New bands come out now more than ever before and with today’s music market you can find new artists and new music with ease. The difference is that the impact that those bands make is very short lived. We’ll hear from them for a week or two on the indy blogs and then we’ll never hear from them again. If people were out to get their five minutes of fame ten years ago you’ve got to think they’re lucky to get five seconds today. That’s why it’s refreshing when a band comes to the plate ready to make an impact, but waits for the perfect time to do so. Enter Dear Dangerous, a band formed years ago that’s still unreleased. They’ve been biding their time waiting for the perfect opportunity to get the word out. Turns out, Dear Dangerous’ launching point is right now.

The band started out with two friends from Windsor, Ontario; Luke Danelon and Johnny Weatherbie. In a recent interview with Alternative Addiction, Luke explained the origin of the band. 

“Me and Johnny started four or five years ago. I was living in Grand Rapids, Michigan working as a DJ. I actually wrote some songs and Johnny tricked me into coming back home to record them. He told me that he had some free studio time. So we get in there and we recorded three songs. I find out later, the guy paid for it and I got really pissed at him. So I tried to give him his money back and instead of letting me do that, he gave me a remix of one of my songs called “Got a Reason.” That song ended up getting very heavy radio play throughout Michigan that year. So that’s how it all started, I said ‘this guy got me on the radio the first try, I should probably stick with him.’”

Rounding out the band are the Gravel brothers- Eddy and Andy- both from Windsor too. What the band is sitting on right now and finding a way to release is a combination of those songs they recorded years ago and newer material the band has been compiling over the years.  Asked specifically what they’d release, Danelon responded.

“Johnnie and I toured together on Ozzfest in 2007. It was a brutal, miserable tour. It was so hot we were malnourished. We didn’t sleep properly and we barely got time to shower sometimes. We came off that tour and went back to Grand Rapids. Instead of getting a house to stay in we rented a rehearsal space and we lived there. We just started writing for the next year and that’s all we did. The majority of the songs that are on our record now are from that time period. But also some of them are from me living here in L.A. and Johnny living in Canada for another year after that. So when we compiled all material we had between fifty and sixty songs and we chose the top ten and this record is the product of our first experiment in writing.”
So that covers the ‘who’ and the ‘what’, but what about the when? The record doesn’t have a release date or a label home yet, but the band is exploring management and label possibilities as you read this. It’s wise to wait for the perfect time to release music, but it’s also hard to wait. For the other founding half of Dear Dangerous, Johnny Weatherbie, it’s particularly challenging.

“I wanted it to be heard yesterday. I’m the impatient guy; I’m like ‘If this is done, show it off!’ But everything has its due process and I’m starting to understand that a little more. I’m growing some patience. After we’ve put so much time thinking about how to release stuff, I’m appreciating it all a little bit more, but I’m definitely ready to get this out there.”
The music may take a few more months to get out there, but if you live in the Los Angeles, California area and you want to see the band live, the band’s debut live performance is coming up on May 21st in Santa Clarita, California. Danelon had some info on not only where you can see Dear Dangerous for the first time live, but where you can be a part of a great cause.
“We’re playing at an awesome festival. It’s called Summer Meltdown. It’s in Santa Clarita at the Golden Valley High School Ampitheatre. It’s a benefit for autistic kids and there a bunch of things going on, the high school students are participating and filming the whole event. There’s going to be a lot of sponsors out there and some great bands like Unwritten Law, Tomorrow’s Bad Seeds, Peanut from 311 is playing and I’ve heard rumors about other very prominent musicians coming out, so we’re super excited.”

If you’re unable to make it to the festival you can find the band on FaceBook. Their page is- http://www.facebook.com/DearDangerous. Look for more on Dear Dangerous on Alternative Addiction in the coming weeks.

First Listen: “City Walls” by Dear Dangerous

First Watch: “Hey, Hey” by Dear Dangerous