Driver Friendly, local Woodlands band, travels with 2013 Warped Tour

THE WOODLANDS, Texas -- What started as a fun way to spend time with friends in high school has turned into a career for seven former residents of The Woodlands.

Recently, the seven-member band, Driver Friendly, released their first EP. They perform in Houston Saturday, June 15, and will join the Vans Warped Tour for more than 10 stops at the beginning of July.

About 11 years ago, a handful of friends from The Woodlands High School's marching band decided they wanted to play music together. So they did what a lot of other kids at the time did--they formed a band. They named the band Driver Friendly.

"Band names are the thing we're worst at," vocalist Tyler Welsh said. "All across Texas they have signs that say 'Drive Friendly.' At 15 years old, I thought it was funny that signs were telling you that…Then it kind of just stuck."

The young members of Driver Friendly played their first show in April 2002 and recorded what Welsh refers to as "really awful CDs" when they were 15.

They played together for about two or three years, developing a bit of a fan base in the Houston area, before they all moved to Austin for college.

The band released an album their senior year and toured nationally. Welsh said they had a really fun time and got a lot of buzz. Unfortunately, though, there wasn't enough of that buzz to push them to the place where making music could be the only thing they did.

"We had worked hard over six years or so, and we felt like that should have been our break," Welsh said. "Whether right or wrong, we kind of took a step back."

The next few years saw the band on somewhat of a hiatus, as they all either went to school or worked.

Then one day, Welsh and another member of the band were talking and they started wondering why they weren't still trying to fulfill their dreams.

The members of Driver Friendly reunited, wrote an album and released it. And finally, the seven members--Welsh, Andy Lane, Jeremi Mattern, Nathan Parrish, Juan Lopez, Andy Rector and Chris Walker--were signed by a record label.

"We've seen so many bands we were friends with that played and got bigger than we ever did, but they'd break up," Welsh said. "For some reason we just never did. We had our own little period, but we never gave up. We worked hard to stay together and keep going."

The band has always written their own songs, but now they get to work with producers to help them shape their music in different ways.

"Back in the day, [writing] used to be really hard," Welsh said. "I think that's one of the things for why it took us so long to get where we are. But ever since we put out that last album, we haven't stopped writing. We're learning to become better song writers."

Welsh said Driver Friendly already has enough songs to record a new album and that they're ready to get back to the studio as soon as they're done with their upcoming tours.

One big benefit of having seven members is that with so many members, the band has a lot of variety.

"Everyone can bring a whole different perspective to a song that one person can't do by themselves," Welsh said. "We have all these different instruments and ways of approaching music. I think that's what makes us sound like Driver Friendly."

If you are new to the band, Welsh recommends listening to the first track on their EP, "Run," which he said is most representative of Driver Friendly's recent work. However, he said another perfect song that captures everything about the band is, "Messidona."

"Messidona" has already made a name in pop culture. Last year, the band released a music video for the song as a tribute to Tom Hanks.

"We did a little social media campaign to get Tom Hanks to watch our video and reweet it," Welsh said. "He actually ended up watching our video and retweeting it and saying he really liked it."

Welsh said he feels like that video is one of the main reasons Driver Friendly got picked up by a record label.

"That just opened a whole other realm of possibilities," he said.

Now, Driver Friendly is gearing up for the 2013 Warped Tour.

"We're super excited," Welsh said. "We can't imagine a better channel to get our music out to people that have never heard us."

Unfortunately, the band was not able to get booked onto the Texas dates of the Warped Tour. This is why they scheduled special dates in June to perform for their original fans.

"We wanted to do something special to get to our fans that have supported us for the longest," Welsh said. "It's our way of saying thank you to our fans. We're sorry we couldn't get here for the Warped Tour, but we're going to get to play longer here than we would on the Warped Tour."

And maybe, one day, the band will perform at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion for their hometown of The Woodlands.

"If we could ever play a show in the Pavilion, that would make everything come full circle," Welsh said. "We've done a lot already, but we used to go to shows there all the time. I really think we could get there if we just keep working hard."

For now, the seven members of Driver Friendly are busy touring and working, in a transition period from working full-time to playing music full-time.

The band hopes to one day make that dream come true; but for now, they are very appreciative for everything that has happened.

"Being an independent band…it's quite possibly the hardest thing any band has to do," Welsh said. "I'm so happy we did it and did it for so long. Nothing was really ever handed to us. We had to earn it. We're just grateful and ecstatic that people listen to our music and come to our shows."

As for those bands who want to follow in Driver Friendly's footsteps, Welsh urges them to never give up and to have fun with it. He also recommends that people that want to make music first ask themselves what makes their music different.

"At the end of the day…you have to make music that somebody likes," he said. "What are you doing that's different? That can be so many different things. You can't be afraid to be different. If you can do that and figure out a way to make that work with your music…[that's the way to do it]."

For now, Welsh is thankful for where they are, but he looks forward to the band's future.

"I'm really excited for where we are right now because I feel like even though we've been together for so long, we're still a brand new band," he said. "When I look at how many people have downloaded our album and liked us on Facebook, that it's a pretty sizable number; but there's still so much more we can do. It's easy to become jaded in this industry, but I'm more excited and happy about where the band is now than I've been in 11 years."

Driver Friendly will perform at Fitzgerald's in Houston Saturday, June 15 around 11 p.m. Tickets are $8 on stubwire.com, $10 the day of and $11 at the box office. Their EP is available on iTunes, Amazon, Emusic and Google Play.