by Kenneth Morton

Framing Hanley is an exciting new act to watch out for. Discovered by Jeff Hanson who managed Creed, Framing Hanley was the first band to be released on Hanson’s new Silent Majority label. Based out of the Nashville, TN area, Framing Hanley present straightforward rock and roll that is extremely memorable. The Moment is the name of their debut CD, and judging by the music heard, the time for Framing Hanley is now! Here is an interview we recently did with lead vocalist Nixon…

Did you all grow up in Nashville?
All born and raised there.

Does anybody in your band like country music at all?
I’m a country music fan – that’s what I grew up listening to. My dad was a country musician. Country music is what my family wanted me to do. Our drummer – actually his favorite musician, period, is Alan Jackson. His dad is actually sometimes the drummer for Kenny Rogers, The Gambler himself!

Is there any story or concept behind the title of the CD The Moment?
Basically, when we came up with the name for the record, we wanted to do something that seems kind of fitting. It seems like everything all came together so fast – it was like “The Moment” that it all happened. When we came up with the name for the record, we just wanted something that was going to stand true.

Where did the name of the band Framing Hanley come from?
A good friend of ours, her last name was Hanley and she had passed away. She used to take pictures and that’s where the framing aspect came from. It’s not like Framing Hanley as in a crime.

Where do you get the ideas for some of the lyrics you write?
All the stuff that I write about is, for the most part, from personal experience. It’s basically stuff that we’ve been through in our lives, and every song on that record is something that means something to everyone of us. When I write, I try to write with that in mind. I don’t want to write a song that doesn’t mean anything to me, because they don’t sound good. All of the lyrics are pretty genuine.

Could you give me an example of two of the songs?
Built For Sin: – I knew somebody who was on drugs – actually in a real passionate relationship that I was in – and that song is about that. One of the lines in particular – “The white on your nose is your secret to tell.” A girlfriend of mine was on cocaine and that basically was the reason our relationship failed and I didn’t want to deal with that anymore. She tried to keep it a lie to everyone and it seemed like she was straight. And as far as another song, Hear Me Now: that song is the single right now. That song is about how you grow up and you’re told a lot of things that you’re just lead to believe because you’re young and you just grow up believing these things. The song is about having questions and wanting the real answers on your own as you’re starting to grow up. You’re starting to wonder about hypocrites in everyday life, and you’re starting to see these things that you necessarily don’t agree with. You kind of think that these people are doing this just because they were growing up believing this. That song is just about wanting to know what the real answers are.

Speaking of Hear Me Now, let’s talk about the video. That must have been pretty tricky to shoot, unless y’all have twins or something.
Everything was a lot of fun. The director came up with a concept we really liked that we thought fit the song really well. It was cool though. There is only one Nixon in real life though.

You actually needed to act in that video. Is acting something that you’d like to do?
(Laughs) Oh man, I’m not Jared Leto so that won’t be happening anytime in my future, I don’t think. Actually yeah, I use to be really big into drama before music in school growing up. Entertainment period was always a passion of mine. As you could tell in the video, I’m not much of a football player. (Laughs) I wouldn’t be a badass offensive lineman or anything, so I had to stick with other things.

When the video all came together in the end, what did you think when you were seeing two of you up there on the screen?
It was crazy man. Obviously they’re individual shots and they’re just pieced together, but when you’re watching it you’re like wow! They did an amazing job!

What is the best advise that your label manager Jeff Hanson has given to your band?
I don’t know. We don’t listen to that guy too much because he used to work with this band called Creed. (Much laughter) Jeff was one of the first people that really believed in our band. He told us to stick true to what we believe in, as far as in our music – and not to compromise anything when we’re writing for the sake of someone else. As far as a big record label, as the CEO goes, he’s probably the best that we could possibly have. He’s not pushy – he lets us write the kind of music we want to write, and he believes in it as much as we do – so that’s great!

Have you guys ever played out here in the LA/OC area?
No man, we’re dying to get out there actually. We came on the West Coast and the furthest we went was Spokane, WA as far as playing a show. We had do some radio stuff in Seattle and then we came down to Santa Rosa. But Northern California is completely different I hear from what Southern California is. We definitely want to come out to LA.

When you guys do get out here, what can we expect from a live Framing Hanley show?
We go out there every night and try to put it all onstage. We play the songs with just as much passion live as when we wrote the songs. We just try to portray onstage just how much the songs really mean to us. On the tours we’ve been on so far, we’ve gotten a positive reaction, and we’re very thankful for that. We just got out there with a lot of energy and try to have a damn good time onstage, and make sure that everybody in the audience is having a good time as well.

Do you have any interesting Myspace stories you could share?
We get all kinds of relatives that we didn’t know we had have came up on Myspace and people that we never talked to before in school. But it’s cool – because the relative – they try to be sneaky and come out of the woods, but we totally know that they just created a Myspace profile just so they could get in touch with us. Because they don’t have any friends, except for Tom. They contact us on Myspace, and it’s like “We know why you’re contacting us – and trust us – we’re all broke so don’t send us any messages for money!”

So Framing Hanley aren’t rich rock stars yet?
No! Everybody thinks that too! They’re all like, (In a high Southern drawl), “You guys are signed and rich!” No! We depend on people to buy our records to make any form of money at all!

Do you have any messages for fans or for people who might want to check out your music for the first time?
I just hope that when people listen to us, they know that every one of those songs are something that means something to us. We didn’t just put a song on that record as a filler. It’s all something that we’ve been through in our lives. We write with that passion, and hope that when people listen to our music, they can take away something from it and identify with the songs hopefully. We are one of the very few artists out there anymore who I feel are actually true to what they’re writing and what they believe in, and I hope people can sense that when they listen to our music. When we have a show, we try to make sure that we get a chance to talk to every single person there. We’d love if they’d buy the record, but as long as they come over and introduce themselves, we’d love to talk to them. Many artists don’t do that with their fans anymore. We want fans to know that we’re very thankful for each and every one of them – it’s because of them that we’re even here.

Framing Hanley links

Framing Hanley on Myspace: Their Official Myspace Page!
The Highwire Daze Home Page: Return to the Main Page!

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