Two things you typically wouldn’t imagine to be mentioned in the same sentence are four part harmonies and rock, but that is exactly what The Bolts deliver. According to guitarist and vocalist Heath Farmer:
The band’s biggest influences are, on the harmony side of things, The Beach Boys, and The Eagles; and on the instrumental side of thing, we’re really heavily influenced by The Killers and Muse and bands like that, so we’ve always told people it’s like a mixture between those two worlds.
The band has started to draw attention with song placements in TV shows and ad campaigns. Their song “Walk Away” has been featured on shows like Degrassi and Necessary Roughness as well as promos for the MLB, NASCAR, and a Sobe ad with Kate Upton. Heath says that “as an independent artist, it’s a great way to get our music out there” and still thinks it’s crazy when they hear their music. With this in mind, their “goal as a band is to make every song desirable” as they work on their full length album due out in February. “Whether we obtain that goal or not is open for dialogue; but in the meantime, that’s at least what we’re gonna try to do.”
The band consists of brothers Heath, Adam (bass and vocals), and Austin (keyboard and vocals), along with friends Matt Champagne (drums), and Ryan Kilpatrick (guitar, keyboard & vocals). According to Heath, Ryan has been friends with the family since preschool and took his first guitar lesson with Heath. He added that “with Matt, we met him playing at our church in bands there and he was always very solid and very well mannered and he just knew a lot about how to really get into the groove of things with a band.”
Looking forward to the release, they finished up the last four songs for the album this past week and are confident they are the best yet. Heath says that “we’ve just grown so much as songwriters and as musicians and even as people, and it just reflects in these new songs.”
Not only does the band have great music, they are also aware of their role as leaders to a fan base. “Your fan base are your followers and if you’re going to be a leader, you better take that responsibility and use it well,” commented Heath as we talked about getting involved with charities and non profits. The band understands that, at any level when you have fans, you have a level of influence and Heath mentioned that:
There are a lot of charity events that we’ve done and a lot of… I mean one of the things that we can do at this stage is to, like, when we do charity events, it’s a big deal because they help us out by getting the word out about us and we’re able to help out whatever cause they have; and there are a few different causes that we as individuals have felt were important to bring awareness to. Carbon Monoxide poisoning is one of those; cancer is a big one too.
Seeing a band that is doing something different is always refreshing and having a great conversation with one of the members is icing on the cake.