Signed deal worth wait for Columbyne

Four words.

Ten years.

That’s how long Paul “PaulieMacc” Maclin has been waiting to say them.

“We’re a signed band.”

He smiles.

Exhales.

Maclin, a burly MC, is surrounded by his bandmates in hip-hop-influenced hard rockers Columbyne, who are sunk into the dark leather furniture at the even darker bar in the Artisan Hotel.

The lighting here is dim, but not the mood. The band is in strong spirits after having recently inked a deal with Sony/RED distribution, meaning their next album, due out in March, will be in stores nationwide.

Before that, the band’s new single, “Slow Your Roll,” comes out Dec. 18.

Columbyne has been around since 2002, founded by Maclin, though the current lineup has been in place for only a little more than a year.

Still, these are all longtime veterans of the Vegas music scene.

“It’s a culmination of everything that I’ve done, of all the years in multiple bands and thinking that my dream is done, that I’m not going to have that opportunity to do it,” says guitarist JJ Jameson, an animated dude who punches his palm with his fist to emphasize his point as he talks of the band’s label deal.

“Well, here I am pushing a lot of years and things are working,” he says.

Jameson and Maclin, 44, have known each other since junior high. Bassist Chris Zerchot and drummer Chris “Klaus” Olthoff came to the band from reggae-inflected punks the Funky Jah Punkys. (Singer El Hoov, who lives in New Mexico, wasn’t present , though he listened in via Macc’s cellphone).

“We’ve been around the block a few times,” Zerchot says with a chuckle, as Olthoff, sitting to his right, nods knowingly.

“It feels good to see your work paying off and to know that every day that we do a little more work there’s real purpose and meaning behind it,” Olthoff says. “Someone’s going to take a look at what we’re doing.”

And so although it may have taken time to get here, in a way it fits neatly into the Columbyne narrative, which is about turning lengthy struggle into eventual gain, loss into something a bit more uplifting.

“There’s a lot of bad things that happen to everybody. Got enough of that every day,” Maclin says. “Why I named my band ‘Columbyne’ was because when (the Columbine school shooting in 1999) happened, I felt hurt. I just said, ‘I want to make something positive out of that.’ ”

A decade later, this blue- collar bunch is on the verge of doing just that.

“I’ve always wanted this opportunity,” Jameson says. “Everything seems to be falling into place. It’s working, man.”

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com
or 702-383-0476. Twitter: @JasonBracelin