New bands never quite know what’s going to happen to them in the future.

This was definitely the case for Detroit-based Rooster, which has grown from a twang-infested Americana-style band to a legitimate pop-rock band with a twist of Southern influence.

“It’s very unique,” Rooster frontman Jon Kott explains, calling from Detroit. “People call us the Sister Hazel of now, or with that whole southern thing it’s like the Allman Brothers of now. But we’re not really a jam band whatsoever.”

The change came for Rooster, which also consists of guitarist Dave Dean, bassist Sam Vail and drummer Ken Karasek, when they hooked up with producers Al Sutton and Bob Ebeling, who are recognized for their production, engineering and performances on “Devil Without a Cause,” by fellow Detroit native Kid Rock.

Kott said Rooster’s manager hooked up the collaboration because he played a big part in founding Days of the New — when lead singer Travis Meeks fired his band, the rest of the members went on and signed a deal with Maverick Records, and Sutton and Ebeling met through that.

“Al and Bob heard our stuff and really dug it,” Kott says. “They said, ‘Hey I want to get these guys in the studio. I want to record it but I want to take the twang out, I want to rock it and make it radio able.’ We said, ‘Sure, what the hell, go with it.'”

The new producers made their changes as best they could, but Kott is convinced they still have a lot of their old sound.

“They pulled as much twang as they could out,” Kott says. “My voice is pretty much a twang voice, and it’s going to be that way.”

Rooster is now shopping a three-song demo that Kott describes as three-minute songs of hard-hitting pop-rock, aiming for the type of record deal that isn’t filled with rock stardom, but satisfaction.

“We don’t really have our sights set to the big MTV; we’re just looking for something that will give us a little bit of a radio push on a couple of songs,” Kott says. “We don’t think we’re going to be huge rock stars, we just want to get out to a wider band of people and be able to head out onto the road and play some of these bigger venues knowing that there is people there to see us and they know who we are.”

After doing a stint touring with the Why Store, Rooster will continue to tour the country. So far, the band has spanned thirteen states.

“The farthest east we go is New York, the farthest west we’ve been is Colorado, the farthest south we’ve been is Tennessee,” Kott says. “And everything in between.”

In order to keep themselves on the right track to reach their goals, Kott and company have kept a pretty consistent touring schedule and tried to play to the same type of crowds.

“We’re pretty much a college band because that’s our market — big cities and colleges,” Kott says. “In the summer we do a lot of festivals and stay off the road. And during the school year we’ll be doing anywhere from 17 to 20 shows a month.”

One thing Kott and Rooster are especially proud of is that they came out of Detroit. However, this is not because of the big names including Kid Rock and Eminem that have ventured out of the area in recent years.

“Detroit is a hard city for any band to do well in. We are probably one of the bands that actually does well here, but it has taken us four years to get that,” Kott says. “The further we get from home, it seems the more we’re accepted and the better we do.”

Even with the big-name producers and the wide-spread touring schedule, Rooster just recently achieved what they feel is their coolest accomplishment to date.

“We won this contest out of like 600 bands throughout Michigan and Ohio,” Kott says. “And we got to open up for Peter Frampton in a premiere amphitheater in Michigan.”

The months ahead remain pretty full for Rooster, as they continue to write new music and hope to interrupt touring in January to head out to either New York or Los Angeles and record once again, with an even bigger producer.

“This year is going to pretty much be all about us getting our shit together,” Kott says.