Whiskey Sour
Band:
Whiskey Sour
Members: Travis McMaster, aka Jordin Spade, and Tony Williams, aka Allen Hicks
Who we talked to: McMaster, 24
How did you guys meet/how long have you been performing together? I've known Tony since high school. We've been, like, friends for (more than) 10 years now. We've played with different bands back in the day. For the past year, I've had an electronic project (Supernova Blastpop) that I was doing. On the year anniversary June 13, I was just kind of up in arms about what I wanted to do with the project and decided to do something new. I was thinking, "well, I've done a lot of . . . types of music. I've been in rock bands and metal bands and did electronic." So, I called Tony and pitched him the idea of starting a country band, and he was down with it. Twelve hours later. . . we started working on writing stuff.
How did you come up with the name? The name was actually (decided on) through a lot of trial and error. We had a lot of names beforehand, and they just all kept getting shot down. Either someone had it or we just didn't both agree to it. I just happened to say "whiskey sour." We were just sitting outside, chilling and (Tony) was like, "cool."
Do you like drinking whiskey sours? I mean, like, I like whiskey. I didn't actually have my first whiskey sour until the band kind of came up. That night, some friends of . . . ours went out and I had my first whiskey sour. It was quite enjoyable. So hopefully the band is enjoyable the same way the drink is.
Are you going to look for other members or just go with the duo? For now, the plan was just to be (a duo). Musically, we just work well. If I'm Nikki Sixx, (Tony's) my Tommy Lee. He and I can do some acoustic sets, and then once we get . . . some songs recorded . . . (we might) bring in a drummer and bring in another guitar player.
What are your musical influences? I always just listened to the radio that my parents had on, so that was back with, like, '80s metal and what not. The first band I really got into was honestly Korn. It was 1996. My cousin was like, "hey, want to hear a cool song about sex? Check this band out." It just happened to be Korn's "A.D.I.D.A.S." I just got into metal from there (with) Mudvayne (and) Slipknot. I got into a lot of the older stuff like Motley Crüe. Tony. . . likes all kinds of music. Knowing that he listened to country music . . . was one of the reasons that kind of triggered me to maybe try country. One of the bigger inspiration behind this project . . . was an artist called Wednesday 13. I never did country before. It's so much different than, like, metal or electronic stuff. I really wanted to come across legit.
What sets country apart from other genres? It all goes back to the acceptability of it and being able to get it into more people's arms and eyes and ears. A lot of people like rock music, but they don't like different variants of it. But, like, what's nice about country is it kind of (has) things I like about rock. It has definitely that attitude behind it. When I think of metal, I think of big crowds, mosh pits (and) madness. When I think of country, it's, like, a good time at a bar chilling with friends. I just needed something different. It was nice to change up the CDs in the car, you know, what's on the iPod. It's really opened up my eyes to, like . . . what other musicians are doing.
Do you want to play out in York? Record an album? We've been pushing (Whiskey Sour) really hard (on MySpace) and a lot of my fans from Supernova Blastpop are in the South and I would hit them up. I was actually hit up by Quickstar Productions through Supernova Blastpop . . . (for a compilation) in February. Then they came back with the CD "Countrified." (Whickey Sour) actually had just recorded our song "Coma," which is going to be on the CD. We don't want (the CD to come out) and have people try to book us . . . and not be fully prepared. It's definitely been, like, 110 miles per hour the whole way. It's definitely been, like, here's the drawing board and we have to keep going back to it. We do want to play out, and get that going, but we would like to have something physical for people to have on a disc or digitally.
- ERIN McCRACKEN, FLIPSIDE STAFF
Check them out
For details about Whiskey Sour, visit www.myspace.com/whiskeysourband.
Listen to the interview at www.flipsidepa.com.