The Golden Republic is a rare thing for Kansas City; the band has successfully managed to sprout legs and move out of its home state, a feat few Midwest bands manage to accomplish. Add this to the fact that coming into 2005 the band was continually billed as a band to watch, and it becomes evident this band is on its way. The band is playing in Ames on Friday as part of a mini-tour across the Midwest. Vocalist Ben Grimes took some time to answer some questions about the band’s new album and how the year has threatened it.

Dante Sacomani: Your band was labeled as the band to watch several times at the beginning of the year. Now that it’s coming to a close, how do you feel the year turned out?

Ben Grimes: Well, it’s been really good. Originally, we were actually concerned about that, about the amount of hype we originally had and honestly, I don’t think that our year has necessarily lived up to what that hype has created as far as what people’s expectations were, as for what we would achieve. That’s kind of been a blessing, just being a young band and kind of watching the bands before us, especially bands that have had a lot of hype right off the bat. It seems like it’s kind of destructive to have that and tends to make your career very short-lived. The year has gone amazing. We’ve had incredible tours. We’ve sold a good amount of albums – not a ridiculous amount, not a poor amount, but a good amount.

DS: From your side, what do you think was responsible for the hype?

BG: I think a lot of it had to do with we were the first straight-ahead rock ‘n’ roll band that Astralwerks had ever signed, and right after they signed us they signed a couple bands that fall in that category, like VHS or Beta and the 22-20s – stuff like that. We were the first American band that they had signed, too. That created some of the initial stuff. It’s such a strange thing, hype. It can be based on just about anything. I’ve seen bands build amazing hype just because the band members were good looking and musically they could be crap.

DS: You signing to Astralwerks seemed like an uncharacteristic move for them. How did you get hooked up with that label?

BG: If I believed in fate, I might call it that. To backtrack, back in ’93 I got into the Chemical Brothers and that was the first big band that Astralwerks ever did. I remember there was a specific moment in ’93 when I was listening to the Chemical Brothers and I looked at the spine of the label on the CD package and I saw Astralwerks and I said, ‘This is a great label; I want to be on this label someday.’

DS: The label obviously helped you guys get out on tour outside of the Midwest. How were you received in other parts of the country?

BG: People try to find out where to classify you and we got a lot of weird things like, “Oh, they’re just this” or “Oh, they’re just that.” It ran the gamut from everything like, “Oh, they’re just T-Rex” or “Oh, they’re just the Killers, they’re just Neil Young,” from random and weird things that people picked up on. For the most part, it was really cool.

DS: You’ve been writing your new album since August. How is it coming?

BG: It’s been really awesome. With the first record, many of those songs we’d had for five-plus years. This is our first chance to go in together and make a complete album and write the whole thing and record it. In that sense, it’s just a real different, exciting experience. We feel like we’re writing on a level way above where we were.

DS: Back when you were beginning, you may have been one of the few bands doing straight-ahead rock, but now that’s becoming a bigger scene. Do you think this revival has been a good thing?

BG: I think for the most part it has. The thing with music now, as with most things, is that we’re living in such a time where people want a quick fix, quick satisfaction and not really devote themselves, give a lot of time to what they’re listening to, what they’re watching or what they’re eating or what have you. In that sense, there is that classic rock thing, a lot of that ’80s thing and all that stuff but it seems like it’s being done for the sake of the nostalgia. Because people can quickly grab onto something that reminds them of when they were younger.