San Antonio’s Nothing More, consisting of lead vocalist Johnny Hawkins, bassist Daniel Oliver, guitarist Mark Vollelunga and drummer Paul O’Brien define commitment just ask to see the scars of their self-branding for each year of touring. This has lead them to the release of their 6th album and first with major label Eleven/Seven Music and coincidentally their first to chart in the top 40 on the Billboard and a number one single on the active rock charts. I had a chance to speak with the bassist prior to their visit to Louder Than Life in Louisville, KY.
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Currently you are on tour with Volbeat, Five Finger Death Punch (FFDP) & Hellyeah, how is that going?
It’s amazing. Just to be on stage with bands like that is an honor for us. All of them have been around and are so respected by fans. Not only that they’re just the nicest guys, they are not treating us as an opening band, they are treating us just as one of their own. So it’s been a pleasure and an honor to be touring with these guys.
This year saw the release of your sixth album, self-titled. It opened to a strong reception, charting 33 on the Billboard with the number one active rock single This is the Time. These accomplishments must be very fulfilling as an artist.
Yeah, no doubt. This album we recorded on our own and our singer, Johnny Hawkins, headed up the production. We took a lot of time writing and recording it. We poured our heart into it; a lot of life went into it. We all experienced some pretty traumatic things throughout that span of time. To have an album finally picked up, not only that the label didn’t change anything about it, they didn’t remaster it, they didn’t mix it. They even took the artwork that we put on it and re-released it as is. It’s been so cool! We never saw ourselves as a radio rock band; never thought we’d go that avenue. So to have the label push the single and see it go to #1 on the active rock charts is just mind blowing.
Sounds as though they’ve been allowing you to do your own thing.
Yeah pretty much. We built the fanbase under the DIY (do it yourself) spirit, the guerilla marketing spirit. Like back in the day no one is coming out and telling us to go on the road and to promote ourselves and to make music, but nobody is telling us to not, so let’s just go out there and do it! Over the years we’ve all evolved and matured as men and every year, as far as the band goes, has gotten better. We’ve had some line-up changes but each member we lost or gained we grew stronger as a unit and as better song writers. You know, it’s a huge struggle when you’re out there doing it on your own. Hindsight being 20/20 it was a huge struggle we needed to become who we are now. It’s really cool to have Eleven/Seven jump on board and not want to change a thing about us and to be fighting as hard as we are out here. We’re extremely happy with Eleven/Seven.
On October 5th you and your tour mates hit the inaugural Louder Than Life Festival in Louisville, KY. Aside from your tour mates is there anyone you’re looking forward to seeing?
Kid Rock is probably the one I’m most looking forward to seeing. He’s a guy I’ve listened to forever. I’ve heard raving reviews about his show and about him as a musician. So I think it will be cool to finally get to check him out.
Do you find there is a difference in vibe from the U.S. to European festivals? I had a chance to catch you at Download Festival this summer.
There definitely is. Obviously we’re brand new in Europe. We played two massive festivals in Germany (Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park) and then Download (U.K.). Those were the three festivals we played. I don’t know, I can’t put my finger on it. The Germans were very different than the people in England. The Germans were more dancing and in England they seem more like Americans as far as their response. At this point I think it’s too early to tell for us. For the German festivals we had to drive all night soon after we played so we didn’t have that much time to actually check out the headliners and see what everybody was doing.
Nothing More – Mr. MTV
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Louder Than Life is more than just music. There’s a heavy emphasis on the local food and beverages, including bourbon and local beers. Can the fans expect to see you participating in some of that activity?
Oh yeah, we always make it a point, especially if there is an emphasis on something like that. With specialty foods and things like that we’re always in the audience or in the general area. We don’t just hide out backstage. I haven’t personally looked at everything there is to offer. That is one neat thing about festivals: all the local vendors, whether it’s tattoo artist or painters or t-shirt makers, it’s a lot of fun to see what’s going on in that part of the country. It’s neat to see what they’re doing and meet them as well.
Your live show is wild and energetic with so much going on. With a short set at the festival do you tend to have to taper that back?
Yeah there are massive performance pieces we do being the drum sections we’re known to do: spinning floor toms and stuff like that and the big bass solo that we put on what’s called the drumtron (it spins the bass in the air). At festivals for shorter sets, we do all the high energy stuff for sure. It’s definitely a cracked out set when we are only playing 30 minutes. On the longer sets the main difference you’ll find there’s more time to dive into the deeper more artistic side of the record: what we do as musicians. There will be different instrumentals you might see at a headlining set. All the big wham bam show stuff is definitely for the opening and festival sets.
Anything you want to tell the fans from Louder Than Life? Or just some words to the fans in general?
Thank you for the support. All the people that stand behind us that we’ve ever met have been just amazing people and we couldn’t be out here doing it without them. Everyday we live in appreciation of that so thank you.
Thank you Daniel, we appreciate your time. Best of luck with the remainder of the tour.
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Interview By Brett Tully, RockRevolt Magazine Contributor
Photos by Josh Rienecke, RockRevolt Photo Editor
