Bombshell

First off could you state your name and what you do in the band?
My name is Jesse Neal, I play Synthesizer, Scream and do Backup Vocals for Bombshell.

How did you guys get signed to Indianola?
Well, we kept sending demo's in over a year before we finally beat them into submission with our awesome
music making and some how talked them into letting us release a cd on their
label, Suckers! na, j/k we pretty much just kept sending them new songs
every time we wrote one and then eventually they just feel in love with us,
great guys we love them a lot.

Where does the name Bombshell come from?
I believe Chris and Tim (the original bombshell members) named it after one of Travis Barkers tattoos, i
never really got the real story.

How did you come up with the name "To Hell With Motives" for your cd?
Well we kept trying to come up with a badass title for our debut release on a
record label and nothing was hitting until Matt Simmons our guitar player
went searching through our lyrics and just said " Let's name the album To
Hell with Motives" and all of us agreed it would be an awesome title and
pretty much show people we are not messing around when it comes to us and
our music, so we basically said to hell with motives and put ourselves out
on the line to show what we have to offer and so much more.

You just released "To Hell With Motives". How has the response been to the
cd?
We had a Cd release locally and had an awesome turnout, we sold the
venue out of 500 plus kids and sold so many albums, it was amazing. We
have gotten back some reviews from online mags and they seem to be giving us
some excellent ratings. So I guess the response has been pretty amazing for
us being new artist to the music world.

What was the recording process like?
To be honest I get a little bored recording as does the rest of the guys we hate it so much. Yea, did you
fall for that? Na, we love it it is amazing watching songs we created in our
practice space start to come to a piece of beautifully recorded music to our
ears, and for our fans and friends to finally get to hear a whole album laid
done instead of an EP. Our album took about a month to lay everything down,
edit, mix and master. Kit Walters a good friend of ours from Charlotte, Nc
and pretty much new to the recording scene did an awesome job, and Jaime
King who recorded the last Between the buried and Me album "alaska" did the
mastering on it, amazing. Overall we are pretty happy with it, but we can't
wait till our next album comes out, we have a lot in store and have already
started working on new material and we are def going to be touching some
new grounds for us, but still keeping it the same old Bombshell vibe, in
your face rock n roll.

You just finished up a tour with Logan Square. How was that?
Logan Square is amazing , amazing guys and musicians we would tour with them whenever,
wherever, buy there album june 6th on fearless records. The tour was great
we started in Jersey and went all the way down to FL then back to SC where
we live. Great times, spent a lot on gas, went to the beach and had some
good old times at all the venues and with all the fans who came out to
support both bands.

What are your touring plans for the rest of the year?
Well for the summer weare going to be playing a few select dates, no touring over the summer so we
can start working towards the fall for some touring into the spring of next
year and then working on new songs to hopefully release next year also.
Hopefully we can get on some nice tour packages in the fall and get a lot
bigger fan base around the US.

When you aren't on tour, what do you do for fun?
Well, I pretty much hang out with my roomates and all my friends and then work a part time job to pay
the bills when we are not on tour. Matt and Chris work for an amusement park
playing their instruments in a version of The School of Rock here in
charlotte,nc. Tim runs a screen printing company that i also started with
him for local and regional bands to have some merch printed up for them.
Austin our drummer works at a restaurant because besides music being his
main love he likes to cook, and is thinking about a career in Culinary arts
when he is not touring.

If you could play a show with any three artists, past or present, who would
they be?
UnderOath, Chiodos, and Blink, gotta slip in one more Eisley. Now
these 3 or 4 in this case go for just me, as for the rest of the band, they
would def say the first 3. We would love to play with hendrix or the
beatles but i think we might scare the shit out of them.
What is your favorite song to play live? BOM or HxC. Just because they are
so easy to get into and rock the stage when playing a crowd you have never
played in front of before.

What is the scene in South Carolina like?
The scene is mostly metal and hardcore. We are pretty much the only band doing what we do here, so
therefore the fans are very fickle, we are to heavy to the indie kids and
not heavy enough to dance to for all the fellow scene kids out there, not
hating towards any of them but they don't seem to fond of our music, then
they see us live and change their opinion.

Who are some of your biggest influences?
Blink, Saosin, UnderOath, Emery, FallOutBoy (take this to your grave) taking back sunday, the starting line ,bayside, and cartel as of lately, love those guys a lot.

Who has been your favorite band to share the stage with so far?
Logan Squarehands down, we both give and return respect to each other and that is a must
in the music world. Hopefully one day we will get on a badass tour with our
influences or just a great tour in general.

Do you have any pre show rituals?
We pray before every performance that's about all we need, that and to make sure the guitars and drums are tuned andall our equipment is working.

What can someone who has never seen you live expect at one of your shows?
Energy, expect to move, to some our music may seem light but we get into our
music a lot, we move constantly and provide a show that we believe our fans
deserve.

Do you have any plans to make a music video?
We hope to make a video for BOMwe shall see what the future holds.

Who did the artwork for "To Hell With Motives"?
Caleb Olsen for Bootcore Grafix, he did a great job.

Thanks for doing this. Do you have any last words for the readers?
Yes, Buy our album that is out now on Indianola records.