Musician Spotlight on the Lesser Knowns

It was a Friday night, near the end of May. I was at the Black Watch Pub looking around at the crowd of people that looked like  younger, tamer versions of myself. I was drinking my vodka soda water & lime (thanks Slow-Carb Diet), waiting for the band I came to see.

The Lesser Knowns are a band from New Bedford that is trying to go BIG and make themselves more than what they are now. You might have heard of them; they are promoting themselves like madmen and doing a hell of a job of it.

Right now they are trying to raise money to go to California so they can record their newest CD in a state of the art studio. If professional recording can make the O’Toole’s sound like champs, then these guys have a serious chance of going big time.

They need to raise a small amount of money (relatively speaking),and you can get some big bonuses for helping them out just a little. For those of who you don’t know them, here are the Lesser Knowns.

What are the names of you members?
Nick LeBlanc – vocals, guitar, bass
Dan Letourneau – bass, guitar, vocals
Dan McMahon – guitar, vocals
Riley Mello – drums, vocals

When and how did you guys all meet?
We all met in the 4^th grade pretty much. We’ve been playing music together for about 12 years. At first we were just screwing around and then it became more serious. Our first recordings sounded like horrible acapella that was recorded just using a computer and a mic.

Minus the 1^st acapella release… have you any other albums?
Nick did a solo album in 2008 before the band officially got together. Also in October of 2011 Nick recorded and released a second solo album with Riley playing drums entitled, Nick LeBlanc & The Pink Beans.

In 2009 we literally only had five practices before we recorded our first single, “Real Scares Can’t Be Seen.”  Earlier in 2011 we finally released our first full length album called Get Famous.

Here is my experience with your band.  I literally went from hearing you practice in your parents basement and not even knowing your band name to seeing you release your album.  Then you were in SoCo Magazine, then the Standard Times, and now you’re here with New Bedford Guide.  Obliviously, you are smart enough to start with the smaller news and entertainment sources before moving up the bigger more influential ones…

Anyway. So then I’m in the bathroom, brushing my teeth, and all of a sudden I hear music coming from the living room that sounds very strangely like my favorite song from your Get Famous album called, “Drinking Schiltz with Jesus.”  I went to check it out, and there your album is on t.v., being featured on NECN’s morning show in their local music section: I almost s*** myself and had to shower again. So, the question is: How have you become so good at promoting yourself?

At this point they were laughing their asses off at me.

HAHAHA, this guy is the best interviewer ever! (Yes, they really said that.)

We do absolutely everything and everything we can; 100% shameless self-promotion all the way. Like you said, we spoke with you guys at Local Oracle about promoting our shows, we’ve been in the Standard Times and SoCo Magazine. We have even been emailing professional musicians AND WE’VE BEEN GETTING EMAILS BACK FROM THEM; it’s the best! Even if we’re at a party, we’ll stop the music that is playing and put our music on. Whatever we can do.

Who are your favorite bands and how do you describe your own music?
Everything from AC/DC and Sonic Youth, to Neil Young and bands like Led Zeppelin.  Danny explained it like this: “I’m halfway through a two year graduate program to get my MFA in Music Composition with a focus in what they call ‘Experimental Sound Practices,’ which is focuses on electronic and experimental music. But I don’t think we’ve ever thought, ‘Oh, well if we do experimental music, let’s just throw some of that in here.’ I think it informs our mindset more generally, and leaves the door open to trying new things if it fits the music. There are certainly elements in the kinds of sonic qualities you see in that music that we incorporate into our music, but they can be two very different beasts as well.”

(If you ask me they are rock n’ roll)

What is all this Kickstarter business you are talking about now on Facebook.  You mentioned using it to help you raise money for your newest venture?
We are using Kickstarter to help us raise money so that we can fly to California to record our next album at Danny’s college that has state of the art musical recording equipment. Kickstarter is a program set up where anyone can submit their goal/idea in hopes of finding others to donate money to help accomplish their goal. You set the amount you need to raise and the duration of time you want to raise the money in. If you don’t meet or exceed your goal by the date you put forth you lose the money and NO ONE gets charged or loses their potential investment. We need to raise $1000.00 by August 24^th

To learn more about the Kickstarter program, click here. Click here to see the Lesser Knowns Kickstarter page.

Since Danny lives in CA and travels back and forth for shows, what is the practice situation like?
Yeah he does. As far as band practice goes, Nick, Riley and I (Dan) practice at Riley’s weekly, and send demos of the new stuff over to Danny via email so he can learn the new songs and write his bass parts. He’ll do the same from California with his demos. It’s strange, but when he comes back, it’s like he never left. We always seem to pick up right where we left off.

For instance, before the Blackwatch gig we only had a couple practices, but Danny managed to learn three new songs.  I think that’s one of our greatest assets–the fact that we have such great band chemistry that it doesn’t matter when, where or how often we play, we’re always able to put forth a great show.

So what’s the end goal? I’ll be very real: People aren’t interested in just giving money away, especially to musicians who don’t want to work “real jobs” and just want to play music. There has to be a passion that makes it worth spending money on you, and everyone has to see it.  They are not going to be giving you money to go to California if they don’t believe in you or think you’re not going to be a band three weeks later.

Our end goal is to turn our intense passion for creating and playing music into a career. There isn’t a moment during the day when we’re not thinking about the band and what needs to be accomplished or planned- things like booking shows, making flyers, updating websites, writing new material, etc.

I think we really have a unique combination of music, talent and personality that is capable of carrying us a long way, but not without aid and support from our fans, of course. I think anytime someone feels as driven and committed to a project as we do about the band, it’s a sign of things to come that definitely should not go overlooked or unnoticed.

If someone donates money what do they get?
$1 gets your name on our “Thank You” list on our CD Cover.
$5 gets you a digital download of the album.
$10 gets you an autographed copy of the CD and free digital download.
$100 gets you…a date with one of the members!

Well, you’ve got $10 from my wallet. I was not as focused at your age as you guys are, but if I had as good of a grip on my dream as you do, I would want someone to help me out with a donation.  Plus, I’d pay that anyway for your CD so there’s really no downside.  Alright well you guys get going; it’s your turn to get up on stage and rock out.

The Lesser Knowns next show is June 20^th, at Piano’s in New York City.

Cheers!