Wednesday, April 01, 2009

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by Paige Montgomery

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For Patrick Meese (vocals / keyboard / guitar), Nathan Meese (guitar / keyboard / vocals), Benjamin Haley (drums) and Mike Ayars (guitar / keyboard / vocals) the past year two years have been ones that musicians dream of. The Denver-based foursome have been on the local radar for a few years but after catching the attention of Atlantic Records, who signed the band in 2007, Meese has graced the stage with acts like The Fray, Fall Out Boy and Paramore, toured across the country, and their dreams of becoming major label recording artists have come to fruition in 2009. I recently sat down with the guys and asked them what the past year has been like for the band and what they think about Colorado’s thriving music scene.

Q: What is it like to be an up-and-coming band not only in the Denver music scene, but also a band on the national radar?

A: Patrick: Being a band in the Denver scene is a very exciting thing because there are so many great bands here.

Nathan: Denver’s obviously a great town for seeing music. It’s being seen nationally now with bands like The Fray, Flobots and 3Oh!3 – it’s the perfect city to be in. It’s a musical incubator.

Patrick: And we’re friends with all those guys – we support each other.

Q: Talk about what the past year has been like for Meese – obviously a little crazy.

A: Patrick: A lot of waiting. A lot of anticipating. A lot of incubating. We signed with Atlantic Records a year-and-a-half ago, so for the record to be finished and have a release date now, it’s been a long time. We’ve learned a lot and in the end we have a product that we are proud of – I think we’re proud of – I’m proud of.

Ben: I’m proud of it, Pat. Nice job, guys.

Q: Talk about your album a little bit. What are you guys trying to say with this one? What is it going to sound like?

A: Nathan: The best way Pat puts it is that we make music that we want to listen to.

What type of music do you want to listen to?

Nathan: What type of music do we want to listen to? Awesome, sweet music. You know, there’s more bands than ever now-a-days. This is our big shot and we just wanted to make a record that just kind of cuts through the mediocrity. But at the same time it appeals to hopefully everybody. I want moms to listen to this and 12-year-old kids – ya know, inmates in prison. …

Patrick: … Animals.

Nathan: My cat really loves the record.

Q: What is it called?

A: Patrick: Broadcast. There is a track on the album called “Broadcast” that we thought best summed it up. It rocks but it’s still kind of ballad-y. It has a lot of electronic elements – it’s one of our favorite songs. Plus the word “broadcast” itself lends to imagery and what we want to do with the album in general, so it seemed like a great title. And it doesn’t take away from “Meese.” People in Denver might be used to it now and know that it’s our last name, but we really want to focus on the “Meese,’” and Broadcast is more in the background than an album title like King Zanzabar and His Mighty Men or something.

Nathan: It was a close second.

Q: Tell us a little bit about the writing process and what it’s taken to get this album completed. How long have you been working on it? Basically, how did it come to be what it is now?

A: Ben: We started recording it in April ’08 and then did guitars and vocals through that whole summer. But we started writing it a while ago.

Q: Patrick, you talk about that “oh” feeling when you write a song. What do you mean by that?

A: Patrick: Yeah. The “ughh” feeling. You know when you hear a song and it hits you in the right spot, you might not literally out loud go “ughh”, but it just makes you go “yeah” – it’s that moment that I look for when I write a song. I end up scrapping most of the stuff I write because I don’t get that feeling or it isn’t big enough. I remember when I wrote “Tell Me it’s Over,” which has been our single for a while (they are going to re-release the new recording on Broadcast). I remember all I had was the notes for the chorus and the melody and I had Nate come over [and I played it for him]. He’s like “Awesome. Let’s do it” – just instantly. You gotta go with your gut. That’s basically what the “oh” moment is about.

Q: Inquiring minds want to know, have you ever written a song that you thought was really good but people just weren’t into it?

A: Nathan: Uh ... yeah.

Patrick: There’s definitely a B-list of songs. I mean, you’ve gotta have the crappy songs to get to the good ones. One song that finally came back to be on the record is called “Out of the Rubble.” I had a demo in 2005 and I heard the potential in my brain but everyone else that heard the demo was like, “Yeah … that’s kinda good. Maybe?” And I was like – I believe in this song! It went through a million transformations but it made it on the record. So I would say that whoever wanted to know if we write crappy songs, hold onto those bad songs because you never know when you might be able to use even a little snippet to make a good song.

Nathan: I think you wrote a cool guitar part.

Q: Is it better to come up through a city like Denver as opposed to Los Angeles or New York?

A: Patrick: That’s an interesting question. In L.A. and N.Y. all the industry people are there so if you want to be a major-label band, like we wanted to be from the start, you gotta know those people. But now-a-days you don’t necessarily need to live there because even though it might be more happenin’ in L.A. and N.Y. there’s just as many bad bands as there are good bands there. It really is just about being in the right place at the right time – and in the past few years Denver has definitely been the right place.

Q: With the success of bands like The Fray, Flobots and 3Oh!3, would you say that Denver is still on the verge of being a major city in the national music scene or have we made it?

A: Nathan: I’d say it’s still on the cusp. Denver’s an island. There’s no major cities around us so it’s very easy to focus your attention just on our town. It’s just now becoming a heat seeker and gaining momentum. Instead of people talking about Chicago or Seattle – now it’s like, Denver.

Patrick: But it’s different because when you look at Seattle or Chicago, Chicago having this great Indie Rock thing not too long ago and Seattle had this grunge thing – they had bands that were in the same genre.

Nathan: But there isn’t really a “Denver” sound.

Patrick: You just named 3Oh!3, The Fray and Flobots. I mean you couldn’t be more on opposite sides of the spectrum. I think when people hear the new CD they will realize that we are definitely a much different band than The Fray. The types of bands coming out of Colorado are really interesting. It’s hard to think of another city that has as many bands coming out of it that are so different.

That’s why they chose to have the Democratic National Convention here, right?

Patrick: That’s right. I called Obama – I was like “Hey, Bams, Denver ’08?” He was like, “Dunzo.”

Nathan: He texted me.

Q: How important are the Colorado fans?

A: Mike: They’re great. They’re super-loyal. They come to all of the shows – It’s cliché, but you always want to come home and play for your home fans.

Patrick: They’re cool. And we’re friends with all of our fans, which is cool to be able to say. They’re the reason we’re able to do this.

Q: What are some of your favorite local venues to play?

A: Nathan: I love playing the Bluebird.

Ben: I love the Gothic. There’s a lot of great venues in Denver.

Mike: Hi-Dive for me. Hi-Dive and Larimer Lounge.

Patrick: We played the Ogden for the first time not too long ago and that was special. There’s a lot of great people running the venues in Denver, which is great. A lot of people willing to communicate with the bands directly and get people there. It’s really cool.

Q: Any other bands you’d like to see break out of Colorado?

A: Patrick: There’s a girl named Elin Palmer who does Swedish Folk music with a lot of strings and interesting instruments. Just another example of a different sort of music coming out of Denver.

Nathan: I think the most interesting band I’ve ever heard of, and this isn’t meant to be a plug or anything, but Pat plays drums in this band called Dust on the Breakers and Jeff, the guy who plays bass with us, is in the band as well.

Patrick: It’s kinda like a “super group” sort of thing with all these Denver people.

Ben: A “super group”?

Patrick: Yeah, there’s people from five different bands that came together to form Dust on the Breakers.

Nathan: It’s actually incredible. They’re really just great tunes.

Patrick: Thanks, bro.

Nathan: No prob, bro. No, it’s really good. And then you know Born in the Flood – obviously; I’ve been saying that for three years. It’s like, when the hell are people going to wake up and realize that they are incredible?

Mike: They are the Denver Indie band that hasn’t broke yet.

Nathan attempted to give brother Patrick a supportive “high-five” when talking about his side project but he sarcastically told him to “put it down” – you can tell that there is a really unique dynamic between the two Meese brothers. In addition to being one-half of a very professional band, these two still bring a fun (slightly competitive) energy to the mix.

Nathan: I also can’t wait to hear the new Photo Atlas CD – I love those guys.

Patrick: Ben doesn’t really talk to people in Denver.

Ben: I live in the suburbs, so I just see people at shows.

Nathan: What’s the Littleton scene like?

Ben: Pretty happenin’. A lot of open mic nights, more acoustic guitars – Pearl Jam covers.

Prior to my interview with Meese I asked a handful of local musicians for questions they would want to hear other bands answer. I found that one question seemed to stand out from the rest and really sparked some interesting responses from their peers.

Q: Do you ever think about giving up?

Ben: I actually asked that question.

A: Patrick: Every morning in the shower. Seriously though, giving up? What is that? I’m never going to stop doing music. I would say that I’m sort of the founder of the band and ever since I was, I mean, 12 years old playing drums I’ve had to be in a band – that’s something I had to do. I didn’t have a choice, even. I just always found people and convinced them, somehow, to come play. I hope I never lose that part of me. As far as giving up goes, I haven’t thought about it with this band.

Ben: I think that’s a great way to put it. There are a hundred different ways to express yourself, musically.

Nathan: Just a hundred?

Ben: Just about a hundred-ish. I mean, you can write jingles, you can play in a band like this one, you can do open mic nights, play at a church – whatever it is. This is one great way to do it and if this thing runs its course then I’m sure we’ll all continue to keep playing music. It’s just a part of who we are.

Nathan: With our band it was always, “What do we have to do to get to the next level?” – it’s still like that.

Patrick: It’s about goals. It’s really about starting a business – if you want to be on a major label you need to start a business to get to that next level and achieve your goals.

Nathan: And with doing all that if you even think about giving up, that’s weak. Ya know? You gotta be tough. It’s not an easy business to get into. So no. Giving up – it’s stupid.

Patrick: Well, if someone’s having trouble and thinking about giving up, it’s not like you’re stupid for thinking about it. It’s a reasonable thing to feel.

Nathan: No! You gotta’ be tough, bro … We’ll agree to disagree.

Patrick: Well, John Q Question-Asker, we agree to disagree on this one.

Nathan: He’s the nice one; I’m the mean one.

Meese’s album, Broadcast, which highlights their Rock/Pop/Indie style with tracks like “Tell Me its Over,” and title track “Broadcast,” will be available nationally June 30, 2009; and the band plans to make an extra push in the Denver market. Meese will also be including, along with the release, bonus material on the web including music videos and everything else that comes with putting out an album. “We’d love to share everything with people in Denver.” – Patrick.

Album: Broadcast – available June 30, 2009

Label: Atlantic Records

Myspace.com/Meese

MeeseMusic.com