The biggest Bang

Class dismissed! A small fraction of the Bang Camaro army.

When Boston-based guitarists Bryn Bennett and Alex Necochea decided to start an ‘80s-inspired metal band, they knew exactly what kind of sound they wanted—big guitars, big drums and even bigger vocals. But they didn’t want to cheat by multi-tracking one or two singers—or worse, using sampled vocals in their live shows (a common trick among late ‘80s hair metal acts).

So instead, Bennett and Necochea invited every rock singer they knew to come down to the studio and help record Bang Camaro’s first record. They were stunned when 20 guys showed up—and even more stunned when it worked. “We thought, we can’t get 20 singers in a room together,” Bennett remembers. “This is gonna fall apart within minutes. But it’s just turned into this weird gang mentality…it’s been amazing.”

Now Bang Camaro is packing nightclubs across the country with a live show that’s already becoming the stuff of legend. Think Skid Row meets Queen meets the Polyphonic Spree, with a three-guitar attack and a “choir” of anywhere from 12 to 20 dudes belting out Bic-worthy choruses to original songs like “Rock Rebellion” and “Push Push Lady Lightning.” A featured track on the hit video game “Rock Band” hasn’t hurt the band’s profile, either.

From Boston, Bennett and Necochea talked about life at the helm of what is quite literally the world’s biggest metal band.

You not only have a song featured in “Rock Band”—one of you also worked on the game, right?
Bryn Bennett: Yeah, that’s me. I’m a part-time programmer at [“Rock Band” creators Harmonix]. I also did the moves for the rock guitar player in the [game], so whenever you see the guy with the guitar headbanging and stuff, that’s me. It was terrifying—I had to stand in this huge room with about 20 people looking at me, and then they would boom some music at the proper tempo and just say, “Alright, rock!” [Laughs] I never get stage fright, but I was shaking.

Do any of the guys in the group actually drive Camaros?
Alex Necochea: Actually, late last year, a number of the guys got together and they gave me a black ’89 Camaro T-Top—that still doesn’t run and sits in the driveway. So to answer your question: no, none of us actually drive a Camaro, but we do own one.

In most metal bands, the lead singer is the one with the biggest ego—so does that mean you have 20 egomaniacs running around?
BB: Well, it’s interesting. They’re all lead singers in other bands, too—although they’ve had to put a lot of those on the back burner right now. So I think everyone has a healthy lead singer ego, but when you put 20 of them in a room together, they all tend to cancel each other out. So everything has been working amazingly well.

A lot of people are kind of treating this like it’s a big joke, but I would think that rehearsing 20 guys to sing lead vocals in unison can’t be easy.
AN: No, not at all. It’s definitely not a joke. All of us work really hard to make what we do onstage look really easy. We go so far as to schedule separate rehearsals between the band proper—the instrumentalists—so we can get all the music together, and then we have other choir-driven rehearsals, where we run through all of our songs, working out two- and three-part harmonies.

So there are some harmonies—it’s not just a big shout-along.
AN: Yeah, that’s been a common misconception. It’s not just a bunch of drunks just screaming along. These guys in our band, they’re highly trained vocalists.

Do you sometimes play venues where everybody doesn’t fit onstage?
BB: We actually haven’t run into that yet, and we’ve played some small clubs. We just get really close—and then a bunch of us end up with black eyes because we get hit with guitars and mic stands. [Laughs] But we’ve made it work every time.

Because you can’t always take 20 singers on the road, in some cities you’re offering fans a chance to be part of the choir, right?
BB: Yeah, definitely.

I think I’m gonna put together an audition video—do you have any tips for me?
BB: Yeah, just don’t be embarrassed and be on key.
AN: And don’t wear spandex.

Are there any initiation or hazing rituals that new members of the choir have to go through?
AN: We thought about doing the whole Metallica/Jason Newsted thing where 20 of us would go out and we’d bring in a new guy and then stiff him with the bill at the end of the night. But I think we’re too nice for that.

When you do bring in singers, are there any classic metal singers that you encourage the guys to listen to? Like who are your all-time awesomest lead singers?
BB: I think some of the obvious ones are Sebastian Bach [of Skid Row] and Rob Halford [of Judas Priest]. But we’re not really looking for that level out of people.
AN: My favorites have been Rob Halford, obviously, Ronnie James Dio, Joe Elliott [of Def Leppard] and Ozzy Osbourne. But we haven’t really put it to any of our guys that these are the types of singers that we’re looking for. Our project grew out of just wanting this big vocal sound.

Have you guys ever considered admitting women to the choir or does it really only work if it’s all dudes?
BB: We’ve considered it, and we’ve gotten a bit of heat for not having any girls up to this point. But I don’t know—when you listen back to “Youth Gone Wild” by Skid Row, I think it might sound a little different if there were female vocalists in there. It’s really not the sound we’re going for.