Queens Club | From Breakdown To Breakdancing
rom tearing up the stage to tearing up the dance floor, former member of The Chariot Jake Ryan is not stopping. For those that caught Queens Club opening on the Dance Rawr Dance Tour, you will know what I am talking about, and for those that have yet to hear of them this is where you come in. With a first quarter 2010 release Queens Club plans on hitting the new year running. Get to know these guys, pick up their full-length in the next few months and be sure to get out and dance with them on tour! Queens Club, welcome to the scene.
This is a totally different sound from The Chariot (laughs), talk to us about the switch, is this something you’ve been wanting to do for a while?
Jake Ryan: Well, I can’t really say that this is something that I was planning all along or anything. But at some point Dan and I had talked about making a band like what Queens Club kind of is. Obviously, it has taken on an entity of its own and we all love what we are doing with it and the direction it is taking us. Dan and I had always played music together before and while we were in The Chariot, so after we bowed out, this was just sort of a natural progression of what we wanted to do, and what all of us feel like we are compelled to write musically.
Tell to us about your debut record. Will any songs off the EP make it on?
JR: It’s actually kind of crazy because we recorded the whole thing basically months after we started Queens Club in 2008. I call the songs our “baby songs” because a lot of them are like some of the very first songs we wrote together. It’s cool to be able to put out the record as is and I think we are all a little anxious to get the record out already ‘cause we have enough material for another record as we speak that we are really pumped about as well. And yeah, if you picked up the Nightmarer EP then you will hear a few songs off that, which will be on the full length.
You guys have a sweet sound, what are some of your musical influences?
JR: Personally for me, what influences me the most is all of my experience playing music. I have all of this knowledge of what I can do and what I haven’t tried yet and what I want to stretch myself to do musically. Or I could list off every band I’ve ever listened to growing up. (laughs)
What would you say sets you apart from other dancy bands on the market right now?
JR: We are pretty guitar driven. I feel like we could be considered the “punk band” of dance bands if you wanted to lump us into that category. We are pretty aggressive but when we want to do something totally different we just do it and don’t really care if it fits what people think we should sound like. We also don’t feel like we have to always obey the verse/chorus/verse mold.
Life has a funny way of inspiring us, is there a standout moment in your life that has directed you towards playing music, or the type of music that you play?
JR: I knew I wanted to be a “rocker” (laughs) when I saw this band Johnny Q Public at Worlds Of Fun (a local theme park in KC) when I was like in maybe like 5th or 6th grade? Basically their guitar player had climbed up on his guitar cab and jumped off of it and I was like, “Whoa, I wanna do that.” As far as being inspired to do Queens Club; Dan and I were in Germany on tour with The Chariot and the club we played turned into a dance club after the show, loads of people were in there dancing so we all went in there too and were just having fun dancing and this new Bloc Party single at the time came on and we both kind of looked at each other like… “Man we gotta do something so people can dance to our music in one of these places.” err, that wasn’t like the exact words I’m sure but you get the idea. (laughs)
You did the Dance Rawr Dance Tour a few months back, talk to us about that experience as it seemed you guys were the odd men out.
JR: Oh man, it was a great tour. So much fun! There were some really awesome bands on that tour. It was really great for us to get to play in front of a demographic that we didn’t really realize would “get” our music. We never have really felt like we were much of a “pop” band, but we received the love from the crowd each night as they warmed up to what we are. It was really cool to hear the response from people telling us that it was their first time to hear us and that they were gonna tell all their friends. (laughs) So all in all, I feel like it was a really positive experience for us.
It seems that a lot of people are jumping from the label ships lately. Why did you decide to go with Tooth N’ Nail rather than go it alone?
JR: Oh man, this conversation could take awhile. I for sure have opinions on both options; but the reason we went for label support was simply to have the funding and distribution. There are a couple of other important key elements as well, marketing as well as the acclaimed respect that may or may not come along with being backed by a particular label. The reason for choosing Tooth & Nail was simply because they are like family to us. Having been on the subsidiary, SolidState with The Chariot, it was just sort of an automatic thing to send over our record to see what they thought.
What is the plan after the January 1st release for Queens Club?
JR: Well, the record isn’t coming out on the first… it will be out in the first quarter of the year though. But our plans for 2010’s start are to shoot a video for the first single, and then head out on tour with Breathe Carolina.
