The BTWN breakdown
Core:
Danny Lancaster: Guitar, keyboards, vocals
Robert Witherspoon: Vocals, loops, handsonic, samples
Gary Petty: Guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, vocals, samples
Featuring:
Toby Moore: Guitar, bass, keyboards
Jeremy Prescott: Guitar
Garrett Witherspoon: Horns, vocals
Mary Ellis: Vocals
What got you all started in music and how did you find each other to form BTWN?
Danny: I have been playing some sort of instrument since I was a small child, but I was between bands and moved to the Houston area with Robert. He wasn’t playing with a band at the time so we started an act covering deep David Bowie cuts in 2010. Once the band started taking off and getting gigs, we quickly gathered everyone in.
Gary: My parents put me in piano lessons when I was in kindergarten, after listening to me pick out a few melodies to kids songs by ear on the family piano. Been writing and playing music on a variety of instruments ever since.
Robert: Dan and I decided to put a David Bowie tribute band together. We learned ‘Breaking Glass’ and then promptly began to write original music. Something felt right and the grooves we began to create seem to create forward momentum. Gary, and the artist who made our album cover Kirstie began jamming with us. The songs kept coming so we stuck with it. The project stalled many times. Some music refuses not to be born. That’s honestly this music. We are simply antennas broadcasting the perfect vibe.
Jeremy: I believe we were brought together as friends over the years by our similarities as people and share a strong dedication for composing and performing together.
Why the name BTWN?
Robert: BTWN stands for Black Tie White Noise. This is the title of David Bowie’s album in the early 90’s under Savage Records. He had left being Bowie and created a band called Tin Machine. After that he reunited with the legend Nile Rodgers and recorded this fabulous album. It seemed appropriate when we were going to be a Bowie tribute band.
Danny: We weren’t a Bowie cover band for very long at all though. I think there might be cassette junk masters of us doing one Bowie song.
Robert: The name stuck. We changed it to the letters so as not to step on anybody’s toes.
Jeremy: Besides, it sounds sexy.
What are your musical goals as a group?
Danny: People had been asking for the album for a long time. It took us ten years, but the next one won’t take nearly as long! It was an experience hearing yourself on someone’s Pandora playlist right after U2. We have another album in the works, and Robert, Gary, and I are focusing on our record label, Human Engine Records. We want to bring other great acts with us. We are working on a hell of a live show, but if you hear the album, you’ll know why it takes a village.
Gary: I personally just want to continue making music for its own sake. I love the process, and listening to the result. It’s as simple as that.
Robert: I wanted to make an album like I listened to years ago. I think if you put the headphones on and look at the artwork while you listen you can transport back about twenty years or more and feel what it was like before digital media.
And for a little extra fun… If BTWN was stranded on an island, who would be most likely to survive?
Gary: Danny is probably the most resourceful when it comes to practical considerations like life and death. I’m just a hapless knob twiddler.
Robert: I would like to say myself because I am certainly a survivor and exceptional at solving problems but…Danny is freaking Mr. Spock and MacGyver’s love child so probably him.
Jeremy: Me. It’s nothing personal. The idea of being the survivor just felt much nicer than having to be cannibalized is all.
Danny: I’d like to think we would all survive the desert island experience, but for different reasons. Gary is too damn smart to have ended up there in the first place. Robert would talk himself out and leave. Jeremy would probably be happy to set up shop and stay.
Anything else you’d like to share?
Gary: If you like what we do, please let us know! Best place to contact us is probably Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/btwnbook. We also have a few videos up on Youtube. Once we get 100 subscribers, we’ll be able to use a custom URL, instead of the random character string we got going on right now.