The New Crowns
- Awards and Nominations
- SAMMIES 2020 Nominee★ Indie ★
- SAMMIES 2020 Nominee★ Music Video “Focus” ★
- Share
Q & A
Do you have regular gigs around town?
02.20.20
Yeah! We’ve dialed back in the last few months as we gear up to release our EP Stuck, which comes out March 6th! But we’re getting back into the groove of having a few nearby shows every month.
Favorite guitar player?
02.20.20
Tim: I’m the most indecisive person in the world and it’s hard to pick favorites. I will say that Jeff Beck, John Mayer and Tom Misch have been my biggest inspirations.
Nick: As a drummer it’s hard to nail down my favorite guitar players, but people like Cory Wong and Charlie Hunter always get me inspired to play the drums. They also have a great track record of getting good drummers on tracks.
Connor: Slash brought me my interest in music and John Mayer inspired me to start playing guitar. Blues greats such as SRV, Albert King and B.B King also played a major role. Been very influenced by more modern artists like Tom Misch and Marcus King as well.
How do you describe your music to people?
02.20.20
You know, it’s always hard for us to analyze and pinpoint exactly what we are. Some of our songs are kind of throwback soulful tunes. Others rock harder or have some more R&B undertones. Some indie rock stuff. I think right now we’re moving in a more poppy indie-rock direction. We’ll see what sticks.
How do you feel about musical award competitions?
02.20.20
Tim: “I think it’s rad that there are people out there working to help recognize people for their art.
Michael: I think it’s a cool way to show your support to artists you like, and a great way to discover new ones.
Is there a central theme to your band's music?
02.20.20
Tim: Well I do write too many love songs ... maybe so.
Tell us about how you first started gigging.
02.20.20
We sort of emailed every venue in Sacramento with literally nothing to show that we were even a real band. I think we sent a pretty subpar audio recording from our first practice. Apart from our drummer at the time, none of us had ever played a gig with a band anywhere in our lives and didn’t have any friends in the music scene or any guidance at all. We ended up getting thrown on a show at Shine, walked in thinking we could plug all our guitars directly into the PA. Wound up playing through a handful of 15 watt practice amps. It was sort of bad, but we’ve been playing steadily ever since. Gotta start somewhere.
Tell us about your worst gig.
02.20.20
That would require naming names! Haha. All love.
Tell us how you first formed.
02.20.20
Tim: My brother and I have played music together forever; our parents were in bands and it was sort of the natural thing to do. We played some open mics and farmers market but never really dove in until starting this band in summer 2017. Had a different lineup, Michael (my brother) was on guitar and everything. Our bass player left after our first show and we went acoustic for a while before moving Michael to bass and bringing on Nick to play drums. After doing that for about a year plus writing and recording the EP, we brought on Connor as a second guitar to fill things out, and just recently started having Aaron Harvey on keys. That’s the quick story.
What are your musical goals?
02.20.20
To put it broadly, our goal is to take things as far as we can go. We just wanna be heard.
What was the first song you learned to play?
02.20.20
Tim: I think "Freak On A Leash" by Korn was the first song I genuinely learned in fourth grade or so. I remember playing "Smoke On The Water" over and over with just my thumb on the E string in like second grade, but I don’t think that counts.
Michael: I think the first song I learned was "Pork And Beans" by Weezer. My friend showed me how to play it on an Xbox 360 video chat in high school.
Nick: The first song I learned all the way through was probably "Fluorescent Adolescent" by The Arctic Monkeys. I’m sure I played the easiest half of a lot of AC/DC songs before that, but I think that’s one of the first song I sat down with.
Connor: The first song I remember getting down was "Your Body is a Wonderland" by John Mayer. It took me months to finally get the thumb slapping down.
What's next for the band?
02.20.20
More recording, more shows, more grinding.
What's the story behind the band name?
02.20.20
Tim: We were stumped on what to call our project for a long time, so I think one day I wrote down my and my brother’s names and figured out what words I could spell using only those letters. Came up with “The” “New” and “Crown.” So, it was going to be “The New Crown” singular, but we found out that’s a restaurant in Scotland or something, and the Instagram handle was taken. We reluctantly made it plural, but it makes way more sense that way.
What's your favorite local artist/group?
02.20.20
The Philharmonik, Basi Vibe, Vista Kicks, Amber DeLarosa, Roland Tonies, JMsey, Nate Curry, Harlequin Rose, A Tribe Quartet.. There are too many to name but these are all our dope friends that come to mind.
When did you play your first gig in Sac?
02.20.20
September 2017 with our first lineup. Then went acoustic until April 2018 when we brought on Nick.
Where do you see yourself in ten years?
02.20.20
Doing exactly what we’re doing now on a much larger scale.
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