It is the quintessential story of rock and roll stardom: four artists come together under the banner of rock and head out on the road to realize their dreams of musical greatness. Long days and nights traveling in cramped spaces all endured for those fleeting moments on stage when nothing exists but the music and the fans. The road is long and littered with those that could not tread it. Except when it isn't. For some bands, the road to stardom is short and paved with nothing but opportunities. This is the story of one such band. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Saving Throw, the greatest band you've never heard of.
B. (Brandon) Ryan is, by all accounts, and average looking guy, even with the gleaming, bald pate and the handlebar mustache. He carries himself not like the frontman for a band that has, in less than a month's time, garnered hundreds of thousands of fans. "Certainly, no one, not even me, could have expected this kind of success." His voice is soft and unassuming, in direct contrast to the throaty growl he exhibits on stage. "We're just happy for what we have, and know that the only way we're going to keep adding fans is to tour, tour and tour some more."
Ryan's bandmates are as stunned with Saving Throw's success as he is. The band's bassist, Nick James is tall and retrospective with the face of a rock veteran. His cool demeanor and rock steady upstrumming is belied by one small concession, an afro of near mythical proportions, festooned with a gleaming orange pick. The band's drummer, Sinclair Lewis, hails from London and uses his drumming, and fashion accessories to profess his love of Queen and country. Rounding out the foresome is the guitarist known only as Lesley. Diminutive and rail thin, she's known equally for her magenta pigtails and her blistering guitar solos.
Even in a musical industry that finds artists jumping from band to band, Saving Throw is an oddity in that all four of its members have experienced solo success. "It was about a year ago when I first went out by myself, November of 2007" explains Ryan, "and I did ok by myself. Played a lot of gigs, but, it never really felt like a real tour, you know? Like something about being solo was keeping me from touring proper." The other band members shared similar feelings, except for James who had only sat in on random events, building a reputation as a solid fill-in player. After a pause, Ryan tells the story of how Saving Throw was born.
"I had heard about Lesley, about her playing, but never had seen her play, so I decided to check her out in a small club in New York. I remember walking in, and I couldn't see the stage yet, but I could hear the first song and it was "Blitzkrieg Bop". I was a little surprised, because that's usually how I start my sets. By the time I got to to the stage to see Lesley, she and her band had already moved into "Creep" and then Nirvana's "In Bloom". It was like a shot to the heart. I mean, this was my set, exactly. I spoke to her backstage and we really connected. Next week we flew to London to see Sinclair and didn't he have the exact same set." When asked if he thought this was odd, three musicians from three different cities playing the exact same songs he is pensive, carefully choosing the next words. "Something was directing us to be in those places and play those songs so that we could find each other." His certainty is unnerving.
Bolstered by meeting two other artists with such aligned tastes, Ryan set out to build a band, but found himself again limited by his solo status. "Man, it just wasn't working. I had met Nick and he and I went out on the road, but there was just too much for me to do and I felt like I was doing everything, playing bass and singing." James does not refute this stating simply that he "wasn't in the best of places" for most of that time and had to cede much of the band's creative control and management to Ryan. "Nick and I got some fans, made a little money, bought some clothes, but really didn't get anywhere. I played some more on my own as did Lesley and Sinclair, just getting better, upping the difficulty of our sets, learning the craft. Nick didn't do much. Nothing against him, but back then, there just wasn't a lot for a solo bassist to do."
