Indie rock band The Gallery has been keeping busy on the road, hitting cities across the U.S. in support of Restless (released on February 26, 2013), their first full-length album with their current line-up. The Gallery is made up of brothers Ryan Cooney (drums) and Brendan Cooney (lead vocals, guitar), Ben Lozano (lead guitar), and Dave Mozdzanowski (bass guitar), and while the group was on the road traveling between tour stops I had the opportunity to talk to Ryan about everything from writing songs to what it’s like to tour to where he sees the band in five years.

What would you say are your biggest musical influences?

Ryan Cooney: “One of the first bands that I first started to get into that taught me a lot about songwriting and wanting to get more involved with it, and be the band that’s writing their own music, is a band called Shades of Day. I listened to them when I was really young in high school and stuff. And it was something that I really hadn’t paid much attention to until that point and then I realized that it was definitely an art and kind of a science in some way to songwriting, too.

So with everybody else with talent in the band, the guitar and melody and base and all that, and being drummer we all work together with the songwriting aspects and we learn from bands like them. We’re all influenced by rock bands like Oasis or Tom Petty, just kind of straightforward rock with a focus on songwriting and melody. But it’s a wide range. It would take a long time to talk about every influence, for sure.”

When you’re writing a song, do you have to absolutely feel passionate about whatever the subject is or can you be at a distance and still write a song you connect to?

Ryan Cooney: “I think that you see a lot of that on a daily basis when you listen to the radio and stuff. I think that sometimes…well, to me, sometimes it’s really obvious that a song was written on purpose and not because they felt something. You know what I mean?”

Yes – written for commercial purposes to sell a song.

Ryan Cooney: “Right, right, and that happens a lot. I’m not telling you they’re not great songs, but I think for us, to this point, usually a song comes about because of something somebody’s feeling and writes it down on paper. At least that initial feeling is there and if you sit at that moment, the more you write, the better a song comes out. But it always comes down to working to the last minute to get the lyrics where you want.”

Does everyone in the band work on a song together or does one of you take the lead and the others pitch in ideas? How does that process work?

Ryan Cooney: “It’s almost always somebody’s original idea. Brendan sings and plays guitar and he comes up – with this last record especially – he came up with a lot of the original ideas. It’s usually a weird sort of melody or either a chorus or something like that then we’ll all sit down and kind of hash the idea out and mess around and just start demo’ing it right away. You know, lay down a drum beat for whatever I hear for the rhythm of the song and maybe a suggestion for a tempo. Then we all just build on it. But a lot of times the song really starts to get a feel once we all get together working on it, so it’s definitely a group effort.”

Does the collaborative process always go smoothly or are there occasional arguments over the direction?

Ryan Cooney: [Laughing] “There’s occasionally arguments. Actually, one thing that helps is the cohesiveness of all of our influences and the kind of music we like to play and listen to is similar, even though there are some differences too. There are times though where it will be somebody’s original idea and then everybody will throw in and we can’t agree on everything. There’s time where we disagree, but it’s never an argument, not really.”

How did you decide which songs to include on Restless?

Ryan Cooney: “I think it’s usually decided once we flush the song out in the demo. We can usually tell by the level of excitement between everybody, the four of us, whether or not that will be one that makes it onto a record. For this last CD, we did have some other ideas that they might make it on another record, but we just didn’t feel like it was done or it might have needed a little more thought and time put into it. So, there are some on the back burner that don’t quite make it and the ones that you’re initially excited about, we usually know those will make it right away.”

And The Gallery used Indiegogo to raise money to get the album put together, is that true?

Ryan Cooney: “Yes. We were a little hesitant about doing it because we don’t like asking stuff from our fans that do enough to support us by coming to shows and everything. But we figured if we offered them something that was worth the value of what they gave or more, then it would be worth it – and it ended up being really great. We’ve raised over $10,000 to make the record, and we’re excited to finally have it done and in our hands.”

Is that something you would suggest other bands do after your experience?

Ryan Cooney: “My feelings about it are when you’re trying to decide whether to do it or not was whether or not you’re spending the money responsibly and getting a good deal, and not just spending money to spend money on something because you feel like you need an expensive record. That’s not what we wanted. We felt that with the producer that we were working with and the cost for it that we were going to be able to make an awesome product, sound, and quality-wise, that would be worth people giving their money. We knew that we weren’t going above and beyond our means and what we thought would be feasible to be able to recoup all the stuff that they got in return with the money that was given. It ended up working out well. But, that would be my suggestion is just be careful about spending money just to spend money because people are giving it to you.”

How do you think the group’s evolved since you first got together? Has it changed much?

Ryan Cooney: “Brendan the singer, Dave [Mozdzanowski] at the bass, and myself were in the band the whole time and we recently got a great new addition, a new fabulous guitarist. He’s helped the band grow a lot just in the last few months. We’ve always had an idea of where we wanted the music to go, but of course, when you’re young, you’re still figuring it out and learning. So, I think that we’ve, with the help of some awesome producers that we’ve worked with and studying bands that we all like and getting a very new talented member, the band’s growing. We’re closer and loving the point where we are at and we’ll, hopefully, always be trying to get better at what we interpret music to be.”

Have you thought about where five years down the road you hope the band will be?

Ryan Cooney: “Yes, we do we do think about that. I think we look up to bands that are able to have a long career and can do their thing for however long it takes to be able to sustain it. Bands like Coldplay, they have been around for over 15 years now, I think.”

Which is crazy.

Ryan Cooney: “That is crazy and they’ve only gotten bigger and more successful. So, I think that if we stick with it, we’ve learned from that. Hopefully, five years down the road there’s more opportunity that have opened up to us, and we’re doing some new stuff.”

Your brother Brendan’s in the band. Is it ever difficult spending that much time with your sibling on the road, in the studio, rehearsing, etc.?

Ryan Cooney: [Laughing ] “I mean, yes it’s different than say Dave and Ben’s relationship, but he’s a great guy and it’s pretty chill. We’ve been doing it for a long time so we’ve learned when to walk away if you need to, so there’s no complaints whatsoever. And I think that a lot of people don’t get the opportunity to spend that time with people in their family so we definitely look at it as a blessing.”

Were you guys close growing up?

Ryan Cooney: “Yes, I think that we were. We’re about three years apart. But when you’re younger, you’re in different schools and different friends and stuff. So, we would hang out but I think it’s when we both started playing music, honestly, that’s when we started hanging out more because it was just what we were really passionate about it, so we started doing it together.”

I’ve seen The Gallery described as indie rock, alternative, having a Tom Petty vibe, and even Southern pop/rock. How would you describe your music?

Ryan Cooney: “We say we’re rock music. It’s a really tough question to answer, honestly, because we like so many different styles in music and it all comes out in our music. But I don’t think you can say we’re anything other than a rock band because we’re two guitars, bass, and drums and that’s as raw as it gets.”

What’s the worst thing about touring?

Ryan Cooney: “Well, I think that’s an easy question right now. One of the hardest things about touring is leaving people that you’re good friends with or you’re close to where home base is, I think. And we experienced, for the first couple of days on tour this time, we had a really long drive from LA to San Fran and San Fran to up here in Portland and we didn’t stay in hotels, we didn’t have time to get refreshed and all that stuff. So, that can be tough on those long drives where you don’t have time to relax and get your bearings straight again.”

How do you work up the energy to give it your all on the stage for your fans?

Ryan Cooney: “That’s a good question. There’s definitely sometimes when you get to a show and you’re exhausted from the day and it’s impossible to be in that mood where you’re all excited every night. But, before we go on stage we always talk about the songs and we realize that it’s new people every night that are there expecting something so we definitely don’t want to let anybody down. I think just the excitement of working so long on the songs and then having an opportunity to be able them to perform them for people live, that’s exciting enough. That gets us ready before each show.”

Does it ever get old?

Ryan Cooney: “No, honestly. I guess some songs might get old to play after a little while, but then again it goes back to this thing where it might be the first time someone in the crowd is hearing it. So, that keeps it fresh for us.”

Conversely, what’s the best thing about being on tour?

Ryan Cooney: “Well, the four of us in the band are all best friends so that’s great. There’s no pain at all sharing a van with people that you would be spending time with if you were back at home too, so that’s something awesome for us. And I think it’s a rewarding opportunity to be able to have, even if it’s just a couple of people or a couple hundred people, come out to hear you play what you worked on. I really love playing and listening to music, and the people that come are the same way. So we’re just all kind of hanging out and it’s a great time every night.”

Is there a city that you particularly like to stop in?

Ryan Cooney: “We’re on our way to one of our favorite cities in the country right now: Portland. We’re about an hour out right now and we love playing there. They’ve got some really cool bands there, everybody’s really supportive of music and of bands they haven’t really heard on the radio yet, you know? And everybody’s really, really friendly up here too. So, Portland’s definitely one of our favorites. And we always love going back to our home state of Massachusetts and also Florida where we went to school for four years.”

Tour Dates:

June 27 – 8:30pm – The Griffin – San Diego, CA – 21+ – $6
June 28 – 7:00pm – House of Blues Sunset Strip – West Hollywood, CA – 18+ – FREE
June 29 – 6:30pm – Martini Ranch – Scottsdale, AZ – All Ages – $10
July 1 – 9:00pm – The Compound – Alamogordo, NM – 18+ or with parent – $5
July 2 – 8:00pm – 502 Bar – San Antonio, TX – 18+ – Tickets TBA
July 5 – 9:00pm – Stubb’s – Austin, TX – All Ages – $10 adv / $12 dos (supporting Paper Route)
July 6 – 8:00pm – Fitzgeralds – Houston, TX – All Ages – FREE for 21+ ($5 under 21)
July 7 – 6:30pm – The Prophet Bar – Dallas, TX – All Ages – $10
July 8 – 7:00pm – The Vanguard – Tulsa, OK – All Ages – $7
July 10 – 7:00pm – The Rutledge – Nashville, TN – All Ages – Tickets TBD
July 11 – 7:00pm – The Masquerade – Atlanta, GA – All Ages – $7 adv / $10 dos
July 13 – 7:00pm – Swamp Grass Willy’s – West Palm Beach, FL – All Ages – $5 for 21+ ($10 under 21)
July 16 – 8:00pm – Underbelly – Jacksonville, FL – 18+ – FREE
July 25 – 7:00pm – The Space – Hamden, CT – All Ages – $10
July 27 – 7:00pm – Maximum Capacity – Chicopee, MA – 21+ – $10
July 30 – 5:30pm – Crocodile Rock – Allentown, PA – All Ages – $12 adv / $15 dos
August 1 – 7:00pm – Grog Shop – Cleveland, OH – All Ages – $6 adv / $8 dos