Abandon Kansas | People, Community, Music
f you’re looking for the next band to follow, to get in on the ground floor with, I have something for you. If you’re looking for the band to love so you can one day say to your friends “I listened to ‘em first!” Then the following interview will be some ammo in your arsenal. Ready? Abandon Kansas! If you haven’t already heard of these guys (or let them sleep on your floor), then here’s your chance to get an inside look on the five guys that are ready to dance your socks off and then hang out for some tea. Recently signed to Gotee Records after a long awaited decision, vocalist Jeremy Spring sat down to tell us about the new record filled with their signature dance tunes and a few surprises as well.
You guys have done national tours unsigned for many years, is this a challenge? What tips would you give to smaller bands trying to DIY?
Jeremy Spring: Of course it’s a challenge. “Livin’ the dream” ain’t so dreamy, ya know? Don’t get me wrong, we have SUCH a radical job, I love it. But I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t challenging. Young bands have to keep perspective. Blowing up over night is rare and isn’t anything to count on. Having a successful career in ANY of the arts takes pure dedication in the face of all opposition, bumps, and change of plans along the way. Your vision has to be broad and you can’t get lost in the roller coaster of victory and defeat that you’re dealing with on the road. Here’s my advice in nice easy to swallow chunks: Offer bands show trades, go play for free in towns close by, talk to everyone, give away merch, stay with people, write good songs, don’t stay in hotels, eat cheap, write good songs, drive slow, route smart, put on a memorable show, stay single, write good songs, and don’t suck. Enjoy the ride, this band thing will probably never become what you want it to become, so don’t forget to enjoy it while you have it.
After extensive traveling around the U.S., what do you think are some of the best markets and what do you feel makes them that way?
JS: The Northwest is a gorgeous part of the country, not to mention the awesome fans we have in Olympia, Seattle, Portland, and Boise. Some other states that are good to us are Michigan, Florida, California, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and of course Kansas. Good people and good food make them good markets.
Since you guys were that band for so long, touring with little money and doing the DIY thing, can you give us a story or example where you really saw God move?
JS: After Cornerstone last summer we had an overnight drive to a show in Kentucky. About an hour from the show we blew a trailer tire causing the whole rig to fishtail and crash into a guard rail at 60mph. A driver behind us said we nearly rolled. God moved. We were towed to the repair center and after seemingly despairing news we were back on the road within an hour. The mechanic waved the labor fees and all we owed was $175. God moved. We finally made it to the show and the other bands and people were waiting outside only to tell us the show had been cancelled. I ended up playing an acoustic set at a petting zoo in the country that night to ten people. We slept in a Wal-Mart parking lot that night and used all but $38 of our money on gas getting to the show in Virginia the next day. That night we did over $800 in merch and were able to continue on the tour because of it. God moved. This is just one of the many stories of God moving in OUR lives not to mention the hundreds of emails we get and all the stories we’ll never hear from listeners that God has spoken to through our music.
So you’ve made the major label leap. How does it feel?
JS: It’s really hard to find ways to spend all of this money we are making now, but seriously, so far so good. Gotee is more of a family than a label. We know the entire staff, they know us. They really get what we are trying to do musically and in ministry and they’ve been very supportive of all of our ideas. It’s been such a blessing to have a team of people behind what we’re doing, working just as hard as we are, to get Abandon Kansas songs out there.
What are some future plans now that you’re on Gotee Records?
of more people.”
JS: A lot of the tours we have done in the past have been with other hardworking unsigned bands, which has been great. Now with Gotee behind us, we’re trying to team up with a few bigger bands so we can gain some new fans and play in front of more people. The idea behind signing with this label is to get the music in more hands than we could on our own, so that’s the plan. Gotee is also opening doors for us to get our songs on the radio, make music videos, and work with talented producers. We would love to tour internationally within the next year as well.
One thing that continues to impress me about Abandon Kansas is your strong connection with your fans. Has this always been a priority or did it just kind of happen organically?
JS: I can’t imagine spending five hours in a room jam packed full of people and not meeting anyone face to face. I mean, I guess people do it every day at the mall, or at church, but I can’t see myself doing that. I love people, I love communicating, and that’s why I want to play music. Playing on stage takes up very little time on tour, the rest of the time we’re hanging out with each other or people that come out to the shows. I really don’t think we have many fans, but we have a couple thousand friends, which is such an humbling thing to have. I really think our friends would go out of there way to do just about anything for us, even if we weren’t in Abandon Kansas. That’s a priceless connection that goes way beyond music. It makes the tough days a little easier and the good days that much sweeter.
Tell us about this new record.
JS: It’s called “We’re All Going Somewhere”. We couldn’t be happier with the way this new record turned out. To have Mark Townsend produce our first label effort was incredible, and then when we actually sat down to work with him we were just blown away with the final product. He produced bands we grew up listening to like Relient K and has been making new records that we love like Deas Vail.
The new record has six songs that cover a wide range of subject matter. We were on the road when we were writing these songs so the lyrics are very inspired by life on tour dealing with pride, desperation, direction, and love. There aren’t any cheesy breakup songs on this record, which is fine by me! I hope people will get into the lyrics of this EP, I put a lot of work into them.
Musically this record is pretty much all fast paced with some groovy dance jams and some straight up indie rock tunes. There are some really radical gang vocal parts and some beautiful breakdowns with live strings. We kept the production pretty simple, and there isn’t a ton of extra instrumentation on any of the songs. JR McNeely did an incredible job mixing this record and it’s our first release that we feel like really sounds like us.
Did you feel any kind of new pressure knowing it was going to be getting out there more than your previous releases?
JS: No one has put any pressure on us to do anything, at least not as far as I can tell. I think we all understood that by bringing Gotee, Mark, and the rest of the team on board that we needed to make something good, but once we hit the studio we just let the creative juices flow. We have always been ourselves when it comes to writing, performing, and hanging with people. Everything we did on this EP was very natural for us, and I think you’ll hear how we’ve grown as musicians and men since our last record.
What can you tell us about your recently shot music video?
JS: This week we shot a music video in Atlanta with Nathan Corrona for a new song called “Close Your Eyes”. We shot the bulk of the video in a really old apartment building from the 1800’s with no air conditioning in August. It was a long sweaty day but I think the final product is going to be sick. There were also a couple scenes with me on the public transit in Atlanta. Seeing a white kid on a train full of black people lip syncing to a song no one else could hear had to be a funny sight.
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