Getting to know Bonaventure: EP Review & Interview
When I get new music to listen to, normally I throw it on while I do other work; but when given the 4 shiny new songs from Bonaventure, I turned off everything around me, closed my eyes, and listened to the lyrics. Within those four songs, I was able to hear what I would expect from a live stage performance. At a live performance, I get to see the emotion pour out of an artist; and, with my camera, capture moments in which you can see the real reason, be it good or bad, why that artist plays his or her song. With their EP, Come Hell or High Water, Bonaventure managed to put all those emotions and captured moments into the songs that came pouring out the speakers of my computer. After reading some more information on the band, I learned that this project was almost two years in the making; and driven by the lyrics, rather than the pressure to get music out.
The EP starts out with ‘Gaining Speed’, which immediately gripped hold of me with its guitar & drum intro. The lyrics ‘sometimes I wonder just what I’m searching for’ not only begin the song, but also begin the album, which I personally find to be about discovery, dealing with the bad, and celebrating the good. This song has constantly been stuck in my head the past few weeks and has quickly become a favorite. Second on the EP is the radio ready ‘I Dare You.’ This song has the most prevalent rock feel and is perfect for mainstream radio. The EP then slows down a bit with ‘Running with Nothing’ and ‘Come Hell or Highwater.’ Both are emotional and have a bit of a country rock feel. The bonus track, available on the physical copy of the EP, is ‘These Shoes,’ the first song that was released back in November. The music video for the song was shot entirely on an iPhone, giving fans an inside look at the band. Come Hell or High Water is one of the best collections of music I have heard in awhile; although, I feel like each new album I listen to is better than the last!
I had the opportunity to chat with Dan Smeyrs, one half of the two man band, and what could have been a twenty-minute call
ended up being an hour and twenty minutes long. What you can read below is the product of not just an interview, but a conversation. When members of a band are willing to take an hour out of their day to talk to someone about the music they make and why they make it, it’s enough for me to know that they truly care about this project. Although money is necessary to live, the guys of Bonaventure are truly in this to make the music that they want to make and get the message out that they want heard.Dan stressed the fact that they want to get to know you, the fan, because you are what mean the most. Both guys take the time to write back on Twitter and Facebook and if you buy a copy of their EP through the website, not only do you receive the bonus track, but you also get a personalized note and a signed copy of the album. Think I’m lying? Go look at their twitter or ask one of their fans; there are photos of the albums everywhere and the guys spend hours at the post office sending out each personalized package.
Not to discredit any other bands out there that may or may not go just as far for their fans, but when you get music this special from guys this grounded, it’s something that anyone with a passion for music, no matter what genre you say you like, should check out and support.
Arin: What got you guys together in general? How did you meet and start working on this project?
Dan: So for Bonaventure, both Andy and I were playing in bands previously and touring for years and years and had some success and things were cool, but those bands sort of fizzled out. We were both doing our own things in music, touring with other bands in between our past projects and [Bonaventure], and writing, and producing, and whatever else; and throughout the time that we were playing in our old bands, we had a bunch of friends that were like, ‘yo you guys should meet.’ Whatever, whether it be to tour together, whether it be to write or to hang out and we never actually did meet.
I was on tour with a friend’s band and we were in Florida. Andy was in Florida as well, visiting a friend in Jacksonville, and we actually got to meet. My one friend in New York City was like, ‘I think Andy’s at this show, you should go say what’s up to him,’ and so I was like, ‘alright cool.’ So, I went and said, ‘what’s up’ to him and we just hung out the rest of the night. We went back to the bus after the show and he was like, ‘you gotta check out some of these songs,’ and I was like, ‘you gotta check out some of my songs,’ and we just started playing each other demos that we’d been working on; and we were like, you know what, this is like the exact same stuff. We’re both tryin’ to make music that sounds like our influences, that 90s stuff with that alt country kind of feel to it, so why don’t we join forces instead of trying to do it separately.
Then, we went our separate ways; and the beauty of email and iChat and everything else allowed us to just communicate, and bounce the songs back and forth, and refine the songs that we had been working on by ourselves, over the internet. For the next couple of months, we got them together; and then, Andy came to visit Pittsburgh and I went to visit Atlanta, and we just crafted the songs that actually would become the EP. It was cool. It was a lot of electronic communication at first, but I think it came together pretty well and we’re excited about it.
A: What got you interested in playing music to begin with?
D: I got a guitar in sixth grade and I loved bands. I loved music; I listened to everything in the 90s. I had a lot of cassettes; I had all the 90s stuff like Third Eye Blind, Semisonic, Eagle-Eye Cherry, Goo Goo Dolls, Matchbox 20, Michael Jackson. I had like all of those things on cassette, and I would just sit around and listen to those all day.
I’d get in my parents car to go to wherever and I’d pop the cassette in; I would always want to be in charge of music. So I got into that, and then I started getting into CDs. My first CD was No Doubt’s ‘Tragic Kingdom’ and I started buying so many CD’s. And then I was like, ‘you know, I can do this,’ and so I sort of wanted to do it; and I wanted to buy an electric guitar, but my parents were like, ‘no way, you’re not getting an electric guitar; you can get an acoustic.’
So I fought them for a long time about that; but, to this day, I thank my parents ever day that I learned on acoustic first because, honestly, the amount of time I play acoustic guitar versus the amount of time I play electric is just absurd. I’m always on my acoustic guitar; I have my acoustic guitar in my car all the time. Like if I go to a party, I usually bust it out. If I’m at a friends house, I usually bust it out; so I’m really thankful that I started on acoustic guitar instead of electric guitar. Love playing electric [and] love playing in bands, but we write all of our music on acoustic and I basically just got that guitar and just played on it for hours and hours and hours every day.
From there, I started learning Dashboard Confessional covers and everything else, like I said playing at parties, trying to serenade girls, and compete with the guys on the football team and stuff. I did that for a long time and eventually started playing in bands and playing in high school talent shows. I just couldn’t get enough of it; that’s all I wanted to do. I made my parents take me to concerts every night, made them take me to band practice. You know, my school work slacked a little bit, but that’s all I wanted to do. And all through high school, I was playing, and touring, and doing that thing; and I couldn’t get it out of my system. So it all started with getting that acoustic guitar in sixth grade, and here I am today still strummin’ on it. I was actually just home in Pittsburgh, where I’m from, and I was playing on that first guitar I got; so it was pretty cool.
A: What was your first concert?
D: The first concert I went to was Dave Matthews Band; they played at a place called Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. I love Dave Matthews; I think I went to the show in sixth grade. I mean, I may have went to concerts growing up with my parents or something like that, but the first concert that I actually asked my parents to buy tickets for and take me to and really got excited about was Dave Matthews Band with special guest Ben Harper. It was at Three Rivers Stadium, the old football and baseball stadium in Pittsburgh, and I absolutely went insane for it.
It was raining at the show, but I still had the best time ever. I was there with my parents, I smelled some things that I had never smelled before that were floating around the air [laughs]. They didn’t quite explain it to me at the time, but it was just great, it was awesome. The musicianship of that band still to this day is just incredible. A lot of people just make fun of them or whatever, but so talented, such good songwriting. It was awesome; it inspired me to become a better acoustic guitar player. I still don’t hold a candle to Dave Matthews, but it’s cool to strive to be like that.
The first club show I ever went to was Puddle of Mudd. This was in seventh grade, with special guest Trust Company, who was at the time called 41 Down, and a band called 30 Seconds To Mars. That was cool; I got pictures with Jared Leto and stuff and I later went on to meet him recently and it was cool to see it all come full circle. Well, I hung out with him recently and I met him in seventh grade.
A: Why did you decide to make this project so lyric and song driven?
D: There are a lot of bands these days that just don’t really focus on the song or the lyric. The previous bands we were in we tried to do it as much as we could, but we sort of fell into the trap of a lot of bands in the whole scene that write a record as quickly as they can; they’re going to have twelve songs on the record so they only write twelve and then they’re like, ‘cool, lets start touring’ or ‘lets get out there on Warped Tour and do this’ or ‘get out there any play as much as possible.’ First of all, we lost a lot of money doing that. We were out there playing for the bartender and the door guy. And trying to bring a band out with a van and trailer and gas prices and stuff is just crazy.
It seems like the scene just became over-saturated with a lot of bands who just didn’t really spend a lot of time working on their songs; and not to cut up on other bands or anything, but we fell into the trap too and we just, with this, we’re a little older now and a lot of times you only get one shot at this thing, so you put out a record and that’s what people know you for. And we figure we have all the time in the world to spend writing a song or working on a song before we go live with it and that’s why this band took a while to get together. You know, we’ve been working on these songs for a couple of years now and finally they’re just seeing the light of day, but we wanna touch people with the songs and really move people because that’s one thing about living in Nashville, you see some incredible songwriters and even with the country music stuff, everything is so well thought out.
All those songs, like for example, Kenny Chesney’s ‘I Go Back,’ I mean that song like instilled a sense of nostalgia in me. When I hear it, I’m just thinking some of the lyrics, they just take me there. They take me back to high school, or whenever I was feeling a certain emotion; and I want to be able to have that effect on somebody. I wanna be able to have somebody hear my song and just be moved by it and feel something and think about a certain time in their life, whether it was a sad time or a happy time. Just to be able to move somebody with a song is a really special thing, so I think that’s why we focus so much energy and time on crafting lyrics and, obviously, the melodies. I want people to take something away from the songs, rather than just hitting the next track on their iPod. I want there to be some substance and, with this band, we’re really focusing on that; that’s why we’ve only put out four or five songs at this point. We’re just trying to make every song we put out there the best it can possibly be. We’re working hard on it, so I hope it’s having an effect on some people because that’s our intention.
A: Of the songs, which is the most personal for you?
D: For me, I would have to say, that’s a tough call, I play them a lot, and I would have to say, ‘Running With Nothing.’ Even above the lyrics, I think just the melodies and stuff — there’s just an inherent sense of desperation to the song and the lyrics like, ‘let it go, let it pass, find the strength to not come back,’ like I don’t know, I just think there’s that sense of desperation and longing in the song and it’s got a feel almost like Goo Goo Dolls ‘Iris’, which is by the way my favorite song of all time. When I heard that for the first time on the City of Angels soundtrack or something I was just — your heart almost drops. You feel like a sense of longing and loneliness and, I don’t know, I think lyrically, musically, and melodically, I think ‘Running With Nothing’ just does that for me. Every time we play it, I still get that same sense of feeling, like, I still feel all the lyrics that we wrote and, I don’t know, I think that song is the most personal to me. Andy would probably have to say ‘Come Hell or Highwater’ is the most personal to him because that song — lyrics are drawn from some of his personal experiences.
A: What comes next for the band?
D: Ok, so next we actually have like thirty songs written already for our full length. I can’t even describe these songs, like I’m so stoked about them. I mean, we’ve been slaving over them just as long we’ve been working on the EP and they’re incredible. We’re still writing; we have sessions almost every day here in Nashville, just trying to write like a hundred songs for the full length and narrow it down and make the best possible record we can. With this full length, this is going to be our big shot, you know? You only get one big opportunity; this one’s going to be the one that people see and people remember. The EP is like ‘great, it’s awesome,’ but it was our first thing that we put out and we’re kind of doing it on our own. Everything is grassroots and underground; but with the full length we’re going to try and push it as hard as we possibly can, so we wanna make sure it’s right. We’re taking our time writing this one and making sure it’s absolutely the best it can be to our capabilities.
We’re going to get that done, but for now like I said we are writing every day and in the studio demoing and we’re gonna be hitting the road soon. We’re working on some tours, getting out there, we just played some shows in the northeast around our CD release and we’re just trying to play out as much as we can and basically just let people hear the EP, let people hear the EP songs live. Hopefully, we’ll do a couple runs this summer and fall. We’re playing with Lifehouse, Parachute, and The Cab in August in Virginia which will be cool; and I would assume we will be playing more shows around that time. So basically, just continuing writing for the full length and playing out as much as possible.
I think we’re gonna do a series of online concerts through StageIt sometime here soon, but we’re just playing live, promoting the EP, and getting ready to record the full length. Hopefully, we’ll be recording that as soon as possible because I can’t express enough how excited I am for everybody to hear those songs.
A: How did you come up with the band name, because I heard it had to do with a street sign?
D: The name is basically, well, Andy lived in downtown Atlanta before we moved to Nashville and — this is me putting words in his mouth right now — basically, whenever he was working on songs or whatever else, [he] would just take walks around the block and clear his head. Everyday, he would walk past Bonaventure, the street sign, and I guess he always just kept coming back to it; and when it came time to look for a band name, he was still living in Atlanta and we were talking and bouncing stuff off of each other and he kept bringing that up and I was like, ‘you know that’s really cool, that’s fresh, that’s new.’ I think it’s cool. It’s a bit of a different word; it has a different story, I guess, and we just decided to go with it.
Coming up with a band name is always like the hardest part of the equation, but it seemed to stick and people seem to like it and it looks cool when we have it written out by our friend Patrick Tracy who does all our branding and logo stuff. I’m stoked on it; I think it’s a cool name. Once people understand how to pronounce it, I think they think it’s a cool name too.
A: The EP has had great reception so far, so what is it like to see that happening so quickly?
D: It’s extremely flattering and awesome. It’s like, we’re really proud of the songs and we’re proud of everything we’ve worked on and we’ve kept it under wraps for the last couple years and now its finally alive and it’s really blowing us away how quickly people are latching onto it. Like I said, we’re super proud of it, but you never expect it to take off or people to love it as much as you do. It’s crazy, we released ‘These Shoes;’ we just kinda put out that video, didn’t really have any buzz behind it. We just kind of put it out there and let people catch onto it themselves and the response has been great on it so far. Then, we put out a short film kind of thing which basically introduced the band and we told a story and had some cool visuals and had some clips of the songs and we got like two thousand views — and these numbers aren’t crazy compared to the big, major label artists, but for us, you just feel really good and it was kind of cool to see.
One day, we had two thousand views and then the second day, it was out it got like thirty thousand more views or something like that and it was just crazy to see that. I saw it honestly, on my Facebook — almost everyone of my friends from high school was sharing it on their wall — and it felt really, really good to see that kind of stuff happening. I can’t really describe the feeling of it; it felt incredible to see people rallying behind our band.
We’re doing something that’s a little different than a lot of bands are these days. We’re trying to make rock music and every record label says ‘nothing with a guitar can make it on the top 40 anymore’ and that’s not important to us. If it gets on the top 40, it gets on the top 40; but for us, we want to make something real and just make something that people can connect to. To see that happening in real life, and you can really monitor that these days with social networks; you can see kids tweeting us, retweeting our links or posting on their Facebook. It’s just like, it feels good to see people get behind something that’s not as superficial and business oriented like a lot of the pop stuff these days. It’s cool to see people get behind real music with guitars and honest songs that aren’t tailored up just to fit the mold of the current radio format.
It feels incredible; it’s awesome to see people get behind that and really support us. We can’t thank the fans enough; I’m just like speechless.
A: Both you and Andy seem to be very involved with talking to fans through social media, so what is the best way for someone to reach out to you through Twitter or Facebook and how much does social media play a role in the project?
D: Honestly, it’s all we do with our entire day. Well, we write songs for a couple hours a day and record; but the majority of our day, way more time then we spend sleeping, is sitting on our social networks. We follow a lot of people on Twitter because we try and follow everybody back who follows us on Twitter. People are always like, ‘you guys have a lot of followers, but you’re also following a lot of people.’ Well, I don’t really care about that. I just care about the satisfaction that a fan gets when we follow them back. The kids go crazy for it; and I think back to whenever I was like a fan of Taking Back Sunday or something when I was in middle school, and if a band would have hit me up or wrote me on the internet or followed me or something, I would have went crazy for it and I wanna be able to create that sensation for somebody. They follow us on Twitter and by following them back, if it puts a smile on their face for an hour, that’s perfect; we accomplished something there and social networks are a great way.
I think the gap between the fans and the artist these days is so small and a lot of people complain about it and say it’s too hard to keep up with all the fans and stuff and I think that’s crazy. I mean, you do have to spend a little more time communicating with your fans, but I absolutely love that. If you’re in touch with your fans, it’s going to help you to be in touch with yourself; and if you know what your fans like musically, I just think it inspires you to make music for your fans. If we know that our fans love the EP, it just inspires us to be like, ‘ok we need to make the full length this much better, we need to spend time and really dig deep into our souls and write the best possible stuff we can.’ I think social networks really allow you to be in touch with your fans and a lot of bands, some of our best friends are in the band All Time Low, and those dudes get it right. I toured with them for a while and they honestly talk to every single fan after every show and it’s really cool and that definitely means something. If you can have that kind of bond with your fans, they’re not going to turn their back on you when times get tough.
A lot of bands whose success is solely built on a radio hit, its like, if the second record doesn’t have a radio single, you’re not gonna be able to draw any people anymore. If you can create a friendship with every one of your fans, they’re never gonna turn their back on you; and when you need them the most, like whenever you’re trying to promote a new record or spread the word, they’re gonna have your back to help you out and I think that’s why we spend so much time. We’ll do Q&A’s on our Twitter; we’ll do stuff on Facebook, or a contest, or following our fans back on Twitter. I try to add everybody who likes our page on Facebook from my personal account, because I mean what’s privacy anymore? I don’t need privacy. I’d rather make friends with everybody who supports my band because they deserve my friendship; like if you’re gonna support my band, you better be ready to be my friend. That’s kind of our thing; we wanna minimize that gap and have an open two-way connection with all of our fans. We don’t wanna stand on a soapbox and preach to them. We wanna hear what they have to say and I want it to be a two way street with Bonaventure and the world.
A: Everyone wants their music to get as big as it can, but what specific goals do you have with this project?
D: Within the next six months, we want to tour the United States and play as many places as we can. We’ve played the east coast and the northeast a good bit, but we’d love to get out to the west and play Arizona and California and everything else. I think, within the next six months, I think it’s pretty feasible to say that we’ll be able to get out there and tour in the states, play some shows, meet a lot of people and, hopefully, just spread the word about the EP. I would say within the next year we’d like to put out the full length record. Well, we probably won’t put out the full length record, but we’d like to start recording it. We just have so many songs that we’re sitting on and I’m just itchin’ for the world to hear them and to get them recorded for real. We’d like to start working on the full length and also do some overseas stuff. We’ve gotten a lot of good response from Europe and especially the UK and it’d be really cool to get over there and play for those folks because they’ve spent a lot of time supporting us and buying our record; so I’d love to get over there and meet a lot of people and see what that’s all about. So six months tour in the states, [a] year start working on the full length and get overseas. It’s gonna be busy, but I love it.
A: This is super open ended, but what does music mean to you?
D: Music. I tweeted the other night, ‘music over everything’ and it got so many retweets; it was like the most retweeted thing I’ve ever posted and I truly meant it. I don’t know if people retweeting it meant it, but it’s seriously like everything to me. From the time I wake up to the time I go to bed. I wake up and my guitar is right next to me and I start playing it, or I put on my iPod and go for a run and then listen to something. I have the biggest collection of music of all time, especially on my computer and my hard drive. Seriously like everything, it’s my entire day. I wake up [and] listen to music. I’m listening to it throughout the day, whenever we’re sitting here promoting on the Internet or whatever we’re doing at the house and I’ll have music on. We’ll go to a writing session and be writing music, I’ll come home and listen to more music. I fall asleep to music every single night, usually like Norah Jones or something real chill; but music is seriously everything. It’s my entire day, everyday.
A: Who is your dream collaboration?
D: Dream collaboration… Dave Grohl. I would love to write a song with Dave Grohl. I just am so inspired by him and Foo Fighters are my favorite band. I’d love to have Dave Grohl play drums on our record because the energy he brings, whether it be vocals, guitar, or drums, is just so unharnessed and wild and incredible. I think having that on one of our songs would just be a dream come true. If you’re reading this, Dave, let’s work together.
A: What is the longest amount of time you guys have spent working on a single song?
D: Let’s see, three. Well, for this band about two years. We have five or six ideas that started about a year and a half to two years ago that aren’t done yet, but I promise you will be finished and will be the best we can make them by the time we are ready to record our full length. We’ve been working on them this long and we haven’t gotten sick of them, whether it be just a chorus or a verse, it takes… Some songs are a process. Some songs we knockout in five minutes, but some songs… You can’t fight it; if it’s not coming to you right away, you gotta just hold on it because to finish something that’s not completely done or not giving it your best effort is not doing the song justice. We have tunes out there that we started right when we met that aren’t finished yet and I have them on my iPhone in my voice memos. So they’re in there, they’re still in the works. When all is said and done, it will have been like a three-year writing process.
A: Are there any causes/charities or non-profits that you guys want to get involved with or that you support?
D: For me personally — and I’ve always said this — if I am ever in power to move somebody or I’m in a position to make a change, I think supporting children’s cancer research and funding is like one of the most important things that anybody with money or power can do. If I ever have the opportunity or if my band ever takes off, I’d love to everyday or every chance I could get, go in with an acoustic guitar and play for kids who are suffering from cancer or in the hospital or unable to get out and live the life of a normal kid or teenager. That like breaks my heart when I hear about children going through that.
I know a lot of people who have suffered with cancer and other illnesses and it’s really hard to deal with and I can’t imagine going through that. I’ve been fortunate enough that I’m blessed with good health, but I see pictures and video of kids suffering in hospitals and going through chemotherapy and it just breaks my heart to see that. To brighten somebody’s day by going into a hospital, I mean I know Tim Tebow does that like after every football game and doing something like that. The power of laughter and happiness can almost be a stronger healing factor than chemotherapy or any other medication. So, to be able to put a smile on somebody’s face, especially a child going through something as difficult as that, that would just be something. I think you can have a really positive impact on somebody’s life and to be able to go in and meet those kids and see the smiling faces. Even if they’ve never heard of me or my band, if I can put a smile on their face by playing them a Katy Perry song on my guitar, I would be more than happy to spend my time doing that. It’s important to me that those kids see some sort of happiness because it is tough what they’re going through.
