Rafael Miranda
Thu 02 Nov 2023
Hello guys!
It's that time of the week again, and today's blog is about Black Wolf Blues’ meet with Rival Sons at the HMV Westfield in London!
Rival Sons are an amazing American rock band who have had a huge influence on all of us, so being able to meet and talk to them was simply unbelievable! Let's tell you a little about it.
First let’s tell you a little bit about Rival Sons.
Rival Sons is a two time Grammy nominated American rock band formed in Long Beach, California, in 2009 and loosely based in Nashville. The band consists of Jay Buchanan (lead vocals), Scott Holiday (guitar), Dave Beste (bass guitar) and Michael Miley (drums). They have released eight albums and one EP.
Rival Sons formed in Long Beach, where Jay Buchanan and Michael Miley lived. Buchanan previously recorded as a solo artist and with his Buchanan band. He independently released All Understood in 2004 and True Love EP in 2006. Rival Sons formed from the remnants of guitarist Scott Holiday's previous band.
He had been active in a number of bands, including Human Lab, who were signed to Atlantic Records, but which he left and formed Black Summer Crush with Michael Miley, Robin Everhart Thomas Flowers and original drummer J. Harley Gilmore. Black Summer Crush recorded an album and the vocals on those tracks were later replaced by Jay Buchanan and released as Rival Sons’ debut album.
In 2006 Holiday came across Buchanan while searching on MySpace for a singer. Drummer Michael Miley had previously worked with Buchanan (as well as having been in Veruca Salt and the Carson Daly TV show band) and he had met bassist Robin Everhart playing at a benefit concert at Isaac Hayes house for Hurricane Katrina in Long Beach. The union of Holiday, Buchanan, Everhart and Miley led to the formation of Rival Sons.
Jack Rivera of The Huffington Post declared them "A rock band to watch" in November 2009. Following this acclaim, they were invited to perform as a supporting act for AC/DC, Alice Cooper and Kid Rock shows.
After the success of Before the Fire, the band recorded a self-titled EP (independently released) in 2010, which caught the attention of Earache Records founder Digby Pearson and the band was offered a record deal in November 2010. The signing led to the band immediately recording the album Pressure & Time on the Earache label in early 2011. Their self-titled EP was re-released digitally by Earache Records in February 2011, from which their debut European single, "Torture", was taken.
Rival Sons released Pressure & Time in June 2011. It reached number one on Amazon's Hard Rock best sellers and nineteen on the Billboard Hot 100.
Rival Sons' track "Torture" was featured in the film Real Steel in October 2011 and the band, by personal request of Amy Lee, supported Evanescence in the US in October 2011, whom they would play with again in January 2012. While Rival Sons continued to tour extensively, in 2012 they featured on the Harald Schmidt Show and played an acoustic set at the annual Classic Rock awards at the Roundhouse in London.
Head Down was released in September 2012 to critical acclaim. The album charted at number 31 in the UK album chart, number 5 in the UK indie chart, number 6 in Sweden, number 13 in Finland, number 14 in Norway, number 30 in Switzerland and number 38 in Germany. The debut single "Keep On Swinging" started a trend on Twitter, and the video was filmed in a church with snakes. The band then went on to complete another sold-out European tour and were featured on the cover of Classic Rock Magazine.
In January 2014 Rival Sons returned to the studio in Nashville with Cobb to produce their fourth full-length LP album. Amidst great anticipation of their fan base, the critically acclaimed Great Western Valkyrie was released in June 2014.
Even before the album's release Rival Sons began their 2014 European Tour opening for Aerosmith in Helsinki, Finland, and Stockholm, Sweden. The summer tour continued through Europe with club and festival dates in Germany at Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park, then onto four sold-out shows in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Wight Festival 2014.
They performed live at the 2014 Classic Rock Magazine Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards. Great Western Valkyrie was released in late 2014. It was nominated for "Album of the Year" in 2014 by Classic Rock Magazine. In the Classic Rock magazine gala they famously met Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. The encounter resulted in them being invited as an exclusive support act for Black Sabbath final The End tour.
In October 2015 they recorded their fifth LP album Hollow Bones, again with music producer Cobb, in just three weeks. Rival Sons toured the United Kingdom from March to April 2015 as well as played the main stage at Download Festival in 2016. Hollow Bones was officially released in July 2016.
Rival Sons released their sixth studio album Feral Roots on January 25, 2019, to critical acclaim. The album received nominations for two awards at the 2020 Grammy Awards, one for Best Rock Album and the other for Best Rock Performance for the song "Too Bad." It also won the 2019 Metal Storm Award for Best Hard Rock Album.
The band's seventh album, Darkfighter, was released on June 2, 2023 on CD, streaming and on vinyl. Only two months later, a single for the second album, Lightbringer was released, Sweet Life. Mercy was also released soon after.
On October 20, 2023, Lightbringer was released, as a six-track album with their longest track to date, Darkfighter ahead of Manifest Destiny Pt.1 and Destination on Course. According to Jay Buchanan, the band spent the most time on these two albums compared to previous releases, and many tracks such as Darkside are very personal to the band members.
And that is the legendary band that we got to meet, Jake and Cam to be more precise, they met them at the HMV Westfield in London in November during the release of their latest album.
Check out what Cam had to say about the meet:
“Meeting Rival Sons was a great experience for me and Jake. The guys were all really nice and even signed some of our stuff including their new album and Jake’s guitar which was really cool; they also gave us some really good advice in terms of our band work which we really appreciate and will use now and in the future to meet our goals and ambitions!”
Now check out what Jake had to say about it:
“Meeting the guys in Rival Sons was just pure awesomeness!!!!!!! The band have been a huge influence on us so when it finally comes to meeting the people you look up to it gave us a huge boost of encouragement! Occasions like this always remind me of why I started playing music, what I love about the music I like, and why I am trying to carve my own path as a musician.
We spoke about the new Rival Sons albums Darkfighter and Lightbringer as well as our own upcoming E.P. and what advice the guys had for us! The highlights were definitely when Mike the drummer recognised from Instagram and asked how our show at The Good Mixer went! They took the time to listen to us and give us valuable advice and wisdom on what we should be doing as a band! Jay even took our Black wolf Blues flyer and promised to listen to our band which was just awesome!!! The guys really gave us a lot of encouragement and for me the best part was when Scott the guitarist stood up and handed me back my guitar signed by the whole band on the back of the headstock! This was such a big moment for us that we will remember forever, as we continue to keep moving forward as a band and as musicians!
If you are a Rival Sons fan then you are going to like the new music we have coming your way in the very near future! Please stay tuned and get ready for what is coming your way!”
Jake even got his guitar signed by them:
And that’s that guys, hope you enjoyed this as much as we did!
We have a few very special things in store for you in November so keep an eye out.
You can catch us live next on Friday December 8th at the Temple of Arts and Music, Smithfield Market Arms! This is a FREE ENTRY SHOW, right in the heart of Smithfield Market on a beautiful Friday night!
As an independent band we need all the support we can get, so we are running a crowdfunding campaign to help us fund the recording of our EP and make it as awesome as possible for you!
If you'd like to contribute with any amount just head on over to our website or Linktree and you will find the link to the crowdfunding there.
Check out our Instagram, Facebook and YouTube for some of our videos, pictures and exclusive content.
A new video is uploaded to our YouTube channel every Tuesday, so don't forget to like and subscribe so that you don't miss out on new content weekly.
We also publish a new blog every Friday, and next week's blog is going to be one of a kind. So stay tuned, rock on and have an amazing weekend!
Black Wolf Blues
Rafael, Jake & Cam