A Conversation with Bronze Radio Return’s Chris Henderson – HuffPost 5.11.11

Mike Ragogna: Chris, how did you guys come up with your name?

Chris Henderson: The name Bronze Radio Return was inspired by old radio I grew up listening to in my fathers art studio in Maine. On this beautiful tube radio, we would listen to all kinds of great music from delta blues and jazz standards to American folk and country twang. I learned a great deal about music through osmosis from the sounds coming from that radio. When our band started making music together, we found that a common theme in most of our backgrounds started from listening to roots music at early ages. As a result, we decided we wanted to pay a certain homage to these styles with the music we would make together…the return of the bronze radio.

MR: What’s your origin story?

CH: The band was formed through people and places in Hartford, Connecticut. In college, I would sometimes pop down to Long Island to play blues with some friends at open mics or in peoples’ garages. On one occasion, I met our guitar player Patty there, and we started a musical friendship that eventually led to us coming up with this crazy idea to start a band. Through mostly students of the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, the band was formed and things started from there. Several months after getting everyone on board, we recorded our first material at Hartt Studios and began playing shows in the NY/CT area.

MR: What was it like performing before President Obama?

CH: Playing at the presidential rally was a trip! There were a lot of people all riled up and excited to see Obama speak. He is such a rockstar…the entourage he rolls with is nothing shy of enormous, and the energy of a room that the president is speaking in is incredible. We had to go through several rounds of background clearance before arriving and then allow dogs and security personnel to search our gear. Russell Simmons was emceeing the event and announced our band. We played a short set and then the President came out and took it from there.

MR: Got any cool stories about any of the songs on your new album, Shake! Shake! Shake!?

CH: The song “Shake! Shake! Shake!” was one of the last songs to come together on this album. During the several weeks we spent in Oklahoma recording the album, we kept circling around this song. We would try a guitar line or a key’s texture and nothing was sitting right. Everything sounded unnatural. When we started nearing the end of our time in the studio, we noticed that we still had a lot of work to do in order to finish the song “Shake! Shake! Shake!” After a few long, late night sessions of really focusing on the tune, we came up with something we all liked on the last day. It ended up being the title track of the record.

MR: Were you surprised by the critical praise your debut album, Old Time Speaker, received?

CH: Old Time Speaker was a great learning experience for us as a band. We tracked the record over two weeks in Nashville with a young producer by the name of Chad Copelin. We had met Chad through checking out his other work and sending him a blind email asking him to produce our upcoming album. He obliged, and we met in Nashville to give it a try. The short time in the studio made for a whirlwind of productivity and creativity. The final product is something we are all proud of and believe is a great starting point for what we hope is a long career of making music together. It felt great that people seemed to like the record. All the kind words and support for Old Time Speaker played a role in the confidence we took into the studio to record Shake! Shake! Shake!.

MR: Have you watched any of your songs when they’ve been synch-licensed, and have you ever been surprised by some of their uses?

CH: While we were making Shake! Shake! Shake!, we got a call from a friend that had just seen a song from Old Time Speaker used on 90210. The song “Lo-Fi” was used during a high school hallway scene in which a teacher is talking to a student they are sleeping with. I can’t say I saw that one coming.

MR: (laughs) Are you guys still having fun?

CH: The fun never stops here in the BRR camp. We are having more fun than ever with this new album. It’s been a blast playing the new songs live and incorporating newer material with older material. We’ve been getting a really positive response to this new album, which has pushed us to make sure our live show can keep up. This band thrives on having fun at shows.

MR: Will you be taking all this fun on the road in support of the album?

CH: Yes, this summer looks to be a full season of shows and traveling. We will be branching out into more shows outside of the Northeast as we promote our newest release. There are several festivals throughout the Summer that we are playing that have us excited to be a part of as well as attend. Our summer touring gets underway starting in mid-June.

MR: What advice do you have for new artists?

CH: As a new artist, I strive to take as much advice as I can get my hands on. I believe the best way to learn something is to talk to people with experience in the field you want to excel in. Ask questions. Listen to the answers. Recognize biases and form your own opinions. There is a lot of learn from the stories and experiences of people around us.