The Mahlors

Last September, the Mahlors took a big leap forward . Over the course of 2012, the Bucks County-based punk/reggae outfit revamped their lineup, released their latest record, Stay True, and played more than 160 shows . By the time autumn rolled around, they decided it was time to tour . “We wanted to get on the road and build
a bigger fan base,” explains drummer
TJ Haslett . “The only way to make it now is to just go out and play . It’s a philosophy we’re trying to stick hard to . We decided to play every city from Boston to Florida .” Taking on the daunting task themselves, the Mahlors found booking their own shows far from home didn’t come easily . “It’s the whole punk rock-diy ethic:
You have to do it yourself,” says bassist
Anthony Villar . “There are so many people who say they’ll hook you up, but, in reality, they won’t . We did meet some good people, but ultimately you have to keep it self-driven .” And being it their first time out, the Mahlors learned some unexpected lessons while on the road .For example:

If You Sing Taylor Swift Songs, the Mahlors Will Steal Your Girlfriend

In truth, this is less a statement of intent than an after-the-fact examination of the events on New Year’s Eve . “The bartender at the place we were playing in Charleston sings in a cover band, and he insisted
on showing us footage of them playing
a Taylor Swift song,” recalls guitarist/ vocalist Ryan DeHaven . “The details get fuzzy from there, but, at some point later in the night, his girlfriend told me she loved me .”
The Mahlors insist they didn’t know she was involved—let alone with a staff member where they were playing—until after she and DeHaven left together . And, as morally responsible young men, they did try to make things right even if a little after the fact . “We both found out and took her back to him,” DeHaven laughs . “Last we heard, they had made up . But the funny thing is that the Taylor Swift song he played for us was We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together .”
And their time in Charleston led to another important lesson:

Southerners Can be Nice, Southerners Can be Weird

South of the Mason-Dixon Line lives
a man named Buck Thrailkill . The Mahlors met him through the booking agent for the Black Cat Lounge in Fayetteville, N .C . Thrailkill and his wife offer lodging for touring bands . “He had a handlebar mustache . He played the banjo . He fixed
a wiring problem in our trailer,” Haslett says, almost reverently . “He was a true, living, breathing American .” Or, as Villar puts it: “He could kick Chuck Norris’ ass .” However, not everyone the Mahlors encountered met Thrailkill’s standard of awesome . Take, for instance, one guy in
South Carolina . “He looked like a grown- up Ralphie from A Christmas Story,” DeHaven says . “He let us know he had
a gun and that he didn’t like us .” The band encountered him at a show and couldn’t shake him for the rest of the night . “He kept following us around asking all these questions and being really invasive,” DeHaven continues . “He began critiquing our cd and got angry when we wouldn’t take him seriously . At one point, he just got up and yelled, ‘Am I the only person here with a gun?’” And when he was finally leaving, he left the band with a vaguely threatening comment: “He asked if we were on Facebook . When we said yes,
he said, ‘You won’t be too hard find .’”
The Mahlors may have escaped Fayetteville alive, but another important lesson still lay ahead:

Will Smith Lied!

“Ever see the show Gangland? That’s what Little Haiti was like,” Villar says . He’s talking about the section of Miami where the band ended their tour . “Pregnant street dogs and chickens were running wild .
I felt like I was in a Ludacris video . This was not the Miami that Will Smith sang about,” he laughs .
Trouble began when the band first pulled up to the venue, which Villar describes as “some British club with
a giant mural of Winston Churchill on it .”
Even though the band parked their van right in front of the club, they checked on it periodically . A few times, they had to shout from the venue to chase away people who were peering inside or trying to break the locks . “Eventually, Justin [Jones, the band’s other vocalist/ guitarist] ended up sleeping inside,
so no one would break in,” Villar recalls . After the show, the band explored
the dangerous area a little more and decided they’d had enough: “We had
a second show booked the next night, but we just got out of there .” Despite the informal education afforded by life on the road, at times, the Mahlors’ first tour was downright tough . “We parked the van in a lot
of Wal-Mart parking lots overnight, sleeping in 30-degree weather . That wasn’t much fun, but we made it work,” Jones says . At one point, they literally had to travel an entire city on foot, stopping in every venue they could find, to land a gig when a show got canceled . The Mahlors refused to take a night off, and, according to Haslett, the band does not take no for an answer . Still, they can’t wait to hit the road again . They’re heading down South again in March for a week and half . And this year, they want to break their personal record by playing at least 200 shows . “Touring is an instant addiction,” Jones says . “Nothing compares to it . Now, being at home sucks . It’s only been a few days, and I’m already going through withdrawal." - Radius Magazine