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.