Green River Ordinance: A Southern Comfort

One thing that may plague the music of our current time is how synthetic it sounds. The reign of auto-tune has made it more important for an artist to look, rather than sound, marketable. That’s why it is so comforting to see a group like Green River Ordinance who are getting noticed the hard way. Their natural, organic growth over the last ten years has taken them from high school rockers to signed to Virgin Records. Guitarist Jamey Ice was kind enough to talk with me about the band’s journey.

TM: So you have a new tour going on, tell me a little about that.

JI: Yeah it’s a pretty little tour. We’re just going for 12 days or so up the East Coast and then back down. Pretty much the entire past year we have just been opening for people playing short sets, like 30-40 minutes. So it’s our first time in a really long time to go out and headline our own shows and play longer sets.

TM: And your opener is Sleeperstar. How do you know them?

JI: They’ve actually been friends of ours for a really long time. They’re another band from Dallas, TX. They used to be in another band called Bare Foot that was on Geffen Records for a while, probably like 5 or 6 years ago. They toured with Ashlee Simpson, Jessica Simpson and stuff like that. They formed this band about two years ago. They’re kind of a new band but up and coming and just really good dudes. So it’s going to be fun just hanging out with some our friends. Their music’s great, I think our fans will really like them and I’m just looking forward to hanging out with them for a couple of weeks.

TM: It’s like a little road trip. Have you played Boston before?

JI: Yeah! We played Boston a few times. It’s actually probably one of our favorite places to play. Let’s see, we’ve played at the Paradise twice. Those two shows were amazing. I think they were both sold out. They really take care of you there and it’s in a cool part of town. We played a show at T.T. the Bears once, a long time ago. The past few times we’ve been to Boston it’s been really good to us. The local radio stations there have been really supportive and we’re excited to go back.

TM: Well we’re glad to have you. Now you’ve had a bit of a long journey to get to the point you are now. Were there a lot of speed bumps along the way?

JI: Ahh you know there are definitely always speed bumps, but it’s been a really cool journey. It definitely didn’t happen over night. And still to most people we’re a new band; we’re a baby band even though we’ve been playing together for 10 years. We met in high school and played together in college. We started touring a lot in college when grades started going down. So we dropped out, convinced our parents it was a good idea and bought a van and trailer. Our parents said, ‘€œWe’ll give you one year, tour the country and if you don’t have a record deal at the end of the year you have to go back to school.’€ Low and behold we toured the country and ended up signing with Virgin and released an album about a year ago. I never thought our song would be on the radio. Our video has been on VH1 a whole lot. You know, it’s friggin crazy!

TM: Well that’s pretty amazing that you met your parents’ deadline. It sounds like you grew up in a very supportive environment.

JI: All of our parents are fairly musical. My dad plays harmonica and he always had two or three bands he played with. My parents would always take us to concerts. I think my first concert was to see Eric Clapton in 6^th grade. And then the next year my parents took me to see ZZ top and Lynard Skynard, and then Aerosmith, even a bunch of local bands like the Old 97′s, Flickerstick and Toadies.  Josh, our singer, his dad was a country singer and his brother is a country singer. Josh Wilkerson, our other guitar player, his dad is a drummer in a pretty big cover band around Fort Worth. They played my prom. He was in a rock and roll band when he was in college and they toured with the Beach Boys and Cheaptrick. We all had this family home structure that was very musical and we definitely couldn’t do what we have done without our parents’ support.

TM: And how about your hometown? How important was your friends support when you first started?

JI: [Laughs] You know at the time when we were in high school we came from three or four different schools and [more laughter] initially our music really wasn’t that good, but we were pretty popular in high school. So we would play a concert and like 500, 600 high school kids would show up. We were kind of like the only high school band at the time. Now it’s like being in a band is the new football; everybody’s in a band.  But so we would play a show and everybody knew. All the other high schools would be there and it would be a big party. That definitely opened up a lot of doors for us when we were younger.

TM: Well you’ve certainly come a long way. What are your hopes for the future of the band?

JI: You know when people ask that there are always two sides to that. There’s a personal side where I think we’re called to be content with where we’re at. So many people live in the future and miss today. At the end of tomorrow I have enough stories to be able to tell my kids and grandkids one day. I’ve gotten to live and do so much that I’ve only dreamed about.

Then there’s the business side of things where you always want more. I think GRO as a business and as a name, there’s a whole lot more we want to accomplish. We’re definitely not a household name by any means but we’re working at it. We want to have one of those songs that become a classic 10 years from now. We want to be a household name like the Fray, Maroon 5, and Matchbox 20.  There’s a lot more on that and a lot more touring in the future. Hopefully we’ll release another single to radio and just keep whittling away at that. We’ll see where it takes us.

TM: Hey great answer man.

JI: [laughs]

TM: And those household names you listed are those some of the band’s influences?

JI: Yeah those are definitely some of the influences. If you listen to some of our music we’re definitely children of the 90s. We grew up listening to stuff like Vertical horizon, Tonic, and Third Eye Blind. One thing we’ve always tried to accomplish is write songs, that have melodies that people can sing along to, kind of in the vein of the 90s with a modern twist making it our own. We’re also from the South, so I think there’s a little bit of that kind of sing along, Texas, southern rock feel.

TM: And how about your personal influences? Is there something that maybe you bring that the rest of the guys don’t?

JI: We all kind of stretch it in different ways. Two of my favorite bands would be like U2 and Tom Petty and a whole lot of my guitar playing is very U2/The Edge. All the delay guitar playing kind of stuff. I love that but then I also love the sing-along, short simple sweet melodies of Tom Petty. He has a saying that’s ‘€œdon’t bore us get to the chorus’€ and I’ve always been a big proponent of that. Write something that is short, easy and people can sing a long to. But we all come with different things. My brother listens to a lot more indie music. Our drummer grew up playing jazz. So we all bring our different elements.

TM: The band has a really great chemistry. Were there conscious things you had to do to bring all those elements together?

JI: I think just by default, playing with the same guys for almost 10 years that’s bound to happen. When I come home and I’m in town I’ll play with different people or I’ll sit in and jam with some friends, play a church or random stuff like that. It’s fun for me but I also hate doing it. With the guys it’s like we all know how each other work.

TM: Your brother plays bass in GRO. Have the two of you been playing together even before the band?

JI: Yes yes yes, in middle school when I was in 8^th grade and he was in 6^th we played Sweet Home Alabama in a middle school talent show. We’ve been playing together for a long time.

TM: So are you the next greenwood brothers.

JI: Hahaham I don’t know about that. I think there is something to brothers in bands. There are so many cool bands that have brothers in them. We toured a lot with Collective Soul; they have two brothers in the band. Another band we just toured with was Need to Breathe and they have two brothers. AC/DC, Kings of Leon. There’s so many.

TM: Well excellent you definitely have a lot to be proud of. Anything else you would like to add?

JI: I think one of the things that make us different from most bands is we don’t take ourselves too seriously. You meet so many bands and artists that just try to be so cool. For us we’re just 5 normal guys who play music. That doesn’t define who we are. We like to have fun.