Cody Sizemore gave a few precious minutes between promoting, playing, and wondering why people use the roped off door, to converse with NRR.
Having formed in 2011, this southwest Michigan-northwest Ohio quintet is starting to get noticed. Their hard work and fan interaction is hard to ignore. The group has completed writing the material for their debut LP, which will be recorded with producer Dan Korneff of Pierce The Veil, Paramore, and Sleeping With Sirens fame. This will a follow up to their debut EP, One Step At A Time (2013), and single “Take Me Away,” release in 2014. If you like Paramore or A Skylit Drive, try and catch them live. You might become a fan without even realizing it. And now, on with the show.
NRR: Tell me about the band. How did you come by the name? Who all is in the band?
Cody Sizemore: Hour 24 is a five piece Heavy Alternative Rock band out of Temperance, MI/Toledo, OH consisting of Rachel Mayer (vocals), me (guitar/vocals), Dan Quigley (guitar), Chris Salazar (bass), and Mike Neumann (drums).
NRR: How are things going with the new album? When do you see it getting release? Is there anything about the new record you’d like to share with me now?
Cody Sizemore: The new album is coming along really nicely! -This album is much more mature than our EP, One Step At A Time, and is also very versatile. We have our most heavy songs, our most chill song, and our most poppy songs on this album. A release date is still too far out to determine unfortunately.
NRR: Give me your own description of what Hour 24’s sound is. What would it be like for a new fan to hear it for the first time?
Cody Sizemore: To sum it up in one word, it would be “energy”. It’s a lively rock sound, that can make people dance at one part and throw down in another.
Hour 24 — Take Me Away
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwQoa7mwPOs]
NRR: You have been touring more and more in the last year or so. What’s been some of the high’s and low’s of being out on the road that you’ve seen in a short amount of time?
Cody Sizemore: I absolutely love seeing new places and meeting new people while out on the road. We’ve made some amazing fans and even better friends that we never would have before. Van breakdowns are definitely a hardship on the road but we worked past it with our work ethic and the support of our fans.
NRR: Tell me about the band’s writing process. Is there one main writer and everyone else fills in the gaps or is every song a group effort from start to finish?
Cody Sizemore: For this album in particular we did something a little different. We made a trip to a remote cabin in a Michigan National Forest for about 3 weeks to write our album. Typically, Dan and I sat down together and tossed around ideas while building off of each other. Then we brought it to Mike (drums) and then to Rachel (vocals). We all worked together on pretty much everything, it was a lot of fun and very productive.
NRR: If there was a dream band that had their manager call you to open on a US tour, what current band would you drop everything to be able to play the dates of their shows?
Cody Sizemore: If Anberlin was still together that would be it!
NRR: I know at least one person in the band has music industry experience. Do you find that that experience has helped the direction of the band’s success or has it been more marginal at best?
Cody Sizemore: With my job as a promoter in Toledo, OH I would definitely say that it has aided into the success of our band. Being able to put together shows for other bands that are touring has given me a lot of contacts to work with and work out show trades in different cities. Booking is something that I love and that I’m good at, its also a crucial part of having a band be successful.
NRR: In the amount of time you’ve toured, I’m sure you’ve had a moment or three that left you speechless, laughing uncontrollably, or ready to make you just pack up and go home. Is there a Spinal Tap moment you’d like to share?
Cody Sizemore: One of the scariest times was with our old van, before it broke down. We were making our way through the heart of the Rocky Mountains and our brakes went out going down one of the steepest declines in the mountains near Vail, CO. Everyone was asleep except for myself and our drummer Mike, luckily we handled the situation correctly and we are still alive. One of the funniest times was at this crazy house party we played at in Virginia. There was about 50-60 kids packed into this house and the mosh pits were intense. There was a TV that got broken, holes in the wall, and the list goes on! Someone decided to bring in this huge, oversized, stuffed turtle and throw it into the mosh pit, needless to say the turtle got destroyed. There were small Styrofoam balls EVERYWHERE and it was about 3 inches deep on the ground. People were doing “snow angels” in it and kicking it in the air, it literally seemed as if it was snowing inside that house (laughing).
NRR: Who are some of the influences of the band that a fan would be able to say, “Yeah, I can hear it now,” in your songs?
Cody Sizemore: Anberlin, Hands Like Houses, Bring Me The Horizon, Avenged Sevenfold, Pierce The Veil, and Coldplay [would be some.]
NRR: If you had the opportunity to make a new fan either by the way of a CD or see Hour 24 live, which would you prefer and why?
Cody Sizemore: Definitely by a live show! Everything about making fans at live shows is so much better. The main reason is simply because it’s interactive. They see us perform, we see them having fun while we’re on stage, and then we talk to them after our set to really solidify a relationship with them.
NRR: Much like an earlier question, if you got a dream contract to play one summer festival this year, what festival would you play and why?
Cody Sizemore: Vans Warped Tour, for obvious reasons, and Milwaukee’s Summerfest, because we played Summerfest last year and it was such an amazing experience.
NRR: Last one, if we took a survey of the band overall, would the general consensus be boxers, brief’s, or commando on any given day?
Cody Sizemore: Boxer briefs for the win!
The band is currently at work hashing out details for a tour this summer. When the final arrangements are announced, we’ll published them here. Until then, the next show’s information is listed below:
Mar 21, 2015 ~ Frankie’s Inner City ~ Toledo, OH