Hays is no stranger to great music coming from it. In 2018, Dangerously Biased formed and has built a solid foundation in their music along with a dedicated fan base. Few full-sized bands are able to accomplish the depth and vibrance of what these two artists are able to produce with only a bass and drums. This week’s spotlight is Dangerously Biased from Hays, KS.
“Personally, my main goal is to get people to move their bodies. I’d like to write some more dance-able songs, not unlike Jailbreak Maria Ross, with the very “backbeat” chorus. I try to make the songs rock but keep the vocals pretty palatable.”
7eight5: Introduce yourselves. Who are you and what instruments do you play?
Matt: I’m Matt Isley, I play bass and sing.
Sutton: Heyo, I’m Sutton and I play drums in the band as well as some vocals.
7eight5: How long have you been playing together?
Sutton: Man I’ve completely lost count of how many years it’s been since we’ve gotten the band together, maybe like 6? Hopefully Matt has a more definite answer.
Matt: Been playing since 2017 or 2018. First show was in July 2018.
7eight5: And individually, how long have you been playing music?
Matt: Started playing music in grade school. Started with piano lessons, then trombone in high school and picked up guitar when I was 16 years old.
Sutton: I’ve been playing music for as long as I can remember. I was always getting pots and pans out when I was little and setting them up as mini drum sets. My dad had a couple guitars and I would mess around on them and make up songs, mostly nonsense gibberish that a 6 year old would come up with. But my mom had me take piano lessons around the time I was 7 or so.
7eight5: Where did you come up with the name Dangerously Biased?
Sutton: I wish we had a cooler story of how we came up with our name. But honestly I think Matt just came to practice one day with a list and that’s the one that stuck.
Matt: My wife Amber once asked me how she looked before going out and I, of course, told her she looked amazing. She said I was “dangerously biased” and I could not be trusted to submit an honest, objective opinion on the subject. The phrase sounded cool, so we put that on the list of band names and that’s what stuck!
7eight5: Describe your sound.
Sutton: Matt always describes our sound as Riff Rock, and to people who don’t usually know much about music I just say we’re a two piece alt rock band. A very loud two piece al rock band.
Matt: We have a modern rock sound. Big riffs, catchy melodies. Personally, my main goal is to get people to move their bodies. I’d like to write some more dance-able songs, not unlike Jailbreak Maria Ross, with the very “backbeat” chorus. I try to make the songs rock but keep the vocals pretty palatable.
7eight5: Finish this sentence: Fans of (insert band here) would love your music.
Matt: Fans of Royal Blood would love our music. Many people make this comparison and though the two-piece bass/drum combo is similar, I like to think the vibe and feel is similar, too. Also – there are other two-piece groups I draw influence from; Royal Blood is certainly not the only well-known two-piece out there. I love Death From Above and In The Whale, too! Aside from two-piece groups, I pull a lot of influence from Audioslave and the like.
Sutton: Fans of Royal Blood, Death From Above, 1979, and Don Broco would love our music.
7eight5: Who were your influences growing up, and what impact has that made on your music?
Sutton: My influences when I was really getting into playing music was the Foo Fighters, and Twenty One Pilots. Watching and listening to them made my playing style more about just giving a good consistent beat that you could rock to, you don’t need to have a bunch of crazy fills and weird beats for a song to be good. Although those do look and sound cool, sometimes it’s just about feeling the song, and being the back bone of the band.
Matt: I was a huge Zeppelin fan when I was in high school. Jimmy Page was a big influence. Their song ‘Black Dog’ was an early big-riff influence. After high school, I was super into Red Hot Chili Peppers. This band had more influence for me with bass guitar than any other. Flea’s playing definitely changed the way I see and understand bass.
7eight5: Do you remember your first show? What was that like?
Sutton: I was so nervous for our first show, I remember feeling very unprepared. We only had, I think 4 songs on our setlist, and we neither of us could barely remember the words to each song.
Matt: July 2018 at Defiance Tap Room. We played with Buildings Like Mountains and Long Faced Dogs – which is a pretty stacked lineup. We only had five or six songs and they were all pretty new. We were still pretty new to playing music with each other and still had lots of shows to go before we started gaining the stage chemistry we have today.
I think the best advice I’ve gotten was that if you’re ever feeling extremely nervous to play in front of a crowd, just tell yourself that you’re the coolest person in the room, and people should be lucky to watch you play. It sounds incredibly cocky and arrogant, and I’ve never once actually felt that way, but just telling yourself that does actually really help with the nerves.
7eight5: How have you guys grown since starting to play together?
Matt: We’ve played a load of shows since that first one six years ago. We’ve written a bunch of songs, some of which don’t get played any more and we eventually wrote more songs to replace those. So now our set is a series of songs that are “the best so far” instead of just all the ones we have. It’s exciting to continue pulling new songs into the mix and developing our set into a compilation / culmination of our time together. We’ve learned a lot of lessons of how to be a band, be that writing, recording or being at shows.
7eight5: What do you do outside of your music? Work, hobbies, etc?
Sutton: Right now I’m focusing most of my efforts into my photography business and trying to make that my full time gig.
Matt: I work at Agiliti Health as an engineering technician. The facility in Hays manufactures hospital beds and I work with the engineering department creating drawings the shop uses to produce beds. It’s challenging and rewarding. I have loads of hobbies, but mostly at this time I’ve been working on gardening with my wife. Enjoy spending time with my family and taking naps with my cats.
7eight5: Who are you listening to (music-wise) right now?
Matt: I listen to a lot of CAKE at the moment as I’m about to go see them in Wichita soon. Also listen to Glass Animals a lot.
Sutton: I listen to so many different types of stuff, but I guess what I listen to most consistently is Pop. My high school self would be so embarrassed to admit that. But I think it’s important as a musician to listen to and draw inspiration from a variety of genres. And let’s face it, pop music is popular for a reason.
7eight5: Where do you get influences from when writing music?
Matt: A lot of the lyrics are inspired by stories I see/hear/read in movies and books; stories that strike a chord in me, so to speak. Other songs come from personal experiences.
Sutton: I haven’t written very many songs, but when I do usually the lyrics come first, then once I figure out a melody I’ll tweak the lyrics around that melody.
7eight5: What comes first for you, the lyrics or the music? Or is it more 50/50?
Matt: Music comes first almost exclusively. Riffs come to me while noodling on my bass and jamming with Sutton. Then more structure comes as I hum out melodies. Then a series of revisions between what sounds right and what I’m capable of playing/singing simultaneously. Much of the challenge writing in a two-piece band is filling out the sound. I like for there to always be something going on; riffs, vocals, backups, etc.
7eight5: Where do you want to be as artists/a band in 5 years? What’s a goal you are hoping to achieve?
Sutton: Oof, that’s hard. I think right now I’m pretty content casually writing music, and playing some shows here and there, so as long as we’re still a band I’ll be pretty happy. I would love to play at the UMS fest in Denver. I went in as a teenager and have wanted to play there ever since.
Matt: I don’t have aspirations to have commercial success the way I once did. I want to play cool, fun shows with other musicians in cool places for as many people as possible. I’d like to play some of the more notable venues and festivals in the region. I hope to release a few songs in the next year or so, if not another EP. We only have a handful of music recorded and released and I’d really like to have a larger repertoire available for people to hear. I love playing with a band we haven’t played with before and making new friends, swapping shows.
7eight5: How do you go about setting up shows to play?
Sutton: Honestly, Matt is the brains behind setting up shows, I usually wait till he tells me a day and time and then show up.
Matt: When we were more actively booking regional shows, I would look through venue event posters and research the bands on the bill. If they seemed like a group we’d accompany well, I’d reach out to them about a date and the pieces would eventually fall into place. These days we lean more towards submitting to festivals and waiting on invites to play out-of-town gigs – with occasional exceptions. For the Hays shows, we try to limit the frequency of these and they’re always different formats, so it varies.
7eight5: How far have you traveled to play a show?
Sutton: I think the farthest we’ve traveled was about 5ish hours, to either Omaha or OKC.
Matt: I think the farthest we’ve traveled is Oklahoma City. We played Wichita one night and OKC the next night at Blue Note.
7eight5: What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned since the band started?
Matt: I’m sure there are lots of lessons I’ve learned, but what comes to mind is this: I used to be really bothered when making mistakes; really nervous I might mess up. It’s helped tremendously to finally realize we’re really there for fun and there are way, way worse things that could happen than to make an error most people won’t know happened.
7eight5: What’s the best piece of advice you received regarding music?
Sutton: I think the best advice I’ve gotten was that if you’re ever feeling extremely nervous to play in front of a crowd, just tell yourself that you’re the coolest person in the room, and people should be lucky to watch you play. It sounds incredibly cocky and arrogant, and I’ve never once actually felt that way, but just telling yourself that does actually really help with the nerves.
Matt: There aren’t really any rules. Just play the notes that sound cool. Also, be honest in the words you write. If you’re not singing with sincerity, if you don’t believe in what you’re singing, you will be aware of this while singing and so will the audience.
7eight5: How can people get a hold of you?
Dangerously Biased: Email is best: dangerouslybiased@gmail.com There’s also a contact portal on our website: www.dangerouslybiased.com (Our website has tons of content to see/hear/read!). Facebook works, too.
7eight5: What are your next couple upcoming shows?
Dangerously Biased: We’re playing in Wichita on June 8th at a show we’re both really excited about: Opening for The Cavves with Thunderbird Hotel and hazy. for Matt Bauler, the show promoter’s, birthday event. It’ll be at Barleycorn’s, which is a really cool spot downtown.
