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Douglas Brown - vocals, rhythm guitar
Dave Garofolo - guitar
Jeremy Henshaw - bass
Tate Cunningham - drums
Anything - and everything - about SAFETYSUIT can be summed
up by the band's name.
"I think the key word is 'safety,'" explains
singer/guitarist Doug Brown. "The four of us in the
band have been friends forever. We feel comfortable around
each other. We're in a safe environment…and that makes
us feel free to be who we are. And, if we can inspire
that moment or that feeling in our fans, we've succeeded."
Which begins the story of SAFETYSUIT, an extraordinarily
talented, musically confident young band that does, in
fact, inspire. Their songs capture the grandeur and depth
of U2, with an imaginative pop sensibility at its core
and a dizzying wall of guitars as its backdrop. "It's
not rocket science," says Brown. "Quintessential
good melody and good lyrics, that's what makes a song."
Oddly, the band's influences share very little with the
group's final sound. "Hey, I like Rob Thomas - the
way he twists a melody has always caught my ear. I grew
up on the Allman Brothers and the Beatles. I like a lot
of modern rock. And the Eagles - you won't hear that in
our music, but there's a band that really showed me what
a group of people can accomplish musically."
When Brown speaks, it's with assurance, as if he knows
what he's doing and where he's going. It's a feeling that
began in, of all places, Tulsa. Here, before there was
a SAFETYSUIT, there was Crew. And this early incarnation
of the group was, indeed, friends. Their journey started
the moment Doug, drummer Tate Cunningham and bassist Jeremy
Henshaw (along with two other guys; guitarist Dave Garofolo
joined a little later) entered a local Battle of the Bands
contest at the last minute…and won.
It continued throughout the next year, as Crew became
a local phenomenon, drawing up to1000 people per night
on the local circuit. But to grow as a band, the band
needed a new direction. "We wanted to move, and move
to one of the three major music hubs," remembers
Brown. The group wanted space to think, to grow and, most
importantly, to focus. With that in mind, the usual rock
music meccas (Los Angeles and New York) gave way to Nashville.
Despite the new locale, the lack of a local fanbase,
no deal and no manager, the group assembled in Tennessee
and obsessively began to rehearse. After a chance meeting,
they recorded an EP with Greg Archilla (Matchbox 20, Collective
Soul, Buckcherry) in the summer of 2005. "When we
were done with that, we felt we were as ready to play
as ever," says Brown.
So the gigs began - at nice places, dives, theaters,
clubs, wherever, often 2-3 times a week. And, as expected
by the band, the fanbase grew. Labels started sniffing
around. And the group discovered what would become its
second home, a local haunt called 12th and Porter, where
the group began a residency. "Actually, the best
show we ever did was at 12th and Porter, and it was the
night Universal showed up," says Brown. "Everyone
brought everyone that night. Twenty minutes before the
show, somebody came into the green room and announced
there was a line around the block. All I remember is …I
walked out on stage that night, the lights went up, I
saw the crowd…and the whole thing was a blur afterwards.
I was in a zone the entire time. When the last note of
the last song hit, I sort of woke up. It was …amazing."
With a Universal deal in hand, the band met with a number
of big-name producers, before ultimately deciding to stick
with Archilla ("We're stubborn," says Brown.
"We like Greg. He doesn't mess around, he tells it
like it is…and he plays golf. So that's awesome.")
The final result, Life Left to Go, is unabashedly catchy.
It feels like that album that'll live in your car stereo
for months on end. But the title, like the band's name,
has its own story. "It's named after our last song
on the record, which is our least commercial song ever,"
admits Brown. "It chronicles the thoughts of someone
who wants to end their life. Then it presents the counter
of that, the person begging them to stay. It's a song
to let people know that, no matter what, somebody notices
them, that someone cares.
"That song is a big deal for us," Brown continues,
then pauses. "I don't want to wave any sort of flag,
but the focus on music is always so ego-centric. We wanted
to flip that. I wanted this to be a song about the artist
giving for a change."
It's a feeling you'll hopefully discover when SAFETYSUIT
heads out of Nashville this spring and hits the road.
As Brown promises, anyone who comes to their show should
feel better afterwards than before they came in. As is
with their music, it's an inspiring thought.
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