TBA/News
State Of Shock Is Finally Starting
To See Some Money, Honey
By Steve McLean
State of Shock
If you were anywhere near a radio over the past nine months, there's no doubt that you would have heard State Of Shock's "Money Honey."
The catchy single was a top 10 Canadian hit on three different formats and earned the Vancouver quintet of drummer Johnny Philippon, guitarist Jesse Wainright, singer Cam Melnyk, guitarist Simon "Kadooh" Clow and bassist Alison Toews a Juno Award nomination for best new group. "Money Honey" is also up for three Canadian Radio Music Awards and a Canadian Independent Music Award.
"It starts off with a tongue-in-cheek reference in the hook line, 'If I had more money honey, would you love me, love me, love me,'" explains Wainright. "But it's a relationship song looking at it from an outside opinion.
"Everybody always thinks that if you have more, it's going to make everything better. In reality, it's not going to make a difference."
"Money Honey" put State Of Shock on the map, and second single/video "Hearts That Bleed" has also become a big hit. This has opened doors for the band and their second album, Life, Love & Lies, which was released last June. The group has signed with a large management company in New York, and the Canadian momentum looks like it should continue in the U.S. and Europe.
Philippon and Wainright have gone through a few band names and group members since first hooking up in 1999, and there have been as many downs as ups in their career, but the two men always believed in their talent and were willing to work hard to achieve success. All of that is now starting to pay off.
"We definitely went from an immature heavy rock band to finding our comfort zone with the more pop-rock melodic music that we have today on this record," says Philippon.
"We knew that we made a good record, and it was just a matter of getting the right people on board. We were more than confident in our product and just said, 'If anyone ever gives us a chance, good things will happen.'"
Those good things include playing with the legendary Aerosmith and opening for Nickelback on its Canadian tour last summer.
"There's no better way to learn than to watch the pros," says Philippon of the experience. "How much of a better opportunity could we have than playing in front of thousands of people every night, and having them give you pointers after the show? That's rock and roll school."
While State Of Shock can't draw that many people to its own shows yet, the taste of what it's like has Philippon yearning for the day it can.
"A lot of people say they prefer playing more intimate venues because they can be more intimate with the crowd. But the bigger the better for us. It's a lot more organized and a lot more professional, and catering's way better."
State Of Shock plan to release three more Canadian singles from Life, Love & Lies, and their move into new markets will mean having to start from scratch again, so Philippon says a third album is at least a year away.
"You write, record, tour and promote, and then once that whole thing is done, we'll sit down and write again. Until we get closer to the end of the cycle, we're really not going to focus on that. This is just starting. When we get closer to the last single and we know that we're going to have a break for a while, then we'll really think about it."
State Of Shock has enough to think about at the moment, but at least the band is having fun along the way.