we have five days of pre-production. Then we're off for like a week, then we hit the studio for like ten weeks after that to start writing the new record.

With you guys setting up to go into the studio, is there any information you can give us about the new record?

SURE, new album is going to be titled THREE. It's gonna hit stores in May of next year. We're kind of experimenting with the new record, not so much with the sound but more with the maturity of the record I guess, We're trying to go with a bit broader of a horizon on some of the songs. It's still going to have that Southern feel but maybe a bit retro on some of the songs, maybe a little bit of a 70's feel on some of it. You know, stuff that we think our parents may have listened to almost, that's the kind of what we're looking for on some of the new songs. A little bit more swampy on some areas, a little bit more backwoods, If you were to say, see a couple of guys just sitting on a back porch and picking up a couple of acoustic guitars. That's the kind of feel we're looking for on some of these songs. Rather or not they make the cut? I don't know. But that's what we're looking for.

The first full length album you did was titled "ONE" the second album was titled "TWO" and now the new album being called "THREE." Is there any significance to the numeric titles?

Not really significance as far as the Numeric aspect of it. It's more for story telling, like chapters, each album is a new chapter for the band and for the
storyline, if you're following the Ma Baker situation. I mean we don't really follow that as far as the band, but you can say it is our motto. Because of the new incarnation of the band we are kind of going a new direction but still keeping with the storyline. I can't give away to many surprises with it, it still is there but it's a new incarnation with the gang, because if anyone has followed the gang they know there is a second gang. So we're going to kind of run along with the second part of the story.

Cool, so same story but new chapter.

Yeah! Yeah, exactly. If you remember from the last record...everybody died so we're gonna look at the storyline and uh, recreate a little bit.

It seems like everything is moving really, really fast for you guys, in terms of being a band. I mean you came up from absolutely no where, on mono.vs.stereo, then moved on the ferret and have taken off from there. Does that worry you guys with moving so fast, or is that just part of the plan?

Well, we don't really thing we're moving all that fast. (laughter) It's a catch 22; you can look at it with the stand point of only being a band for three years and moving forward. Luckily for myself and the other new guys, the name Maylene, as a band has already been established. Now with the new record we have something to prove because we're the new guys. So, of course for that we want to come out of the gate blazing and hopefully have a hit record. I mean as a band you always want to move up. So for us if that happens great but if we continue on with our old fans that's great too, we really just want to be established as a band that's not going anywhere any time soon and we want our fans to have as much fun with it as we do. Anyone that has seen us live knows we don't take ourselves to seriously. With that being said as a band we can't take things to seriously as band to an extent. I mean we're serious about what we do but we want to have fun and make sure our audience has fun too.

 

Last thing involving the (new) record, what’s the release date for that?

I don't know the exact release date; I know the month is May. We'll finish tracking the record February 10th, or something like that, the second week of February it will get mixed and mastered. Then three months of press before the record. So attentively, if I remember correctly, May 12th, second to third week of May is the date as far as we know.

So, sometime in Spring?

Yeah, I would say sometime before Warped Tour but no earlier than April you know, so I would say April, May no later than June.

Speaking of Warped Tour, will you be on Warped Tour this year?

We haven't gotten an official offer but we have been extended some invites. For us Warped Tour is an awesome thing, we've done it three years in a row. So for us it's home and there's always great bands on there, so we'll see, we would love to do it, rather we do it or not, that a whole other story, I mean obviously that's Nine months away, you know, so we'll see what happens. But, yeah we're all about it. I mean that would be huge for us, Warped Tour right after a new record. That would be really big for us.

 

With doing Warped Tour, being one of the largest festival style tours and God knows that you have probably played every bar, theater and club in the country. What would you say is your favorite style of venue to play in?

Personally, I'm a small venue kind of guy. I would rather play in a packed out bar of 200 to 300 kids than a large festival filled with 15,000-20,000 kids because of the intimacy in a situation like that is often lost when you have a packed stadium versus a packed smaller venue. I mean the intimacy is there the connection between the fans and the band is there. We're all pretty personable guys and always want to be able to connect with our audience. I've played with other bands at those larger markets, larger festivals in front of 20,000 kids and it's a bit nerve racking but it's also a bit disconnected at times too. So I would rather play smaller venues but that's just me.

This is completely off topic, actually it's on topic. It's been a huge topical issue lately. Obviously you guys didn't get to vote…

Actually I did get to vote. I sent in an absentee ballot.

You did vote, did the rest of the guys vote?

I know Dallas did and I don't know if Matt did. I'm not sure about the rest of us. Some of us got to vote.

Cool, so spill it man. Who did you vote for?

McCain, we did. Not because we don't like Barrack. I personally come from a mixed racial family and I think it’s awesome to see an African American president. I don't agree with his politics, but I'm all for standing by our president. I personally thought McCain had a better leadership quality, but then again as a country we decided that Barrack was the next president and I'm going to stand by him and support him just like I did for
Bush or Clinton. I'm just the kind of guy that will stand by whoever. I'll vote personally for whoever I feel, but at the same time stand by whoever is elected and pray for them just like we do them just like we do any other president.

To get back on topic. In regard to this tour you're on with Attack Attack, Confide and the rest of them.

Sure...Sure.

What's it been like playing a tour with such an eclectic mix of genres?

That's a good question. I mean like every night, I think that everyone expects the crowd, expects something different just because it’s so diverse and you know, I think that everyone has had a great time because of such a vast variety of bands. I think that anybody can sit though the whole night and like, “Oh wow I really enjoyed that,” but then the next band, maybe not, be their cup of tea and then the next band could be. I think it’s been so diverse that its helped fans. I mean its a five band bill so its kind of helped them sit through five bands you know because it is so different. I mean every band had the same style in genre and market but it is still so different and I think that helps everyone kinda sit through it. I mean its three and a half hours of music, that's a lot of music. (laughter)

Yeah it is.

That's quite a bit of music. (more laughter)

Okay, so where are you from?

 Me?

 

Well all of you, I mean you guys are from all over the place. Some of you are from the local Tampa/St. Pete area; some of you are from the Georgia/Alabama area.

(laughs)Yeah, okay so let me give you the low-down. I personally am originally from Louville, KY until I was 13 when I re-located to Clearwater, Fl, but currently I live in San Diego, CA. So I’m a California boy, don't hold it against me. I am a California boy but I have a lot of connections to Florida, my daughter lives here in Florida. Matt and Chad are from Florida, as well as, Dallas, he was born in Ocala, Fl. They relocated to Birmingham for about four years now. Roman is from Birmingham and we just added a new guitarist, his name is Jake Duncan and he’s from Mississippi, born and raised from there. So, yeah we're all kind of spread out now but you got to think we spend nine months together, sometimes ten, this year collectively we've spent ten. So when we go home we do not want to see each other. I mean I love those guys, they are some of my best friends, and I’ve known some of those guys forever. I've known Dallas for 15 years, I’ve known Matt for 12years, and Chad for 5years. Those guys will always be in the deepest part of my heart because they have been so much to me as a band mate and as a friend. So for me, yeah it’s great to get away but we’ll always be friends. I guess that's a blessing in disguise for most bands because you don’t really get that all the time, you don’t always get to be in a band with your best friends.

 

Clearly the space is a good thing but does that make things a little more difficult when you guys are coming together to write?

Well, for us, because this is the first record for us as a new unit. So we've started to write on the road for a little bit, just recording ideas and trying to piece them together which worked. Then after Warped Tour we had nine weeks off so we came together for three of those nine weeks and just worked on music...everyday for nearly two and a half weeks before we went on this tour. Which worked out great but we really wiped ourselves clean of ideas.

And none of you went stir crazy?

UH, there were some tense moments but just because we were tired. I mean we spent Monday through Friday writing songs and then cut practice short early Friday and would go right into the studio and demo out the tracks that we just wrote earlier that week. So we demoed out 8 to 9 songs that week. In a two to three week period that's a lot of music to work through. So we've been listening to that kind of making cuts and sending that to our producer Jason Eldgen, and with the next pre-production coming up in the next five days that will pretty much make the cuts for the record.

Cool, any last words?

Um, just look out for us in 2009 man, we're going to be hittin’ it hard again. We're looking at a really great record for us; we're just trying to expand ourselves as artists but at the same time stay true to the Maylene name. Hopefully fans dig it, I mean we think its gonna be awesome, but we're bias. (laughter) I think if you're a fan of southern rock you'll like it, there will be some heavy songs but there will be like a very 70's southern rock feel to it. So if you like Southern rock, I think you'll really like it.

 

To visit Maylene and the Sons of Disaster's MySpace page click here

By. Tim Fisher

TimF@getinmagazine.com