The band Levon consists of Michael David Hall, Jake Singleton, and Ryan Holladay
Levon is musically inspired by the Eagles, Levon Helm and the sounds of the 1970s
The band’s name was inspired by Levon Helm and Elton John’s classic hit “Levon”
Levon prides their music on their three part harmonies
Michael and Jake from Levon share how they came up with the band’s name. (:54)
Jake: “We discovered our name or decided our name on the way down to a radio show. Actually it was a couple years ago before we found Ryan in Birmingham, Alabama. We basically had half an hour left of the drive to decide what our name was so that we could tell the people at the radio what our band name was”
Michael: “Levon Helm from the band from the 60’s and 70’s is a big inspiration of ours. As is the Elton John song (sings) ‘Levon, Levon likes his money’. Both good 70’s references and big inspirations to us and we just liked the vibe that it had. We really wanted people to hear the name Levon and immediately get that 70’s vibe and its short and its sweet and we’re kind of like the three member band. We’re lean and mean so I think the name is really appropriate for us, for our sound and for our character.”
Michael from Levon explains where the guys look to for inspiration in their career. (:45)
“We watched that Eagles documentary together and there’s a bunch of scenes where they’re in a dressing room and it sounds like maybe one guitar and they’re all singing, and it gives us the chills you know…hearing harmonies that close with a blend like that where you almost can’t tell whose which part, certain bands adopt this group voice, you know, and we want to have a voice hopefully one day and people will hear harmony and be like oh my gosh that sounds like a Levon song is that a Levon song? You know I think we’ve really looked up to the bands that sing together the way that the Eagles did Crosby Stills Nash, & Young, etc.”
Michael from Levon says the secret to the group’s success is in being a trio. (:33)
Michael: “Absolutely. Yeah, I think the fact that there’s three of us, and we’re such good friends outside of the whole music thing…it really helps when you’re on tour too…and then you’re driving in the van and then somebody shouts, ‘Arby’s’ and two people shout ‘Wendy’s’”
Ryan: (laugh)
Michael: “There’s just a great voting situation for the band in our fast food choices…and in all situations the three of us are inseparable, we do everything together, and we lean on each other an awful lot.”
The guys in Levon share where musical inspiration can strike for song ideas. (:43)
Michael: “Most of the time I feel like some of the best ideas have come, from, like, opening the fridge, and not expecting, not trying to look for an idea at all. Just doing the most random stuff.”
Jake: “Definitely, 99 percent of the time it comes to you organically. Not trying to force it, whenever we’re occupied with something else, I get a lot of ‘shower’ ideas for songs. (laugh) Probably most often there, then anywhere else.”
Ryan: “I find the time that I have most ideas, are that…right before you go to sleep. Where your brain is just kind of wandering, and you kind of drift off to these weird places. There’s usually some pretty fun song ideas in that time.”
Michael: “Good stuff right there, yeah”
Michael from Levon talks about the guys reaction when they see someone at a show wearing a Levon t-shirt. (:58)
“The coolest thing for us ever, is seeing somebody wearing one of those shirts at one of our shows. When you’re an opening band, when you’re used to being the opener, not always getting as much attention obviously, it means so much to us. And now that we’ve been on radio tour and we’ve started to plant these seeds in all these cities around the country, now it’s happening more often where we’ll be at a school somewhere, a small college or we’ll be in a club, and, we are opening up for someone, and now there’s people that came for us, and if it’s three people, if it’s one person, I mean it can be anybody that knows who we are, that far away from Nashville, it is the coolest feeling in the world. It’s like, holy cow, our music is traveling”