PROMOTERS UNITE. MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN ARE ON THE WAY.

As was mentioned in last week’s update, we’ve decided to retire the World Kicks in order to allow for a more open submission forum. We felt that CONFRONT needed a place where people could be free to talk about any music related topic, without feeling obligated to respect the confines of specific parameters. Beat Bazaar is such a place. Here you will find reviews of all kind, interviews, transcripts, reader submitted articles ‘best of’ lists and so on; if it’s about music you can talk about it here. The Beat Bazaar will also be an opportunity for the CONFRONT Crew to share their new discoveries and personal favorites with you. It’s with that in mind that we launch the Beat Bazaar with a call to arms. Promotional arms that is. Allow me to explain.

A few weeks agoChristine and I headed out on a road trip that took us to three cities in three days, in order to follow the MTV2 2$ bill tour. A road trip that culminated in an interview with NY natives, Men, Women and Children in Providence R.I.. We were escorted into the bustling venue by MW&C’s -tall dark and handsome- tour manager and introduced to drummer David (Skully) Sullivan-Kaplan who was busily unpacking t-shirt boxes and setting up the merch booth.

A few days before the interview, MW&C’s tour van had been stolen along with all their belongings. As such, their label had just sent them new merch and it was a mad rush to get it all organized and ready for purchase. Rather than stand around doing nothing, we offered our help and probably had the most fun we’ve ever had hanging around a venue. What better way to get to know a band that to just have a casual conversation with its members while joining in on the pre-show rituals. We were amazed at how welcoming they were. We were even privy to the sound check which, as concert going fans, is always a fun treat. Given the early show time and the amount of work still to be done, the interview was postponed until after the show.

And what a show it was. I am always amazed at how much energy they have on stage. It’s palpable. And it was nice to see the crowd responding and singing along. It’s practically impossible to not get up and dance. Which we did of course. After the bands set, we snuck off to meet keyboardist Nick Conceller, who our was interview was scheduled with. As the show was under way, we opted for a quieter location and headed to a nearby coffee shop, Nick’s absolutely gorgeous girlfriend tagging along.

ANGEL: We saw you guys in Burlington I think it was in March.

NICK: May.

ANGEL: Yeah May. I didn’t know much about you guys then And the little I did know was learned word of mouth mostly.

NICK: Really?

ANGEL: But even then, there isn’t much information out there. I did know that two of the band members were part of another band?

NICK: One was in a band called Glassjaw and one was in a band called Reunion Show.

ANGEL: Only one in Glassjaw? I thought it was two?

NICK: No just one.

ANGEL: Oh right, I’m thinking about Head Automatica.

NICK: Yeah Daryl the singer from Glassjaw is in Head Automatica.

ANGEL: Is that connection the reason you guys tour together a lot?

NICK: You mean with Mars?

ANGEL: No not necessarily Mars. More Head Automatica.

NICK: Just cause they’re our friends. Stylistically we kinda fit together. And uh, yeah it’s fun. When we tour with Head Automatica it’s like the best times of our lives so…

ANGEL: How did you guys start out?

NICK: I was friends with Todd. I grew up in St-Louis and I was friends with Todd for long a time; like five years. And we were just friends. And Glassjaw just wanted to take a break after they went on a long Warp Tour and they were having problems like, communicating with each other and they were like ‘let’s take a break’ so our band started just like a project I guess you would say. Like we were gonna make some songs and put them on the internet and just have fun with it. When it first started we thought they would get back together in like a month. Like we were just gonna do this for a week. And somehow we just continued working on stuff and became serious so I moved to New York. And pretty much that’s all we did everyday.

ANGEL: You are probably asked this often, but why the name Men, Women and Children?

NICK: I’m actually the one who named the band. We were recording in Nebraska and this van drove by and it said ‘Serving Men, Women and Children since…’ and there was a date. And we had had like 700 hundred names. We used to be called Easy Tiger and we couldn’t use that because there was already another band with that name and it like jumped out at me and I was like ‘this has to be the name’. When I think of our music it’s like made for everyone. Like even more so, when we first toured with 30 Seconds to Mars we didn’t think their fans would like us at all. And they’ve embraced us. Having a diverse fan base is like really the mission of our band. So that’s why we all agreed on that name.

ANGEL: You were talking about having toured with 30 Seconds to Mars before, has the experience been different on this MTV2 tour?

NICK: It has been different. It’s interesting to see how pre and post MTV, how a crowd morphs into something else. ‘Cause when we first played with them it was jut the Echelon pretty much. Like just their hardcore fan base. And now you see just everyday, like less diehards and more average music fans. But it’s kinda cool in a way. Cause again it’s a new crowd to draw from.

ANGEL: Has the response been as open with this crowd as it was with the pre MTV crowd?

NICK: It’s been different I guess. Well it’s almost the same. Cause like some markets in the first tour we didn’t do as well and some markets we did great. And this tour we’ve been flip flopping between first and second. And I feel like when we play second it’s been better because the crowd is warmed up to a certain extent. But like last night was awesome. And New York was awesome. Tonight was really good. Yeah it’s been good. I wish we were on the whole tour.

ANGEL: How come you aren’t doing the whole tour?

NICK: I think that since Mars has gotten real big, it’s the first chance they’ve had to dole out a bunch of favors. You know a bunch of bands getting a few shows is better than the same tour over and over. I don’t even know who else comes on this tour but a lot of different bands are till coming.

ANGEL: Skully said that you guys were going to Germany. Have you been overseas before?

NICK: We’ve been to the UK. But we’ve never been to Germany before. The UK it’s like, we do ten times better there than we do here.

ANGEL: Oh really?

NICK: Yeah, the perception in other countries is different. It’s weird. Like over there we’re in all the cool magazines and stuff and here, like no one cares about us at all. I think that people value their music outside of America more so than here. Like, me and my girl just went to Jamaica. And music is the number one thing there is. So just headlining over there… We are gonna headline [in the UK] for the first time. And we are expecting it to be really good. And I just want really want to Germany. We’re playing with the Claxons. They’re like rave, rock kinda. So I think we’ll do well with them.

ANGEL: We did an expose on street teams for on of the issues of the magazine and we found out a lot of things that we didn’t know. Like the origins of street teams and stuff like that. Like that they were originally used by Punk bands who wanted…

NICK: Marketing.

ANGEL: Yeah! Cause it was the way they had of promoting themselves and stuff. Do you feel that the premise and purpose of street teams has changed over the years?

NICK: I do actually. Before hand, street teams were much more physical. Like you were on the street, on the telephone polls, spray painting the sidewalks. Now it’s like, everything is moving to online. That’s the biggest change. The fact that we can communicate with like 25 thousand people on MySpace with one press of a button is pretty impressive. And to us it’s been a tool that we’ve used. Like on MySpace, if anyone communicates with us write them back. That’s like an important thing to us, that we have personal contact with our fans.

ANGEL: I don’t know how much you know about CONFRONT magazine but it’s an online thing. And there are specific reasons for that.

NICK: Print is really expensive.

ANGEL: yeah that was a major concern but also the internet is where most people are now going for their information and having worked for a publishing company I know where the print industry is headed…
NICK: Yeah same thing with music.

ANGEL: Yeah and it’s also more ecological and stuff.

NICK: Yeah. Although I do love magazines. I love to read magazines.

ANGEL: Sure. I like to have the option of holding something in my hands to read it. But there is always the option of printing just the sections you want to read which saves on paper and ink.

NICK: I agree.

ANGEL: Obviously the internet has affected the music industry too as you said. Do you think it’s affected it in a positive or negative way?

NICK: I’d say positive. Well it depends. There’s two sides. There is the industry that isn’t the band part, that’s the business part and it’s destroyed the major label. But it’s opened up the door for anyone to have a chance. And I think that’s important. It’s cheaper to record so anyone can make a good sounding record. And anyone can deliver their music to the masses. To me it’s better. You should be able to hear good art period. Whether it’s on an indie label or major label. Itunes, downloading, MySpace. I think it’s exciting. Because phenomenons can start out of the bedroom now. It’s not like you have to build your way up to the major labels. You know, if it’s good you should hear it. That’s what I think.

ANGEL: Do you think that stuff like American Idol and shows like Supernova have damaged in anyway what the internet did for indie labels?

NICK: Uh! I guess to me I wouldn’t compare those things. I mean I enjoy watching American Idol. I’ve never seen Supernova but I guess anytime you get people excited about music – it could be American Idol or it could be CSI – and just people thinking about music, it’s good. Cause when you’re young, all you know is the radio and MTV. That’s all you know. And I feel that as you get older you branch out and find what you really like, so just more music based things would help you know.

ANGEL: You’re one of the first people to not think it has been damaging to the industry.

NICK: Why do people think it’s damaging?

ANGEL: I guess it’s because they feel that to a degree it’s an experience thing. Like you get to the point of being signed usually after a few years of working together and you’ve got the experience behind you and you’ve got the touring behind you…

NICK: So you’re saying like paying dues?

ANGEL: Yeah exactly. That’s how a lot of people have responded. And I mean I can understand that sentiment because if I had worked on something for ten years and then finally got a break and someone who hasn’t put in as much as I perceive I have, gets a break instantly it would piss me off. You know I take as an example Kelly Clarkson – not that I dislike her, I really like her actually – but…

NICK: I think Kelly Clarkson is amazing. I like her a lot.

ANGEL: Sure but if I were in that position of being up against that you know…

NICK: Yeah! But it’s so different man. Like you don’t grow up playing punk rock and think you are gonna sell 20 million copies. You wanna play in a basement and you wanna play in a band you know. It’s a different motive to me.

ANGEL: You’ve worked with some pretty amazing Canadian people on this album.

NICK: I agree! Hell yeah!

ANGEL: What was that experience like?

NICK: I was incredible. Like going with Raine [Maida] was a whim. Like they heard our music, him and this other guy, they work together. And they offered to do a song for us for free. And actually we thought that ‘Spiritual Machines’ was a great record, but for our band I wasn’t sure how Raine Maida would translate and we decided to try it. And he was incredible. He had great suggestions and it was awesome. The way we worked with him is that we did some of the tracks in the actual studio and then the vocals and some other stuff was recorded at his house. So Chantal [Kreviazuk] would just be hanging out and she’d be like ‘oh I wanna sing on this part’ and you know the kids were there, the dogs were there. It was an incredible atmosphere for making music and he became one of our best friends through it. Like we were talking the other day how it’s cool that through the age of the internet you can stay in touch with everyone on the record so it’s been great. I guess after being in Canada I really realized how big Raine and Chantal are. I didn’t know and I think it’s cool. I think we should go to Canada more cause people talk about us more there.

ANGEL: Yeah I was just gonna say. Could you see yourselves touring with Our Lady Peace?

NICK: Yeah defintely. Raine is doing a solo record right now! (…) But yeah, we’ll play with anyone. That’s the thing about our band. It kind comes over in a weird way.

ANGEL: I read that someone in the band jokingly said that you started out just wanting to put together Nintendo music and it turned into a huge party. Where do you see yourselves going from here? Like is the goal to get bigger or something like that?

NICK: You mean sales?

ANGEL: Whatever. Just what your goals are with the band. You know, like some people are satisfied playing in small venues others want to headline arenas or stadiums and stuff like that.

NICK: Yeah I would love to play stadiums. Like it’s cool to see Mars, they’ve stepped up their production on this tour. And I just want to play music for the rest of my life really. You know, collaborate with people, pay the bills; which we’re not really doing right now. So yeah, as far as creativity goes, we just want to go and write the next record… like just going into a room and write music. We don’t really talk about what we are gonna do. Everyone is like so good and so varied, that we all influence each other cause we’re into such different things.

ANGEL: Other than the fact that you’re stuff got stolen and there was an accident and stuff like that… do you have any interesting tour stories?

NICK: Yeah our tech got lost. Did you hear that story? We thought he was dead.

ANGEL: Uhhh NO! I didn’t hear about that.

NICK: Our tech who is no longer with us but he’s still a friend. We went to this strip club in Atlanta called the Clairmont, it’s like grandmas and girls with gun shot wounds and stuff, it’s a famous place, there’s even a song about it. And [our tech] was going to leave the tour cause he was having some problems. We left and he said he was going to stay over with these girls. So I said ok we’ll see you at the hotel. And me and him shared a bed and I went to bed at around four and still he wasn’t there. We woke up and we had to leave to go to North Carolina like at 9:30, and he was gone. And this was very unlike him. Like he’d gone on all night benders and always shown up on time to leave. So it came to be like 10:30, 11:00 and his phone was off. We couldn’t get in touch with him. We even filed a missing person’s police report. We called the jails, hospitals and there was no sign of him at all. And the night before when we drove back to the hotel, there was like this row of crack heads, like hundreds of them. Oh yeah and he was with these two girls and we found their number. So we called the girls and they had let him off at the hotel at like 4:30 or 5:00 that morning. So we were freaking out. We thought he was dead; like he went to get crack from these crackheads or something. Like hours and hours went by and we even sent out a MySpace bulletin that shot around the whole internet. No one could find him. His mom was crying and everything. We put flyers up on telephone polls. We had this picture where he was holding this koala that we were putting on telephone polls. And finally at like 10:30pm, he’s been missing for like 12 hours and his mom calls, saying they’d found him. And he’d ended up eating mushrooms and he tripped out and he flew to California, from Atlanta. He had even cut his credit card so he couldn’t get money anymore and just flew to California. That is definitely the most crazy thing that happened.

ANGEL: How are you dealing with the theft of all your stuff? Skully was saying that you had to borrow instruments from friends and stuff like that.

NICK: Oh we still are. We are gonna get new stuff when we get home. We have two shows left and then we go home. Our friends and fans have been incredible to us. Mind Blowing.

ANGEL: Yeah I saw the donation box and I was surprised at how much people had already given only half an hour after the doors opened.

NICK: Yeah it makes me feel good. Obviously people care about us enough to give us a dollar or two.

ANGEL: From what I saw tonight, short of 30 Seconds to Mars, you guys have the most visual components to your show, with the colored lights and stuff like that. How important do you think that aspect of the show is?

NICK: Oh it’s huge. I don’t know if I’d put a percent value but like when you pay 25 bucks to see a show, I want people to feel like they are getting their money’s worth. We could easily just stand there and play our music but like having lights and the backdrop when we can, it’s just important to the whole element of being at a concert. We want people to come back.

ANGEL: One of the things we are trying to do with the magazine is change the stereotypes of what mainstream is considered to be. Like for many people it’s just stuff like Britney Spears and boy bands, not that there is anything wrong with that.

NICK: There’s not. I like that stuff.

ANGEL: Yeah so do I but we are trying to show that mainstream should be nothing more than the ability to reach a lot of people rather than a music genre.

NICK: I just look at Radiohead and Tool and their great bands and it doesn’t happen very often that a great band cracks through. But it’s hard to say what makes that happen. Like boybands and Britney Spears there’s a formula to that. Like when Britney Spears started I didn’t think much of it. But as she evolved, her music got more creative. And I love the Neptunes and I love Timberland and like, Timberlake and Nelly Furtado are some of my favorite albums right now. I think hip-hop has brought a sense of being larger than life and that helps get it to mainstream. Because… like Leto is the perfect example. He’s a rock star. You can attach yourself to him. When I was a kid, Guns N’ Roses was my favorite cause Axl was larger than life. It’s something you can look up too. I don’t know. I feel like our band, we are the sum of our parts. And all 6 of us create this thing. I don’t know if that will hurt us in the long run, cause we don’t have this Icon but that’s kind of what we do.

Our coffees finished and the interview reaching it’s end, we bundled up to face the cold and headed back to the venue, continuing our conversation on the way. I couldn’t help but be interested in what he had to say for the simple fact that the he seemed genuinely interested in the conversation himself; a welcome change from the sometimes repetitive rhetoric some artists resort too. Nick’s passion for music is evident and I couldn’t help but want to know more.

We got back to the venue just as Head Automatica was taking the stage. Christine and I made our way to the front of the venue in an attempt to get a better venue and ran into Skully as we did so. Ever the nice guy, he stopped to say hello and enquired if all had gone well with Nick. When I mentioned we were just getting back and trying to find a good vantage point for the show, he made a point of finding one for us. After a little sweet talking, he managed to convince one of the female security staff members to allow us up in the empty VIP section for the rest of the show. Can I just say that for the chivalry alone, I love this guy.

Our incredible night now over, we were talking with Tori, a friend we see at these concerts periodically, when Skully walked by. He stopped to wish us and safe trip home and playful screamed “Good night, love you” as he walked away making us laugh. What a wonderful way to end an already great road trip.

On our way back home, MW&C were all we could talk about. It seems inconceivable to us to not do all we can to help bring these fun and talented artists into the spotlight. So I urge you, buy the CD, go see a show, buy the merch, call your local radio stations and music television stations and request their single… do anything you can to make sure these guys are allowed to continue to make music. Trust me, it’s well worth the effort. If you would like more information on MW&C, make sure to stop by their Myspace page (www.myspace.com/menwomenandchildren ) or their official website (www.menwomenandchildren.com)