Artist Interview: Denton Hunker of Green River Ordinance
Posted by Jessica Hollenbach on January 19, 2010

Texas rockers Green River Ordinance are headed back out on the road in February to continue promoting their debut album Out of my Hands. With a successful first single, “Come On,” both on radio and on VH1 the band is ready to hit the ground running. Touring a better part of last year with the likes of David Cook, Gavin DeGraw and Collective Soul really allowed the band to connect with fans across the country. Green River Ordinance is looking forward to reconnecting with many of the new people they meet along the way. The Hot Zone had a chance to check in with drummer Denton Hunker to see what’s in store for the band in 2010.

For those not familiar with Green River Ordinance can you give us a little background on the band.
The band was started when Goeff Ice and Jamie Ice who are brothers. When Jaime was 14 and Geoff was 13 they decided to start a band because their middle school was having a talent show. So they wanted to start a band so they could play in the talent show. So they got together a few of their friends and decided to learn “Sweet Home Alabama.” They learned it and bought some matching suede vesting, put on some cowboy boots and got up and played “Sweet Home Alabama” in front of their middle school friends. They won so I think after that moment they decided they liked being in a band and so they continued playing and they were kind of a blues cover band kind of thing. One day they were practicing in their garage and they needed a name and there was a metal road sign in their garage. The metal road sign said green river ordinance enforced. When they were picking names they had a list of three names: Five Car Draw, Catalysis, and the road sign Green River Ordinance. Well I think that was the winner obviously. Mainly because it had some ring like Credence Clearwater Revival in which they would cover Green River by Credence Clearwater revival. That’s how we got the name. When Geoff and Jaime meet Josh Wilkerson and Josh Jenkins in high school and that’s when Josh Jenkins became the lead singer and Josh Wilkerson became the other guitar player. So the sound started changing in high school from a blues rock cover band to more of a; Josh Jenkins really likes Third Eye Blind and Matchbox 20 a lot of 90’s pop rock. That’s when the sound started to change. I joined the band Denton Hunker in college at TCU where I meet Jaime and Geoff that was about seven or eight years ago. So the band as you see it has been together roughly eight years. That’s I where we really decided we wanted to do this a professional thing and see how far it would take us.

I’ve read various different reviews comparing your music to Third Eye Blind, Matchbox 20 which you mentioned and also The Fray – do you feel this is a fair comparison and what do you feel sets you apart from those bands?
We do this because we all like playing music and we like writing songs that are influenced by the music we like. So they may sound like what we are listening too. We are also in it and love doing this because of where it takes us and the people we get to meet and the interaction we get to have with people and making new friends. I think one of the things that sets us a part is personality. Ya know stage presence or show, we really get involved with the audience and have a good time. After every show we like to go outside of the venue to hang out and sign whatever they want and take pictures. Sometimes we are outside of the show afterwards for like an hour until everybody is gone. Personality stage presence is a part. Musically we are a pop rock band we like writing powerful catching tunes that are driven by powerful melody, very cool guitar rhythms and licks. Good feeling fancy beats. Where we try to make ourselves different is we trying to make it a mix of 90’spop rock and kind of what’s going on now it’s a funky hi-breed.

I personally discovered you guys while reviewing a few of David Cook’s shows last year and your live show is fantastic. I read that the band broke the record for the most CD’s sold at the Nokia Theater in NYC – that must have been pretty cool. New York can sometimes be a tough crowd.
Yeah I think we sold a little over 400.

You had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time on the road in 2009 including twice with David Cook what was the best part of spending that much time on the road touring this past year?
Every minute of it I don’t think we ever have a bad time touring. Even through I think our van is hexed. Every time we get out on the road we either run over something or something hits us we get many, many, many flat tires. It seems we are changing tires every week. In those moments, as bad as it sounds, it really is kind of fun when that happens. It gives us a lot to write about on our twitter and Facebook. The fans like hearing stuff like that. Let’s see, we started the majority of the heavy, heavy touring in June and we started off with Collective Soul and Gavin Degraw. With Collective Soul we had done a previous tour with them the year before. With Gavin we were new to meeting him; being with collective Soul they are like our big brothers and uncles. They are just awesome people and they are in that 90’s rock and roll sound. They are something we all grew up listening too. So it’s very cool touring with some of our hero’s. Gavin and his whole crew are amazing awesome people so that was a lot of fun. Then we moved on at the end of the tour at the beginning of July is when we picked up with David (Cook) and we all were really excited about that but also nervous because we didn’t know what to expect, ya know, cause here is David Cook the American Idol and here we are Green River Ordinance just an up and coming band kind of thing. It was an amazing experience it was just incredible. We have become very, very good friends with David and his whole band and crew kind of like a big family now. It really was an incredible experience. His fans are just amazing we have to say thank you to his fans for everything. They have done so much for us and just have been so supportive in every city we go to. It’s just incredible the way his fans support him and now supported us. That was awesome then we finished; the first tour was with him in July and the second was in November and ended that. Then just yesterday we got home from a cruise called the rock boat which was awesome this will be our second year to do that. It is basically a music festival on a cruise line hosted by Sister Hazel. I think there we just too many things that were awesome that went on to in this last year. No bad moments all good. We recorded the music video; “Come On” our single is doing great on radio. Its just amazing to turn on the radio in a city and hear your song coming on and people sending us text and stuff saying that heard our song on the radio or in a store or saw our music video on TV. It’s just real encouraging and awesome and it’s great to have fans who are looking out for us and listening for our song.

Your first single “Come On” has done very well. Have you decided on a second single and when might we expect that to be released?
No we haven’t decided on any of that yet. We are still going to push “Come On” a little bit longer and see where that goes. I don’t think we are ready second single to a second single yet. We are definitely looking forward to it but I think there has been talk about “On Your Own” or another “Out of my Hands.”

You mentioned Twitter with all of the Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook they have changed the face of the music industry – how do you feel this helps or hinders an artist?
I think it helps a lot. It just breaks into a whole other medium that you the artist and the fans can connect on. If you look back before all of this stuff the way fans could connect with the artist was by going to the concert or maybe winning some sort of meet n greet or something like that. Now with Facebook and MySpace and especially Twitter it is almost on a personal level with the fan and the artist. We can say we are sitting at McDonalds eating a cheeseburger and the fans think that’s cool. We can say we got a flat tire or whatever it’s just really allowing the fans to really looking into our everyday what we are doing and stuff. It really helps us out as the artist because when we are going to a city we can send out a Facebook a message to our fans in that specific town and say hey we are going to be there come on to the concert. It really helps you out to market your self and stay in touch and connected with your fans.

Green River Ordinance has had a lot of success thus far what do you feel has been the main key to that success?
Obviously in the music business you have to have somewhat decent music I guess good songs good music. I just think the most important part is just being good people being human and being nice to people. Yeah we are in a band, we have a song on the radio, we have a music video on VH1, we get to go backstage in our green room and stuff but we are no different then any one else. We are no celebrity. We are just five guys who are playing music trying to have fun and meet some new people. We are just like everybody else. We love connecting with everybody. Unlike some people I guess you’d say like a typical rock star don’t look at me don’t talk to me kind of thing. It’s important to be friendly and nice I think it’s the way you make it in life by being good people.

You are headlining your own tour starting February 10th. What can someone who has never seen your show before expect to see and hear?
We are all excited about the tour coming up because it is a headlining tour. A band called Sleeper Star who are friends of ours will be opening. First people who have already seen us because all of this touring we have done last year we opened so normally we only get to play for thirty or forty five minutes. So now we are going to be doing an hour and half set. So our fans we have now are going t o get the full on GRO show. Then people who haven’t seen us they can expect to come in and see a good show and have some fun.

Which do you prefer more the recording process or getting out there and touring?
Man those are two of my favorite things. I absolutely love recording and I absolutely love touring. Just two totally different experiences. When you are recording you really get to tap into the more creative side. You get into the zone of just creating something that is hopefully going to be good. You spend all day writing music and playing music and your brain is just tired from thinking so much. It’s just so much fun to put yourself in that situation and just kind of watch yourself in the studio and play until you can’t play any more. It’s just so much fun. Then touring is just a blast because I’ve seen places I never thought I was going to see. I’ve gone to so many cool cities and experienced so many cool things and people. The rush of getting on stage and performing is so much fun. You are always playing the same songs every night, which actually thankfully doesn’t get old. I think it would get old if the same people were always in front of you but since there is always new people and new reactions it creates a new experience for us the artist. I love both recording and touring and I think everyone else would say the same thing.

Other then the headlining tour you have coming up what can we expect to see from Green River Ordinance in the next several months?
Well starting in middle-late March we will be going back out on the road with Collective Soul. Where that takes us yet I don’t know but that is who we will be going out with sometime in March.

Finally wrapping this up what message would you like to leave with your fans?
Just a big whooping thank you we love them and we thank them for all of their super amazing support!

Green River Ordinance will be on tour starting Feb 10th check out the dates below.

02.10 Jammin’ Java Vienna, VA
02.11 The Note West Chester, PA
02.13 Harpers Ferry Allston, MA
02.16 Mercury Lounge New York, NY
02.17 Club Cafe Pittsburgh, PA
02.18 Musica Akron, OH
02.19 Radio Radio Indianapolis, IN
02.20 The Basement Columbus, OH