Never Before is a local band that has been around for almost four years. The band is made up of singer Kristy Brady, guitarists Dallen Steadman and Joseph Kenyon, bassist Walter Brady IV and drummer Brian Medeiros.
When the band was asked what genre they consider themselves to fall under, they all started blurting out different types of music. A debate ensued, and the band finally decided that they are alternative metal/ hard rock.
The band came up with the name Never Before accidentally. They recalled that they were messing around and throwing around names, and then saying them backwards. Someone said “Before the Never” and another person turned it into “Never Before.”
Everyone went silent to ponder and decided that was going to be the name of their band. The only bad thing they could come up with about the name was that it looks like Nevermore, a metal band from Seattle,Washington.
“I was like ‘how cool would it be to see our name on the same flyer as Nevermore and low and behold’…” Brady IV said.
Never Before is playing at Club Vegas with Nevermore on April 16. The show is 21 and older and admission is $10. They are playing another show June 9 with The Human Abstract, a progressive metal band. The show is all ages and admission is $12 in advance and $14 the day of the show.
The band kept joking about how they miss their social life, but it was clear that they are very busy. Not only do they practice every Monday through Friday from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. (taking some Tuesdays off), most members have a job on top of that. They all talked about how a lot of people think that having a band is not like having a job, but claim it really is.
“It could be different with other bands, but with our band we have such a tight, strict schedule that you know, there is no time for a social life,” Walter IV said.
Something that makes Never Before stand out is they have a female vocalist.
“It is a lot harder to get past that first judgment. When the audience sees a female on stage they assume that we must be something like Paramore or something like that,” Brady IV said.
“It comes from things…I am thinking about and the feel of the song,” singer Kristy Brady said about how she comes up with lyrics.
“She says it real,” is how Kenyon explained of Kristy Brady’s lyrics. The band agreed on the fact that the lyrics are not cryptic; it is easy to understand what she is saying.
The band has been through a lot of trials – like kicking out their old screamer to broaden their music sound – and having to start over and gain fans back after quitting the label they had signed with.
“We quit the label because they didn’t do anything other than give empty promises and set us on the shelf,” Medeiros said.
“We just fell off the scene for about a year while we sat and wrote a lot of songs for the label,” Walter IV explained about why they lost a lot of their fans.
The band has had several positive experiences – their favorite being when they went to Los Angeles to record. The band traveled to Los Angeles to record with Dave Dominguez who has recorded with bands like Papa Roach, Staind and Weezer. When the band started recalling what happened in Los Angeles, they could not contain their excitement. They recounted how demanding Dominguez was and from that how good the recordings turned out.
“My favorite thing about being in a band is seeing people enjoy the performance, seeing people enjoy music that we have put our heart and mind into. That makes it worthwhile,” Kenyon said. “It’s not a matter of success, it is a matter of connection, that we have connected with people.”
For more information about Never Before visit Facebook.com/neverbeforeband.