Biography
Hot Lava Monster is a rock band that defines itself as one of the most hard working in the southeast. The soaring vocals of Patrick Baxley and the unbridled guitar work of Mike Schaming have been destroying stages across the south for over 4 years. The band continues to push their touring boundaries and are gaining numerous fans as the miles continue to rack up on their 1991 Chevy Van.
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"The hero, instead of conquering or conciliating the power of the threshold, is swallowed into the unknown, and would appear to have died. …This Popular motif gives emphasis to the lesson that the passage of the threshold is a form of self-annihilation. … (I)nstead of passing outward, beyond the confines of the visible world, the hero goes inward, to be born again."
— Excerpt from “The Belly of the Whale,” Part One, Chapter I, Section 5 of Joseph Campbell’s Hero With A Thousand Faces
“This is our first album,” says Hot Lava Monster lead singer and lyricist Patrick Baxley of The Belly of the Whale as he and the band sit on the patio of a local Mexican restaurant in their home base of Columbia, S.C. “It’s the first album where it’s been us four, so for me, it’s our first album. I don’t want to rehash old history or lineup changes or any of that. This is the rebirth of Hot Lava Monster.”
You can forgive Pat and the rest of the band – co-founder and guitarist Mike Schaming, bassist Wes Pellerin and drummer Andy Dumiak – for being eager to dismiss their past local successes so readily after the past 18 months together. It’s been a time marked by moments of great unease, doubt and heartbreak, but also of healing and growth. They truly have been through “the belly of the whale.”
“I think I might’ve read that years ago in school, or heard it,” Patrick says of Hero (see bottom right). “But I was thinking more of Jonah in the Bible – same thing, y’know? Anyway, ‘the belly of the whale’ is a lyric in one of the songs (“House of Cards”) on the album. And yeah, it’s about hiding from your destiny for that moment, shying away from it, but really you’re just steeling yourself before heading toward it, because it’s inescapable in the end.”
The band agrees that it’s a pervasive theme throughout the album. “It’s all about building tension,” Andy says, “and then releasing it. A lot of the songs are really anthemic, and we definitely had that in mind as we wrote and recorded the album.”
“There was definitely more of a theatric approach to this album, more bombastic,” Mike says. “There’s an old-school spirit that’s been kind of lost in the slick production you see today, and we really wanted to capture that in every song.”
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The band felt plenty of tension in the summer of ’06 as they prepared to record what would become The Belly of the Whale – though not about recording. The band itself was solid as ever, but other concerns weighed heavily on the band – financial, professional, and familial.
Chief among these was the health of Andy’s wife as she bravely battled cancer – a battle that she ultimately lost in early 2007. “When I was first approached to join this band, and later, when we decided to record, I wasn’t sure if I should,” Andy recalls. “But she gave her blessing.
“She was incredibly supportive and adamant that her illness shouldn’t stop either of us from pursuing our dreams. And I’m so thankful for that, because being a part of this band has been a blessing. It’s been cathartic. It still is.”
“The album grew out of escaping into something positive,” Mike says of the atmosphere that prevailed as the band recorded at Atlanta’s Sonica Studios with producer John Briglevich (Sevendust, Goo Goo Dolls). “We tried to draw strength from each other – emotionally and musically.
“John let us roam around the studio all summer while we worked it out. Pat was still writing lyrics, and I was still working out guitar parts. A lot of stuff came together in the studio.”
“John just pushed us and pushed us,” adds Andy. “He knew how to get the best out of us with each performance.”
This is readily apparent throughout the album on soaring anthems like “Battle Hymn,” more muted numbers like “House of Cards,” and those tracks like “Bareknuckle Theater” that simmer slowly only to boil over suddenly.
The album’s standout track, “Blister,” has elements of all three types. “It’s about secret relationships,” Patrick says, “the ones that seem only to exist when you’re drunk at 3 in the morning, and then cease to exist in the light of day.”
Patrick sits back for a moment and ponders that thought. “Pretty much every song on the record was about that,” he says with a laugh before adding, “Not really, but all of these songs came from a certain time and place, and they each capture a part of what we went through as we made this album.”
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Since the self-release of The Belly of the Whale in October 2006, the band’s efforts have paid off in spades across the board, as the album has enjoyed strong regional sales, airplay on an ever-widening network of radio stations across the nation and opening spots for Three Days, Shinedown and Buckcherry. And even greater recognition of the band may be just around the corner, thanks to Billboard.
The national music trade magazine will feature the band performing acoustically as part of its Underground online video series at billboard.com this July, and has scheduled the band for a possible showcase performance before an audience brimming with major label reps in New York in the fall.
But despite the prospect of “going national,” Hot Lava Monster’s goals are much more modest.
“We just want to be able to make music for a living,” Patrick says. “That’s all. If signing with a label allows that to happen, great, but it’s just a means to an end.”
“Exactly,” Mike concurs, “Just to be able to do it more, and to keep making records.”
Instrumentation
Patrick Baxley- Vocals
Mike Schaming- Guitar
Wes Pellerin- Bass
Andy Dumiak- Drums
Discography
Discography:
"Hot Lava Monster Live" - 2009
Atlantis Music Conference Sampler-2008
"The Belly of a Whale" 2007
Atlantis Music Conference Sampler-2005
"The Way of the Dinosaur" 2004, EP
Atlantis Music Conference Sampler- 2003
"firstbreathofwater" 2001
• Selected as a showcasing artist at Atlantis Music Conference 2008. Also appeared on the official artist compilation.
• Selected by Billboard Magazine to be featured on their website's Billboard Underground video series. The piece was filmed in Billboard's offices in New York in the summer of 2007.
• The Belly of a Whale was #2 Most Sold at Manifest Discs (Columbia, SC) the week it was released. It moved to #3 in the second week.
• “Blister,” the band’s first single, received an abundance of airplay across the country. It was also added to rotation on WARQ 93.5 in Columbia, SC.
• “Blister” was featured in the Top Five at Five on WARQ 93.5 during the first week of March.
• The Belly of a Whale was selected to be added to PumpAudio's, HumanFactor's and Audiosocket's library of potentially licensed material.
Radio:
WARQ - Columbia, SC
WAVF - Charleston, SC
WKZQ - Myrtle Beach, SC
WUSC - Columbia, SC
KACV - Amarillo, TX
KSWI - Atlantic, IA
WQXA - York, PA
WKGB - Binghamton, NY
KTCL - Denver, CO
and more!
Retail:
iTunes
eMusic
Rhapsody
Sony Connect
Music Net
Napster
Manifest Discs (Columbia, SC)
Sounds Familiar (Columbia, SC)
Monster Music (Charleston, SC)
Discography:
"The Belly of a Whale" 2006, LP
Atlantis Music Conference Sampler-2005
"The Way of the Dinosaur" 2004, EP
Atlantis Music Conference Sampler- 2003
"firstbreathofwater" 2001, LP
Breakneck Punk Rock Comp- 2000,
Breakneck Punk Rock Comp #2, Uniting Them Asses- 2002
Sin in the City, A Columbia Rock Sampler- 2003
Free Times Colossal Music Crawl Comp- 2003
Step Out Of The Line Comp #1- 2003
The Jam Room Comp #2- 2002
The Jam Room Christmas Comp- 2001
The Jam Room Christmas Comp- 2003
Links
| http://hotlavarock.com |