Upon entering college, two passionate musicians, Chris Vest (drums) and Luke McDuffe (bass) met potential vocalist Kenneth Nixon. The three of them founded the band ‘Embers Fade’, while guitarists Brandon Wooten and Tim Huskinson joined the lineup soon after. Little did they know that the formation of ‘Embers Fade’ will potentially set the foundation for one of the legends of post-grunge music in the near future, a legend called ‘Framing Hanley’ (Think I am exaggerating? Well, Read on…)
Embers Fade used to practice in Chris’s Basement, and recorded a few demo of their songs which they put up in the internet via their myspace account. In November 2006, these demos were discovered by Brett Hestla, former Creed bassist and frontman of Dark New Day. Hestla helped the young Nashville based quintet record a 2 song demo in his Florida studio which he showed to Jeff Hanson (Creed, Sevendust, Paramore) and his record label Silent Majority Group.and the former drummer Mandy Sinewy In an interview with HitQuarters Hanson said he “flipped out” when he heard the song “Hear Me Now” and decided immediately he wanted to sign them . The following day he went to see the band play in Nashville and claims that in his rush to secure the band’s signatures he wrote up their deal on a napkin. Hanson became not only their label boss but also their manager. Meanwhile, the band adopted a new name to pay tribute to Ashley Hanley, a close friend who had died in a car accident in late 2006. The band released their debut album ‘The Moment’ in 2007, and re-released in August 2008. The album stood out as a proof to music listeners of the extraordinary talent and vision that this band shared. Their songs ‘Hear Me Now’ and ‘Lollipop (Cover of Lil Wayne’s Song)’ immediately earned praise; while songs like ‘Alone in this Bed’ and ‘Wave Goodbye’ familiarized the listeners to the depth that this band could provide through music. A couple of months prior to the re-release of the bands’ debut album Huskinson exited the band and was replaced by guitarist Ryan Belcher, who joined just in time to record the cover version of ‘Lollipop’(Put in as a bonus track in the re-release of their debut album).
In early November 2009, Framing Hanley entered the studio to start working on the sophomore record, “A Promise to Burn.” In an interview with alternativeaddiction.com, lead singer Kenneth Nixon stated that “The album tells a story that a lot of us have been through, where you have to have everything taken away from you before you can be humbled and know how lucky you are, it’s sad that it’s like that, but it’s true in a lot of people’s cases.” Nixon says the band has a lot to prove with the new album, foremost that the band is more than just ‘that rock band that covered Lil Wayne’s song “Lollipop.” “Three years later when one song that they are remembering you for is a cover song, it kinda leaves a bad taste in your mouth,” said Nixon. “That song did a lot of things for our band, but it was really just something that we were doing for fun.” Nixon says the band was discouraged when the band re-released their debut single “Hear Me Now” following the success of “Lollipop” and saw very little response. It leaves us with something to prove on this record. We are not just a band that covers songs, we want to prove we are a band that writes rock songs that we care about, and that is what we did with this record.” In December 2009, the band won the Best Modern Rock Band at the Top In Rock Awards.
The band released their 2nd Album ‘Promise to Burn’ on 25th May, 2010, the album did not take time to hit international music headlines with Out of This World songs like ‘WarZone’ and ‘You Stupid Girl’. Although, the album did not win the hearts of critics, but the album did win the hearts of youth all throughout the world because of the relevancy of the album to Youth life in general.
Current line-up:
Brandon – Guitar
Ryan – Guitar
Luke – Bass
Chris – Drums
With a talent that cannot be denied, pieces of real-life portrayed through their lyrics, music that is as good as it gets (The drums, the guitar, the vocal…. AWESOME! ALL OF THEM!), and with a love for music, ‘Framing Hanley’ is Youthsparks’ Band in Focus(USA).
Click Here to check out Framing Hanley’s Facebook Page
Click Here to Follow Framing Hanley on Twitter.
Click Here for Framing Hanley’s Youtube Account.
Click Here for Framing Hanley’s myspace account
Click Here to check out Youthsparks’s Facebook Page
