Getting to know Nelo

by Sarah Crisman

We caught up with Austin's Nelo at Austin City Limits to see what happens when you take Denton jazz guys and throw them in a rock band.

You were the first show at ACL. You kicked off the festival today, that's pretty awesome. Did you guys have a good time this morning?

It was awesome. Good show.

We were chatting before (when I forgot to turn the recorder on) – how many of you have a Dallas connection. We've got one, two... three?

Some of us went to school there and lived there for nine years. So that counts.

It does! You're UNT jazz guys.

Yeah, the three of us went to UNT. The talented ones.

Naturally. Then I suppose that leaves the rest of you to be the “cool ones” that actually get the ladies to the show, also very important to the band. Because if you leave it to the jazz guys, I'm the only girl who shows up.

Yes, then it's just a Moosehound show.

You don't want that 6:1 ratio at a festival. Now you guys took some time to evolve as a band, did you started in Dallas and then move to Athens?

We didn't really start in Dallas, but a bunch of us met in Dallas and then moved to Athens, Georgia, where we properly formed as a band.

What's the scene like in Athens?

It's great. Part of the reason we moved there is because it has such a large reputation for music, but it's still within a small size. It seemed like a really smart place to start a band, to kind of get the ball rolling. The scene is not of proportion to the size of the town, and that's really cool.

Sounds kind of like of Denton: a massive sound with a small town vibe.

Yeah, but there's lots of jazz. That doesn't get girls.

There are no girls in Denton.

Athens and Denton are really similar. They're very strong in the arts, especially considering the size of each. In terms of the style the two cities represent, they are way different. Denton has a great rock scene, too, but it's known for jazz in most circles. In Athens, it's freaking rock and jam.

And that's where the girls come in!

Yea!

Hello, ladies! Right, so you were in Athens for awhile, and now you're in Austin. How is the scene different? Obviously, it's a bigger city – how is it living here as a musician?

Musically speaking, Austin has that Blues thing going on. That's not something Athens has. Austin's kind of like a big version of Athens. It's been cool for us to come back home. It's what we consider home. But the truth is, we're hardly ever here. We're on the road playing, but when we come back to Austin, it feels like a vacation (even though it's home).

What's your favorite city to tour through right now? Which one do you look forward to every time you go out on the road?

We've been through New York a couple times, and it was awesome. Seattle's really cool, and White Fish, Montana. You know, all the typical places in America. Except White Fish. That's original.

You released a single a month between May and July, how did that go?

It went really well. Now the whole EP is released. It was all online, and now we have some physical copies that we sell at shows. It was a good way to get our new music out there.

There's a big difference between that and putting together a full-length album and locking yourself up in the studio. You were touring while you're releasing this music. Are you going to be cranking out music like this on a regular basis?

It's something to consider, though I don't think we'd do an EP again. We'd either do another record or just start cutting singles to release one by one. It is important for us to get new music out there. We've been a band for four years, but we only have one album. We have over 50 songs we could record, but we've only recorded 12-14. We have a lot to get out there that we haven't done yet.

It's like you're sitting on a pot of gold.

Oh I don't know – it's a pot of something. We've been sitting on the pot way too long.

You can catch Nelo at The Aardvark in Fort Worth on Thursday, October 15. Girls are welcome to attend.