Editor’s Note: It was a beautiful Friday Spring Night as Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown were providing direct support for Blackberry Smoke at the Surf Ballroom. The Surf Ballroom is one of the most legendary venues in the United States as that was the last concert that Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Richie Valens played before that fateful plane crash that happened north of Clear Lake, Iowa. Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown have been making some noise in the rock world as they have shared the stage with the likes of Aerosmith, Guns ‘N’ Roses, and ZZTop, amongst playing all over in Europe and are hitting every corner in America. Fans can check out Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown at the following locations:
www.facebook.com/TylerBryantAndTheShakedown
www.tylerbryantandtheshakedown.com
Madness To Creation: We are Madness To Creation here and we want to thank Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown for taking the time to interview with us, and tell me who you are and what you do in the band?
Noah: Thanks for having us, I’m Noah and I play bass in Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown. I play bass and sing the really loud parts.
Madness To Creation: How has the tour with Blackberry Smoke been going so far?
Noah: Oh, it’s great, we’re currently out with Blackberry Smoke, we’ve played a handful of dates with them so far, and we’re excited to be here in Clear Lake at such a historical place, you walk in and feel the energy of it, the significance of it, and the history of music, we’re really honored to be here on this stage with such a great band.
Madness To Creation: Behind us is this picture of Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Richie Valens, what are some thoughts that come to mind with this picture?
Noah: As a kid, one of my favorite earliest songs to listen to was “La Bamba”, by Richie Valens, somewhere my mom has video cassette footage of me going “la la la la la bamba”, I love that song! Ever since I was two or three years ago, I would dance around my house when that song came on, and it wasn’t until I got older, and my dad explained to me his story and tied it in with The Big Bopper and Buddy Holly, it’s such a tragedy, but what a legacy all of those guys left behind in such a short time on their own.
Madness To Creation: What legacy would you like your band to leave behind when it’s all said and done?
Noah: That’s a loaded question! We hope that our legacy is whoever saw us play left feeling uplifted and feeling energized like they gained something from it, we play music whether two people or two million people showed up, it’s just real special to hear people after a show to say that your music means something, that right there is a legacy in its own, I guess we will see how the rest of it goes! *laughs*
Madness To Creation: When you hit that studio to write and help arrange the music, what is your mindset when you go into that studio?
Noah: It’s always different! The writing comes from all sorts of different places, whether it’s just Tyler or a couple of guys or all four of us will write with other friends in or around Nashville, there’s never really any specific mindset when we go in and record, we just let the moment lead us in where it’s going to go, you sit back after a day’s work, and hope what you just did is kind of cool, and if it is, you keep working, if not, you move on to the next idea.
Madness To Creation: What have you learned from Blackberry Smoke?
Noah: Great group of guys and they have treated us super well, it’s inspiring to watch them play every night, they’re just a tight band that write such good songs, and it’s a lethal combination to be that good of players and to write songs that are that substantial, the lyrics are there, the audience is there, and the riffs are there, it’s awesome.
Madness To Creation: Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown released the “Backfire” music video a couple of months ago, take us into that song and what do you get out of it?
Noah: It’s not a terribly deep song, for us, everybody wrongs you at some point in life, for us it’s about everything that you do to other people, it’s going to come back around on you, if you’re not out doing good things for people, but only out to make life difficult, one of these days it’s going to backfire on you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI–hhn5VJoMadness To Creation: Do you believe in karma?
Noah: Oh yeah! At least I hope there’s some kind of order in the universe, it would be pretty depressing if there weren’t. I’ve seen a few instances in my life, but I’m not much into mysticism or religion or anything, but I’ve seen some moments that have happened to people that do and don’t deserve things that makes you think that there might be something to this.
Madness To Creation: When you play, do you prefer intimate venues like this or festivals?
Noah: We like it all! We had a really interesting time over in Europe with AC/DC then with Guns ‘N’ Roses in the past couple of years, we be zig-zagging from sold out stadiums to a 200 cap rock club in a city we have never been before, and we would just alternate nights doing that, and we love them both man! It was really cool to take that stadium show energy and bottle it up and pack it in for a club, we have people in Europe that would come to the club shows, and were like, “oh my God, I felt like we were in one of those stadiums”, that was really great for us to hear as feedback and that’s what we’re going for, we want you to forget where you are when you’re watching us play, it doesn’t matter the size of the room, we love playing it all, but it feels good being right up there in that club and have everyone being right up in your face, whereas the stadiums are obviously more detached, no matter the room, we’re going to bring it.
Madness To Creation: Speaking of Guns ‘N’ Roses, you’re opening up for them in Sweden, ever played in Sweden before?
Noah: That will be our first time in Scandinavia. We will be playing Sweden, Norway, and I think another one in Germany, and maybe another one after that as well.
Madness To Creation: Give me your three favorite Guns ‘N’ Roses songs?
Noah: My three favorite ones to watch them play, obviously “Welcome To The Jungle” is such a great moment in their set, and I personally love when they play “Chinese Democracy”, because that riff that Slash starts off with is so much heavier in person than it is on that record, and “Mr. Brownstone” is probably my other favorite one to hear live. They’re so good, it’s ridiculous that they came back and got back together and set the world on fire, pretty cool to watch, especially after having gone from watching AC/DC and Axl Rose integrating into that and carrying over and doing the Guns stuff, getting to watch all of these titans of rock and roll play so many times over and over again the past couple of years, it’s like going to get a PhD in rock and roll.
Madness To Creation: Anything you want to add in regards to the album or anything upcoming?
Noah: If you haven’t heard the album check it out, it was probably the most do it yourself effort that we have ever put together, and we tracked most of it in Tyler’s basement with the help of some real good friends, we got some of the other pieces in place, we feel good about it, it’s probably our most eclectic collection of songs to date I feel like, we have everything from “Heartland” and “Backfire” to “Magnetic Field” and “Into The Black”, you’re getting a nice snapshot of all four of us and where we happened to be in that point of time when we did that record.
Madness To Creation: Thank you so much Noah for your time with us for Madness To Creation!
Noah: Thanks so much for reviewing our record and we’ll talk later!
And there you have it! Check out Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown at the following tour dates!
Wednesday, May 2nd- Mercury Lounge in New York, New York (w/The Revel)
Thursday, May 3rd- Aura in Portland, Maine (w/Blackberry Smoke)
Friday, May 4th- The Strand in Providence, Rhode Island (w/Blackberry Smoke)
Saturday, May 5th- House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts (w/Blackberry Smoke)
Sunday, May 6th- Webster Underground in Hartford, Connecticut
Thursday, May 10th- The Ritz in Raleigh, North Carolina (w/Blackberry Smoke)
Friday, May 11th- The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey
Saturday, May 12th- Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall in Munhall, Pennsylvania(w/Blackberry Smoke)
Sunday, May 13th- Anthology in Rochester, New York
Tuesday, May 15th- College Street Music Hall in New Haven, Connecticut (w/Blackberry Smoke)
Thursday, May 17th- The Space at Westbury in Westbury, New York (w/Blackberry Smoke)
Friday, May 18th- The Capital Theatre in Port Chester, New York (w/Blackberry Smoke)
Sunday, May 20th- Rock On The Range Festival in Columbus, Ohio (w/Baroness, Stone Temple Pilots, My Ticket Home, Shaman’s Harvest, Frank Vaturina, Big Jay Oakerson, and Toothgrinder)
Tuesday, May 22nd- Lee’s Palace in Toronto, Canada
Thursday, May 24th- 10th Street Stage @ Club XL in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Friday, June 22nd- Graspop Metal Meeting in Dessel, Belgium (w/Parkway Drive, Arkona, Powerwolf, Akercocke, Savage Messiah, Vader, Diablo Blvd., Tremonti, Galactic Empire, Killswitch Engage, Zeal & Ardor, Anti-Flag, and DJ Santina Runaway)
Sunday, July 1st- Ramblin’ Man Fair in Maidstone, United Kingdom (w/Blackberry Smoke, Chas & Dave, Goldray, and Gov’t Mule)
Saturday, July 7th- Festwiese in Leipzig, Germany (w/Rival Sons)
Monday, July 9th- Stadion Slaski in Chorzow, Poland (w/Guns ‘N’ Roses)
Thursday, July 19th- Valle Hovin in Oslo, Norway
Saturday, July 21st- Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden(w/Guns ‘N’ Roses)
Tuesday, July 24th- LAUGARDALSVOLLUR in Reykjavik, Iceland (w/Guns ‘N’ Roses)
Saturday, September 22nd- River City Rock Fest in San Antonio, Texas (w/ Nine Inch Nails, Primus, Stone Temple Pilots, Bush, Chevelle, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Hellyeah, Clutch, Yelawolf, Suicidal Tendencies, The Sword, Drowning Pool, The Fever 333, Upon A Burning Body, I See Stars, Demob Happy, The Heroine, Blacktop Mojo, The Revival, and Covina)
For tickets and further information on any of the shows listed above, click here!
Check out our review of Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown’s latest record here!
Check out our previous interview with Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown here!
