www.facebook.com/crackbangpow
From: Texas
Sounds like: Alternative Rock
1. How did you get started with music and how did you develop your sound? How did the name "Crack! Bang! Pow!" come about and is there any meaning to it?
I (Brad) got started with music in middle school by starting a band and guitar lessons with some good friends. Over the years we developed our skills and formed various bands throughout high school. In college I was very serious about bands and shows, playing in a variety of genres from rock to reggae to hip hop to singer songwriter to metal. Some of those bands had great local success. One even produced an album at Willie Nelson's studio with grammy nominee engineer, Steve Chadie. Alas, the bands all fell away and I was kind of left on my own so I went solo and eventually quit my job at a TV station to earn a degree in music where I studied classical guitar for five years and later became a high school guitar director. Since then I have been developing a backlog of songs I had written and writing new ones with the Crack! Bang! Pow! sound that Ryan Reyna, the drummer, and I created through rehearsals to demo my backlog of songs.
I came up with the name by thinking of how I ended up writing those songs which were mostly life events that seemed to slap me in the face. I also wanted to craft the overall sound to reflect the name with expected and unexpected hits of sound to grab the listener's attention.
2. What do you want people to take away from your music?
Most of my music comes from moments of pain, angst, and depression. It gives me great comfort to play and to listen to these songs. I would like to provide that same comfort to listeners across the world. We all have bad days and situations, and music is a great healer for all.
3. How would you describe your sound to the average listener?
Alternative rock, grunge, singer songwriter songs arranged for a rock band with improvisorial twists.
4. Who are three bands you’d like to tour with?
Weezer, Green Day, The Mars Volta, Incubus - or any other mid or high level bands looking for support acts.
5. What's your thoughts on AI generated music?
I don't know much about it. I tried using AI to spark some lyric writing once but it didn't help much. It didn't have the right feel or flow. I would try it again though, I'm pretty sure I could make it work if I used it more. I look at the advancements in instruments with electronics, synthesizers, etc. and see them as tools to create. Perhaps AI will reach that same status with me at some point.
6. What’s your take on the current state of Alternative Rock?
It seemed to lose a little of the "rock" edge in recent years however I hear other people say the same thing and it feels like the rock side vs the indie pop side of that genre is wanting to make a big comeback. Not that I don't appreciate the indie pop side of it. I like all kinds of music.
7. What’s the current music scene like there in Texas?
Where we reside in Corpus Christi, it is and always has been very much about metal and tejano with a punk scene that ebbs and flows. Which leaves us as a little bit of an oddball. However, all of our shows have been extremely successful in terms of audience feedback. I think people are really wanting to see a respark of the 90s/00s rock era.
8. What’s your take on the royalties that streaming services pay out to artists?
It seems quite low.
9. What’s next for Crack! Bang! Pow!?
We recently formed a working relationship with Alex Backlund at Fascination Street Studios in Sweden for our mixing and mastering needs. We can track at our jam room and send off the STEMS to him and get an amazing final product. We plan to take that approach for the rest of our catalog and release singles/EPs as regularly as possible. We also formed a great relationship with a sick local video production company, PRODUCE, and look forward to more videos with them. Eventually, we'd like to take this show on the road and make Crack! Bang! Pow! our main careers that support our lives 100%.
10. Any shoutouts?
Shout out to Mike Bohn for recognizing our potential, to Alex Backlund for helping bring our sonic vision to fruition, to Cris Olvera for his amazing video production, to Black Monk Tavern for all the free drinks and letting us perform on some of their bigger bills, and finally to our wives, girlfriends, family, and friends for all their support.
