Local band Nothing Shameful to perform at Blessing in Disguise Fest as they near sophomore album

Local band Nothing Shameful will bring emo punk rock to the inaugural Blessing in Disguise Music Festival ahead of their upcoming album – which was made with some help from a personal hero.

Lead singer and marketing guru Ethan Harrison first began playing music with bassist Deven Garcia long before Nothing Shameful was conceived in 2022. The two began jamming at around age 16, while the longtime friends attended Central Valley High School. From there, Harrison in 2010 joined a band that has become a Spokane scene staple, the Nixon Rodeo, as drummer and co-vocalist.

“I’ve just never stopped, since high school,” Harrison said. “Just playing in tons of bands and always trying to do it at kind of a little step above just amateur, and we do it as professional as we can while we’ve always balanced real life, real job.”

Nothing Shameful came to fruition after Dillon Hueser, the band’s guitarist and original guitarist of Nixon Rodeo, convinced Garcia to come over and jam. Hueser had been attempting to convince Harrison as well, and once he found out his high school friend accepted the invite, Harrison hoped to rekindle the musical relationship.

“We just gathered the guys at first, it wasn’t really meant to be very serious, just kind of doing something on the side,” Harrison said. “It just quickly evolved into us writing our whole first record and I can’t really help myself once I start getting involved in something to go full marketing mode with it and try to find different ways to approach that then what I’ve done in all the other years past.”

After multiple failed attempts to agree on a name, Harrison threw out Nothing Shameful in reference to a song of the same name by one of his favorite bands, Dance Gavin Dance, and it stuck. Harrison has consistently worn the band’s T-shirts at shows or in music videos in hopes of catching on to members of Dance Gavin Dance’s diehard fanbase.

“I’d wear one just in case a fan kind of put two and two together,” Harrison said. “Like maybe we’ll gain a couple fans from it.”

The name inadvertently brought a full circle moment to life after Harrison and the band sent a number of demo tapes out to various musicians as they sought feedback ahead of recording their sophomore project. Harrison remembered a podcast on which Andrew Wells, lead vocalist of Dance Gavin Dance, mentioned his email. Harrison scoured the web until he found it. Harrison sent the songs out and expected the usual result, no reply.

Yet, Wells responded about a month later. Turns out he had already heard of Nothing Shameful because of their name, enjoyed their music (specifically the single “Shapeshifter”), and was potentially interested in assisting the band. After a Zoom call, he agreed to help the band.

“It was the perfect scenario,” Harrison said. “The guys were like, ‘Oh my god Ethan. You just like long-conned this whole thing.’ ”

Wells gave Harrison vocal lessons, comprehensive band notes and even produced portions of the album remotely. He recorded the band from his home by connecting to the system of a local studio. This led to Wells featuring on their latest single “Pine Grove” simply because he liked the song – no charge or writing credits. He also flew into Spokane to record a music video for the song at the Hill House Event Center after playing a show in Portland the night before ahead of a show in California the next day.

“All in all, just an incredible, crazy experience,” Harrison said. “It doesn’t seem like it’s real that he’s been this gracious with his time and is this helpful.”

The album, “Nothing Lasts Forever,” is set for release in early October, although vinyl should be completed in September and sent first to those who donated to the Kickstarter drive that funded the record in the first place. A new single will be released every month until then.

Nothing Shameful will perform during Saturday’s inaugural Blessing in Disguise Music Festival, a moment Harrison doesn’t take lightly considering he is a Spokane native who has spent over a decade and a half deep in the local scene. In return, the band has been assisting in marketing and will be handing out hats to the first 1,000 people in the event.

“None of us are trying to quit our jobs or have any misconceptions of how the actual music industry works and what not,” Harrison said. “We really just want to make as much art as we can at the best quality we can, and share it with people.”