Brand New Sin

It’s been nearly a year since the Syracuse New Times last caught up with Central New York hard rockers Brand New Sin, specifically in the June 1 article “Brand New Bag,” when they signed with the Goomba Music label. So when the band—Kris Wiechmann on vocals and guitar, Chuck Kahl on bass, drummer Kevin Dean and guitarist Tommy Matkowski—announced they’d be hitting the road and sharing some dates with Slash, the former Guns N’ Roses guitar shredder, the need for an update became obvious.

The tour starts on Wednesday, April 25, and runs from Pennsylvania to South Carolina and back up through Wisconsin and Michigan before the band returns to the Empire State on May 22. With each stop they’ll be pushing tracks from United State (Goomba Music), an October release underscored by stinging songs laced with discontent: “Rotten As Hell,” “Bed of Nails” and “Goddess of War,” among them. The message is carried along with grinding guitars, powerful drums and the bitter vocals of Wiechmann. 

Despite the possible perceived message and dark, red-white-and-blue cover art beneath the album’s suggestive title, United State was never intended to be a concept record. “It just so happened that the Occupy movement was going on last year {when the album was released} and we were all kinda scratching our heads,” Kahl recalls. “It was a happy accident. We didn’t really mean for it to be like that. But if you listen to the lyrics, they come from us working our day jobs and the grind and all that.”

While Brand New Sin scored big with their signing to Goomba last May, the label only provides marketing and distributing funds, not tour funds. That means the quartet has a lot of work to do before they can hit the road. After all, the band members have respective families to support, including five children.

“We get paid for shows, but usually in the past your label would give you a tour budget that you lived off of,” Kahl explains. “Everybody would get a certain amount of money per diem and that they could possibly send home. With Goomba, it’s more a partnership. They’re not giving us a tour budget. We’re just happy they’re promoting it, but we do have to find our own financing for the tour. Opening up for Slash could open so many doors.” 

In an effort to fund the trip, the band started a Kickstarter.com campaign and are hoping to raise $3,000 to help them along the tour path. It’s a tough road, but Kahl was adamant: “We just have to make it happen.” Following this run of five Slash supporting dates, there are more hopes that Kickstarter won’t be necessary for the next trip out. 

“The ideal outcome would be that we could go to other tour packages that are gonna be booked and say, ‘Hey, we just played with Slash. Can we get on this tour?’” Kahl says. “We would love to try to get back to Europe because bands just do better over there. But it’s a lot more expensive now to get there.” 

Brand New Sin also started a side project to help facilitate the survival of their music mothership: Hobo Graffiti, formed in spring 2011, offers an alt-acoustic Southern rock musical take. The offshoot has a weekly residence at downtown Syracuse’s Wise Guys Comedy Club and Bistro, 201 S. Salina St., on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. 

During Brand New Sin’s downtime, Hobo Graffiti keeps the musicians motivated and well-practiced on their instruments. The group has been well-received locally, with a planned Halloween EP of songs written about bizarre Central New York happenings already in the works. 

“When we’re home, we don’t want to play BNS every weekend,” Kahl explains. “It’s a small town and it would be oversaturation. We want fans to be excited, like, ‘Ah! I haven’t seen you guys in two months! When are you going to play again?’ Plus, we were lazy and got sick of carrying our amps around. Carrying an acoustic guitar is a little easier.” 

It’s not easy for musicians to juggle daily work grinds, maintain musical creativity and raise families, as Brand New Sin has discovered along their hard-earned journey to achieving their rock’n’roll dreams. But with a little help from Slash, the long way to the top might become just a little bit easier.