Bryan Shackle, Tyler Jorenby, Patrick Gibbs, George Hadfield, and Mo are
ReadyGoes, a rambunctious pop band of 20-somethings determined to get your booty moving on the dance floor. I spoke to Bryan Shackle, the frontman of the quintent, in anticipation of the group’s EP release show at the Varsity Theater on Feb. 25.
Give me the spiel about how ReadyGoes got started.
Bryan Shackle: It started four years ago, though we’d all played in different bands before that. Tyler and I were approached by a publishing company to work on some songs for TV shows. We created a make-believe band and make-believe songs, but we ended up really liking them. Half of the songs were used for the shows and we kept half. We actually booked our first show at the Fine Line before we had enough band members to play the show.
And now you’re preparing to release a new EP, Like A Bomb. What kind of sound and themes can fans expect to hear on it?
BS: The sound is still us—dance pop—and it’s big. We’re not apologetic about it or worried about what other people think. It’s unlike anything else that the Twin Cities is making right now, which is a lot of chill, cool stuff. These six new songs are monstrously big and sexy. They are songs we feel good playing and we think fans will appreciate them and react well to them.
So your goal is to see the crowd dancing and going crazy during a show?
BS: Going crazy—yes, that’s a reaction we want! Hands in the air, anything. The worst would be people or critics being neutral to our music. I want them going crazy or hating it. Some kind of reaction.
Talk about the band’s look. Is it something that happens naturally or do you purposefully plan it? Are you into fashion?
BS: I wish we had the money to hire a stylist to plan it out. For now, it’s natural. I mean, before a photo shoot, we’ll say to one another, “Let’s not wear pink” or “Maybe iron your shirt” but that’s it.
And yet you went as zombies to Rock The Cause’s Phantasmagoria. Not exactly heartthrob attire.
BS: [Laughs.] Of course we planned that. It was so much fun.
Has ReadyGoes played many shows for charity?
BS: We haven’t and that’s because this album has been all-consuming for over two years. We’ve been through the ringer with management and going between Nashville and L.A. and Minneapolis. It’s not that we don’t want to play charity shows, it’s that it’s hard to play a ton of shows if you’re unsure about the songs.
But you did offer yourselves up for a bowling date for your Kickstarter campaign…
BS: We’d been talking about what would be an interesting way to promote on Twitter and Mo, our guitar player, said, “Dude, let’s go bowling!” We did a contest based on re-tweets. A girl won and that’s coming up, so we’ll see how that goes…
In ten years, do you anticipate ReadyGoes will still be making the same kind of music or do you think it will morph into something else?
BS: It’s always going to morph or we’d get super bored. We’ll still be making music together in five years, ten years, but it will change. ReadyGoes has already changed. At first, Tyler and I were the ones doing the songwriting. The rest of the guys help with the writing now; there are multiple hands involved. George had a heavy hand in the six songs on the EP, and there’s hip-hop in his background, so that's a new influence.
Who would be your dream band to open for?
BS: To open for? I don’t know. Who sounds like us? Who do you think?
I wouldn’t want to insult you.
BS: It’s okay. I know we play chick pop.
It’d probably someone you’d hear on KDWB.
BS: I don’t know what they play on KDWB well enough to even name anyone. The bands we like don’t sound like us. I don’t think Ryan Adams would have us on. Butch Walker…Fun…any band that has cool dudes or girls that would hang with us onstage and off.
Are there any legal substances that you guys rely on to get riled up before a show?
BS: We’re whiskey men. There’s usually a bottle of Jack Daniels or Jim Beam in the back. Aside from that, it’d be jumping around, battle rapping, or wrestling tigers.
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- Erica Rivera
