Band of the Week

Murder Mystery

There comes a time in your life when you have to determine whether you are in or if you are only going to pretend that you are in. Everyone has a dream, it may be a secret passion or it may be a visible goal, but regardless it is a dream. The path to fulfill this dream is rough and many times filled with tough decisions and steep risks. As a young band just starting out there maybe be no greater decision than that of touring. The most effective way to build a following is touring, but jobs may be lost in the process. Nevertheless, the band pours their resources into producing a professional studio album and they hit the road. They fill their sets with passion and hope to reach a few new fans in the audience.

This is exactly what New York's Murder Mystery is preparing to do as they set out on their first nation wide tour to promote the release their wonderful debut, Are You Ready for the Heartache Cause Here it Comes this January. Their debut album is packed with energetic pop and consistently clever melodies. Now they plan to venture out of New York for the first time and strive for something bigger.

Recently, Jeremy Coleman (Lead Vocals/Guitar) of Murder Mystery was kind enough to answer a few of my questions regarding the tour and the band in general.

Orange Alert (OA): Everyone loves a good 'Murder Mystery', but how did you guys decide on that as a band name?
Jeremy Coleman (JC): There's no real exciting story. Its just a name that's got a nice ring to it and it was the first name we could all agree wasn't terrible,which was surprisingly hard to find.
OA: Your debut album, Are you Ready for the Heartache Cause Here it Comes, was independently produced, but looks incredibly polished and professional.
JC: It probably looks professional because you have to have cd's duplicated at a pro company that has professional quality standards.So even though we are a tiny band, we probably used the same company as Bon Jovi to actually manufacture the cd's, which is probably why it looks decent. Its also why we sound exactly like Bon Jovi and use the same hairspray as Richie Sambora.

OA: I love how "Love Astronaut" has been incorporated into your logo,t-shirts, everything. That song is your most "electronic" song on album, are there plans to incorporate that sound into more of your music?
JC: Thanks. Yeah, I'd really like to do more. I listen to a lot of electronic stuff and I've been thinking a lot about this lately. I'm in the market for a good beat making/sampling computer program that can also track live instruments, but don't know which to use. If you have any suggestions, I'd like to hear em. Or if you have free copies of programs, I'd love to "borrow" them.

We never intended to make "Love Astronaut" a signature song or anything. One of my friends said to me just recently, "I love that you made the Love Astronaut a part of the branding." I just said,"Uhhhhh..." I guess some bands think long and hard about how to market themselves but we aren't one of those bands.

OA: It is great that all four members receive writing credit on the album. How is the song writing process handled?
JC: Usually I just bring a song to practice or send a demo to the others. Kevin wrote a song on the album too. He sent us a demo, we familiarized ourselves with it, then we played it in practice. Adam has started writing more songs now too and he sings one in concert. It usually goes something like that – one person writes a song and then everyone writes their own parts to it.

OA: As the band prepares to embark on a cross country tour it leads me to wonder if Murder Mystery is the bands full-time job? If it is not, what are some of the jobs held by the band?
JC: No, Murder Mystery isn't anyone's full-time job right now. We are hoping to get some press for this tour and build up enough momentum that we could survive off the band alone, but that isn't the way it is now. I work a part-time job and give guitar lessons, Kevin is a bartender/waiter at a hip restaurant, and both Adam and Laura had to quit their full-time jobs for this tour. So we are putting all our eggs into this one basket, which as everyone knows, always works out.

OA: What's next for Murder Mystery?
JC: Well, we got that national tour coming up in January and February. I've never really seen most of America, so I'm looking forward to it. And we're always writing and working on music, so a second album is definitely in the works. That's what I'm really looking forward to. I really want to get in the studio and make an awesome album, so that's hopefully gonna happen in the near future. And I want to the first man to pose nude for Tiger Beat magazine.

Bonus Questions:
OA: What has been your strangest concert moment?
JC: Man, I'm glad you asked this. The other night we played a party in Philly and Kevin was eating a blowpop as we played. It came time for him to sing his song so he had to take it out and put it down somewhere, so I said to the audience, "who wants to suck on kevin's blowpop during his song" or something equally perverted, and like 5 girls volunteered. One girl came and took it from him and put it in her mouth then took it out and gave it to another girl who was begging her for it. Man that was wonderful. I'm still giddy about it. The show was being taped by the venue, so I demanded they send me that moment.I don't care about the rest of the show, but that moment was hysterical. Its going on our website. It'll be our only video. It'll be our "Thriller."

OA: Where did the two statues on the cover come from? They really couldn't be in a better pose as it relates to the theme of the album.
JC: The cover photo was taken by a friend of ours, but wasn't initially intended to be our album cover. He bought the statues at a model train supply store. They are supposed to be waiting for a train, but they seem to just be having an insanely awkward interaction, just like the ones I tend to have.


Are You Ready for the Heartache Cause Hear it Comes
Who Doesn't Wanna Give Me Love?/In a Sentimental Mood/Love Astronaut (mp3)/Think Of Me/Honey Come Home (mp3)/Cold, Hard Workin' Man/Tell Me I'm Your Man/Baby, You Can Write Me a Letter/What My Baby Said/Huggin'/Sooner Or Later/It's All True


For more information on Murder Mystery check out their website, and to preorder you copy of their debut album go here.