Interview: Nixon - Framing Hanley

"This is us; we wanted to give the fans the best album they could give at this point of our career because they came above and beyond with crowd funding via Kickstarter and it nearly doubleed our goal of that." - Nixon, Framing Hanley

After a four year gap and two years of hard work, Nashville rockers Framing Hanley are getting ready to release their brand new album The Sum Of Who We Are. Frontman Nixon took time out of his busy schedule to speak with me about their latest album, the Kickstarter package used to fund the album and upcoming tours.

Charlotte:       So your latest album Sum Of Us; according to your press release the title pretty much sums up who you guys are as a band?

Nixon:             Yeah, I think really the experiences that we went through and the long process of making this album and the naturally the songs kind of went in that direction. Not just the songs themselves but the steps it took to make that album and I felt like we were at our wits end, this album took all of us. This is us; we wanted to give the fans the best album they could give at this point of our career because they came above and beyond with crowd funding via Kickstarter and it nearly doubleed our goal of that. When you have advances from labels you want to produce your best album because you don’t want anything worse out there. When the fans directly fund your album; you know these people are your lifeblood, these are the people that are the reason you do this and it gives us that wave that we didn’t necessarily have before. We spent so long on this album because at certain points it wasn’t enough it wasn’t what I wanted to reward the fans with, how can we make sure that they know that it was worth it. It required even more money raised by Kickstarter. We kept going back to the drawing board and re-writing songs, during that process, two and a half years almost working on an album; invest everything you have in your life on this album. It really took all of us, this album really is the sum of all of us as musicians; it’s really weird to explain that, I don’t think I can even put into words what the last two years have been like.

Charlotte:       Crowdfunding has become a popular way to fund different projects now…

Nixon:             Movies now and everything now. Hollywood Studios are passing on movies and getting fans to contribute whatever they can. More money than what Hollywood studios would be paying out for. This crowdfunding is amazing; I’ve seen television shows are now crowdfunded and different products. I think when we first got into it particularly the early stages; I really fought with the idea for a while but we thought we’re going to release an album soon and we’re on our label right now, it’s funny when I said soon and here we are two and a half years later but that’s besides the point. We really fought with the idea and what alternative means there were to fund the album but if we didn’t have this in place we wouldn’t have been able to release an album. To put it in business terms, the people who want your product are the people wanting to pay for it up front plus rewards. It was amazing to see come forward like that.

Charlotte:       I’ve seen other bands such as Crashdiet and Jettblack who reward their fans when they pledge a certain amount; I take that’s similar to what Framing Hanely are doing?

Nixon:             That’s exactly what it is. 1800 people pledged and I think if they pledged $1 they had their name placed into the album booklet, $5 they would receive a lease demo that we had just recorded that no one has heard of. There’s also a package for a t-shirt, a custom drum head and of course the bigger packages; for example a guy pledged five thousand dollars and we drove down to Texas to play at his daughter’s birthday party. That’s one of the coolest parts of our career; I’m not saying we’ll become a birthday party band but to see what that meant to someone that they were that much of a big fan and that her Dad was the hero of that party. It was weird as it wasn’t really a city but along this back road that went on for about two hours and it ended in a little settlement. It was a really cool experience. We try and make the kickstarter pledging worth people’s money, especially when we have an international fanbase where there are so many backers. We figured shipping internationally would be expensive so it was great to have that bit of help from the fans and we gave something back.

Charlotte:       So you could say this is newest way to interact with your fanbase, other than paying a bit extra for meet and greet passes.

Nixon:             Yes definitely, there is always going to be someone trying to re-invent the wheel and it’s so bands like us can keep going and creating music. Over the past two years we were working real jobs back at home. Our biggest Framing Hanely fans are probably surprised that we all worked normal jobs and if it wasn’t for kickstarter there really would not be a third album coming out. We were working these jobs to provide for our families and the kickstarter provided us with money for the album, that is something we will be forever grateful for and never really be able to repay them for because we ended up signing the new deal with the new label for the release of this album.

 Charlotte:       There is a song called Roller Coaster on your brand new album and I am wondering who the female vocalist is on the track?

Nixon:             That’s our friend Lindsey Stamey; she’s in the band called Oh No Fiasco. She was featured on a Pierce The Veil song on their previous album. Oh No Fiasco is one of those bands that I think the world is missing out on. If this band was heard by more people they would explode, like another band called Imagine Dragons; they aren’t the same musically but they definitely go into the same conversation where they are the world’s best kept musical secrets for now. As friends and fans of that band I hope that won’t be the case for much longer and they are heard more.

Charlotte:        From what I understand you do work with New Ocean Media, which ties in with promoting different bands. Does that provide a good balance between that and singing/promoting your own band?

Nixon:             When it comes to promoting bands as a job, there’s being passionate about an artist you’re working for and doing it as a job. Especially since I’m new at this and I try and take on artists that I am a fan of instead of just looking at it as a job and music you need to listen to. Oh No Fiasco aren’t one of those bands, they’re a band we’ve known over the years from touring and such. A band that are a perfect example from a press standpoint, Brick and Mortar; they are a band that I was doing press for, another band that I think are on the cuss of being on everyone’s tongue.

Charlotte:       I’ve listened to Sum Of Us alongside your previous material and I think your previous material is heavier than your new album, is that something you’d agree with?

Nixon:             Everyone has a different take I think. Some people say it was poppy on the last album and that the first album had more of a grunge thing. If you think there’s a sound and style difference between this album and our previous one is because there was a line up change. Tim who we wrote the first album with is no longer in the band, Ryan came into the band and we connected on a whole other level as far as writing together and that led to band evolving in a way. That was definitely a huge part of the evolvement of Framing Hanley because he and I get together to actually mould the song and take it into the room with the rest of the guys to turn into whatever it turns into. Naturally that is what’s going to happen when you add a different part to the equation and you know how bands usually from first album and their second album will sound different. This is Ryan’s second album with us, naturally you will see it evolve with more influences where it broadens your horizons and as a music lover listen to new sounds.

Charlotte:       It’s amazing how a line up change can have an impact on the sound, hard rock band New Device have had a recent line up change and in my opinion their sound is much bolder. So sometimes it can be for the better.

Nixon:             Yeah definitely, sometimes it doesn’t work out for the better there are plenty of examples of that in music history. Further Seems Forever, the album they did with Jason Gleason is the album that helped me get to where I am as a musician, it changed the type of rock I was listening to. Sometimes it works for the better and we are here now.

Charlotte:       So tell us about your upcoming America tour with Three Days Grace.

Nixon:             It’s going to a two weeks run with them. That should be awesome, they’ve recently had a line up change and things are still going great for them. So we’ve got that coming up which we are really looking forward to. Then we’ll be hitting the road with Devour The Days, Starset and Three Years Hollow, which will be really cool because we’re all new age rock, I mean I’m not sure if that applies to Framing Hanley since we’ve been going for seven years but there are people who haven’t heard of us before so four young and hungry bands in a pack. It should be great; they’re all great guys and have great music so it should be good.

Charlotte:       Are there going to be upcoming tours anywhere other than the US, such as the UK or Europe?

Nixon:             The plan is to come back this fall; unfortunately we’ll be missing festivals this year because that was the most fun we had during touring. We came last fall with The Blackout but there were medical issues where Gavin had to be taken to hospital. That really took the wind out of us because it costs a lot of money to come overseas and when the tour gets cancelled you can’t expect to be paid for it so we took that out into writing kick ass rock songs, it actually led to a couple of the songs for the album. Not as far as subject matter as it was completely out of there hands and I glad to hear Gavin’s OK. It was an unfortunate thing that happened. We’re looking forward to coming back, knowing that we’re going to be playing three or four shows. Our last show in Manchester was a kick ass show, we cannot wait to come back to the UK and we’re hoping to play more mainland shows too.

Charlotte:       The single Criminal you released from your album, would you say that was the best song to represent the album?

Nixon:             When it comes to that, as one of the creators it’s hard to put your finger on that. I really think that there are a lot of songs that vary; a song like Criminal, which opens the album, is completely different and some people might say it sounds like a different band then Cast Away, which closes the album. I can’t pinpoint the perfect song that represents the album. There’s something about Criminal where a lot of our singles, with the exception of Lollipop which is a cover, tend to have a more serious tone whereas Criminal was a little bit more fun and light-hearted that I hope which will be stuck in a lot of people’s heads.

 Charlotte:       Will there be anything else happening for Framing Hanley in 2014?

Nixon:             We’ll hopefully be shooting a video for Criminal in the next few weeks and hopefully be out once the album’s finished and out. We’re more than ready to start touring again it’s been a while since we’ve been able to do that, everyone’s been getting married and having kids so we’ve been focusing on taking care of our families and life. It’s great that we can do this again, being able to go out on tour and personally thank those people who were part of the Kickstarter and who will be part of Framing Hanley’s bloodline in the future. Touring isn’t something we dread doing, it’s what keeps us motivated and really is the reward. Tickets go out and we play stuff that means something to certain individuals and people take away something from it.

Charlotte:       You go to gigs to see a certain band whether it’s the headliner or main support then you see the other bands and actually walk away thinking ‘they were really good’.

Nixon:             That’s always been the more fun spot to be in playing for the headliners, even when we are headlining our fans will bring their friends to the show who haven’t heard of us before. For instance when girl will bring their husband or boyfriend, they will come up to us and say something like ‘I only came because my girlfriend bought but you guys were awesome’ That’s one of the coolest things, it’s happened a thousand times and it’s very rewarding but to get onto that stage every night whether it’d be for thirty minutes or an hour and fifteen minutes that’s when we’re able to block everything else out of our lives and just play songs that we wrote about stuff going on in our lives that someone in that crowd was able to relate to their own life, that’s a beautiful thing.

Keep a look out for The Sum Of Us which is due for release 29th April 2014, in the meantime check them out on Facebook, Twitter and their official website!