Get Down With The Etchings! [BUFFALO BAND OF THE WEEK]

If you're in the mood to dance, The Etchings is the band for you. Frontman Nick Randall (guitar, vocals), his brother Ben Randall (bass) and Jesse Rejewski (drums) want to see you move.

The rock band formed in 2009 and garnered some buzz in the local music scene after releasing their first album, Kindling Theory, in September 2012. You can catch The Etchings tonight (June 20) at Nietzsche's (248 Allen St., Buffalo) with A Hotel Nourishing and Casino School. Doors open at 9 p.m., and tickets are $5.

I spoke with Nick about the band, their current projects and their goals.

What are you working on right now?

We're working on album number two, and we’re doing it a little different this time. Rather than take a year to record it and send it away to get mixed and mashed, we're releasing it as we do it. So I'm motivating myself to write songs a little more often, and we're putting it up as it goes. We're trying to get two songs up per month until we have about a full album’s worth of material. It’s all live recorded too, a lot different from the first album where we kind of jumped from studio to studio and layered part after part. It sounded good in the end, but it sounded a bit produced. We want to capture a little more of what people will hear when they come out to see a live show on this album. Give a little more honest, accurate representation.

What do you hope to accomplish with your music?

Personally, I would like people to dance every time they hear an Etchings song. I want them to like a weirdo and not be afraid to move around like a crazy person. I would like to confuse people after by playing a really sad, depressing song and see how they react when we get them moving again for the next one. I like to get people engaged. I just want to give people a good time. I want to really surprise people with original music. It’s a tough thing to do and if you can get an audience going playing your own songs there’s no great feeling in the world than that.

Do you have a favorite venue to play in Buffalo?

Every time I play the Ninth Ward is great. It’s my favorite venue in Buffalo. It always sounds great there. For such a small space, you can fit a lot of people. Our drummer Jesse’s favorite places to play are the small places with the small stages and packed houses. We normally get a lot of people to come out there because it’s always a great time. We like Nietzsche's too, and all the Allen Street spots. We used to love playing Mohawk Place and are sad that they've closed down. But it seems like every time a venue closes, a new one opens. I've heard the Waiting Room is fantastic.

What has the response been to your music in Buffalo?

It depends on the night. Sometimes we have a lot of people come out to a gig and it’s great, and then other nights we're playing for the other bands. It’s tough. It’s hard to be an original band. We don't play any covers. We'd like to maybe incorporate some covers in there in the future. A lot of people really liked Kindling Theory when it came out, so that’s good. We'll see. Every time we release something we get a new response from fans and different people, so it’s neat.

Besides the album you're working on, do you have any other future plans?

We'd really like to get touring. We're looking for bands in other areas, even just New York state. There are a lot of other great bands in Ithaca, Albany and New York City, and I went to school in Boston, so I know there’s a lot of great stuff going on there. It’s really tough looking for the right way to do it yourself. All these DIY bands have to pick up the slack and be their own record label without all the fancy catering or tour buses. You'll see them usually driving around in crummy, broken vans. Even if it’s a lot of work, it’s always fun. Even if I'm playing for four people I’m having a blast.

Do you have any other local shows scheduled for the summer?

On July 5, we're opening for Theory of A Deadman at the Labatt Blue Canal Concert series. We're also opening for Frankie Muniz's band Kingsfoil, which we're really excited about. We're hoping we get to meet him and hang out with Malcom. That would be great. We'd probably just annoy him. I heard they're pretty good too, but he definitely uses his Malcom in the Middle status to promote the band, which is funny I think. If you look at their press pictures, he’s always standing to the side. We're thinking about covering the Malcolm in the Middle theme song, but we don't want to make him really mad or anything. Hopefully he has a sense of humor about it. It would be the first cover i've ever played live, and it'd be history in the making.

Listen to music from The Etchings' second album:

And find more information about the Etchings on Facebook and Twitter. More music can be streamed or downloaded on Bandcamp.

Hey, local bands: Want to be featured as our Buffalo Band of the Week? Local music aficionados, got a band you want to nominate? Email angela.stefano@townsquaremedia.com with their name!