Since September of 2010, Madeira (Andrew Mack, Tyler Duncan, Cameron Rhome, Skylar Martin) have been putting their noses to the grind stone with determination to make big things happen. Purevolume ranked Madeira the #4 unsigned band of 2010. In early November the band started generating local radio play with their single release “Good Evening, London”. The band already has big plans for 2011 as well, showcases/festivals already lined-up and an east-coast tour in the works.
For Fans Of: Panic! At The Disco

*Responses from Andrew Mack and Cameron Rhome

How did the band come together? How have you grown since you guys started?
Cam: I used to play in a band back in Texas, that competed with Tyler and Skylars band in a battle of the bands competition. I later moved to Orlando for school where I met Andy, we started hanging out and jamming at my apartment.  Once back in Texas for break, I met up with Tyler and Skylar, whose band had just broken up.  I showed them some of the demos we had been working on, and long story short over a series of discussions, the guys ended up moving to Orlando. 
Andy: There was never any real intention to start a band, it just kind of happened. To this day, we’ve never really discussed the prospect of us being in a band, it just works.  We’ve all grown as people and have been writing together for so long that our writing style has matured and learned to adapt to one another. In a way, we all compement each other.
 
What do you have to offer that other bands don’t? What sets you apart from a lot of the other newer bands out there today?
Cam: I pride my band on having very talent individuals and our personalities really shine on stage. I feel our strongest attribute is our music diversity. We all come from different backgrounds and bands with different genres to create our own sound.
Andy: Everyone in the band has such a unique way of playing their instrument and approaches writing music differently.  Every song comes about in a different fashion, whether one person brings 70% of an idea or if one little guitar riff is brought to the table and everyone makes something out of it.  We also don’t try to model ourselves after any other bands.  Half of the bands out there have just been inspired by another band that sounds exactly like what their doing.  We’ve been inspired in so many different ways, from church music to punk rock, that it’s difficult for even ourselves to write one style of music.
 
How is the live show compared to the general sound of material that’s been released?
Andy: Surprisingly, it sounds very similar.  Our demos are very full sounding and when you come watch the show it sounds just as full.  A lot of bands have to use playback to achieve that, but we don’t.  Everything you hear on the songs gets performed by someone when we play live.
 
More times than not, influences tend to bleed through. What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?
Andy: I’ve been listening to a lot of different things lately.  I love Of Mice & Men’s debut record that they recorded with Joey Sturgis.  The production quality on that record is incredible.  I’m also really into The Black Keys right now.  I love how they’re bringing back a motown feel.  Lastly, Andrew Belle’s record “The Ladder” has really been sticking with me lately.  He comes up with some pretty catchy vocal melodies.
Cam: It’s really a terrible answer, but everything. That’s really what makes this band set apart, not only do we listen to all sorts of music, that also plays a role in our writing process as well.
 
What would you say the band has already accomplished and what do you have your eyes set on next?
Andy: In the 5 months that we’ve been really promoting ourselves I’d say we’ve accomplished a lot.  We’ve got a great internet presence going on and we’re creating a lot of buzz for the band.  We’ve already heard from quite a few labels.  We’re number 4 on this year’s Top 20 Unsigned Artists for 2010 on Purevolume.  We’ve been featured on a few pretty well-known blogs such as Unsigned & Unleashed and BestNewBands.com.  Our song “Good Evening, London” was played on Native Noise on WJRR, a local radio station here in Orlando.  We played our first hometown show to an almost sold out crowd.  We’ve been doing a lot in quite a short period of time.  Now we plan to just keep on writing new music.  That’s our primary focus right now.  Besides that we’re just going to keep on playing shows and finding creative new ways to get our name out there.  People can expect a lot from us in 2011.
 
Thus far, what’s a favorite memory or something quirky that’s taken place with the band (in-studio, onstage, or elsewhere)?
Cam: We played a cover of Billie Jean by Michael Jackson all on rock band instrument’s, at a church. We had all the notes programmed to the instruments, so we were actually playing the song as if it were on the game. It was just so random and funny, and the fact that we did it at a church made it hilarious. We have only played it once but I hope that we will perform it again soon. Just watching a band play any song with fake instruments especially to a Michael Jackson song is worth paying to come see.
 
Is there anything in particular that you’d like people to take away from listening to your music?
Andy: Overall I think we just want people to see how honest we are with our music.  We put everything we have into writing songs that we can personally relate to and we just hope that the listeners and fans can do the same.  We wouldn’t be where we are right now without everyone that has been helping us and believing in us so far.  It truly means the world to us. Thank you!

Check out Madeira on Facebook, Purevolume, and Twitter.