By
Alexis Dow
The Patriot-News
on October 31, 2012 at 10:30 PM, updated October 31, 2012 at 10:40 PM
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Head to Harrisburg’s newest music venue, Fed Live, and check out one of its newest bands, Very Americans.
Composed of ex-members of The Commercials, Junction and Tenspoke Indies, Very Americans is Rich Wise on vocals, Garrett Rothman on bass, Tom McGrath on guitar, Tyler Coleman on drums, Tony Bavaria on guitar and Steve Radtke on keyboards.
- IF YOU GO: Very Americans single release and “Feed your Ego” CD release show, 9 p.m. Friday at Fed Live, 234 N. Second St., Harrisburg. 21+, $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Info and tickets at fedlive.net.
“We’re basically all lifers,” Bavaria explained. “Tom and I have been playing in bands together since we were 16. When the last things we were doing started trailing off, we decided it was time to try to start something new.
“We really wanted to make a conscious effort to try to write songs that we were proud of and to put together a band that was fun and that wasn’t about trying to get big or about playing music industry games. We wanted every decision in this band to be based on ‘Is it fun?’ and ‘Do we think it’s cool?’”
The next step, according to Bavaria, was to find the rest of their band.
“We wanted to try playing with new people, [so] we reached out to some people we’ve known for a while from other bands, etc., but never really played with.”
They reached out to Rothman, Coleman and Radtke, and it was an immediate fit.
“We kind of just instantly hit it off and ended up writing a lot of songs in a short period of time,” Bavaria explained.
They still needed a singer, and they met Wise through a mutual friend.
“He had just moved up here from Florida and was looking for a new band,” Bavaria said. “He’s an excellent vocalist, and he’s British, so it was kind of a no-brainer.”
Very Americans’ sound is a bit of a departure from what all the musicians have done in the past, a sound that Bavaria calls “more mature.”
“Most of us come from a punk [or] hardcore background, so a lot of our old bands, especially when we were younger, were a lot more aggressive,” Bavaria explained. “The new stuff is definitely more melodic, and I would say it has a lot more dynamics than some of our previous bands.”
That maturity extends beyond their music — Bavaria believes their collective experiences have impacted the band.
“Although we’ve all had opportunities to do a lot of touring in the past, play with some bigger bands, and do some cool stuff, I think we all made some mistakes, too,” Bavaria said. “I think over time you can look back at those experiences and really appreciate the good ones, and reflect on the not-so-good ones, and I think that reflection can really help you to evaluate what your expectations are and what you want to be doing going forward.”
During Friday’s show, Very Americans will celebrate its first release, the “Back From the Dead” 7-inch, — a two-song single that is being released digitally and on limited-edition white vinyl. “I’m really excited about the release … probably the most proud I’ve ever been about a final release that I’ve been involved with,” Bavaria said.
Learn more about Very Americans at facebook.com/veryamericans.
Alexis Dow Campbell is director of creative programming at The Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art.
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