Shiny Toy Guns – Supersonic Overdrive

Shiny Toy Guns is another one of those bands I discovered while surfing MySpace.  It’s an addictive pastime but one that provides much entertainment and allows me to make wonderful discoveries, such as this band.  I was immediately hooked by the music and the obvious contrast of sounds and vocals.  My interest peeked, I made the usual rounds; Wikipedia, Purevolume, the band’s Official Website, and was intrigued by the world they have created for themselves.  Few people have managed to utilize the new media as effectively as this quartet.

The day I met with bassist Jeremy Dawson, we sat in the dingy basement of a venue, just a few hours before that night’s show, lounging on dirty couches, having a conversation rather than conducting an interview; a conversation that was quickly gathering an audience of road crew, band members and friends.  It didn’t take me long to understand why this strange phenomenon was taking place.  Although incredibly laid back, Jeremy’s passion and ease of expression make him easy to listen to and want to learn from.  It’s not so much his eloquence that is captivating, but his way of drawing you in to his private thoughts and reasons.

Normally, interviews tend to involve a variety of different questions asked about a quantity of subjects that is just as varied, a practice that, although informative, often tends to leave what’s most important out: the details.  This wasn’t the case while interviewing Jeremy.  I found myself sitting back and just listening most of the time – much like our growing audience, broaching subjects vaguely and listening avidly as Jeremy explored them in depth on his own.  So much so that he left very little to write about.
Normally an article is written in such a way as to introduce the subjects discussed and the context and reasons why the questions are being asked etc., this time however, I found this to be unnecessary.  There is no need for filler as Jeremy explains it all himself.  So I hope you’ll forgive the unorthodox format, but really, Jeremy is best read in his own words.

The Beginning

“We started two of us, myself and the guitar player Chad, the male lead singer.  We’re actually from Oklahoma and we’ve been writing music together for fourteen years.  We decided to do the typical American music thing, where you just sell everything and drive to LA and hope for the best; sell spaghetti and do whatever you can to eat and try to meet people or whatever.  We literally did that; except for the spaghetti part, we didn’t do that.”