Experience. There are plenty of crappy sayings about experience, but let’s face it, experience is usually helpful. Whether experience helps you get a job, perfect a skill, or become a better band, it’s a quality that only helps you get better. Appomattox has experience, and they are all the better for it.
Formed five years ago, Appomattox is a rock and roll band that seems to be peaking at just the right time. Made up of Nick Gaynier playing guitar and singing, James Mello playing drums and Dave Nurmi on bass, the gentleman of Appomattox have a pretty simple way of describing themselves. “We’re just a band,” says Nick.
Not to take away from Nick, but Appomattox is a good band. Descriptions and genres can be limiting, but Appomattox plays a pretty great blend of 60s garage rock mixed with mathy and spacey touches. Don’t tell them you heard that here though.
“You should hear our music however you want to hear it. I’m always astonished by what people hear in our sound,” says Nick, “it’s all about the songs, but I almost think of us as a pop-rock band.”
That’s not an unfair estimation on Nick’s part. While Appomattox will most likely not open for Nickleback, there are undeniable pop hooks in their sound. The band can be dirty, mathy, or spacey, but all that really matters are the songs. Unsurprisingly, the band’s songs kick all kinds of ass.
Appomattox’s most recent release, The Appomattox EP, displays the bands full range. ‘Rendition of You’ is for lack of a better term, rock and roll as fuck. Nick starts the song off with a grimy riff straight out of the 1970s while James and Dave groove the song the rest of the way home.
As soon as ‘Rendition of You’ finishes up, the band changes gears with ‘Equal Time’. A driving rock song that plays incorporates equal parts math rock and punk, ‘Equal Time’ sounds kind of at home next to ‘Rendition of You’. This is to say, Appomattox get their balancing act and they do it quite well.
As much as Appomattox wants to play awesome rock and roll songs, they have a message too. Nick sings about various political issues in Appomattox’s songs, but never in a way that feels condescending or polemical.
“I’m equal parts cynical and idealistic,” says Nick, “I do believe that government can have a good role in people’s lives. A major thing that I write about is, why should I have to have money to have basic needs met?” Fair enough.
After talking to the band, it becomes evident that Appomattox is on track to do some remarkable things. Just don’t ask for specifics. “We’re progressing towards step one,” says Dave with a laugh. “I don’t know,” says Dave when asked about the specifics of step one, “I don’t even know what step two might be.”
One of those steps might be writing on a new record and opening for bigger bands, and Appomattox is working on both right now. Appomattox is about to open for Mike Watt of Minutemen fame for two shows in Hoboken, NJ and New York. Additionally, the band is at work on their next record.
To get to where they need to be, James puts it the best. “The most important thing to us is making a good record, an awesome record, and to have an awesome live show.”
Check out Appomattox here, here, and here. You can see Appomattox live at Maxwells in Hoboken, NJ opening for Mike Watt this Sunday (4/3), at Mercury Lounge in New York opening for Mike Watt this Monday (4/4), and in at Bar in New Haven, CT April 13th.
