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Saving Abel out on inaugural "Class of 2009" Tour
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Saving Abel
October 25 marked the start of the inaugural "Class of 2009" tour with headliners Saving Abel. The tour runs through December 18.
The concept behind the new annual tour is to bring together rock artists who have achieved substantial Top Ten hits at radio in the current calendar year.
Each year, an unsigned band ("The Freshman"), will be selected to open the show for the full tour. The spot will be a launching pad for these bands.
Primary Wave Music Management partner Rick Smith spoke about the concept, "The fans across the country continue to support rock music. It is increasingly harder to break a new band. Our plan is to provide a stage for new bands to play in front of large audiences."
This year's "Freshman" is Oklahoma rock group Taddy Porter. The other openers are Red and Pop Evil, who have both had Top 10 hits this year and have become rock radio staples.
Headliner Saving Abel is the first act in over three years to have three top five rock hits off their self-titled debut release. Addicted, 18 Days and Drowning (Face Down) all reached the top of the charts.
Today I got a chance to talk to Saving Abel guitarist Jason Null, who was getting ready for a show in Minneapolis.
Q: How's the tour going?
A: It's good. We're having a great time being able to play our new set and just be out on stage. It's our first big headlining tour.
Q: How did your band get involved with this tour?
A: It was actually our management's idea to bring bands that have broke the Top 10 during the year together. They approached us to headline.
Q: You're in Detroit next week. I know you've played here before, right?
A: Many times. One of our managers is actually based in Detroit.
Q: When you've played here have you gotten out to see the city at all?
A: We haven't gotten to see much of the city. We've mostly played at small clubs here so we hung out there after the shows. At the end of a show there's not much time to do anything. When you're done checking the clock, it's time to get back on the bus. Then you have to get up for sound checks or interviews and it's time for another show.
Q: Do you ever get a chance to get out?
A: Sometimes when we roll into town we may get a chance to get out and look at the sights. Here we got to check out the Mall of America. Mostly after the shows though we just hang out. There's a lot of Jack Daniels.
Q: Are you enjoying touring with the other bands?
A: It's like having a family reunion of sorts. We've toured with all of them before and Taddy Porter shares our management team. We actually had to take a break from touring with them when we went out with Nickelback.
Q: You and the rest of the band get along pretty well while touring then?
A: You know it's like any other kind of business. We have our differences and sometimes we get on each other's nerves but at the end of the day we're all out here to make music and have fun with it. I'd rather be tired of looking at these guys than what I was doing before.
Q: Which was what exactly?
A: I managed a Kmart store so you can imagine.
Q: Any songs stand out in particular from your current set?
A; Our first three songs are new ones. It's nice to play something we haven't played before. Those first 3 are probably everyone's favorites right now.
Q: What are your plans for after the tour?
A: We're going to take off the month of December and spend some time with our families and do some recording. We hope to start recording in January and hopefully have it finished and out by March. We've actually talked about going over to Iraq and playing for the troops as well.
Q: Have you begun work on the album at all yet? Is there a working title?
A: We're about 8 songs into it at the moment. We've got a lot of ideas to scratch out and see what potential they have. We hope to have 30 songs tracked by February. It's always hard to pick the final songs. The working title is Bloody Sunday, which is one of the first songs we wrote for the album and is close to us all.
Q: Is the writing process a collaborative effort?
A: It is. Jared [Weeks, vocalist] and I write most of our songs and our producer Skidd Mills is also a great mixer and song writer. He's actually been in the studio over this last week with Hinder. But our bass player and drummer sometimes throw things into the pot. Out of My Face was a chorus I had in my head for years but it wasn't until Scott [Bartlett, bass player] walked in with this crazy lick that I went that's it and the song happened.
Q: Your songs are easy to relate to and pretty personal. Was that intentional?
A: For me, when I go in to write a song I ask myself is it something I would listen to. Is it telling a story? Is there one part, 15 seconds that is going to catch your attention and roll around in your head? Every lyric, guitar riff, bass line etc. plays in to how the song turns out. I could write a song and record it with my acoustic guitar and send it to 5 different people to record and I would get back 5 different songs every time. The song writing process is personal.
Q: Is there anyone you would like to tour with in the future?
A: We've been very lucky because we've gotten to open for bands like Aerosmith and Stone Temple Pilots. One of my favorite bands was Candlebox and when I picked back up my guitar and started writing music they were an inspiration. We then got to open for them and bands like Nickelback and Papa Roach. I mean we'd love to tour with AC/DC or Van Halen or a revamped Led Zeppelin, of course. These last two years have been unreal and I just can't believe everything that's happened.
The "Class of 2009" tour will be making a stop in Detroit on Saturday, November 14 at St Andrew's Hall. The show will start at 6:00 p.m. More info is available at www.savingabel.com.
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