When: 8 p.m. Monday
Where: Opolis, 113 N. Crawford
Cost: $12-14
The road band members of “Red Wanting Blue” have made traveling across the U.S. their full time job as they promote their style of American rock ‘n’ roll. After playing at Norman Music Festival earlier this year, they are returning to Norman to play at 8 p.m. Monday at the Opolis.
The Daily’s Megan Deaton conducted a phone interview with the band’s lead singer and songwriter, Scott Terry, while he and his band traveled through what he described as the middle of nowhere.
The Daily: How would you describe your music?
Scott Terry: For us, I guess, the best way that I could describe our music is that it’s American rock ‘n’ roll. I don’t think there are a lot of people out there or nearly as many anymore that are really playing it. We were all raised listening to the radio, and at least where I grew up, there was no undercurrent of indie-progressive music out there that I was aware of.
When I was a kid growing up and there was no Internet, you were pretty much left with MTV [or] whatever was on the radio, and if you were, like, really hip, you would get the magazines.
I think that we were raised on popular music, and that’s kind of something that we all have that we can all agree on. If we could emulate a band, it would probably be Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. They’re about song. They’re about writing soundtracks of people lives. It’s never been about being in a music scene or being in a clique.
The Daily: Where did your name come from?
Terry: The name was formed when we were first starting putting lyrics and poetry on scraps of paper. It was going to be a song, but it never became one.
It said, “Far too often we’ve been finding ourselves writing red wanting blue.” It’s the human condition. It’s a fight that we were born without wings, but we figured out a way to fly and we figured out a way to get to the bottom of the ocean. It’s the human condition and our ability to reach beyond our own physical limitations whatever they may be.
We get people thinking we’re talking about politics, which we’re not.
The beauty of having a name that’s ambiguous like that is that people can make their own meanings for it. It means a lot of other things to other people now, and I would never want to take that away. Like a song, sometimes it almost ruins it when an artist tells how a song was created. You have images in your head about that song and someone bursts your bubble.
The Daily: I’ve noticed you have a couple of pretty well-known venues on your tour list. Why did you choose to come to Norman?
Terry: We were invited to come to the Norman Music Festival. People are so into the scene, and I’m so happy that we were able to be a part of that festival. I don’t know that we had more fun than we did at Norman Music Festival. We got to hang out with Portugal. The Man, Other Lives [and] Wayne Coyne was running around.
The Daily: Your newest album, “From the Vanishing Point,” has been described as a “coming of age album.” Why do you think this particular album is so important?
Terry: It’s the first record that the band’s made from start to finish under the umbrella of Fanatic Records. We kind of hit the glass ceiling with our independent albums. If we were to continue growing, we needed more help. They came to us and not the other way around, so it felt like a real mutual partnership.
The arm of Red Wanting Blue has gotten a lot longer. We’ve gotten a lot of opportunities that I think would have otherwise not been available to us.
“From the Vanishing Point” was written on the road. We’re always driving. We’re a road band, and we’ve done this for most of our lives. The road is our home. Our world has opened up to having a national presence, and the record sounds that way.
It has a bit more of a feeling of this is a band who has been around for a very long time, and we’re sort of entering the national stage. We wanted it to be a welcoming record for people that have never heard of us before. This record is an introduction to who we are and more importantly who we are now.
The Daily: What kind of reaction have you gotten from fans on your new album?
Terry: I’m happy to say that the overall response to the record is really positive. It’s hard, you know, when you become a band that’s not new to you anymore. It’s very difficult to kind of trump yourself and what you’ve already done and make people go, “Ah, this record is better than the last one.”
Our fans all have said this is the best record you’ve ever made. This helps with that coming of age. The stuff that we made before was certainly not small time, but I think it was a little smaller and more intimate, and this record has a wider appeal. The songwriting is a reflection of our lives on the road and what we do.
The Daily: Do you have any interesting stories from being on the road?
Terry: I’d keep you here all day. There are really too many to count. We’ve had everything from getting pulled over in Mexico because they thought we were trafficking drugs and illegal aliens. Certainly, at least physically, with traveling, there are obstacles. We’re always amazed at the kindness of strangers. A lot of the time you don’t expect it.
The Daily: Which songs do you perform most frequently? Do you ever play any covers? Do you have a set play list?
Terry: We try to play the majority of “From the Vanishing Point,” and we play the majority of “These Magnificent Miles” because those are what’s most current, and those are also records that if you’ve fallen in love with our band in the last four years those are the albums that would speak to you the most.
What is relevant to what’s now. Although we’ve been a band for a really long time, the stuff that is most interesting to people is what is most current.
The Daily: What are you expecting from playing in a college town?
Terry: Usually, when you find those towns you know they have a great culture to them, it’s usually because it’s right there with the university. A university or college promotes higher thinking and being educated, and usually they go hand in hand.
Terry: We love college towns. I feel, usually when you find those towns you know they have a great culture to them, it’s usually because it’s right there with the university. A university or college promotes higher thinking and being educated, and usually they go hand in hand. It means that people are focused and experienced and hoping to hear something that they haven’t heard before.
You don’t find that when you go to Myrtle Beach. You’re not playing for a crowd of people that are open minded. They don’t want to hear anything new. They want to hear songs that they’ve heard all the words to. Universities are hotbeds of the kind of thinking that allows art and bands to thrive.
