If in doubt, just remember what Incubus said in 1999: Make Yourself. That’s the ethos Nothing More laboured under in the early days of their career, constantly reinventing themselves to grasp at greatness. It’s also a sentiment that they keep at the forefront of their minds today.
Though they’re now an established alt rock band with avid followers in all corners of the globe, things were different at the turn of the last decade. Following their formation in 2003, the band went through multiple line-up changes and sounds, while then-drummer Jonny Hawkins lost his mother to cancer. He became the band’s vocalist for third album The Few Not Fleeting, released in 2009. Wrapping hard rock and alternative metal melodies around prog storytelling, it showcased stratospheric ambition. However, it largely fell on deaf ears, and they remained unable to secure a record deal.
“We had come out of a series of what felt like failures,” Jonny explains today. “We had labels passing on us. We had singers that didn’t work out. We had put all this work into creating these albums and doing little regional tours, and it was not turning the corner in a way we could feel. We were being honest with ourselves, and then we would return to square one all over again.”
When they started working on what would become their fourth album, Nothing More moved into a house together just outside their hometown of San Antonio. A 1960s build, it generated an unbearable amount of heat, and was next to a quarry where regular underground explosions would rattle the rafters. It wasn’t the best environment for creating music, but it didn’t sway Jonny from getting things done. As he sat in his box room, the airconditioning unit he had set up leaking on the floor, he knew this was his last chance.
“It was do or die at this point,” he says. “We knew we had to make the album and make this band work, or I would need to change careers. That’s where This Is The Time (Ballast) came from. It was from that back-against-the-wall feeling.”
Although Nothing More were pouring their hearts and souls into the music they were making, they had no idea if any of it would hit home. “When we wrote This Is The Time (Ballast), we thought it would just be an album track,” Jonny admits. “You know, a deeper cut. It wasn’t even going to be a single, and it turned out to be our breakout track, which introduced us to the world.”
It’s odd to think that This Is The Time (Ballast) wasn’t viewed as a standout, because it has all the hallmarks of an anthem. Musically, it combines the most vicious elements of hard and alternative rock with modern production. Vocally, it sends shivers coursing down the spine, its verses delivered breathlessly and its chorus bursting into melody. Lyrically, it speaks of throwing off the shackles of doubt and revelling in the excitement of the here and now. It’s as unique as it is timeless, a glistening gem in a corner of alternative music that can often feel like it has been dulled for radio play.
Jonny wasn’t thinking about emulating anyone else when he wrote the song, or following music industry trends – he was just creating something to see where it went.
“I was always in the mindset of just writing what we like,” Jonny explains. “There wasn’t this difference in feeling, like this was something magical or different. It was just, ‘I dig this, and I am in the flow.’ The best things I have created are in that mindset.
“I wanted to embody the feeling of ascension,” he continues. “Putting that out into the world could also trigger other people to feel that ascension, where you truly let go of all of these things you have been trapped in and face reality in its fullest form.”
Projecting such spiritually liberating energy paid off. Using crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, Nothing More went directly to fans to raise the money to record their self-titled album, releasing it independently in June 2013. But it was an appearance at Aftershock Festival in September that year that took their momentum from 0 to 100.
Booked to play on a small stage on the first day, their high-octane performance impressed punters and organisers alike. Following a series of band cancellations on day two, they were invited to prove their worth on a much bigger stage, in front of 13,000 people. The crowd were introduced to the Nothing More universe with This Is The Time (Ballast), ramping up the sense this band were going places.
“It felt surreal,” Jonny recalls of the moment he realised things were shifting. “You work so hard for so long waiting for that turning point. So, when you finally start seeing it happening, it almost doesn’t feel like anything. On reflection, I place it as feeling like when you’re rising up on a rollercoaster. It’s like a take-off.”
The post-Aftershock buzz helped Nothing More court label interest, and they signed with Eleven Seven Music. Experiencing the corporate side of the music industry posed new challenges for the band, who, up until this point, had only answered to themselves.
“We suddenly had so many people, and people we trust, doing what they thought was right to give us the best chance,” Jonny says. “But those people often have different perspectives than the artist. You need to know when to dig your heels in, or when you’re just being overtly biased towards your own work.
“Business people were saying that This Is The Time (Ballast) was too screamy in the verses, and that we would exclude too many people by being that aggressive. But that’s what makes it interesting and not like every other song! Also, it wasn’t clear at the time that it would be as successful as it was. So, looking back, I’m so glad that we didn’t listen to those people.”
So he should be. When This Is The Time (Ballast) was officially released as a single in March 2014, ahead of a summer re-release of Nothing More under the Eleven Seven Music banner, it went down a storm. Hitting No.1 on the Active Rock chart and No.2 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Chart in the US, the song’s sincerity and savageness captured the imagination of the listening public.
For Jonny, it was vindication of his belief that the band would find success, and a reward for cultivating resilience and positivity – for managing to move forwards, even when it felt like the world was trying to drag him down. Today, he says he wouldn’t change a thing about those early days, even if he could. Those experiences, failures and lessons helped to shape his creative personality.
“I try to remind myself that you may think that the stuff you have gone through in your life is just ordinary, but the reality is that what you’ve gone through is 100% unique,” he says. “There might be similarities and things we can relate to – parallels - but the exact types of experiences with the exact types of people you’ve been with, are still one-of-a-kind. That’s the most original thing you can tap into.”
In the decade since, Nothing More have capitalised on the momentum of This is The Time (Ballast). Following their breakout, 2017’s The Stories We Tell Ourselves became a commercial success, reaching No.15 on the Billboard 200 and gaining them a Best Rock Album Grammy nomination. Live, they continue to sell out venues on both sides of the Atlantic, with a show as technically thrilling as it is emotionally rousing.
From that box room in San Antonio to the upper echelons of modern rock, the band have proven what can be achieved when you block out all the external noise and focus on what makes your heart burst.
“With This Is The Time (Ballast), there was no thought,” Jonny concludes. “It just flowed because I wasn’t trying to be something that I wasn’t. I wasn’t trying to be someone else or do what I thought I should do. I just did it. The magic you need to get to where you want to be runs much deeper than anything you find on the surface. Peace comes from knowing that you are doing it.”
Nothing More's new album Carnal is out now via Better Noise. Nothing More play Louder Than Life and Aftershock festivals in September and October.
