Last week, I had the chance of interviewing an awesome up and coming band called the Como Brothers Band. The Como Brothers are a rock/pop/blues band from Long Island consisting of brothers Matt (bass/vocals) and Andrew Como (guitar/vocals). I actually wrote an article introducing the Como Brothers last semester, but I asked them to come on my radio show on WNHU last week and here’s a bit of what we talked about:
Glenn: For the people that don’t know you, why don’t you talk a little bit about yourself and how the band got started?
Andrew: We started in high school playing in cover bands and things like that, then we were in a Beatles tribute band with our dad, and it just kind of naturally went to writing our own songs.
G: So what influenced your songwriting styles?
Matt: Well the Beatles were huge for us; we really took a lot from their songwriting. We take a lot from guys like John Mayer and blues guys like B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughn. We kind of meld that all into our own sound.
A: We’re always trying to get “poppier” and become more relatable.
G: Through the creative process is it more like you guys coming up with the same ideas or conflicting ideas and working off of that?
A: A lot of the time he’ll bring me an idea and I’ll judge that for good or for worse and same when I bring him an idea and he’ll be judging me. But we’ve learned to accept that judgment for what it is.
G: So you’ve been working on an EP recently as well as playing a lot of live shows, what do you like about each setting?
A: The live thing is cool because you have a full finished product. The thing I like about the live show is you get an immediate satisfaction from people’s reaction.
M: In the studio there’s a reference of what the song should be and then live you can go off of what it should be and then go off of what you’re feeling at the moment so there’s fun in both for us.
G: So I heard you did a John Mayer cover on your EP with Steve Jordan, tell us what that was like.
A: Well he played on our latest EP, which is coming out June 2015, and for those of you who don’t know he played drums on a bunch of John Mayer albums. At the end of the session I asked if we could play one more song and I just went into it and he played along and it was pretty sick.
M: It was “Bold as Love,” the song that we played and its on YouTube and it was a lot of fun.
G: What’s been you’re best experience on the road playing a new area?
M: We went to Virginia a few weeks ago and that was a lot of fun. There were so many people that came up to us afterward and that want us to come back. We’ve been to Philadelphia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Boston, we’re actually playing a show here at The Space in Hamden, CT on June 17th.
A: We also want to announce that our EP release show is going to be on June 19 and that’s at 89 North in Patchogue, New York.
M: One thing I like about what we do is that nothing is set in stone; I don’t have to play the same bass ling every time. I know what’s coming next but I don’t know what I’m going to do next and that’s cool though. As many times as I’ve played that song “Good Enough For Me” I don’t think I’ve played it the same way twice.
During the interview, the Como Brothers played two of their new songs off of their EP Imagination, “Good Enough For Me” and “Tell You I’m Fine,” as well as one of their most popular songs, “Straight Face.” You can find the Como Brothers on Twitter/Instagram @comobrosband as well as on Facebook, SoundCloud, Tumblr and Reverbnation.
