I quit writing in my blog for some time, to focus on school and work. However, I just chatted with a local band from san diego, and I had to post a review of the guys.
One of the great things about living in Southern California is the richness and variety of music that we have. In San Diego, it doesn’t hurt that we’re just two hours south of Los Angeles, the center of the music industry. It’s hard to go through every single band in San Diego because there are so many, but one does stand out among the others. This band is called Dynamite Walls.
Based out of Encinitas in San Diego, the band has been around for about 5 years, made up of members of other local bands. The guys came together one by one through mutual friends until they each decided to leave their respective bands and form a new one, Dynamite Walls. The four members are Tom Pritchard, the founding member and lead singer and guitarists, Allan Bates, the bassist, Alex Blundell, the guitarist, and Paul Kimmel, the keyboardist and drummer. I had the privilege of meeting Dynamite Walls a while back and not only do they play well together, but they also get along great. One of their “traditions” to keeping the brotherly bond is to challenge a different member of the band every week to some kind of food or action challenge. For example, the day after I met them, it was Paul Kimmel’s turn to attempt to eat 100 McDonald’s chicken nuggets in under an hour. I later found out, he didn’t make it past 45.
Dynamite Walls’ sound could best be described as an Americana folk-pop sound, with their influences, which include San Diego based surf band The Hot Licks, not even remotely visible. Instead, their music ranges from so many great artists before them on a song to song basis. Some songs remind you of Coldplay and John Mayer, while others have a Van Morrison and even Beatles feel. That’s what makes a band like this great; the fact that they can shift their music around to fit several different corners of music genres makes them a more well rounded band, that is easily liked by all.
I asked Pritchard what he considers his songwriting style to be like, and he told me, “Radiohead, hands down”. I had to ask why he dared compare himself to a band of that caliber known for writing some of the most prolific songs out there. I didn’t mean that to be demeaning in any way, but when you compare yourself to a band that has revolutionized the way we hear music, I have to know. He told me that he believes in Thom Yorke’s system of songwriting as a way of storytelling by keeping the audience always in mind. Sounds about right. And it’s hard to understand after hearing this, how so many bands do not take their audience into consideration. Alex Blundell, the guitarist, tells me that “we’re still a young band pulling from our individual lives and influences” and that the purpose of a great song is to tell a story that will touch the lives of both young and old. Their latest single, “Kiss and Ride”, starts off with Sold drugs to pay the rent/ And in the end covered in sweat, I made a fortune. This kind of songwriting engages and brings out the truth, in a cynically sarcastic way, about life.
When Dynamite Walls for got together, they began playing at showcases both in San Diego and Los Angeles with the hope of landing a record deal from a major company. They soon realized that the industry went “from a lot of talk to a lot of nothing”, and although they definitely generated a lot of buzz and gained big name fans in the industry, they found that dealing with labels and agencies meant putting the rest of your life on hold. They jumped in the studio, where they recorded a new EP produced by big time producer, Paul Fox (who produced for XTC and 10,000 maniacs) and began shopping it to labels once more, this time getting picked up by Sony. Unfortunately, as is the case all to often, they were dropped from the label without a release.
The band continues to shop for labels, although they have been signed on to a well known and very reputable management company. Since then, they have just recorded a new full length CD, recorded a video for their song “Kiss and Ride” and play shows weekly around San Diego and Los Angeles. They’re a regular fixtures at both the Casbah and The Beauty Bar, where they draw in about 120 people a night- Not bad for a small town band.
Every band has got to have a timeline they wish to follow, so I asked Tom Pritchard what his expected timeline was for him and the guys and he said that for now, the guys will continue to play their weekly shows, but because of the economy, they can’t afford to all quit their jobs and focus on the band. However, thanks to the internet and social networking site like myspace and facebook, they are able to promote their music and shows without having to leave the house or work, and that has helped them out a lot. In fact, the only promotion they do for their upcoming gigs is through myspace and facebook, and whatever the venue does to help them out. Their only challenge continues to be selling their music. Pritchard sat across the table from me, slightly reclined, with a confident smile. I couldn’t help but ask him why he was so sure that they could make it, especially without a label, and without nationwide touring. He answered “I can see everything coming together at once, where we eventually get a label that’s really behind the music and the band, and for now, we’re just preparing for it to blow us and everyone else away.”
Sticking to the main purpose of this paper, I had to ask them why they considered themselves a native San Diego band when half of the members aren’t even from the city. He answered me with a very logical answer, “how many native San Diegans are there really?” Which is true. Most people I’ve come in contact with in San Diego are from a million other places other than San Diego, myself included. But, he says that there is a distinct feel to the music scene in San Diego. It’s more friendly, more homey, and almost inviting you to become a part of it. Not like Hollywood, he says, where you just constantly have to prove to everyone that you’re barely good enough to call yourself a musician; where you are constantly being judged and compared and everyone is just waiting for the chance to shoot you down artistically. The idea of living and being a part of a scene in which you feel as though you are family, even though you don’t all know each other, is a unique characteristic to San Diego.
I decided to break away from the history of Dynamite Walls and get to know the guys a little better. If they could play with any band or musician, dead or alive, who would it be? All four guys gave me four way different answers. Pritchard shouts out “The Beatles or The Beach Boys!” while from the other three I get a mixture of Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and even some more modern artists like Nirvana, Velvet Underground, and The Killers. Hey, all those sound great to me. But I asked them to narrow it down, basing it on their style of music and performance, and come up with a collaborative answer and it took them a good ten minutes of deliberation before Blundell finally says “ we’d be awesome playing either on tour with or on stage with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers or Fleetwood Mac. With that answer, I think that these guys are probably the coolest guys I know!
Most bands could go on for days talking about themselves, but what makes Dynamite Walls so awesome is that they don’t have egos and they aren’t music snobs. Allan Bates says that now they want to know just who they’ve been talking to (me) and says: “without time to think, name what CD is in your car right now!” I answer confidently that I’ve got the new Silversun Pickups playing, “Swoon”. Some of the guys say things along the lines of “nice!” while I also get “that’s crap!”. Bates then shouts “again without thinking, top three artists/musicians”. This one takes me by surprise, but nevertheless I answer “Dylan, Springsteen, and Petty.” With this answer, I get an honorary invite to be a part of Dynamite Walls. Great… now if I could only learn to sing or play.
The afternoon with Dynamite Walls ends with me being challenged to a beer chugging contest with Blundell, which I have to refuse because somehow I have to manage to drive home. I get my honorary membership taken away for that one… but I promise to make time to complete another one of their challenges soon. Maybe I will do that at their next show, on May 13 at the Viper Room in Los Angeles.
