Framing Hanley interview - Brandon Wootten - Dublin 19/6/11

Snapshot Symphony’s Rachel recently caught up with Framing Hanley guitarist Brandon just before their headlining show at Dublin’s Academy. They talked about gang names, the Tennessee music scene, what fans can be expecting from Framing Hanley in the next few months and of course his Snapshot Perfect moment so far!

This is your second time in Ireland after the Kerrang tour, are you excited to be back?

Yeah we’re really excited to be back. To be back, you know, just playing to our own crowd, so it’s gonna be really nice.

Why did you decide to come back to Ireland on this headlining tour?

Last time we were here we had a lot of requests for us to come back so we decided to book two shows here and we’re gonna come back next year and play more shows here.

Do you have any plans for a UK and Ireland tour in the future?

Next year we’re gonna be coming back. We’re going home to start writing the new record and then once we’re finished writing the new record we’re gonna come back early next year and do a UK, Ireland and European tour.

You formed in Tennessee in 2005, what does the music scene in Tennessee compare to what you’ve seen in the UK and Ireland?

Well being from where we’re from it’s music city so there’s definitely a bunch of writers, musicians, things like that, it’s full of country music. Rock music is kind of making its stand right now, it’s like coming out and being known for other than just country music. In comparison with the UK the crowds here aren’t oversaturated with music, you know, there’s a lot less bands and a lot more people that come and watch rock shows, which in the States there’s a band on every corner so some shows are big and some shows are not.

Your cover of ‘Lollipop’ by Lil’ Wayne is a big hit on YouTube, what made you decide to cover that song?

The song was really big at the time and we were really trying to do something different. Ryan was a new member of the band and we played it to our hometown crowd and it just had a kind of fire to it so we decided to record it and it just took off from there really unexpectedly.

Does it get annoying that a lot of people would just know you from that cover?

It’s somewhat annoying but it’s also like without that song we wouldn’t have the fans or audience that we do have because a lot of fans will catch onto that one song and then they start to realise that they like originals too so it’s a double edged sword.

Along with ‘Lollipop’, ‘Hear Me Now’ is another one of your biggest hits with millions of videos on YouTube. Are you happy that you released those two tracks or would you have preferred to release different ones?

Absolutely, I love those tracks. ‘Hear Me Now’ is my favourite song and we’re about to release ‘Stupid Girl’ and hopefully the new record will be a lot of new material with more edge.

So your last album ‘Promise To Burn’ was released last year and got great reviews, does this make you excited to start writing a new record?

Yeah we’re definitely excited to write the new record. It’s new and it’s a change of pace. We’ve played the same songs for about two years really so we want to play new stuff. We’re really excited, we’ve already been kicking around a bunch of new songs and we have a handful of songs from the last record that we didn’t use that will probably end up being reformed for the new record.

 What can fans expect from Framing Hanley in the next year or so?

Just a lot of touring and the new record and pretty much that’s it right now, we’re excited and hopefully we’ll be a lot bigger.

What has been your favourite show on the tour so far?

My favourite show so far was Brighton which was a few nights ago. It was one of those rooms which was like 100 degrees, it was so hot and the audience was just feeding off of the band. We played an hour and we could have gone out there and played another hour if we had the chance.

What is your favourite song to play live?

I still love to play ‘Hear Me Now’, it’s one of my favourite songs to play and it’s really heavy and it definitely defines our sound as a band.

What do you miss most when you’re away from home apart from your family and friends?

Taco Bell. I miss Taco Bell a lot. *laughs*

If you were a super hero, what would your name be and what would your power be?

It would probably be Wu Tang, like the Wu Tang Clan. My power would probably be to shoot lasers out of my guitars or fire, that’d be really cool.

If the band was stranded on a desert island, who would you eat first and who would survive the longest?

We’d probably all eat Luke because we’d probably all last a lot longer. And who would live the longest? I don’t know, that’s a good question… Probably who could fight the best.

If Framing Hanley were ever to become a rap band, what would be your gangster names?

That’s a good question, my last name’s Wootten so I always get called Wu Tang, so that would probably be my name, and Chris would probably be, he has an S where he puts a dollar sign so his name would probably be Chris Money or something. Nixon’s is Ace Kin so he already has a rap name. I don’t know about Ryan, It would be pretty… I shall ask him when I see him.

And finally, what has been the perfect Snapshot moment in your career so far?

Probably just coming overseas because being from the states from a small town like Nashville, we never expected to go and see the world. To step out of the country and travel it’s just surreal and we have so many fans in other countries so that’s probably my highlight.

Is there anything you’d like to say to your fans?

I’d say go check out our Twitter and Facebook because there’s going to be a lot of new things going on so just make sure you keep up with that.