Nothing Less

Band of Valley rockers hit it big

CASEY RESSLER

Frontiersman Valley Life Editor

They wake up early, show up to work on time and put in long hours. At night, they get ready for the next day, and try to get a full night's sleep so they can do it all over again.

Wasilla's Tommy Dowell and Henry Hartman, along with Anchorage's Tim Waters and Asa Shaddix of California, are regular working men. They've got regular jobs that require lots of time and effort. The only difference is that those regular jobs happen to be on stage in the Van's Warped Tour, one of the biggest traveling rock concerts in the country. They are now genuine rock stars, although they aren't letting that go to their head.

"It hasn't really clicked that we are out here on the Warped tour," Dowell said last week from Cleveland, where the band was playing on the third of six consecutive nights that would take them from Omaha, Neb., to Minneapolis, with stops in Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Chicago in between. "I'm the pessimist in the band I guess. It's still hard for me to believe it. It's exciting that everything is happening so quickly for us."

Nothing Less formed over a personal ad almost four years ago. Dowell and Waters both ran ads looking for other musicians, and they clicked instantly.

A few months later, they decided they needed a drummer, and Dowell contacted Hartman, who jumped on board. Since then, it has been a whirlwind of success for Nothing Less - in 2003, they released their first full-length CD, and last year, they moved to Modesto, Calif., to pursue their dream of hitting it big. That's exactly what has happened, in a relatively short amount of time.

On the MySpace.com Web site, the band shot up to number 24 on the pop/punk chart recently. That's not bad considering there's about 4,000 bands on the chart.

Their sound embodies several styles, from the punk of Green Day to the ska/reggae music of the band Sublime. The band has developed a strong legion of fans, and Nothing Less had been playing shows around the West Coast before getting hooked up on the Warped tour, which includes headliners such as The Offspring and Billy Idol. Last year, Anatomy of a Ghost, a now-defunct band comprised of Valley men, played the Warped tour.

While being a rock star is something every young person dreams of, it certainly isn't all about jamming and partying, as the members of Nothing Less have found out touring.

"We get up early and go out and sell our CDs in the morning line, and then go out and set up and play. After that, we network and then at the end, we hit the exit lines, selling CDs," Dowell explained. "It's a lot of work, but it's very gratifying."

Chris Cardenas of Alcatraz Records, the band's manager, said he's happy with the way things are going for the "boys" during the last year, including the Warped tour.

"It's a lot of work to play on the Warped tour, but they're sticking with it," Cardenas said. "This is only going to help them in the long run. As far as I know, they're the only band that's playing every date on the tour. They are doing what it takes."

The Alaska threesome recently took on Shaddix, a guitarist, as the band's fourth member. He said that after coming from a heavy metal band, it was a change, but well worth it.

"It's definitely the easiest band I've ever played with, in terms of fitting in," Shaddix said. "They really have their act together and know when to get busy. It was a really drastic change coming from hardcore to pop, but it's been a blast."

The addition of a second guitar player has helped the band evolve, Dowell said.

"It added a lot of diversity, and it's allowed us to things we never did before," Dowell said. "We're doing three- and four-part harmonies. It sounds so much better now."

The four members of Nothing Less are all under the age of 25. They are excited about how quickly they have moved up in the music world, and are hoping the next four years have bigger and better things in store for them.

"If you look at a lot of the bands up on the Warped stage, those guys are in their 30s, 40s, even their 50s," said Pat Waters, band member Tim Waters' father. "The boys are still young, and they are already doing great."

Cardenas said the band certainly hasn't shied away from being known as "that band of Alaskans."

"People on tour may not know them as 'Nothing Less,' but they know them as 'that band from Alaska,'" Cardenas said. "It's something unique. It sets them apart, definitely."

On the heels of completing the Warped tour, the band is releasing its second full-length CD, "Here Goes Nothing."

The CD is available only on the Warped tour, but the regular release is scheduled for September (see related story, Page B1).

"The CD release party is pretty special because they're doing it back here in Alaska," Cardenas said.