New England Music Award Nominees Mellow Bravo

Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal

The New England Music Awards took place Friday and Saturday, February 21st and 22nd, 2014, at Umass Lowell Inn & Conference Center and The Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, Mass. Our City Radio is proud to be sponsoring the event. We interviewed guitarist Seager Tennis to get a little slice of the inner workings of this Boston band.

Mellow Bravo

What does Mellow Bravo sound like? “Crazy, fun, loud party rock, dual lead guitars. Crazy live show,” says guitarist Seager Tennis. The band has male and female lead vocals, and a “loud rhythm section.” Seager didn’t have a pick for a favorite Mellow Bravo song to play live. “Impossible to choose. Anytime we get up there and play our butts off and the crowd goes nuts. There is nothing better.”

“We’re just a loud, wild, fun Rock ‘n’ Roll band/show, like it is supposed to be. Put away your iPhone and pick up a guitar, kiddos!”

New England Music Awards

The band is nominated for best hard rock/heavy metal act. They are deeply honored by the recognition, or to put it differently, pretty stoked to be on the ballot. “Any time you get any sort of recognition or appreciation for the work you do, it is a true honor,” Seager says. “We spend a lot of time and effort writing material, designing merch, putting together and promoting awesome shows, driving to venues, recording, etc. When someone digs it, that makes us very happy!” Mellow Bravo has a lot of love for the local music scene. “The music scene around Boston and New England seems to be one of the most passionate, largest, and most genuine and developed ones in the USA. A lot of places are like “cities du jour” to move to and try and make it or whatever, but here at home everyone knows each other and we have all been around in different bands forever for the most part. It’s really cool like that. The fans, venues, promoters, labels, etc., etc., etc., are just amazingly supportive and awesome. We would never leave.”

Mellow Bravo History

Mellow Bravo has had a few years to hone their sound. “I believe Mellow Bravo started playing shows in late summer/ fall of 2009,” says Seager, when asked how long the band has been together. “So around 4-5 years, I guess.” The band inherited its name from an earlier project. “Our lead singer, Keith Pierce, came up with the name Mellow Bravo years ago as a solo project, and when the band got filled out, the name came along with him. It is really hard to come up with a good sounding and unique name for your band that is not already taken, and we liked the sound of it. So we kept it.”

Influences

The band has a solid rock musical family tree, so to speak. “I can’t speak for everyone in the band,” Seager says. “But I know that as a unit we all love older stuff like Led Zeppelin, The J. Geils Band, Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, Van Halen, The Allman Brothers, AC/DC, and Jimi Hendrix, and then newer stuff like Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters. Anything that keeps rock ‘n’ roll alive is fine by us.”

Looking Ahead

Mellow Bravo stays pretty busy. “We just put out a free EP in September called Ripper. We are currently writing material for our third full-length release, and we hope to get it out in 2014 somehow.” The band’s game plan is pretty straightforward. “We are just going to keep trying to write the best songs we can at any given time, and hopefully we can get some new fans to join up with our old ones and keep it growing. And take over the known rock n’roll universe.” Mellow Bravo can be found in all the usual places online. Check out their albums Ripper and Strut on bandcamp, visit their official site here, or follow them on facebook, twitter or tumblr.