In a little under a year, How I Became the Bomb has surged out of Murfreesboro with a pulsating, New Wave sound and quickly become one of the most talked about bands in Middle Tennessee. They are about to release their debut EP, Let’s Go!, with a show at the Mercy Lounge. All the Rage caught up with singer Jon Burr, guitarist Denis Deck and keyboardist Adam Richardson to find out what makes the band tick.

HOW DID THE BAND NAME COME ABOUT?
DD: Shane Spresser from Velcro Stars named us, because we couldn’t come up with anything. It feels like maybe the name has helped us find our sound. I don’t know what that means…

HOW DO YOU GUYS WRITE SONGS? DO YOU START WITH THE MUSIC OR THE SUBJECT MATTER?
AR: Most of the time, we start with music and then Jon comes up with subject matter and lyrics later, though there is an exception or two in our set list. I think this reflects our attitude toward most music. Melodies come first. Words come last.

ARE THERE ANY DIRECT INFLUENCES ON THE BAND’S SOUND?
JB: Tons. Just to name a few: ABBA, ELO, Nobuo Uematsu, Jackson 5, Beach Boys, Devo, The Pogues. We all love music, but have pretty different tastes, for the most part.
DD: The sounds that we get out of our keyboards pretty much directly influence what our songs are going to sound like. We’ve been starting there.

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE CRAZIEST SHOW YOU’VE PLAYED SO FAR?
DD: At the Temptation Club in Murfreesboro (which is, in fact, a strip club of sorts…) things usually get pretty outta control. This guy in priest’s garb got on stage and started dancing and stepping on my pedals and stuff. Then Jonburr punched me in the head as he got wrestled off stage and the crowd beat him up. We had a good time.

YOU HAVE RECEIVED A LOT OF ATTENTION REALLY QUICKLY — HOW DO YOU INTEND TO SUSTAIN IT?
JB: Irish luck and gypsy spells.

HOW WOULD YOU RANK YOURSELVES AMONG NASHVILLE’S BANDS? BEST? BRIGHTEST? WOULD YOU LIKE TO CHALLENGE ANY LOCAL BANDS TO A “BASS OFF”?
JB: We are the kings. To all other bands, we say “tremble before our works, ye mighty, and despair.” I would like to challenge Ghostfinger to a bass-off, since they don’t have a bass player, although they do have Martin Van Buren on keys.

FINALLY, WHAT’S WITH THE KEYBOARDS?
AR: Synthesizers make people happy and have the potential to unlock gateways into other worlds. See Dolph Lundgren in Masters of the Universe for just one example of this.

How I Became The Bomb plays the Mercy Lounge May 13th with Lazerman and the Nom-Coms and Bad Animal.

[This piece appeared in All the Rage.]
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