Gentlemen and Scholars

“Being from a small town and trying to do big things, everyone expects you to fail. Everyone has plans for you after your pet project, which is our life, fails. Because even though the music is good, they expect you to screw it up.” Wes Beach of Gentlemen And Scholars talks about the impetus to name their new album The Fault. “Our last album used a lot of metaphors to veil things but this album is more personal, it’s us musicially and lyrically. Whatever happens with our music good or bad it’s our own fault.” Judging from the band’s sound you can blame them for merging arena sized singer/songwriter material to spacey bursts of punk. Prominent in their sound is Beach’s vibrato filled melodic vocals (reminiscient of Craig Wedren of Shudder To Think). In their arsenal is Pat Brady who mans both the synth and piano. Beach and Brady are in full display in the voice/piano duet Vanity accompanied by a vocal chorus that seems like frat channeling the Beach Boys. Beach laughs “we used a cello player on this album and his band-mates from his own project came to hang out while we were recording. I wanted to do a song where it was just my voice with the piano but when the guys were there we tried to experiment with a chorus to make it full. Obviously not all of those guys are vocalists but we all loved how it turned out.”

Hailing from Evansville, IN the band is rounded out by guitarist Adam Noblett, bassist Jeremiah Galey and drummer Kyle Burchett. “Three of the guys in our band have been playing together since fourteen years old and Adam and I have been playing together since age sixteen” says Beach. “We knew each other from playing the local scene and were driven but each band had members that weren’t as dedicated or held us back. So two years ago we got together a whole band of guys totally dedicated and determined to do whatever it takes to succeed.” On their own the band have accomplished much in two years, booking several national tours starting less than two months after they came together. “Live we are pretty energetic, you won’t be seeing us standing still for sure.” While the show may be entertaining, the bills that the band shares usually aren’t well matched. “We don’t exactly fit with either the teen bands or the mid 20’s type of band. We played with them all, including super aggressive hardcore acts where people aren’t expecting a band like us.”

Self-releasing 2008’s album The Record, The Keepsake And The Thief which received favorable press including Absolute Punk.net who proclaimed their music “gives hardcore a sophistication and symphonic pitch that keeps it alive and meaningful for upcoming generations of rock.” Torque Records came calling soon after and the band began work on their follow up album. “We recorded at home with the same guy who did our last album. We saved a ton of money and it allowed us to take time recording. It was a real group recording because no matter who was doing their part that day we would all sit around and offer as much of an opinion as possible without sounding like a jerk. We also played a good deal of Mario 2 and 3.”

kings of leon, cage the elephant, circa survive, the mars volta, the dear hunter, as tall as lions