Patrick Meese, seen here fronting his band Meese at the Monolith Music Festival at Red Rocks in 2007, is no longer linked to Atlantic Records. The label dropped Meese in December. Photo by John Moore, The Denver Post.
The scuttlebutt/gossip making its way around Denver’s streets – that local pop act had been dropped by after only one record, last year’s “Broadcast” – is true, The Denver Post has learned.
“We are no longer on Atlantic Records,” guitarist Nate Meese told The Post on Sunday. “We got dropped. You might say it was a forced ‘mutual’ agreement.”
But, he went on to say, “We have more positive stuff going on right now than we have had in years.”
Nate and his brother, Pat, the band’s singer/pianist/guitarist, have a sense of humor about the situation – now. They’ve been playing together since 2005. They got the news from Atlantic in December. They’ve been keeping it mostly quiet as they’ve dealt with the blow within their camp, which includes their manager/friend Alex Brahl of Red Light Management.
Sadly, Meese’s major-label farewell is a familiar story to most bands that go that route.
“Both of our main champions at the label got fired last year,” Nate Meese said late Sunday. “They were the people that brought us there. The new people we had working with us didn’t really see eye-to-eye with us so much. It was never a question of work ethic or if we got put on the back burner, though. There’s nobody to point a finger at. Everybody worked their ass off, from the band to everyone who has been remotely involved with us. It came down to our guys not being there anymore.”
While it took some time to deal with the mixed emotions of being dropped, it didn’t feel like a bad break-up, Meese said.
“It wasn’t personal,” he said. “It was business. It is the music business.”
The action has inspired a new creative burst for the brothers Meese and their band. Off tour since November, the Meese brothers have been writing like mad – together and apart. They received some good press in Alternative Press, and they’re “99 percent sure” of a big tour they’re truly excited to announce in the coming weeks.
Nate Meese is pictured above playing with Dust on the Breakers on Friday night at the Bluebird Theatre. Also playing for the Jeff Linsenmaier-fronted band was Meese’s brother, Patrick. Photo by John Moore, The Denver Post.
They’re also approaching the band completely differently now.
“Things may look a little different, but itap still gonna be the core band,” Meese said. “We’ve talked about adding some people, maybe making it more of a collective, taking a cue from our buddies Dust on the Breakers. They have their core group of people, but they also bring in others.”
The band has also logged some hours at with producer Andrew Vastola “to get some new ears” on some of the new songs, and fans should expect new material soon.
“We’d like to get it out there sooner than later,” Meese said, noting that the band doesn’t yet know where they will record the material – or with whom. “We all want something new. We’re shooting for spring or early summer right now.”
As much as the band is looking to record the new material and put the last few months behind them, they’re still proud of “Broadcast,” a record that “exudes the kind of polished, upbeat vibe that comes from a detail-oriented creation process,” according to Denver Post music writer John Wenzel in a June 2009 article around the CD’s release.
“I’m still really proud of our record, and we worked our asses off,” Meese said. “We put out the right record for ourselves personally. And our time (at Atlantic) was awesome. And they worked just as hard as we did. This will not go down as one of those artist-versus-label disputes. We still talk with people from the label. It was never one of those ‘There was a big machine, and we were one of their puppets’ kinds of things. It was a great relationship.”
Meese’s short time with Atlantic represents a great time in his life, he said.
“It was the time of my life,” he said. “I got to do more than I ever thought I would get to do. On one hand, it makes me feel great, and I’m pleased with myself and my band to be able to say that. But at the same time, it makes it sound like itap over, and I hate that. Itap not over. I haven’t been this excited about the band for years. Creatively, what we have planned and what we’re doing, itap gonna be great.”
Meese said the shock of the news took a while to sink in.
“And then it came down to the question: Are we still going to do this?” Meese said. “And of course we are. The bottom line is: The biggest thing we’ve all learned through this process is this: If you’re not playing music for yourself first off, then you’re in the wrong line of work.”
The hardest part of it all for Meese: The everyday impacts the news will have on his life.
“It was the life stuff that got me,” he said. “I just turned 25, and I was naïve enough to think that nothing’s gonna change. Coming to the realization of why I play music in the first place, that was some inside-my-own-head kind of shit. And ultimately, through supportive friends and our bandmates and our great manager, we pumped ourselves up.
“Itap not ideal, but it doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Thatap the way things are panning out right now. We have some huge plans coming.”
See the next page for Meese’s “Tell Me It’s Over” video — the most recent clip off its Atlantic release, “Broadcast.”
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Ricardo Baca is the founder and co-editor of and an award-winning critic and journalist at The Denver Post. He is also the executive director of the , Colorado’s premier indie music festival. Follow his whimsies at , his live music habit at and his iTunes addictions at .
Meese, “Tell Me It’s Over”
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