Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Frog Eyes Interview
Andrew Ford: First of all, thank you for taking time to talk with us.
Carey Mercer: Yeah, no problem.
AF: So you've had a line-up change?
CM: Yeah, that's right, Spencer [Krug], who played on The Bloody Hand, went to Montreal. And then we got Grayson [Miniely], and now Grayson split, so now we've got Spencer back.
AF: I've heard the new album has been pushed back to early next year.
CM: Well, it's always been early next year. We're chipping away at it.
AF: So is the Swan Lake album coming out before then?
CM: Yeah, Swan Lake is done. That's getting mastered in the next couple of weeks. If everything goes as it should, it will all be out in late October.
AF: Do you have a label putting it out?
CM: Yeah, Jagjaguwar. I'm really excited to work with them.
AF: So you're touring with Sunset Rubdown?
CM: Yeah, we play our first show with them tonight [5/6, Victoria, British Columbia]. Spencer flew out from San Francisco Wednesday morning. It's pretty intense, I kinda like all that cramming. Like, it's the first show, it's such a big deal, y'know.
AF: So, did you guys meet and start playing in, like, high school or...?
CM: No, no, we are quite old. Actually, Mel, the drummer, and I were dating and we are married now but the whole idea began as kind of a side project, kind of an experiment; to see if I could learn how to play the piano while she learned how to play the drums. Then, as our relationship got more serious, the idea of touring alone really bummed me out. She played her first show after drumming for only a couple of weeks so by then, I was just like, let me just focus all my energies on this band. Right now, more than ever, she's really turning into this monster drummer, she's awesome. It's, like, one of the few good decisions that I've ever made. I kind of kissed off my other band...
AF: Blue Pine, right?
CM: Yeah, that band probably wouldn't have worked out. You know, some bands just work really well with touring and all, and, y'know, that one went pretty well but, no matter what level of success a band achieves they are still looking forward to home. But yeah, that's kinda why we started the band.
AF: So, you are an artist, too, right? Well, you do the cover art, I mean.
CM: Yeah, I went to art school for a little bit. I dropped out with my student loan and I was gonna go to Europe but I pretty much just drank. So, I wouldn't say I'm an artist. It's like, you don't call Sting an actor. But I like to paint, we were just painting these t-shirts for the tour.
AF: Yeah, you have that one online, that Creature from the Black Lagoon-looking one.
CM: Yeah, those look pretty ugly. I've been letting other people do things too much. So we are making our own shirts.
AF: So you guys have a new EP coming out, right?
CM: Yeah, that was for a Spanish label called Acuarela and they have like this series of EPs they do for artists that are, like, exclusive. Usually when an American or Canadian band works for a European label, it will have to get a release from that label but what Acuarela does is kinda different. I'm pretty happy with it. We did, like a, oh, what do you call it. I don't know, it's like eight songs and they are all interconnected.
AF: I've heard it described as an 18-minute single-song EP.
CM: Not exactly. Actually, that record was kind of, I don't wanna say an an epiphany, but I've really got into the mixing part of it. AF: So you are more into the whole studio process now?
CM: Yeah, totally, yeah. I love it, it's so intimidating. Ya'know, it can be a real bummer but lately it's been really exciting. It either ends up like cool or God this is horrible and we are paying for this, ya'know? We just worked up enough dread, for the record and maybe it will turn into the nightmare that it usually is. But yeah, I really enjoyed it.
AF: So are you previewing any new material on this tour?
CM: Yeah, almost half our set is new material. I really like to take songs on tour before we record them. Because, by the time you get home the songs, after all that preparation are just so much stronger. In some ways, it's like the tour becomes an excuse to tighten up.
AF: What about the stuff you've written for the Swan Lake album?
CM: No, no, I'm probably the most for that, and Spencer's like that too, but Dan's, like, anti-tour. Well, actually, he's coming around to the fact that, the more you tour, the less you have to worry about turning in your resume to Subway.
AF: So what inspired you guys to hook up and make an album together?
CM: Well, we toured with Dan and then the three of us went to Europe. And I just didn't think I'd had enough time with Dan's "Your Blues" songs to really arrange them, you know. I mean, it turned out alright, but it was just really difficult, to turn all these MIDI compositions into stuff that can be played by four people. It was really just kind of [a sense of] frustration, that we didn't have more time to work on them, that there was already a record that these were going to be held up to. And that sort of provided the impetus for us to try a record, so that then it wouldn't be just Dan's songs we were doing. Our songwriting gets compared, but it's really different, I think. In Dan's work there is a lot more space.
AF: Yeah, his compositions tend to be a little longer.
CM: Definitely, yeah, but Swan Lake ended up sounding completely different. It's kind of like a synthesis of that EP we just did, and "Your Blues" and lots of Spencer's beautiful, orchestral quality. I think it's really cool, I'm pretty excited about it.
AF: Yeah, I'm actually pretty excited about it too.
CM: Yeah, that's really what we're worried about.
AF: That expectations will be too high?
CM: Well, more like that the expectations will be different. But, ya'know, whatever, you don't live in a vacuum. I mean, we are lucky enough to make a record and to fly Spencer from Montreal with the recording money. We are extraordinarily fortunate to be able to approach a label based solely on your track record, have no demos, and no songs written, and for them to say okay. It's beautiful. We really felt, like, honored, to be able to do this together. It's kinda weird to talk about a record when, really, only three people have heard it. But the thing about it is, I think, the singing on it, that came about is just kind of amazing. That it almost - does exist without context. It wasn't like, let's do this so we can tour this, it was more like let's create a little world on record.
AF: So is this record, especially with Dan's stuff, as self-referential?
CM: Actually, I've found myself having fun with referring to a few of his lyrics. Well, we are in this band together, I can do that.
AF: He ever catch you and go like, ya'know, Stop that, or anything?
CM: No, I told him about it. I don't think he thought it was cool but, whatever. The premise of the record was that we each wrote four songs and we all brought them in and just kinda chipped away at it just to create, like I said, this little world.
AF: So where did the name come from?
CM: It was a ceramic, like, Korean pair of frog eyes for a teddy bear that were still in the package and we needed a new band name. This was before the big animal craze. We were on the tip of it, I guess. The big frog craze never really materialized.
AF: So what other bands do you listen to?
CM: I have, like, one band every two months and maybe six artists a year that just really get in my skull. I'm pretty vampiric, I guess, when it comes to music. I can't just sit down, I'm always like, wow, great idea! or just like, this is full of shit and there's no ideas,in either one. I really like the O's Mutantes right now. I love the way they mix stuff. I mean, they've got like the loudest, ya'know, god-awful sounding guitars. It's god-awful but it's really amazing sonically. There's this great tension between the beautiful Tropicalia arrangements that are really lush-sounding and then you have this really loud, skronking guitar in the right headphone. This Bill Fay guy, have you heard him?
AF: Nah, didn't they just re-issue some of his stuff, though?
CM: He's pretty neat, yeah, there's one, I think it's called Time of the Last Persecution and it's really like, this cynicism and this bitterness and, at the same time, this resolution and that just really struck me. And also, this complete, like, not world-weariness, but more like nausea. I like Dan's record. I like a lot of my friends music. If I go on tour with a band, usually I'll end up liking them. It's funny, I could probably end up liking anything if I toured with them every night. And, um, [Stephen] McBean, with Pink Mountaintops and Black Mountain, I like that. You know what, I'm such a chump. I name like, two bands and then a bunch of my friends stuff.
Oh, and Nina Simone.
AF: Oh, I almost forgot, how was SXSW? Was that the first time you guys played?
CM: No, it was the second time we played. Probably for most people, the whole experience was a series of hilarious highs and abysmal lows. One other thing, when we first went there, was that - you could use the term "culture shock," but more like the homogenous aspect of the culture you've sewn yourself into. I mean, you look around and see nothing but band dudes and then you're like, I'm a band dude. The last time we went, it was kinda fun. I like just, you know, getting drunk. I do like Austin, you ever been there?
AF: No, I know a guy whose friend took a short film there last year, but no.
CM: Yeah, it's just like a pretty, liberal or whatever that word means city. And, there are lots of "liberal" cities in Canada but with that there comes this inane predilection towards bureaucracy. It's like we are free, so shut your dog up. And, you know, get those ugly warehouses out of there, let's build some condos. But it wasn't like that there, there wasn't the whole bureaucracy thing, and you could just have a beer. Most Canadian cities are just dismal, like, with by-laws; I think the upper east coast of America is like that too, like in Vermont. You don't find, like, White Power, which is good but you, like, can't buy a beer if you're not from that state, which is kind of annoying for me, you know what I mean. That's what I really liked about Austin.
AF: Everybody was just kinda laid-back?
CM: Yeah, but sometimes laid-back comes with yeah, we're laid-back, but, you know, we'll shoot you or something.
Dr. Dog Interview
Tim Baker - Hello and thanks for taking time to talk to me today and where exactly are you at the moment?
Zach Miller - No problem and I am at my house in Philadelphia right now.
TB - So I heard you guys have been in the studio, when is the next album supposed to come out?
ZM - Well we have got an album, actually an EP that will come out in September or sometime in the early fall and the full length album will be released sometime next winter(January or February)
TB - Is the next album going too released on Park The Van Records?
ZM - Yeah
TB - Do you think the next album sounds for the most part like Toothbrush and Easybeat or does it have a different theme to it?
ZM - Yeah, the biggest difference is we have a twenty-four track machine to record on as opposed to an eight track which is what we used to record on before, so the album sounds pretty much the same, just more layered with more sounds. As far as fidelity, there isn't much of a change there.
TB - On a different subject, how did Dr. Dog come together?
ZM - Well, we all met in college but Toby and Scott have been playing together since they were in middle-school, and then the rest of us, in some capacity, all met through college. A few of us were classmates and then Justin our drummer was a friend of a guy we knew from college so it all came together about four or five years ago and then Frank joined the band last year.
TB - So is being a musician something you always wanted to do, I read that you studied jazz guitar somewhere.
ZM - Yeah, for about a minute I did. I went to University of Hartford and had the ultimate intention of doing composition but it just turned out to be to expensive, and that is when I ended up transferring to Westchester University in Pennsylvania and ended up meeting these guys which leads me to where I am right now.
TB - I know a lot bands have a lot of "drama" behind the scenes, do you all get along for the most part?
ZM - We are a very low drama band, we all get along real well, it would be a very boring, behind the scenes unauthorized video.
TB - That's good. I know you guys haven't been playing to many shows, but have you been playing any of the material off of the new album at any of those recent shows?
ZM - Yeah, that's one of the weird things about having these songs is that, I mean we have been playing some of these "new songs" for a year or more so to us they seem sort of like old songs now but you know we have to get use to the idea that we are going to be playing these songs for years to come, just out of obligation of people coming to the shows. I mean as cool as it is to have new material and stuff like that, when you go to a show and you don't know any of the songs, it kind of sucks in a way.
TB - Yeah, having that rough sound on new material is never good.
ZM - Yeah, but we have been playing four or five songs that will be on the new album, for a while now. Some of the songs are old songs which were never recorded properly, so they been around longer than the newer "new" ones.
TB - Yeah. So how did you all come up with the name Dr. Dog?
ZM - That was a story Toby had written, and I wasn't in the band at that point, so I wasn't really a part of that decision. So it was just like yeah, we need to call it something and it just sounded right.
TB - So what have been your biggest musical influences?
ZM - I listen to everything like classical, jazz, but speaking for the band, it's just kind of the ideal of good songs and arrangements that serve the songs, rather than the other way around, just try and put out a solid song that can stand on it's own as a composition without all the guitar solos and all that sort of stuff. There is a lot of music out now that is all atmosphere and no substance.
TB - The general idea of a big record label.
ZM - Exactly.
TB - So Dr. Dog did a special KEXP radio session in New York?
ZM - Yeah, that was really great.
TB - So you just went to the studio and played some songs?
ZM - Yeah we went to, I think it was called Gigantic Studio's in New York City and they had a full electric setup there, where as normally you have to scale down your performance for the radio, we just went in played like we do live, which is really nice. Because normally we just go in with an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar and a small amp and play certain songs which we worked out to do radio shows, because it always sounds weird to do a full band and it's a big hassle to set everything up for only two or three songs, so this was nice because they had a full setup and it was comfortable and sounded great which is a real rarity when your playing live on the radio.
TB - KEXP is always good.
ZM-Yeah, that's what everyone has been saying.
TB - So who writes most of the songs, is it one person, or is it more of a group thing?
ZM - Well Toby and Scott write all the songs and then sometimes they'll have just the song, or just and idea of how they want the arrangement to sound, but we all sort of contribute are own little parts and ideas into the songs but at the basic level it's just Toby and Scott. That's always been the fundamental idea with Dr. Dog, is Toby and Scott's songs.
TB - So I know Easybeat was your first studio album, did you play on Easybeat and Psychedelic Swamp?
ZM - I wasn't on Psychedelic Swamp at all because that was before I was in the band, that was just Toby, Scott and Doug who was our first guitar player and a founding father of Dr. Dog and that was just them. I appear on one track on Toothbrush where I played bass on "Mystery to me". Toothbrush was just kind of like a lot of different songs various era's so it wasn't like, it's just a compilation, it was never thought about as being an album. It was just something we could give to our friends and we ended up taking it on the road because we didn't have anything else.
TB - So have you had a pretty hectic schedule between the shows and the studio?
ZM - Actually, we are on a bit of a break now, although we do have these shows coming up but after that we don't have anything for a while, until the end of August, and then the madness starts again (laughs) so it's a relatively relaxed period for Dr. Dog right now, although we have been kind of stress out with finishing the album and that kind kind of stuff.
TB - That's good you got a little break. So I saw you opened a couple of shows for the Strokes, what was that like?
ZM - That was pretty cool, they are a really great band and seeing them reminded me of how much I loved that band. But it was just weird, playing a show of that size because they are just on a completely different level than we are. Even when we opened for My Morning Jacket there was sort of a relatable comparison, but with The Strokes, I mean they're rock stars, on MTV and they're celebrities, so it's just a totally different relationship.
TB - So did you talk to them any before or after the show?
ZM - We did get a chance to meet a couple of them and they were really nice but it was a lot different than one of our normal shows.
TB - Were The Strokes fans pretty accepting?
ZM - Yeah, I think so, it was hard to tell with the nervousness of playing a show that big, I mean that was the biggest audience we have ever played to, but I think it went pretty well, we got some nice fan mail from people who saw us.
TB - Personally, what is your favorite aspect of being a musician?
ZM - I guess, the fact that you get to go a lot of places, see a lot of things and meet a lot of people. I like the traveling most because I have been places in parts of the world that I probably would have never seen normally. So, it's nice to see that stuff but it does start to wear on you after a while. It's nice to come home and just compose yourself for a little while.
TB - I can only imagine.So you have been a musician for quite a while now, what is the best advice you would give to young aspiring musicians?
ZM - I'd say, we have had a lot of situations where we could have compromised what we wanted to do but we never gave in to that and we always stayed true to our vision and true to our idea of how things should be with the band. Also, just stick to what you believe and just be yourself. Maybe we're just fortunate but it has always worked out for us, like there was some initial reluctance about starting on Park The Van but in the end it was what we wanted to do, we wanted Chris to put the album out because he was a good friend of ours and now it's all working out great and there have been a number of other different scenarios where we could have compromised like part of our sound or part of our philosophy about playing shows and stuff but we stuck to our guns and if people like the music, it will work out in the end, and it has for us. We might just be lucky but I like to think it's because we stuck to what we believed in.
TB - I know that you guys have been getting a lot of attention with KEXP, MTV Subterranean, and the shows with The Strokes, do predict any sort of label change anywhere in the future?
ZM - No, were probably definitely going to stay with Park The Van. There was a lot problems the first year we were on due to some affiliations Park The Van had but it is a completely different scene now with the label and it's a lot better and everything works a lot better now.
TB - Well once again thanks a lot for taking the time to talk to me and I can only see bigger and better things for Dr. Dog in the future.
ZM - Yeah sure, no problem and I think we'll be down there(southeast) in a couple of weeks for a couple shows.
TB - Yeah you are playing two shows in Georgia and one is at the Drunken Unicorn and I don't know the other one but hopefully I can make it to at least one of those shows.
Zach Miller - No problem and I am at my house in Philadelphia right now.
TB - So I heard you guys have been in the studio, when is the next album supposed to come out?
ZM - Well we have got an album, actually an EP that will come out in September or sometime in the early fall and the full length album will be released sometime next winter(January or February)
TB - Is the next album going too released on Park The Van Records?
ZM - Yeah
TB - Do you think the next album sounds for the most part like Toothbrush and Easybeat or does it have a different theme to it?
ZM - Yeah, the biggest difference is we have a twenty-four track machine to record on as opposed to an eight track which is what we used to record on before, so the album sounds pretty much the same, just more layered with more sounds. As far as fidelity, there isn't much of a change there.
TB - On a different subject, how did Dr. Dog come together?
ZM - Well, we all met in college but Toby and Scott have been playing together since they were in middle-school, and then the rest of us, in some capacity, all met through college. A few of us were classmates and then Justin our drummer was a friend of a guy we knew from college so it all came together about four or five years ago and then Frank joined the band last year.
TB - So is being a musician something you always wanted to do, I read that you studied jazz guitar somewhere.
ZM - Yeah, for about a minute I did. I went to University of Hartford and had the ultimate intention of doing composition but it just turned out to be to expensive, and that is when I ended up transferring to Westchester University in Pennsylvania and ended up meeting these guys which leads me to where I am right now.
TB - I know a lot bands have a lot of "drama" behind the scenes, do you all get along for the most part?
ZM - We are a very low drama band, we all get along real well, it would be a very boring, behind the scenes unauthorized video.
TB - That's good. I know you guys haven't been playing to many shows, but have you been playing any of the material off of the new album at any of those recent shows?
ZM - Yeah, that's one of the weird things about having these songs is that, I mean we have been playing some of these "new songs" for a year or more so to us they seem sort of like old songs now but you know we have to get use to the idea that we are going to be playing these songs for years to come, just out of obligation of people coming to the shows. I mean as cool as it is to have new material and stuff like that, when you go to a show and you don't know any of the songs, it kind of sucks in a way.
TB - Yeah, having that rough sound on new material is never good.
ZM - Yeah, but we have been playing four or five songs that will be on the new album, for a while now. Some of the songs are old songs which were never recorded properly, so they been around longer than the newer "new" ones.
TB - Yeah. So how did you all come up with the name Dr. Dog?
ZM - That was a story Toby had written, and I wasn't in the band at that point, so I wasn't really a part of that decision. So it was just like yeah, we need to call it something and it just sounded right.
TB - So what have been your biggest musical influences?
ZM - I listen to everything like classical, jazz, but speaking for the band, it's just kind of the ideal of good songs and arrangements that serve the songs, rather than the other way around, just try and put out a solid song that can stand on it's own as a composition without all the guitar solos and all that sort of stuff. There is a lot of music out now that is all atmosphere and no substance.
TB - The general idea of a big record label.
ZM - Exactly.
TB - So Dr. Dog did a special KEXP radio session in New York?
ZM - Yeah, that was really great.
TB - So you just went to the studio and played some songs?
ZM - Yeah we went to, I think it was called Gigantic Studio's in New York City and they had a full electric setup there, where as normally you have to scale down your performance for the radio, we just went in played like we do live, which is really nice. Because normally we just go in with an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar and a small amp and play certain songs which we worked out to do radio shows, because it always sounds weird to do a full band and it's a big hassle to set everything up for only two or three songs, so this was nice because they had a full setup and it was comfortable and sounded great which is a real rarity when your playing live on the radio.
TB - KEXP is always good.
ZM-Yeah, that's what everyone has been saying.
TB - So who writes most of the songs, is it one person, or is it more of a group thing?
ZM - Well Toby and Scott write all the songs and then sometimes they'll have just the song, or just and idea of how they want the arrangement to sound, but we all sort of contribute are own little parts and ideas into the songs but at the basic level it's just Toby and Scott. That's always been the fundamental idea with Dr. Dog, is Toby and Scott's songs.
TB - So I know Easybeat was your first studio album, did you play on Easybeat and Psychedelic Swamp?
ZM - I wasn't on Psychedelic Swamp at all because that was before I was in the band, that was just Toby, Scott and Doug who was our first guitar player and a founding father of Dr. Dog and that was just them. I appear on one track on Toothbrush where I played bass on "Mystery to me". Toothbrush was just kind of like a lot of different songs various era's so it wasn't like, it's just a compilation, it was never thought about as being an album. It was just something we could give to our friends and we ended up taking it on the road because we didn't have anything else.
TB - So have you had a pretty hectic schedule between the shows and the studio?
ZM - Actually, we are on a bit of a break now, although we do have these shows coming up but after that we don't have anything for a while, until the end of August, and then the madness starts again (laughs) so it's a relatively relaxed period for Dr. Dog right now, although we have been kind of stress out with finishing the album and that kind kind of stuff.
TB - That's good you got a little break. So I saw you opened a couple of shows for the Strokes, what was that like?
ZM - That was pretty cool, they are a really great band and seeing them reminded me of how much I loved that band. But it was just weird, playing a show of that size because they are just on a completely different level than we are. Even when we opened for My Morning Jacket there was sort of a relatable comparison, but with The Strokes, I mean they're rock stars, on MTV and they're celebrities, so it's just a totally different relationship.
TB - So did you talk to them any before or after the show?
ZM - We did get a chance to meet a couple of them and they were really nice but it was a lot different than one of our normal shows.
TB - Were The Strokes fans pretty accepting?
ZM - Yeah, I think so, it was hard to tell with the nervousness of playing a show that big, I mean that was the biggest audience we have ever played to, but I think it went pretty well, we got some nice fan mail from people who saw us.
TB - Personally, what is your favorite aspect of being a musician?
ZM - I guess, the fact that you get to go a lot of places, see a lot of things and meet a lot of people. I like the traveling most because I have been places in parts of the world that I probably would have never seen normally. So, it's nice to see that stuff but it does start to wear on you after a while. It's nice to come home and just compose yourself for a little while.
TB - I can only imagine.So you have been a musician for quite a while now, what is the best advice you would give to young aspiring musicians?
ZM - I'd say, we have had a lot of situations where we could have compromised what we wanted to do but we never gave in to that and we always stayed true to our vision and true to our idea of how things should be with the band. Also, just stick to what you believe and just be yourself. Maybe we're just fortunate but it has always worked out for us, like there was some initial reluctance about starting on Park The Van but in the end it was what we wanted to do, we wanted Chris to put the album out because he was a good friend of ours and now it's all working out great and there have been a number of other different scenarios where we could have compromised like part of our sound or part of our philosophy about playing shows and stuff but we stuck to our guns and if people like the music, it will work out in the end, and it has for us. We might just be lucky but I like to think it's because we stuck to what we believed in.
TB - I know that you guys have been getting a lot of attention with KEXP, MTV Subterranean, and the shows with The Strokes, do predict any sort of label change anywhere in the future?
ZM - No, were probably definitely going to stay with Park The Van. There was a lot problems the first year we were on due to some affiliations Park The Van had but it is a completely different scene now with the label and it's a lot better and everything works a lot better now.
TB - Well once again thanks a lot for taking the time to talk to me and I can only see bigger and better things for Dr. Dog in the future.
ZM - Yeah sure, no problem and I think we'll be down there(southeast) in a couple of weeks for a couple shows.
TB - Yeah you are playing two shows in Georgia and one is at the Drunken Unicorn and I don't know the other one but hopefully I can make it to at least one of those shows.
Galactic Interview
Robert Mercurio – Whats up man how are you doing?
Tim Baker – Pretty good. Where are you guys right now?
RM – We are driving through Wyoming so we might get cut off.
TB – It’s cool. Galactic is playing The Mangy Moose tonight?
RM – Yeah.
TB – So the tour has been going pretty smooth so far?
RM – Well this is only are third gig but yeah, so far so good. We just did two shows in Montana, this is kind of a vacation tour of some sort, for us to kind of get out of New Orleans and be in beautiful weather and a beautiful climate.
TB – Have you incorporated any new songs in the set?
RM – Yeah, actually we have been playing some new stuff and changing things around for the last few weeks.
TB – I know you formed Galactic in 1994, how did you all come together?
RM – Jeff and I, the guitar player, we grew up together in the Washington D.C. area and then moved down to New Orleans in 1990, we just kind of found like minded people who were going to college with us, and we moved into an apartment and got a little band room where we invited different people over until we found enough people to really fit what we were thinking about doing and kind of just slowly pieced everything together.
TB – Is the name Galactic pretty much self explanatory or is there a deeper meaning to it?
RM – It was originally Galactic Prophylactic and then as we got older and the band matured we decided that Galactic Prophylactic was a little immature so we dropped the Prophylactic and started having babies.
TB – I know your singer left in late 2004, was it hard to switch to being a purely instrumental band?
RM – I think we were almost purely instrumental when we had a vocalist so it wasn’t that big of a switch. I don’t think it was as big of a switch as it could be for most bands. You know, most bands are all vocal and it would be a huge deal. It’s something that were doing right now and we still enjoy playing music with vocals and still look forward to working with different vocalists.
TB – When do you think the next album will be out?
RM – Spring, yeah we are maybe 50 or 60% done and hopefully we can finish it up in the fall and have it come out in the spring.
TB – Do you think the next album will have your typical jamband sound?
RM – No, actually this album we are doing a collaboration with some different and some of our favorite MC’s so it’s actually going to have vocals on it and it’s not going to be ah…very much like a “jam” album at all. It’s going to be more of and MC collaboration with Galactic.
TB – You recently did the New Orleans Jazz festival, didn’t you do a collaboration with Juvenile?
RM – That actually wasn’t at the festival, that was on a tv show for Jimmy Kimmel Live. Juvenile had his most recent record coming out and wanted to have a band back him up. So his people called are people and we flew out to L.A. and did a couple songs with him on the show, it was really fun.
TB – That’s awesome.
RM – Yeah, “Juvy” we called him – when I call him up on the phone I just call him Juvy you know. And hopefully he will be on our next album as well.
TB – Do you think Dan “The Automator” will produce your next album or are you going to get someone else?
RM – Yeah, right now we are kind of producing it ourselves along with this guy whose name is Count – he goes by Count and yeah I don’t think we are going to have Dan Nakamura do it.
TB – How did you meet up with him?
RM – I guess we just kind of called him and just said “hey, would you be interested in doing something with us” and he came out to a couple of our shows and we met with him and talked with him and then talked about the project and then he just decided to do it. He came down to New Orleans and we recorded the album. Yeah it’s amazing, you can just call people up and ask them and they’ll say yes or no.
TB – Yeah, because I know he did work with The Gorillaz and Head Automatica.
RM – Yeah, he’s done a lot of stuff, some stuff with Beastie Boys and Beck and his credentials are a long list.
TB – In your bio it said that you and Jeff Raines (Galactic’s guitar player) grew up in the Washington D.C. area and you played in some local bands throughout high school, what can you tell me about that?
RM – Yeah, I mean we were high school kids, little punk rock kids. There were a few different bands we were in, one was “The Skitsmattics”, another one was “Better Off Dead”. It was punk rock stuff when we were younger and then we started playing more funk stuff as we got a little older in high school and that just bridged right into moving to New Orleans and soaking up all the funk stuff down there.
TB – Was punk pretty much the scene in DC in the early ninety’s?
RM – Yeah for sure, more like late 80’s. I mean that was the music that local bands were playing and that’s like what my older brother and sister were listening to so I got into it as well and I even think that a little bit of that works it’s way into Galactic you know, we get a little ruckus sometimes.
TB – It also said in your bio that in college at Tulane University you went to a lot of shows at Tipitina’s. What was it like to go back there and sell out shows where you watched bands play in college?
RM – Yeah man, it was really special, I remember going there as a freshman and seeing shows and thinking “God, someday it would be so cool to play on this stage, play the club you know.” Then we finally did that and then started selling it out and then kind of became the house band there. We would play all the major holidays. It’s really become like a home away from home and it’s really special and I try not to take for granted that we have been privileged enough to dive into the Tipitina’s scene. It’s an amazing club and amazing vibes.
TB – Could you ever see yourself maybe starting a side project in maybe joining somebody else on tour?
RM – Yeah, for sure I mean I play with a few different bands and you know, other side projects, and definitely have stuff going on in that route and yeah I could totally hear – you know I’m pretty open to playing any kind of music really so I kind of try to keep my mind open about that kind of stuff.
TB – What did you think of the Bonnaroo lineup this year? Did you like it or did you think it was kind of odd?
RM – No, I liked it actually, it was the first year I was the most excited about the lineup and then this was the first year that we didn’t play there?
To me, I mean I love Radiohead and Beck. I think that, I would have been really excited to see those bands. Just because you don’t really get to see them as often as the headliners they have had before like Widespread Panic, which I love to, but you know, you see them all the time.
TB – So what have you been listening to lately?
RM – Let me think, what we have been listening to on the bus. We got this new, kind of like producer dj stuff, this guy D/DC(Deep Dickollective) but, you know what, I feel like I’ve been diving kind of more into my older record collection lately. Listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin, like stuff that you listen when you were younger and kind of over did it and then take like a ten year brake from it. I have been kind of getting back into it you know. Somebody brought the Led Zeppelin dvd of “How The West Was Won” and that inspired me to go back and look through all those albums.
TB – What do you think your main motivation for being a musician would be?
RM – That’s an interesting question. Like what motivates me to do what I do?
TB – Yeah, why you decided to play music as a profession. Did it just kind of happen or?
RM – Yeah, I mean I went to college with thoughts that I would probably get a real job. Then the band became kind of popular in college and then we got out of college and all thought, “Hey let’s give it a shot.” I thought that I would hate myself if I never gave it a shot if I went and got a real job and always think “God, I wonder what it would have been like” So we all decided to give it a shot and started touring around and recording an album and the whole thing. It just kind of took off from there and that was about twelve years ago and what really motivates me is the job – it’s really just one of the best jobs in the world.
TB – It obviously worked out.
RM – Yeah, and so far things have been going well so I’m going to keep my fingers crossed, head high, and count my blessings.
TB – Your supposed to headline Jamcruise in January, have you done that before?
RM – It’s a fun time man and yeah, we have been on all of them
TB – A lot of music now, specifically mainstream music, has become very commercial and lost all of its substance, do you have any thoughts on that?
RM – I definitely agree with that. You know there’s been a lot of corporate production with a lot of artists which you know they used to do back in the day to. They would take an artist and “build them” and write songs for them and everything. But it’s just been – something’s lost in it these days where they’re just kind of can see them coming off of the conveyor belt. But I think that the music industry and people’s tastes go in a cyclical way where it goes between organic and real bands becoming popular into, you know the Britney Spears and the boy bands. You know, there’s always this, just kind of back and forth.
TB – If you could bring back any one artist/band who is either dead or broken up; who would it be?
RM – I probably shouldn’t answer that just because we have been listening to so much lately. Probably, just because we have been listening to so much of them, Led Zeppelin. Or you know, Jimi Hendrix, somebody like that.
TB – Well thanks for taking the time to talk to me.
RM – Yeah man, no problem. Thanks for including us.
Tim Baker – Pretty good. Where are you guys right now?
RM – We are driving through Wyoming so we might get cut off.
TB – It’s cool. Galactic is playing The Mangy Moose tonight?
RM – Yeah.
TB – So the tour has been going pretty smooth so far?
RM – Well this is only are third gig but yeah, so far so good. We just did two shows in Montana, this is kind of a vacation tour of some sort, for us to kind of get out of New Orleans and be in beautiful weather and a beautiful climate.
TB – Have you incorporated any new songs in the set?
RM – Yeah, actually we have been playing some new stuff and changing things around for the last few weeks.
TB – I know you formed Galactic in 1994, how did you all come together?
RM – Jeff and I, the guitar player, we grew up together in the Washington D.C. area and then moved down to New Orleans in 1990, we just kind of found like minded people who were going to college with us, and we moved into an apartment and got a little band room where we invited different people over until we found enough people to really fit what we were thinking about doing and kind of just slowly pieced everything together.
TB – Is the name Galactic pretty much self explanatory or is there a deeper meaning to it?
RM – It was originally Galactic Prophylactic and then as we got older and the band matured we decided that Galactic Prophylactic was a little immature so we dropped the Prophylactic and started having babies.
TB – I know your singer left in late 2004, was it hard to switch to being a purely instrumental band?
RM – I think we were almost purely instrumental when we had a vocalist so it wasn’t that big of a switch. I don’t think it was as big of a switch as it could be for most bands. You know, most bands are all vocal and it would be a huge deal. It’s something that were doing right now and we still enjoy playing music with vocals and still look forward to working with different vocalists.
TB – When do you think the next album will be out?
RM – Spring, yeah we are maybe 50 or 60% done and hopefully we can finish it up in the fall and have it come out in the spring.
TB – Do you think the next album will have your typical jamband sound?
RM – No, actually this album we are doing a collaboration with some different and some of our favorite MC’s so it’s actually going to have vocals on it and it’s not going to be ah…very much like a “jam” album at all. It’s going to be more of and MC collaboration with Galactic.
TB – You recently did the New Orleans Jazz festival, didn’t you do a collaboration with Juvenile?
RM – That actually wasn’t at the festival, that was on a tv show for Jimmy Kimmel Live. Juvenile had his most recent record coming out and wanted to have a band back him up. So his people called are people and we flew out to L.A. and did a couple songs with him on the show, it was really fun.
TB – That’s awesome.
RM – Yeah, “Juvy” we called him – when I call him up on the phone I just call him Juvy you know. And hopefully he will be on our next album as well.
TB – Do you think Dan “The Automator” will produce your next album or are you going to get someone else?
RM – Yeah, right now we are kind of producing it ourselves along with this guy whose name is Count – he goes by Count and yeah I don’t think we are going to have Dan Nakamura do it.
TB – How did you meet up with him?
RM – I guess we just kind of called him and just said “hey, would you be interested in doing something with us” and he came out to a couple of our shows and we met with him and talked with him and then talked about the project and then he just decided to do it. He came down to New Orleans and we recorded the album. Yeah it’s amazing, you can just call people up and ask them and they’ll say yes or no.
TB – Yeah, because I know he did work with The Gorillaz and Head Automatica.
RM – Yeah, he’s done a lot of stuff, some stuff with Beastie Boys and Beck and his credentials are a long list.
TB – In your bio it said that you and Jeff Raines (Galactic’s guitar player) grew up in the Washington D.C. area and you played in some local bands throughout high school, what can you tell me about that?
RM – Yeah, I mean we were high school kids, little punk rock kids. There were a few different bands we were in, one was “The Skitsmattics”, another one was “Better Off Dead”. It was punk rock stuff when we were younger and then we started playing more funk stuff as we got a little older in high school and that just bridged right into moving to New Orleans and soaking up all the funk stuff down there.
TB – Was punk pretty much the scene in DC in the early ninety’s?
RM – Yeah for sure, more like late 80’s. I mean that was the music that local bands were playing and that’s like what my older brother and sister were listening to so I got into it as well and I even think that a little bit of that works it’s way into Galactic you know, we get a little ruckus sometimes.
TB – It also said in your bio that in college at Tulane University you went to a lot of shows at Tipitina’s. What was it like to go back there and sell out shows where you watched bands play in college?
RM – Yeah man, it was really special, I remember going there as a freshman and seeing shows and thinking “God, someday it would be so cool to play on this stage, play the club you know.” Then we finally did that and then started selling it out and then kind of became the house band there. We would play all the major holidays. It’s really become like a home away from home and it’s really special and I try not to take for granted that we have been privileged enough to dive into the Tipitina’s scene. It’s an amazing club and amazing vibes.
TB – Could you ever see yourself maybe starting a side project in maybe joining somebody else on tour?
RM – Yeah, for sure I mean I play with a few different bands and you know, other side projects, and definitely have stuff going on in that route and yeah I could totally hear – you know I’m pretty open to playing any kind of music really so I kind of try to keep my mind open about that kind of stuff.
TB – What did you think of the Bonnaroo lineup this year? Did you like it or did you think it was kind of odd?
RM – No, I liked it actually, it was the first year I was the most excited about the lineup and then this was the first year that we didn’t play there?
To me, I mean I love Radiohead and Beck. I think that, I would have been really excited to see those bands. Just because you don’t really get to see them as often as the headliners they have had before like Widespread Panic, which I love to, but you know, you see them all the time.
TB – So what have you been listening to lately?
RM – Let me think, what we have been listening to on the bus. We got this new, kind of like producer dj stuff, this guy D/DC(Deep Dickollective) but, you know what, I feel like I’ve been diving kind of more into my older record collection lately. Listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin, like stuff that you listen when you were younger and kind of over did it and then take like a ten year brake from it. I have been kind of getting back into it you know. Somebody brought the Led Zeppelin dvd of “How The West Was Won” and that inspired me to go back and look through all those albums.
TB – What do you think your main motivation for being a musician would be?
RM – That’s an interesting question. Like what motivates me to do what I do?
TB – Yeah, why you decided to play music as a profession. Did it just kind of happen or?
RM – Yeah, I mean I went to college with thoughts that I would probably get a real job. Then the band became kind of popular in college and then we got out of college and all thought, “Hey let’s give it a shot.” I thought that I would hate myself if I never gave it a shot if I went and got a real job and always think “God, I wonder what it would have been like” So we all decided to give it a shot and started touring around and recording an album and the whole thing. It just kind of took off from there and that was about twelve years ago and what really motivates me is the job – it’s really just one of the best jobs in the world.
TB – It obviously worked out.
RM – Yeah, and so far things have been going well so I’m going to keep my fingers crossed, head high, and count my blessings.
TB – Your supposed to headline Jamcruise in January, have you done that before?
RM – It’s a fun time man and yeah, we have been on all of them
TB – A lot of music now, specifically mainstream music, has become very commercial and lost all of its substance, do you have any thoughts on that?
RM – I definitely agree with that. You know there’s been a lot of corporate production with a lot of artists which you know they used to do back in the day to. They would take an artist and “build them” and write songs for them and everything. But it’s just been – something’s lost in it these days where they’re just kind of can see them coming off of the conveyor belt. But I think that the music industry and people’s tastes go in a cyclical way where it goes between organic and real bands becoming popular into, you know the Britney Spears and the boy bands. You know, there’s always this, just kind of back and forth.
TB – If you could bring back any one artist/band who is either dead or broken up; who would it be?
RM – I probably shouldn’t answer that just because we have been listening to so much lately. Probably, just because we have been listening to so much of them, Led Zeppelin. Or you know, Jimi Hendrix, somebody like that.
TB – Well thanks for taking the time to talk to me.
RM – Yeah man, no problem. Thanks for including us.
The Animal Liberation Orchestra Interview
Tim Baker: So what is the story behind the name?
Zach Gill: Well, the story behind the name was, we were in college and we wanted something bohemian and kind of out there but we also wanted something that reflected that, we had just been through music school, so we had a lot of academic musical training. At the time when we started The Animal Liberation Orchestra, our drummer was a professor, and we wanted something "orchestral" almost like a parody of some of the classical orchestra's we had been involved in. So that's kind of where we started with it and then we definitely liked the idea that it was definitely like a pretty wild funk band at the time, so we really liked the idea that people would get liberated on the dance floor, and turn into animals or vice versa. As time went by, we experimented with lots of different ways to present it, we used to wear animal masks and stuff like that, and then at some point we sort of just became ALO because it was nice and simple and kind of casual, you know - you don't want to wear animal masks for every show. Like, at certain times its fun -
Kyle Graham - But it may get to that point.
ZG - Well it may, in fact like lots of our late night stuff is when the creepy stuff starts to happen - like on the west coast, a lot of things happen, that don't maybe happen out here, just because not as many people know us, and a lot of times it seems like the fans now, especially on the west coast get a little "wilder" like they're wilder than us you know, but they kind of egg us on.
TB - That's always a plus when the fans are really into the music. And you were all classically trained in your instruments?
ZG - Well that's a relative term, we had some classical training.
Dan Lebowitz - Yeah, and had a lot of lessons. That's not really where it came from for us though, were all from more like - we started to play music when we heard music on the radio we liked, and wanted to figure out the songs, and I think from there, we kind of learned to play that way and there it kind of opened up our ears and then in high school as we got along, you know we have grown up since junior high together. In high school were like "Oh, there's a jazz band, lets go be in the jazz band, it would be fun to learn about" and then go to college.
ZG - Yeah, we always just wanted to learn about different styles of music.
TB - So how long have you guys (Zach and Dan) been playing together?
ZG - Well we have been playing together since we were twelve years old and I'm thirty-one now so we have been together almost twenty years.
TB - What really motivated you to do it - as far as being a musician for a profession?
ZG - You know what, I decided in like junior high that I wanted to be a musician on some level you know, like I just thought it would be a good job in comparison to other jobs in the world and I always thought it would a job I would like to do. I went to school and ended up not completely majoring in music and got a degree in history, but I just kind of always knew I wanted to keep doing music even when ALO wasn't happening and we all found ways to make money that still enabled us to keep learning. I used to accompany modern dance classes, play for musicals, like kept doing music at all costs.
TB - Whatever you can do.
ZG - Yeah, just all kinds of music cause for me you know I pretty much like it all, but some stuff if it's to loud I might not be able to expose myself completely to it.
TB - Really the only music I have a problem with is mainsteam because, it has lost all of its substance.
ZG - Yeah, a lot of it has, it's true.
DL - There's some good stuff in there too though.
TB - Like The Counting Crows are good.
DL - Yeah, for while there I was completely against mainstream and then I started to find what I didn't like about the mainstream actually wasn't the music, it was the way that they sell it, is just real cheesy, and then I started listening to some the bands that are real cheesy like -
ZG - Britney Spears.
DL - Yeah, and you like listen to the chords and the melody of the song and then what's cheesy about it is you see her all over the pepsi commercials and stuff like that. And sometimes I think you can take the coolest music and market it that way and it totally sucks.
TB - (laughs) ALO's Britney Spears album.
DL - (laughs) Yeah, she's sitting in on our next album.
TB - Speaking of which, I know you have incorporated a few new songs into the set, do you have any idea when the next album should be out?
DL - Fall, yeah were riding around in the bus right now selecting songs that will be on the next album.
TB - Touring always helps get the set tight before you go to the studio to record it.
ZG - Yeah well you know we kind of want to have a little more ah, I think we we're definitely thinking with this album, we want to just go in there with some stuff the way we play it live, but some stuff we just want to spend some time experimenting in the studio without like a real firm agenda, just kind of like laying down some stuff and seeing what happens, because sometimes you get in there and it's all this time and money business you know, it's like you got an idea and it's really hard you know you kind of get inspired but geez this could take me like hours to see if this really works, and in studio time that's hundreds of dollars.
DL - Thousands.
ZG - And you never know if your little idea is going to pan out into anything. I think we have all kind of opened ourselves up to the idea of allowing for some of that you know.
DL - Kind of like we got it set so we can go in and we have a chunk of material that we know is solid, but then with the album, basically give it time and do more songs than we need for the album so if some of the things that we allowed time to pan out, don't work then we can just ditch it and use something we know will work.
KG - And you play all the new songs at shows before you put it on a cd?
DL - In the past we did that but not as much anymore, like we have some new ones that -
ZG - We haven't played live intentionally so they will be fresh.
DL - Because sometimeS you play these songs live for a year or two and then go to the studio and go like "this is old stuff."
ZG - And sometime you feel like a song has a lifespan and fits in with a time and place, and so you'll start playing it when the album comes out and then by the next album your not really in love with that song anymore because it's played out. You got to be careful not to wear things out before they get a chance.
TB - So what have you been listening to in you downtime on the bus.
ZG - Yeah, you know I haven't listened too much, I bought a bunch of cd's on this trip. I bought the Raconteurs but I haven't gotten a chance to listen to it yet.
TB - With Jack White and Brendan Benson?
ZG - Yeah, I haven't listened to it yet but I want to check it. I bought some flaming lips stuff.
TB - Do you like the new one?
ZG - I do like the new one, I like it a lot.
DL - We have been listening to Gnarls Barkely.
TB - Yeah my ringtone is "crazy" right now.
DL - There's some good mainstream stuff.
ZG - Yeah, there's a lot of new music out there that, if it's good it will eventually become mainstream and then you have to make the choice whether to stick with it or get on the new thing that hasn't been discovered yet.
TB - Have you ever heard of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah?
ZG - I've heard of them.
TB - They(CYHSY) have a weird sound and it's really good but if they had gone to a record label, they (the label) would have changed it all around.
ZG - Yeah and see that's the thing, you know I suppose that's what's cool is when something kind of develops on it's own and it's got a long gestation period, and then when it gets to a label it's already what it is and then the label won't change it.
TB - So do you have any crazy stories from time on the road?
DL - Nothing to crazy really.
ZG - Yeah, this bus is pretty crazy when it starts moving. Definitely learning to sleep with all the stuff on the bus rattling around is kind of weird, but it's starting to feel all pretty normal now. There's always like a time, your getting use to it all. There hasn't been anything to crazy, usually there's something weird will happen but nothing on this trip has happened like that, it's all been pretty good. Oh yeah, we blew a tire but I slept through it though (laughs). And Brandon is driving the bus so it's been nice to have a driver so we can sleep and roll at the same time.
KG - How were the Dave Matthews shows, and what was the scene like?
DL - It was fun man, the crowd the crowd seemed to like what we were doing.
ZG - He was real nice.
DL - Yeah, real nice guy, we hung out with him almost every night.
ZG - He's got a lot of lights, and screens, and tons of stuff happening, which I thought was pretty cool.
TB - I know on the Jack Johnson DVD it showed you (Zach) and Jack Johnson playing ping pong, who do you think overall is the better ping pong player?
DL - You guys are pretty equal.
ZG - Well, Jack could beat me under most circumstances in ping pong but there are certain circumstances where I have the advantage. But it was funny, cause in the DVD he keeps trying to do this trick, trying to humiliate me, but he couldn't get it, which is pretty rad because normally he always can fake me out on it.
TB - So there was just like a random ping pong table at the venue?
ZG - Yeah, no we brought a ping pong table with us on tour.
KG - That's awesome.
Zach Gill: Well, the story behind the name was, we were in college and we wanted something bohemian and kind of out there but we also wanted something that reflected that, we had just been through music school, so we had a lot of academic musical training. At the time when we started The Animal Liberation Orchestra, our drummer was a professor, and we wanted something "orchestral" almost like a parody of some of the classical orchestra's we had been involved in. So that's kind of where we started with it and then we definitely liked the idea that it was definitely like a pretty wild funk band at the time, so we really liked the idea that people would get liberated on the dance floor, and turn into animals or vice versa. As time went by, we experimented with lots of different ways to present it, we used to wear animal masks and stuff like that, and then at some point we sort of just became ALO because it was nice and simple and kind of casual, you know - you don't want to wear animal masks for every show. Like, at certain times its fun -
Kyle Graham - But it may get to that point.
ZG - Well it may, in fact like lots of our late night stuff is when the creepy stuff starts to happen - like on the west coast, a lot of things happen, that don't maybe happen out here, just because not as many people know us, and a lot of times it seems like the fans now, especially on the west coast get a little "wilder" like they're wilder than us you know, but they kind of egg us on.
TB - That's always a plus when the fans are really into the music. And you were all classically trained in your instruments?
ZG - Well that's a relative term, we had some classical training.
Dan Lebowitz - Yeah, and had a lot of lessons. That's not really where it came from for us though, were all from more like - we started to play music when we heard music on the radio we liked, and wanted to figure out the songs, and I think from there, we kind of learned to play that way and there it kind of opened up our ears and then in high school as we got along, you know we have grown up since junior high together. In high school were like "Oh, there's a jazz band, lets go be in the jazz band, it would be fun to learn about" and then go to college.
ZG - Yeah, we always just wanted to learn about different styles of music.
TB - So how long have you guys (Zach and Dan) been playing together?
ZG - Well we have been playing together since we were twelve years old and I'm thirty-one now so we have been together almost twenty years.
TB - What really motivated you to do it - as far as being a musician for a profession?
ZG - You know what, I decided in like junior high that I wanted to be a musician on some level you know, like I just thought it would be a good job in comparison to other jobs in the world and I always thought it would a job I would like to do. I went to school and ended up not completely majoring in music and got a degree in history, but I just kind of always knew I wanted to keep doing music even when ALO wasn't happening and we all found ways to make money that still enabled us to keep learning. I used to accompany modern dance classes, play for musicals, like kept doing music at all costs.
TB - Whatever you can do.
ZG - Yeah, just all kinds of music cause for me you know I pretty much like it all, but some stuff if it's to loud I might not be able to expose myself completely to it.
TB - Really the only music I have a problem with is mainsteam because, it has lost all of its substance.
ZG - Yeah, a lot of it has, it's true.
DL - There's some good stuff in there too though.
TB - Like The Counting Crows are good.
DL - Yeah, for while there I was completely against mainstream and then I started to find what I didn't like about the mainstream actually wasn't the music, it was the way that they sell it, is just real cheesy, and then I started listening to some the bands that are real cheesy like -
ZG - Britney Spears.
DL - Yeah, and you like listen to the chords and the melody of the song and then what's cheesy about it is you see her all over the pepsi commercials and stuff like that. And sometimes I think you can take the coolest music and market it that way and it totally sucks.
TB - (laughs) ALO's Britney Spears album.
DL - (laughs) Yeah, she's sitting in on our next album.
TB - Speaking of which, I know you have incorporated a few new songs into the set, do you have any idea when the next album should be out?
DL - Fall, yeah were riding around in the bus right now selecting songs that will be on the next album.
TB - Touring always helps get the set tight before you go to the studio to record it.
ZG - Yeah well you know we kind of want to have a little more ah, I think we we're definitely thinking with this album, we want to just go in there with some stuff the way we play it live, but some stuff we just want to spend some time experimenting in the studio without like a real firm agenda, just kind of like laying down some stuff and seeing what happens, because sometimes you get in there and it's all this time and money business you know, it's like you got an idea and it's really hard you know you kind of get inspired but geez this could take me like hours to see if this really works, and in studio time that's hundreds of dollars.
DL - Thousands.
ZG - And you never know if your little idea is going to pan out into anything. I think we have all kind of opened ourselves up to the idea of allowing for some of that you know.
DL - Kind of like we got it set so we can go in and we have a chunk of material that we know is solid, but then with the album, basically give it time and do more songs than we need for the album so if some of the things that we allowed time to pan out, don't work then we can just ditch it and use something we know will work.
KG - And you play all the new songs at shows before you put it on a cd?
DL - In the past we did that but not as much anymore, like we have some new ones that -
ZG - We haven't played live intentionally so they will be fresh.
DL - Because sometimeS you play these songs live for a year or two and then go to the studio and go like "this is old stuff."
ZG - And sometime you feel like a song has a lifespan and fits in with a time and place, and so you'll start playing it when the album comes out and then by the next album your not really in love with that song anymore because it's played out. You got to be careful not to wear things out before they get a chance.
TB - So what have you been listening to in you downtime on the bus.
ZG - Yeah, you know I haven't listened too much, I bought a bunch of cd's on this trip. I bought the Raconteurs but I haven't gotten a chance to listen to it yet.
TB - With Jack White and Brendan Benson?
ZG - Yeah, I haven't listened to it yet but I want to check it. I bought some flaming lips stuff.
TB - Do you like the new one?
ZG - I do like the new one, I like it a lot.
DL - We have been listening to Gnarls Barkely.
TB - Yeah my ringtone is "crazy" right now.
DL - There's some good mainstream stuff.
ZG - Yeah, there's a lot of new music out there that, if it's good it will eventually become mainstream and then you have to make the choice whether to stick with it or get on the new thing that hasn't been discovered yet.
TB - Have you ever heard of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah?
ZG - I've heard of them.
TB - They(CYHSY) have a weird sound and it's really good but if they had gone to a record label, they (the label) would have changed it all around.
ZG - Yeah and see that's the thing, you know I suppose that's what's cool is when something kind of develops on it's own and it's got a long gestation period, and then when it gets to a label it's already what it is and then the label won't change it.
TB - So do you have any crazy stories from time on the road?
DL - Nothing to crazy really.
ZG - Yeah, this bus is pretty crazy when it starts moving. Definitely learning to sleep with all the stuff on the bus rattling around is kind of weird, but it's starting to feel all pretty normal now. There's always like a time, your getting use to it all. There hasn't been anything to crazy, usually there's something weird will happen but nothing on this trip has happened like that, it's all been pretty good. Oh yeah, we blew a tire but I slept through it though (laughs). And Brandon is driving the bus so it's been nice to have a driver so we can sleep and roll at the same time.
KG - How were the Dave Matthews shows, and what was the scene like?
DL - It was fun man, the crowd the crowd seemed to like what we were doing.
ZG - He was real nice.
DL - Yeah, real nice guy, we hung out with him almost every night.
ZG - He's got a lot of lights, and screens, and tons of stuff happening, which I thought was pretty cool.
TB - I know on the Jack Johnson DVD it showed you (Zach) and Jack Johnson playing ping pong, who do you think overall is the better ping pong player?
DL - You guys are pretty equal.
ZG - Well, Jack could beat me under most circumstances in ping pong but there are certain circumstances where I have the advantage. But it was funny, cause in the DVD he keeps trying to do this trick, trying to humiliate me, but he couldn't get it, which is pretty rad because normally he always can fake me out on it.
TB - So there was just like a random ping pong table at the venue?
ZG - Yeah, no we brought a ping pong table with us on tour.
KG - That's awesome.
Corey Smith Interview
Tim Baker – So when did you really first start playing the guitar?
Corey Smith – I mean I really started playing it seriously when I was fifteen, that’s when I really, I was like yeah I’m going to learn how to play this. But my dad always played guitar, my uncle played guitar, I was always around music so it was like even before I learned how to play, I would have a guitar in my hands and just mess around and my dad would show me little things here and there. I’ve been around a guitar since I was born and that’s why I think it comes more naturally to me.
TB – When do you remember playing your first “live show”?
CS – In high school – I wasn’t really known for anything you know and I talk about it in some of my songs, a nameless face in the crowd. I come from a small town in Georgia called Jefferson and it was always the athletes got all the recognition and I was making my way through school and I came into drama when I was in ninth grade I started doing like plays and stuff and really liked performing and that was the same time I was starting to learn to play the guitar and so I think my sophomore or junior year of high school we did these dinner theaters where we performed these plays that we practiced and then before hand there would be entertainment and so I had like one of the leading roles in the play and also they let me perform a song and up until that point like no one even knew who I was you know and it was like the day after that, so many people just coming up to me saying “that was awesome, we really enjoyed that” and that was just for me, it just turned things around for me. I knew at that point if I was going to make any kind of name for myself I was going to have to do it through music.
TB – I know Jefferson, where you grew up isn’t to far from Athens, Georgia, what were your favorite bars to hangout at?
CS – I had a bunch of them over the years. When I was in school we had a place called Lowry's Tavern which was like a pool hall night club and when I was fifteen I got a fake ID and it was kind of weird that all this started at the same time I started playing the guitar and started writing songs, stuff like that, about the age of fifteen or sixteen. When I was fifteen I got my first fake ID and would sneak up to Lowry’s on Thursday nights and there would be this nickel night, so we would literally save up our change all week and go up there on Thursday’s – and I got kicked out probably more times than I was allowed to stay. Then there was another place called O’Malley’s but Lowry’s was really our place.
TB – You graduated from UGA in 2001, did you major in music?
CS – No, I was a teacher, I was a teacher full time high school teacher and I loved it.
TB – And would you ever want to go back to that?
CS – Yeah, I think there will hopefully be a day when I can go back to it. I always told my kids that, because they always knew I played music, that the ideal teaching job would be one where you didn’t have to worry about money – and maybe when I go back I’ll be teaching music, or music business, or songwriting or something like that.
TB – Was it hard switching from the college life and going out every night to settling down and having a family?
CS – Yeah, I think that whole era, and I think in that first album a lot of that came out, there was a lot of settling – all this pressure that comes along with settling down, getting married, feeling like I’m married and I have a job now so I’m supposed to quit drinking, and I’m supposed to quit saying bad words or whatever. Its real tough and I went through this phase where I thought I needed to tuck in my shirt and wear sweater vests and ties and it just felt for this whole length of time, just so uneasy, and uncomfortable with life because I felt like, I wasn’t choosing anymore because I felt like I wasn’t choosing anymore and it was being forced on me. It was really tough for a while until the music started doing a lot better and I realized, wow I can still – that was another thing, when I settled down and got married, got the teaching job, music was pushed to the side, and it was basically a forgotten dream and I never thought I would do anything with it. I still wrote songs as my way of coping with everything but, it was kind of miserable in a lot of ways.
TB – You taught high school for about two years?
CS - I did it for about a year, a year and a half and then I eased back into music, started going out an playing more. I played music for my kids at school. I thought that because they were so young, I taught mostly tenth graders, so the generation gap between us was like 10 years so I figured they’re going think I’m this lame ass country musician, and they’re not going to listen to me, but I was real surprised when I started going to school and the kids would ask me to play my songs. I would play my songs and some of them would cry, some would laugh – when I saw that I could reach out to that generation and they would accept me, I was like wow.
TB – What do you think your main motivation for being a musician is?
CS – Now, it’s my family. In the past it hasn’t been, but I think in any field of life I think success depends largely on having your priorities straight. There are a lot of musicians out there who are probably going to keep dreaming and not have a lot of success because they want to do everything for themselves, they want to see their face on TV, and they want to see they’re name in life and get all this attention. To me it’s just not about that. When we had our first kid, and I really realized I was going to have to provide for a family, almost magically when that priority came into place, everything started happening, the way I looked at the world changed. Definitely, one-hundred percent I do it for my family, hoping that I can provide for them financially, hoping that they will be proud of me, hoping that one day the songs I write might leave a legacy and my kids can hear them – and it’s all about them now.
TB – What do you like best about being a musician?
CS – There’s a couple of things. A, obviously the live shows are awesome, to find out that my songs are getting spread out so far and to come to a place like Myrtle Beach, or Jacksonville, Alabama and hear people singing along to my songs, and people coming up to me and telling me how moved they have been – that’s awesome. It really makes me feel alive to be that connected to people and to the audience. Also, having the freedom to write songs now for a living is definitely nice.
TB – Do you let your songs come to you or do you just sit down see what comes out?
CS – It happens different ways, some of them just kind of happen, it’s like everything lines up and they are there and their done. Most of them don’t work that way though, most of them are a lot of work for me. I was one of those guys, who was never a great guitar player, or a great singer, or I wasn’t really good looking, and I didn’t have muscles, I had all these things that were kind of working against me. I didn’t tour with a big band, and I felt like the only way I’m going to do this, is I’m going to have to take my songwriting ability and make the most of it. I made up my mind, I’m going to write the nest songs I can possibly write and so I put a lot of time and thought into them. Most songs, I draw them from life. I’ll get a musical idea, I’ll hear a melody or have a chord progression and an arrangement and the music kind of set out and then I’ll just wait for life to take its course and usually some idea comes to or some words come to me and I just run with them, usually its my way of coping with things.
TB – I know “The Good Life” was released in November of 2005, when do you think your next album will be out?
CS – To tell you the truth, I’m really excited about the new songs I’ve been writing. I just feel like I’ve been able to develop so much as a writer since I’ve been able to do this full time, and I’m just really excited about them. I’ve already got an album’s worth of material, but now we are just deciding on when the best time to do it. Right now I’m touring so much I really don’t have time to go into the studio and do my best. I think we are kind of torn between doing a live album and have it come out in the fall, or rush a studio album. Realistically I think it will be another year before we can get another studio album done, but we will probably have a live album before then.
TB – So you definitely think you have grown with your music, as far as writing about different topics?
CS – I’ve learned how to be honest with myself. I’ve got a lot more courage now. I feel that my fans have been so accepting of my music so far that I just write what I feel, and some of it might be cheesy and some of it might expose my weaknesses as a person, but I think that’s the only reason the fans have really attached to what I’m doing. I’ll just keep doing that and hopefully I’ll keep doing that and hopefully I’ll keep getting better at it and be able to communicate more clearly to the fans.
TB – Have you incorporated any songs that will be on your next album into your current set?
CS – I think a few of them, you will probably hear a few of them tonight. The song maybe next year which is demoed already is on myspace, an acoustic version of it and that will definitely be on there. I’ve got another one called – actually there are several that I don’t even have names for. A lot of times I won’t put a title on the song until I put it on the album. I’ll probably do two or three off the new album tonight.
TB – Do you still have your friends doing your management?
CS – No, I really as my fanbase grew and the business grew over the past few years I had all friends that really helped me out in the beginning and it just grew to be so big we just couldn’t manage it anymore so I have a professional management agency. They are my friends, don’t get me wrong, I have a management company and a booking agency, and an attorney and an accountant – a team of people who I just have to trust with everything.
TB – So you don’t see yourself signing to a label anytime soon?
CS – Well I’m not going to count anything out but I think the relationship between me and the label would have to be right on. I think the problem, especially with people who are more country is that the country acts go to Nashville and sign a record label and they are just wanting to be famous and so the label calls the shots. Well here is what your going to need to do, your going to need to write songs or buy songs that sound like this –
TB – Kenney Chesney.
CS – Yeah, you end up with this really generic kind of sound that the labels manufacture because it’s a product that they know is going to sell. But most of those people who are in that position who sign those kind of deals, they don’t have any alternatives. They don’t have a fanbase, they’re not touring, they have a pretty voice and a pretty face and maybe some good songs and so they’re willing to what it takes, and if it takes signing their life away, then they will do it. But I feel like, now we are able to do this, and we won’t have a major label – it’s just a couple of guys who care about what is going on. If we get to a point that a label meets us, and they will allow us to do our own thing then that will be a great relationship.
TB – You sold out a show at “The Roxy” in Georgia, what was that like?
CS – That was awesome, those big theaters like The Roxy and The Georgia Theater, because they are so close to home I’ve known the bands, or seen the bands that come there and just to be in that caliber, is pretty rewarding. I think tonight is going to be that way. We aren’t going to sell out the House of Blues, don’t get me wrong, but I think there is going to be a really good crowd here. It’s always great to come to a well known venue like the House of Blues and do well.
TB – Would you rather play a small bar/coffee shop or play a show like the one tonight with a thousand plus people?
CS – I like playing both, I would say it’s like comparing apples and oranges which are so different. I think the amount of energy in a show like this which is a thousand or more people, it’s unparalleled you know? To hear that many people singing along –
TB – But its also cool to do a small show.
CS – It’s great also having a few people in a room who are listening to every word and not singing along and not getting wasted, they’re in there absorbing the music and those are great to. It’s weird, as we have developed, we started out in those kind of venues – coffee shops, small little bars where everyone is quiet and listening. You might only have twenty people in there but they are twenty people who are totally into it. And then we grew to this level where it’s mainly college clubs and everybody’s wasted and there’s cigarette smoke everywhere, and people are singing along but they are also getting wasted beyond belief, half of them can’t remember the show. Then you grow from there and get to a room like this and eventually you kind of get to the point where you can go back to the smaller shows, which is what I’m really looking forward to, which is going back to the shows where I can really connect with the people.
TB – Do you see yourself doing this for the rest of your life or going back to teaching sometime?
CS – I don’t know, I don’t know what the future is going to bring. I would like to think that I will always be playing and singing and writing songs. I’d also like to think that in a few years I’ll be able to chill out more and be at home with my family and raise my kids more. It’s hard to say man, I would have never thought that I would be where I am right now, a year ago, so the future is a really uncertain thing for me right now.
TB – Right now, you just play with Jason, but would you ever consider making your act a full band?
CS – We have talked about that some. Right now, I’ll say me and Jason have a great relationship and I can’t imagine finding a full band of people who click like me and Jason do. Man it’s hard to say it’s so cool though to be able to come to these rooms where it’s normally full bands and be able to do the numbers that we do and have the kind of shows that we have. So many fans seem to like it now, it’s kind of like “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. I’d hate to bring in a full band and then people not like it. It’s definitely a big step, and if we do it, we will definitely do it gradually.
TB – So what have you been listening to in your downtime on the bus while you have been traveling?
CS – I listen to so much now. We listen to a lot of Derryl Scott who’s just a great songwriter that is around now. We have been listening to everything from The Rolling Stones to Paul Simon. I’ve been listening to Will Hoge lately, Bruce Springsteen, but it all changes. When I grew up I was always into everything from Nirvana, to Jodeci, to Tupac, to Hootie and the Blowfish. Now a days, who out there only listens to one kind of music anymore, it just doesn’t work there. With the TV and the internet, people are exposed to all kind of music.
TB – Do you have a preference to the type of beer you drink?
CS – I’m a bud light guy. I drink beer now because the liquor got to much for me. If I really had my choice, I would just want a double shot of Jim Beam but I don’t get to do that so much anymore.
TB – If you could bring back any one band, or artist, who has broken up or is dead, who would it be?
CS – Awe, wow that’s a good question, there is so many of them – Woody Guthrie maybe? That is a tough question, I’ll have to get back to you on that one.
Corey Smith – I mean I really started playing it seriously when I was fifteen, that’s when I really, I was like yeah I’m going to learn how to play this. But my dad always played guitar, my uncle played guitar, I was always around music so it was like even before I learned how to play, I would have a guitar in my hands and just mess around and my dad would show me little things here and there. I’ve been around a guitar since I was born and that’s why I think it comes more naturally to me.
TB – When do you remember playing your first “live show”?
CS – In high school – I wasn’t really known for anything you know and I talk about it in some of my songs, a nameless face in the crowd. I come from a small town in Georgia called Jefferson and it was always the athletes got all the recognition and I was making my way through school and I came into drama when I was in ninth grade I started doing like plays and stuff and really liked performing and that was the same time I was starting to learn to play the guitar and so I think my sophomore or junior year of high school we did these dinner theaters where we performed these plays that we practiced and then before hand there would be entertainment and so I had like one of the leading roles in the play and also they let me perform a song and up until that point like no one even knew who I was you know and it was like the day after that, so many people just coming up to me saying “that was awesome, we really enjoyed that” and that was just for me, it just turned things around for me. I knew at that point if I was going to make any kind of name for myself I was going to have to do it through music.
TB – I know Jefferson, where you grew up isn’t to far from Athens, Georgia, what were your favorite bars to hangout at?
CS – I had a bunch of them over the years. When I was in school we had a place called Lowry's Tavern which was like a pool hall night club and when I was fifteen I got a fake ID and it was kind of weird that all this started at the same time I started playing the guitar and started writing songs, stuff like that, about the age of fifteen or sixteen. When I was fifteen I got my first fake ID and would sneak up to Lowry’s on Thursday nights and there would be this nickel night, so we would literally save up our change all week and go up there on Thursday’s – and I got kicked out probably more times than I was allowed to stay. Then there was another place called O’Malley’s but Lowry’s was really our place.
TB – You graduated from UGA in 2001, did you major in music?
CS – No, I was a teacher, I was a teacher full time high school teacher and I loved it.
TB – And would you ever want to go back to that?
CS – Yeah, I think there will hopefully be a day when I can go back to it. I always told my kids that, because they always knew I played music, that the ideal teaching job would be one where you didn’t have to worry about money – and maybe when I go back I’ll be teaching music, or music business, or songwriting or something like that.
TB – Was it hard switching from the college life and going out every night to settling down and having a family?
CS – Yeah, I think that whole era, and I think in that first album a lot of that came out, there was a lot of settling – all this pressure that comes along with settling down, getting married, feeling like I’m married and I have a job now so I’m supposed to quit drinking, and I’m supposed to quit saying bad words or whatever. Its real tough and I went through this phase where I thought I needed to tuck in my shirt and wear sweater vests and ties and it just felt for this whole length of time, just so uneasy, and uncomfortable with life because I felt like, I wasn’t choosing anymore because I felt like I wasn’t choosing anymore and it was being forced on me. It was really tough for a while until the music started doing a lot better and I realized, wow I can still – that was another thing, when I settled down and got married, got the teaching job, music was pushed to the side, and it was basically a forgotten dream and I never thought I would do anything with it. I still wrote songs as my way of coping with everything but, it was kind of miserable in a lot of ways.
TB – You taught high school for about two years?
CS - I did it for about a year, a year and a half and then I eased back into music, started going out an playing more. I played music for my kids at school. I thought that because they were so young, I taught mostly tenth graders, so the generation gap between us was like 10 years so I figured they’re going think I’m this lame ass country musician, and they’re not going to listen to me, but I was real surprised when I started going to school and the kids would ask me to play my songs. I would play my songs and some of them would cry, some would laugh – when I saw that I could reach out to that generation and they would accept me, I was like wow.
TB – What do you think your main motivation for being a musician is?
CS – Now, it’s my family. In the past it hasn’t been, but I think in any field of life I think success depends largely on having your priorities straight. There are a lot of musicians out there who are probably going to keep dreaming and not have a lot of success because they want to do everything for themselves, they want to see their face on TV, and they want to see they’re name in life and get all this attention. To me it’s just not about that. When we had our first kid, and I really realized I was going to have to provide for a family, almost magically when that priority came into place, everything started happening, the way I looked at the world changed. Definitely, one-hundred percent I do it for my family, hoping that I can provide for them financially, hoping that they will be proud of me, hoping that one day the songs I write might leave a legacy and my kids can hear them – and it’s all about them now.
TB – What do you like best about being a musician?
CS – There’s a couple of things. A, obviously the live shows are awesome, to find out that my songs are getting spread out so far and to come to a place like Myrtle Beach, or Jacksonville, Alabama and hear people singing along to my songs, and people coming up to me and telling me how moved they have been – that’s awesome. It really makes me feel alive to be that connected to people and to the audience. Also, having the freedom to write songs now for a living is definitely nice.
TB – Do you let your songs come to you or do you just sit down see what comes out?
CS – It happens different ways, some of them just kind of happen, it’s like everything lines up and they are there and their done. Most of them don’t work that way though, most of them are a lot of work for me. I was one of those guys, who was never a great guitar player, or a great singer, or I wasn’t really good looking, and I didn’t have muscles, I had all these things that were kind of working against me. I didn’t tour with a big band, and I felt like the only way I’m going to do this, is I’m going to have to take my songwriting ability and make the most of it. I made up my mind, I’m going to write the nest songs I can possibly write and so I put a lot of time and thought into them. Most songs, I draw them from life. I’ll get a musical idea, I’ll hear a melody or have a chord progression and an arrangement and the music kind of set out and then I’ll just wait for life to take its course and usually some idea comes to or some words come to me and I just run with them, usually its my way of coping with things.
TB – I know “The Good Life” was released in November of 2005, when do you think your next album will be out?
CS – To tell you the truth, I’m really excited about the new songs I’ve been writing. I just feel like I’ve been able to develop so much as a writer since I’ve been able to do this full time, and I’m just really excited about them. I’ve already got an album’s worth of material, but now we are just deciding on when the best time to do it. Right now I’m touring so much I really don’t have time to go into the studio and do my best. I think we are kind of torn between doing a live album and have it come out in the fall, or rush a studio album. Realistically I think it will be another year before we can get another studio album done, but we will probably have a live album before then.
TB – So you definitely think you have grown with your music, as far as writing about different topics?
CS – I’ve learned how to be honest with myself. I’ve got a lot more courage now. I feel that my fans have been so accepting of my music so far that I just write what I feel, and some of it might be cheesy and some of it might expose my weaknesses as a person, but I think that’s the only reason the fans have really attached to what I’m doing. I’ll just keep doing that and hopefully I’ll keep doing that and hopefully I’ll keep getting better at it and be able to communicate more clearly to the fans.
TB – Have you incorporated any songs that will be on your next album into your current set?
CS – I think a few of them, you will probably hear a few of them tonight. The song maybe next year which is demoed already is on myspace, an acoustic version of it and that will definitely be on there. I’ve got another one called – actually there are several that I don’t even have names for. A lot of times I won’t put a title on the song until I put it on the album. I’ll probably do two or three off the new album tonight.
TB – Do you still have your friends doing your management?
CS – No, I really as my fanbase grew and the business grew over the past few years I had all friends that really helped me out in the beginning and it just grew to be so big we just couldn’t manage it anymore so I have a professional management agency. They are my friends, don’t get me wrong, I have a management company and a booking agency, and an attorney and an accountant – a team of people who I just have to trust with everything.
TB – So you don’t see yourself signing to a label anytime soon?
CS – Well I’m not going to count anything out but I think the relationship between me and the label would have to be right on. I think the problem, especially with people who are more country is that the country acts go to Nashville and sign a record label and they are just wanting to be famous and so the label calls the shots. Well here is what your going to need to do, your going to need to write songs or buy songs that sound like this –
TB – Kenney Chesney.
CS – Yeah, you end up with this really generic kind of sound that the labels manufacture because it’s a product that they know is going to sell. But most of those people who are in that position who sign those kind of deals, they don’t have any alternatives. They don’t have a fanbase, they’re not touring, they have a pretty voice and a pretty face and maybe some good songs and so they’re willing to what it takes, and if it takes signing their life away, then they will do it. But I feel like, now we are able to do this, and we won’t have a major label – it’s just a couple of guys who care about what is going on. If we get to a point that a label meets us, and they will allow us to do our own thing then that will be a great relationship.
TB – You sold out a show at “The Roxy” in Georgia, what was that like?
CS – That was awesome, those big theaters like The Roxy and The Georgia Theater, because they are so close to home I’ve known the bands, or seen the bands that come there and just to be in that caliber, is pretty rewarding. I think tonight is going to be that way. We aren’t going to sell out the House of Blues, don’t get me wrong, but I think there is going to be a really good crowd here. It’s always great to come to a well known venue like the House of Blues and do well.
TB – Would you rather play a small bar/coffee shop or play a show like the one tonight with a thousand plus people?
CS – I like playing both, I would say it’s like comparing apples and oranges which are so different. I think the amount of energy in a show like this which is a thousand or more people, it’s unparalleled you know? To hear that many people singing along –
TB – But its also cool to do a small show.
CS – It’s great also having a few people in a room who are listening to every word and not singing along and not getting wasted, they’re in there absorbing the music and those are great to. It’s weird, as we have developed, we started out in those kind of venues – coffee shops, small little bars where everyone is quiet and listening. You might only have twenty people in there but they are twenty people who are totally into it. And then we grew to this level where it’s mainly college clubs and everybody’s wasted and there’s cigarette smoke everywhere, and people are singing along but they are also getting wasted beyond belief, half of them can’t remember the show. Then you grow from there and get to a room like this and eventually you kind of get to the point where you can go back to the smaller shows, which is what I’m really looking forward to, which is going back to the shows where I can really connect with the people.
TB – Do you see yourself doing this for the rest of your life or going back to teaching sometime?
CS – I don’t know, I don’t know what the future is going to bring. I would like to think that I will always be playing and singing and writing songs. I’d also like to think that in a few years I’ll be able to chill out more and be at home with my family and raise my kids more. It’s hard to say man, I would have never thought that I would be where I am right now, a year ago, so the future is a really uncertain thing for me right now.
TB – Right now, you just play with Jason, but would you ever consider making your act a full band?
CS – We have talked about that some. Right now, I’ll say me and Jason have a great relationship and I can’t imagine finding a full band of people who click like me and Jason do. Man it’s hard to say it’s so cool though to be able to come to these rooms where it’s normally full bands and be able to do the numbers that we do and have the kind of shows that we have. So many fans seem to like it now, it’s kind of like “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. I’d hate to bring in a full band and then people not like it. It’s definitely a big step, and if we do it, we will definitely do it gradually.
TB – So what have you been listening to in your downtime on the bus while you have been traveling?
CS – I listen to so much now. We listen to a lot of Derryl Scott who’s just a great songwriter that is around now. We have been listening to everything from The Rolling Stones to Paul Simon. I’ve been listening to Will Hoge lately, Bruce Springsteen, but it all changes. When I grew up I was always into everything from Nirvana, to Jodeci, to Tupac, to Hootie and the Blowfish. Now a days, who out there only listens to one kind of music anymore, it just doesn’t work there. With the TV and the internet, people are exposed to all kind of music.
TB – Do you have a preference to the type of beer you drink?
CS – I’m a bud light guy. I drink beer now because the liquor got to much for me. If I really had my choice, I would just want a double shot of Jim Beam but I don’t get to do that so much anymore.
TB – If you could bring back any one band, or artist, who has broken up or is dead, who would it be?
CS – Awe, wow that’s a good question, there is so many of them – Woody Guthrie maybe? That is a tough question, I’ll have to get back to you on that one.
Jason Kenney Interview
Tim Baker – I guess the biggest question I have for you, is what happened with Corey Smith?
Jason Kenney – (chuckling) Well, that’s a hard one.
TB – Because ya’ll were so good together.
JK – I definitely agree with that – we had a good thing going. It started out real informal…I met Corey when I was sixteen in a bar in Georgia, in my hometown of Dahlonega, Georgia. We talked and he asked to play on his cd, “In the Mood.” So I played on the cd and then some of the cd release parties. Basically, he just called me whenever he wanted me to play. So pretty much every gig, he would call me, and over the last three years we have worked really closely. There are so many things I could say about that, but because I’m Corey’s friend, I don’t want to say a lot of them. One of the big reasons for leaving was, I had spent three years of my life playing Corey Smith’s music—and initially I could still play my own gigs and still do my own thing. But then it to where, I was half of the show, and I had to be there for all the shows. We were touring so much, for the last year especially, five nights a week, and I never had any time to do my own thing. So once certain events went down and I saw where things were going, which I will say that, I really like the direction things are going. It just seemed like the right thing for me to do was to get out, and concentrate on the music which I really love.
TB – That’s very understandable. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Corey’s music and he’s a great guy, but taking you away from his live performance really kills it.
JK – And I’m really sorry to Corey for that, but I know he’ll truck on, I know he’s got a violinist and stand-up bass player with him now. So it will be a different show, but I’m sure the quality will be there.
TB – You grew up in Dahlonega, where you met Corey, and you obviously are very good guitar player. Did you have any help learning to play the guitar, or were you mostly self taught?
JK – Well I got into blue grass when I was fourteen because my girlfriend was into it and she played the bass. Actually her whole family played and her brother was this awesome mandolin player who went to all these national competitions and was just really good. So I started playing guitar because I met them when I was fourteen, and so they would show me stuff. I really just immersed myself in blue grass and just surrounded myself with people who were better than me, and played with them. In a way I taught myself, but I also learned from all the people I have played with in the past. I also listened to a lot of records, which really helped me out a lot.
TB – Your songwriting is pretty unique, do just let your music come to you, or do you sit down and write?
JK – Everytime I try to make myself do it, it comes out wrong. It’s actually funny that you asked that. The other day, me and one of my good friends, and amazing songwriter, Jeffrey Learner were talking about how music is like a butterfly. You have got this butterfly, and you can try to capture that butterfly and hold on to it and keep it for a really long time. Or you can let the butterfly go and experience it for what its worth. Music is like that, in that music is already floating in the room, its already floating all around us. The key is to tune into the music and letting it flow through you. You don’t have to capture it… when you try to capture it, that’s when stuff comes out convoluted and insincere. So that’s why I try my hardest to just open myself up to the music that’s around me. I don’t like thinking what I’m writing about because it just takes the honesty out of it. That way, I can learn too, while I write the songs.
TB- Your debut LP, “Without Sidewalks” has some great stories in the songs. Are there any interesting things that helped inspire those songs?
JK- Well a lot of the songs (about half), are traditional songs and then the other half are songs that I wrote by myself, or were co-written. I write different than most people write. Most people write about one specific thing and that’s it, there’s no question what it’s about. I like to write about things that could be about a lot of different ideas, that mean something to me, but could mean, something completely different to someone else. So I kind of veer away from telling people what my songs are about just to kind of “keep the magic.”
TB – “To each his own.”
JK – Exactly, but those songs(“Without Sidewalks) are about two years old, and I’ve got a lot of new material that I’m about to go in the studio and record. I’ve also been writing a lot with Lara Polangco and I’m really just in a different place then I was then.
TB – So do you think you will record a separate album aside from your band (The Family Honor)?
JK – Actually we (The Family Honor) have about two or three more songs to finish up and then the album will be done. The Family Honor is really my drive these days
TB – And did you write a lot of material that will be on the Family Honor album?
JK – Yeah, I wrote four or five songs and Lara wrote a lot of it too.
TB – This is a broad question, but what really entices you about music…what makes you so passionate for this profession?
JK – Depending on how I feel, its for different reasons but its consistently a drive. I read this quote not to long ago that said “without music, life would be meaningless.” I feel like that music is one of those mysterious elements in the world. It’s always been there in nature all over the place and it just makes sense, ‘of course I play music’, it’s like my connection with God and myself. Music is a way to expand the boundaries and to just express how I feel to get all of the extra energy out, to help people. You can do so many things with music, all at the same time. Music is one the most versatile and easily accessible mediums. Pretty much everyone listens to music. Not everyone looks at art and not everyone appreciates…gardening (chuckles). Even though there is just as much art in that, music is just a much more broad medium of exchange.
TB – A universal language.
JK – Exactly, I can go over to Japan and sing a melody and the people wouldn’t understand a word I was saying, but still get the message
TB – Growing up in Dahlonega, Georgia…what do you think your biggest musical influences were?
JK – It’s weird, because I was pretty much lost until I was about fourteen, and then I found blue grass. The reason I got into blue grass is because it’s the first music I heard that had soul. I didn’t really know that at the time, but something was drawing me to it.
After bluegrass, which got old after a while, I got really into Bob Dylan who was a huge influence, and then John Prine, Patti Griffin, Darrell Scott, really just a lot of different things. I like a lot of independent song writers that noone has ever heard of.
TB – So what have you been listening to lately?
JK – It’s kind of funny, actually that you asked that because I have been listening to a lot of Hindu music lately – I love Indian music. Their music is just completely different, they just have a whole different scale than we use in western music…they have quarter tones. I’ve actually been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan and Elliot Smith to.\
TB – If you could bring back any one artist that is either dead or broken up…who would it be?
JK – The Band, no question…they were great. They were like the ultimate band, maybe the best band that ever lived, as a whole you know.
Jason Kenney – (chuckling) Well, that’s a hard one.
TB – Because ya’ll were so good together.
JK – I definitely agree with that – we had a good thing going. It started out real informal…I met Corey when I was sixteen in a bar in Georgia, in my hometown of Dahlonega, Georgia. We talked and he asked to play on his cd, “In the Mood.” So I played on the cd and then some of the cd release parties. Basically, he just called me whenever he wanted me to play. So pretty much every gig, he would call me, and over the last three years we have worked really closely. There are so many things I could say about that, but because I’m Corey’s friend, I don’t want to say a lot of them. One of the big reasons for leaving was, I had spent three years of my life playing Corey Smith’s music—and initially I could still play my own gigs and still do my own thing. But then it to where, I was half of the show, and I had to be there for all the shows. We were touring so much, for the last year especially, five nights a week, and I never had any time to do my own thing. So once certain events went down and I saw where things were going, which I will say that, I really like the direction things are going. It just seemed like the right thing for me to do was to get out, and concentrate on the music which I really love.
TB – That’s very understandable. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Corey’s music and he’s a great guy, but taking you away from his live performance really kills it.
JK – And I’m really sorry to Corey for that, but I know he’ll truck on, I know he’s got a violinist and stand-up bass player with him now. So it will be a different show, but I’m sure the quality will be there.
TB – You grew up in Dahlonega, where you met Corey, and you obviously are very good guitar player. Did you have any help learning to play the guitar, or were you mostly self taught?
JK – Well I got into blue grass when I was fourteen because my girlfriend was into it and she played the bass. Actually her whole family played and her brother was this awesome mandolin player who went to all these national competitions and was just really good. So I started playing guitar because I met them when I was fourteen, and so they would show me stuff. I really just immersed myself in blue grass and just surrounded myself with people who were better than me, and played with them. In a way I taught myself, but I also learned from all the people I have played with in the past. I also listened to a lot of records, which really helped me out a lot.
TB – Your songwriting is pretty unique, do just let your music come to you, or do you sit down and write?
JK – Everytime I try to make myself do it, it comes out wrong. It’s actually funny that you asked that. The other day, me and one of my good friends, and amazing songwriter, Jeffrey Learner were talking about how music is like a butterfly. You have got this butterfly, and you can try to capture that butterfly and hold on to it and keep it for a really long time. Or you can let the butterfly go and experience it for what its worth. Music is like that, in that music is already floating in the room, its already floating all around us. The key is to tune into the music and letting it flow through you. You don’t have to capture it… when you try to capture it, that’s when stuff comes out convoluted and insincere. So that’s why I try my hardest to just open myself up to the music that’s around me. I don’t like thinking what I’m writing about because it just takes the honesty out of it. That way, I can learn too, while I write the songs.
TB- Your debut LP, “Without Sidewalks” has some great stories in the songs. Are there any interesting things that helped inspire those songs?
JK- Well a lot of the songs (about half), are traditional songs and then the other half are songs that I wrote by myself, or were co-written. I write different than most people write. Most people write about one specific thing and that’s it, there’s no question what it’s about. I like to write about things that could be about a lot of different ideas, that mean something to me, but could mean, something completely different to someone else. So I kind of veer away from telling people what my songs are about just to kind of “keep the magic.”
TB – “To each his own.”
JK – Exactly, but those songs(“Without Sidewalks) are about two years old, and I’ve got a lot of new material that I’m about to go in the studio and record. I’ve also been writing a lot with Lara Polangco and I’m really just in a different place then I was then.
TB – So do you think you will record a separate album aside from your band (The Family Honor)?
JK – Actually we (The Family Honor) have about two or three more songs to finish up and then the album will be done. The Family Honor is really my drive these days
TB – And did you write a lot of material that will be on the Family Honor album?
JK – Yeah, I wrote four or five songs and Lara wrote a lot of it too.
TB – This is a broad question, but what really entices you about music…what makes you so passionate for this profession?
JK – Depending on how I feel, its for different reasons but its consistently a drive. I read this quote not to long ago that said “without music, life would be meaningless.” I feel like that music is one of those mysterious elements in the world. It’s always been there in nature all over the place and it just makes sense, ‘of course I play music’, it’s like my connection with God and myself. Music is a way to expand the boundaries and to just express how I feel to get all of the extra energy out, to help people. You can do so many things with music, all at the same time. Music is one the most versatile and easily accessible mediums. Pretty much everyone listens to music. Not everyone looks at art and not everyone appreciates…gardening (chuckles). Even though there is just as much art in that, music is just a much more broad medium of exchange.
TB – A universal language.
JK – Exactly, I can go over to Japan and sing a melody and the people wouldn’t understand a word I was saying, but still get the message
TB – Growing up in Dahlonega, Georgia…what do you think your biggest musical influences were?
JK – It’s weird, because I was pretty much lost until I was about fourteen, and then I found blue grass. The reason I got into blue grass is because it’s the first music I heard that had soul. I didn’t really know that at the time, but something was drawing me to it.
After bluegrass, which got old after a while, I got really into Bob Dylan who was a huge influence, and then John Prine, Patti Griffin, Darrell Scott, really just a lot of different things. I like a lot of independent song writers that noone has ever heard of.
TB – So what have you been listening to lately?
JK – It’s kind of funny, actually that you asked that because I have been listening to a lot of Hindu music lately – I love Indian music. Their music is just completely different, they just have a whole different scale than we use in western music…they have quarter tones. I’ve actually been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan and Elliot Smith to.\
TB – If you could bring back any one artist that is either dead or broken up…who would it be?
JK – The Band, no question…they were great. They were like the ultimate band, maybe the best band that ever lived, as a whole you know.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
