Sweet Ray Laurel

So I’m a band’s name meaning curious guy. How did you guys came out with the name and what’s the meaning behind it?
The band name came from our old guitar player Eric, who left the band shortly before the release of the self titled album. We were struggling to find an original sounding name, and Eric was at a party one night when he noticed a poster listing off various plants. One of the plants listed was “Sweet Bay Laurel”, but since Eric had put away a few beverages he thought it said “Sweet Ray Laurel”. He brought the name idea to the band the next day, and the rest is history.

How did you guys came together to create music?
The project actually started with Kenny and Eric. Eric approached Kenny after a show where Kenny was performing with one of his old projects, and suggested starting a new band. The two of them searched for a singer for a few months, until they came across Jims, who was suggested to the band by a friend. The project started off as a three piece acoustic, with the debut performance at Cincy Punk Fest in Cincinnati. The three piece continued to write, and then another friend recommended Dane for drums. Dane, much like Jims, was a perfect fit for the project. Kenny, Eric, Jims, and Dane concentrated on playing shows and writing music over the next few years, trying to discover what the band’s true sound would be. The band toured regionally, including a couple shows on the road with national band “Paperboy Jack”. SRL continued to write and record, but had difficulty trying to find the sound that they wanted. Then, shortly after the beginning of recording the self titled album, Matt was added as a keyboard player. With the album nearing completion, Eric became frustrated with the speed of production and direction of the band, and decided to leave the band. To fill the gap left by Eric’s departure, Matt switched to playing guitar and keys. The newly formed four piece of Sweet Ray Laurel has since enjoyed success, both in touring and media exposure.

What’s the message you are looking to spread with your music?
Music is open, free, and ever changing. We are constantly trying to change things up in our songs. We like to create excitement in our music, and we do so by blending different styles and sounds into our songs. Differentiation is our goal. We like to throw a lot of things out to our listeners to keep them thinking. This has created some issues with trying to figure out genre, and what bands are similar to us, but has helped in gaining interest. That is why we throw things together like post-punk and reggae, then toss in some keyboards, there are not very many bands out there doing that. It’s important to think outside of the box, find the music that is right for you, and keep searching for more of it.

So I can see you guys released an self-titled album. How was the process working in this album?
I feel like groaning when I answer this question. It was a very long process. We had a lot to learn about recording. Our first song took WAY too long, mostly because we kept trying to change and add stuff as things went on, and it ended up costing us too much time and money. This was a very long process for us, we actually have another album worth of recorded music that has not been released. We may release a song or two from the unreleased catalog, and if you do some research on the internet you may even find a song or video from that list of songs. We learned a lot from the process, and really grew as musicians. The current members really came together during the album creation. SRL was able to finally set expectations on the project, and for the first time have a true vision for the direction of our music. We have been working on a new EP, which should be out spring 2012, and that process has been much smoother, due to what we learned from recording the album.

Are there any plans for the future? New album, music video, label?
We have our new EP close to completion, titled “Release the Lion”, and it should be out this spring. We are currently in discussion about adding a live version of one of our unreleased songs to that EP. Our next step after that release is to put out a music video, maybe two. We have also started writing the next full album, and if you ever catch one of our live shows you will likely get a taste of the newer stuff. For those who can’t make the live shows, keep your eye on Youtube because there are often live video shots landing there, such as our song “Shepard” from the upcoming EP. SRL has been looking around for labels, but have yet to find one that is the right fit for us. We are definitely open to the idea of working with a label, but just want to make sure the opportunity is right for us. For now we are going to continue to play out multiple shows monthly, travel as much as we can, and keep trying to gain exposure for our music.

What are your music influences?
SRL has a blend of musical influences due to the di - Vent's Magazine

So I’m a band’s name meaning curious guy. How did you guys came out with the name and what’s the meaning behind it?
The band name came from our old guitar player Eric, who left the band shortly before the release of the self titled album. We were struggling to find an original sounding name, and Eric was at a party one night when he noticed a poster listing off various plants. One of the plants listed was “Sweet Bay Laurel”, but since Eric had put away a few beverages he thought it said “Sweet Ray Laurel”. He brought the name idea to the band the next day, and the rest is history.

How did you guys came together to create music?
The project actually started with Kenny and Eric. Eric approached Kenny after a show where Kenny was performing with one of his old projects, and suggested starting a new band. The two of them searched for a singer for a few months, until they came across Jims, who was suggested to the band by a friend. The project started off as a three piece acoustic, with the debut performance at Cincy Punk Fest in Cincinnati. The three piece continued to write, and then another friend recommended Dane for drums. Dane, much like Jims, was a perfect fit for the project. Kenny, Eric, Jims, and Dane concentrated on playing shows and writing music over the next few years, trying to discover what the band’s true sound would be. The band toured regionally, including a couple shows on the road with national band “Paperboy Jack”. SRL continued to write and record, but had difficulty trying to find the sound that they wanted. Then, shortly after the beginning of recording the self titled album, Matt was added as a keyboard player. With the album nearing completion, Eric became frustrated with the speed of production and direction of the band, and decided to leave the band. To fill the gap left by Eric’s departure, Matt switched to playing guitar and keys. The newly formed four piece of Sweet Ray Laurel has since enjoyed success, both in touring and media exposure.

What’s the message you are looking to spread with your music?
Music is open, free, and ever changing. We are constantly trying to change things up in our songs. We like to create excitement in our music, and we do so by blending different styles and sounds into our songs. Differentiation is our goal. We like to throw a lot of things out to our listeners to keep them thinking. This has created some issues with trying to figure out genre, and what bands are similar to us, but has helped in gaining interest. That is why we throw things together like post-punk and reggae, then toss in some keyboards, there are not very many bands out there doing that. It’s important to think outside of the box, find the music that is right for you, and keep searching for more of it.

So I can see you guys released an self-titled album. How was the process working in this album?
I feel like groaning when I answer this question. It was a very long process. We had a lot to learn about recording. Our first song took WAY too long, mostly because we kept trying to change and add stuff as things went on, and it ended up costing us too much time and money. This was a very long process for us, we actually have another album worth of recorded music that has not been released. We may release a song or two from the unreleased catalog, and if you do some research on the internet you may even find a song or video from that list of songs. We learned a lot from the process, and really grew as musicians. The current members really came together during the album creation. SRL was able to finally set expectations on the project, and for the first time have a true vision for the direction of our music. We have been working on a new EP, which should be out spring 2012, and that process has been much smoother, due to what we learned from recording the album.

Are there any plans for the future? New album, music video, label?
We have our new EP close to completion, titled “Release the Lion”, and it should be out this spring. We are currently in discussion about adding a live version of one of our unreleased songs to that EP. Our next step after that release is to put out a music video, maybe two. We have also started writing the next full album, and if you ever catch one of our live shows you will likely get a taste of the newer stuff. For those who can’t make the live shows, keep your eye on Youtube because there are often live video shots landing there, such as our song “Shepard” from the upcoming EP. SRL has been looking around for labels, but have yet to find one that is the right fit for us. We are definitely open to the idea of working with a label, but just want to make sure the opportunity is right for us. For now we are going to continue to play out multiple shows monthly, travel as much as we can, and keep trying to gain exposure for our music.

What are your music influences?
SRL has a blend of musical influences due to the di - Vent's Magazine

New this week we have Sweet Ray Laurel, an epic Indie blend from Cincinnati, Ohio — yes, I admit, I had to copy/paste Cincinnati because my entire life I’ve spelled it wrong. But I digress … SRL is hard for me to label, which is usually the sign of a really unique sound. I really love this band and a couple of their tracks are now on Signal 9. - Signal 9 Radio

New this week we have Sweet Ray Laurel, an epic Indie blend from Cincinnati, Ohio — yes, I admit, I had to copy/paste Cincinnati because my entire life I’ve spelled it wrong. But I digress … SRL is hard for me to label, which is usually the sign of a really unique sound. I really love this band and a couple of their tracks are now on Signal 9. - Signal 9 Radio

Inspired by a poster advertising the sweet bay laurel plant, Fort Mitchell post-punk/"explosion rock" quartet Sweet Ray Laurel is looking to play their music out as much as possible.

Comprised of friends Jims on vocals/guitar, keyboardist/guitarist Matt Grone, bassist Kenny Potter and drummer Dane Dickmann, the group formed in 2004 with Grone joining three years ago. On Saturday, the guys curate their first, hopefully annual, Sweet Sounds of Cincy showcase featuring 16 genre-bending local bands performing on two stages at one of their favorite venues, Mad Hatter/Radiodown (they even wrote a song about the venue).

For three months, Sweet Laurel has been coordinating the talent show with bands ranging from metal (the Earth Laid Bare) to reggae (Jamwave) listed on the bill.

"One of the things was, we would play a lot of local shows and you'd have the same genres of bands playing together," explains Potter. "We got the idea of why not get a bunch of different types of bands and put them on one show and see what happens. This show, we have jam bands, we have reggae bands, indie bands, metal bands. So people who are in a jam band aren't going to get the exposure to play in front of fans that are fans of those other genres, so here's the chance for them to get in front of people that they normally wouldn't get in front of."

Since they didn't want to only share the spotlight with their friends, Sweet Ray went online and sussed out local bands via sites like ReverbNation and MySpace and picked out strangers for the networking event.

"It's really hard asking friends to come to shows," says Grone. "It's a lot better to get people that you don't know because then you don't force anybody to like anything or tell you that was good. Having a bunch of different kinds of bands and having a lot of bands has made it easy to get random people you don't know so you can get honest feedback."

The band has been trying to increase its regional and national presence touring throughout Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, plus hitting Chicago and will make a stop in New York at internet station the Real Radio Show in October.

When at home, they're hard at work recording a follow-up EP to January's debut full-length, self-titled album. Tentatively titled "Release the Lion," the King Crimson- and Yes-influenced EP takes the band in a new direction.

"Our stuff is always changing, and we're always willing to try new things," said Jims. "It's what we base ourselves on is the concept that every style of music is up for grabs. That's the great thing about music is that you can do anything you want all the time. What's the point of doing it unless it's something different than what happened before or what you've done before or what you're used to doing with it."

The rest of the band agrees the EP is more focused than their debut. "The album was kind of us developing our sound, where the EP is going to be a little bit more of like, here's the direction we're going to go in," says Potter.

The band sees touring as their vacation from day jobs, or as Grone puts it, "work is a second life," so they always look forward to hitting the road.

"We like to have a lot of fun," says Potter. "We like to do the music and we like to get out there and experience the country and have fun together. It's a brotherhood." - Cincinnati Metromix

Inspired by a poster advertising the sweet bay laurel plant, Fort Mitchell post-punk/"explosion rock" quartet Sweet Ray Laurel is looking to play their music out as much as possible.

Comprised of friends Jims on vocals/guitar, keyboardist/guitarist Matt Grone, bassist Kenny Potter and drummer Dane Dickmann, the group formed in 2004 with Grone joining three years ago. On Saturday, the guys curate their first, hopefully annual, Sweet Sounds of Cincy showcase featuring 16 genre-bending local bands performing on two stages at one of their favorite venues, Mad Hatter/Radiodown (they even wrote a song about the venue).

For three months, Sweet Laurel has been coordinating the talent show with bands ranging from metal (the Earth Laid Bare) to reggae (Jamwave) listed on the bill.

"One of the things was, we would play a lot of local shows and you'd have the same genres of bands playing together," explains Potter. "We got the idea of why not get a bunch of different types of bands and put them on one show and see what happens. This show, we have jam bands, we have reggae bands, indie bands, metal bands. So people who are in a jam band aren't going to get the exposure to play in front of fans that are fans of those other genres, so here's the chance for them to get in front of people that they normally wouldn't get in front of."

Since they didn't want to only share the spotlight with their friends, Sweet Ray went online and sussed out local bands via sites like ReverbNation and MySpace and picked out strangers for the networking event.

"It's really hard asking friends to come to shows," says Grone. "It's a lot better to get people that you don't know because then you don't force anybody to like anything or tell you that was good. Having a bunch of different kinds of bands and having a lot of bands has made it easy to get random people you don't know so you can get honest feedback."

The band has been trying to increase its regional and national presence touring throughout Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, plus hitting Chicago and will make a stop in New York at internet station the Real Radio Show in October.

When at home, they're hard at work recording a follow-up EP to January's debut full-length, self-titled album. Tentatively titled "Release the Lion," the King Crimson- and Yes-influenced EP takes the band in a new direction.

"Our stuff is always changing, and we're always willing to try new things," said Jims. "It's what we base ourselves on is the concept that every style of music is up for grabs. That's the great thing about music is that you can do anything you want all the time. What's the point of doing it unless it's something different than what happened before or what you've done before or what you're used to doing with it."

The rest of the band agrees the EP is more focused than their debut. "The album was kind of us developing our sound, where the EP is going to be a little bit more of like, here's the direction we're going to go in," says Potter.

The band sees touring as their vacation from day jobs, or as Grone puts it, "work is a second life," so they always look forward to hitting the road.

"We like to have a lot of fun," says Potter. "We like to do the music and we like to get out there and experience the country and have fun together. It's a brotherhood." - Cincinnati Metromix

‘Freight Train‘ from Sweet Ray Laurel is the perfect add to the late night portion of the Big Med Playlist for the Big One. It’s a gorgeously textured lyrical poem produced in musical long-hand.
If I close my eyes I can see the lights of the city blur as we roll down the street on a call for yet another ‘undetermined emergency’ on a Friday night.
I’m a recent Sweet Ray Laurel convert. Their swirling mix of post-punk, reggae, and psychedelic music feels vaguely gypsy-mystic to me. I love that it’s a not-too-comfortable fit. The tunes are a constant lesson in discovery as I revel in yet another layer or sound or lyric I missed the last go-round.
Enjoy the ride on SRL’s Freight Train. - Big Medicine

For Sweet Ray Laurel, the Chicago music scene holds great importance. So much so that the band references the city in their song "More" off their self-titled CD. Sweet Ray Laurel has announced a Midwest tour, which includes Chicago's Reggie's Music Joint on February 19th at 8p. The show is 21 and up with a $5 cover.

With melodic pop riffs, poetic lyrics, traveling bass, and drums and keys bordering the math rock coming out of Brooklyn, the music of Sweet Ray Laurel is a creative blend of varying roots.

The band has been together for over seven years and enjoyed touring throughout the Midwest and Southeast to a loyal fan base. After creative regrouping and the completion of their self-titled CD, the foursome has decided to expand their audience in the Midwest by targeting clubs and bars that have a progressive edge.

To preview the show and hear samples of their music, visit the band's website at www.sweetraylaurel.com. - Chicago At Home

Sweet Ray Laurel, a local Cincy area band that has been together for over seven years and enjoyed numerous regional touring performances as well, took a year long break after losing a band member. They spent that year regrouping and recording, and are now ready to release their self titled album. Sweet Ray Laurel is known not only for their unique mix of post punk, reggae, and psychedelic rock, but also for their exciting shows, including Laurelpalooza, a semi annual show that has been held at the Southgate house and features up to 15 bands in one night. Sharing the stage with Sweet Ray Laurel for their CD release will be veteran Cincinnati musicians The Frankl Project and Great Young Hunters, along with the talented new band Come Here Watson.
- City Beat Cincinnati