FROM SUSPICIOUS TO SUPERFAN
by Andy Roman
Chances are, if you’re a music nerd like me, you know all about Bob Dylan’s infamous 1965 set at the Newport Folk Festival. That night, Dylan went electric, and people hated it! They felt betrayed.
Now, I would never dream of comparing Elm Treason to Dylan, but we kind of went through a similar experience…but in reverse.
Bobby and I were never a band in the classic sense. We can play multiple instruments, so we made the conscious decision to record as a duo.
Our first album, Days of Reaction, was originally going to be a “conventional” rock album – electric guitars, drums, bass, so on. We quickly recorded a few tunes and shared them online.
Before we knew it, we got an offer to perform on local TV. We accepted, because duh, ya don’t turn down TV!
But there was a problem. How to perform these songs with just the two of us?
Then, epiphany!
Our starting point for writing and jamming was almost always with two acoustic guitars, face to face. In that spirit, we chose to reshape our rock/power pop vibe by moving it into the acoustic realm and crafting new arrangements that could be reproduced faithfully.
Over the next few weeks, we reworked our songs to be both percussive and melodic. One thing couldn’t change, however: they still had to rock. We weren’t going Joni Mitchell here. (No offense, Joni!)
When the big day finally came, it felt really good. We were seriously energized. It was a huge success! Loving the new arrangements more than the originals, we hit the studio to re-cut a few of the tracks. We then shared them with some select fans.
So, we were in Texas a couple summers back – outside of San Antonio – and decided to find a cool spot to take some new band pictures. It was July 4th. Potential locations were in abundance.
We ultimately chose the edge of a housing development that was still under construction. Good surroundings.
The area was void of people (being a holiday) and brimming with open space.. We weren’t actually near any of the construction.. just a few dead-end roads, open fields and wild sunflowers.
It was perfect.
We had a camera, two guitars and a change of shirts (for variety). Our modus operandi: We’d shoot for ten minutes or so, change shirts, reposition the camera and shoot some more.
Peripherally, we had noticed that during the course of the shoot, a car or two would pass on the main connecting road (maybe 80 or 90 feet away), but thought nothing of it.
We were blissfully doing our thing when the crunching tires of a third car caught our attention – this time, not passing by on the main road, but turning toward us, lumbering along the gravel.
A police car.
As fate would have it, at that precise moment, we were shirtless, in the midst of a wardrobe change. Half naked. Literally.
Perfect timing.
We can only imagine what that officer must have been thinking seeing us like that on a semi-secluded dead end road in small-town Texas. Our July 4th photo shoot, almost instantly, went from fun and productive to a full-fledged “uh oh.”
I hastily slipped on the shirt I had just taken off and started toward the police car to explain.
Not smart.
Four steps in, a bellowing voice exploded from the vehicle with a ferocity that probably warped the neck of my guitar: “Do NOT approach the vehicle! STAY where you STAND!”
He sounded real mad.
I froze.
Bobby, too, was dead in his tracks.
“I’m coming to you!” he rumbled, struttin’ toward us with a swagger that would have had Vin Deisel scurrying to his safe space.
I didn’t dare flinch. This felt so “Law and Order.”
When he reached us, he asked what we were doing here getting undressed.
Oh, man….
I stammered slightly… “Oh that??? No, we weren’t getting undressed, officer,” I said, even though we technically were disrobing, “We are a band, on a photo shoot. We’re just taking pictures. That’s all. Honest.”
Pause.
I could tell he didn’t buy it at first.
I continued making my case by pointing to our camera stand, the guitars and our change of wardrobe. We were asked for our IDs (both out-of-state licenses, as it turns out). Background checks were executed.
While he was occupied running his check, Bobby discreetly pointed out to me that my fly was inexplicably open.
“My fly?” I mouthed.
I looked down.
“Oh, great,” I thought, “Dandy…” wondering if he noticed.
“You know what he’s got to be thinking,” I whispered
He inspected our car (from a distance), surveyed the photo shoot scene and asked us some “test questions.”
“What’s your band name?”
We told him “Elm Treason” and then showed him our Facebook page. We were both, admittedly, nervous. Things were getting “iffy.”
Holding breath.
Pause.
Then it happened.
It all changed.
Wow.
Talk about a turnaround. Just as before, everything suddenly morphed on a dime… only this time for the better. Things transformed instantaneously from “uh oh” to “deliciously awesome” in a matter of nano-seconds once the office saw our page. It was amazing. His entire demeanor changed. He immediately was rebooted from a hard-nosed “officer of the law” to a wide-smiling “regular guy” (no insult meant in any way). He softened like whipped butter in the Texas sun. He became vigorously inquisitive, but not in an “interrogation room” kind of way. He was loving what he saw.
He became ebullient. Animated. He asked us lots of questions about Elm Treason. He then opened up and started telling us about the town we were in. Fully conversational.
Wow again.
All of this was happening two days before a scheduled LIVE Facebook event. He promised to check us out.
He turned out to be extremely nice. However, we had no real preconceptions that he would actually “check us out.” We hear that a lot. We thought it was just a polite thing to say.
Well, as it happened, he not only watched our Facebook LIVE event, but ever since our “confrontation,” he has become one of our most interactive fans on the page… and he even purchased two of our albums.
What a journey! From being spotted by two locals (in those passing cars) who saw a couple of guys acting “weird” (in a spot that had recently become known as a site of “nefarious teen activity”) to gaining a uniformed super fan who has already spent money on our music, this was as good as it got for us.
You just never know.
Chances are, if you’re a music nerd like me, you know all about Bob Dylan’s infamous 1965 set at the Newport Folk Festival. That night, Dylan went electric, and people hated it! They felt betrayed.
Now, I would never dream of comparing Elm Treason to Dylan, but we kind of went through a similar experience…but in reverse.
Bobby and I were never a band in the classic sense. We can play multiple instruments, so we made the conscious decision to record as a duo.
Our first album, Days of Reaction, was originally going to be a “conventional” rock album – electric guitars, drums, bass, so on. We quickly recorded a few tunes and shared them online.
Before we knew it, we got an offer to perform on local TV. We accepted, because duh, ya don’t turn down TV!
But there was a problem. How to perform these songs with just the two of us?
Then, epiphany!
Our starting point for writing and jamming was almost always with two acoustic guitars, face to face. In that spirit, we chose to reshape our rock/power pop vibe by moving it into the acoustic realm and crafting new arrangements that could be reproduced faithfully.
Over the next few weeks, we reworked our songs to be both percussive and melodic. One thing couldn’t change, however: they still had to rock. We weren’t going Joni Mitchell here. (No offense, Joni!)
When the big day finally came, it felt really good. We were seriously energized. It was a huge success! Loving the new arrangements more than the originals, we hit the studio to re-cut a few of the tracks. We then shared them with some select fans.
That’s when everything changed.
All of a sudden, it was our own “Newport 65.” We were told that going acoustic was a “lightweight” move that would kill our credibility. One girl on Twitter said she felt “betrayed.”
Wait, betrayed?? Many others “unfollowed.” Wow, we thought. That didn’t go well.
Then we caught hell from the other side.
We played an open mic in Brooklyn, failing to realize that the venue took the word “acoustic” to mean “folk.” We’re talking a classic folk vibe. Patchouli and incense. The whole nine yards.
Forgive the pun, but they were incensed.
“That’s not what acoustic guitars were meant to do!” they cried – not at that venue, anyway. Someone literally yelled the word “blasphemy!”
What planet were we on?
We were pretty discouraged for a while. It was like we suddenly lost everything. We almost packed it in, frankly.
Then, one day out of the blue, we got a message that was like a life preserver. Someone told us that the new version of “Days of Reaction” was “the funkiest acoustic thing he’d ever heard” and he was sharing it with some friends.
Within days, more positive feedback came in. Then more.
Feeling recharged and vindicated, we re-recorded the tracks of our official first album “DAYS OF REACTION” in this new style. Within a year, we had five times as many fans as we had “alienated.”
Today, we have more friends and fans than we ever could have imagined.
We won’t question our instincts again. I can promise you that.