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Bands do lots of things to grow a fan base and get their music out to the public. They perform at small clubs, give away free CDs and music downloads online, and open for bigger acts. But 2AM Club, an L.A.-based band with an album coming out in a few weeks, has already had a song featured on the ABC Family show Pretty Little Liars and performed on the CBS Early Show. They’re touring with Mike Posner and Chiddy Bang and taking part in the MTV U VMA Tour next month. So why are they still giving away free music from their MySpace page?
It’s all part of their strategy to grow a fan base through word of mouth, the band’s emcee Tyler Cordy told Crushable. “Right now we’re kind of just really excited to get this first song, “Worry About You,” to as many people as possible,” he told us. “It’s finally starting to play on the radio and picking up speed, and really just word of mouth. That’s the way it’s always been for us and the way we want to keep it because I think there’s a stronger relationship between people and the music when it’s something they can discover on their own…rather than have it shoved down their throat from 100 different billboards or stuff like that. So free music online is the way we’ve always spread it. And free music at shows, that’s what we’ve always done.”
2AM Club started as “two seperate units,” Tyler explained. He and keyboard player Dave Dalton grew up together in Seattle, while singer Marc Griffin and guitarist Matt Reagan knew each other since they were kids in San Francisco. Marc and Tyler met in college, and moved to L.A., where the band filled out its members: drummer Ian O’Neill and bassist “Sauce.” They started doing a monthly show at a club in L.A. called Tiny Porno, where they would invite other acts and DJs to perform and started to grow a following. “We wanted to make it into a thing where it wasn’t a normal [type of show where] everybody gets their tickets they’re trying to sell for their bands and their fliers that they’re passing out,” Tyler told Crushable. “So we were trying to turn it on its head a little bit and create a really cool night where we could bring in bands and DJs from out of town and create something special.”
About a year and a half ago, 2AM Club packed up and moved to New York, where they worked on their album in a studio in Brooklyn. The finished product, What Did You Think Was Going To Happen? is set to drop September 14. “Everybody, in the end, has their two cents in the record, ” Tyler said. “The six of us all have really diverse influences. So we put it all in a pot and I think it comes out somewhere in where pop music is right now for the iPod generation or the generation of people who grew up listening to rock and hip hop and electronica and dance music. They all kind of come together now because there’s far fewer lines…We hope that those lines are much more broken down. It just doesn’t have to be a genre-specific thing.”
As for their hit single, Tyler says everyone can relate. “Worry About You” is “more of a classic heartbreak song and a classic song about lost love and people and the experiences they have in the past dictating what your future is in relationships and love,” Tyler told us. “I think it’s one of the hardest things for us in general to write a song that…addresses your feelings and relationships and things we’ve gone through.”
And “Worry About You” has already been well-received. “So far, it’s been amazing. This song has always been one of the biggest singalongs that we’ve had at the last shows and it’s so affecting as performers because when you see that and you see people giving their 110% at the shows when they really don’t have to, I think it shows that people are logging on and coming on the journey with us,” Tyler said. “We’re happy any time people want to come and hang out at shows.”
Tyler’s also more than happy to chat with fans through the band’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/2amclub, and Twitter, @2amclub. “I’ve been sort of embarrassingly getting on the Twitter thing and the Facebook thing probably entirely too much,” Tyler admitted. “I think it’s cool because we try to stay in touch with the people who are leading this journey for us. It’s not obviously about us as much as it is a lot of the time about the way people are reacting and the way people are taking it and repossessing it in a positive way and making it their own and taking it into their lives. I love when people young and old get in touch with us.”
Tell them you love the free music.
