Love and Hurricanes

“Dolan Brotherhood has a strong capacity for harmonies that wasn’t possible in New Day Mile with just one singer,” says singer/guitarist James Brady, whose new band features latter-day NDM members Dave Garcia and Raul Guzman. “With the addition of [lead singer] Arnold Sears, the band has more melodic freedom, [although] I had to really check my ego at the door. I’m not the greatest vocalist in the world, but I do enjoy singing and playing the guitar. It took some time for me to adjust to being more of a sideman than a frontman.”

Named in tribute to NDM drummer Frank Dolan, who passed away in 2011 from esophageal cancer, Dolan Brotherhood’s new album Love and Hurricanes features pre-production work done with Billy Sherwood of Yes and production by Alan Sanderson (Rolling Stones, etc.). Neither A-lister comes cheap. “We all contributed to the finances,” says Brady, “but I’ll say some more than others where Billy’s role was concerned...we actually tracked a record with him. It turned out we wanted to make two different records. We parted a bit acrimoniously, but upon [Yes bassist] Chris Squire’s passing, Billy and I connected again through email.”

Dave Garcia recalls, “Billy had a specific vision and definitely offered input...[he] helped me adjust some of my parts to fit the songs better, which I appreciated and carried over into the final tracking with Alan. I got to use one of Chris Squire’s basses during pre-production tracking, and even got interrupted a couple of times by [Squire] calling Billy, so I looked at it as some extra mojo.”

The Dolan Brotherhood opens for John 5 on November 4 at the Ramona Mainstage, which was still a rundown movie theater back in NDM’s heyday. Garcia notes how much the local gig scene has changed since the 2000s. “It wasn’t so hipster back then, which is the trend now. The clubs have to cater to what’s popular...if we all had beards and wore skinny jeans, we’d be set, but that’s not us....

“When I walk into a venue, and it doesn’t smell like PBR and mustache wax, I know I’m in a good place.”