The four members of All Get Out have relied heavily on different social media platforms to stay connected with their fans and promote their music. The band currently has more than 5,000 “likes” on Facebook and more than 2,000 followers on Twitter. | Courtesy of Favorite Gentlemen
Just six months after the release of its full-length debut album, All Get Out has embarked on its first national gig supporting La Dispute on their Wildlife Tour.
All Get Out started playing together in 2007 and began forming relationships with several bands. The band eventually jumped on short tours with these other bands over the years by heading out to different parts of the country.
“We got an email from their management that said (La Dispute) was a fan of ours and was interested in having us along on their North American tour,” guitarist and vocalist Mel Washington said in a phone interview.
“I had never given them a huge listen. I was familiar with their music, but we were kind of walking in blindly not knowing what to expect, but they’re all great guys and we’ve been blessed.”
“Nathan (Hussey) and Mike (Rogers) used to play in a band together,” Washington said. “Nate and I knew Gordon (Keiter) through other friends. We gave it a stab as a band and just started playing.”
The foursome from Charleston, S.C. gained what they assumed was a small fan base in a few different places over the last couple of years, but social media has helped them reach a wider audience that they are finally getting to meet on this tour.
“You get to these towns and you wonder, ‘Does anybody know who we are?’” Washington said. “Looking at Twitter to see people who are really excited to see us is really exciting for us. We drove through fog and a blizzard last night and knowing people are waiting makes it worth it.”
“Being on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr has made our band more accessible,” Washington said. “We’ve been playing a lot of stuff we haven’t played before, so it’s been cool to see fans we didn’t know we really had singing along to our songs. Some of the fans are folks that have heard of us through Daytrotter, others through Spotify.”
One of the bands they met during their earlier years was Manchester Orchestra who started its own record label — Favorite Gentlemen — in 2005.
The label is home to artists like Bad Books, Kevin Devine and Winston Audio.
“We knew the guys of Manchester Orchestra for some years and when we put out our first EP that we recorded ourselves, they were interested in having us as part of their community so they put their name on that first record,” Washington said. “About a year later, (they) signed us to the label.”
All Get Out released “The Season” almost three years after its self-titled EP. Even though there were a few pauses along the way, the band that started this whole music project on a whim is still “super proud of this record,” Washington said.
“‘The Season’ is about our lives,” Washington said. “‘Me and My Lovers’ is a song that I relate to the most because some of the words to the bridge really resonate with me more than the rest. There are parts that hit home.”
All Get Out is playing as much from “The Season” as they can during their allotted set on the Wildlife Tour. Washington says that tinges of their influences like David Bazan and Jimmy Eat World can be heard in some of their music, but it is difficult describing their own musical style without being biased.
“If there’s one thing we tried to capture in our recordings and live is a very raw sound full of emotion that’s personal, but at the same time in your face,” Washington said.
The Wildlife Tour, which also includes Balance & Composure and Sainthood Reps, will stop at 7 p.m. Friday at Warehouse Live.
Good shit.