When I started this series of interviews with the Rising Talents performing at the Blue Ridge Rock Festival, I knew that I would encounter some very unique stories. After speaking with this band, they were in fact one of the most unique stories I encountered so far. Let me introduce everyone to Nail Bite!
It all started off around 8 or 9 years ago as John Bitting explained. “We are the owners of a martial arts school…I actually did music lessons after class. Maybe once or twice a week. I would teach the kids drums and guitar and how to put together music and everything. It just kind of grew from there. The two original kids who were in that music class was my son Johnnie and also the drummer Austin.” Johnnie added, “We also did summer camps…we’d all sit around and play Rock Band…Lonna started singing and we were like ‘Wait, that’s pretty good! Why don’t we try to play some songs together?'” It grew even further during fundraisers where they would do martial arts demos and hire bands to perform. They decided they would do a couple of songs together, which went over very well. And Nail Bite took off from there.
If you haven’t noticed yet, this is a very unique group of people. Nail Bite is comprised of a father and son, John Bitting (bass/manager) and Johnnie Bitting (guitar/vocals), a brother and sister, Lonna Nelson (vocals) and Caiden Nelson (keyboards/DJ), and long time martial arts student, Austin Landis (drums). It’s essentially a three family gathering with the Bittings, Nelsons and Landis families have been friends for a long time, primarily through the martial arts school known as the Dragon MMA Academy. And these families are so involved with Nail Bite as well. Caiden and Lonna‘s mom does their makeup and Johnnie‘s mom does their outfits and runs their Instagram.
Normally, I would never call out the ages of band members because primarily it shouldn’t matter. This is the one exception where I feel readers need to know. I put out an open call for interviews to the Rising Talent artists via a Facebook post in the Blue Ridge Rock Festival Fan Zone, where nearly all the Rising Talents interact with festival attendees. When John reached out to me regarding interviewing Nail Bite, he called out right away the ages of the band members. And then when I listened to their music, I was stunned. Outside of John their oldest member is 19 with the youngest at 14. But, they sound and perform like a much more experienced group and write all their own music.
“We think it’s a very unique sound”, Johnnie explains, “We flounder between death metal, modern metal, rock”. John added, “Alternative metal I think because of influence from like old Metallica and Iron Maiden and stuff like that and combine with what the kids are doing and the newer stuff, we definitely have a unique sound.” Johnnie said they jokingly had Lonna go into the closet to do some death metal vocals one day and really loved how they came out and kept it into their sound. As for the closet, they record everything in Johnnie‘s bedroom and the closet, hangars and all, is the best location to isolate vocal tracks.
One of the tracks I really enjoyed from them was “The Moon”. Lonna wrote all the lyrics while Johnnie wrote all the music. “I haven’t written that many songs,” Lonna said, “I usually have a hard time finding inspiration to write songs. I basically looked at like outside, nature, and I looked at all the things I could find beauty in that people usually don’t see in normal things. So I took that and put it into a song.” What I really love about the song, and the video, is the vocals from Lonna and Johnnie are amazing. And Caiden‘s intensity from his keyboard playing is fantastic. Keyboard players in metal bands are either very low key or very intense. Caiden is definitely an intense performer. “Pretty much,” he said, “It’s a performance. At first, it took a while for me to get to that point because I felt awkward at first trying to figure out how to like headbang to that extent. Over time I started to get more and more comfortable with it.”
Though, Johnnie called out that a lot of the inspiration from their music came from all of them feeling like outsiders at school. “None of us really fit in with any crowds at school. It was kind of like a conformity thing. And we took that and put it into our music. It was frustrating to find a crowd to fit in with. And we really didn’t want to fit in with anybody.” Also, in the Lancster, Pennsylvania area, the metal and hard rock scene is non-existent. They have to travel out to areas like Harrisburg or Lebanon to book gigs. They haven’t really toured because they got together right before the pandemic. And of course, they have a hard time finding venues that are willing to book them due to the ages of the band members. Caiden said, “It is difficult because a lot of venues won’t hire people as young as us. And it’s just challenging to find places that are diverse enough [to book them].” Johnnie added “A lot of the places that are heavy metal music venues are bars and clubs and you need to be 21 to play there.” John added that many venues have contacted him to book Nail Bite after hearing their music, but not knowing their ages, and then unable to book them because of it. “We have about 7 years until we can play,” John joked.
They are an independent band and have released one album titled Mammoth of the Great Sea that has 10 tracks. They would love making music to become a full time role, especially because they’re so young and as Johnnie said, “We have the time to do it.” Unlike a lot of upcoming bands who are working full time while pursuing a music career, the majority of Nail Bite are currently not working full time jobs, so it gives them time to focus on music. “They’re going to take advantage of the very supportive parents that they have,” John stated and smiled.
What’s truly impressed me most about Nail Bite outside of their music is their camaraderie, their dedication, and their maturity. Austin works a job while also making time for band practices. But, Johnnie not only goes to school, he also runs the Dragon MMA Academy. At first, I thought he was just an instructor, but no, he currently owns it. John explained that he and his wife were in a car accident in 2019 and weren’t able to do demos any more. And when the pandemic hit, both of them took a different avenue in their careers. But, Johnnie loved the school so much, his parents helped him open his own Dragon MMA Academy, which he runs and owns. Lonna and Caiden both help out there and continue to take lessons as well.
Outside of school and band practice, the group focuses on….band stuff! Lonna said, “It’s a lot of work!” They all do like to take vacations when they can. Lonna likes to be outdoors when she’s not writing music or practicing. Caiden said, “We live in a really beautiful area where we can go on walks, which we do pretty regularly.” They all like to skateboard as well. But, what none of the members are regular video gamers (outside of John who likes Resident Evil and Bioshock), unlike a lot of the other bands I’ve interviewed. Music and MMA takes precedence for them. Johnnie said, “I used to play video games for awhile, but just decided I don’t want to do that anymore. I rather make something of myself.” He explained how he saw a lot of kids who wouldn’t have extra curricular activities and would just go home after school and play games. And in conversations noticed how the kids wouldn’t have goals for themselves and what they wanted to do with their lives. Johnnie has goals and big aspirations for their band and he’s working hard to ensure they succeed. “I rather put all my effort and everything I have into this [Nail Bite] so I don’t have to fall back on Dragon MMA or the martial arts. I do love the martial arts, but if I could do this, I much rather make a living with music.” Lonna and Caiden are absolutely on board with making Nail Bite their full time career.
While music is their serious focus, Nail Bite, likes to have fun as well. Enter the food videos. On their YouTube channel they made two cooking show videos called “Fooooood With Lonna”. “For a little while we hadn’t been releasing music videos,” she explained, “So we need something to entertain people and we thought that would be perfect!” John added that at the Bitting household they cook a lot of Italian food. Lonna made lasagna….with Ramen noodles. So they came up with the idea of doing the cooking show so she could show off the Ramen Lasagna. And she does it, in full concert makeup. The music with the video is an instrumental song titled “Voyager 1” from their debut album. Check it out for yourself below!
Check out the image below for Nail Bite upcoming performances!
Nail Bite will be performing on Thursday, September 9th at the Blue Ridge Rock Festival. Come check out their set, check out their socials, buy their merch and help support this young and upcoming Rising Talent! You can also check out the full video interview below their social links.
Nail Bite Social Links
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