Hello Rockstars! Today’s Artist of the Week is genre bending band Not For Sale!
Here’s their story in their own words, enjoy! 🙂
—VMS xoxox
VMS:
“When did you start writing and performing your music.
What’s your backstory and current lineup.”
Not For Sale:
Robbie Malvin-Drums.
Cody Leavitt-Bass/Vox/Engineering.
Jarad Davis-Vox/Guitar.
“We all met from playing in other local bands and gigging together. Robbie was/is in Anti-Vision, Cody was in The People’s Whiskey and New Cold War, and I was in Metasopheli.”
-Jarad
VMS:
“What artist or bands inspire you and your sound.”
Not For Sale:
“Trova música from Cuba, Crack Rock Steady from Mexico, Grindcore from Japan, Folk music from Ukraine and Russia, old Bluegrass and 30’s era Swing Jazz is my cup of tea. I learned vocal harmonies from one of my favorite singers of all time, D’angelo. And anything with a haunting vibe has my interests for sure.”
-Jarad
VMS:
“What’s your writing process and inspiration for your lyrics.”
Not For Sale:
“I’ve always been a fan of narratives, so I tend to incorporate that a lot into our writing. I just like the perspective of not writing boring material. If the lyrics strike the listener as disturbing, its got your attention at that point.”
-Jarad
VMS:
“I love your songs “Jealous Of God”, “Devil In The Mirror”, “Say No To Racism” and “Duck Down”. What is the inspiration or story behind these songs.”
Not For Sale:
“”Jealous of god” is about several loved ones that passed away in our formative years and how I’m jealous of god cause he gets to spend time hanging out with my family and friends and I miss em ;).
Listen to “Jealous of God” on Bandcamp!
“Devil in the mirror” is about a kid who tries to summon satan with incantations, his brother Syd dies, and as the years pass he feels the devil closing in on him until he finally sees the devil in the mirror.
Listen to “Devil in the Mirror” on Bandcamp!
“Say no to racism” is pretty self explanatory on one hand, but is also to stay aware of wolves in sheeps clothing cause a group or organization can use propaganda to achieve mass appeal, in order to camouflage their true agendas.
Listen to “Say No to Racism” on Bandcamp!
“Duck down” is told from the perspective of both an imperialist warlord as well as a partisan, and by the end of the song it could be either side that’s talking, to portray how it can be hard to decipher the two in the end.”
-Jarad
Listen to “Duck Down” on Bandcamp!
VMS:
“Tell me about your self-titled EP: “Not For Sale“. What was the inspiration and process of writing it.”
Not For Sale:
“The first ep featured songs that Jarad had been performing acoustically for years before we worked them into a full band treatment. They were the songs we thought would translate best between the two styles.”
-Cody
Check out their EP: “Not For Sale” on Bandcamp!
VMS:
“Which local artist would you like to work with and why.”
Not For Sale:
“I’m all about collaborations and features on each others records, not only because of how fun it is lol, but it shows the scene’s solidarity and mutual support cause its about the sum of our parts as a collective. We’re stoked about interest in our band but don’t want you to miss out on what’s going on in the local collective as a whole.
So by the way, don’t forget to check out anything from Good Girlfriend Records, Hard Pipe Hitters, Horripilation, Anti-Vision, Life’s Torment, Skabrones Drex GriffinxBeats, Terror Attack, BitchNDudes, Desert Island Boys, Rifleman, Robert Stokes, Dollheads, Wyatt and the Ashes, Sector 7G, Roid Rage, and anything with an Asteroid M Records logo on it but too many more to mention…”
-Jarad
“Jarad has a super soulful Alabama voice and a catalog full of macabre murder ballad style songs with traditional folk style arrangements. It would be amazing to work with Paige Overton from Paige And The Overtones on a more stripped down version of one those songs, with classical instrumentation. Her voice is so powerful that I think the contrast between the two would make for a really dynamic song.”
-Cody
VMS:
“What’s your overall theme or message of your music.”
Not For Sale:
“Human beings being human. Embracing your complexities and recognizing how irreplaceable every single person is. May y’all treasure nothing more than precious laughter.”
VMS:
“Do you have a favorite song that you like to perform.”
Not For Sale:
“We like to segue songs into the next song on the setlist live cause it makes it more of an experience and I feel like it keeps the audience in a “sweet spot” haha.”
VMS:
“Do you have any crazy or interesting stories from working in the music scene.”
Not For Sale:
“If I start tellin stories I reckon we’d be here til the cows come home before you’d hear half of em lol.”
VMS:
“What does the future hold for Not For Sale.”
Not For Sale:
“We’re excited about the new stuff we’ve been writing and can’t wait for y’all to hear it. But we just finished up with the L.P. we’re releasing by early this summer.”
-Jarad
“Were shooting a video in Boulder City in April with Tom Devlin and the horror museum crew (check out their band “Switch To Fakie“) for the track, “Where The Blackbirds Fly” that’s gonna be super creepy, complete with sfx creatures and puppet master style puppets. It’s dropping in May with the single release.”*
-Cody
*Questions were asked in March 2025. 🙂
VMS:
“What do you want your audience to feel and experience at one of your live shows.”
Not For Sale:
“Nothing complicated, we’ll bring a good performance, y’all have fun.”
-Cody
VMS:
“What have been your personal pros and cons of being a band here in Las Vegas. What do you think the scene could improve on and what are your hopes for the future of the Vegas Music Scene.”
Not For Sale:
“Pros are we have an amazing scene with killer bands from teens like Deathtape, Dollheads, Subsanity, We Might Die etc.. to the OG first wave bands who still get together and kill it like Pap-Smear and Skeletons Crew, so you have an extremely rich amount of experience to be around.
Cons are the same as always, no viable all ages venues lead to having to throw shows in random spots that aren’t necessarily setup to be a decent venue space and then those getting shut down. I’ve been in the scene a few decades and I feel like it’s the healthiest I’ve personally seen it, so I like that the kids are picking up the torches and continuing to step up to create rad events like Secos with Pineapple Fest, or Tyler at Upryse productions damn near carrying the LVHC scene on his back with his crew’s uncanny ability to source places for the kids who need to get violent, to be able to do so.
You got the downtown scene with Newcomers Rat Pack and La Palma getting in there with more established contemporaries Black Sheep, Baka and OG Ruben Rodriguez keeping all the young 20 Something’s bopping. Double Down, Red Dwarf, Dive Bar and Evel Pie are still putting on tons of new 21+ punk shows. Scumbags Productions doing a great job keeping the street punk scene going strong. I just hope it keeps going up and we keep getting our flowers for being a solid music city, much love!”
-Cody
VMS Thoughts:
What I love about Not for Sale is how much you can tell they truly love what they do and they have such an amazing chemistry as a band, bringing such an upbeat, fun and overall infectious joy to their music. I appreciate they can talk about incredibly important and very serious topics, all while making you rock your fucking ass off in the process.They have found a wonderful balance musically all while staying true to themselves, which is no easy task. I love their explosive infusion of punk, ska, rockabilly and many more genres mixed into their music, I appreciate they love to play and experiment and refuse to put themselves into just one musical box, which in turn makes for an amazing roller coaster that I definitely do not want to get off of as the listener.
I do encourage you to check them out at one of their live shows to get the full experience of this incredible band. I can guarantee they will put on an amazingly intense and complete ruckus of a show that is definitely gonna be one for the books! I am so excited to see what the future holds for this wonderful band, I just know it’s going to be one hell of a ride.
—-VMS 🙂
For More Information about Not For Sale, Please check out their Instagram!