Backed by Matt Venegoni, David Lyle (on right) performs at a Black Oxygen concert. (Photo property of Atherton Photography)
By: Jacob Elyachar
One of the hottest rock bands that is taking the nation by storm is Black Oxygen. Since the group’s formation in the late 2000s, the Kansas City rock band has gone from band night champions to opening up to some of the hottest rockers around including Skid Row, Veins of Jenna and Sevendust. In addition, their single: “Take It to the Limit” is an official song of ESPN and the group was featured on Music 2 Rise.
I recently had the chance to talk to the group’s lead singer David Lyle while the group was on the road. We talked about how he got into music and performing, Black Oxygen’s history and the band’s future plans for the remainder of the year.
Jacob Elyachar: How did you get interested in music and performing?
David Lyle: I was 13-years old and I turned on MTV one day and I saw Slash from Guns N’ Roses perform and I did not even though who he was at the time and coincidently I was with my grandfather in his basement and I found his guitar. Immediately at that moment, the combination of seeing Slash and seeing his (my grandfather’s) guitar, I knew that I wanted to perform for the rest of my life and forever.
JE: Could you please describe to my readers the history of Black Oxygen?
DL: The band started out six years ago when it started I was 14-years-old and when we first started it had kind of different set of members but it has evolved to where it is today and where it is supposed to be.
JE: How did you guys come up with the name Black Oxygen?
DL: We wrote anywhere between 100 to 200 names down and we liked that one the best. A lot of people ask that question and it was one of those names that we liked. We were young at the time and that name (Black Oxygen) worked for us and everyone (our fans) liked the name ever since.
JE: Let’s talk about your debut album: “The American Dream.” How long have you guys been working on that project?
DL: About two years ago, I was living in California for a while. When I was out there, I began to write the album with my acoustic guitar and then I came back to Kansas City, where I have a place now and I finished writing the album and I got together with the band guys (David’s brother: Nick, Jordan Myer and Matt Venegoni) and started jamming the songs and went to the studio to record it.
We spent a month in the studio and we recorded it at Chapman Recordings and recorded it with Chapman producer Rob Rebeck. After that, we started to distribute it through different management companies and a management company called Wild Justice Management and they really liked the album. We shot a music video for it and we got offered to play Kansas City’s Rockfest from our management. So we took up the opportunity to do it and when we played that day, we had more people for us as an opener than any other opening act of all time. We played in front of 55,000 people exact at the time we played and that really opened up a lot of doors for us.
Lajon (Witherspoon) from Sevendust started contacting us and he said: “I love everything about your band.” He said that “We don’t usually do it like this but I want you to tour with Sevendust for the remainder of July.” So, we just did that and that was absolutely an incredible experience. We were playing sold out crowds every single day and the month before that we played with Saliva and toured with them.
We also sent our album to a lot of radio stations and they loved the album. “Take it to the Limit” has become huge success across the country but it has not come to Kansas City yet because a lot of times you want to start but you need to work your way up there. Our single was at #60 on the United States Rock Chart in its third week. When it debuted “Take it to the Limit” was at #90 and it jumped 30 slots. Everything is going really well and we are just thankful for everything.
Part two of my interview will be posted this upcoming weekend.
To watch Black Oxygen’s music video of “Take It to the Limit,” click here: http://youtu.be/1BIjypFem2E
To learn more about the band, visit their website: http://www.blackoxygenmusic.com/
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