Boys
Denver, Colorado, United States | SELF
Music
Press
One band to keep your eye on, though, is Boys. The name is a misnomer. The lead singer is definitely not a boy. Kyle Simmons is a razor sharp, red hot pistol who comes on strong and never surrenders. She commands the microphone like an extension of her own body, and Simmons is not afraid to wail. It’s obvious that drummer Ryan Ramirez taps out rhythms in his sleep, providing the group with so much more than just a beat keeping time, his relentless energy is a continuous driving force within the music. In an exciting change of pace, guitarist Ross Ryan is no single-string wonder; he lays down a complicated array of chords to challenge the audio pallet. Zach Newton plays an aggressive bass, infusing Boys’ sound with an insistent rage. There is something very endearing about the amplifier, older than any single musician in the group, and the patchwork of duct tape holding the whole assemblage together. It’s not money or expensive equipment that solidifies the group. Sheer talent and hard work accelerates Boys to greatness.
Continue reading on Examiner.com: Sweating Sheer Genuis - Denver bands | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/bands-in-denver/sweating-sheer-genuis#ixzz1LXyD8vp2 - Examiner.com
I feel like I'm robbing them," a friend of mine tells me at a local show. "Seeing them shouldn't be this inexpensive, or feel this intimate." Denver's full of best-kept secrets, i.e., local scumbag restaurants that serve the most amazing green chili, a seedy dive bar that has a night devoted entirely to $.75 cans of beer and really amazingly lame karaoke, an unlimited number of art galleries in an area more known for prostitution, and local bands that in no way should be kept "local."
If you attended the UMS (Underground Music Showcase) last year, you were as surprised as I of a new project. Even in an opened-up garage on Broadway in the middle of the day, Simmons' voice is still strong enough to slam your soul into the concrete wall. Boys is composed of guitarist Ross Ryan, vocalist Kyle Simmons, bassist Zach Newton, and drummer Ryan Ramirez. Ryan and Simmons began chatting after they had both parted ways with previous projects (Simmons with Speakeasy Tiger, and Ryan with Life in Electric). "I basically bugged the shit out of her for a couple weeks to get together," explains Ryan.
"I was really hesitant to jump back into another project," explains Simmons. However, apparently you can't ignore what works.
"We got together, played, and after about three or four weeks it was fairly obvious that we should pick a name and start promoting it as a band," states Ryan.
If you haven't seen them live around town, not to worry, they've been mostly writing. And with the exception of a few around town and in Boulder (they opened for Rose Hill Drive) and Fort Collins (they opened for Oh My Stars), the shows have been fairly limited. And with writing comes recording. One single, "Lion Den Boy," has been released and is up online. They've also taken a trip down to Nashville, and will take another next week. The first trip was to play for CPK Management and record two more songs, which are still to be released. Recorded at TML studios with Chuck Alkazian and co-produced by Troy Luccketta, one of the to-be-released tracks, "Uh Oh," is nothing less than what you would expect from these guys: eighties Grunge Rock with a bit of Pop beats thrown in for the time. While being picked up by Danny Nozell of CTK Management, they are heading back down to Nashville to play for Neil Warnock of the Agency Group (worked with Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, etc.).
Once back from Nashville, playing shows are a priority with a possible music video in the works, after the choice on a single is picked. These rock stars will also be heading to Fort Collins in April to play the local northern music festival, Fort Collins Music Experiment, on April 8 at the Ram Skellar, right before Give Er Hell. - Colorado Music Buzz
"One other show to anticipate this evening, which we just caught wind of last night, is one that will be of particular interest to those who've been following the whole Speakeasy Tiger saga. Kyle Simmons, the outfit's former front woman, who was recently replaced by Katrina Stone, is making her debut with her brand new band, Boys, tonight at the Import Warehouse at 7 p.m." - Westword
"when we first heard denver’s boys, we were straight up blown away" - blahblahblah science
"2011 just might be the years of Boys. After a big (and very public) blowout with a previous band and a certain amount of unease, the female-fronted rock group is catching the attention of various industry players." - Denver Post - Reverb
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
"We have choices, we make moves, we search for solitude, yet in all our decisions, we cannot deny that which we are drawn to". When Boys formed out of the Denver music scene in 2010, they began with one goal in mind, to create something of true passion and color….. to create something timeless .
In the mid day Summer heat, inside a small club amongst the Denver city streets, guitarist, Ross Ryan, saw singer, Kyle Simmons, perform for the first time. Intrigued by the female vocalist, he began to follow her musical endeavors closely over the next several months. "I always had this feeling that if I could do a project with Kyle, we would create something unique, amazing, unstoppable", says Ryan. And thats just what they have begun. Stop. Fast Forward….
There is an old saying, "when a door closes, a window opens", and in the Spring of 2010 Simmons parted ways with her previous group. Once learning about the departure, Ryan, even though already heavily emerged in a band of his own, began to pursue the singer. "There was this strange plutonic attraction I had towards Kyle. I knew in my heart there was a certain magic there. We only needed to take the chance on it. And after a few weeks of pestering her each day, I finally convinced her to meet with me. I had to stay persistent.", says Ryan. "Passion preys on people like us and we search for others that fulfill this type of living. Ross sought after me the way songwriting has my whole life. There are certain things you simply can't deny, things that are magnetic. Its tough to separate the laws of gravity", tells Simmons. The two meet, there is an immediate connection. Both driven by determination and a true love for art, they take the leap. Forces unite. Passion ignites flame.
Ryan's long time friend and musical partner, Zach Newton, was enlisted for bass duties. "Zach and I have worked together for such a long time that there is this unbreakable trust in one another. We have learned so much together musically and now we are in a prime position to truly apply it." Drummer Ryan Ramirez was soon after added as the final component to the band and Boys (a name devised by Simmons) was born.
"The name is to represent unity while at the same time being a little sarcastic" Simmons goes on to tell, "What does it mean to be strong? Is strength really more relevant to compromising your self worth and morals rather than refusing something that pushes you beyond personal boundaries? Yet our world defines strength as a masculine quality, a physical one. But isn't there also strength in unity as well? In a world that knows no gender lines, thats sees the strength of the muscle as it sees the strength of the proverbial heart".
The group began performing at clubs on the Denver circuit just a few short weeks after forming. Well received by local audiences, Boys then soon captured the interest of producer/musician Shawn Crahan (aka Clown of Slipknot) via a mutual friend and Boys began working on a handful of demos with Crahan that Fall at the Blasting Room Studios in Fort Collins, CO. "Shawn took us under his wing and really became a mentor to the band. He is such a visionary and an amazing artist. He really got us. He understood instantly what we were trying to do. Shawn very well could have been our first real fan, so to speak", says Ryan.
With the bands' solid song foundation and captivating, almost theatrical, live performance the group would win the attention of Danny Nozell at CTK Management. After several winter writing sessions and local performances, Boys has begun work on a collection of music with producers Chuck Alkazian and Troy Lukketta. Recently releasing two songs from those session, the tracks "Uh Oh" and "Gossip", with several more to on the heels.
Boys are not on a quest to be hip or to follow the current musical trends, but rather they breathe the undying need to open new doors, create magical moments, and craft ageless compositions that will resonate with in listeners far beyond radio's current offerings. The group is well aware that the necessary keys that draw people to music and hold them there are the melody and lyrics. "Its about building the emotion in the music to set the scene for what we are trying to get across within the lyrics", states bassist Zach Netwon, "All of us have been at this music game for so long, that we should all be professional doctors or lawyers by now in comparison. We understand the elements to writing great songs".
"Music should be sought after, thrived upon". Says Simmons. "It is something you will never be able to physically see, but you can feel it, you can hear it walking up on you in the distance and it preys upon you, the way it once did us in the making of it all. Our songs pursue what is well lit, they hold no failure, no weakness, and no darkness".
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