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Sister
Hazel are five down-to-earth guys from Gainesville, Florida.
When their heartfelt debut "Somewhere More Familiar" was first
self-released in 1996, it sold over 10,000 copies in less
than three months. When Universal Records re-released the
album in the winter of 1997, the catchy love-struck first
single "All For You" became one of the most played songs on
radio that year. Over a million records later, Ken, Andrew
and Ryan sit down with StarPolish and talk about what makes
the Sister Hazel machine tick.
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A Long Road…
KEN BLOCK: The idea when I first
thought about putting Sister Hazel together was, I had been in all
kinds of different bands, as had all of us been in varying types
of bands. I always loved the intimacy and harmonies of the singer/songwriter
and the lyricist, and how they could really tell a story and be
so personal and so intimate just with an organic instrument and
their voices. But as I got a little bit older and got into high
school and the bands that everyone was listening to were Judas Priest
and Motley Crue and heavier bands of that sort, I started playing
in bands like that and just really got addicted to that adrenaline
and that sort of energy. We come from the South, and we have a lot
of Southern rock roots as well as the organic thing, but what I
think this band has succeeded [in doing] is capturing that singer/songwriter
mentality, with the harmonies and lyrics and sort of the organic
vibe. But with Ryan in the band and the phenomenal slide guitar
playing and all the different [things] stylistically that he can
bring, and musically what he can bring -- and from an energy standpoint
what our rhythm section brings -- it covers all the bases for us…we
are able to achieve all that. We're one of those bands that can
strip down and play naked - play naked! - with just acoustic instruments
or go out and play right before the Foo Fighters in front of the
show. So it's been real important for us to be able to cover that
much ground.
Individually we've been at it forever - Ryan, how long you been
playing guitar, man?
RYAN NEWELL: Around 20 years.
KEN: He picked up when he was
around seven or eight years old and Andrew's had music in his family
almost his entire life.
ANDREW COPELAND: I grew up with
it…in fact, I'm probably the worst musician in my family (laughs).
KEN: I know Mark's been playing
drums since before he was 10 and Jeff's been in bands since middle
school, and my Dad was a music major - he actually got his degree
at NYU before moving south. And I've been playing literally out
in public since I was 12 years old. So we've all been at it separately,
doing different things, our whole lives, pretty much. But Sister
Hazel as an entity - Andrew and I have been singing together for
at least 10 years now, informally and then kind of formally as an
acoustic duo doing some things, but that was really a separate project
from Sister Hazel, and when Sister Hazel came on board we started
building on it. And Jeff came in and really believed in the project,
and the drummer we had initially didn't want to travel as much and
wasn't really quite into the same thing stylistically, and we got
Mark involved. And then when Ryan came in it took a big weight off
my shoulders from having to front the band and play lead guitar
- I never claimed to be a lead guitar player, I'd rather write songs
than front a band. That was really the final piece. (talking to
Ryan) You'd been doing demos with us in '94 for that record that
came out, the first record where you just sat in and jammed, and
I don't think you were in the band until…
RYAN: December of '95.
KEN: So, this is our sixth year
as this unit, and the band probably seven-and-a-half years now…so
it's been a long road for us.
Setting Goals
KEN: Our whole goal was, "Let's
make an impact in our home town," which was Gainesville, Florida,
the University of Florida, a medium-sized town. And if we could
make an impact there, well then let's take our dog-and-pony show
on the road a little bit further up the road to Tallahassee, Valdosta,
Orlando and Tampa, and make these concentric circles and just get
them a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger, going a little
farther away from home. And for us it worked. We were real fortunate
that people were connecting with our music. We'd go into these towns
and give away CDs on campuses, and we'd go into these cafes and
see cute girls sitting in a little place and give them free passes
to the shows…we did all sorts of stuff just to get people…remember
(laughs) we'd write down people's phone numbers so we'd have a place
to stay and sleep on their floors next time we came through town.
But it just built and built, and before we got signed there were
a dozen markets in the Southeast where we were drawing anywhere
from 400 to 1,000 people, 1500 people. And that was pretty cool
for us, where we weren't having to rely on major label support.
We were doing what we loved to do as college kids.
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