The 'funnest' pure pop band
Five years of playing "frat party music'' on the familiar Southeastern
college circuit was enough for four members of Black Diamond: They decided
it was time to cut their own path with original music. But they lacked a
lead singer. For a year the musicians laid down instrumental tracks in the
home studio of a friend named Tom (a1l those trips to "Tom's house''
would eventually give the new band its name) while trying out vocalists.
None seemed right. Then one night at rehearsals, they decided to harmonize
on some of the material themselves. And, says keyboardist Billy Gaudin,
band members suddenly realized they had all the singers they needed. "We
don't claim to be singers,''says Gaudin. "There are not enough vocal
effects to make us sound good. We're still earning to be confident in the
way we sing." So the residents of Tom's House rehearse as a full band
twice a week, but spend as many as four evenings playing acoustically, fine
tuning their vocals. All that practicing paid off in the shimmering three-part
harmonies of "Hey World,'' the debut from Tom's House. Gaudin, bassist
Joey Mangiapane, drummer Mark Hebert and guitarist David LeBlanc could have
continued to make a decent living as Black Diamond, working as many as six
nights a week in frat houses and college-town clubs. But they were growing
increasingly frustrated with the routine, and realized that original music
was the way to advance in the business. As Black Diamond, they covered everything
from the hard-hitting rock/rap of Rage Against the Machine, to the synth-pop
of Duran Duran. But thy original music they write is all of a certain type:
relentlessly upbeat guitar pop. "We tried to be tough and turn the
guitars up loud, but it wasn't us," Gaudin says. "We had to come
to the realization that we're a pure pop band. And once you accept that,
that s half the battle. Simple melodies, simple songs, stuff that people
can sing along to." Black Diamond, Gaudin says, wasn't always run as
tightly as a business should be; he and the others plan to keep Tom's House
in order, even as they head out this fall on the some circuit they worked
as Black Diamond. Gaudin says he and his bandmates have also brought one
other lesson over to Tom's House. "(In Black Diamond) we learned how
to put on a show," Gaudin says. "We weren't the best cover band
in the world, but we were the funnest. We're starting to remember that as
Tom's House." |
