It’s 7:30 a.m. on a Monday in Arizona. Vocalist Brandon Kellum just made his routine coffee and is in his car driving to his 9 to 5 office job. He has about a 30-minute commute before he finally makes it to the parking garage, and it’s not the traffic his mind is wrapped around or even if he’s late to clock in. His only concern at the moment is the status of his band American Standards and what’s in store for them next.
Kellum is driving to his day job because his hardcore band are taking some time off from touring, aside from a few local shows here and there, to focus on a new full-length album. But more than the new album, the vocalist is talking about everything it took for the band to get to where they are right now.
Originally starting out as a five piece, the now four-piece band started to build a community within their local hardcore scene by hosting and playing house shows.
“We knew we wanted to focus on playing the smaller venues to a smaller community,” Kellum says. “It’s a little more than music. It’s support. It’s cool to have that and to play a show with that community. I feel like if there are 20 people I have a good chance of making a connection with each person where as if I play a huge venue you have room to hide in the back and it’s harder to make those connections.”
But lineup changes have been a huge part of the band throughout the past several years, which have impacted the band’s releases that followed. After going through five people before finally settling with their current lineup, releases were mixed in, including their first seven-song album Still Life in 2012, before original member Cody Conrad quit the band. Fast forward to 2013, and you could find the band with another five-song concept EP called The Death Of Rhythm And Blues, which was released independently after parting ways with their former record label Victory Records/We Are Triumphant. After initial goals of making the release a full album, Kellum decided the release would stand for something else.
“We started talking about our lineup and the next step,” Kellum remembers. “We didn’t want it to have someone new come in and learn the whole new album and not feel like a part of the writing process and that’s how it shifted. We wanted to make it more about what’s happening with the band in general.”
After receiving positive reviews with the release, Kellum and the band wanted something more. Realizing the large amount of support from their fans, American Standards successfully released their EP entitled Hungry Hands through a Kickstarter campaign, raising more than $2,500 to fund the project. But for Kellum, it was about connecting with the fans.
“It gave us a cool way to connect with everyone,” Kellum says. “It was also a big decision because we didn’t want to be band who was asking for money to make an album and we were torn on the idea. We had Corey [Skowronski/guitarist] draw artwork for it, and we wanted people to feel like they were invested in it and making the album possible. I feel like it might be something we continue with the next album.”
And as the band is currently working on their next full-length album, Kellum only sees positivity for their future.
He finally reaches the parking garage after the commute and apologizes in advance if the phone connection gets lost, but continues to sound fearless and confident for American Standards’ future.
“We want people to be involved in our kind of mindset,” Kellum continues. “We don’t want this to be a band that goes out. We want it to be a whole experience.”
