Meet MENU Members: Steve, Mick, and Alex of Tucker

Today we’d like to introduce you to Steve, Mick, and Alex of Tucker. Them and their team share their story with us below:

Our story began in 2013 when Steve and Mick played 90’s Alternative acoustic covers at restaurants around the Atlanta area to gather some extra money and practice. At one point, one of the members texted the other, “We gotta come up with a name for me n u”, which ultimately lead to the band’s name. We really love telling this story because it reminds us that our inception was never forced; that it was really natural and creative. After beginning to write some original music, we expanded the band to include many more members (7 at one point), one of which was drummer Alex Bower. That was a really fun time because believe it or not, Alex had only just started playing drums maybe 3 or 4 months prior. Needless to say, he came a VERY long way in the time he spent working extremely hard. His skills were really honed in by playing with a band, which is just one of those beautiful things about an old school garage band. We were all just finding our way through adolescence, but we had each other and the good times we shared playing some loud music together.

Mick pulled influences from RnB, Pop, Soul, and Reggae; Steve comes from Alternative, Metal, and Rock; and Alex brings Classic Rock, Jam Bands, and Indie to MENU’s never ending fountain of inspiration. Part of what makes the name MENU is our genre bending, almost representing a menu of music on its own. After playing together for nearly three years, we all had to part ways for college endeavors at the end of 2016. It was a tough decision on everyone, but we brought our education and experiences back to GA in 2019 to continue the dreams that we had as budding teens. The songwriting is extremely collaborative, and we each thrive off of each others ideas, constantly using a “yes and?” mentality to create some really special music. Our methods have culminated to the greatest extent in our new EP Homecoming. We found the name Homecoming to be perfect for all the reasons we’ve talked about in this article. We’re bringing back our experiences from being apart to make something our audience can listen to and say, “yeah me too”.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
One of the biggest ones is time and our schedules. None of this stuff we do is free by any means so we work very hard outside of the band to make sure we can provide for it. This leads to a lot of time spent away from the creative process of the band. But we certainly know it will all benefit us in the end. We diligently plan and schedule things so we can maximize our productivity and get more music to the people who need it. Another major challenge is our distance from each other; in college it was nearly impossible to work together but even now, Alex lives in Athens while Steve and Mick live in Atlanta. We overcome this by keeping in touch frequently and putting the time in to learn how to efficiently work remotely. So far, it’s been working really well for us. We’d like to use this section to talk about some of the very good things that we have going. Our families support us, which is something a lot of young artists don’t have. We certainly don’t overlook that because the love and genuine support of our families will never go away and we can’t thank them enough. We also have knowledge and gear which is something else many don’t have access to. There are many things we can sit and be upset that we don’t have, but we prefer to focus on doing our best with what we do have.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Well we are a group of songwriters, producers, performers, and sound designers. We all three have skills in music and our teamwork only enhances those skills individually. We are most proud of our overall development as a band and our versatility. We came from no knowledge to eventually writing, performing, and producing all of our own music with little outside help. Every piece of music we have out was entirely created in our rooms and the home studio we call The Tiny Kitchen. Our versatility and attitude set us apart from others. If something fails, there is a way to bounce back, and we’ve proven this time and time again in our history. We create music that WE love, and we know our audience sees that. There’s no smoke and mirrors or ghostwriters. We love this city, and we love what we do, and that shows through our music.

What are your plans for the future?
Our short-term future involves a brand new EP called Homecoming, out on October 15th, and a new music video for one of the songs. We also plan on getting more involved in the Atlanta music scene. This city has so much culture to offer and we want to contribute as best we can. If you see us out at shows, please feel free to say hello! We love meeting music lovers and active members of our community. We also plan on doing more collaborative work! We’ve had the pleasure of working with some great artists, from here, to Chicago, to Nashville, to Boston and New York. Touring is another big goal, specifically for 2022. We’re looking at some pretty big releases next year and definitely want to see as much of this beautiful globe as we can.

Contact Info:

• Email: menuatlga@gmail.com
• Website: www.menuatlga.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/CanIGetAMenuDamn
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/menuatl
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/MenuAtlantaGa
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/menuatlga

Image Credits:
All pictures taken by Haley Mewborn! Instagram @hnmcreative EP Cover Art for Homecoming by @shallcross