Sunday, October 31, 2010

Now or Never!


The Darius Rucker song "Alright" blasts through the speakers of Michael Littlefield's laptop. The twang infested country song echoes on the small porch of Littlefield's house in a suburban neighborhood.
"We HAVE to cover this song," Littlefield says and picks back up singing where he left off. His band mates- singer and rhythm guitarist Noah Cox, Guitarist Jorge Codina and bassist Mikey Hildebrand- just laugh. The chemistry between the guys in Now or Never! is tangible.

Whether the band members are singing their songs to one another during practice, fighting over cigarettes, or making fun of each other, this band has comradery down to a science.
“Its kind of like one of those things with your family,” Littlefield said. “If you see them too much or too little, you start to get irritated. If we practice for 3 days in a row, chances are someone’s going to end up yelling. But even after all that, the next week, we come in, we sit down and we’re ready to play.”
The friendship this band possesses is a double-sided coin for this band. As much as the band jokes, when it comes to their music, there’s nothing funny about their approach. The inter-band pressure is what pushes this band to be better in their performing and their individual musician-ship.
“There’s a lot of negative comments thrown around (during practices), but it’s not to be offensive or anything. It’s very constructive but it wouldn’t sound like it,” Cox said. “It’s like ‘uh that was good, dumb ass.’”
This “constructive” criticism shows through in the bands songs and, whether constructive or not, takes this band to a level where they can focus on their music composition.
Now or Never! claim to belong to their own genre (“We call it gay-core,” the band laughs) and while they may or may not be redefining the wheel with their music, their songs are infectious and blend their hardcore influences with their pop-punk pleasures.
“Since pop-alternative and hardcore are my favorite genres, this band puts it all together and I just love playing it,” Codina said. “It is easy to relate for us because it is our favorite genres.”
Different line-ups before their current list of members also effected Now or Never!’s sound.
“It all started when Noah and I were playing some Avenged Sevenfold songs,” Codina said as Cox laughs and comments about how “hardcore” they thought they were. “One day we just decided that our hardcore band just sucked so bad.”
From there, the boys enlisted Hildebrand and found 3 other members for a screamo-esque outfit. When that line-up and sound wasn’t working out for the guys, they converted Hildebrand to bass and found Littlefield, who had played in other bands as well, to play drums for their current lineup and new sound.
“Yeah, dude, we were just like lets just write happy. Happy stuff,” Cox laughs.
“It’s easier to play music that you believe in. Despite the fact that I love to listen to like rip-your-throat-out hardcore, sometimes I am just like dude, it’s a nice day outside,” Littlefield adds.
The good feelings show through in the song writing. While Now or Never! are still fond of breakdowns, the songs are upbeat in tempo and lyrical content (“A lot of our stuff is about girls, its just the pop genre,” Cox, the main lyricist laughs).
 The band, while saying “being famous would be cool,” wants to stay true to themselves and their music. They never want to leave the band that did an entire show in just their boxers behind.
“It’s a really hard business and I don’t even consider us professionals yet,” Littlefield said. “You play a bad show and you feel horrible about yourself. But then you play a good show and you’re like ‘alright, there might be a future for us.’”
But in the end,-whether they make a name for themselves or stay a garage band- Now or Never! love their music and are letting it speak for itself at this point in their run. 
“A lot of people look down on us, they’re like, ‘you can’t do it.’ But we are going to do it just to get in your face and show you we can do it, because I know we can,” Hildebrand, soft spoken and shy, says with conviction.


Want to hear more?
Now or Never! Myspace
   

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