BoomChank performs Wednesday, June 12, at Jerry's Bar and Grill in Wichita.
The duo consists of guitarist-vocalist Hadden Sayers and drummer Brannen Temple, who met while performing with blues legend Ruthie Foster. The pair connected musically, and Temple soon found himself playing a gig with Sayers' solo group.
When the bassist took ill and couldn't make the show, Sayers realized that he'd found the perfect drummer for the duo project he'd long wanted to form.
Sayers recently spoke with KMUW about the band's history and Temple's unique contributions to the music and live performance.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
You have a career as a solo artist. What inspired you to put together this band?
I've been a songwriter and a singer, roots-oriented [musician] for a long time, 30 years. For probably 20 years I've wanted to do a duo. For whatever reason, I couldn't find the right [drummer]. Finding the right drummer when you want to do a duo, when you don't have that third leg to stand on, bass or something to cover the bass, is tricky. Often times in the past, I've encountered the dilemma of, "Hey, it's a good band, they just need a bass player." I guess, for whatever reason, I found the right [one]. It was serendipitous. Our bass player got sick, and we had a show as a duo. I realized, "Oh wow, I've got a drummer that can actually pull this off and make it sound [good]." We both kind of work toward filling the space out and, somehow, we stay out of each other's way, and we fill it up. It works.
I'm thankful for what I've been able to do and also for the fact that I'm able to write for a different style. I love to write songs, and I don't think all of them go under [the] "Hadden Sayers" moniker as well as others. I think this is a great outlet for that.
That was going to be my next question, if you earmark songs specifically for BoomChank, and it sounds like you do.
Definitely. When Brannen and I played the first show together, it was a Hadden Sayers show. The bass player couldn't make it, [so it] was just a duo. At the end of the night, I said to him, "You know, I really feel like we could do a band from this. Especially if I just tailor some songs to the concept." He said, "Yeah, we should do it."
I live in Ohio and Brannen lives in Austin. I went back to Ohio and sat in my studio and just envisioned this duo playing, what we'd be doing, and started coming up with ideas. My contribution was the guitar and the voice, but it was easier to write songs in this setting because I just give these sketches, and they get filled in by the drums. For whatever reason, it's more than just keeping a beat; it becomes a song when Brannen contributes the drum part. It is a different feeling and a different thing that this excites me to do. I hope the people gravitate to it the way that I have.
I really like drummers who play with a melodic sensibility, and I think of Brannen in that way.
He's a guy who's constantly looking at the music and not the equipment, which is something that any musician has to be conscientious of. You can get hung up in your place in the musical situation, whatever it is. You can get hung up on the gear, what tools you use to make the sound. He's not thinking that way. His brain is just … like, "This pie pan might be the thing I need to hit right now," or, "This Coke bottle might the right thing." He's that guy. He usually brings a suitcase full of random ephemera while we're playing and that's part of the magic.
