Petoskey, Michigan bred folk-rock quartet Michigan Rattlers – expertly comprised of Graham Young, Adam Reed, Christian Wilder, and Anthony Audia – is probably showing up close to you sometime soon. They mounted a three-month tour in February, and don’t show any signs of slowing down. We got a few minutes to catch up with lead singer Graham Young ahead of their March 12th show in Kansas City.
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Was there a moment when you realized you wanted to pursue music as more than a hobby?
Graham: I feel like I’ve always kind of been somebody that goes all in. When I was a kid, probably between the ages of 5 and 11, I played hockey and I was going to play in the NHL. It wasn’t just for fun.
Then I got a guitar for my 12th birthday and I’ve seen some live ACDC videos. I needed to get a guitar because that’s what I wanted to do. I needed to be in a band and play a big stage and be a guitar player. So it was kind of like, from the moment I started it was all I wanted to do. And do it seriously.
It really was never a hobby to begin with. I went in full steam ahead.
That’s incredible, to just know in your bones. You found your people pretty quickly too, yeah?
Graham: I grew up in a small town so there weren’t that many kids and people around. Seemed like I got a guitar and Tony – everybody that’s in the band now – we’ve all been playing together in some iteration since we were 12 or 13 years old.
Part of it too, where we grew up the school band program was pretty intense and pretty respected and we were all part of that. Kind of going to school every day and playing music and learning different instruments. Saxophone was my first instrument. All the other guys played percussion. You’d go to the band room every day from 6th grade to 12th grade and play that. Then after school we’d kind of do the rock band thing. Playing music together was always part of what we did.
I’m just happy your region had resources to be hard! That’s amazing. Over the years – and maybe even more recently – how have you noticed your music shift and maybe your approach to it?
Graham: When we first started the band it was really a bunch of songs I had written by myself in my bedroom. It was just me and a guitar. That was kind of where it started, then as personnel expanded and instrumentation expanded, you just kind of are able to do more things. It was kind of a natural evolution in terms of how we create the music, what it sounds like. And there’s a little bit of an audience too. It’s not something you like to think about, but it does certainly factor.
When you think about creating this body of work, I feel like we are far enough down the road a little bit – almost like 10 years – and you can kind of get a bird’s eye view of where we were and where we’re going and kind of take that into consideration.
I did feel more connected to this third album. It is such a journey, is there a particular song on this release you identify with the most or have a story about?
Graham: Good question. I mean, all of them. For us, as a band, I think it’s true that this third album does feel kind of like the first album that we really made in the way that we wanted to make it. We really took our time with it, with the songs. Some of these songs started in Covid, 2020, 2021. It took years to kind of shape them in these different ways.
The title track, “Waving From A Sea,” is pretty important to me. In the past I didn’t do a lot of rewriting. I was kind of just like “This is how it is.” But with “Waving From A Sea,” we were in Burlington, Vermont on tour and had a couple of days off. I was sitting in the Air BNB and had a moment. I had the guitar out and was flipping through some notebooks and just fell upon some lyrics from… I don’t even know how long ago I’d written them. And it was kind of like a verse. And I was like, “Well, this is pretty sweet” and then just started messing around with it. So it was a process of finding these old bits I’d completely forgotten about and working with them. It kind of sparked this new feeling to just take these and run with them. So that was that song.
And “Heaven,” sonically and phonetically, was one of the touchstones for this album. Just the bigger, more filled out sound with the synths and guitars. And the idea of just kind of not living in this weird, nostalgic past and not being in this anxious, uncertain future. Just telling yourself; “You’re living right now and your life is going to be over soon, you’re going to be really pissed that you missed it.” You’re here, in Paris, with a beautiful lady. So let’s live here and not worry about what’s coming next. So that was kind of “Heaven.”
The little spoken outro was something too. We got some gear this time so I was able to do some recording and demos on my own. We had kind of been going in and out of the studio here in Nashville. I was just at home and I felt like there needed to be something at the end. So I was messing around with this weird spoken, half sung thing that I would have been way too embarrassed to do in the studio with everyone else just watching me try this thing. Since I was by myself, I was just having fun. And I was like, “Oh shit, this is actually pretty sweet.” So I was able to take a chance and if it sucked, I was the only one that knew about it. So that was kind of a fun piece of it.
It turned out so well, too! What a lesson in confidence. Speaking of “Heaven,” how did the concept for the video come about, or do you have any stories from set?
Graham: The “Heaven” video was directed by my girlfriend, Ally Bernstein. And then her friend and our friend, Shelby Goldstein who has taken a bunch of photos for us over the years. We were doing things on this album we hadn’t done and we wanted to create this world visually too. We knew “Heaven” was gonna be one of those singles and really it was just kind of Ally and Shelby who came up with the concept of it.
Kind of in tandem, though, we shot “Heaven” and “Gridlock” on the same day in the exact same spot. We didn’t have a ton of money, we shot it in LA and Shelby had some connections. It was a whole crew, it was a real deal production which was really fun. We did the “Heaven” video around 11am and finished at 4pm. And then we reset and did “Gridlock” after that. So they are kind of connected in this way where it’s kind of “Heaven” and then “Gridlock” kind of descends into this dark red, hellish vibe.
[The “Heaven” video] was fun [to make]. It’s easy to have fun when you’re playing, it’s a little strange when you’re lip syncing and dancing around and trying to vibe out in front of the camera with a bunch of people watching.
You are NOT wrong! Michigan Rattlers are stopping thru KC on March 12. Anything you’re looking forward to?
Graham: We’ve been to Kansas City a handful of times. It’s one of those places where it took a couple times to feel like we had kind of broken through in a certain sense. The last time we were there was definitely the best turnout. But yeah, Kansas City was fun. I feel like we always go to Arthur Bryant’s, so done that 2 or 3 times. Everywhere we go we try to find good food and a bookstore or something.
Fantastic! Now, you all started tour already and you’re going through, more or less, the middle of May. How did you prepare yourself for that?
Graham: I feel like I’m still preparing, we’re still figuring it out. We did a lot of rehearsal. Outside rehearsal, you just have to do it live and figure it out. We have been touring for a while, so we kind of know what we’re getting into with these long stretches. It has been a while, we didn’t do much touring last year at all. This is the first time in a while that we have really hit it hard.
You just take it a day at a time and you try to treat it like you’re waking up and doing it at home. Don’t treat it too differently. Find the little things to make yourself comfortable.
Any items you have to have with you on the road?
Graham: Healthyish bars, protein bars, things like that. Can’t snack on Chex Mix all day long. You gotta have a water bottle and some vitamins.
Good! We take care of ourselves! I’m proud of you guys.
Graham: It’s been about a decade. When I was 20, we weren’t as conscientious about being healthy. And we have so much more gear now. Back in the day, it was a couple guitars and a bass. SOundcheck took 15 minutes. Now, it takes almost 2 hours to load in, soundcheck. It’s a little more physically intense than it used to be so you have to prepare yourself and be able to just do it. It’s not just oplkaying the show, you’ve got to be in shape enough to do the other things. Otherwise it’s truly miserable.
If you could be any superhero… or have a specific power, who or what would you choose?
Graham: Umm I’ve always kind of been drawn to Batman. He’s just a regular dude that’s trying his best. I mean, regular, filthy rich guy. He’s just kind of like a weird guy doing his thing.
A superpower? I think being able to hold a book by the covers and absorb everything that’s in the book. Like, all at once. That would be incredible. It would save a lot of time.
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Michigan Rattlers play Encore at the Uptown Theater on March 12. Grab your tickets now, and we will see you there!
