Glam Rock, Texas Style

© Till Krautkramer

Imagine if Queen, Guns N’ Roses, and Meatloaf ran at one another from opposite ends of a room. Toss in some acrobatics and a few stories about Barmitzvahs and – tada! – you have .357 Lover. This Brooklyn (by way of Denton, TX) band is defying convention and carving out its own dynamic nitch in the NYC music scene. Jon Cunningham aka Corn Mo leads the band on a twisted, hilarious, and joyous journey with each song and show, complete with burlesque dancers, gymnastic feats, and that perfect Axl Rose rocker scream.

On this particular random weeknight the band was all gathered in a small Brooklyn dive bar, unwinding from the day and prepping for their late night practice session, during which they would be rehearsing some songs for their new album. As his fellow ‘Lovers’ flitted about in the background, Jon Cunningham sat at a table nursing a cocktail, his large on-stage personality toned down to a quiet friendly air.

.357 Lover has such a unique sound, a sort of Queen, The Darkness, Meatloaf mix. How did you first start performing these types of songs?

I started solo and then there were things I couldn’t do solo with the accordion. So I found a band and we started playing full songs, but I didn’t want it to be a solo guy with a backup band, I wanted it to be cohesive. So I changed the name to .357 Lover from Corn Mo and that’s how it all started.

Did you originally imagine the pieces with a big band sort of sound?

Yeah. I was in a metal band in High School so a lot of the stuff was metal sounding but it was really just me and an accordion. I just wanted it to be filled out. The thing about this band and this lineup is that we are all not on the same page, so whats in my head doesn’t always flesh out the way it would be if it was just me. And that’s a good thing.

In what genre would you qualify your music?

Probably like seventies album rock.

Many of your songs are short anecdotes. When you wrote them did you think of the story first?

Um, well “Maybe Tonite” was just a fantasy about making out with a girl in the mall. So it wasn’t so much of a story as a fantasy of going outside of Wet Seal and making out. And then I would go buy something at Spencer Gifts and go home. It’s not really a story.

Okay well but the idea came first, yes? The idea for a story, and then music after.

With that one it all came at the same time, but “Time Cop” was based on the movie Time Cop because I like that movie a lot. But the story doesn’t have anything to do with the movie, just sparked by the name. Its as if there was a Time Cop Two. “Old Man” is about when my mother died, and I was afraid my Dad would be alone and that made me really sad. “Kentucky Girl” is about my Grandmother, I wrote that after she passed away. It depends what I am into. We are working on a new one that is based on a Jules Verne story.

Is this for a new album?

Yeah, we are going to go into the studio this month and we are going to put it out on vinyl and do it proper instead of just doing a CD. So we have been demo-ing the songs so we can have a smooth ride once we are in the studio.

You first started the band in Texas. What made you move to NYC?

I joined the Bindlestiff Family Circus, and they were based out of Brooklyn so I moved here. But the weird thing is that everyone in the band lives in Denton except for the drummer, even though we didn’t meet there.

Are you big in Denton?

No. Actually we kind of are, but we are more popular there now then we were before we moved to Manhattan. Because we moved out of town.

How do you find the audience reception when you play shows?

We usually get a good response when we play. There are always the message board people who don’t do anything but comment; I got called Meat Oaf once. But during the actual show we can’t tell that anyone hates us. Sometimes when we try to book out of town shows it’s hard. A lot of people want to fill seats and they don’t understand what we are doing. We don’t sound like other bands. Or we do, but they’ve been dead for a while.

Have you ever faced the problem of not being taken seriously?

Yeah, for sure. It’s not a thorn in our side but it’s definitely been an issue. Some people think we are a joke band. But it’s not that big of a deal for us anymore, once people see us then they are like “wow”, and we are like “well that’s what we told you before”. Its like when I say “my sister is hot, she looks like me” and everyone is thinking that they don’t want to date my sister because she looks like me and then they meet her and they go “oh yeah, she doesn’t look like you at all”. Like that.

Well okay! That’s quite an example, thanks for clarifying that! You guys are very dynamic on stage. Do you feel that stage presence and what you do up there is a really important element of who you are as a band?

Yeah. There is nothing worse than having to sit through a band for 45 minutes and having to work to enjoy them. We’re not lazy about it, we are about playing shows, we entertain, we aren’t a self-help book of music or anything we just like playing our songs and we want people to have a good time and enjoy it. There's nothing worse than seeing someone check their watch while you are playing. As long as people are passionate, even if it’s negative, then we reached someone.

Your standing weekly engagement with The Knitting Factory in Brooklyn just came to a close. How was that gig?

It was great. We showcased a lot of different things, each show had a band, a solo musician, and comedian, a circus act, and a burlesque act. We told the band and the musician to keep it under twenty minutes and everyone did. We had people that came to every residency show; it was like sitting through the first Star Wars. It went by really quick. Our DJ was NY1’s Roger Clark; so we had a lot of people come down to see him as well. At the end of it they wanted us to do it again, but of course their calendar was all filled up so we may not do it again until March, maybe April, since we are recording in February, we’ll try to do it again on a monthly basis. It was really rewarding.

You opened for Ben Folds a few years ago. What was that like?

I toured with him a few times. Then when he came to New York we had the band do the show. He’s a fan, he’s a really nice guy and very generous. I needed a computer and he came up with a solution where the record company would give me a computer if I made a video for him. It was very easy for him, and that’s the kind of generous person he is. I would work with him again, anytime.

What was the process in releasing your first album?

It was short, it took ten years. (Laughs) This one, we are really planning out. It’s going to take less than ten months to get done. It’s the members now as opposed to members from different times. I haven’t done an album under a short amount of time in a long time and that process is exciting. We have a video that’s from the album, “Event Horizon”, and it was a lot of fun to do. We almost didn’t want to do it because the guy in Philly wanted us to come in early, but we did it and it got a lot of hits. I made a couple of others like “Time Cop” and “Golden Warrior” from the first album, those were fun too. We’ll make a few for the new album, videos are fun.

Will you tour?

Yeah around April. We hope to go back to Germany, UK, and maybe Holland. We have a tiny following there- it’s the accent, they can’t get enough of it; we are just very exotic for them.