In any relationship, it may take time for chemistry to develop.

It’s certainly no different for a band, where it’s important to click with each other on stage and off, at least when taking care of business.

So, when Gibson, lead vocalist of Rise Phoenix Rise, admitted his quintet didn‘t quite have instantaneous chemistry when they first began playing together, it wasn‘t much of a surprise.

The band played its first show March 3 at The Coal Hole in Shamokin. Just two days later they drove south in a 35-foot RV to a booked gig in Florida where, for 21 days straight over Spring Break, they played each and every night.

With that kind of schedule, it’s not hard to imagine whatever uneasiness existed among the five at the outset of their performances disappeared quickly.

“The first couple nights, it was rough,” said drummer Rob Hampton of their Spring Break gig. “By the time we left Key West, we actually were tight.

“It was kind of a God send, in a way,” he said of their three-week job as a house band.

In a little more than eight months since Rise Phoenix Rise (RPR) played its debut show, the band had put in more than 162 performances. And while they’re booked as an entertaining cover crew, RPR’s working hard to promote its original material.

Their debut disc, The Land of Oohs & Aahs, was released Oct. 9 on independent Solution6 Records, with single, “Walk Away,” cracking the Media Base Top 100 one day before.

So how far have they come? According to Gibson, light years.

“I know where everyone will be at any given time (on stage),” he said. “It’s easier now knowing where Bishop (Chris Bishop, lead guitarist) will be swinging his guitar so I don’t get hit in the head.”

But that familiarity didn’t keep Gibson from injuring himself. He chipped a tooth on his microphone and was all set for the dentist to fix him up just ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

“Just rocking man,” he said in his southern drawl. “In the heat of the moment.”

He wasn’t at all interested in keeping the tooth as it was as a proverbial battle scar. “I would if I didn’t like my smile,” he said with a slow laugh.

Rise Phoenix Rise — December’s Band of the Month.

Jarrod Griffith, rhythm guitar, and Ronnie Williams, bass, along with Bishop, Gibson and Hampton, makeup RPR.

They were created, recruited more like it, as Hampton grew restless in Pop Tart Monkeys (PTM) and was looking to develop a new project. He and Gibson had met in the later’s home state of Tennessee, where Gibson’s former band opened for PTM.

“He had a certain charisma. Around here, that’s the hardest thing to find,” Hampton said.

When he approached Gibson about creating music together, Gibson said his band mate and song writing partner Griffith had to be included. Williams was already on board, but Hampton said his original person inked for the lead guitar spot didn’t work out. That’s when Gibson turned back to Tennessee and proposed Bishop fill the spot.

They all met before last Christmas when, Hampton said, he was impressed by the talents that he imported from below the Mason Dixon line. “I was like, ‘Yeah, bring him too,’” he recalled of first hearing Bishop. The three from Tennessee then moved north to begin Rise Phoenix Rise.

Business savvy

It may have been musical talent that drew Hampton his fellow members but for Gibson, it was Hampton’s business experience with PTM that sold him.

Pop Tart Monkeys had been quite successful (and still are, by the way) as a touring band under Hampton’s guidance. He’d developed contacts with club owners, booking agents and other musicians that would prove invaluable for RPR.

Before Hampton even began recruiting a new band, he’d already been discussing with his contacts what the atmosphere was like and if there was room for another touring cover/original band. “What I found was that there definitely is. There’s definitely a shortage of really good entertaining bands.

“I had all the connections. I just had to get the band in front of a few people.”

With that, he’d booked the three-week gig in Key West, quite a kickoff for this brand new group. Hampton conceded their hard work has been met with a bit of luck, too. “It just seems like everything is falling into our lap,” he said.

That included an audience. The club owners familiar with Hampton knew of his reputation and past experience with PTM, so they promoted RPR on its face, essentially. Here they were at the outset, pulling in 1,000 people at some venues on their very first visit.

“Here we are eight months later, I’m turning clubs down already.”

Working on the road

RPR’s actively touring from the Northeast to the deep south.

That schedule allows for plenty of downtime in the RV. However, RPR finds themselves using this time constructively, either writing and working on original material, fine-tuning a cover or trying out a new song. “Most of the stuff we write, we wrote in the RV while we were rolling,” Hampton said.

“We’ll sound check it at the club. It it’s good enough, we’ll play it.”

Gibson shied from declaring themselves a “party band,” but admitted they play party places for a reason — they have a knack to keep people entertained, keep them in the bars and buying alcohol.

Like any band, RPR’s not different in that they feed off the vibe of the crowd they’re playing. “If it keeps building and building, everyone’s having a grand old time,” he said.

RPR also hasn’t shied from working their own material into their sets. Their ballads can upset their set flow a bit, Gibson said, but the majority of their material fits right into the songs they cover. So much so, he’s been asked a few times why they didn’t play any of their own material, only to answer they did, in fact, play six songs.

Lost in a good time, so it goes.

As receptive as the audience can be to their songs, radio stations can be equally as cold.

‘Walk Away’ may have been No. 98, but the radio power structure may mean you won’t hear it on your FM dial.

“Clear Channel and those guys own so much. It’s almost impossible for a band with an indie label to get on there and climb up to the Top 100,” Hampton said.

He said he’s often speaking to radio stations to try to get RPR some airplay. He’s been told by some program directors and DJ’s that they’re limited by what they can play. Basically, they’re limited to three or four free spots a day. The rest is dictated, he said.

Hampton’s looking forward to the holiday season, though, for more than some downtime with family. He said he’s learned holiday’s free up airtime for some radio stations and, hopefully, all the jiving for RPR will pay off with a spike in radio play.

RPR would like to see their single climb higher on the charts, but cracking the Top 100 is something to be proud of. Media Base ranks the top 1000 songs. “You think, ‘Wow, 1,000 songs.’ Ninety is far from No. 1, but if you look at what it takes to get to No. 1 and how they rank them each week, it’s impossible,” Gibson said.

This is the atmosphere of mainstream radio. It’s nothing to hear some of the top songs being spun seven, eight times a day. You can’t argue against that type of exposure, but sometimes too much is too much.

“Can they not play Foo Fighters one time?” Gibson asked of finding some space on the air for independent artists.

“We have enough faith in our song that we think people will like it if they get a chance to hear it.”

RPR is currently working on a Christmas song, which could be released on what Hampton called a “ringle,” which combines the mostly defunct singles format with ring tones, according to Reuters. Hampton explained the “ringle” includes three songs and a ring tone.

Whatever Christmas content they come up with, Hampton said he’ll send a bunch overseas to a regiment of the U.S. military. He’d done it before with PTM and found it was much appreciated by the troops.

Find more information, including tour dates, and sample Rise Phoenix Rise’s music at www.myspace.com/rprmusic or their Web page, www.risephoenixrise.com.