A Closer Look @ Green River Ordinance

Well, this has been a Green River Ordinance (GRO) kind of day, huh? We’re featuring them on the site this week.

Don’t forget they’ll be performing here in Nashville on Saturday, September 29th at the Exit/In.  Doors at 8pm.  You know you want to come! Enjoy this written interview with them and be sure to check out the album review we did earlier today right HERE.

Interview with GRO member, Joshua Wilkerson:

What are the names of all members of the band, what instruments play, and where originally from? Where are you based now?

“Josh Jenkins- Vocals, Guitar, Keys
Jamey Ice- Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin
Geoff Ice- Bass Guitar, Vocals
Denton Hunker- Drums
Joshua Wilkerson- Guitar, Keys, Vocals
Ft. Worth, Texas born and raised!”

When did you first get together as a band and how???

“Well Jamey and Geoff, who are brothers, started the band when they were 15 and 13 to play Sweet Home Alabama for their middle school talent show.  After that, they met Josh Jenkins and he joined at 15 also.  I went to high school with Josh, so I ended up joining the band through him when I was 16.  We went through a couple of drummers and finally found Denton in college at TCU.”

Describe your music.

“Over the years that question seems to get harder and harder to answer.  We used to just say that we play pop-rock.  Then we said that “if U2 and Tom Petty had a baby and it grew up in the 90’s…” (I’m just now realizing how that sentence that we used to say often never got finished.)  Lately, we’ve just been answering with country, pop, rock, rootsy, texas music.  Gotta throw some Texas pride in there.”

Since parting ways with EMI/Capitol Records, what have you been up to?

“Well we got busy immediately.  We recorded an acoustic EP a month or two after leaving, went on some tours with some of the bands that have influenced us like Switchfoot and the Goo Goo Dolls, recorded a full length album this year, and starting our headlining tours.”

Tell us about your new album.  Do you write all of your own music? If so, who normally does the writing? Is there a particular theme running through the album?

“This new album “Under Fire” is more of our style than any of our other stuff has been.  We’re really proud of our older songs, but I think we all feel like this new stuff is more original.  On our last CD full length I think we somewhat tried to emulate our heroes rather than find our own style.  With this album, we wrote whatever songs felt right.  We didn’t discriminate against certain genres or force anything.  We wrote what came naturally. We do write all of our own music; each song is created differently, but for the most part josh and I do most of the lyrics and melody.  However, for San Antone, we all sat in a room and wrote all those lyrics together in one sitting.  It’s much easier to write a story with 5 people than it is to write about an emotion one of us has felt or a situation one of us has been in.  It’s harder to put yourself in the exact frame of mind as that person who’s felt what they want to write about.”

I see you have a pretty extensive tour planned.  What’s your favorite thing about touring? Least favorite? Can you share any particularly funny or interesting experience you’ve had while out touring?

“Hmmm, my favorite thing about the road is probably getting to stop at McDonald’s and get a double cheeseburger and fries any time I want to.  My least favorite part of the road is usually how I feel after eating McDonalds.  The best thing that ever happened to us was in Iowa I think.  Years and years ago, we were new at driving with a trailer, so we got turned around, and we had to pull into a driveway.  However, we didn’t know that the guy who owned that driveway was in a tractor and was staring at us with a crazy look in his eye.  He floors the tractor in our general direction, hanging out the side of it, cussing at us and yelling that he will fight all 8 of us.  We laughed and apologized at the same time but got out of there quick.”

What is one thing you might be willing to share that fans don’t know about you and might be surprised to learn?

“Denton and I have been playing video games on the road lately.  I think we’ve reached an all new level of nerdiness. We put on headphones and get in the zone anytime nothing else is going on.  We get really into it too…the night off regiment is starting to turn into pizza, beer, and video games.”

Besides touring, what else should we expect of you in the future?

“You know we’re not really sure.  We are excited to be a part of some shows for the Navy overseas next year.  We always like releasing new music, so hopefully we’ll get on that sometime next year maybe, who knows.”

Do you have any particular causes you like to support? Why and is there a personal connection for you?

“We do; we have a charity website (www.thehopegros.com) and that features 5 charities that each band member chose.  You can buy music off of that site and 100% of the proceeds go to the charity of your choosing.  I happened to choose Autism Speaks because they are a great organization dedicated to researching causes of autism, treatments, prevention, and potential cure for autism as well as raising awareness for such an increasingly common disorder.”

If you could do a CMT Crossroads show with any country artist, who would it be?

“The Eagles.  I think all of us would love to hear their stories and their harmonies.”

Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for us, GRO! 🙂