By: Craig Claro
We reached out to totally cool and down-to-earth New Medicine to talk about their new release Jake Rose, Matt Brady, Dan Garland, Ryan Guanzon responded and it went like this:
Cage Riot: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us!
For your latest release “Life Like This” the lyrics say:
“Give me parties every night
Broken bones and borrowed fights
Living hard is living right
All I wanna do tonight
I just wanna live a little life like this”
Ok- so most actors stay within their comfort zone and their behavior in life is literally similar to their roles (think Iron Man and Robert Downey Jr - you know he must wear that suit at home, maybe even breakfast!! lol) Anyway our question is - is this about anyone in the band? Like as a whole do you guys live like this at home and are nuts all the time- or maybe you can turn it on and off? I had a friend who was at work labeled “by the book”, and then when he stepped into a bar he was either the life of the party - or thrown out - but he was crazy. You know….my “friend”….
Annnyyyyyyywaaaayyyy. Are you guys crazy or what?
New Medicine: I definitely have a big appetite for life I’d say :) When we are on the road and most of all when we are on stage we definitely leave it all out there. That’s what our music is all about, balls to the walls feeling. I would say as a band, we usually are the life of the party on the road.
CR: Nice!
CR: This song gives me BIG anthem vibes that will bring the crowd to their feet. It’s got a “Shot Through the Heart” energy. Have you had the chance to play this one live? I would love to be there the first time if you haven't already -it's gonna be nuts.
NM: We played an early version of this live at the tail end of our touring before we took a hiatus, it was not released but fans LOVED it. Can’t wait to play it live again whenever that is. Not a matter of if, just when.
CR: “ “ (me thinking how to score tickets to the next show)
CR: Jake, we see you currently live in Nashville. We have lived there on and off when COVID shut everything down. We have seen that place get crazy, even during a pandemic. Do you find the atmosphere is more party life or more work-life for you since it’s known as the Music City? What venues have you guys played in Nashville?
NM: Sometimes I refer to Nashville as a drinking town with a music problem! Ha! I love it here. Working in music there’s always a party just around the corner or better yet you can party while you work. One of our first big gigs here was with The Used we played at Cannary Ballroom this would have been about 2009. There was another band playing upstairs at Mercy Lounge and Taylor Swift showed up to watch, as you can imagine everyone ran outside to catch her getting in her car and leaving. That was a memorable one. We’ve played Marathon Music Works, Exit In, I’ve been able to play a ton of places as a songwriter like the Listening Room and Bluebird and 3rd and Lindsley. Always an honor to play in music city.
CR: Anyone who hasn’t been to Nashville is totally missing out. These venues you mention are the real places to go.
OMG, you have a story of how everyone LEAVING your show is the epic moment, this is fucking hilarious! Shame on her for not doing a duet with you!! (jk we know she could not stay and I have loved Taylor since the beginning.)
CR: Can you tell us another story that would make us laugh or go, “oh shit no way”, about any venue you guys have played at? (If not a venue and you guys stir shit up in alleys (bowling or street, doesn’t matter) we wanna hear that too).
NM: On our first tour in a bus right after getting a record deal, our first single was at radio, we were opening up for Disturbed on a huge sold out amphitheater tour and our agent had booked someone off “headline” shows in between the Disturbed dates. It was Airbourne, New Medicine & Hail The Villain. All new bands at the time with our first singles on the radio. We showed up in 2 huge tour buses, bands and crew to a small club in Little Rock called Juanitas I believe. The promoter told us we had sold 7 tickets total HA! He said if you’d rather just not play that’s okay. This brought us back down to reality real quick. Later on in our career we actually did headline Little Rock and did well but we all kind of laughed at the moment. There were plenty of rock n roll moments on tour, broken bones and bar fights, that lyric rings true.
CR: Ok so we know everyone always has a favorite song - wait hold on that thought - please can you as a band promise you will never “disown” or flat out bash your music? - BONO said he hates most of his music now. WTF IS THAT!?!? Sorry BONO…. you can’t be iconic and groundbreaking and political and controversial for… decades… and then just say on a whim - nah, we suck. If WE still like the music and our experiences - let the fans be. All it does is make me mad that you made (or took away another bands chance at) so much money and fame and now I feel scammed!!!! It’s like an old girlfriend saying “when I look back sex with you was miserable”. PLEASE DON'T!!! LET US LIVE A LIE!!!!!
Anyway - back from my insane rant - what’s your favorite song(s) to perform?
NM: One of my favorites to play is “Rich Kids”. I love the guitar riff and I start the song with it. When the band kicks in the whole crowd just goes nuts and bouncing off the walls. I also love playing “Desire Into Gold”. I just sing on that one and I feel like I can just run around the stage and command the audience and I think lyrically that song is very powerful.
CR: We saw on your Instagram a pic of the House of Blues Orlando and it looks like a sardine can full of fans. What a hot pic - we can feel the drum heads breaking under Ryan’s sticks. What’s the biggest venue you guys have played in?
NM: Biggest venue would probably be The Palace in Detroit. We played there in 2011 with Avenged Sevenfold, Stonesour and Hollywood Undead. It was sold out to I think 18,000 people. I remember running the stairways trying to get a workout in and I did not make it all around that one haha! Our biggest SHOW ever was playing Rockfest in Kansas City which sold out 50,000 people. We could not see the end of the crowd. At the time we had a hit on the radio “Race You To The Bottom” and this was at the height of our success. Hope to play some more like that in the future.
CR: What’s the show that kept you guys awake for days before it happened from being so excited to be in the lineup? This could be your very first show of 5 people or after years of shows and a 5,000 person crowd. What we mean is -what was the show that was like “Ohhh Shit” we are playing (with this band or on this stage etc). The BIG one at the time?
NM: There were a couple for sure. We have been blessed to play with a ton of our heroes. The most obvious one is Avenged Sevenfold. Dan and I had bought tickets to see them in 2004 in Los Angeles while in High School still, we were looking at going to school in LA. We sat in the audience, as fate would have it, Mark McGrath from Sugar Ray was sitting right next to us and introduced himself at the show. Dan and I looked at each other and said..”We are gonna start a band and do this!” About 5 years later in 2009 we opened up for Avenged in an Arena and the guys from the band wandered in our dressing room saying how much they loved our music. Full circle moment. I’d say playing Sturgis with Korn and Queens of the Stone Age is another one. Playing Rock on the Range with Incubus another one. Opening for Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper. There’s been some incredible moments for us.
CR: This is amazing, we need a whole other interview to just talk about all this. This list of musicians are responsible for some of the best music ever made.
CR: What did Covid teach you as a band?
NM: Well, we had been on hiatus actually BUT this is when our music really started to catch on the streaming platforms mainly Spotify. Our audience grew from maybe 100K to now 700K monthly listeners. This made me come back to writing songs for New Medicine and we put out Die Trying, Fuck It, Own It and Life Like This. All these songs are doing great and it’s brought life back to the band. Before we thought it was impossible to tour and be a band without a record label. Now we see the fans have changed that for us. We are able to release music independently. We are now in talks of hitting the road again. So in a time where you couldn’t play shows, now we want to get back to playing shows more than ever and we will.
CR: I’m so glad you brought this up. This is the future of music. TRUE indie and being successful is what you are proving is totally possible!!!
CR: Did you find anything about the last 2 years of Covid that actually was a positive thing that came out of it?
NM: Just time to re-evaluate things and re-focus. Reconnect with our music and our fans.
CR: What are the plans coming soon that we the fans can learn right now? Shows? More music? Anyone learned how to juggle?
NM: More music on the way, new single called “UP” a collab with our friends in Adelitas Way, as well as a handful more new songs, looking like some type of EP or album at some point this year. Hopefully some shows towards end of summer fall maybe? It’s been tough trying to book shows right now things are up in the air at venues.
CR: Will be ready when you are!
CR: We want to say thanks to New Medicine for taking the time to listen to all this nonsense and answer our insane babble of questions in the name of Rock and Roll.
NM: HELL YES
CR: Your job as the fan is to get hyped and blast some of this on Spotify or wherever !!!
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