Milwaukee’s own Buffalo Gospel is a five-piece country band featuring original music with a progressively traditional vibe. The band will get you dancing before breaking your heart with soulful, gritty ballads.

OnMilwaukee had the chance to sit down with Buffalo Gospel members Ryan Necci, Nick Lang and Kevin Rowe backstage at Anodyne Coffee Roasting Company before their show on Dec. 22. And if you missed the show, you're in luck; the band will host a record release party on May 5. Yet another reason to look forward to 2018!

OnMilwaukee: What’s the significance of the band's name?

Ryan Necci: When we started, it didn’t really have any significance. It was just kind of a name that we thought sounded good. Which isn’t a great story at all. You know going through the last few years, as corny as it sounds, the bison has become my spirit animal. I have it tattooed, and it’s all over my house. We used to tour a lot through the Dakotas and just that whole vibe became sort of the spirit of what’s going on. I’ve always told people that gospel, to me, means truth. What we’re doing at the end of the day, if we’re not being truthful, we’re not doing it right. So all our songwriting, all our performances and everything, that’s what we’re aiming at.

In a previous interview, Ryan, you said you listened to pretty much everything, but that it has to be good. I’m wondering what the definition of "good" is.

Nick Lang: The definition of good for me is a good story and then good musical instrumental parts being built around it.

Kevin Rowe: It’s got to feel good. Be honest. Something that’s got to connect with you in a real way. It’s a hard thing to define. But making you feel like you’re actually making a truthful connection. That there’s something behind the words or the music. And something behind what the people are doing.

If you guys could collaborate with anyone, who would it be and why?

Necci: Anyone?

Anyone. Living or dead – preferably living so then that could happen.

Necci: I’ve always wanted like a real good organ player. I feel like Leon Russell would be really fun. Something to bring a little bit of that gospel organ into the whole feel.

Lang: I’d say maybe Greg Liesz on pedal steel. That’d be cool.

Necci: Oh yeah.

Lang: I like everything he does. Everything he does is cool.

Necci: Whenever we can have pedal steel, which is very rare, it’s a treat. They’re few and far between around here.

Rowe: Jerry Douglas maybe.

Necci: Yeah. Yeah.

Lang: That’d be fun.

Rowe: (leans into recorder) If you’re listening, Jerry …

Lang and Necci: (laughs)

Rowe: Just come on down!

Why Jerry Douglas?

Rowe: Because he’s amazing! He’s one of the most tasteful and virtuosic players that I’ve ever met.

When you guys aren’t writing, touring or playing music, what are you doing?

Necci: I’m working most of the time. I work at a graphic design firm. And I have an old camper that I’m fixing up. And I have dogs. I like to be outside. Yeah. That’s pretty much it.

Rowe: I teach. I teach private music lessons – the bass and the piano.

Lang: I teach private drum lessons at MATC. I also teach at Reagan High School. I freelance around town. And if I’m not playing music, I’ll just be hanging at home with my cat.

Necci: Yeah, he’s probably one of the busiest. He’s always playing music – and everything from like symphony kind of stuff. 

Lang: Yes. Symphony. Playing with a fusion group in town, alternative rock, funk music, too.

Necci: Like all of these guys … I’m the only one who’s not trained at all. And these guys are all, to me, virtuosos. So it’s really cool to put them all in a room. 

How did "Son of a Gun" come to be so full of life? And also, who did you have in mind or was there a specific person when you were writing that? How did the guys turn it into not a somber song, but a stomp-your-boots one?

Necci: I don’t really want to talk about specifically who it’s about. I like people being able to put their own spin on it. And I think everybody knows somebody like that. It started out as not a very fast song. It was a little more kind of grim. And then, when the band got ahold of it, it felt like it deserved that life. And now it almost feels like a Vegas Elvis tune in the beginning. So that’s kind of the vibe. I get real fired up when we play that song.

It’s weird. That’s one of those that’s tough to sing from the perspective of a person that you’re not really. I try to incorporate that persona a little bit and make it believable. Because I’m not really like a lying, cheating … you know, it’s not really my gig. I think it’s a well-written song and people enjoy it. It’s a fun one to play.

So how does that work? Do you bring a song to the guys and see it going a certain way musically, or how does that work?

Rowe: With "Son of a Gun," Ryan would send us vocals and a guitar demo, and I would just make a little phrase chart so I could map out all the different parts of the song, like kind of the order of events and a road map to the beginning and end of the song. But then once we got together and we hear the whole band together, the group dynamics change. The tempo will change, the feel will change, everything will just kind of be in the moment there. But it starts from having the framework of knowing the lyrics. And knowing chord structures. Even knowing basic road map stuff.

Necci: It’s the first project I’ve been in that there’s like zero ego issues going on. Which makes it really easy and really fun to write. Because nobody is too precious about their ideas and we can talk constructively to each other and say, "Try this." A lot of times, the bass player will tell the drummer, "Try this." And the drummer will tell the bass player, "Try this" – that kind of thing. It takes a professional to be able to accept that and roll with it, don’t you think?

Rowe: Yeah. We all have a good perspective that whatever we’re doing is serving the song.

Necci: Yeah.

Rowe: My bass part, Nick’s drum part – whatever’s happening, we still have to serve the lyrics. We still have to serve the song and make that featured. Because that’s what this band about the lyrics in the chords behind the words there.

OK. "18 Wheeler" – it feels a little zydeco. How did it get to be that way?

Rowe: Accident!

Unintentional?

Rowe: Yeah, it just kind of got there. I don’t know.

Necci: Was it Chris on that baritone?

Lang: Yeah, Chris with that "Lay Down Sally" riff.

Necci: And they do definitely grow the more we play them live. We haven’t played them live enough yet. Like I would be like to be doing a lot more. But it is fun to see it a song go from the recorded original idea to where we’re at now. I think a lot of it’s just getting comfortable with the structure of the song and then people start trying new things. But I don’t really know how to speak to the zydeco thing. It was just a country tune.

Rowe: We just kind of go with whatever feels good. If that feels good, then we do that. (all laugh)

Necci: If it’s legal and it’s not too messy, then we’ll do that!

Lang: Exactly.

You have a new album coming out. What’s next for shows?

Necci: We’re doing a bunch of festivals. Trying to do a bunch more this spring and summer. We’re doing Blue Ox and a few other smaller ones. Honestly, I would like to be playing a lot this coming year and that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to do it smart because we do have kids and wives and jobs. So you’ve got to kind of work around that stuff a little bit. I think we’ve all done the grinding out thing. And now we’re trying to do it smart.

Rowe: We’re not starry-eyed 22-year-olds who will sleep on everybody’s floor.

Necci: I’ll sleep on a floor if it’s for the right thing. (laughs)

Rowe: Yeah. But not just any old floor! The right floor.

Necci: Yeah. And we want to start writing again for the next album because I personally love being in the studio. I can’t wait. We had such a good time making this one that I can’t wait to do it again.