Crown Point

We’re Very Lucky

By Jeanette Madden
Music Editor

Monday, May 23 the Nestor Tavern will feature Portland, Oregon’s alternative pop/rock trio Crown Point. Featuring two lead singers, Crown Point’s music is noted for its harmonies, meaningful lyrics, and pop sensibility. Currently on tour in support of their debut album ‘Wolves’, Crown Point is making a point of playing Fargo for the first time.

Lead singer Russell Stafford says that Crown Point is “still pretty new. We’ve only been around for about eighteen months. Our new album came out at the end of last year and we’ve been touring pretty much nonstop for the past year in support of it.”

“Jon [Davidson – vocals/guitar], who’s the other lead singer – we have two lead singers in the band, we were both solo artists in Portland and our bands did a show together on the same bill. We ended up thinking it would be cool to do more shows together and as time went on I would hop up on a couple of his songs and sing harmony and he would hop up on a couple of my songs and sing harmony. Eventually, we ended up onstage for each other’s entire set playing so it made sense to put it into its own entity. We started off as an acoustic duo and then met Kaycee [Kay – drums] about six months after that and we’ve been a trio ever since.”

“None of us are actually from Portland. Kaycee is from Cheyenne, Wyoming, Jon is from a little place in Michigan called Eau Claire and I grew up in Australia. We all moved to Portland about six years ago and met there. The music scene in Portland is amazing and the reason we ended up going there. We always joked that Portland is the geographical center between Australia, Michigan and Cheyenne, Wyoming [laughs]. Every now and then someone won’t argue with us and they’re like okay, and we’ll say no its not!”

The name Crown Point refers to a place just outside of Portland. “I’m atrocious at picking band names,” Stafford said, “so Jon came up with it and we all pretty much agreed that it sounded like a good name. A regional reference to the area where we’re based so yeah, we went with that.”

Crown Point had producer Jeff Johnson [Adelita’s Way] and engineer Chris Holmes [Korn, Katy Perry] for their album Wolves. Most debut albums don’t get those types of people involved and Stafford explained how it happened for them. “Because we [Stafford and Davidson] were both established solo artists before Crown Point was formed, everyone brought all these contacts. The ball was already rolling before Crown Point even became a band. Our manager lined up this great producer and we were lucky enough that when our drummer couldn’t make it up to Canada for one of the songs Nickelback’s drummer stepped in and played drums on it. Like I said, we were very lucky from the get-go because everything was already established. We put the Crown Point name on it and off things went.”

Stafford and Davidson not only share lead vocal duties, they are also the primary songwriters. “Jon comes from much more of a rock background,” Stafford explained, “as he used to be in a hard rock band. If you hear a rock song it’s almost definitely one of Jon’s and I’m a slower alternative pop kind of writer. We run the gamut of genres just because we have everyone writing in their own style. It keeps things different and fresh.” Once you listen to Crown Point, it’s obvious what Stafford said is true. While Davidson’s voice brings to mind Jon Bon Jovi, Stafford has the range of Jason Germain, co-lead singer and guitarist of Canadian band Downhere. And when the two perform acoustically, it’s a pleasure to hear.

“Our live shows are a lot like the album. It runs the gamut from very quiet acoustic alternative songs to definite high energy rock songs. We try to travel with a pretty good stage show. We have lights and effects and things like that and we put on the biggest show we can. It’s going to be fun to come to Fargo and bring that into town for the first time. Unfortunately South Dakota’s been getting all of the Crown Point love recently. We do Rapid City and we’ll do Minneapolis every couple of months but we’ve never actually been through North Dakota so it’s a new place for us and we’re very excited.”

You can hear Crown Point’s music on their Facebook page, link below:

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Links:     
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/mjeQ1g
Twitter: @crownpointband

IF YOU GO:
What/Who: Crown Point
When: Monday, May 23 at 10:00p.m.
Where: The Nestor Tavern
Cost: $5 cover charge