My Body Sings Electric!

In 2010, My Body Sings Electric began writing music and performing as a band.  Lead singer, Brandon Whalen and Guitarists, Nick Crawford and Jeff Fedel met when Brandon’s old band, Arms Over Colorado, and Nick and Jeff’s old band, Nemonic, played together at the Gothic Theater.  “That night I didn’t think their lead singer was good, so I told them to fire him,” Whalen admits.  After a bit of time, Nemonic ended up having a fall out with their lead singer anyway, allowing Brandon to join the band.  Later, “our bassist had a kid and we had known Jason (Bower) from middle school and he jumped in,” Crawford explains.  Eventually, the band’s drummer dropped out and The Skyline Surrender’s drummer, Ben Scarboro, took over.  “Ben actually played in a band that our guitarist filled in for their guitarist for awhile, then he filled in for us for awhile and then it was just a natural transition into keeping Ben,” says Crawford.

With a fully formed band, My Body Sings Electric chose to pursue music together because “everything else was boring,” Bower states instantly.  “We are all very passionate about music and were into the same things at the same time when we started the band,” Whalen explains more.  And in being “music nerds,” this career path was the best option for the members of My Body Sings Electric.

The name My Body Sings Electric is quite unique, so how did the band come to be known by this name? “We threw 100 names into a hat and we would pull them out, vote on it and put it into a bracket”, Whalen describes. “We got to the end and hated the one that won and somehow ended up with this one.”  This seems a bit complex, so Bower simplifies it by telling us that the name is a spinoff of the Walt Whitman poem, I Sing the Body Electric.

As of now, My Body Sings Electric has released two albums: They Don’t Want Music and Changing Colors.  “We started writing Changing Colors before Ben was in the band then Ben helped us finish up the last couple of songs,” Whalen tells us. When they returned home from recording Changing Colors, the band won Hometown for the Holidays for the first time.  “We were no longer making songs for just our friends.  Other people actually liked our music, we like it and we were growing and that was the turning point. And that’s why changing colors. We changed our colors,” Bower shares.  This album includes the band’s most recent single, Oceancreast.  This was one song that, even though it formed itself both in the story and the lyrics, took the band about a year to perfect.  “Honestly we were playing a totally different version for a year and people seemed to like it, but we recorded it once and hated it.  I just thought it wasn’t quite there so when we went back to record it again, we changed the structure, added some new parts in and it finally turned out right,” Whalen explains.

Every band has their influences and for My Body Sings Electric, each member had their own ideas.  “I think if you asked all of us, we would have a lot of the same answers and a lot of different answers.  And it changes too.  If we are into a new awesome band that inspires us, we write a cool song like that and a month later we will be into something else and be real stoked about that. It always changes,” Bowers shares.  And with these influences comes the question of what the band ultimately wants their listeners to think when they hear their music.  “I don’t want them to think about us when they hear our music,” says Fedel.  “I want them to think about themselves. I want them to just listen to the music and want to dance and have fun.” 

What people thought of My Body Sings Electric’s music was not always the same, however.  Their music has changed drastically from metal and screaming to dancy and unique.  “I use to scream a lot so it was pretty heavy and we were writing really complicated time signatures. We finally got tired of nobody except musicians liking our music and decided that we were going to try to write a little more accessible music,” says Whalen.  The band does not want to be too generic, though. “We want to be on the radio, but we don’t want to be writing songs that sound just like the last One Republic single,” says Whalen.  Unique, fun, and relatable music is what the band has officially come to accept.

Recently, My Body Sings Electric has had the opportunity to play a show at The Pepsi Center.  Whalen describes how everyone is helpful and accommodating at The Pepsi Center.  Bowers follows in explaining how The Pepsi Center gave them many tickets to give to their friends and family, but “no Pepsi, ironically.”  “Most local shows we have to promote really hard or you have to get your family and friends tickets the day of the show, so you’re getting phone calls every 10 minutes and then you still have to get off work early and battle traffic to get down there on time.  It was nice having a relaxed, fun show to play,” Crawford tells us. 

Aside from The Pepsi Center, My Body Sings Electric has played many shows with other local bands.  The band has enjoyed playing with bands like Air Dubai, The Epilogues, and The Photo Atlas.  But who would they like to play with in the future?  “The Killers, Radiohead, Snow Patrol, and Jimmy Eats World,” says Scarboro. “Rise Against, I’d like to play with them,” Bowers follows with a slight laugh also adding Minus the Bear and Kings of Leon.  “Two Door Cinema Club, The Neighborhood’s awesome, Atlas genius,” Whalen adds to the list.  The band hopes to one day get to tour with one of these bands and be doing as well as Air Dubai is by this time next year. 

Another big show in the works is the annual Westward Music Showcase.  This festival is held every summer over multiple stages where both local and non-local bands play sets and hope to win the award for their genera of music.  This year, My Body Sings Electric hopes “for not so hot of a day,” says Scarboro.  “The stage was literally so hot last year that I couldn’t stand still without my feet starting to burn through my shoes. My feet were just sizzling from standing there,” says Whalen.  “Well that’s what you get for not regularly hot coaling with your bare feet like me,” Bowers retorts.  The band also hopes to have more of an audience this year and to get along better with some of the other bands.  “We didn’t really connect to any of the main stage bands last year, so I’m hoping that we can at least make a couple new friends when we’re doing the main stage.  It’s going to be fun. That event’s always great,” Whalen shares.

Now most people know how a concert works, but what they don’t know is what happens in the band’s free time.  This consists of traveling to out of town gigs and priceless memories while on the road.  While on the road, My Body Sings Electric is very food driven, tired, and sociable with music fans.  “These guys will sleep like 14 hours a day while we’re driving. Jason and Jeff will sleep all day,” Whalen teases.  “When we get to the cities we are supposed to play in, though, we always try to eat somewhere,” Crawford adds.  “We eat so much food,” Scarboro comments.  The band will also stop in cities and either hand out fliers and talk to people or even play on street corners.  “We’ve been kicked off street corners in San Francisco, though.  A cop came and watched us finish our song and was like good stuff guys, now you’ve got to shut it down,” Crawford recalls.  When asked about the craziest thing that has happened on the road, the members of the band started laughing.  “When we played in San Francisco the first time, everyone was asleep, except me. I was on my computer just diddling around.  I didn’t even notice, but Jeff had just gotten up and left the room. I don’t know what he was doing.  He doesn’t even know what he was doing.  I just went to bed and when we woke up in the morning it was like, where is Jeff?  We all thought maybe he just went to get coffee or something. Then we found out he was just outside sleeping in the hall all night in his underwear, which is great,” Whalen explains through much laughter.  Apparently there are many other stories, but some are to be left on the van, per say.  So whether the band is practicing, joking with each other, playing on street corners or at shows, or sleep walking; the talented members of My Body Sings Electric are having a blast doing what they love.