Listen to the live interview Episode #449 Behind The Music with Jacqueline Jax : http://tobtr.com/9905871

Jacqueline Jax logo photoGETTING TO KNOW BANANA BLONDE
by Jacqueline Jax host of A.V.A Live Radio

Zach Sheffield

The band came together as a result of a need. We loved this type of music and didn’t hear many people in our area creating it so that definitely inspired our work. We’ve been focusing on promoting the current music as a base to launch our band into different social media streams. It’s terrific to see artists be able to launch music online and gain exposure. 

Life Of Fire…
This song was inspired by a poem written by Jack London. The poem “Credo” is basically about living life to the fullest even if that means burning out in a brilliant blaze. I’ve always loved that poem, and I feel like it captures the whole essence of rock and roll. I wanted to write a song that had a very similar theme. “Life Of Fire” was just a phrase that continued to come to mind while I was thinking about the lyrics.

The Great Pendulum Swing..
is the name of the album. Listeners can expect to hear electric guitars, heavy drums, and vocals that might scream or yell on occasion. We wrote these songs because there seemed to be a huge void within this style of music. We could sit around waiting on a band to write some cool songs, or we could just go do it ourselves.

Alabama to Tennessee…
The bass player and I live in Birmingham, Alabama and our drummer lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I really don’t know what the music scene is like in Birmingham. The aspect of playing live in order to gain fans has changed with the introduction of online music communities. It used to be that a band played live to get a fan base, but now you get a fan base online before you go and do live shows. I do know that there are a lot of local bands labeling their acoustic and banjo acts as rock and roll. I’m ready for the pendulum to swing back so we can have electric guitars and drums in our rock and roll music again.

 

I would love to have 5 minutes alone with Iggy Pop…
He lives in Miami so maybe he will hear this interview! He is definitely one of my favorite artists. Anybody who has survived almost 6 decades of rock and roll must be a great storyteller. His music now sounds just as ferocious as it did in the 60’s, and that’s very rare with fellow artists from his generation.

Music Industry…
The music business has definitely changed in recent years. I mentioned earlier about bands not having outlets to perform their music live. An upcoming band can play live in their local city in front of 10 people, or they can have 10,000 people listen to their songs online. It’s a new frontier, but I think bands are finally figuring out how to navigate the changes.

 

Social media links for Banana Blonde:
https://www.reverbnation.com/bananablonde

https://twitter.com/bblondemusic

https://www.facebook.com/bblondemusic/

https://www.instagram.com/bblondemusic/

 

Purchase songs:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-great-pendulum-swing/id1071569491

https://www.amazon.com/Banana-Blonde/dp/B00LPQI62C

https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bananablonde2