Drivin' Rain moves on

OFF: I guess I'll get straight to it -- what are you going to do to move on as a band?

Timexx: We've been talking about that. We took some time to just get over some things first, but we know for ourselves and for Tommy too that the band has to keep going. We want to keep doing his music, we want to keep doing our music, we want to write new music, we want the band to keep going on and that's what he would've wanted. It would be next to impossible for us to find one person to fill in and do what Tommy did because he did so much -- he sang, he played guitar, he just did so much. So for us, the way to do it is to find two guys to do it. We're now searching for two new guitar players. We're down to three that we really like and they are people from outside the state that are going to move here, and then we will pick it back up, work on some new songs and try to go from there.

OFF: Skully, from your perspective do you have any problems with moving on without Tommy?

Skully: It's not the easiest thing in the world to consider, especially when it's only been a month. And right now it is very painful, particularly to me because Tommy and I were the notes of every song. I knew where he was coming from, he knew where I was coming from, and if either one of us brought in a song and it was incomplete, it didn't matter because both of us knew what we wanted and where we were going as far as style. It's taken a lot of consideration from a lot of different people who've contacted us and it is definitely a hard thing for me to consider. I was not going to budge until I felt 100 percent in agreement with Timexx that we had the right guys for the job at this point, and I'm talking musically. And we've had to listen to recordings and make sure musical styles fit to make sure they jive with me on the rhythmic end of it.

OFF: What are the main qualities you have been looking for in the two new guitarists?

Timexx: They have to be someone we can get along with, someone who is kind of in the same area we are and understands the same music we do. But yet someone who's talented enough to go different directions so we can branch out and go different directions and do other things besides what we've been doing. But mostly it's finding someone who's like a family member, because that's what we are. It has to be someone we can get along with.

Skully: That being said, on the other end of the spectrum, these have to be some fireball players. We need somebody with the talent of Tommy coupled with the stage presence of myself tripled by the ability to harmonize with Timex's vocalizations. That's difficult for one person, so we need to make sure we find two people who fit this bill because we are asking for a lot out of both. I think we have some good candidates.

Timexx: It's important for a band to re-invent itself every once in awhile, and this is our chance to kind of try to re-invent Drivin' Rain into the world-wide monster that we've always thought it could be, and just keep moving forward with what we're doing.

OFF: So would you like the band to move forward with a new style, especially with the new blood coming in?

Timex: Well rock is rock. We're not going to suddenly become a jazz band or anything. We do want to branch into some other areas, and I think we started to do that on our last album. We just want to make good music with harmonies and fun.

Skully: The truth of the matter is that on both albums, the second one in particular, each song has its own unique style. Although each song also has that signature style that you can tell is Drivin' Rain. We've always tried different things, and I think each album is an enhancement of the one before, and bringing two new talents in will bring more influences, more styles to the table and it's going to be a lot of fun for everybody. We've already had a taste of it and I think when people see it they'll know that Drivin' Rain isn't going to change musically, they are just changing who they are.