INTERVIEW BY CHRIS SUAREZ

PHOTOS BY THROUGH IT ALL PHOTOGRAPHY

It’s a weird time for metalcore within the big, bad alt-music industry. Huge touring packages are coming through venues like Canal Club fairly often. Many of the old “scene” bands of yesterday are mainstays within the national metal crowd. Alternative Press still raves about lots of similar up-and-coming metalcore bands.

At the same time, younger bands and venues are struggling to stay alive. Recently, Kingdom, the venue that replaced the decades old Alley Katz, shut its doors rather suddenly, closed for business. Hardcore bands still have a venue in Strange Matter and bigger metal acts will go through Canal Club. It’s still odd for tons of the bands loyal to the Kingdom metalcore scene.

One such band that’s witnessing the scene’s proverbial balancing act is NO ORDINARY FAMILY. The band began just a year ago and already sounds a bit like THE GHOST INSIDE and FOR THE FALLEN DREAMS. The sextet just recently signed to Above Records, which is a UK promotional label, and they hope that their new label will get them much more exposure.

So your band was recently signed to Above Records. How’d you get involved with them?

Basically, the band ABOVE THIS had recently been dropped from their label so they decided to start their own label called Above Records. Our synth player, Nyshawn, he had been in touch with them over Twitter, and they needed bands to fill spots on their label, so we just got tossed onto it. It’s kind of just an independent record label. It’s not a huge label, but it’s still really going to help us out. They’re from the UK. They’re going to help us produce future releases. They’re not going to record us for free, but at the same time, they’re not going to make a profit off of the stuff we release.

All the stuff we sell for our merch, everything we’re going to sell, our LP’s and EP’s in the future, that’s all going to be our profits. They’re going to help us produce that stuff, but we have to pay them to help us produce. That’s the trade off, but at the same time, our payoff is going to be bigger.

You guys were voted Syke’s band of the month. I still remember when Syke first got started all those years ago sponsoring shows. Are they still supporting a smoke free scene? Do you guys?

We were the band of the month for December. We got asked to work with Syke, and we got people to vote for us out of the other two bands. Basically, we do try to keep that stuff out of shows. We play Kingdom and Canal Club all the time, and you see a lot of younger kids getting into smoking and stuff just ‘cause you see guys in bands smoking. I’ve smoked cigarettes in the past, and it’s not a huge deal. It’s personal, but I have a thing against little 13 or 14 year-old kids starting to get into metal and they come to these shows and see older kids like me playing in a band and smoking a cigarette in front of them, what are they going to do? They’re going to want to smoke cigarettes. I’m not going to let people think that my band is fucking crazy. It’d bother me to think that little kids would do stupid shit because of me.

Speaking of Kingdom, I’m sure you’ve heard they just closed their doors. How do you and the band feel about that?

It’s kind of a bummer. We played about half of all the shows we’ve ever played at Kingdom. It’s a pretty big venue. We’re playing Canal Club tonight, but still, Kingdom had all the touring bands coming to Richmond that my band got asked to play with. I got to meet a lot of really cool people, and not just from the bands that were playing, but all my friends and family, all the people I tried to get go there.

It’s honestly kind of been a love/hate relationship. They’ve been known to fuck other bands over, but at the same time you can’t hate on them ‘cause they were a venue that brought so much good.

A lot of people look at Kingdom and think it’s bad, to each their own, but I look at it, and all I see is good.

House shows are such a thing in Richmond. Most scenes have their circuit of houses or people that book bands they like. As far as house shows go, metalcore seems to be found more towards west end, suburban Richmond. Do you guys ever play those house shows? What do you think of them?

We’ve played one house show. It was one of our really good friends. He had a birthday party back in October, and we played at his place. It was in Midlothian, but it was legit. There’s not too many strict rules, and you don’t have to adhere to any specific schedule. I’d love to play more house shows. I’ve been to a ton of house shows. I love ‘em.

What are your band’s main influences? What bands could you compare your sound to?

It’s really hard to speak for the whole band because there are six of us. I’d say we draw influences from THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. I know Josh is really into BLESSTHEFALL. Our bassist, AJ, likes a lot of bands that I think are shitty, but I know I like some bands he probably doesn’t like either.

Considering you’ve just been signed, are you guys looking to get managed? I know Outerloop looks to manage some of the bands they routinely have play their shows.

Not really, because our drummer, Josh, he’s been in like 10 bands. A lot of those bands have toured, played a bunch of shows, and had some serious releases, but whenever it comes to anything with this band, he always is on it. He’s always on top of getting our merch shipments in, signing us up for shows and not getting fucked over by the venue. He’s always good at investigating stuff. Our drummer is our manager. He’s so good at staying on top of stuff.

What’s the future looking like for you guys?

We’re about to finish this music video we’ll have out soon. I think we’re recording a new track tomorrow. We’re trying to work around our schedules. There’s six of us, and we’re pretty spread out. We’re just trying to get our shit together to practice. We’ve written a few more new songs. We’re just going to be coming out with new material. We’re trying to get an LP out sometime this summer. Things are a little slow right now because we’re busy.

For more updates on NO ORDINARY FAMILY, be sure to “like” their Facebook page and follow them on Twitter and Instagram.