Planet Loud caught up with Chris Vest of Framing Hanley during their stop at the Water Street Music Hall in Rochester, NY to talk about the band’s history, Nashville, and their hit single “Lollipop”.
Planet Loud – Welcome to Rochester! First time here?
Framing Hanley – Thank you. Yeah. We’ve been up in this area before but this is our first time in Rochester. It’s nice! Being from Nashville, we don’t ever get to see snow quite like this!
Planet Loud – Hailing from Nashville, are there any advantages or disadvantages being a metal band from a ‘country’ town?
Framing Hanley – One of the coolest things about Nashville is no matter where you go, on any street corner, especially around the Broadway area, there’s just amazing musicians in general whether it’s rock or country. I think it definitely helped push us, at a younger age, to strive to be better musicians and push ourselves to do different things because it’s such a competitive area. The rock scene there has been really picking up with Paramore, Red, Safety Suit and Kings of Leon. It’s kind of a hotbed for up and coming talent, so it definitely made us work a little harder being from that area.
Planet Loud – What would you say is the next big thing coming out of Nashville?
Framing Hanley – I believe that it’s Safety Suit. They’re just an extremely talented band and great songwriters. They have the potential to be one of those bands on rock radio and top 40 radio at the same time. They could definitely blow up any minute.
Planet Loud – Your single, “Lollipop”, a ‘Lil Wayne cover…..How’d you guys decide to do that?
Framing Hanley – It was just one of those things. It was complete randomness. We were all sitting around having some drinks and relaxing during practice and Nixon had mentioned that he wanted to do “Lollipop”. We all laughed it off at first, then a couple of drinks later Ryan started playing the intro to it and it just came together. We played it at one show and all of a sudden it started picking up after that. It was out of control from there.
Planet Loud – How do the royalties and licensing work for that?
Framing Hanley – Our label went through and did the deal for licensing and everything. Also, our publishing company is the same as ‘Lil Wayne’s so everything kinda worked out in our favor.
Planet Loud – Was ‘Lil Wayne and influence, or was it just one of those songs?
Framing Hanley – Yeah. We are all big fans of his. I remember listening to him back in high school when he first came out, so it’s just kinda one of those things. We all listen to different types of music and we thought that song definitely had potential to be transformed into something else.
Planet Loud – What were your biggest influences?
Framing Hanley – Some of my favorite bands that I grew up listening to were Metallica and Sevendust.
Planet Loud – Yeah, man. Sevendust is my favorite band.
Framing Hanley – Yeah, Morgan Rose was actually the reason I started playing drums. Those were some of my main influences, but as I’ve gotten into playing more I started listening to bands like Thrice or Incubus. I think we’ve all got really wide tastes and that’s what kinda helps make our sound.
Planet Loud – How did you come up with the name Framing Hanley?
Framing Hanley – Hanley was the last name of my fiancée, Ashley, who was killed in a car accident (October 2006) about a month before we went down and recorded with Brett Hestla (Dark New Day, Creed). That was actually the beginning from there. Once Brett passed along the song to Jeff Hansen (Silent Majority Group), we got signed and we were looking to do a name change. We were originally called Embers Fade. The other guys came to me with a suggestion and we just took the aspect of her last name ‘Hanley’, and she used to take pictures of the band so that’s where the ‘Framing’ aspect of it comes in. It was just something the guys wanted to do as a tribute and it’s definitely been an influence for us.
Planet Loud – How did you guys hook up with Brett (Hestla)?
Framing Hanley – MySpace. He sent out a bulletin saying that he had a little bit of free time in the studio and was looking for some bands that felt like they were ready to make that next step. We had actually just come off of recording a short little EP, but I told the guys I think this is an opportunity I don’t think we can pass up. I kinda thought, in my mind, from the beginning that he (Hestla) would be a great fit for this band with all of the stuff he had done with some of his other bands like Faction. He took the chance on us and we went to Florida to did two songs. One of them turned out to be ‘Hear Me Now’, which was our first single and he passed that along to Jeff Hansen and just went on from there.
Planet Loud – How long have you guys been on the road now?
Framing Hanley – We’ve been touring for almost two years now. We started two years ago with Evans Blue. Then we went out and did a couple dates with Trapt and Fuel and bands like that. We spent a little time at home this last year, but we’ve pretty much been on the road non-stop since October now. We did some dates with Theory of a Deadman before we started this headlining gig. It’s been nice. We’re having a good time for sure.
Planet Loud – Any pranks or practical jokes you guys play on eachother?
Framing Hanley – Oh yeah, all the time! It’s always somethin’. It’s all usually inside stuff that’s only funny to us. Everyone else probably thinks we’re idiots.
Planet Loud – Do you guys have any pre-show rituals?
Framing Hanley – We all get around in a circle and get fired up. We put our hands in and scream “Bring the Mother Fuckin’ Ruckus” then we go out. It’s kind of our thing to get us pumped up.
Planet Loud – Awesome.. thanks for your time guys..
Framing Hanley – No problem.
Interview by Jeff Gerew
