Buzz Magazine’s Gender Blender Rock Wars came to an end in June and one band was left standing – Meanwhyle. New Lenox rockers Meanwhyle had the crowd buzzing in the final round and ultimately took the Gender Blender title based on an audience vote. This band, who classifies themselves as metal/alternative/hard rock, has now defined their own sound based on a combined influence of bands like Mudvayne, Incubus, Tool and the Deftones to name a few. Meanwhyle plans to get into the studio sometime this August to complete their long awaited full-length debut. With so many bands emerging from the Chicago area, Meanwhyle knows the importance of breaking from the mold. “We are a bit of a schizophrenic band. We're not exactly sure what genre we fit in to, and we don't really care either. We don't try to copy anyone's sound, but rather we create our own,” explains guitarist Chris Walters. “We're different from other bands because when you see Meanwhyle perform you are going to be exposed to original music that is extremely diverse song to song. You never know what is going to come next.”
Schizophrenic. Not exactly the way most bands describe themselves. “Here are a couple of reasons why we are a schizophrenic band…. We have a song (The Bayou Song) about getting in an old dirty school bus and driving down to New Orleans, drinking Jack Daniels, eatin' pancakes, beating up biker gangs, and messing with alligators,” continued Chris. “We also have what we refer to as a whack job song, called You're Killin' Me Smallz, about a guy who got a tumor from watching the movie, The Sandlot, too many times. Another song (The Reanimation Experiment) is about a husband, whose wife was murdered.”
Meanwhyle is Chris Walters and Rob Carrier on guitar, Ryan Hyland on drums and Melissa Lutz on bass. Lead vocals are shared throughout the band creating a very diverse, but somehow unifying sound. The band started four years ago when Chris approached Ryan, who had been playing drums since he was little and asked him if he’d be interested in “creating a whole bunch of noise”. The pair soon recruited Chris’s high school buddy Melissa and then completed the band when they found Rob on Craig’s List.
The band is close on and off the stage. Stories from their lives and hanging out together often provide material for Meanwhyle’s songs. “One night, Ryan and I went up to Lake Geneva with three of our good friends,” Chris recollects. “A drunken party on the scale of a Vinny Chase birthday party ensued…It was such a legendary night that we wrote a song about it…The song is called Lake Geneva. We played it at the Gender Blender contest and it helped us win!”
To get a real taste of Meanwhyle, you need to see them perform live. That’s where you can really see how the band relates to its fans and draws in new ones along the way. Songs like “My Bane” and “The Ties that Bind” take on a new meaning when played in intimate settings in front of rabid enthusiasts. Meanwhyle does not lack in energy and has an appeal that is demanded in successful rock bands. Chris knows what rock fans are looking for and how Meanwhyle can feed that hunger. “We want people to hear the complete spectrum of human emotion. Sometimes we try to do it in a single song, or a single performance. We make emotion something that you can bang your head to, something that you can embrace, something that you can hear, and something that you can scream at. Passion, Aggression, Poison. That's our tag line.”
Chicago is thriving with new band talent and is slowly gaining reputation as a true player in the national rock scene. Meanwhyle understands this and knows it’s all about making a name for yourself and getting your product in the right hands. “Winning Buzz Magazine’s Gender Blender contest was the best thing that has happened for us so far,” says Chris. “We plan on going into the studio and recording some new tracks with Matt Mercado at Sonic Palace. We will then use our new demo to play as many Chicagoland shows as we can the rest of this summer and through the fall. We hope to build a larger following of Meanwhyle fans to come and see us when we play.”
To hear some tracks or to find out more about Meanwhyle visit meanwhyle.com or myspace.com/meanwhyle.
