Calamity Jane

Hey what’s up? I’m Gaven McNaney, one of two guitar players from Calamity Jane. We’re a punk/pop-punk quartet from Central Texas consisting of Cameron Brickell (guitar/back-up vocals), Davis Dillon, A.K.A. DTD3, (drums), Kevin Quintero (bass/vocals), and myself. We formed a little over four months ago, when Davis and I ran into Cameron at the local Guitar Center.

We had formerly been a band known as Well Into Nowhere, but that band separated due to its lack of music-making ability and the fact that our best friend and former bassist joined the military (sad days). When we ran into Cameron, we began talking about starting a band again after listening to a phone-recorded version of our song Bandit. I’m still not sure why we were so stoked, because that version was terrible. The very next day, we had our first practice and had already decided on the name Calamity Jane.

If you’re wondering how we got the name, Davis saw a road named Calamity Jane and thought it sounded cool. We started work on the new version of Bandit and realized that without bass and lyrics, it just wasn’t right. We knew we needed a bassist/vocalist/lyricist right away. Cameron introduced us to Kevin. Although Davis and I were a little hesitant at first, after our first practice together, we knew we wanted to have him as a permanent member.

We began writing songs for an upcoming concert that was about a month and a half away. During that time period, we wrote our whole EP, recorded our first solid version of Bandit and recorded half of our EP ~ all before that first concert. Now, we are getting ready to release our EP We’ll Explain When We Get There on April 15th. 

Now, for those who don’t know, Cameron and I are 16 and Kevin and Davis are 19. Being in a young band hasn’t been without its challenges, particularly when it comes to people taking our band seriously. We’ve had problems with some bands who think that playing with us is not considered a “serious show.” But for the most part, people have actually respected us and treated us well. We were more than welcomed into the local scene, even though we are punk and it’s a predominantly metal scene.

Don’t underestimate yourself if you’re young; there are some cool people around, you just have to find them. There are a few other problems we have faced, but they weren’t due to age. We live in the middle of a huge metal scene. Nothing but metal. Don’t get me wrong. It’s fun, but it’s tiring. I love all of the bands we play with, but it would be nice to have a wider punk scene. All the other Texas punk bands are four hours north or three hours east. Dealing with school and jobs makes it hard to schedule shows that far away.

But hey, we’re not complaining. We are really blessed to be where we are and we owe it all to our friends for being such wonderful people and talented musicians. Before I wrap this up, I want to leave you with a piece of advice: Practice with a click track you will greatly improve.
Thanks guys for taking the time to read this.

Gaven McNaney
Guitar Player, Calamity  Jane
@CalamityJane314
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Listen to our music and vote for us to play warped tour here http://warped.battleofthebands.com/u/CalamityJane