The Name Change

Concept: The Name Change -- Date: June 9, 2009 -- When Taylor came up with the name for his new band, The American Beat, back in 2006, he had a completely different vision for what this band would later be. He probably had no idea that the future members of the band would be his longtime best friend Marcus or his only brother Chase, either. Since then, the band has evolved, grown, and changed. Chase had considered quitting multiple times earlier in his band-ship. Marcus practically quit once and was nearly kicked out another time. Taylor has struggles dealing with the band all the time. Yet the band has stuck together, and meanwhile written some great songs. -- While the earlier material dealt with girls and had some typical rhythms, the newer material has complex rhythms and deals with relationships on a universal level. While the band used to dress casually, they later began always looking nice and are even considering compiling a uniform, or outfit, if you will. In the beginning, the songs were tunes that could be danced to on a decent level. Now they have songs that they plan on making up dances for. The earlier work could be enjoyed by adults, but the new songs now get stuck in adults’ heads. -- The band used to have one vocalist, and they now have three. The band used to have music, now they have a vision. The band used to have a friendship and a membership, now they have a brother-ship and a band-ship. The band used to be The American Beat. Now they are not. So many changes occurred within the group that they were beginning to feel the name no longer had any attachment to them as musicians, as people, or as a cohesive unit. Chase never felt a connection to it at all, and always felt it lingered too closely to Gatsbys American Dream and, especially, My American Heart. Marcus felt that calling themselves The American Beat made them a group that needed to represent America on a whole instead of representing the band’s members themselves. Taylor agreed with Chase and Marcus, and he just thought he had some better ideas. The group somewhat-quickly decided a name change was needed. Even though they wanted a change, they also knew they had a local name for ourselves as The American Beat and had a fair amount of people who didn’t want the name to go. The final decision to change the name was assisted by Chase’s idea that, since The American Beat no longer applied to the band but still applied to their first era of music-making, The American Beat should be the name of the first album. (It is uncertain as to whether this idea will uphold when the time comes to name the album.) -- The Artist formally known as TAB then started shifting through many ideas, most of them being jokes: The Arlington Beat, The Sunset Riders, The Coastal Grooves, Heaven Yes, The Frontstreet Men, Sweetwater, and others. But one name that stuck was Jive. In spite of the fact that there was a huge record label named Jive Records, Taylor and co. thought the name would fit their music well and was a pretty darn cool word. So after weeks and months of thinking, they thought they had come to their final decision. Then Taylor started asking people about their opinions. No one liked Jive. Some people thought it didn’t fit the music or it sounded odd. Some of the older folks felt the word had too heavy of a history for it to be a fitting name. Overall, the group became very discouraged and were back at the drawing boards. -- One night, Taylor and Chase headed out to go longboarding, which is possibly the group’s favorite pastime along with billiards. It was late and dark, so they made the easy decision to go to the steepest streets they could think of. Although they had a blast, they actually only boarded down a couple of streets. They spent most of their hours talking, and they spent a large portion of their time talking talking about the band name. It was clear that Jive was out of the question, but they talked some to confirm this fact. They then wondered where they could go from here. Chase then got a philosophical realization: Why is it that lone artists, such as Jesse McCartney and Barry Manilow (who were the exact examples he used, as a matter of fact), get to use their real names, but whenever a musical artist is comprised of two or more members, they nearly always devise some fake moniker to go by? It was then clear to Chase that the band didn’t need to make up a name at all! They already had their names! He then remembered an idea Taylor had had a long time ago. Taylor had been thinking about how people often don’t know the names of band members, or might only know the singer’s name. He then thought it would be funny if the band’s name was just Taylor Marcus Chase. As simple as that. So Chase brought back to the surface this old idea and thought he had solved the puzzle. The new band name was Taylor Marcus Chase (Fun TMC), and Marcus would accept this name once the Tremaine brothers proposed it to him the next morning. However, matters would not run so smoothly. Upon the idea, Marcus immediately rejected it. Confused, Chase pondered why. Well, Marcus understood the reasoning behind the name, but he thought it just sounded stupid. And we were up the creek again. -- ...Taylor Nelson Tremaine... -- ...Marcus Alexander Ford... -- ...Chase Alexander Tremaine... -- A long time ago, Marcus made up his own joking name for the band. Being well aware that both he and Chase shared the same middle name, he called the group Nelson and the Alexanders. Nelson and the Alexanders. Once it was decided that the band should use their own names, one of the members remembered this old joke and added it to our list of selections. Taylor, excited by this blast-from-the-past idea, started asking people about the name. Everyone, such as his friend and fellow musician Deena Jakoub of local band Don’t Wake Aislin, who was given the list of the best name possibilities chose Nelson and the Alexanders as the clear standout. As stated by friend of the band Chase Jewell, Nelson and the Alexanders sounded like "a name that could go down in history." Chase (Tremaine) had big doubts at first, but as time allowed the name to soak in and more and more people liked the name, which has the perfect mix of realism and comedy, Chase along with everyone else could see that the perfect name had been found. And so it has become official. After much thinking and searching, Taylor Nelson, Marcus Alexander(#1) and Chase Alexander(#2) have completely dropped their "The American Beat" moniker and shall forevermore go by their birth names. The journey of Nelson and the Alexanders started here and has only begun.