The Northern Way Interview - 01.23.2010
Interview with Steve Melton (vocals), Nick (guitar), Marc (drums)Interview by Jason Schleweis | 01.23.2010 | Denver, CO | The Marquis Theater
It's not everyday that you come across a local, unsigned act that has all of the pieces for huge commercial success. Then again, The Northern Way aren't your normal "everyday" band. Their professionally polished pop-rock sound immediately brings to mind bands that are much more established (Maroon 5, The Fray). After hearing just one song ("Crazy") we instantly felt familiar with this band. They have that warm, sincere, feel good sound that immediately draws you in and doesn't let go.We had the opportunity to sit down and speak with the three founding members of the band to find out what's contributed to their amazing success so far, and learned just how elusive getting signed really is. At this point we'd venture a guess that it's only a matter of time until they do and once The Northern Way hit the the national scene, a few major acts could get a good run for their money.
To find out more read on or visit their MySpace page to hear a few songs including their hit "Crazy."
Steve: I think it's weird because it's really elusive. It's like "we're getting closer!" and then you plateau at another level and then it's like "we're getting closer!" and it keeps changing!
Ryan: The definition of making it is an everyday changing thing. There's some days where we're like "that was awesome, we totally made it!" and then the next day it's like "dude we have such a long road." (Laughter)
Steve: I think we've gotten to the point now, and it's a good thing, where we just change goals. Where in 2010 we want to this...
Marc: Right now we're just trying to keep our ass off the burner. Not so much make it as not, not make it! (Laughter)
Ryan: We've been really happy over the holidays, just doing our own thing and writing new stuff.
Steve: I think we're getting better as a group at killing time. If things slow down in the winter we're getting good at doing different things...
Ryan: Yeah like last winter we freaked out quite a bit because we had nothing to do. But now we expect certain things to happen.
You just eluded to new goals in 2010. What are you guys aiming to accomplish this year?
Steve: Oh, why did I say that! (Laughter) I think we'd like to get out on the road and do some touring. We did a little college thing a while back; I'd like to do more of that if we could. We're not going to go on a headliner right now, but it'd be good to get out on the road and support someone we get along with. We'd always like to record more and do some more writing. I think we're doing a lot of good writing right now.
Ryan: We have alot of songs...like we've had four or five songs out for the past few years so we've got alot of songs that we feel alot of people will like but we just haven't been able to record them as of right now. That's one on my list.
Steve: It's a money problem!
In a follow-up to the first question, I know you said getting to that next level is elusive but in your estimation what do you think you guys still need to do to get there?
Ryan: I think what we just said, I think we need to be able to release more music. And right now there's some steps we need to take to be able to do that. We have to financially be able to do that. Right now we kind of have to be financially smart and still be able to record some more songs, release some more songs and that's really the main thing.
Steve: It's just hard at this level when you're doing everything independently...at the same time you don't have tons of clout to do everything independently or the fully functional thing. But we're trying to make money off music independently to put money back into making music and it's hard to work in every part of the company. It's like you're the label and the artist and you have to manage everything like that and I think that's the hardest part.
Before you've cited Maroon 5 as your biggest influence. I can see some of the similarities but at the same time you bring a fresh new style to that. What else inspires you to make music?
Ryan: I think our influences have changed in the past two or three years.
Steve: I think now we're inspired by so many different things...Marc and I love Miley Cyrus! (Laughter) No just kidding, a lot of classic rock. I want to say The Beatles, I know that's very cliche....
Ryan: We listen to The Beatles quite a bit, we listen to John Mayer.
Marc: It's really a big variety, when we're writing we're always saying "hey did you hear this new band?"
Ryan: Yeah and I like Phoenix, that's another band I really enjoy.
You guys are definitely more of a pop act, but you keep getting categorized in alternative rock. What is your reaction to that?
Steve: That's a big surprise to us to! (Laughter) I think the more crowds we can appeal to the better. Some songs we have a lot of southern sounding guitar and we have all these different songs we can do that are all done from a different direction and we can turn that into one big conglomerate.
Ryan: We have all those different influences and somehow it just works together!
Being that you guys are one of the most prominent local bands in Colorado and you're very close to being signed, what advice would you give to other local bands that aspire to get to the same level?
Ryan: Just to work on their ability to support each other. Work hard...
Marc: Be humble. Humility is very important.
Steve: We kind of work off old fashioned values and I really do think you kind of get everything back in a karmic way. It's not one of my beliefs necessarily but I just think that we work so hard that anything good that we've had comes from the fact that we've been trying so hard and trying to understand everything the best that we can.
Ryan: It's really easy to be cynical when you're a broke, local musician. I think the main thing is to think positive, not to be cynical and support each other.
Marc: Keep busy with what you're doing. Stay busy whether that's with a day job or you have something else going on.
Since we primarily cover the national scene, we'll be getting a lot of traffic checking out your interview outside of the state of Colorado. For those people who haven't heard of you before, what would you want them to know?
Ryan: I want them to hear our songs! (Laughter) That's really what we want. As an artist you really just want to expand to the largest fan base that you can. We love Colorado but our goal is to eventually expand.
Steve: I'd like to get that same camaraderie...like we play a show in Colorado and whether it's 50 or 500 people that show up they're people that really enjoy the Colorado music scene and for whatever reason begin liking our music; that's awesome. Just that symbiotic relationship. And whether it's Illinois, California, New York, Boston or whatever...to feel that same way, whether it's 50 or 500 or 5,000 that love us...
Ryan: That's overwhelming to us. Just to get that feeling of connecting to people is huge for us.
Last question, what's next for The Northern Way?
Ryan: We'd like to get into Boulder a little bit more. I think we're in the planning stages for doing shows in Boulder and getting more in involved in that music scene. And obviously, we're going to continue to keep writing.
Steve: There will be a lot of writing and hopefully around summer time [we can] do a lot more shows. I think it's easy to get carried away with "oh I have this new song I've been working on" but "I want to play these shows" and you get stuck in that cycle. Right now we'd like to keep writing while we have a little bit of some down time as spring approaches and definitely play more shows where we can!
