Local Boys Make Good

All he did was smile when I said "You guys rock." That's the best I can describe Trevor Sellers, the bass player from NumberOneGun, a local pop-punk / emo quartet with an undeniably bright future. Taking praise with grateful nonchalance is one of his and fellow bandmate Jeff Schneeweiss's areas of expertise, second only to pounding out heartfelt sing-alongs that are heavy on the harmony.
Being that most interviews are conducted over the phone, it's often difficult to feel that you really got to know the person. This wasn't the case with Jeff and Trevor, whom I met up with at a café. Having listened to their recently released first EP, Forever, I already felt I knew them in a way. That's what I find to be the best thing about our burgeoning local scene: rather than being a handicap, the closeness has bred an intimacy that has apparently spilled over into NumberOneGun's music.
Hailing from Chico, their extensive gigging hasn't hurt their reputation any, says Jeff. "We've had pretty good luck with shows, especially considering how much we've played recently," he says when inquired about horror stories from the road. "Last summer we toured up and down the whole West Coast, from Fresno to Seattle." But how can a band pull that off without any major disasters? "They can't," Jeff laughs.
"The time we went to Bakersfield, we got not one, but two flat tires," Jeff says. So what did the band do? They bought an uninsured van missing the back seats, and jerry-rigged it with a couch…and they still missed the show.
As for the local scene that NumberOneGun has become such a large part of, Trevor and Jeff both feel that there is a massive amount of untapped potential that most bands could display if they simply played a little more and set their sights a bit higher. This seems to be a unanimous notion around town, but how exactly does a band go about doing that? Easy: start a band, go through a ton of lineup changes, tour tirelessly and wait for two-and-a-half years until somebody notices you. It worked for NumberOneGun.
"We recently signed to a label in Southern California called Salvage Records that we're all really excited about," says Trevor. "The band had been approached by Tooth & Nail Records, but we didn't feel like we'd be getting enough personal support from them as a label."
The group will be going to Hollywood in late January to take care of the formal red tape that entails a label signing, begin recording shortly thereafter and hopes to have a full-length hitting the shelves by late March, with three of the album's ten songs being from the EP.
It doesn't hurt that Dave, the singer for Pax 217 and one of the band's biggest fans, is the Vice President of Salvage Records. "I think that Salvage is going to be able to provide us with what we need from a label, both financially and personally. It's funny, because Dave had been listening to us for years and was totally surprised by the difference in what he'd been hearing compared to the way we sounded on our EP," says Jeff, and with good reason. Apart from the sparkling precision of the instrumentation and affecting range of Jeff's vocals, the recording of the music is a marvel of modern technology. Just how did the band get such a crisp sound?
"We recorded the whole thing on two mini-disc four-tracks, and used CoolEdit Pro," Jeff says. It almost makes me wonder how necessary professional studio work is going to be in the production of their next release. For being such a relatively inexpensive and DIY endeavor, the band has achieved the clarity of sound that their influences have labored over in the claustrophobic confines of the studio.
When asked what has helped shape their distinct and refined style, Jeff and Trevor both respond with a shrug. While they've got a sound that's undoubtedly readily accessible to a broad audience (as well as an audience of broads - oh, how girls love the pop-punk!), the group takes pains not to emulate what they listen to.
"Well, nothing immediately comes to mind," laughs Jeff. "I guess I listen to Promise Ring and the Velvet Teen a lot." Trevor then pipes in with "Oh, and I like Mineral and the Foo Fighters." It's clear that these guys ain't copping anyone's licks.
The group also finds itself in the admirable position of not being burdened with the cumbersome school schedule that confines many bands' hopes of making it big to pipedream status.
"Since none of us are going to school right now, we have a lot of free time," says Trevor. "We've had plenty of time to fine tune; in kind of the same way playing shows on road trips helped us develop a tighter sound."
A number of different elements and experiences have been fused together in order to create a sound and the group feels that every member has an important dynamic in the creative process.
"Our structure comes from the input of each of the members," says Trevor. "Within six months of practicing together, we had really evolved, and it was totally noticeable. Jeff contributes the main ideas to a song, and then everyone adds on top of that. We have a good arrangement in that we all feed off each other. I don't feel like any of us were truly skilled musicians until we began playing that way, and I think that's true for pretty much anyone."
A further inquiry as to why they sound so technically proficient yielded the exact opposite of what I expected.
"We are all pretty much self-taught, and I don't think anyone in the band has ever taken lessons before," said Trevor. "Except for me. I took some lessons in middle school."
Jeff elaborates on the band's song structures by admitting that while it isn't their top concern, radio playability is definitely a priority for the group.
"We are always keeping that in mind. We like the fact that every show we play gathers more people's interest and attention, and we always appreciate that. So if as a result of it, we could support ourselves playing music, that would be completely amazing."
What he's talking about aren't ambitions of rock star decadence. "We're just hoping to be able to get by doing what we love," Jeff states.
As is the case with any group whose name's origins aren't immediately obvious, I wanted to know what exactly "NumberOneGun" means. Trevor and Jeff professed that there's no real cryptic meaning behind it; it's really just a name.
"Before NumberOneGun was started, me and some friends started up this band called the Paper Trees. We were total butt rock," chuckles Jeff, reminiscing about his early high school days. "A friend of ours, Peter Trulin, came up with the name and it just kind of stuck. We all liked it a lot, and the way it sounds, so we just kept it."

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