By snoadmin
With songs drenched in sing-along choruses and dance rock vibrations, Irvine natives The Bolts know the key to entertaining a crowd.
The band is made up of five young musicians, three of whom are brothers. The eldest of the brothers, Cal State Long Beach vocal performance major Addam Farmer, provides aching vocals that echo those of Muse’s lead singer, Matt Bellamy.
The music is lined with rhythmic harmonies similar to the classical sound of decades ago, like that of the boys’ idols, The Beach Boys.
More than just toe-tapping beats, their live act exudes enough energy to power an audience into motion, which explains why The Bolts were nominated for Best Live Band in this year’s OC Music Awards. This year, the boys are also nominated for Best Pop Artist in the same competition, a category that they won last year against stiff competition like Jack’s Mannequin. All winners will be announced at the Grove of Anaheim on March 6.
The Daily 49er spoke with The Bolts’ guitarist Heath Farmer who, like his brother, majors in vocal performance at CSULB.
Caitlin O’Connor: You share the stage with four other guys, two of whom are your brothers. When did you all decide to start a band together?
Heath Farmer: In late summer of 2007, Addam, Austin and I decided to get to it and start writing songs. I called Matt and Ryan to join us, and we’ve loved it since.
CO: What’s the story behind the name The Bolts?
HF: We went through a ton of different names within the first two weeks … Finally, it came to the point where I said, ‘I don’t care what it is, the first thing I see, if it’s not taken and there’s no problems with it, we’re taking it.’ I closed my eyes and opened them back up and I saw a lightning bolt on a banner on some random Web site. I thought, ‘OK, we’re The Bolts, but that name’s got to be taken.’ I looked and I looked, but it wasn’t taken, surprisingly enough.
CO: You guys worked with Andy Johns, who engineered albums by legendary bands like Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones. How did you meet him and what was it like to work with him?
HF: He heard about us in the spring of last year through some people, like our manager. He said that the one thing he likes about a band is if they can do harmonies, so we went in and did three songs with him. One of the songs was at Capitol Records Studios and a few were at Paramount. It was a total experience. I mean he is the epitome of rock history. He’s worked with Van Halen, Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones. The list goes on and on. It’s crazy.
CO: You have a few upcoming shows scheduled for Disneyland’s Tomorrowland Terrace. How often do you guys perform there? How did that gig come about?
HF: We play there a lot and we play five sets every night that we play there, so it’s grueling but it’s really fun. I love Disneyland. I feel like it’s my second home almost. I have a pass, I go there a lot and to play there is like combining two things that you love. We went through a pretty long audition process to get there. They work differently than most venues because they base their whole [process] on performance and the way that your show is, whereas places like Chain Reaction, House of Blues and all other venues base it on crowd draw and how much money you can bring in. But they’re about how the show is. You have to go through a lot and you learn a lot. It’s awesome and we love it.
CO: You’ve toured around a few cities across the country. What has been your favorite venue to play?
HF: I’ve got to say Disneyland. I love it there. It’s really fun because the lighting and sound guys get really creative with everything. They’re top notch … To have everyone in sync with each other really makes the show. I could care less if I mess up, but everyone seems to love what they’re doing there and it really helps us as performers with the vibe and the atmosphere.
CO: You’ve recently been performing new songs, but do you have anything recorded yet for a new album?
HF: No, but we did those songs with Andy Johns over the summer, but that was more of an experience type of thing. We hope to be able to use those recordings in some way. This EP, we haven’t started recording yet. It might turn into a full-length album for all we know. We start recording in March of 2010. We’re really gearing up right now and writing even more. We’ve been writing a bunch since the end of summer. But now, our producer said, ‘You guys are on a roll. Keep going.’ It seems like we’re finding a sound that takes all of our influences and combines them even more than the songs that we had done before on our last CD that we did at our house. We’re still riding that writing wave and seeing where it takes us until the time actually comes for us to start recording.
CO: What inspires you when writing lyrics?
HF: It’s different every time. [Usually] you just start writing the first thing that comes to your mind and you have that melody playing in your head. Some of it doesn’t make any sense at all, but if you look back on it, you can make sense of it when you dissect it. Of course, some of it is bolded up a little bit more so an audience can understand it. Sometimes there are those moments, which have been happening a lot more frequently for me, where my mind is running, but I don’t know exactly what the content is, so you just got to lay it down.
CO: Is there any sort of overriding theme for you?
HF: I like trying to make a metaphor that’s encompassed within the whole text. I like doing that, where I can be talking about something else and it symbolizes something else. I wish I were a literary scholar to tell you the term right off the top of my head, but I can’t remember what it’s called when you do that. There’s not really much of an overlying theme, but I like doing that a lot and that pops up a lot for me.
CO: Do you have any plans for an upcoming tour?
HF: We won’t know if anything is set in stone until the album is done, which should hopefully be by summer. That’s when the ball will get rolling, hopefully, but only time can tell. In the meantime, we’ll keep doing shows at Disneyland, House of Blues and here in the area. We love playing for the people.
