The Law of Fives is a New York rock and roll band in the purest sense of the genre… raw and poetic with the ability to create a great hook.

Although still fairly new to the scene, The Law of Fives is a band to watch. Their songwriting and musicianship is outstanding, although I wouldn't really call their vocals 'refined'. They aren't a vocal group like The Beatles…they're strength is in their rawness. They have an edge that is exciting. Songs like their ballad 'Stray From the Sun' are literally modern day rock classics.

Their second full length CD, Plexor's Lament, will be released this month, and has 14 tracks available to stream from their official homepage, to give the listener a feel for the band's tremendous diversity and their ability to not just make music, but to set a mood and create an image with sound.

There's no doubt that this band was influenced by rock greats like Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, but there is a difference between trying to sound like a band and actually thinking like the band you are wanting to emulate. The Law of Fives creates song structure and hooks from the ground up in a fashion that gives them a big sound that I consider classic rock for the 21st Century.

Hot Bands - Howdy Fellas! I have your music blaring in the background to set the mood.

Tyson - Excellent!

Chris - Very nice!

Hot Bands - Let's start from where it began. Who founded the band?

Chris - Tyson and I founded the band, along with my brother Curtis, who left after about 6 months to pursue an acting career.

Hot Bands - Tyson plays keys and Chris, you're the guitarist, right?

Chris - Right, and we both sing. I currently sing about two thirds of the songs.

Hot Bands - How did the two of you get started in music? Were you involved in music from school at all, or was this something you picked up on your own?

Tyson - I've been playing the piano since I was about 5 years old. I had the basic childhood piano lesson routine, but abandoned that by high school. I basically did the rest on my own.

Chris - I had been around guitars as a kid. My mother played a little, as did my cousins. When I turned 14, I began to get interested in playing an instrument. I was originally going to choose the drums, but switched over to guitar because I was really getting into rock music at the time. I got a guitar that Christmas, courtesy of my father, took lessons for 6 months, and taught myself the rest.

Hot Bands - Were you involved in school band, Tyson?

Tyson - No, I was more of a loner.

Hot Bands - How about you, Chris?

Chris - I played in the school's jazz band as a senior in high school, but I was always more interested in my own band, which I started when I was 16.

Hot Bands - What would you say your biggest musical influences are, and how were you drawn to that?

Tyson - Both of us, or as a band?

Hot Bands - Both of you.

Chris - I started listening to the 50's & 60's music that my parents listened to, like The Beatles, Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, Elvis. By the time I started getting into my music on my own, it was Queen and Kiss, plus whatever was playing on the pop stations. I really loved Prince, but started drifting over to the classic rock stations. They were everywhere in Connecticut back then. That got me into Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, The Stones, Pink Floyd, Doors, Hendrix - late 60's & 70;s stuff. That was the music that just stuck with me.

Tyson - Early on, my biggest influences were the Beatles, Cat Stevens and the Grateful Dead. In the past ten years, Bela Fleck has heavily influenced me. I'm not sure why the banjo influenced me so much as a piano player, but when I was at Burlington College in Vermont, I started adapting every Bela Fleck tune I could get my hands on to the piano. I think the banjo is one of the coolest sounding instruments around.

Hot Bands - Who is the main songwriter and lyricist?

Chris - Tyson and I both split song and lyric writing duties. We both have extensive backlogs of songs that we have written individually, which we introduce to the band regularly. The first CD, 'Obelisk', was more collaborative on the lyric writing front, but on the new CD we each wrote our own lyrics for whatever songs we wrote. Right now we're performing more of my songs than Tyson's, but that is only because I have been doing the band thing a little longer than he has, and more of my songs were ready to go.

Tyson - I am definitely slower to introduce songs to the band than Chris.

Hot Bands - Do you write the music first or lyrics, and what do you think influences your hooks? You have a very big 'familiar' sound like something I've heard before, but still totally fresh.

Chris - I usually start with an acoustic guitar, playing around with chords and humming melodies (generally in the middle of the night) - when I feel that I have stumbled upon something interesting, I record it quickly, and make up some gibberish lyrics. I usually keep the gibberish for a long time - it takes me a lot longer to write actual lyrics than Tyson. As far as the hooks go, I tend to think of a style that I want the song to be in. I'll think 'How would Led Zeppelin play this?' and that will influence how I work out any guitar riffs, or if it's more of a Beatles type song, I will keep the arrangement simpler.

Tyson - I can't speak for Chris, but I tend to come up with the music first. I find word sounds, often gibberish, sometimes one or two key words that sound good with the music, and slowly build the story around that. I also have a hang-up about introducing a new tune until the lyrics are finished. That may be part of the reason why it takes me longer to bring new songs to the band.

Hot Bands - I'm listening to 'You Say' right now...very dark and Floyd like. Who is singing on that one?

Chris - That's me singing the main part, but Tyson's also on there with harmonies

Hot Bands - Chris...you sound like Mick Jagger

Chris - Thanks! Mick Jagger is obviously a huge influence, but when I sing, I am usually thinking, "what would Robert Plant or John Lennon do here?" I've heard people say I sound like John Lennon and sometimes Robert Plant, but I sing a little lower than him, but I've also heard I sound like Mick Jagger.

Hot Bands - You mentioned building a story around key words. Would you say that the majority of your songs are woven into some sort of theme like Pink Floyd does, or are they more about whatever comes into your mind?

Chris - I think Tyson works with themes much more often than me, with a tendency to lean towards rock operas!

Tyson - Again, speaking only for my tunes/lyrics - I have an endless supply of weird stories and themes that regularly show up in my songs. This will be more apparent as more of my songs get put out there, but I often reference one of my songs in another. I like them to work together, thematically.

Hot Bands - During your performances, do you use any theatrics or are you strict rock and roll?

Chris - We have talked about theatrics - we'd love to get into that, but at this point, playing smaller clubs, it's kind of hard to organize. We really want to incorporate a projector and show weird visuals behind the band

Hot Bands - did one of you grow up in Connecticut and the other in Vermont?

Chris - We grew up next door to each other in Connecticut. I am from Redding and Tyson is from Ridgefield. Tyson was friends with my brother in high school, but I met him later, when he was back home visiting from college.

Hot Bands - How long have you been together as a band?

Chris - Tyson, my brother and I went to see Ween in New Jersey. They are one of our biggest modern influences. While coming back to the city on the train, we decided to form our own band. We started in April of 2001, but didn't really get serious with the band until about Aug-Dec 2001.

Hot Bands - What type of response have you had with playing live shows?

Chris - We generally get a good response…people seem to dig the music. We went though awkward periods, especially when we were trying out different lineups - the current lineup has been the same since February of this year.

Hot Bands - Would you consider yourself more of a studio band or do you want to be a touring band?

Chris - We definitely want to be a touring band. As far as the studio goes, we spend a lot of time crafting the songs in the studio. Our songs have lots of overdubs and layered instruments/vocal harmonies; perhaps more than a lot of garage bands that are so popular now in New York.

Hot Bands - How do you pull your sound off live if you're using over-dubs and layers?

Chris - I take the Led Zeppelin approach. We generally test our songs out live first, then build them up more in the studio, and rearrange everything afterwards for a live setting once again. We have talked about adding a second guitarist now, because our music has really shifted to more of a "big rock" sound. Neither Tyson nor myself ever intended to be the band's singer; we sort of just took on the role by default because we couldn't find a lead singer that suited our style.

Hot Bands - You guys came about in the middle of the Internet revolution. Have you been using it as a marketing tool since you started?

Chris - Definitely! I don't know how I ever got along without it! I was playing in a band out in Portland, Oregon for a couple of years in the late 90's, just as the Internet was getting popular, and I saw its potential then. Once I came back East and started this band, I realized that it was one of the best marketing tools ever invented for musicians. We do a lot of Internet promotion and list our band with any website that will have us. We post our songs to mp3.com, etc; run an email mailing list…it's really an essential part of how we get the word out to people about our band.

Hot Bands - What do you think of how the RIAA is handling the issue of file trading? You obviously have your songs available on your website, so file-trading must not be that much of an issue to you.

Chris - It's an issue that we have discussed, but when you are a baby band, the most important thing is getting your music out to the people, not trying to make a buck on CD's. I don't really like what the RIAA is doing, but I don't know if they have much choice. We really look to bands like Ween when it comes to downloading and file trading. They have a very open policy with their fans and allow taping of the shows, and encourage the trading of bootlegs and MP3's. I think it has really worked in their favor because their fans go out of their way to buy their CD's to support them.

Hot Bands - What brought you to the West Coast, and how does the music scene here differ from the East Coast?

Chris - My brother and I were trying to make it playing in a small band in Connecticut, which has NO music scene whatsoever. We heard one day that Portland had a good scene, even in the post-grunge era, so we packed our bags and started fresh out there. The thing I liked about the Northwest scene was that it was so positive towards original music. In the Northeast (specifically New England) it's almost impossible to be an original band - everyone wants covers.

Hot Bands - The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, huh?

Chris - The only negative aspect to Portland was that it was such a close-knit scene; many industry people were very negative towards outsiders coming in…especially if they were from California or the New York area. We got a good response from music fans out there, but the industry people eventually drove us back East.

Hot Bands - So why did you move to New York? Did you do it for the music scene, or because you want to see the next terrorist act in person?

Chris - Both! I was at the World Trade Center on 9-11. It really shocked me! I definitely jump now when I hear loud noises! Another reason was that since all of our friends and family were back East, and there was a tradition in my family of going to New York, we thought we'd give it a shot. I figured if we could be starving musicians in Portland; why not starve in New York?

Tyson - I don't know about Chris, but I moved to NYC for a woman. To her dismay, I started a rock band. As terrible as the 9-11 thing was, it did at least put a great many things in perspective for us. It helped fueled our drive to rock.

Chris - There's definitely a different air in New York right now. People act a little different these days.

Hot Bands - What did it put into perspective for you?

Tyson - Personally, it was the whole "life is fleeting" thing. Any doubts I might have had about taking this band the distance quickly disappeared. Not that had any doubts about the band as much as doubts about how hard it can be to have a working band these days…especially in a city that is saturated with young bands. We know that we are definitely doing something a little different, and that can be hard, because some people don't know what to make of us. The WTC thing just made me realize how quickly it can all end, and reinforced my need to do exactly what I love to do with life - to never settle. I couldn't be happier with the way things are working out.

Hot Bands - What do you find more gratifying: writing and recording a good song, or playing to a great crowd?

Chris - Well, it's hard to choose between one of the two - they are both equally gratifying in their own way

Hot Bands - You just released your 2nd CD. Tell us about that.

Chris - We recorded both CD's completely by ourselves. The new one was done at home (or rather, at a series of homes) on my PC. We had a little help with mastering from Gene Paul from DB Plus, who mastered half the disc. Gene has worked for Led Zeppelin in the past, so we were excited to get an experienced opinion on our sound. It was funny because he asked, "whom do you guys get compared to?" My response was "Well we're are kind of doing a Led Zeppelin meets Pink Floyd thing right now", and he said, "OK, so it's not just me that thinks that". Of course, we would never have the nerve to say we are as great as either band, but it's nice to have people say that we remind them of our heroes.

Hot Bands - Do you encourage people to record your shows?

Chris - Yes, Definitely. We recently put up a notice on Furthernet that we give permission to tapers to record our live shows. Our long-term ambitions are to get signed to a good indie label, tour our asses off, and record new albums every year if we can manage it.

Hot Bands - From your own unique perspective, what could you offer to someone that was just starting out in music?

Chris - Well, my advice would be to make the kind of music that YOU like to listen to and don't try to follow trends. Don't change your sound/image to match whatever the current buzz band is doing.

Tyson - Actually, I'd like to tell the world to turn off their television and come out and see some live music. There are lots of great young artists out there that shouldn't be missed!

Chris - Yes! People need to get out there and support their local scenes!

Hot Bands - Thanks guys I appreciate the time you took tonight for this. I think your songwriting is brilliant and if you can avoid imploding you'll go a long way as a band.

Tyson - Our pleasure. This was fun

Chris - Thank you, Pat - we really appreciate the opportunity

For more information on The Law of Fives, CLICK HERE

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