Some people tell Robby Nine that his band sounds really different, and it makes him laugh.
“Yeah, it’s ‘different’ only because we’re playing music that, basically, all of our heroes played; they all wrote good songs with great melodies and that’s always our main thing,” he said. Nine is talking about local rock trio Saturnine Hello’s latest album, Just An Outsider. “Nowadays that’s more rare; there’s fewer bands it seems, at least in the mainstream, who are playing straight-up rock n’ roll”.
The trio, with drummer Johnny Trash and bassist Mighty Mike, plays a range of rock styles, from soaring arena ballads to guttural punk kicks, from gothic glam struts to kinetic alt-rock shredders, never failing to stitch enticing hooks into each track. Even during their stormier, darker fare, they keep something for everyone in each track.
Having fun
“We always try to play a show that we would want to see, ourselves,” Nine said. “We’re big on bands like Motley Crue, Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, David Bowie . . . putting on a big spectacle that has some aggression, but is also uplifting. We hope everyone has a good time. It’s all about having fun.”
Nine has been writing, recording and performing as the frontman of Saturnine Hello for more than 10 years, and each band member is sustained by a genuine and undying love for rock, however against the grain that might be these days.
So maybe they do feel like “outsiders,” as the new album suggests. It goes along with how each of them felt growing up, Nine said, evoking a ‘50’s classic rock aura, a la the James Dean rebel-type. “We’ve each always been kinda loners, or on the outer fringes of mainstream society,” he said.
Silly rebellion
“Pete Townshend once said something like, ‘Rock n’ roll is silly . . . ridiculous . . . absurd.’,” Nine explained. This was hard for a young Nine to take, having grown up on some stark and visceral rock styles in the 90s via bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Local H and Sponge; it didn’t make sense. “Now that I’ve come full circle, I realize that, yeah, rock n’ roll is silly. It’s supposed to be fun and crazy, and it’s about writing good songs but having a blast.”
As Nine put it, Saturnine Hello are trying to make their own wave. “If you’re in the middle of the road with us, or if you feel it sounds ‘different,’ then this wave can either push or pull you. Either you can have people hate you or love you but you at least want them to feel something,” he said.
“In some way or form,” Nine quipped, “rock will never die.” And that sentiment is the source of inspiration for their latest album, out now.
Get Saturnine Hello’s newest album, Just an Outsider, via iTunes or Amazon. See more tunes, show dates and info at s9h.us. The band takes the stage May 26 at Frankie’s Inner City.
