Daniel Martinez (vocals, guitar, keys), Ryan Hastings (drums), and Melissa Castellano (cello) are poised to put Tampa Bay back in the national spotlight with their band, Candy Bars.

DM:  We started about two and a half, three years ago as a two-piece.  Ryan and I worked for Guitar Center selling guitars and drums.  We got along socially, and started a band with two other guys from Guitar Center.  It was called “Christmas The Band.”  It was like heavy rock… kinda sounded like hum.  Two drummers, two guitar players—it was the weirdest thing I've ever done.  That band was together for five or six months.  Both of the other guys had live-in girlfriends, so most of the time they weren’t showing up for practices.  Ryan and I would show up and write tunes together.  We eventually stopped that band and started writing these tunes.  A lot of the same songs that are on the record that came out in January are some of the songs that we originally wrote when we first got together.  That was about two and a half years ago.  We recorded three short EPs before New Granada approached us to do a full length.  They wanted to put out a record with somebody who has a band that they weren't in; they wanted to do something outside their circle. They came to us and said if we could put together a full length, they would put it out, pay for the pressing and for a publicist to step in and help us out.  They were just friends of ours from the area, sort of a mutual agreement, like, “let's just do something together.”

MC:  I'm from Daytona, I moved here 7 years ago.  I met Danny in Guitar Center when I went to buy my fiancé a present for Christmas.  He asked if I knew anyone who played cello—I play the cello.  He gave me his CD and I took it home and listened to it.  I said, “Well, okay, I can play to that.”  I never thought I'd be leaving my house to go to band practice.  The first time I went over to their house to play with them, I said, "I really don’t understand what you’re playing."  I didn't understand what they wanted from me.  My music occurs between 110 people playing brass and string instruments, so I really didn't listen to independent music.  Then they said, “It kinda sounds like Sparklehorse.”  So I got out my planner and said, “Okay, tell me what I need to buy,” and I went to Vinyl Fever and handed them a list and said, “Help me.”  I left with a stack of CDs.

DM:  She was great, although she wasn’t used to it.  We never really had to tell her anything.

MC:  I've been playing cello since I was 10.  My whole family is musicians.  A lot of the stuff that I have to do is kinda the same, it’s just longer.  Whereas when you’re playing by yourself, smoke comes off the strings.

DM:  Writing is a really bizarre, completely collaborative effort.  Ryan is as involved in writing the songs as I am, especially lyrically.  Lyrics are a really big deal in our songs—a lot of songs will start with lyrics.  We ended up creating this really bizarre journal.  We hoped to form it so that it would be a pleasant read.  Despite the fact that all the personal references may not be gotten by everyone, they can go through it and say, “At least it reads pretty well.”

Ryan moved to Jacksonville about a year ago.  About six months after that, he moved to Nashua, Massachusetts, a quiet town that has nothing going for it other than it’s 35 minutes outside of Boston.  I think it'll make for a good second album, whenever it might be… we’re still writing.    

A gentleman by the name of Steve Starbeck did the artwork for the first album.  I met him in an email, but he is a good friend of Ryan Hastings.  They met when Ryan lived in Italy, and Steve now lives in Chicago.  He randomly stumbled upon the music and sent an email just to say, “Hi.”  It was around the time when New Granada had asked us to put out the record, so Ryan said we should think about Steve doing the album art.  He showed me some of his artwork, and I said, “Wow, that’s really fucked up.  I can't believe that somebody is actually drawing like this.  We should absolutely have him do it.”  We gave him no direction on the cover.   He would write me emails and say, “I had a dream yesterday......an octopus wrestling a Roman warrior.  I don't know if it's going to make it, but it might make it.  I also thought of a child in an egg holder.”  The only things we requested were ballerina slippers and a cornucopia, and he totally did it.  He was definitely the best choice.  We hope that he's around when we decide to release our second album.

In the end, even if nothing major happens for us, it was a really major experience recording the last album and putting on the CD release party.  Going through that was already a win.  New Grenada hired Team Clermont to do the publicity for the new album.  They enjoyed the record and got behind it.  They're gaining all sorts of contacts, we're meeting a lot of new people… we spoke to a gentleman from CMJ yesterday over the phone who interviewed us.  He was like, “You should totally come to New York, you should come play up here, you guys would do very well.”  We exchanged numbers—we may set up a show there.  So, we're starting to get exposure from a bunch of places.  A few months ago I wasn't aware of half of it.  I swear I didn't know what the word blog meant when they first told me I was a part of one.  I was like, “somebody better tell me what the fuck a blog is.”

MC:  I looked up narravation online, and it’s fun because it isn't a real word.  I was going through nine pages of stuff to see what people said about the album.  One site I found was completely in German.  A lot of the people that talk to us through Myspace are from really far away, which is great.

There are some great bands around here, but there is that stigma where people think only metal bands come from Florida.  It's impossible for New York and Los Angeles to continue to be the music Meccas of the country.  It will burn itself out, if it hasn't already.  Bands will have to start to come from other places so that people can get something new with music.  When I first moved to this town, I didn't know what to think of it, you can't even get lost here.  Now, I've actually grown to like it.  Tampa is a great place to live.  The independent local scene in Tampa owes a lot to New World Brewery.  When it came time to thank people on the record, we decided to not get specific, and not name names.  We did, however, name New World Brewery.  We thought without a venue like this, music like ours or any other bands’ that are in the same vein around here would never be heard at all.  So, it is definitively the best venue in town with some really awesome people running it, and a long history.  You can come out here and just hang out and have a beer, and inevitably you'll end up running into somebody who is also into music and wanting to talk and wanting to be a lush just like you are.  I've seen some really terrible shows here, I've seen some really awesome shows here, I've seen a lot of mediocre shows, I've gotten too drunk here…  so, it’s a really good place.

MC:  The first time I was here was with my fiancé.  This is where we had our first date.  We're having our wedding reception here.

DM:  It’s going well, it’s sort of weird, it’s not like it happens in a huge wave.  We don't bask in rays of sunshine or anything like that.  We have day jobs.  Melissa has kids to teach cello to and I have things to sell, meetings to give.  It is good to know that in the background, a lot of things are getting spread out and hopefully it will progress and the album will do well.  It's now being stocked and in listening stations in about 40-50 independent record stores across the country.  That was completely the result of Gabe from Vinyl Fever hooking us up big time.  He let us do the in-store the day after the CD release show.  He stocked it as a regular release, not just a local release.  He put it on his listening post and submitted it to a conglomerate of other independent record stores.  So, they also stocked it and put it on their listening posts.  A lot of people have helped us out for no other reason than to see us get out there.

Candy Bars will be playing WMNF's Tropical Heatwave on May20th.  Their Album, "On Cutting Ti-gers In Half and Understanding Narravation", can be found at www.newgranada.com.  For more information on the Candy Bars visit www.myspace.com/candybars.