It's All In Your Head
Thursday, September 6, 2007 at 10:53AM 
Bring Back Glam! recently spoke with Jacob and David Lynam of Birmingham, Alabama-based Lynam. The band is hard at work, putting finishing touches on their new album Tragic City Symphony. After three independent releases, Lynam jumped to the major leagues and signed with DRT Entertainment. In 2006, the band released Slave to the Machine, and hit the road with some of the biggest bands touring America today. During the interview, Jacob and David talk about their rock philosophy, their connection to Bon Jovi and joining the Motley Cruise -- just don't call them an 80s band. Transcription follows.
Bring Back Glam! I just recently learned of your band. How are you gaining such a strong following?
Jacob Lynam (vocals and guitar): We released the record (Slave to the Machine) nine or ten months ago on DRT, it came out everywhere, so that was the first time a lot of people had heard of us other than the south east states, then we went on tour with Hinder, and played shows with Cinderella, RATT and Poison. We also went out with Godsmack, Puddle of Mudd and Saliva – and that opened up a lot of people’s eyes to who we are and what we do. It’s definitely been a building process.
BBG!: How long have you had your new album Tragic City Symphony in the can?
David Lynam (drums): Like a week ago, we wrapped production on the last song.
Jacob: We may do some more songs. We’ve had the songs for awhile. It’s one of those things: like a lot of bands will write ten songs when they are making a record, and say that’s enough for a record. Then, if you listen to those ten songs, maybe only two or three of them are worth a shit. Just because you write ten songs doesn’t mean the album is done. We sent them to our manager, and we get together with our diehard fans and we sort out everyone’s favorite songs. Every now and then, there will be a song we fall in love with, but once we play it live and listen to it recorded we’re like “You know what? That’s not a very good song, and we could do better!” There was a couple songs on Slave to the Machine that we felt that way about. We loved them when we wrote them, but when we recorded them, we felt we could do better. It turns out that management and the label and other people liked the songs, so they ended up going on the record anyway. Different strokes for different folks. Everyone has different tastes.
BBG!: So how do you explain the sound of your upcoming album?
Jacob: Our sound has evolved. We personally like big rock n’ roll. That doesn’t necessarily mean Motley Crue and Def Leppard – of course we like Motley Crue and Def Leppard – but when I say big rock n’ roll, I’m also talking about Green Day. Their most recent record American Idiot sounds like one of the biggest arena rock records I’ve ever heard. The reverb on the drums, the songs are so big sounding…it could mean Alice in Chains, Dirt. That’s a big sounding record, thanks to production and reverb. A lot of times when we talk about our sound and we say we like big arena rock, people automatically say “Oh, they’re like an 80s band.” We love 80s music, don’t get me wrong, but we hate when people automatically put that label on us because we like big rock. A good song is a good song. Big rock is what we’re all about. That’s what we strive to achieve. When you listen to our songs…a lot of critics and industry people that don’t know anything about music… they look at the way that we look: we definitely have a rock star image. We don’t want to go out with flannel shirts and jeans on. Critics look at our picture and see that our influences are Motley Crue and Def Leppard, they decide we are an 80s band. Just for the record, we never said we were an 80s band.
BBG!: What’s the first single for your new album?
Jacob: We’re not sure.
BBG!: Do you know the street date?
Jacob: We don’t know. We’re still listening and making sure we are completely happy with everything. We’re thinking it will be out early 2008.
BBG!: Is “Tragic City Symphony” a song on the album, or is that just a random title?
Jacob: Birmingham is known as the Magic City. It’s always been the slogan. We just changed it kind of because the new record is wide open with song matters. The topics of the songs are all over the place. The songs tell a lot of stories, kind of like a symphony or opera would. We’ve got a lot of strings on the new stuff.
BBG!: How did you hook up with Tom Keifer of Cinderella?
Jacob: Our manager also manages Cinderella and Nickelback. There’s always been an awareness of Lynam in the Cinderella camp because of our manager. When we actually played with them, we gave Tom our Slave to the Machine CD and he called and said it hadn’t been out of his player in like a month. He loved it so much, (and) he said our songs sounded so good that he wanted the guy who mixed our record to mix some songs for his solo album. I just told him how big of fans that we are, and always been…He told us he lived in Nashville, and we live in Birmingham which is only a three hour drive, so we asked him if he would play on our record. Literally, the next week he called and we got together and hung out. He’s an awesome human being.
BBG!: What is the name of the song he is on?
Jacob: He did one song, called “Enemy.”
David: Anytime you hear slide guitar in that song, it’s him.
BBG!: Does he provide any vocals?
Jacob: No.
BBG!: Your video for “Tanis” (from Slave to the Machine) is so good. Why did you remix that song?
Jacob: The record company made us. We liked the original version just fine, but hey, they are the ones spending all the money on a video and sending it to radio, so if it makes them feel better for the remix, so be it.
BBG!: Do you recall the video getting much airplay?
Jacob: I saw it on Vh1 twice, but it wasn’t the actual video. More like the commercial for the album twice. I know we were the download of the day on Fuse. On the Indie charts, we hit number one on both mainstream and active rock. It’s pretty cool to have a number one song on both charts in the country.
BBG!: Jacob, did you win an award for writing a Christian song?
Jacob: Um, yes.
David: (Laughs). I don’t even know about that!
Jacob: Last year I actually won - from Billboard magazine - I won first place in the Christian music category...
BBG!: “Song For Our Life”
Jacob: Yep, “Song For Our Life” but that wasn’t for Lynam, that was for an artist named Mike Shaw. They (Billboard) got in touch with me, and I got an award and money and it was real cool. Then, the same thing happened with another one of those contests. I won first place in the Christian category – and this year, I won first place again. It hasn’t been announced yet and it’s not on the website, but I won first place in the Christian category. One of our biggest fans on the planet is Catholic priest. The person that runs Jon Bon Jovi’s fan club – backstage with Jon Bon Jovi – was Jon’s mom. She ran it for years with their priest, a guy named Father Bob. Father Bob and her ran the fan club since 1988. Just recently, Jon’s mom retired and Father Bob retired, and the fan club got turned over to Matt Bon Jovi, which is Jon’s brother. Father Bob, he is one of the biggest Lynam fans in the world, to the point that he flew all of us – he paid for it – to New York so we could watch Bon Jovi play at Madison Square Garden. He gave us fourth row tickets, total V.I.P. treatment, so it’s crazy how diverse our fan base is. It’s insane.
BBG!: How did you get hooked up with the Motley Cruise?
David: Myspace has lead so many people of the era to our music, from Jani Lane to producer Beau Hill. Vince Neil’s manager found us through Myspace.
Jacob: Yeah. What happened is that Vince Neil’s manger said he heard about us through the guy that does Motley Crue’s website. The web guy told him that he had to “check out this new band Lynam, they’re totally rock.” Well, he went and bought the CD and emailed me and said that he is a huge fan. We hear this all the time, but this guy really was. He knew deep cuts on the album, like names of the songs and what the songs are about, and he asked us if we would join the cruise on behalf of Vince.
David: Anytime you offer us a free vacation, we’re there!
BBG!: Ok, what’s the deal with your band name. Are you brothers or not?
Jacob: Meh, it’s like the Ramones or the Donnas. All our names really aren’t Lynam. It’s just one of those things that we did.
BBG!: Ok then, is it true that two of your band members have the same last name but are not related?
Jacob: Nope, that’s not true either. Everything that you read about us is always full of shit, 100%.
BBG!: Well, how much have you been lying to me during this interview?
David: We’ve been very forthright during this interview!
Jacob: We are actually telling 100% truth during this interview. We’re talking about bios and stuff.
BBG!: Well, I read the bits about your names from another interview.
David: I told them they wouldn’t be in my damn band unless they changed their names to my last name!
Jacob: What you read…When we signed with DRT, they got a guy that writes bios for everybody. There are only about six guys that write bios in the entire industry for all the major labels, and that’s why all the bios sound the same. Our official bio at www.drt-entertainment.com, it talks about name. The guy got it all wrong –
BBG!: He got it wrong, or you told him wrong?
Jacob: Well, see DRT wanted us to have a true bio…they wanted the whole story. I gave him the whole story, and he got everything mixed up. As far as the bios on our Myspace page, anything that we’ve done, that's for fun. Band bios are just boring.
David: All of them. Wait until you read our next band bio!
Photo courtesy: Allison White Studios for Lynam, via www.myspace.com/lynam
Reader Comments (17)
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