{"id":5054,"date":"2012-02-29T01:14:14","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T08:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=5054"},"modified":"2012-02-29T01:14:48","modified_gmt":"2012-02-29T08:14:48","slug":"dc-villains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2012\/02\/dc-villains\/","title":{"rendered":"DC VILLAINS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"DC VILLAINS<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\n

Rock trio, comic-book characters, video-game entrepreneurs or TV stars? These guys want it all \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

If their name conjures up images of scheming politicians or comic-book\u00a0ne\u2019er-do-wells, the members of the Nashville-based rock band DC Villains don\u2019t mind at all. \u201cBad guys are often cooler than the good guys,\u201d says frontman Damon Carroll (the first part of the moniker is derived from his initials). \u201cAnd sometimes the bad guys are really good guys after all.\u201d Carroll has gotten this far by not doing as he\u2019s told\u2014six years ago he came to Nashville and signed on with a management company, only to see the deal fall apart over musical differences. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to write and sing only country music,<\/p>\n

and that\u2019s what was expected,\u201d Carroll explains. \u201cMy manager\u2019s response was \u2018I understand, but I don\u2019t get it.\u2019 At that point I\u00a0knew I had to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

His next step presented itself when Carroll met bass player Billy Davis during a demo session in 2006. \u201cBilly was the only one who understood what I was trying to do musically,\u201d Carroll says. \u201cWe told ourselves one day we\u2019d do a project together that really captured that\u2014something that wasn\u2019t limited by genre or Nashville\u2019s rules.\u201d Davis introduced Carroll to drummer Joey Reilly, and the trio began forging the sound heard on their new debut album, Divided We Stand<\/em>. It\u2019s an edgy\u00a0set of tunes that incorporates hard rock, metal, rap and the occasional burst of political commentary. \u201cIt\u2019s just me being\u00a0pissed off,\u201d Carroll quips.<\/p>\n

The three are determined to make Divided<\/em> more than just an album, and DC Villains more than just a band. Carroll and his bandmates are readying a host of other projects, including a video game, comic books and a TV series. \u201cI\u2019ve always hated being told I have to pick one thing and focus only on it,\u201d says Carroll, who also works as a personal trainer. \u201cIn high school I joined the chorus and<\/em> played on the football team and<\/em> studied art.\u201d In fact, it was Carroll\u2019s triumph over a high school football injury that fortified his can-do spirit. A misdiagnosis caused complications, and he came close to dying; he defied the odds and pulled through, using the two years he spent recuperating to write songs and hone his singing skills. \u201cI\u2019ve always said, \u2018Screw what we\u2019re supposed to do,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re always looking for new outlets for our creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Villains have attracted key\u00a0investors to subsidize their ventures, inspiring a couple of studio owners to offer time free and even enlisting one of Carroll\u2019s training clients, Kings of Leon bassist Jared Followill, to help sequence the album. Followill, in turn, became a character in the band\u2019s video game\u2014which came about after Davis went on Craigslist looking for someone to repair his Xbox. \u201cHe found a guy, and we started talking to him about how cool it would be to develop our own game,\u201d Carroll says. \u201cAs it turned out, he was also a programmer who knew how to do it. He built our website as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The video game spawned the idea for a comic book that will share characters in common. The television show, which is being shopped to a major network by one of Davis\u2019 industry associates, will have an interactive component as well. \u201cThe idea is to have fans suggest the plot for each episode,\u201d says Carroll. \u201cThen we\u2019ll write a song from that idea and develop a plot around it.\u201d It\u2019s all a lot for a young band to attempt\u2014but Carroll believes their independent spirit will guide them. \u201cNobody tells us what we can and can\u2019t do,\u201d he says. \u201cThe music business is in shambles anyway. We\u2019re indie intentionally.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Lee Zimmerman<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DC VILLAINS Rock trio, comic-book characters, video-game entrepreneurs or TV stars? These guys want it all \u00a0 \u00a0 If their name conjures up images of scheming politicians or comic-book\u00a0ne\u2019er-do-wells, the members of the Nashville-based rock band DC Villains don\u2019t mind at all. \u201cBad guys are often cooler than the good guys,\u201d says frontman Damon Carroll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[3152,2864],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5054"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5054"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5057,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5054\/revisions\/5057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}