In the music world, Oklahoma City isn’t exactly on the map. Not yet anyways. While new bands like Hinder and All American Rejects are certainly making waves, there’s a new band in town whose about to give the city a foothold in the music industry. For those of you who thought Oklahoma City was only a place for cowboys, oil and red dirt, meet Divisible by None.
Richard Blankenship is the new drummer to the group destined to revolutionize the Oklahoma City music scene.
You were recently ranked the #1 unsigned Oklahoma band on myspace in both the metal and progressive music category. Congratulations. How does that feel?
Of course, it feels great. The myspace ranking is helping us keep tabs on our personal progress, and also the progress of all the other great talent in our area. I’ve been playing drums in the Oklahoma Music scene off and on again since 2001, so to finally be putting my own unique footprint out there and getting recognized for it is very motivating, and it’s inspiring us all to keep our dedication, focus, and goals in mind at all times.
Who is Divisible by None?
The band was originally the brain child of Matt Kimbro, the lead vocals and rhythm guitar, and Drew Allen, on lead guitar. Their passion for music and creating their own style of song and live performances was enough to lure our bass player, Bubble Googer, to join the group. Gog’s a wonderful showman and shares the microphone with Matt and helps to keep the crowd entertained with his crazy on-stage antics. Matt typically challenges those in the crowd who do not show love and support for the great music being played for them. He’s simply known for getting a bunch of bah-humbug crowd goers to get up and get down, rock out with us, and have an uninhibited evening. Drew is a special guitarist and showman on stage. His energy and sheer determination to play his very best comes through, as well as his love for the crowd, and the love they give us back. DBN (Divisible by None) played the local Oklahoma City scene in 2006 and made a name for themselves with a drummer named Ben Sprouce. It was a heart breaking decision, but I’ve recently been invited in as a replacement, and so far, everything seems to be falling into place.
It sure does. You were in a band before, what was that like? How are the two bands different?
My last project came to a screeching halt right as we were about to release our first full length album. “Catalyst” was my personal pet project with a guitarist co-founder of the band. We got together in 2001 and spent the better half of 3 years finalizing membership, but unfortunately we were unable to avoid many of the rock and roll pit falls that many bands fall prey to. Catalyst was a bit more outside the box than Divisible by None. DBN writes songs that appeal to a broader range of listening individuals, and the nature of our songs allows us to incorporate an excellent live show on stage. With Catalyst, our parts were pretty demanding in themselves, and I think we were making music that had a relevant musical statement, but we lacked many components necessary to accomplishing our goals at the time.
Ok, so how would you describe your music? Where does your inspiration come from?
Music, to me, is inspiration. Whatever it is you listen to, you better be motivated by that. Music is here as a tool to elevate our emotional condition and realize the latent potential within us all. Our music has a mainstream sound that seems to fit the culture of our times, and our messages are a mixed bag of motivational, thought provoking, statements about our world, life and our own personal experiences. We all partake in the song writing process, and it’s not uncommon for our bass player to write guitar licks, and/or vocals. We all try to work as a team of individual musicians who bring our own likes and dislikes to the song writing process. We have a diversity within our songs, and we pride ourselves on making every song have a personality all its own.
Awesome, I totally dig that. Where can I hear some of your music? Do you have a cd?
We are currently hosting songs on myspace of course, but you can also download our tracks off our E.P., recorded last year, at our website. We do not have cds yet for sale, but we are looking to get into the studio again and record some new tracks with me, the new drummer.
What are your plans for the future? Any tours? Where do you hope to be in a year, five?
The sky is the limit, really. I’ve finally found a group of great people, who happen to be great musicians with a unique vision. Our plans for the future are to simply keep building our loyal fan base, enter all the contests we can and get our name into the world. Eventually someone will step up to the plate and offer us a chance to play cities all over the country. In five years I hope to be out of my day job and doing this full time. The more involved I get in the band, the harder it is for me to be happy doing anything other than music.
Thanks for taking the time to talk to me, Richard. I wish you guys the best of luck.
