| CHICAGOSROCK: First of all, tell me about the name AVM. What does it mean, what does it stand for? STEVE BIRKETT: The original name of the band was Avenue Max. That stands for a chosen musical pathway to the greatest degree. What happened was that when we were shopping the CD, the record companies said the name sounded like an R&B band, so the painstaking process of finding a new name started. Everyone was shooting names and we just ended up coming up with AVM, which is an acronym for Avenue Max. Once we had that name, we were able to come up & acquire this great logo and the marketing got started. Things really got started after changing that name. CHICAGOSROCK: Tell me a little bit about the band and its history. Were you guys childhood friends, did you get together later in life? How did it all come to be? |
ROBERT MACKEY: Well, it didn't really start as a band. It was a
recording project like with a lot of people nowadays. It morphed into a
band. That was when we were Avenue Max and we were that band for well
over 10 years. We released an album which got international sales and
reviews but we hit a stumbling block and that's when we did the name
change. It originally was myself with Scott Carlin on keyboards and it
eventually became a band, because we needed to be able to play it live
and needed really good musicians to make it happen. Scott had done a lot
of orchestration with the keyboard, so we had some session musicians
come and go as part of the band. Steve came in as, when did you come
in...?
STEVE BIRKETT: It was right after the 1st CD was released. I came in as a fill-in. I basically killed the 1st guy (laughs). Naah, he actually retired and I got the gig.
ROBERT MACKEY: The next one on board was Tom [on bass], then Greg [guitar & keys] and finally Brian [lead guitar]. So we're now a 6-piece band.
CHICAGOSROCK: I've seen AVM's music described as Symphonic Rock. What exactly is that to the average music fan and where does it fit with the modern scene?
SCOTT CARLIN: You usually see a band with 2 or sometimes 3 guitars, as is the case with country bands and their pedal-steel guitars, but with keyboards I sometimes feel like a dinosaur in the rock scene because y'know, who carries around a 400-pound Hammond organ anymore? There's less and less of us anymore. With 2 guitars you can cover a lot of stuff, but with this you can get creative and concentrate on the orchestral aspect of things, depending on the piece of course, throw in a Hammond, electric piano, orchestral string section on some of the ballads. With keyboards or piano doing something a bit different to make it more like a true orchestra. With all the sounds we got going, it helps to thicken the sound especially when the guitars are soloing by themselves. We don't use tracks so especially in those cases, it really adds to the experience and to the song.
STEVE BIRKETT: It was right after the 1st CD was released. I came in as a fill-in. I basically killed the 1st guy (laughs). Naah, he actually retired and I got the gig.
ROBERT MACKEY: The next one on board was Tom [on bass], then Greg [guitar & keys] and finally Brian [lead guitar]. So we're now a 6-piece band.
CHICAGOSROCK: I've seen AVM's music described as Symphonic Rock. What exactly is that to the average music fan and where does it fit with the modern scene?
SCOTT CARLIN: You usually see a band with 2 or sometimes 3 guitars, as is the case with country bands and their pedal-steel guitars, but with keyboards I sometimes feel like a dinosaur in the rock scene because y'know, who carries around a 400-pound Hammond organ anymore? There's less and less of us anymore. With 2 guitars you can cover a lot of stuff, but with this you can get creative and concentrate on the orchestral aspect of things, depending on the piece of course, throw in a Hammond, electric piano, orchestral string section on some of the ballads. With keyboards or piano doing something a bit different to make it more like a true orchestra. With all the sounds we got going, it helps to thicken the sound especially when the guitars are soloing by themselves. We don't use tracks so especially in those cases, it really adds to the experience and to the song.
STEVE BIRKETT: With all the sounds and tones that are going on and with the different instrumentation, it almost sounds like an actual symphony is doing a rock song and it just really sounds good. It thickens up the sound and it works.
CHICAGOSROCK: Talk to me about your album "A Matter Of Time". ROBERT MACKEY: The song "A Matter of Time" was actually written a long time ago. I knew there was something good about this song, but like many other writers, I had a case of writer's block and just couldn't make it happen and things just weren't fitting in for me. So I called up Jim Peterik (Survivor, Ides of March) and he was gracious enough to jam with me. We went out to breakfast, then back to his place for about 3-4 hours and jammed. When it was all said and done, we had a co-write! He did a wonderful job in terms of bringing the whole song together. When you listen to it you will feel a lot of his influence in it. That's how it came to be. I like the title because it stands for so, so many passages in life whether you're young or old. It's a matter of time. |
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| CHICAGOSROCK: Great. Now that's the song, -what about the album itself?
ROBERT MACKEY: The album was recorded and released a while ago, but we had to scale things back at the time due to an illness on one of the band members and while he was being treated. All is good now - knock on wood -, but what happened was that when we did the release and this incident happened, we couldn't go out heavily and push it. We were told it was a minor problem and we figured why not wait a little bit until he gets better. Well, it turned out to be more than just a minor thing and the album never got a chance to take off and radio push, play out of town and such. The local bars is not the same as going out to St. Louis, Atlanta, Nashville, etc. So while he got better, I called Joe South because I wanted to do a remake of the song Hush. We didn't want to just redo the Deep Purple thing, but rather a complete major re-write of the song. The Deep Purple song is legendary and we didn't want to go there because people will just then compare us to that classic version. So this became a complete group effort in coming up with the rhythm track, the foundation of the song to where we were happy and in tribute to the DP version, we included the original Hammond organ into it in addition to the 'na na na's, as we didn't want to lose the integrity and "signature" of the song and that hook. |
Now back to the album, an independent film friend wanted one of the tracks from the album (Into The Flames Again) to be included in a film he's producing, so we pulled that track off the album and added Hush to it. So we did some edits and re-mastering of the album and we're planning to release a premier edition of the album with Hush as the 1st single of the album, with a DVD of 3 songs we've done videos for, also some behind-the-scenes footage and bonus material with interviews, the meaning of the songs as people always ask "what's that song about"? That will be ready right in time for summer 2011. -Knock on wood!
CHICAGOSROCK: What are your plans to support it once released? ROBERT MACKEY: We're going to do radio promotions and magazine promos in the European market and the Netherlands. Also we're going to try to get it in as many stations as we can. For all the music people that may be reading this, you know if you put it in 2,000 stations, you'll only get like a150 or so. You can never get all of them. So we're going to coordinate our efforts between touring and promoting in trying to achieve better results. |
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We have signed up with a company outside of our local area as I thought we're a good fit and they've worked with some high caliber artists before and I'm very excited about what the future holds for us. Based on what type of results we get from promotion will determine where the touring will focus. We as a band are prepared to go tour full-time if we need to, but we'll probably utilize the midwest as the hub of the wheel where we can shoot 4-6 hours in any given direction and go from there. Where there's a spark, we'll put gasoline on it!
CHICAGOSROCK: So speaking of touring and live shows, what can fans expect at an AVM show?
GREG MANGO: They can expect that the band plays everything that they hear on the album. We don't use any tracks and play our own instruments, do our harmonies, vocals, etc. They can expect a laser show, that's new this year. They can expect a good range of music. It's a great band with great talent that lives up to the symphonic rock name. Scott takes a big part of that in his corner of the world and that alone makes this band unique. I can't think of anyone around here that's doing something like it at this level. Tom is great on bass. He's the best bassist I've ever had the pleasure of playing with. Steve on drums is phenomenal. Robert is incredibly talented. He actually is probably the most talented in the band. He not only writes the songs and sings, but he plays all of the instruments. Brian brings a metal edge to the band that we were previously lacking. So there's a lot of talent in this band.
BRIAN VINEZEANO: I think that as important as it is to have 2 great guitar players, keyboards and vocalists, which we do, to be able to do the different genres that we do, taking all the supergroups we grew up with and that you don't hear out there, and mirroring that into what is AVM music, is very good and makes us different that way. We're different than the bands that are doing a good job out there with 2 guitars and the screaming vocalist (laughs). There's a lot that we add to that, but there's unfortunately not a whole lot of stages big enough for what we do. In our live performance you'll definitely see the huge color difference and the huge sound.
STEVE BIRKETT: As different as both Greg and Brian are in their own different styles, they mesh together nicely and it works. We all have these different influences and styles ranging from jazz to fusion to metal that we have brought in has created its own flavor. That is really cool.
ROBERT MACKEY: When you see AVM, you'll know it because we stand out and will not be confused with other bands. There's a lot of bands in this town that do a very good job but not many do the type of genres we do. We work very hard to have a "signature" sound and it works. You'll get a range of sounds, a range of feels, different genres in songs but yet one signature AVM sound.
CHICAGOSROCK: So speaking of touring and live shows, what can fans expect at an AVM show?
GREG MANGO: They can expect that the band plays everything that they hear on the album. We don't use any tracks and play our own instruments, do our harmonies, vocals, etc. They can expect a laser show, that's new this year. They can expect a good range of music. It's a great band with great talent that lives up to the symphonic rock name. Scott takes a big part of that in his corner of the world and that alone makes this band unique. I can't think of anyone around here that's doing something like it at this level. Tom is great on bass. He's the best bassist I've ever had the pleasure of playing with. Steve on drums is phenomenal. Robert is incredibly talented. He actually is probably the most talented in the band. He not only writes the songs and sings, but he plays all of the instruments. Brian brings a metal edge to the band that we were previously lacking. So there's a lot of talent in this band.
BRIAN VINEZEANO: I think that as important as it is to have 2 great guitar players, keyboards and vocalists, which we do, to be able to do the different genres that we do, taking all the supergroups we grew up with and that you don't hear out there, and mirroring that into what is AVM music, is very good and makes us different that way. We're different than the bands that are doing a good job out there with 2 guitars and the screaming vocalist (laughs). There's a lot that we add to that, but there's unfortunately not a whole lot of stages big enough for what we do. In our live performance you'll definitely see the huge color difference and the huge sound.
STEVE BIRKETT: As different as both Greg and Brian are in their own different styles, they mesh together nicely and it works. We all have these different influences and styles ranging from jazz to fusion to metal that we have brought in has created its own flavor. That is really cool.
ROBERT MACKEY: When you see AVM, you'll know it because we stand out and will not be confused with other bands. There's a lot of bands in this town that do a very good job but not many do the type of genres we do. We work very hard to have a "signature" sound and it works. You'll get a range of sounds, a range of feels, different genres in songs but yet one signature AVM sound.
| CHICAGOSROCK: At the pace you're carrying right now, plans you have set, where do you see AVM in 5 or years down the road?
STEVE BIRKETT: I think there's a lot of positive things happening. I have a really good feeling about all of this...! SCOTT CARLIN: If our fathers were right with 'hard work will get you anything', then we will be ok because we're working our asses off on this band. ROBERT MACKEY: Our immediate goal is to become a mid-level touring band and sell out the House of Blues and Park Wests of the world. But not just here, but internationally, y'know Brazil, Japan, France, Spain, etc. In 5 years I hope we can make our audience bigger, thank to the internet, Facebook, multi-media marketing, YouTube. I think that affects a lot of things in the world. Look at what Facebook has done for democracy in other countries, what do you think it can do for music and bands. |
STEVE BIRKETT: I just hope to share with people something we're passionate about, - all over the world, in our own backyards...
ROBERT MACKEY: Put smiles in people's faces. I don't think any of us has any grandiose ideas about getting into the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame....
STEVE CARLIN: ...it's wishful thinking, but you know...(laughs)
CHICAGOSROCK: Very cool. Any final thoughts?
ROBERT MACKEY: The album will be available thru CD Baby, iTunes and other digital distributors. As far as "brick and mortar" or whatever's left of them, possibly Best Buy. That changes from day to day anymore so we don't know for sure yet. A lot of people still like the sonic quality of an actual disc versus an MP3 so that will still be available, although the digital downloads and their quality has been going up too. So it will be out there everywhere.
GREG MANGO: If I can just add one thing, and this is not to push CD sales, but MP3s will not do justice when it comes to listening to this band. If you've ever tried listening to a symphony or an orchestra, it just falls apart because that format simply cannot handle that dynamic range. AVM's music will sound fine on an MP3 but unless you listen to this on a real stereo system -which not many people have anymore - you're missing out on a lot of the symphonic range of the album. There's so much in the music that the MP3 won't deliver.
STEVE BIRKETT: One final thing, if you go to our website and send us an e-mail we will send you free mp3 downloads of the songs. We want to share the music and turn them on to AVM. www.avmband.com
ROBERT MACKEY: Put smiles in people's faces. I don't think any of us has any grandiose ideas about getting into the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame....
STEVE CARLIN: ...it's wishful thinking, but you know...(laughs)
CHICAGOSROCK: Very cool. Any final thoughts?
ROBERT MACKEY: The album will be available thru CD Baby, iTunes and other digital distributors. As far as "brick and mortar" or whatever's left of them, possibly Best Buy. That changes from day to day anymore so we don't know for sure yet. A lot of people still like the sonic quality of an actual disc versus an MP3 so that will still be available, although the digital downloads and their quality has been going up too. So it will be out there everywhere.
GREG MANGO: If I can just add one thing, and this is not to push CD sales, but MP3s will not do justice when it comes to listening to this band. If you've ever tried listening to a symphony or an orchestra, it just falls apart because that format simply cannot handle that dynamic range. AVM's music will sound fine on an MP3 but unless you listen to this on a real stereo system -which not many people have anymore - you're missing out on a lot of the symphonic range of the album. There's so much in the music that the MP3 won't deliver.
STEVE BIRKETT: One final thing, if you go to our website and send us an e-mail we will send you free mp3 downloads of the songs. We want to share the music and turn them on to AVM. www.avmband.com
