Hero Factor

Hero Factor makes a stop in Tulsa after show at South By Southwest festival

Courtesy Hero Factor, fresh from a stint at Austin’s South By Southwest, will play a show Wednesday at Boston’s in Tulsa. The band won Best Pop Act last year at the Tulsa World’s Spot Music Awards.

By MATT ELLIOTT World Scene Writer
3/21/2007

Tulsa's Hero Factor returns Wednesday night for a show at Boston's following its stint at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

The show comes after the pop band -- known for its sweeping, sparse and isolated sound -- signed onto Vada Nobles' indie Nobility Label last year. But don't think that means Hero Factor is taking it easy.

Being in a band has been hard work, said singer Ben Kilgore, even though Nobles, who has worked with artists from Lauryn Hill to John Legend, has helped out with tour expenses. The band released its EP "Battling Chimaera" last year on Nobles' label.

"We still have to grind it out," said Kilgore of his band, which plays almost 200 dates a year. "We still have to wake up every morning and be diligent and work hard."

South By Southwest draws music industry folks from across the nation who want to feast on young emerging bands. Hero Factor played three shows during the festival, which ran from March 9-18.

The band's best show was on a cramped and tiny stage at the Chug gin' Monkey, a brick bar along the college town's famous Sixth Street, the singer said.

"The crowd was right on our toes. There was a loft above, people hanging

over it and we played really tight and cohesive," he said. "It was less work and more play."

The local pop rock band the Effects also performed during the festival.

Hero Factor's shows in Austin were aimed at reaching as many people as possible while it is recording its new album.

But the frustrating part about success in music is that it has less to do with talent, Kilgore said, than it has to do with being in the right place at the right time, in front of the right people.

The current lineup of Hero Factor, featuring Eric Arndt on bass and Chad Copelin on keyboards, has the band going places thanks partly to a new booking agency and shows in more far-flung places.

In the weeks following Wednesday's show, the band will head out for shows in Denver, Colorado Springs, Salt Lake City, Shreveport, La., and states including Nebraska and Illinois.

While being in the right place at the right time is a rare thing, it'll be more likely to happen the more places you're in, Kilgore said.

Hero Factor may be on the verge of achieving that kind of success. Nobles, whose label gave the band a van to tour in, compares its appeal to U2. The band even appeals to people who say, "I don't like rock music, but I like that band."

Nobles will be pushing the band to college radio and send it on a West Coast tour.

"My goal is to help this band get to their place, I think, in music history, not just rock history," Nobles said. "I really believe . . . that Hero Factor is it."

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Matt Elliott 581-8366
matt.elliott@tulsaworld.com

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Concert

HERO FACTOR

When
9 p.m. Wednesday, with openers Soular

Where
Boston’s, 1738 S. Boston Ave.

Admission
$5

By MATT ELLIOTT World Scene Writer