Hometown Hero Interview

Home Town Hero an interview with Todd Burnes

-by Nikki Neil

Meet Home Town Hero, a hard working, amiable band comprised of four friends—Aaron Bruno (vocals, guitar) Drew Stewart (guitar) Todd Burnes (bass), Ray Blanco (drums)—who share the same passion and drive for creating music that is moving and inspirational.

Home Town Hero evolved out of the desire to play music and nothing else. This young act uses melodic song structures in a way that highlights their strengths. The band’s viscerally melodic self-titled debut (Maverick) embodies all that is positive about no-frills rock, and their polished material is a telltale indication that Home Town Hero is a group of serious musicians who have the potential to fit right into mainstream radio.

Are you on the road right now?

No, we are at home. Right now we are at the rehearsal studio getting ready to go on the road with Tenacious D.

That sounds like a fun tour.

It should be pretty amazing. I’m a big fan of theirs. I saw them when they played at the House of Blues in L.A. with Spinal Tap.

I’m sorry I missed that.

It was an interesting evening, to say the least.

Do you like Jack Black as an actor?

Oh yeah. He does some stuff that gets kind of redundant, but that is the case with any comedian. I think he is the new Sam Kinisen.

I’m sure some good backstage stories will come out of this tour.

If there’s not I’m gonna be pissed. If there is not a good backstage story within two days of the tour I’m gonna make one.

You better call me and tell me all about it.

Okay. (laughs)

How long has Home Town Hero been together?

About two and a half years now. We all came from other bands. Aaron, Drew, and myself were in another band prior to this one (Insurgence). And before that, Aaron and Drew were in a band together (Ice Monkey). I think Aaron and Drew have been playing together for about seven years now, and the three of us have been playing music together for the past five years. But, it wasn’t until we hooked up with Ray, our drummer, about two and a half years ago that we decided Home Town Hero was what we wanted to do and we went for it.

Is that when the band’s sound evolved to what it is today, or did that happen later?

It started to manifest towards the end of the last band that Aaron, Drew, and I were in. We kind of started writing material that was more rock orientated. The other band that we were in was more hardcore, so, at first, we were kind of blending the rock and the hardcore together. Eventually, we ended up feeling more comfortable and happier with the straight rock stuff that we were doing than trying to be a hardcore band. We found ourselves pushing each other musically to see where we could take it and, all of a sudden, Home Town Hero stuff started coming around and we said, “Cool, this is working so we better roll with it.”

How did the band come to be on Maverick’s roster?

A guy by the name of Michael Goldberg, who is now one of our A&R guys at Maverick, used to work for the company we are managed by, which is Steve Stuart Management. He had a friend name Burke, who is another one of our A&R reps. Michael brought him down to rehearsal one night and he saw us and fell in love, so then we showcased for everyone at Maverick. Burke came down on a Wednesday night and by the Tuesday of the following week we were signed to Maverick.

How did you guys celebrate the deal?

It’s kind of funny. We were playing a show the night that we got signed. We had invited all the labels down. I guess it was an industry frenzy. We got up on stage and we were all just super comfortable because we had just signed with Maverick and we were all pretty excited about it. About halfway through the set Aaron jumped up and said, “I’d like to thank Maverick records, who we just signed with today.” And after that, people just started filing out the door with a pissed of look on their faces because they were too late. It was awesome.

Did it feel different playing up on stage that night knowing you had just secured a recording contract as opposed to playing all those other nights when you were still seeking one?

You know Home Town Hero never had the attitude…we always kind of hoped that we’d get signed, but it was never the attitude of “Okay, we need to play our best because if someone is there they might want to sign us so we have to impress them.” We cared more about impressing each other as a band and as friends. The four of us are the most important part of Home Town Hero. It’s not the label. It’s not the record. It’s just the four us together as a band playing shows together and having fun. But, there is always an element of nervousness, even now.

What did you enjoy most about making the record?

I think the whole experience overall. We got to live in this amazing house, which was a block from the beach. We lived together and played music together. It was a combination of all those experiences… good, bad, weird…there isn’t just one thing in my head that sticks out more than another as being my favorite part of making the record. So, I’d have to say that I enjoyed the whole process from production to recording to hearing the finished product. It is like we are still making this record because now we are performing the songs live and supporting it. We kind have been making this record for the first part of our lives and it is not done until we go in to make the next record.

Based on your experiences from this record is there anything that you would like to do differently when you go in to make the next record?

We kind of recognized that with the next record we need to step up and take it a different place. Mainly because we need to push ourselves to the next level - whatever level that may be. If we feel that the next record we make is the same as the last record that we made than we haven’t progressed at all, and I’m a big fan of that as far as bands are concerned. I think that a life long progression is important—just seeing what different types of music you can make and where it is gonna go from there.

Home Town Hero played on the Warped Tour. Was this before signing with Maverick?

Yeah, it was the summer of 2002, just before we were signed. Ray, our drummer, had gone out with Snapcase who was on the tour.

I know their music very well.

They’re good friends of ours. Ray was kind of doing drum tech stuff for them. Somehow, a demo ended up in the hands of Kevin Lyman and he said, “When do you guys want to join,” as a joke. Ray said, “When do you need us there?” We played a show at the Whiskey on July 14^th, which was a Friday night, and after the show was over we got into the van and drove straight to New York in time to make it on the tour that Monday.

Damn!

We drove fifty-one straight hours from L.A. to New York just to be on the tour. We did eighteen shows along the East Coast then played Canada. We just kind of made it happen on our own. We didn’t have a manager, we didn’t have a label, and we didn’t have an agent. All we had was ourselves and we made it happen. Then, this past summer, we took a couple of days off from making this record and played the San Diego, L.A. and Ventura dates of the Warped Tour, just to get some shows under our belt and to get out of the studio a little bit.

Will Home Town Hero be joining the Warped Tour this year?

I don’t know. I have no idea what the plans are in regards to Warped this year. It’s a great tour and a really cool place for bands to play together regardless of music styles. Every end of the spectrum is covered from punk rock to rock to hip-hop.

Did you check out any of the other bands that were playing?

Yeah. When we were on the 2000 Tour we had more time to really see everyone and everything that was going on. It was difficult this past summer because we only played three dates, which were around our hometown and we had friends out, so it was kind of difficult to get away and check out all the other bands. There are such an immense number of bands on that tour. You really need at least a week before you can see it all.

What bands did you see that you liked?

My personal favorite was Jurassic 5. They were definitely my favorite band on the tour that year.

I saw them perform at a local music award show and they were really good.

Jurassic 5 blew me away. I was amazed by how good they were. Unfortunately, there were towns where people were throwing bottles at them, but they came through and put on a great show. It was cool to see a hip-hop act come out. In certain towns it didn’t go over as well as it could have, but in other towns the kids loved them. To me, that was the best part of the Warped Tour. As far as other bands go, I became a big fan of Papa Roach. At first they were just another rap-rock act, and we’ve all seen at least one or fifty-two of those from some time to another. But, just watching them play…their energy. I really enjoyed watching them. Everyone on the tour was fun to watch. You just kind of go around and think back and say, “Oh, wait a second, maybe these guys were my favorite.” But, that is just kind of the way it rolls I suppose.

What obstacles did Home Town Hero have to overcome, if any, to reach the stage you are now at in your career?

We went through the normal obstacles that I think every band goes through. There’s a level of perseverance and a level of confidence that you need to exude in order to accomplish something significant. When Home Town Hero first started out we kept it a secret from our friends for a while because we wanted to make sure that everything we were doing was the best that we could do at the time. That has kind of been the philosophy of the band the whole way through. You just do what you have to do. You’re gonna run into people that will tell you one thing and do another and you are gonna run into people that act like your friends and then back out on you when it’s not what they want. But, it’s the same shit that happens across the board with every aspect of life I suppose. If you have a goal in mind, which we did, nothing was going to stop us. We were going to do this one way or another with or without the help of a label, or management, or anybody else. Luckily, for us, the people that we have working with us are such an amazing team of people. But, even so, we all still realize that above and beyond everything it comes down to the four of us.

It sounds like Home Town Hero has a very strong work ethic.

We definitely work but we play just as much. We tried to find the equal balance of working extremely hard and playing really hard and making it all work together.

Which bassists do you admire?

Nate Mendel from the Foo Fighters, who was in Sunny Day Real Estate beforehand. He is one that I really look up to…(Todd is interrupted by loud guitar riffs.) Slash is practicing right next door to us. Bad news right now.

He’s a great guy.

I’ve never met him before.

He is incredibly nice and very humble.

He rips so hard on guitar. It’s just like, “Okay, you’re Slash.” He is practicing in this little room and we are practicing in this big room and his face is on a pinball machine that is in the recreation area. It’s like, “Okay, you’re Slash and you’re gnarly.”

Talk about intimidating.

Exactly.

Well, if you get a chance, go up to him and say “Hi” because he really is very down to earth.

One of the techs that works with him helped us out a bit and he said that Slash is just an amazing person. He’s thoughtful, considerate…everything you could ever ask for in a person.

He really is. He is not egotistical at all. Has your style of playing changed over the years?

I think so. As far as playing…recently, in the last couple of years I really pushed myself to be just a better player for myself. The guys in the band are super talented on their own, so even playing with them just kind of forced me to up the level at which I play. It’s kind of like we’re always pushing each other and we’re always trying to take each other to different levels and almost out do each other in a way. I’ve always been a big fan of just playing straightforward bass. I’m not a fan of funk bass. I appreciate it, but it is not necessarily what I want to do. All I need is four strings and an amp and that is it. I don’t want effects. I don’t want more than four strings. I just want what a bass is, and I want to play it.

What type of bass are you currently playing?

I play Ernie Ball basses and I use Ashdown amps. That’s about it. Both companies are great. All I need is my bass and my amp. I just found the set up that I’m happy with and I love playing and I’ll play it until it’s time to move on to the next level.

So if you could accomplish one thing while in Home Town Hero what would it be?

Just to have as much fun as possible. People talk about fame and fortune and selling millions of records or reaching people…that stuff happens. It may or may not happen to us. If it does – cool. If it doesn’t that’s cool too. But, as long as I have fun and continue to have fun like I am doing right now than that to me is more important than anything else. It is like anything you do. If it is not fun anymore you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.

So, if this stopped being fun one day, what would you do?

Who knows? I really have no idea. It would be time to redirect but, fortunately, I don’t have to worry about it right now and the less I have to worry about right now the better. If that day comes, I’ll deal with it. If not, then I’ll continue what I’m doing now.

Do you have any favorite hangouts in L.A.?

I don’t really have any set places that I really go to. It’s kind of like wherever my friends are is where I hang out. If I’m at home with all my friends, or at a bar with my friends, or at the grocery store with my friends it’s always fun.

What will you miss most when you are out on the road?

Probably my bed. Hotels are rad and everything…but there’s something so much better about your own bed. You walk into your room when get home from touring and you see your bed and it’s like…I don’t care if you sleep on nails. If it’s your bed it is the best thing that it could be at that time. Of course, I miss my friends and family. Whether you are traveling or you are touring or whatever, if you are not at home you miss the things that make it feel like home.

Is there anything else that you would like to add?

Pick up our record, Home Town Hero, on Maverick records.

For more on Home Town Hero visit: www.hometownheromusic.com