LOCAL INDIE HEROES
GET A SECOND CHANCE AT STARDOM
By: Andy Goldstein
One freezing night I accompanied a couple of my Dayton-turned-Nashville brethren to a Murfreesboro bar called The Boro to check out a band they liked. I realized early on that the band must be good, because the line curved out the door and around the exterior of the bar. I was stunned. Chilled to the bone and concerned that my toes were starting to turn as black as the asphalt we were standing on, I asked my buddies to remind me again who this band was and if they were worth losing valuable digits to see.
“The Features. And yes, they’re worth it.” I can say now—toes still intact—that my friends were absolutely right. The Features can be traced back to two junior high boys and a healthy dose of classic rock. Singer and guitarist Matt Pelham and bassist Roger Dabbs grew up in Sparta, Tenn., listening to 103 WKDF when it used to play bands like AC/DC and Led Zeppelin.
“Being in the band for 12 years, I can’t buy into people saying The Features had their chance,” says Haas.
In June of 2009, five years after leaving Universal, The Features received an interesting offer from another Tennessee-born rock band. Bug Music, the massive music publisher that owns more than 250,000 copyrights including, “What a Wonderful World” and “I Walk the Line,” empowered clients Kings of Leon with the authority to help sign bands they feel will be a successful addition to the company. The first band they brought to the table was The Features.
Rory Daigle, manager of The Features, says the band has had its ups and downs over the years, but adds, “This is going to be the beginning of some well-deserved attention.”
Kings of Leon know a thing or two about selling records. It was announced on December 8 that their album, Only By The Night, was the top-selling album on iTunes from December 2008 to December 2009.
Bug Music CEO John Rudolph says his publishing company is about supporting the artist.
“No one’s expecting to sell millions of units. It’s about getting bands to the next place in their careers,” Rudolph says. “If it’s something we believe in, we can craft a relationship that makes sense.”
Rudolph also says he was sold on The Features the first time he saw them play live in Washington, D.C.
“I won’t ever sign anybody without seeing them live,” he says. “They were playing a club with about 40 people, and they were killing it. I said, ‘I get it now.’”
After everything the band has undergone in the past five years, Haas describes their mindset after signing with Bug Music as a “cynical optimism.”
“More has happened in the few months with Bug than all our time at Universal,” he says. “The fact that we’ve toughed through it shows we love what we do.”
Since their inception more than a decade ago, the band’s releases have been sparse, yet very well received. Some Kind of Salvation, the first album issued under the Bug Music umbrella, is the second full-length album the band has released to date.
The album sounds more controlled than Exhibit A and is full of the same characteristics that bring new faces to The Features shows and keep steady fans interested: hooks-a-plenty, solid drums, the classic Pelham falsetto and the buoyant playing of keyboardist Mark Bond.
Pelham talks about Some Kind of Salvation with excitement. The band recorded the album with Brian Carter, who also recorded their 2004 EP, The Beginning, an album about Pelham going through the process of becoming a father.
“We wanted to do another record with Brian Carter, and up until this record, The Beginning was my favorite,” Pelham says. “I prefer the way the new record sounds, and the experience of doing it.”
Rudolph praises The Features’ for making their record so accessible to people. “They’re so unique,” he adds. “I don’t know anyone else that sounds like them.”
Haas, who credits Pelham as the “creative spark” of the band, says the creative process has been more relaxed lately within the group, though they never seem to put pressure on each other while writing songs.
“It’s all an amalgamation of what we’re listening to,” Haas says. “It’s gotten to the point where we’re not worried anymore. Even after Universal, there was a lot of pressure to impress. People like it or they don’t.”
Despite such a diverse pool of influences among band members, some of the inspiration for Some Kind of Salvation came from the unlikeliest of sources. Pelham says he was influenced by the music he listens to with his family, which includes eight-year-old twin girls.
“For about a year, we were big into The Muppet Show. It was constantly played in the car,” Pelham says. “I would even listen to the songs by myself. Jim Henson was a genius.”
Along with critical accolades, Some Kind of Salvation has also earned the band several film and television placements, introducing them to even wider audiences. “Whatever Gets You By,” the opening track on the album, was featured in the trailer for the 2009 Mike Judge film, Extract, and will also be placed in a new PBS documentary series called Circus, premiering this year. In addition, the song “Off Track” can be heard in an episode of The Vampire Diaries on the CW Network.
Currently, the band is on tour drumming up support for the album. Included on the schedule in 2009 was the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colo., on Sept. 13, as part of the Monolith Music Festival, where they joined Nashville favorites AutoVaughn on the bill. The band also had three sold-out shows in October opening for the Kings of Leon iin Mexico, including a show in Mexico City in front of 18,000—the band’s biggest live audience to date.
“The crowd started to sing along to ‘Thursday,’” Daigle says. “We’ve really created something there.”
The band also played a spirited show here in Nashville opening for the Whigs at the Cannery Ballroom on November 5.
“We’re glad we can still play in Nashville and still have a good crowd,” Pelham says. “It means a lot to us … I’d be sick of us.”
The band has plans to cross the country and the world in 2010.
They will be touring Europe and the U.K. extensively, where Some Kind of Salvation hits shelves February 22 behind the strength of “The Drawing Board,” their second single from the album. Daigle also says the band is planning to play shows in Glasgow, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and Berlin.
“This record will solidify The Features as a true international act,” he says. “We really think the record is going to take off in 2010.”
Good things do come to those who wait, but fans may not have to wait another five years for the band’s next album. Daigle says the band spent the first two weeks of 2010 in the studio, and they’ve been playing several new songs during their recent shows.
“It’d be awesome if we’re able to keep playing music for a living,” Haas says.
So the next time you’re in line outside some dive bar in the middle of a frosty December night, waiting to see some band you’ve never heard of, stick around. You could be witnessing the early stages of the next big thing. ✪