Famous Underground’s vocalist, Nick Walsh, has seen a lot of music come and go during the past 30-odd years. Traditional heavy metal and punk rock gave way to everything from glam to death metal. Right in the middle of heavy metal’s evolution, there were the industrial, power-pop, and grunge trends. Widely blamed for ‘killing music’, instead, ‘grunge’ noisily hailed a new era: the digital divide, which would pit artists and their fanbases against corporate, old-guard monolithic record labels. Those most able to survive ‘flavor of the week’ trendiness perservered. Currently enjoying a bit of a renaissance, guitar-driven hard rock music again struts it’s wares to an eager public.
An invigorating shot in the arm to a genre densely populated by screamers, Famous Underground mixes rock and roll (in a variety of flavors, from burly ‘metallic’ heavy-hitters to tender ballads) with emotionally charged, socially relevant lyrical commentary. The band’s eponymous debut disc, produced by Walsh, was mixed by Darius Szczepaniak (The Black Crowes, Sacrifice) at Rouge Valley Studio in Toronto. Famous Underground;s sound and music is edgy, melodic and hooky bringing a paradigm shift to the arena of rock. It’s been said, that they have created something fresh and exciting in an otherwise stagnated genre. Famous Underground was a high-scoring disc reviewed at PlanetMosh, for it’s authenticity, it’s breadth, and it’s intensity.
Currently recording a followup disc to Famous Underground, and hot on the heels of a successful debut launch, Walsh took over an hour of his time to have a goodly chinwag with Iris North. Walsh discusses the past, present, and future of the ‘music biz’ as well as waxing poetic about his various endeavors yore and fore in music: bands like Revolver, Slik Toxik, Famous Underground, and Moxy. As part of PlanetMosh’s Featured Band series, you can enjoy the interview here, as well as watch and listen to some of the band’s tunes.
