SCREAMERMAGAZINE.COM (2/26)

SCREAMERMAGAZINE.COM (2/26)
http://screamermagazine.com/interviews/rival-sons-the-new-kings-of-rock-and-roll/

By Mike Gamms on Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

The days of being the next big thing are over. Rival Sons have reached the top and
there is no turning back. Led by singer Jay Buchanan, Rival Sons and their brand of
bluesy hard rock have quickly taken the world by storm.

Buchanan and Rival Sons are the new kings of rock and roll. For proof, look no further
than the old kings of rock and roll. Jimmy Page, The notoriously quiet Led Zeppelin
guitar god, owns all of Rival Sons’ albums and can’t shut up about them. And Jimmy
Page isn’t the only one. Alice Cooper, AC/DC, Judas Priest, and Axl Rose have all
jumped at the chance to tour the world with the Buchanan-fronted band.
If having the vote of some of rock’s most legendary artists wasn’t enough, Rival Sons
have the music experts singing their praises as well. The biggest and most reputable
publications in the rock world have given Rival Sons’ 2012 album Head Down and the
band as whole, incredibly positive reviews. They recently won “Breakthrough Artist of
the Year” at the 2012 Classic Rock Awards, where Head Down also finished a
respectable second to Rush’s Clockwork Angels for, Album of the Year. The
commercial success of the band has matched that of their critical success. From the
U.K. to Sweden to Canada, Head Down and its lead single, Keep on Swinging have
topped Rock Charts all over the world. They sold out every single show on their most
recent two month U.K. tour, and their upcoming Canadian tour looks to continue the
trend. With only three albums under their belt, Rival Sons have quickly become the
most celebrated new rock band in the world.

While never lacking confidence in the band’s abilities, their success has come as a
surprise to Buchanan. He admits, “the amount of exposure and the amount of support
we’ve been given, I could have never guessed when we got together. I originally took
this on as a side project.”
Rival Sons is actually the first full-fledged rock and roll band Buchanan has ever been
in. He was working on a solo singer/songwriter album, where he not only sang but
played guitar, when first approached by guitarist Scott Holiday about Rival Sons. He
adds, “I was just really thinking I’d do some rock and roll shows around town, get my
kicks out and have some fun. I was really wrong about that.”
Before he even had a chance to second guess it, his career as a rock and roll singer
had already taken off. He recalls that “by our fourth show, we’d sold out the House of
Blues in LA. Our fourth show ever. And before that, our third show had sold out the
Roxy. We only had one album, Before The Fire, and it hadn’t even been properly
released yet. People were already going nuts and it really surprised me.”

The delay with the release of Before The Fire might be attributed to the fact the album
had originally been recorded by a different vocalist. Before Buchanan joined the band,

they were going by the name The Black Summer Crush and Thomas Flowers, formerly
of Oleander, was on vocals. The Black Summer Crush soon broke up, with Flowers
going on to successfully reunite with Oleander. Not wanting to scrap an otherwise great
album, Buchanan bit the bullet and went to the studio and recorded new vocal tracks for
what would become Rival Sons debut album.

Buchanan admits he was apprehensive about the band’s sudden success. He recalls,
“I was insecure at first. It was too crazy. I was like, ‘What’s going on here? Do they
see us as just a nostalgia or parody act?’” An understandable concern considering
bands like the wig wearing Steel Panther fill up LA’s House of Blues on a weekly basis.
He adds, “there’s a lot of bands out there that really take themselves seriously and
would never say that they are a parody band, but absolutely are. At first, I wondered if
we were being lumped into that.” There is a big difference between parody and
influence, and Rival Sons are definitely the latter.

However, despite their unique style, in today’s rock climate it is impossible to avoid the
comparisons to other bands. From Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple to The Black Crowes
and The Black Keys, Buchanan has heard it all. He adds, “It took a while for me to
really realize that none of that shit matters. We are making original music and we do
our best to purvey our own style. If someone wants to lump us in with these other
bands, well that’s their job. It’s our job to play music, and not hand you a business card
and say ‘we are like this’ so you can file us away in your musical Rolodex.”

While it may be someone else’s job to lump them in with other bands, Buchanan is
incredibly humbled by the comparisons. He adds, “What an honor that all of these great
bands are mentioned in the same sentence as Rival Sons. People talk about Led
Zeppelin. Deep Purple. The Stones. The Kinks. We wear our influences on our
sleeves because I think that denying your influences takes an incredible amount of
hubris.” Buchanan goes on to joke, “what are you gonna do? Kick and scream and go
‘No! Don’t say that! We are super individual and we are so unique!’ Bull shit, we’re
not. We’re just playing rock and roll.”

Kidding aside, the versatility demonstrated throughout Rival Sons three albums
provides more than enough evidence of their uniqueness. Despite that, Buchanan
remains humble. He adds, “This band is not an anomaly. I don’t mean just the four of
us playing together, of course there are unique things about that. But a band that just
wants to play rock and roll and make records quickly? There’s so many other bands
like that. It remains to be seen what kind of a mark we can make on rock and roll.
We’re just carrying the torch.” That torch, according to many fans, was passed onto
Rival Sons by the Black Crowes.

Buchanan can’t hide his admiration for what the Black Crowes have done. He adds, “I
don’t love every album they’ve made. Or every song. But that’s one of those bands,
that growing up I would go to sleep at night just feeling safer knowing they’re in the
world. Keeping it alive.”

While Buchanan has always been a fan of rock and roll, his first love was the blues. It
wasn’t until Rival Sons started touring with much heavier bands like AC/DC and Judas
Priest that Buchanan developed any interest in metal. He adds, “metal was one of
those things I didn’t identify with. And when you don’t identify with things, it’s hard not
to dismiss it. So you just kinda write it off, and go ‘okay well that’s over there for them.’”
He admits that spending time with some of metal’s most legendary bands really
changed his perspective on the genre. He adds, “We’ve gotten to play with a lot of
these old salty dogs but the vast majority of them had no impact on my youth. I was
never really much of a metal guy. I was a blues guy. So, I liked rock and roll because
rock and roll was built on the blues. But once you take the blues out and put in a bunch
of shredding guitars and high vocals, it never really related to me.” He admits that “only
recently I developed an appreciation for metal. I got to know these great metal bands,
and these metalers are some of the sweetest people. Just down to earth, really great
guys.”

Buchanan’s blues rock roots not only influence Rival Sons’ music, but their artwork as
well. The album art for Rival Sons’ second album, Pressure and Time, was designed
by legendary artist Storm Thorgerson. Thorgerson has designed such classic covers as
Pink Floyd’s Darkside of the Moon and Wish You Were Here as well as Led
Zeppelin’s Presence and In Through the Out Door. Buchanan was thrilled to have
Thorgerson design an album for Rival Sons. He adds, “I think that everybody thinks

about it when you have a band. If you see one of Storm Thorgerson or Hipgnotic’s old
album covers like Wish You Were Here.” He jokingly pretends to smoke a joint, “Yeah
maaan. Let’s get Storm Thorgerson to design our album. Yeaaahh.” He laughs, “I
think that crosses everybody’s mind that likes classic records. It was great working with
Storm.”

With legends like Thorgerson, Jimmy Page, and Alice Cooper in their corner, Rival Sons
are clearly doing something right. After taking a month off, 2013 looks to be another
busy year for Buchanan and the band. They head north for a headlining tour across
Canada, where their single, Keep on Swinging, is currently number one on the active
rock charts. Buchanan couldn’t be more excited about it.

He adds “the Canadians are so dope because they lack a certain pretension. For us in
LA, it’s all around us so we are immune to it. We forget how fucking fake we are. And
self-absorbed. How many times have you gone to a party and meet knew people and
the first ten minutes is basically them giving you their resume?” He goes on to say how
relaxed Canadians are. He adds, ”It’s refreshing. Canadians don’t take themselves
seriously. They’ll make fun of themselves.” He’s hopeful for the success of the tour,
adding “they have been so supportive of us. And they’ve been asking us and asking us
and we’re finally doing a legitimate Canadian tour.”

For more information about Rival Sons visit:

http://www.rivalsons.com/

www.facebook.com/RivalSons