by: Heather McGraw, Contributing Writer

That old saying about not succeeding and trying again may be a tired cliché, but for three friends from Homewood, Ill., it proved to be true. As soon as they met in high school, Bradford Snow on guitar, Ben Soleim on bass and Aaron Keefner on drums knew they played well together. After 11 years and four different band formations, they seem to have finally stumbled upon success with new frontman vocalist Nicholas Paul and their progressive alternative band The Fireship.

In September, the group triumphed in Cabo Wabo Tequila’s “Your Shot to Rock” contest and won $2000, free recording time and a show opening for Papa Roach at Congress Theater and recently won the PacSun/PacTour National Battle of the Bands, which allowed them to perform in L.A. Now, they’re back in Illinois doing mini-tours and getting ready to go back to the studio. The Chronicle met with the band at their practice space to discuss their history, band name and future plans.

The Chronicle: How did you guys get started?

Bradford Snow: Aaron, Ben and I have been playing music together for 11 years. We played in bands just the three of us and we’ve been in and out of bands together. Ben knew Nick from a recording session and said, “Let’s audition Nick.”  The three of us had already been writing together, and Nick came in one day and was just singing over one of the songs we were working on. At the end of the practice, we basically had decided, “Hey this is a decent song now.” So we were like, “Alright, we got a band.”

Aaron Keefner: Me, Ben and Brad all went to high school together. Our junior year Ben and Brad were in a band called Kibitzer. They played the battle of the bands at school and placed second behind a jam band. So Ben and I talked [throughout] the summer and I convinced them they should leave the band they were in and we should start a band. So we started our first band called Drop the One, which we played in from 1999 on and off until 2003 or 2004.

The Chronicle: Where do you get inspiration for a name like The Fireship or the title of your EP “Paper Tigers”?

Snow: We went through like 150 band names and we just could not agree. I was looking up nautical warfare on Wikipedia just because I wanted to, and there was a website dedicated toward this thing called a fireship. A fireship is basically like back in the day when they had all wooden ships and all you had to do was light your ship on fire, sail it into a bunch of enemy ships and all of them would start on fire. I thought that was pretty cool. So then we talked about it and after months of deliberation, The Fireship became our band name.

Nicholas Paul: The phrase “paper tigers” is an idiomatic expression, which [is] something that seems kind of threatening at a distance, but in reality really isn’t. That encompassed a lot of our attitudes toward making this first record.

The Chronicle: You guys just got back from a mini-tour of Central Illinois. How was it?

Ben Soleim: It was kind of our first road trip as a band. We’ve done one where we went to South by Southwest music festival in Texas, and that was probably our longest drive together, but we only did one show down there and came back, so it was kind of crazy.

Snow: We played for 20 minutes, but we drove for a total of 40 hours. It was actually a great experience.

Soleim: We just love each other [so] much we just want to spend a lot of time together in the car. The tour was our first road trip where we did multiple shows and actually had to drive between each show, and spend time in a van together with all our gear and actually do it how most bands do it. We slept on couches and chairs and in the van, but it was a good experience. That’s definitely where we’re heading, to do more stuff like that longer term.

Snow: Aaron, Nick and I have done tours in other bands, but I think I’m speaking for all of us when I say this is probably one of the better tours we’ve done as far as success goes. People were singing along and we drew crowds at these shows, which is really weird for us because it’s not our hometown and we had never been there before.

AK: I think partially why our tour was good was because of getting older and becoming more experienced. We’ve become smarter by booking shows we don’t come out empty-handed. The fact iTunes and Facebook and things like that are so prominent right now really helps us get other fans in cities all around the country.

Snow: Before people come to the shows, they’re on YouTube watching performances we’ve done, or watching our videos and they’re really familiar with us and with the songs and everything, which is really cool. I don’t think in the past when I’ve toured people had that kind of access to everything.

Soleim: People recognize you too. It’s kind of a new experience for me at least personally, especially being a base player.

The Chronicle: Are you working on any new material?

AK: We’re doing both actually. We’re performing on [Jerry Bryant] TV on Dec. 13 and it looks like that’s going to be our last performance for the year. We’re going into the studio in like a week and a half to start recording two songs for a limited edition 7-inch we’re going to be releasing in the beginning of 2011. We’re working on booking weekends around the Midwest and the East Coast in January, as well as a tour surrounding South by Southwest Music and Media Conference and Festival. Hopefully, we’ll have another release sometime in the middle of 2011. We’ll have another proper CD. Or maybe a label will pick us up.

Snow: We do consistently write music. We always have. We call them nugs. They’re little nuggets of musical information we keep in our back pockets. They’re golden nuggets.

The Chronicle: How would you describe your music?

Snow: When people see us live it’s more raw and energetic. On the record it’s more polished and, I would say, epic. We try to go for two different things. Our songs are different in either venue.

Soleim: We’re not just following trends in music we see, especially in Chicago. There’s a lot of that going on, people just trying to jump on bandwagons of whatever’s popular. We all pull from different music backgrounds and different influences. We’re not a cookie cutter type of band where we all like one band or one sound.

Snow: I think we’re trying to make interesting music musicians would like, but make it accessible to people who just enjoy pop music because I think there’s a huge divide there. We’re trying to bridge that. I think that’s also what sets us apart.

The Fireship will be performing at JBTV STUDIOS, 318 W. Grand Ave., on Dec. 13 from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. RSVP is necessary. Reserve your spot at Do312.com/JBTV.