October 15, 2009 by Jordan Healy 

Local band Theory of Flight releases debut alubm this Friday

Another Vegas band is on their way to hitting it big, and deservedly so.
Local rockers Theory of Flight have been toiling in the trenches of the Vegas scene for two years and they’ll finally release their debut, full-length album this Friday, with a CD release party at Town Square.

Talking with Beau Hodges (Vocalist) and Joey McMahon (Bassist) from the group, we were able to shed some light on their record, the Vegas scene and the band as a whole.

The Rebel Yell: Your latest album, “Within Reach,” is coming out later this month. Will this be a nation-wide release?

Beau Hodges: Initially it’s going to be released in Vegas on [Oct. 16]. Then we have two people that we’re working with to push it to radio. We’re working on some distribution right now so that hopefully, by late November, we should release it nation-wide.

RY: Did you find it difficult to achieve this level of distribution coming out of the Las Vegas music scene?

BH: Yeah [laughs]. Absolutely, absolutely. The music’s tough here. It’s been good for us though. You know, with anything that’s kind of difficult, you find how to develop and how to grow. It makes you stronger. I think that Vegas has actually kind of helped us to get better, even though it has been difficult.

RY: In what respects do you find the Vegas scene to be difficult?

Joey McMahon: Well, I think a lot of it is because the city is so transient. A lot of the most popular places to play are downtown or on the Strip; popular bars like Wasted Space in the Hard Rock. Places like that where there might be a decent crowd there, but usually, they’re just passing through. They’re on vacation, just spending a weekend in Vegas. We play for a decent crowd, but they all go home the next day. It’s hard to find a good fan base that sticks around and is able to come to shows on a regular basis.

RY: When you first formed the group in 2007, what were some of the initial hardships you had to overcome?

JM: I think a big part for us was getting the right people to be in the group. Our original drummer didn’t work out. It took us about six months to find another guitar player. We had a friend filling in for us. Half of the band is actually the original members, and the other half we’ve sort of acquired on the way. That’s been one of our struggles.

BH: Yeah, I think the most difficult thing in any band is personnel, finding the right people. It’s so much more than just talented people. Talented people can kind of fool themselves because they know they’re good and they’ve done things this way so many times that getting three individuals on the same page can be difficult. Learning how to communicate effectively, appropriately and effectively was a huge thing at the beginning, and now, strong communication and cooperation has brought us closer.

JM: I think what’s helped us is that we sort of all know what our roles are in the band. We recognize who’s who and who’s good at what, maybe who isn’t good at a certain thing. It also helps a lot to have a band leader and Vince [Casas, vocalist/guitarist/songwriter] has been our leader since the beginning. It’s been a good thing for us, for sure.

RY: Would you say that the personnel changes that have occurred in your band have transformed the sound you began with?

BH: I think the thing with the personnel changes is that they’ve been allowing the people that come in to bring life into their instrument. One of the things that we’ve tried really hard to do is to not put a whole lot of stipulations on what we want in our sound and how we go about seeking that specific sound.

Instead, we as individuals go to our instruments – Joey at the bass, Tyler at the drums – to be creating a sound as you’re hearing it. If one of them feels excited about it, or really strongly about it, then we all follow in tune. That’s what’s kind of created the sound. It’s something that really is a collage, individuals all coming together. I think that’s probably what created our unique sound. We’re not trying to do something that’s been done. That’s not music. We’re just trying to create something real for us.

RY: How did the current line-up of the group come together?

JM: Vince and Beau had originally started the project about two and a half years ago. Then they brought me on board, asked me if I was feeling it, if I liked the music, and I did.
And then we went back and forth with a couple of guitar players. We had a drummer and he wasn’t quite working out so we got Tyler. He was from another band in another state. So we called him up and he actually moved down here from Seattle just to be a part of the project.

Then our rhythm guitar player now, Stephen Goodrum, is actually Beau’s brother-in-law. We’ve had a relationship with him for a long time. He’s a good guitar player. Then Beau picked up John Colombo [Keyboardist]. We were kind of transitioning out keyboard player and we knew that John was good at a lot of different things, strings, keys, bass, so we thought he’d be a good fit. It wasn’t like a Craigslist thing you know, a post with “musician needed.” Everybody that’s in the band, we’ve known each other for like ten years, give or take. It’s pretty cool. It’s like just a bunch of friends getting together. It wasn’t just piece work. It was really thought out carefully.

RY: Tell me a little more about your new album, “Within Reach.”

JM: I think one of the things that I’m most proud about concerning the album is that we produced it ourselves. Vince came together with us, we developed the songs and we went into the studio and recorded it ourselves.
We did it in our studio, with our microphones, and all of our equipment and developed something that was ours. Then we took that to people who were really, really excited and who we knew could do a really good job mixing and mastering. That was probably one of the things that I’m most proud of about this album. What we’ve simply been able to accomplish by putting our minds together and go after it.

RY: How long did it take you to write and record the album?

JM: Some it was quick and some of it was a couple of years in the making. A handful of the songs on the album were written by Vince a couple of years before we even got together. In that respect, those songs have been four of five years in the making. There’s a couple on there that happened real fast, right away.
As far as the production goes, how long would you say it took to produce everything Beau, a couple months?

BH: Yeah, once we sat down to really re-produce the EP, to take the material and re-work it, it probably took about three months.
In the music world, it was pretty quick. In the real world, it seemed like it took forever. A lot of these albums, like a U2 album or a Coldplay album, they work on these albums for two years.
Everybody’s anticipating it, so it was relatively quick, but it felt like it took forever. Everything was so hand’s on and everybody was really a part of it. I think this was definitely overall about a year in the making, for the songs that made it to the album.

RY: What kind of touring do you anticipate doing in support of the record?

JM: We’re super jazzed about touring because it’ll put our music in the hands of some people that have never heard us. The manager that we’ve hired is one of the most decorated touring managers in the world. He’s worked with everybody from Prince to Dwight Yoakam. He’s got amazing connections in the touring world and so were super excited.

A couple of different acts, that are touring today, we’re in talks to possibly open up for some of them, but we can’t talk about that yet, which is really hard for me [laughs]. I’m not good with secrets.

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