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 | By Heather Leszczewicz Special to OnMilwaukee.com E-mail author | Author bio More articles by Heather Leszczewicz |
| Published May 18, 2006 at 5:04 a.m. |
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Milwaukee band Thomas Lane hopes to be celebrating after Monday's Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI) Awards at Potawatomi's Northern Lights Theater.
After being in the Milwaukee music scene for a relatively short time, the four WAMI nominations has the band -- comprised of Derek Wroble (vocals, guitar), David Burleton (vocals, guitar), Ben Estes (guitar), Frank Babeck (drummer) and Mike Moss (bassist) -- feeling excited yet thankful.
"The WAMI awards are an opportunity for members in the statewide organization to recognize people in all aspects of the music industry in Wisconsin," says Wrobel. "Being a relatively new band, we are extremely excited to be nominated. We have put hundreds of hours of work into the band, and having those involved in WAMI recognize that is a great feeling."
Thomas Lane has been nominated for two group awards, New Artist of the Year and Pop Artist of the Year, as well as two individual awards, Drummer of the Year and Bassist of the Year.
"We've made it a point to get involved in the music community in Milwaukee, and have worked hard to get people to listen to our music," Wrobel says. "Being an original band in Milwaukee has its challenges, but it's nice to see so many people supporting Thomas Lane."
Since forming in the spring of 2005, the band has now recorded its debut album "Something to Hold On To." Wrobel says that many of the songs that made it onto the album were reinvented from songs he and Burleton wrote prior to Thomas Lane's inception.
"Everyone in the band comes from diverse musical backgrounds, and I think this record captures those diverse influences," Wrobel says. "It was great to see everyone involved in the project add their ideas."
Thomas Lane's sound blends a mixture of genres, but Wrobel says that the music's foundation is "the lyrics and melody, and we build on top of that to create songs that fall into the general category of pop/rock."
The band's sounds reflects a mixture of bands like the Goo Goo Dolls, Keane, Incubus and Matchbox 20. Thomas Lane carves out its own sound with chords that'll suck listeners in as soon as a song begins.
Along with being nominated, Thomas Lane will be hitting the stage to perform some of its songs Monday night, which could possibly bring in a few more fans.
"We think people will find something in the band that they can relate to. We try to capture moments in time, feelings that we've had, and convey those emotions through our music in a way that is honest and sincere. We think people connect with that, both on the album and during our live show," Wrobel says.
The 26th Annual WAMI Awards Show is at 7 p.m. and tickets are $40. Awards will be handed out in 36 categories. There will be performances by Cache, Ill Grove Movement, Alaria Taylor, the Cool Waters Band, Twang Dragons and more. More information can be found at WAMI's Web site: wamimusic.com.
Thomas Lane's Web site is thomaslanemusic.com and its myspace is myspace.com/thomaslane.
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Posted by OMCreader on May 23, 2006 at 5:04 p.m. (report)
eaglescout said: Thomas Lane aint going anywhere with that pathetic band photo. i suggest investing those WAMI dues on a professional photographer.
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Posted by OMCreader on May 23, 2006 at 3:15 p.m. (report)
Get Involved said: Yes, if you want to join WAMI, there's a fee. There is no fee to attend the meetings. I guess they should make that more prominent. Don might be best to speak on that as I know he handles the membership for the organization. As for the nomination process, from what I understand, it works this way: * WAMI members receive a nomination form in the mail and can nominate as many bands/musicians/etc. in the various categories. * The nominations are counted by the nomination committee and tallied. * The board reviews the nominations and based on nominations and what is known that the band accomplished in the year, the winner is selected. That is all I have been able to gather in my five years with the organization as member. I don't understand why a big deal is being made about a membership fee. How else is the organization going to support itself? Count on musicians to make voluntary donations? We all know how that goes with any population segment (see the Racine Zoo situation currently). The dues allow them to host membership meetings, a couple of seminars a year and the awards show along with a nice nominee party that they started last year. While I've never been fortunate to be a nominee, I have learned a lot from guest speakers and the seminars and have enjoyed the awards shows. I know WAMI isn't going to please everyone, but I think it does a good job and has grown. As for being able to change things without being a member, I know I just grabbed the ears of board members and they were very open to my ideas. For a volunteer organization, they do a solid job in my humble opinion.
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Posted by OMCreader on May 23, 2006 at 12:36 p.m. (report)
Newbomb Turk said: Not to take away from Thomas Lane, as this article was about them, but it seems this is where the WAMI people are responding regarding the WAMI's. Don Wadewitz - Sure, Thomas Lane may be involved with NACA but you'd never know it by visiting their website (unless you had a membership). All Envy Aside has toured Wisconsin extensively (that's about all I could gather) as well as Boxkar. I'm a little familiar with the other bands, and I do mean little. But still I can think of a dozen Wisconsin bands that received no mentions and have toured nationally and got media attention on a higher level (publications like CMJ New Music Report as an example). Get Involved - You mentioned the monthly membership meetings are free. But if I go on WAMI's website, I see there's a $40 membership fee. I do believe there was some ballot stuffing in the 80's and WAMI was proactive in keeping that from repeating. And it was legitimate that other areas outside Milwaukee weren't acknowledged in the past and WAMI addressed that also. But I find it hard to believe you can generate new ideas without buying into the membership. So back to my original question: Who generates the nominations and what is the process? Get Involved, it appears you have the answer so please explain.
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Posted by OMCreader on May 23, 2006 at 11:21 a.m. (report)
Don Wadewitz said: Thomas Lane is taking the college circuit by storm. They put their necks out there and invested a lot of money in NACA, something other bands don't do, and it's paid off big for them. They're touring all over the country on the college circuit. When they told me they signed up for NACA (being a former college booker and NACA member), I told them that it is probably a three year process to be successful as an indie band at NACA with no representation. They were ready for it, but guess what, I had to eat my words big time as they had immediate success. I never saw a band do that in all my time as a member of NACA. It just doesn't happen. Envy (or All Envy Aside) won a national competition and received airplay on mtvU and a lot of other publicity. Quite deserving if you ask me. Boxkar has played the national circuit including a date with the President I believe. Rusty P's are just phenomenal. They've been around for quite a while. Great Guns, Fell Boyz, Swing Nouveau, the MAHP and Spiral Trance have all been on the scene for a while. There, I think I've addressed your issues that there are no bands that are national or regional touring acts and the fact that many of the bands don't seem to be around for awhile. Did I miss addressing something?
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Posted by OMCreader on May 23, 2006 at 11:13 a.m. (report)
Get Involved said: The bottom line is that if you want to get a nomination, the people that nominate need to see you and hear from you. The organization touts networking and, guess what, you don't have to be a member to do that. The monthly membership meetings are free and open to the public, whether in Milwaukee, Racine/Kenosha or Fox Valley. I fully agree that bands like Maritime need to get recognized. I nominated them, but they didn't reach the nomination level. Ten years ago, the argument was that WAMI was fixed and that a limited few people were getting nominations and winning awards and the organization was ignoring the other areas of the state. Now, it's that artists that are touring outside of Wisconsin but from Wisconsin aren't getting recognized. Instead of whining about it, get involved...Get on the board and bring some fresh ideas. If you're not involved, you have no right to complain...Bottom line...PERIOD. You admitted you weren't involved, so why don't you get involved and try and effect some change? You don't even need to pay money to do that.
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