There are certain mixes of musical styles that will always jump out at me and force be to dive into the sound of the band. When a group has the bravery to take their music to an original place, regardless of what the mainstream “scene” expects, big things can come out of it. We recently had the chance to sit down with the band Year Of October to see how they developed such an interesting style. Enjoy the interview here:
Year of October is based in the music hotbed of Nashville, Tennessee. Has that helped the band’s development?
With so many musicians living and performing down here you have to be on the top of your game at all times. I think that has really helped us to develop our live performance and grow as artists.
How would you describe your interesting sound?
It’s really a mixture of a lot of things that we love. Maybe if Stephen King books were music we would be what they would sound like.
What artists would you say have been the biggest influences?
Josh grew up on Led Zeppelin and the Beatles and those have always been a huge influence on him.
I wanted to sound like Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald when I was younger, so I practiced to have powerful soulful vocals. I think that really shows through in our songs. We will have super heavy music going down and I will sing rhythms over the top of it that you wouldn’t usually hear.
Newer stuff that we love is Rocco Deluca, Norah Jones, The Black Keys, Jack White, Dawes, & The Punch Brothers. We like to take influences from all genres of music. We find inspiration in everything and I think if something is good then it doesn’t necessarily have to sound just like us to be a major influence.
There seems to be a country vibe present in Year of October music, has the local scene pushed for that?
No, they haven’t. It may be because I have an accent and that is just coming through in the songs. We put some pedal steel on the last album because we love that sound and it fit well on our more folk sounding songs. We just write what we like and don’t let genre’s limit us.
Speaking of the local scene, how have they reacted to your sound?
It took a little while for us to find our place, but I think that is the same for anyone coming to a new town. We have been down here for five years now and have carved out our own spot in the scene. People seem to enjoy it. We’ve got a decent following down here and some great support from other local bands.
The band has played a lot of shows in the Southern Region of the US. Tell us an interesting story from a live show.
We were playing in Paducah, Kentucky, which is where I’m from, one night last summer at a spot called JP’s Bar & Grill. We were on our first song and it was feeling really good. I noticed some people looking kind of worried in the crowd, but I didn’t think anything of it. When the song ended our friend from the band who opened for us ran up with some toilet paper she had rolled up. I turned around and see that Kody our drummer had a bloody nose throughout the entire song. His shirt was covered in blood, but he played it perfectly.
What is next for Year of October?
We’re recording our third album at the moment. Hopefully releasing it early next year so be on the lookout!
Keep up with Year Of October for yourself at http://www.yearofoctober.com/
