Having the song “Money Honey” explode all over the airwaves across North America over the past two years, has left a Vancouver band in a ‘state of shock,’ somewhat.
“When you sit down and write a song, you don’t expect it to become a hit. It just comes out. We just want to write something you can bob your head to and sing along to,” said State of State of Shock guitarist, Jesse Wainright, whose band plays the Blarney Stone, Monday, Nov. 30 with Latency.
‘Money Honey,’ was only the first of a string of hits from their major label debut, “Life, Love and Lies” which was released in 2007.
“That whole record was based on two years of our lives. We had an independent album which we toured on before that and we all had relationships which fell apart,” he continued from the current tour’s third date in Grande Prairie. He added the band, including vocalist Cameron Melnyk, bassist Alison Toews, drummer John Philippon and guitarist Kadooh, is working on a new CD which is expected to be released in March or April.
“We just finished demoing a few songs for it before the tour and we have been playing them. They have been going over very well. The new CD is based on the last three years of our lives. We’ve all being going through changes and people have changed around us. Our lives have changed, we’ve gone from touring in a tiny van to a big bus. And that’s a big positive,” he continued.
“We’re working expanding our horizons,” he said adding the songwriting process is a group effort.
“Usually someone will bring something to the group and we’ll all tear it down and fight over it. We’re like family. We’re five people with really strong opinions, some people’s are stronger than others. So somebody will bring something and feed it to the lions,” Wainright continued.
“We just set out to to work hard and meet as many people as we could,” he continued, adding the band is constantly on the road. They have played with lots of bands including Daughtry, Bon Jovi, Bachman and Cummings, Papa Roach and even did a date with Aerosmith.
“We’ve been really fortunate. All of the rock bands we grew up loving, we’ve been able to play with all of them,” he said.
“With Aerosmith, it was only one show Bayfest in Sarnia. It was pretty cool. There were 35,000 people there,” he said, adding the Bon Jovi show a few months ago was the same sort of thing.
“It was pretty cool meeting them, ” he said adding the band has many tour stories.
“We’ve had a lot of good stories,.One that comes to mind is when Kadooh got pink eye. Nobody’s quite sure how he got it. But we all love practical jokes. It’s all fun and games until someone gets pink eye,” he laughed adding the band seldom gets off the road or takes a break.
“This is what we do. We love it. We don’t get any time off. It’s a job, but it doesn’t feel like a job,” he said.