Maxing on civic media, we are local music. After August, river
opines as brand new local rock here on a Saturday night for
you. Hey, if you're out there tuning around, you can listen to
Maxing live in Madison on WM DX 92 seven mad radio, you could
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That's right, Jimmy. The pandemic is often remembered as a
negative time and surely it was, but the pandemic was also a
Kickstarter for creativity, technical streaming advancement and
bringing together new musical projects after August is one
such band performing in 2022 in Madison. They perform
original music in a new classic rock style. The five members
they're known for their award-winning songwriting, engaging
harmonies, driving rhythms and catchy riffs. Here in the studio
tonight is band leader Bob Manor and the other guys from
after August, after August, welcome to Maxing radio. Thank
you, rocker. Yeah, thanks. Tell us the other guys name. What
are you introduce yourselves, quick? All right. I am Greg
Pornberg. I am playing lead guitars on this on endeavor. We
have Dan Kennedy playing bass and Peach Mailing is on drums
and not here tonight is Sheila Shigley. She's doing some
vocalists we just heard. Yes, that's who you just heard and she's
doing some Irish gigs tonight. Her voice is fantastic. It's
amazing. Music perfectly. Second to none. Yeah. So you guys
describe yourself like new classic rock style. Do you need a
porn stash to play that? You do. Yeah. Because Jimmy just
got. We're all working on it. I'm weak from shaving the porn
stash. I'm going to dress this up for tomorrow. I'm rocking
one, too, here. Yep. Nice. You know, Bob, tell us about
after August, I mean, you know, you came about such a crazy
time. Tell us a little backstory of the band. A little back
story is Greg and I had worked on a project together during
the pandemic. And that was called tapest and it was kind of a
two man project that Dan played on it. Pete played on it, but
it was more like a, you know, just something to do during the
pandemic to pass the time. Right. And so we wrote a lot of songs
for that record. And then we decided to, you know, once the
pandemic was over, we decided to take it out and play. So we got
my wife into the band, Sheila. And we wrote some new songs. And
the whole idea with this band is that it's collaborative. We've
got, you know, multiple songwriters in the band. And we really
wanted to give everybody an opportunity to, you know, do their
thing. And then kind of create a cohesive sound. And the new
classic rock thing is like, okay, we're writing new music, but
we're influenced by a lot of classic rock, all of us. Yeah,
we're bringing guitar solos back. Right. Exactly.
I love it. Yes. And our mature age gentlemen, I really
appreciate the classic sound of the new music that's coming
out here as here's really cool. Now the new album is your first
debut album is called first sign of trouble. Was there a sign
of trouble? What's the trouble in this album here? Well, every
song I think is in a minor key for one. Someone who knows
nothing about minor keys, you know, the record is a little
dark. Okay, literally. And yeah, a lot of minor key stuff. And
there's the first sign of trouble is one of the lines and one of
the songs Sheila wrote for the band called Red Sky. And that's
on the record. So we liked that line for a title for the record.
So like fans and drummers like are wondering like, what's the
difference between a major and a minor chord? And Jimmy K's
wondering that too. Well, that's the deal with minor thirds and
major thirds. That's about it. Wow, that totally clears it up
for me. Yeah, major chords sound a little happier and minor
chords tend to touch that mood to be a little sad sometimes.
Yeah, D minor, if you watched the, the, what was it? Spinal
tab? Yeah, this is spinal tap. D minor is the saddest of all
keys. Yeah, it follows that other minor keys will also be sad.
So, you know, needless to say, we don't get invited for a lot of
wedding shows. Yeah. Well, I mean, if they're being a
realistic baby, right? Right. Right. Yeah. Well, they call us
about five years later. Hey, can you, you know, men, you just
need to a chord change. Can't guitar players do that? Yeah,
with cables. Yeah, you can do it. Yeah. Well, how do you feel
about releasing your new album in this post pandemic era? I
would say that we are, well, we're, this isn't kind of a new
sound for us. I mean, this, so it's, it's hopeful in a way, I
guess, but it's also kind of a reaction to the, to the music
that we hear out there, which, which is a little, yes, it's a
little blend at times. And so we want to, the new classic rock
really is not only just just the fact that we're bringing
guitar solos back, but it's also sort of how we approach the
recording process, which was sort of analog in nature,
digital in its format, but analog in its nature, we didn't do
a lot of auto tune on the vocals and things like that. You know,
so we really tried to capture the sound of the band in the
recording. And so when we go out and play live, you're, you're
hearing what we recorded, you know, so I think, I think, you
know, we're, we're, that we're hoping to bring that to, to
people. Do you find like a live band is in a way like less
repetitious, like because some of the, some of the music
today, you know, you record one piece of it, record another
piece of it. And then it's like repeated and, and paste, but
like, you know, in analog, like maybe the drummer doesn't play
the same, right? Phil, maybe the guitar player doesn't say
play the same riff, you know, yeah, we actually saying things
all the way through and play things all the way through, you
know, the set of cut and pasting and from, from point A to point
that's awesome. It's new classic rock. We got Bob, we got Greg,
we got Dan from after August. Their new album is called first
sign of trouble. I want to talk to you, Dan, because you're
kind of a rock star. You're kind of a big deal in the Madison
area here. I, I, before you walked in today, I had no idea
that you were in after August. I just don't pay an attention
these days, I guess. But I'm glad to see you here. I lurk in
the shadows in a lot of bands, really? You really do. Talk
about, talk about what you do beside after August. I mean, you
must have fun playing out with all the different musicians and
different album projects that you're involved with. But what
is it that drew you to these guys with after August?
Well, I started playing with the getaway drivers, like 43
years ago. What? I would, yeah, I think I had just been
born something. I was going to say four or five years ago,
not 43. No, but Bob recruited me from the Shawn Michael
Dargen band. Yeah. Okay. And I started playing with them
so 15 years ago. Yeah, something like that. And, and yeah, we've
just sort of, I've been in and out of that band a bunch of
different times as lineups changed and needs, needs changed
and this time around, they needed a bass player. And I've been
playing bass now for probably longer than I've been playing
guitar. So I said, hey, it sounds like fun. I love the songs
and that's great. So bass guitar. Do you play drums too?
Or I have played drums on occasion. I have played, I have
played gigs on drums. And you sing to how enjoyable it was
for anybody that had been listening. And you sing too, you have
a solo project that you do. You do a lot of open mics on a
cargo of a mistake. And yeah, yeah, I do every second Sunday at
cargo. I do what a soul session, which is supposed to be
like an Irish session or a bluegrass session where everybody
kind of sits around a circle and we just pass the lead around
whoever wants to do a song. So I would imagine the songwriting
collaboration and after August has to be pretty formidable. I
mean, all of you were seasoned musicians. What talk about the
songwriting process? How that happens? And how do you all bounce
ideas off each other? Well, a lot of times, we're the
collaborative process happens more in the arranging than the
writing where we're each bringing in songs that are basically
finished. And people might have ideas of different musical
ideas to throw in to, okay, we should do this for the bridge
or, you know, let's not repeat that section or stuff like that.
Don't copy and paste. Yes, exactly. So one of us will bring in a
song and just hope to God that the others like it. And don't
throw you out of the room. But it's really great. Everybody's so
supportive. And that's, that's the whole idea of this band is
to, you know, be egalitarian and, you know, try to bring the
best out everybody in terms of songwriting and playing. And
we've all been learning a lot in this band. The Sheila come
with her lyrics, writing her own lyrics. Do you guys ever take
lyrics to Sheila? No, she, she writes all her own, she's a great
lyricist. So you guys take care of the music and Sheila's on
Yeah, we tend to show Sheila tends to write in a, you know, sweet
tea country style, a lot of the time. So like river of pines
was first written on banjo. And we sort of led Zeppelin did
up as the band. And she, she loves that, you know, she's a
always surprised at what we can bring to it. And on this song,
in particular, the one that you played at the beginning of
the show, she really did some catterwalling on that, you know,
and it's not, not, not usual for Sheila to sing like that. But
she just got all soulful on it during the recording process.
And it's because we rocked it up. And that works really good.
I find sometimes singers can't remember lyrics unless they're
the people who wrote them. Yeah, you know, it's got to be my
lyrics are, I don't know what it was. Right. Hey, after August
will release their new album, first sign of trouble on Sunday,
March 24th, at the Harmony bar on the Atwood Avenue, was
Sean Michael Dargan. Where can we find this online? And will
there be vinyl? And I'm just asking for a friend. No, no, no
plans for vinyl at this point, but that's not out of the
question. So online, you know, just go on Facebook and type in
after August and or on Instagram. And you'll, you'll see where
the, you know, where the poster is and where the time isn't
everything. We also have a new website after August.net. Yes,
after August.net, you can stream there. There are links to
other streaming sites with, with the album on there. Nice
download or stream. Right. And you guys will curse are on the
streaming sakes, all the streaming sites. So add that to your
playlist, help these guys out. Hey, guys, thank you so much for
coming in tonight. We really appreciate you. Congratulations on
the new album. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. I think you
would be happy to be here. Before we go, tell us about this
next song we're going to play is called Insolitude. Great
lunch. Take that one. All right. Insolitude. Actually, this
is a cover of one of our songs on Tempest, the Tempest
album. And so you can sue yourself. We can. Yeah, we're
covering ourselves. We're taking ourselves a court pretty soon
on this one. Excellent. Yeah, just for the publicity. If
nothing else, right? Great band. I love that band, band sues
self over over writes to song. No, and solitude was actually
Bob wrote the lyrics for that. This was this came from a riff
that I had rattling around on the guitar for for decades,
literally decades. And we had written a short piece for this
about a minute, about a minute song for just sort of in
between song in on the Tempest album. And then Bob's family
came to us and said, you really can't leave us with just a
minute of this music. So Bob found some, some Latin to
recite. And some other lyrics. And I came up with some other
guitar parts for the song and finally finished it after, after
about 20 years, that song is finally complete and good to have
that one done. Wow, you're like the Beatles. Never throw
anything away, yeah. Never throw it away. You never know what
you might do. That's right. So this is one of our heavier
tunes on the album. Let's check it out. In solitude, this
after August on Maxing Civic Media, we are local music.