SweetKiss Momma never intended to be a “southern rock band,” or to receive international attention for their work.

They didn’t necessarily even plan on making a record, let alone selling more than 1,000 copies in the last year.

They formed the band, named after flavored lip-gloss wearing ladies (specifically, front man Jeff Hamel’s wife) as an extracurricular project to their long-time participation in their church band – Celebration Center in Puyallup – where the core members of the band had played together for years.

Creating their own band was just their way of being creative, and a chance for them to play original songs.

After a period of playing their tunes in the privacy of their Puyallup practice room, they decided to play a show.

Next came their record, “Revival Rock,” last spring.

Then more shows.

Over the past year, SweetKiss Momma has gained a loyal and excited following in the South Puget Sound for their blues-tinged, classic rock sound and high-energy live shows.

They have even been written up in USA Today, the local press, and music rags in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands.

Recently, “Revival Rock” has been hovering around the No. 1 spot on CDBaby.com in the “best of,” “southern rock” and “roots rock” categories.

Their music has even been accepted for rotation on the Internet radio station – Pandora.

“I’ll retire when I get a Guitar Hero character,” joked Aaron Arnold, lead guitarist for the band, which includes founding members Hamel, rhythm guitarist Wade Hoyt and new additions Dave Ashworth on bass and Pax Allen on drums.

On Friday, SweetKiss Momma will have yet another claim to fame – one that has the potential to carry them overseas for a show accessible to all their Euro-fans.

SweetKiss Momma has been invited to participate in Hard Rock Café Seattle’s battle of the band competition, which includes 15 bands that the local Hard Rock deemed the best representatives of Seattle music for the international competition.

SweetKiss Momma and A Leaf (which also has roots in Puyallup’s Celebration Center) will be the only Tacoma bands on the bill.

The top performer of the Seattle battle series will head to New York to hash out who is the top in the nation. Following that, national winners will finish up the final session in London – to determine the top performer out of the Hard Rock Café cities worldwide.

“I just think ‘what if we actually won that?” said Hoyt, noting the recent success of friends and Gig Harbor based band, Perry Acker, who won the national Ford Motors music competition Feb. 17. “You just never know. We’re just a band from Puyallup…so to be a part of that is just really cool.”

While all this attention has left the modest and laid-back members of SweetKiss Momma dumbfounded at times, the band agrees their intention of creating music has not faltered from their original goal to be happy and make other people happy.

“I don’t want to be the trendy hot-pick of the week,” Hamel said. “I want to be the kind of band that someone says ‘When I get home – I put SweetKiss Momma on and chill out and have a beer on my back porch.’ That’s what we aspire to be.”

And what about the unintentional “southern rock” label for a tried-and true Northwest band?

“We didn’t think we were going for ‘southern rock’ but after 20 years of playing church and gospel music, it kind of bleeds into what we do,” Hamel said.

Ashworth, who joined the band along with Allen last month, got to know SweetKiss Momma previously through his job as a sound tech at local rock bar, The Stonegate.

“It’s music that speaks to multiple generations. It’s our parents’ record collection that we dug through as kids. Our mothers are out there rocking out as much as everyone else,” Ashworth said of SweetKiss Momma’s sound, which has been dubbed as “unique” for the time and the region.

“The positive energy they bring to the show – it’s something that gets the crowd going. People really want to get up and dance. The first time I saw them I was blown away, because there’s really not a lot of that going on. These guys come out, and it’s a party.”

And that positive, crowd moving energy is exactly what SweetKiss Momma intended from the start – if nothing else. The band can smile knowing they’ve achieved their mission in music making thus far.

“I would love to say ‘we’re that good,’ but really, we have just been blessed,” Hamel said. “Let’s just take this as far as it can go. Let’s make as many friends as possible and let’s treat people right. The goal is just to enjoy what we’re doing and enjoy the people.”

Three chances to see SweetKiss Momma this weekend – support them and fellow Tacoma band A Leaf at the Seattle Hard Rock Café battle of the bands at 8 p.m. Feb. 25; at Doyle’s Public House in Tacoma at 9 p.m. on Feb. 26, and on Sunday, Feb. 27 at the Hub Event Space with Perry Acker and Christopher Day at 4 p.m., all ages.

Find our more about SweetKiss Momma at www.skmband.com.

 

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