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Your 33 Black Angels (Y33BA)

Listen to the Y33BA Song, "Cannonball," Here:

Rolling Stone, Harp, USA Today, New York Times & NY Magazine are just a few of the fans Brooklyn-based rockers Your 33 Black Angels have wowed during the past 5 years.

This August, Y33BA Josh Westfal (guitar, vocals, songs), Benjamin Kast, (guitar, vocals, harmonica), John Reeve (keys, accordion), John O'Callaghan (drums), Steve Stapleton (bass) are hitting the road for a month long tour. We caught up with Steve to discuss their plans & how they successfully run their DIY enterprise.

AP: You’ve been attracting a lot of recognition and fans.
Can you explain your appeal?
Y33BA: We play songs about cold, merciless women, irresponsible philosophy and violence. They are in the rock and roll style, but we are influenced by so many different types of music that we play quite an array of styles, including Psychedelic Rock, R&B and rabble-rousing Rock and Roll. The audience tends to be as diverse as our sound. Our fans tend to be folks who love live music and want to have a good time out at shows. This is a lot harder than it sounds, even in New York City. Oh, and audience participation is great, so we bring extra instruments for them to play, too.

AP: How do you book your tours & divvy up the necessary business duties?
Y33BA: Josh and I do the booking, with Josh doing the bulk of it. In some towns, we'll try to have friends put a show together. We both monitor the email addresses and return emails and reaching out to the myspace community. I spend my time building and updating www.y33ba.com, and I am the Online Merchandise Sales Fulfillment Manager. I gave myself that title, just now. Johnny O. is the Digital Music Sales Coordinator. I just gave him that title. He doesn't even know it yet.

It's interesting thinking of these things as “duties,” because I really enjoy doing all of the work while learning about how the music business works. If I weren’t doing it, one of the other guys would step in and make it happen.

AP: What are important considerations you make when deciding what clubs to play?
Y33BA: It helps if it’s a good room for music that music fans frequent, but otherwise we'll play just about anywhere. Even coffeehouse in Flagstaff, Arizona.

AP: How long will you be on the road this summer?
Y33BA: Our tour starts in Columbus, Ohio on August 22 and will wrap it up at an in-store performance in Indianapolis at LUNA Music on September 20.

This tour will be one long one, just like our “Lonely Street” tour. However, there are many less driving hours between shows this time around. We learned to not do that as much.

New York is the best and there's no place like it. Every now and then, however, it's good to get as far away as your vehicle can bring you and introduce your music to new people. We'll be going all the way to the west coast again this time around, including Washington, Oregon and most likely California.

This is the first time we're playing at most of the stops on the tour. We've played in Seattle before, and can't wait to get back.

AP: How much money have you budgeted for your tour and how did you determine that amount?
Y33BA: We're hoping that the modifications the band mechanic made to the Loser Cruiser will add a mile or two more per gallon.

It's every man for himself as far as cash goes. I don't know about the other guys, but I usually just wing it. I plan to sleep in the car as much as possible. That's also a good way to keep an eye on the band's gear. I'm going to pack way lighter this time around.

AP: Are you hitting the road with another band?
Y33BA: We may be going with Apollo Heights, (formerly The Veldt) but we're not sure yet!

Usually we share a bill with some local bands, and they give us the pointers we need. That's one of the best things about hitting the road...you get to meet a bunch of kids all around the country and get can in touch with them next time you're in town. It's really about building relationships with people who are trying to do the same things as us.

AP: How do you promote your shows in advance?
Y33BA: Sending albums to college radio stations that play music like ours. If we're not sure if our music is right for the station, I try to reach out to them by phone or email to see if they're interested. We'll send them a whole package, including fliers for the show we're playing in their town. We will send fliers and a CD to the venue as well, in the hopes that they'll play it there and stir up some interest. This time around, we're also doing some in-studio performances for blogs and podcasts such as hearya.com and some Internet radio stations around the country.

AP: What are your most popular merch items?
Y33BA: Our hand-screen-printed vinyl is our biggest seller, followed by CD's and then tour shirts. We have stickers we hand out to as many as people as possible. They are quite stylish.

AP: Are you finding that audiences are getting smaller because less people can afford to go to shows?
Y33BA: I don't think that's the case at all. There's always dough left for a live show.

AP: Do you think that live music is thriving or just surviving?
Y33BA: It's thriving, but in a much different way than it's used to. I think that more bands are figuring out that they don't need record labels as much as they used to. Hell...you don't need a manager or booking agent either, depending on what stage you are at as a band. If done right, a band can benefit greatly by doing the hard work itself. At the very least, if they were to find a label, they would have a strong idea of how the business works.