Luke Brogden from the Kingsport Times-News interviewed me a week or so ago about the upcoming Homegrown Showcase at Fun Fest and although I might be more careful blabbing my mouth about every nuance, I thought he did a great job with the article.
Click here to download the article in PDF along with pictures and details about the bands.
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Homegrown Sounds
By Luke Brogden
Showcase again spotlights locals during Fun Fest
Fans of local music have something to get excited about on Wednesday, July 19, when the popular GoTricities Homegrown Showcase brings four fresh new modern rock bands to the Embarq stage on Fort Henry Drive.
Part of the new Sunset Rock Series, the show displays the talents of area bands The Only, Pilot, Gretchen and Ablazing Grace.
David Cate, new media director for the GoTricities Network, organized the show for the fourth year. Cate says sponsors for the event have spared no expense in making the show as professional as possible, spending $1,000 on extra stage accoutrements, $20,000 on promotional materials and $500 per group to play — an amount that can be hard for local bands to come by.
“I know what it’s like to be in a band,” said Cate, who has played on the regional music circuit for years with performers like Reagan Boggs and most recently with singer Jared Bentley in the band Clear.
Cate says that by the time a band puts in countless hours of practice, loads their equipment, drives to the venue and unloads, sound checks and does their performance, they deserve at least a few hundred dollars.
Cate wants to give hard-working musicians a chance for a well paying, well publicized show in a comfortable environment. He’s arranged for a hospitality RV to pull in the behind the stage and provide musicians food and drinks and a place to hang out while they wait to go on stage.
“It’s out of respect for them and their time,” he said. “We promote local musicians and we try to provide the resources for them to do well.”
This also includes several projects on the GoTricities Network, among them a possible series of compilation albums that is currently in the works.
While last year’s showcase featured several Americana-style groups, Cate says that this year he wanted to focus on up and coming modern rock groups.
“We base our selections on the quality of music and their ability to entertain,” he said.
Here’s a glimpse at what area residents have a chance to see at the show:
THE ONLY
“It’s sometimes hard for us to find the right show to be a part of,” said Drew Montgomery, frontman of The Only.
Which makes sense, considering the band’s eclectic sound. The Only has a diverse catalogue of influences including Radiohead, Muse, Coldplay, Superdrag and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
“They are doing something a little different and they pull it off on stage,” Cate said of the band.
In a local music scene that can sometimes be very compartmentalized, The Only dares to defy genres, which can make for awkward shows when they play to a crowd full of “scene kids.”
“There’s too many cliques,” Montgomery said. “You can’t get them all together.”
Montgomery attributes part of this problem to the fact that venues around the area can be so dedicated to one style of music that it makes other bands — and their fans — feel uncomfortable.
“Some people don’t feel like they’d be welcome at some places,” he said.
But The Only have done their best to play solid rock shows that might have a little something for everyone. They debuted at Johnson City dive The Hideaway, a venue infamous for booking gritty DIY hardcore and punk acts. But The Only amassed a large crowd from their very first show there, and they’ve had fans wherever they’ve gone since then.
“Instantly we had this loyal following for some reason,” he said.
The band has been together since 2004 and recently released their 14-track debut album “Ever Feel Like Somebody Cares?” recorded by Jeremiah Mays at Monvibe Records, independently. They are already working on new music, hoping to record again in the next year or two.
“I feel like we are evolving,” Mongtomery said. “Not drastically — but trying to mix more of our interests in and explore a little more without losing our unique sound.”
But The Only tries to find balance in the system. They are coming off of a month-long break, which Montgomery says gave them a chance to spend time with their families and catch up on other things that had been neglected.
The band is excited to play Fun Fest, which they see as an opportunity to create a “neutral ground” where fans of every band and genre will be welcome.
“They can play for our crowds and we can play for their crowds. [The organizers] are really trying to do something with this show. It’s a privilege to play at Fun Fest,” Montgomery said.
PILOT
Blindsight is phenomenon in which some blind people attest to an ability to sense certain motions, like a hand moving through the air several feet away, without having any visual cues to alert them to the motion.
Blindsight is also the fallen Johnson City band that Pilot was resurrected from. Surely some level of blindsight or other extra sensory perception was involved in finding the hard-hitting, transcendent space rock sound that Pilot currently plays and pulling it out of the musical ether.
“Their songwriting is better than it used to be,” Cate said of the band, whose influences include Tool, A Perfect Circle and Sevendust.
And Thomas Roarke, lead singer of Pilot, belts the songs over muscular guitars and pounding drum and bass to achieve an emotional, epic vocal landscape on the band’s unsigned debut record, “A Life Predictable.”
In their short time together, the band has made a name for themselves on the local and regional circuit. Most recently, they qualified for the second round finals of the East Coast Music Showcase in Rock Hill, S.C. They’ve opened for national act 10 years and they’ll return to the studio after the Homegrown Showcase to work on their second full-length album.
GRETCHEN
The veteran act of the show, Bristol’s melodic hard rock band Gretchen has been on Cate’s mind for years as an option to help headline a big Fun Fest performance.
“Mia Richards is a great singer and I’ve always wanted to get her on stage,” Cate said.
The band has gone far on Richards’ soaring gothic rock voice, which is oft-compared to that of Amy Lee, lead singer for Evanescence. Gretchen is the only truly national act on the bill, having toured through 28 states and Canada during the past four years and scoring top 20 hits on the Christian Rock charts with their songs “Fading” and “Passion” from their MD Records release “In the Meantime.”
Travis Wyrick, an acclaimed producer who won Dove Awards for his work with bands like P.O.D., Pillar, Disciple and 10 years, did the sound work on “In the Meantime.”
The band has been featured on the cover of Heaven’s Metal Magazine and have had songs from their first CD “Mouth Full of Nails” featured in a Ford Ranger promotion.
Gretchen has also received honorable mention in the 12th annual Billboard International Songwriting Contest.
ABLAZING GRACE
Rounding out the bill for the showcase is Ablazing Grace, a raucous Southern-inflected metal band featuring former members of the popular local metal band Omega Tribe, as well as former Jackyl bass player Tom Bettini. The band has only been around for a short time but is already playing a number of shows in the area, getting the attention of showcase organizers.
“Never have I seen a band get going so fast,” Cate said.
The show runs from 6 to 10:30 p.m. on Fort Henry Drive. Admission is free.
Sponsors of the Homegrown Showcase are the GoTriCities Network, Dr. Enuf and Hardee’s.