The New Frontiers
By Christina Kim
Published: August 19, 2008
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Date: August 16th, 2008
Band Member(s): Nathan Pettijohn, Ryan Henry, Jacob Chaney, Guy Turner, Alex Bhore

How did the band form?

A couple years ago, Nathan and Jay just wanted to play and through Guy, who is our keyboard player now but wasn’t in the band until a few years later, who introduced us to Alex who plays drums and then that was the beginning. We had a couple of different lineups with Ryan coming in a year and half later and Guy a year ago. This band developed slowly over the last four years.

Fans and critics alike have been saying nothing but praise for your debut album Mending, how do you feel about the reaction?

We were a little surprised honestly. I think anytime you create something and it’s the first thing that you’re putting out there, you’re really concerned about how it’s going to be perceived. It’s kind of like your baby and you want people to like it. It’s just something you’re very concerned about and we were really curious about how people would accept it and how people would respond. We were overwhelmed by how positive it’s been.

Tell the readers a little more about the sound on the album.

It’s a bit like our live show but the album is more low-key. It’s a little more chilled out and really layered. It’s very Americana and subtle.

What would be your favorite song off the album?

It would be different for everybody but as a collective group, I’d say we play Walking on Stones which is a song on the album a lot and have been playing it for a long time way before the album came out and it’s stuck around the longest.

Who is your producer and why did you choose to work with him?

We worked with a guy in Atlanta named Matt Goldman and we kind of honestly worked with him because of money. It was just a matter of time to money ratio. For how much money we got, we got a month and it was triple what we were looking at with anyone else. We met with him beforehand and he’d come to a few shows and we just really got along well with him. Great guy, good vibes and he was really consistent. I haven’t really heard any records he’s made that haven’t sounded good. He’s just a consistent producer.

Where did you draw inspiration for the album?

It’s kind of hard to say, we did it so long ago. We did it last April and it didn’t come out until this April.

Why did it take so long?

Just mixing and label stuff takes forever. You’re really not supposed to release annd album at the end of the year and it was just one thing after another so it got pushed back 6 months.

How did you get signed to The Militia Group?

We had been in minor contact with them. We went on tour with a band on that label, The Umbrellas from Oklahoma and basically they did the whole “you guys need to really pay attention to this band” thing. And it kind of went from there. Chad who was at the label spearheaded talking to us and he is doing some really good stuff now at P is for Panda.

Crazy tour story?

Ryan got propositioned by a transvestite today! In Greenwich Village, I was having the last cigarette out of my pack and threw it in the trash can and this transvestite came over and asked me for a cigarette. I was like, this is my last one. Then he started pouring water all over my pack and kind of just walked off. We laughed about it and then he came back over and basically asked if he could have the rest of my cigarette. I was like, no man, it’s my last one, go buy a pack. Then he said would (edited out). I guess so that he could buy a pack of cigarettes. We like the crazies.

How have you liked this tour?

This tour has been awesome. No rock stars, no divas, everybody’s laid back and cool. And we get along nicely.

Thank you to The New Frontiers for sitting down with For The Sound. A big thanks goes out to the Stunt Company for setting up the interview. Check out the band at myspace.com/thenewfrontiers.

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