Soldier’s military career switches to different beat

SHORELINE — Nearly four years before winning a million-dollar record deal with the band Fall From Grace, Kenny Bates was getting ready for a tour.

This was no concert tour. Bates, who grew up in Stanwood, joined the Army National Guard after graduation. He was training to go to Iraq when he contracted encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain that led to a case of mild epilepsy. He had planned to have a military career. Instead, he would become a Veterans Affairs patient.

“He was kind of lost there for a little,” his mother, Beth Bates, said.

Kenny Bates found relief in drumming, a pursuit of his since age 12. While still on the mend, he started talking with his friend Tryg Littlefield. A singer and guitarist, Littlefield had been playing music with brothers Ken Olson, a bassist, and Brian Olson, a guitarist. The trio needed a drummer.

“I kind of related the two, you know?” Bates, 23, said. “Here in a band, I’m working with my guys, my team, you know. In the Army, it was similar. I was working with my squad.”

Swapping a military uniform for a Mohawk, Bates joined the group, which became Fall From Grace. After three years playing together, the band clinched a million-dollar record deal this September on a cable TV battle of the bands. Now it plans to play a free show at Studio Seven in Seattle on Sunday.

The group’s biggest success to date started coming together about a year ago. The band was among 7,000 groups that signed up to win a million-dollar record deal from Bodog Music, a Philadelphia-based label. Only 10 would get to compete on Fuse TV’s Bodog Music Battle of the Bands. Fall From Grace made the cut.

They started performing under the scrutiny of a three-judge panel that included John “Johnny Rotten” Lydon, frontman for the Sex Pistols. The band had to get used to the judges and producers on the “American Idol”-styled show. It was a rough experience that stirred a mess of emotions.

“It was hard to plan your life, or try to plan your life, around the TV schedule,” bassist Ken Olson said. “There were times when all I wanted to do was laundry.”

Early on, Fall From Grace wasn’t the clear frontrunner. On one episode, the band’s performance was called “appalling.” But by the season finale, they won over judges and viewers. Lydon said they were “excellent,” and Billy Duffy, guitarist for the Cult, called their song “Covered in Scars” a “punk rock concept metal opera” that “had everything.”

Confetti fell as Fall Ffrom Grace won, thanks to text-message votes of viewers.

The prize doesn’t mean band members get to split up $1 million. Instead, the cash is meant to cover studio time, album promotion and other costs for the group’s next CD, an untitled album scheduled for release in 2008.

“It’s just like an amazing platform from which to work,” Bates said.

The group is patching together about 20 new songs at their Auburn-based rehearsal studio and could start recording soon.

Band members were coy about the album’s sound, using terms like “triumphant” and “energetic.” They could draw inspiration from a list of influences that ranges from classic soul artists like Sam and Dave to punk groups like Rancid. That said, their earlier recordings fit well among the eyeliner-friendly rock of bands like Alkaline Trio and My Chemical Romance.

“It’s dynamic,” Bates said of their sound, “but the dynamics range from loud to louder.”

Despite all the recent success, Bates sometimes gets misty eyed about what could have been. Wearing a POW-MIA hat, he said he enjoyed the challenges and camaraderie the military provided.

Still, Bates sounds happy with the twist of fate that pulled him out of a uniform and put him onto a stage — even if his epilepsy means no strobe lights at shows.

“This happened for a reason,” he tells himself. “God didn’t want you to be a soldier. You were good at it. OK, you were decent at it, but your calling was to be a musician. I don’t fight it anymore.”

Reporter Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455 or e-mail arathbun@heraldnet.com