The Daily Grind, a Pennsylvania based rock band will be embarking on their nationwide in March. They will be playing in over 50 cities including Baltimore. On April 2, they will be playing the Sidebar. All Loyola students will get free admission. Follow us on Twitter for upcoming details about this.
Lead vocalist and guitarist Brad Hammer recently spoke to The Greyhound about the upcoming tour and the band.
Give me a rundown of who is in the band. How did you all meet? Describe your album.
The collective unit at the moment is Myles Mahoney on guitar and vocals, Matt Majot on bass and vocals, Chris Petteys on drums, and Brad Hammer on lead vocals and guitar. Myles and I (Brad) went to high school together right outside of Pittsburgh; Matt and Chris grew up in the same town in northern PA. We jammed for the first time in early 2013 in Myles’ basement after our first drummer left to focus on school. We started as a trio (drums, bass, guitar) but we wanted to fill out the sonic landscape a little more so we hit up Myles. Good life decisions. To describe the album in five adjectives: Sly, colorful, energetic, warm, fresh.
How did you first get started in music?
Listening to our parents records. There was a lot of good sound floating around when we were kids. We all started playing at different ages but the love of music has been a lifelong thing.
Who are your biggest influences?
This is a tough one. We all grew up in pretty different scenes. Punk, hip-hop, metal, folk rock, the list goes on. The artists we’re listening to together right now are the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Arctic Monkeys, Queens of the Stone Age, Incubus, and the occasional Notorious B.I.G.
What is your favorite song off the album?
I think we’re all really into the track “Hazy” right now. It has a really deep hip-hop undertone to it but the riff is giant. It’s psychedelic indie-hop funk rock all in the same bag. That or the title track “The Green Plan”.
What exactly is a DIY approach to tour?
It’s a formal way of saying we’re broke and off our rockers. We’re funding the tour independently with a little help from our Kickstarter page and a few big local gigs. Our manager Seth Conner has been a huge help getting everything together, I don’t think we’d make it past a week on tour without him. We’ll be on the road from March 20th to mid June.
What is the best thing about traveling?
Outside of skinny dipping in the Pacific Ocean, it’s all about meeting new people and catching the drift of different cultures in each city. America’s beautiful like that; it’s a hundred different walks of life in one.
Why should college students listen to this band?
We make music for the failed DARE (Drug and Alcohol Resistance Education) generation.
