When Lera Lynn takes the stage, there is an undeniable feeling that she is something different – something special. Her sultry voice has a way of wrapping around melodies, enveloping the listener in her lyrics, rife with a plainspoken yet cutthroat honesty. When combined with her chordings, which are distinct, original and timeless in their own right; what is revealed is a songwriting craftsman already well on her way to establishing a niche that is very much her own.

Where did your interest in music come from?

My parents, I guess.  I was probably 19 when I first put a band together.  Is that considered later in life?

You have a lot of kids who sine they were three-years-old knew at that time that they were destined to play music

Oh yeah, that’s always been the case for me too.  I was going to college and trying to focus on that – my parents urging.  I guess I put music off at least playing music full time until I graduated college.

Was music always your goal or was it more of an outlet for you?  When did yo decide this as a career path?

As a child, but I did receive a good bit of discouragement just based on the violability of the industry – it’s so unpredictable.  And my parents really wanted me to invest time in something that was definitely going to provide a payout of substantial sustaining living.

That sounds like my parents.

I know they believed in me musically, but they wanted me to make money and support myself in life. (laughs)

You originally put together a band and then went solo.  Describe to me the benefits and maybe the disadvantage of being a solo artist compared to a member of a band.

Birds On A Wire is what you’re referring to.  We used the moniker Birds On A Wire but it was pretty much structured the same way that my band is now.  I was just playing under a different name.  In fact, I would say my band are all helping work more towards the shared goal that previously, which is ironic.

You’re based in Athens, which has a rich musical legacy.  How do you feel you fit in.

Yeah, Athens has a very discerning audience, but it only helps in the end make you a better artist.

Songwriting can be a very personal thing.  Do you every worry about exposing too much of yourself through your songwriting?

Naw.  I figure the more you can put out there the deeper it cuts. (laughs)

You released your first album last year and you’re trying to wrap up your second one I understand.

We’re not wrapping it up.  We’re working on it right now.  We unfortunately had to lose our previous bass player, Bain Mattox because he’s an entrepreneur and a father and a husband and is deeply rooted and strongly tied to Athens so touring has become difficult for him.  We’ve had to use some of our recording time to get our new bass player up to speed and ready to tour.  We’ll probably get it done in April. 

How would you compare what you are working on now compared to the first album? Is it a continuation of the first?  How have you seen your songwriting progress?

Some of the songs that are on the first album, “Whiskey” was one of the first songs I ever seriously wrote.  That’s the first song on the album.  There were other songs I was considering while writing in the studio.  I just picked songs from a span of ten years that I wrote that I thought would fit together well on an album and put those together.  I entertained the idea of using some older songs for the next album while also writing material.  Ben [Lewis} and I are rehearsing material today of a song tht is not even finished yet that we might put on the album.  I can’ really see a natural prograssion because I don’t record the same way they are written and I’m pulling from a pretty wide timeline here to make what I hope is a cohesive album based on style. Do I thinkit will be a continuation is styles – in some ways yes and some ways no.  Playing with a band full time now obviously influences the way that I write songs because I want there to be room for guitar solos, drums, and that’s not really something that I considered on the songs that were considered on the first album.

Do you like writing more in a band atmosphere than as an individual?

I always try to keep in mind the fact that I will be performing these songs occasionally as a solo act or as a duo.  Therefore they need to be able to stand on their own without the embellishments of the band.  But I do prefer the band – I think.  I like playing in both situations, it depends on the venue and the audience.  Obviously playing with a band is a lot of fun and it’s high energy, but sitting down with a room full of quiet people that are completely captive is rewarding as well in a different level.

You’ve been touring out a lot this last year.  What affect has it had on your skills as a songwriter and performer?

I can definitely see a pretty big improvement just in general performance over the past year – not in just myself but also in the band.  We’ve just become more comfortable mainly with being yourself on stage.  That’s the hardest thing. I think everybody’s a little afraid to truly let go when they’re on stage in front people.  The more you do it, the more comfortable you get with exposing that.  Has touring made me a better songwriter?  Yeah, I’m sure.  Just getting feedback from the audience sort of directs you into what works and what doesn’t. 

How do you go about writing a song?

When it comes to actually writing the music I have to be alone.  It’s hard to throw something out there for the first time as really weird noises come out of you. (laughs) Maybe I’ll get to a place where I’m comfortable doing that in front of my bandmates.  Not right now.  That’s something that’s some top-secret shit. (laughs)

Where do you feel your strength lies – as a songwriter or the way you interpret the songs that you write?

I guess I’m always striving to be a better songwriter.  I can see that as being the area that can use the most improvement for now.  I don’t know.  That’s a hard question to answer.

Are you more comfortable as a songwriter or performer?

I think it’s about even.  They go hand-in-hand for me. 

If you were a salesperson and you had to pitch yourself to me, how would you sell yourself to me?

How do I sell myself?  I guess you could say that the music and a number of genres – there’s something for everyone old and young.  It’s country/Americana music with a twist.  It’s not your average Americana music.  Ben wanted me to add it has balls. (laughs)

 - Dave Weinthal

Lera Lynn performs Thursday night along with Jill Andrews at Rhythm and Brews

The end of 2010 was a traumatic one for Andy Elliott.  The longtime fixture of the Chattanooga music scene woke up one November morning to find his brother and best friend Jeff had died in his sleep. Jeff was Andy’s mentor and sounding board, who kept Andy on the straight and narrow as much as humanly possible as he jumped from band to band.  With Jeff gone there was a massive void now in Andy’s world.  A few weeks later while traveling home from Atlanta around the midway point Andy’s truck hit a patch of black ice and e left the roadway as his car tumbled.  Andy was not wearing his seatbelt at the time and was airlifted to Erlanger hospital with head trauma.  He slowly recovered and regained mobility and through extensive therapy was put back together.  During his recovery music was his therapy as he relearned to play bass, an instrument he mastered playing many years with bands like Little House and Eris, to name a few.  He got the opportunity to join his old pal Peewee Moore in Austin, Texas.  Moore, the leader of the up and coming outlaw country band Peewee Moore and the Awful Dreadful Snakes were looking for a bass player.  It was a match made in heaven.  We just recently talked to Andy about what he faced and his feelings about coming home to Chattanooga for the first time in six months.

How’s everything out in Texas?

It’s cool man.  Before I moved out here with Peewee (Moore), the furthest west I’d been was Louisiana.  Now I’ve been all the way to California.  We played some cool places in Los Angeles and Long Beach.  We played New Mexico.

You have been a fixture of the Chattanooga music scene for quite a long time.  What was it like leaving the security of Chattanooga to head out west?

It’s different out here, especially in Austin.  People are a lot more into the scene than they were in Chattanooga.  There are a lot of musicians and a lot of places to play.

You recently recovered from a serious automobile accident last winter.  Was going to Texas part of your rehabilitation?

That definitely happened.  I still miss all my family and friends there. I’m still having short-term memory problems as far as that goes.  Peewee, some of the songs we do he’ll tell me the name of the song and I’ll be, “okay, what key is that in?” 

Playing with Peewee is a whole lot different than the kind of music you were playing previously.  What kind of adjustment did you have to make?

I’m learning a lot more structures and working a lot more.  I played with Peewee before when Little House split up and we played around the southeast and I played with Roger Alan Wade a little bit, so country isn’t exactly new to me, but it is.  Everything was new to me when I came out of therapy and the hospital.  I had a music therapist that got me started me practicing.  The therapy they got me going lit the torch to play music for a living.  It was at Shepherd Pathways in Atlanta, Georgia. I owe them so much.  When I got out of the hospital I took the money I had gotten and bought a bass for them and donated it to the charity.

Do you feel music has helped you in recovering from the accident?

So much.  100 percent, that’s what’s done it the most.

How are things going with the Awful Dreadful Snakes?

It’s going good.  We’re 16 on the country charts.  I think we’re the only people in the top 50 to 100 that aren’t signed.  And we’re still climbing.

So how has the climate change been for you?

I’m liking the weather.  We had one cold night when we were going through Arizona, and man it hurt the whole left side of my body.  So I’m not really missing the weather. (laughs) I like it warm out here.

What has the band got going on?  Are you working on a new album?

Yeah, it will be out in the spring.

What is your involvement with this band compared with others you’ve been associated with?  Is it more of a collaborative experience than in the other projects you’ve worked on?

It’s different living with Peewee.  We’re constantly around each other so much.  Everything I have questions about, it different not in a good way or a bad way. He’s been helping me.  I guess taking on a new style of music is a little different for me, especially playing any kind of music after this wreck.  I had to learn everything over.

What do you miss most about Chattanooga?

My family and friends. 

Is the band more therapy for you or do you see it as a long-term project?

I see it both ways. 

What’s the best experience you’ve taken part in since joining the Awful Dreadful Snakes?

Meeting new people, playing a new style of music and I’m really enjoying it.  We actually travel around and see different places I’ve never seen before.

It’s a whole different world out there, isn’t it?

Oh yeah. (laughs)

What are you looking forward to most now?

Well, I went into my doctor today and he’s like, “what do you do for work?”  I said, “I’m a musician.”  And that felt good to say.  That was always the second thing.  I had to pay bills and play music on the side and now music is number one for me.  And that’s a great feeling.

 - Dave Weinthal

Peewee Moore and the Awful Dreadful Snakes perform Thursday night at Rhythm and Brews with special guest Lew Card.

Jordan Hallquist is a singer/songwriter hailing from Chattanooga. He began singing at the age of 3 and picked up his first instrument at 10. He hasn’t stopped since.

When did the bug to play music bite you?

Really, it started at a real young age.  I grew up in a family – my dad’s side of the family is very musical and my grandmother even back in the ’30s was singing on a radio station where my family is originally from up in the Massachusetts area.  So, it’s always kind of been there.  Doing it full time really hit right after high school.  That is when I really started thinking about it and trying to pursue it.  I was about 18 or 19 at that point.  I really started looking at different options to play music full time and what I needed to do to get started.

What kind of situation was it being a transplanted northerner coming down south to play music?

Well, I got transplanted down here at a very young age.  My family moved down here when I was about two or three.  This has always been home.  I’ve been there for a lot of visits. I have been up there visiting the scene and its apples and oranges between music scenes north of here – not in a bad way, but very different.  It’s always been cool.  Music has always been a firm part of a lot of heritage down here in the south  - especially here in Chattanooga.  With it being such a small town and being such a vibrant music scene a lot of things revolve around music in general.  It’s been a great experience, man.  No regrets at all. 

What has rounded your style of music?

One would definitely be my parents with my dad having such a musical background.  His opinion on certain things have shaped me.  As far as music style and genre goes I grew up on two very different styles of music.  My mom was a devout Atheist and kind of a stoner from the ‘60s and ‘70s.  My father was a devout Catholic, so I lived with both sides of it.  My father was more into the gospel stuff, more straight-laced stuff. He was big into the crooners – Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Louis Armstrong – that sort of thing.  I kind of had a good mixture of both kinds of that – one being very conservative and one being more mainstream. It’s really evolved into what my style of music is now.  Later my theme, I really started to get into a lot of blues artists – Sonny Landreth, a great guitar picker.  I started to get into Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, that sort of stuff.  My mother was into some of that stuff as well.  Vocalists, I was into Janis Joplin quite a bit.  She was into a lot of the outlaw country stuff, too.  It’s been a really big kaleidoscope of genres that really shaped me into what type of music I’m doing now.  As most rock and roll guys will agree that rock and roll is always going to have a foundation of blues music. It’s definitely shaped itself more into a roots style or genre with kind of a blues edge to it. 

You’re about to release your third CD.  How have you seen your music evolve?

Very much so.  The first time I stepped into a recording studio I was trying to just write good songs – not necessarily from a lot of experiences, and not necessarily from a lot of personal beliefs, but just to write good songs – something people could connect to.  I found over time that people really connect to your own personal story.  And that’s why musicians do what we do is in order to put our own unique stories out there or our unique twists on songs.  Really, there is so much talent out there in the world that anybody that has a little bit of musical talent can write a very good song.  But the songs I think resonate the most are the ones that come from your own personal experiences and from your own personal beliefs.  That’s really where I ended up at and hopefully keep evolving into that.  I’ve been blessed to live a pretty unique life and pretty blessed life.  I wouldn’t want to keep that from people because maybe they’ll learn from my own experiences and people may be able to expand upon my own experiences in the songs.

What are you looking forward to next?

My goal is to do one album every year.  In the midst of all this there are a lot of songs coming out and the guys I’m playing with – Jeremy Muse and Robert Williams that are backing me up, we’re really getting a lot of inspiration from a lot of things.  We’re able to write a lot of material put some clips on some old songs.  From here on out we’re looking to expand our regional availability and expand our regional influence as well.  We’re definitely always playing Chattanooga, but we’re looking to play outside here a lot.  My solo stuff has taken me outside of Chattanooga quite a bit, but as far as the full band stuff and taking this record out of here, we’re looking to push that forward in 2012.

• Dave Weinthal

Jordan Hallquist will celebrate the release of his newest album, “Broken, Bruised & Scarred.....A Tired Man's Song” Thursday at Rhythm and Brews.  Opening for Jordan will be Noah Collins.

There’s been a commotion stirring downtown of late and this time its good news as it involves creativity and music.

Joker’s Wild is a R&B/hip-hop blending duo who have been at Southern Comfort Steakhouse and Nightclub shooting their first music video for their song, “Long Hair”.

The song, released a little over a month ago has become a viral sensation and last week was the number one downloaded song off Twitter.

The duo is made up of two friends from Huntsville, Lance Rembrandt, who is better known as Lance Songs and Brandon N. Fox better known as Mista Freezy.

Freezy is the hip-hop half of the duo that broke out in 1999 at the age of 14.  Together the two make and eclectic pair. 

“Our style is electrical with a touch of pop/rock and southern rap,” says Freezy.  “I think the styles blend well together and compliment each other.”

While both are from Alabama, Songs has been working in Los Angeles for quite some time and travels between the two cities as he and Freezy work on their first release.

The two met when Freezy was hosting a singer/songwriter showcase.  Songs showed up and performed a number of songs.  “And he showed love,” said Freezy.  “After that we started hanging together.”

The two started coming to each other’s shows and soon they were touring together.

The video for “Long Hair” is being shot by Chattanooga photographer/videographer Melody Hood.  The duo became aware of Hood’s work online and contacted her about shooting their first video.  “I fell in love with her work and contacted her to see  if she would be do it,” said Songs.

Hood took the duo around Chattanooga to scout locations and felt the ambiance and layout of Southern Comfort fit perfectly for their vision of for the video.

A group of twenty and thirty-somethings have spent a few days doing interiors of the club as the duo performs the song onstage to a capacity crowd dancing to the song.

The song is very reminiscent in what is going on with hip-hop as it is mixing melody with spoken word.  “I think it’s time we head something different that the world hears instead of being put in a box,” says Freezy.  “With this we have a platform where we can affect change, because our music, we just want to have music that feels good.”

The duo says there is a message in their music.  “What you will find with us is that we are honest,” says Freezy.  “We’re very hungry and we’re humble.  We do this to uplift people,” he continues.  “We give you the raw truth.”

Hood and Joker’s Wild will wrap up shooting this weekend of the music video and lan to have a release party for the video at the club in the next few weeks.

 - Dave Weinthal

Bloody Red Mess… yes, quite an interesting name.  Meeting BRM, or Adam is quite different from what comes across in his mixtapes.  BRM is a little bit Insane Clown Posse, a little funny at times, almost as if there are multiple personalities inside his slight frame.  But all that aside, is Bloody Red Mess ready to become Chattanooga’s latest great white hope in the world of hip-hop?

What message are you trying to deliver to people?

A bunch of messages put together. Each album is a different message from the last,  My last album’s message was talking about the end of the world and how there’s government conspiracies and it’s just targeting certain issues in the world.  My who album has a mess theory.  There’s the red mess, the green mess and blue mess, which when I finished those albums, they’re going to create a story about the beginning of time and how the world has changed from it’s original loop,

How do you want to be perceived?

I just want my name to be out there, whether it’s good publicity or bad publicity.  It’s not how well I am received. I want to be heard. 

Do you consider yourself a serious artist or a novelty?

A little bit of both, honestly.  I want to have a little bit of humor in my music, but I have that serious side of me where I need to be taken serious,

What skills do you possess?

I honestly think I’m a descent rapper. I’m sure people can argue with that point a lot, but I really feel like I was born to do music.

As his manager I believe he possesses a certain clout with people.  They tend to gravitate towards him.  He’s a very good wordsmith as well.  A lot of bigger name artists have approached him and told him to keep working.

How do you think people will perceive you?

I think there’s going to be the good and the bad.  I feel at first they’re going to take me as a joke until time progresses and my skills develop more.  I believe I have that ability to be taken seriously.

You’re rap goes from hardcore to comic.  How do you know which direction that you’re going to go with when you start?

Honestly, it’s like a mirror thing.  You look in a mirror and you look outside the frame.  My songs are going to be drastically towards depression and darker.  But if I go outside and it’s a sunny day and I’ve got a smile on my face, sunshine in my pocket, then it’s going to be a good day and I’m going to rap about comedy.  There’s no gray area in my music.

So if you never write down your rhymes, do you remember certain ones, or how do you expect people to follow you when they will never hear the same thing twice, technically?

My methods are unorthodox, but after the song is recorded I sit down and then write my lyrics out.  But I usually goes into the studio with an open mind and whatever comes out of my mouth is what comes out of my mouth.  It’s what makes it funny.

Where do you draw inspiration to rap?

I have a lot of different things that inspire me to do certain things.  I’m a big fan of ICP.  They’re part of the reason I do rap.  And a lot of the local people around here like Natural Habitz – there’s a lot of people that inspire me and there’s a lot of things like my life being sick or my mom being sick, it all inspires me to fuel that anger towards where I can get a fan base and keep money coming in.  It’s not really about the money, but it is.  You know what I’m saying? 

Do you consider yourself a poet?

At times.  I can’t just sit here and call myself a poet because if you go back and listen to some of the stuff I said, I’m far from it.  But at times I can be a very witty poet.

What makes you stand out from others?

I’m just different.  You can’t rally compare me to anybody.  There’s no comparison.  You can’t compare me to Eminem or ICP or any of these people because I’m me.  Whatever comes out of my mouth, you’re going to recognize and say, “Hey, that’s Adam’s voice.  He doesn’t sound like ‘them’ or he doesn’t do that.”  I stick out from the rest like a sore thumb.

 - Dave Weinthal

One of the originators of the high-energy style of music known as power pop, Paul Collins has been dubbed the king of the genre.  Mixing punchy guitar riffs and melodic vocals. He has inspired many musicians not only from his generation but new ones as well as many are learning about and being turned on to Collins work with The Nerves that featured a pre-Plimsouls Peter Case and Collin’s band, The Beat (not to be confused with the English Beat) for the first time. Paul took a few minutes to chat while in transit between gigs.

Your band, The Beat is know for being a power pop band and you have been hailed by many as the king of power pop.  How does Paul Collins define power pop?

When I first started playing music in the mid to late ‘70s, that’s when they started to use the term power pop to describe the bands that were more melodic.  You had new wave and power pop.  At first we didn’t really like that.  It kind of worked against us.  It was hard to get on the radio. It wasn’t considered a serious genre of music.  Now power pop has a whole new meaning.  Basically the reason why is all these new young bands have come up there using the time period that I started in as a musical influence.  As with all forms of rock and roll, the times twist and turns to adapt to the new generation of musicians that play it.  Today’s power pop embraces a lot of different styles.  It can be kind of garage-y, it can be kind of punky, it can be kind of edgy, or it can be kind of soft and break in all different directions that rock music has.  Still, power pop to me is melodic - it’s hard driven rock and roll. Fortunately there’s a lot of new bands that play that kind of music.  It’s definitely not hardcore, it’s not punk, although punk power pop bands are punkish, it’s not indie.  It’s usually melodic, positive, uplifting music that you can dance to.

How did you come about picking up the guitar?

When I was playing in the Nerves I was playing the drums.  It got hard to sing songs.  I was writing songs on guitar.  And when the Nerves broke up, Peter [Case] and I carried on for a while.  It seemed like a natural progression to switch from the drums to rhythm guitar.  My rhythm guitar playing is derived from my drumming and folk guitar.  I play a lot of folk guitar chords in my music and I play very rhythmic around my drumming style.

Power Pop has always had a cult following, but never quite broke into the mainstream other than a couple songs here and there.  Why do you think the genre has endured as well as it has while at the same time not gotten the recognition it deserves?

Well I think that could all be about to change because power pop has gone into a second generation of musicians.  Musicians that have been around for 20 years now or more, and I think more and more people are discovering it.  For me, it’s what I’ve dedicated all my time to – promoting power pop.  Not just my own music, but there are a lot of new bands, I tour exclusively with these young bands, and all of them are really power pop bands.  I’ve been touring with the Missing Monuments through the south.  I just got done touring with Garbo’s Daughter, who are a great power pop band from Florida.  I have played probably in the last year with 70 or 80 new young bands that embrace this kind of music.  I see it just getting bigger and better all the time.  It still is an underdog genre and they still have to fight for people to hear it and recognize it as a serious musical movement.  The funny thing about power pop – power pop embraces the best elements or rock and roll, which is melodic songs with great harmonies and great guitar parts.  That’s what the best of rock and roll has. 

You were a veteran of the L.A. club scene during the ‘70s and early ‘80s.  What was it like playing in that unique era during a time when corporate rock was starting to crumble somewhat with the advent of the punk and new wave movement?

The biggest difference is now is that the established music business has all but collapsed.  I have very little to do with the music business and I’m very happy about that now.  I’m totally DIY. We book our own tours and we decide what we’re going to do and do it on our own… and it’s great.  It’s a lot more fun.  The worst thing about music is the music business.  Back when I was living in Los Angeles my band was tied to a major label and it was not a great part of my life because what the music business forces you to do to be a part of it.  I think things have come full circle except with the hype caused by the internet.  The internet has turned the DIY into jet-fueled grassroots theme for the future.  It allows you to do things that weren’t possible when I was starting out.  It’s called full circle in the sense that when I was in the Nerves we had to do everything ourselves.  It was total DIY.  Now it has come back to doing it but with the advantage of having the internet, which really increases your reach and allows you to meet a lot of people.  That’s how we promote most of our tours.  It’s a great tool and allows us to keep building the core group of people that support this music.  It gets better all the time.  The internet is a great tool to organize and have a focal point for people who love power pop.  There’s a lot of people who love power pop music, but they’re not all connected in the same way some of these other genres.  But power pop gets more visible all the time thanks to the internet.  Certain things are easier, but it’s still hard. 

What is the reception to your music in other countries?  You have toured extensively over the years around Europe as well as the states.

We have a great following in Spain.  We have a great following in Italy.  We’re going to go to Germany for the first time in many years.  We have a good following in France.  We don’t have as much a following in England.  We haven’t really toured England.  I would like to but it’s kind of tough for this type of music there.  What I learned, I spent eight years living overseas, is that we have a real strong resurgence of fans here in the U.S. We’re touring all over the states – west coast to east coast.  It’s great that I can tour the United States after being away for so long.  We’ve done three west coast tours and this is our second tour of the south – and I never toured the south even when I was signed to a major label.

That’s the one great thing about the internet is discovering gems like yourself and other bands that may have fallen through the cracks or just because of a major label could not promote them as they should have.  People are discovering now for the first time.

I can’t complain about that. 

How do you feel you’ve matured as a writer over the years?

The thing about the style of music that I do is that it’s so classic.  It never gets old.  It’s always a challenge to come up with a little pop ditty, and I’m really proud of the last record.  To me, that’s where it’s at.  I kind of strayed from it a bit in the ‘90s, which was so difficult.  There was so little acceptance for this type of work and it was so hard to get gigs.  The audience was so fractured.  The internet hadn’t yet kicked in.  The whole grunge scene annihilated everything in its path that in desperation I just kind of tried to do different things.  I was able to come back to what it is I cut my teeth on and what I  think I’m good at, and my audience likes to hear from me.  As an artist you’re constantly trying to redefine yourself.

 - Dave Weinthal

Paul Collin’s Beat performs Monday at J.J.’s Bohemia

The Get Up Kids formed in the mid ‘90s and became synonymous with emo.  The alternative rock band out of Missouri put out a number of successful albums before deciding to call it a day after 2004.  The band in the last year found a desire to get out again and recorded a new album that was a departure from their previous works as the band’s sound and focus of material greatly matured.  The band even now tours extensively.  Matthew Pryor, the band’s lead singer and guitarist took a few minutes recently while on the current tour to chat.

You guys do a lot of extensive touring.  How do you enjoy being on tour for so long?

It’s been good.  The tour we’re on right now is kind of a little east coast vacation.  We went hiking and today we went to the ocean, and went swimming.  I don’t know what we’re doing tomorrow, but something nature-oriented I assume.

What’s your favorite part of touring?

My favorite part about touring is playing the show itself and catching up with old friends that we’ve made over the years.  We toured pretty extensively and we’ve met a lot of people.  I like it when we can have these mini vacations where we can do fun stuff.  We went to the baseball hall of fame yesterday.  When am I ever up in Cooperstown?

Are you a big baseball fan?

I am not, but the rest of the band is.

You guys have done extensive touring in Europe and Japan.  Overseass they really seem to get into punk and emo.  What is it like performing for other diverse cultures different from our own like Japan?  They seem really intense about the music.  Do you think they tend to take it more to heart?

I don’t necessarily think they take it more to heart, they just have a very different way of showing their gratitude. They are very polite.  I don’t know how to say it, but they clap in a very polite sort of way and they’re very respectful.  Japanese shows and fans have always been pretty awesome.  I don’t really know why, honestly. Our Japanese fans tend to be polite, but when they do decide to get down they really get down.  We’ve been out a couple of nights where the Japanese guys have drunk us under the table.  They’re stoic to a point.

Your newest album is called, There Are Rules.  How has the songwriting evolved to where you guys are now?

The band has evolved pretty drastically.  We try to challenge ourselves creatively and never make the same record twice.  I think we’ve been successful in that endeavor.  Our new record is a little darker and maybe a little keyboard heavy, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

The lyrics are more mature, introspective than in previous works.  Does a lot of that have to do with the fact you’re no longer kids?

Yeah, or course. (laughs)  If have to write stuff from a more grown up perspective if you are indeed a grown up.

How have you seen the scene change since when you first broke out in the mid-‘90s to now?  Are you happy with the changes you’ve seen?

We don’t really pay a whole lot of attention to the “scene”.  We kind of really treat ourselves independently.  I think that music is always constantly evolving.  T think that bands that would have toured with us in the ‘90s can now get on the radio.  That’s just the nature of rock and roll.  It’s a constantly evolving beast.

What kind of toll does incessant touring have on the band?

The band broke up in 2005 for a couple of years.  I think the touring had a lot to do with it.  We have gotten a little older and more refined.  Now we know to get away from each other when we need to get away from each other – to not fight all the time, to take breaks, to not have tours that are three months long. 

Is it difficult to replicate your live performance and get it to transfer to a recording, or is it more difficult to replicate what you do in the studio live?

With our later work it’s harder to replicate the studio stuff live.  But we have been doing a good job of it.

I understand a couple of years back you did a children’s album.

I’ve done two of them.

What brought that about?

What brought it up is I have three kids, but when the Get Up Kids broke up I wanted to do something that no one in their right mind would compare to the Get Up Kids.  It would be so far off the map that it wouldn’ be, “Oh, this is your new band”. 

Did you enjoy putting it together?

Yeah, they’re really fun records to make, which is just sing about whatever you want.

What did the band learn about themselves during your hiatus?

I think we learned we are basically brothers and all the positive and negative attributes of family apply.  So, we fight a lot, we joke a lot, and we get on each other’s nerves a lot. And so we try to embrace that as opposed to fighting it, which is probably did in the past.

Do you find it easier to write now that you have matured?

This new record was a little tricky to write because A: we wrote all the songs in big batches, so it wasn’t like you need to write lyrics for one song, you need to write lyrics for eight by the time we are done in the studio.  And I wanted it to be a little more obtuse and somewhat fictional and less personal and introspective.  I didn’t want there to be any “insert emo love song here”.  We wanted to really expand and evolve.

After this tour what do you guys have planned?

We’ve talked about going back in the studio.  We haven’t been able to schedule it just yet.  We’re touring basically through the end of the year and then probably taking a brak from the road after that for a while.  I think we all enjoy getting back together and making a record, so I don’t know why we wouldn’t continue to do it.

 - Dave Weinthal

This Saturday night, some of the local favorites, Mighty Sideshow, will be headlining a pretty spectacular show at Rhythm and Brews. Along with Shutter and Dangerous New Machine (previously Stereomud), Mighty Sideshow will be rocking the stage with more than just excitement. MSS has just returned from the studio, where they just finished recording their fourth album, with Jeff Tomei. No one, but a few friends and family have heard these new songs. I, fortunately, was one of those people. I will tell you, that these songs are better than anything I have ever heard come from this band. The songs are raw. Really raw. Not raw, as in rough, raw, as in real. They aren't contrived or simple. They are complex and clever. The darkness that resonates in this new welcoming sound, is something that appeals to me, by chilling my spine. The themes are specific, yet seemingly personal. I can guarantee, that at least two or three of these new songs will molest you with such a familiar and painful sentiment, that you will swear the song is about your life. You will raise your middle finger to these memories and partake in some much needed music therapy with the band. I'm serious. I am friends with the guys in the band, so, of course, I have written about them before. But, this is different. When I listened to some of this new material, I was truly blown away. I was impressed. I would even say....I'm a fan. Say what you will, but this new album is really good. It is as if, everything these guys have been trying for the last decade, finally fell into place in just the right sequence. The underlying vulnerability and anger in the lyrics seem to fuel the music forward and translates it into a definite strength. Although, I do have to say, that hatred and macabre scenes filter in and out of the album, which I appreciate. I enjoy darkness, as I enjoy truth, and this new material is not lacking in either department. If you were wondering when MSS would go heavier...well...good news! They have. It sounds like it should have always sounded like this. When I first listened to it, I sat dumbfounded for a moment, before saying...”There it is. That's it.” I don't mind saying, that this album, this new material, is the best stuff I have ever heard from these guys. I couldn't be happier for them. Regardless of where, how, or what they got their inspiration from; it fits them like a glove. All of you previous fans, are in for a real treat this weekend. Don't miss it. For those of you, who may not really care for the MSS you've heard in the past, I suggest you give them another listen. They might surprise you. Hell, they surprised me.

MSS has been busy, and it shows. Their hard work seems to be paying off. This new album, by itself, could be your new drinking buddy. With all the new exciting developments that come with putting together a new album; I wouldn't drag my feet when it comes to seeing them live. Unless, of course, you don't mind driving. I better see you guys out Saturday night! Support local music!

- Hellcat

Americana artist Ryan Bingham learned a lot about life growing up.  As a youth he moved town to town deep in the heart of Texas.  He discovered music as a teenager an thus began his journey.  He’s released three albums to date, Junky Star being the latest, which was released last fall.  But fortune smiled upon Bingham in 2009.  His song, “The Weary Kind” was featured in the Academy Award winning movie Crazy Heart starring Jeff Bridges.  Bingham himself won the Academy Award for “Best Original Song” and a Golden Globe as well.  Humble and soft-spoken he took a few minutes to talk about what’s going on.

How does it feel to have the words “Academy Award winner” forever attached to your name?

It feels pretty good.

What is the affect of something so high profile have on your career?  Has it changed the way you conduct business?

Well… it’s definitely opened up a lot of doors as far as opportunities for touring and playing and meeting people.  It really doesn’t change much of the day-to-day.

You recently celebrated a big birthday, turning 30.  What did you do to celebrate your birthday?  What impact does it have on your philosophy hitting that milestone?

Oh shoot, I don’t know.  I really didn’t do much.  I just kind of hung out at the house with my wife.  As far as any impact, I don’t know.  Things have been going by so fast that I really haven’t seen much of an impact so far. (laughs)

Listening to your music your words are very picturesque and say a lot more than a lot of the songs I hear out there these days.  Do you see yourself as a songwriter or a poet who put his words to music?

I don’t know, man.  Sometimes I don’t feel like either one of them. (laughs) It kind of depends on the day.  It seems to always start with the music first and the words always come after.  I don’t go at it with any attitude towards both. I let it come when it comes.

Country music is currently enjoying its biggest push popularity in over 30 years.  You have a new crop of singers out there every day it seems like and you’ve got more country artists on the Billboard charts than ever before.  Even the two finalists for American Idol are country singers.  What do you think has caused this surge in popularity?

Oh, I don’t really know man.  I don’t really stay in tune to the country stuff.  Maybe because it’s what’s been promoted lately and that seems to appeal to a large audience across middle America.

How hands-on are you with your music?  Do you get enough input in what you do or do you worry about what others might have to say in the creative process?

I can’t worry about that.  I’m really fortunate that I’m on the record label, Lost Highway.  They’ve been really gracious and supported me and let me do my thing.  I don’t think I have to worry about that at the end of the day as long as it’s honest and it’s something that you feel and it’s from the heart, so let it be. 

Do you write solo or do you collaborate a lot?

I usually just write solo.

Is that what you prefer?

Yes.

You have garnered a lot of attention especially in the wake of the attention brought to you by the Academy Award for your song in the movie, Crazy Heart.  However, success wasn’t an overnight thing for you was it?

No, not at all. (laughs)

A lot of younger and younger people are getting involved with country music today  In your opinion what do you think is the appeal?

I don’t really know.  I’m not much of a fan of country music today.  I’m as big fan of the older country like Willie and Waylon and Merle Haggard and George Jones and stuff like that.  I don’t know what it is. 

As a songwriter are you worried about revealing too much of yourself to the listener?

Not much.  I think when I was younger a lot more of my songs were more self-involved.  You write about what you see and what you’re going through and this and that. As I’ve gotten older and traveled around a lot, the more you start writing about the things around you than things inside of you.

Do you enjoy the live experience or do you prefer the more controlled atmosphere of being in the studio?

I like it to be live and spontaneous, and changing.  Sometimes in the studio things can get a little bit monotonous.

What direction do you feel you’ll be headed next?

Hopefully in the right direction. (laughs)

 - Dave Weinthal

One EskimO is a London four-piece indie rock outfit from London.  True road warriors the band has only been home for seven weeks in the past year, spending a majority of the time touring across the United States picking up a loyal following from wherever the land.  As of this writing they are closing in on hitting each of the 48 continental states.  The count stands at 43 right now. The band consists of Kristian Leontiou (vocals), Adam Falkner (drums), Pete Rinaldo (guitar), and Jamie Sefton (bass and horns).  We recently caught up with Jamie and Adam between shows.

You guys are real road warriors.  You seem to be on the road constantly.

AF: Yes, it does seem that way.  We don’t spend that much time back in the UK, actually.  I think we spend a lot of our time in the U.S.  We’ve seen quite a bit of it now.  We’ve been to 40 states… actually a little more than that.  It’s 43 now, but I think.  There’s only Alaska, Maine, Hawaii that we haven’t been and North or South Dakota.  It’s been great.  We’ve seen some amazing sites.

Are you homesick at all?

AF: It definitely happens, yeah.  It’s not the places that we miss.  It’s the people.  That’s what happens.  We’ve been lucky enough to take our loved ones to different things.  It makes a big difference going down the road. 

JS: You get homesick and when you get home for a week you’re like, wouldn’t it be great to be on tour?  (laughs)

AF: It’s our job.  You get used to the things that you can get in America like Oprah.  You get used to a thin standard of living and demands you can make upon people when you get home. 

JS: Waking up in a different city every day is of the massive experience.

AF: If it were a holiday, it would cost an absolute fortune to hit all the amazing cities.  We have found Atlanta quite green and very home-ly.  It’s slightly unexpected as well because from the rest of America they get quite a bad rap – and they obviously have never been here because it’s an amazing town.  There’s so many different areas.  We’ve eaten some amazing foods.  We’ve had breakfast every morning at the Flying Biscuit.

JS: We’ve been having biscuits every morning and the only city where grits taste good. 

Has the south become your favorite destination in the states when touring?

AF: I think every place you go to you pick a new favorite, because I think it depends what mood you’re in at the time.  And sometimes when you don’t want to be on the beach when you’re in LA and the people there are freaking you out, you want to be somewhere else.  You want to be in Boulder or somewhere else or somewhere in Colorado.  And sometimes you feel like you want to be somewhere else.  But we’ve been coming to so many amazing places, like Charleston and Ashville, Portland – there are so many towns that we’ve been to… Pittsburgh even.  I love Pittsburgh.  It’s a pretty cool place.  Some of the friendliest people we’ve run across were in Vicksburg, Mississippi.  There are really, really friendly people there.  I think definitely Americans get a bad rap from British people.  We kind of stereotype.  We think they’ve got this false happiness that they’re forced to do while they work for some kind of big global company like McDonald’s or something like that, and they say thank you just to put a smile on your face. It’s actually genuine.  That’s something I picked up while touring.  People here are so positive and everyone here has hope that something in their life can get better. 

JS: If you start a conversation with someone on the subway in London they think there’s something wrong.  They think they’re being hacked.  You keep your hand in your pocket.

What affect does being on the road so much have on your songwriting and your ability to write songs?

AF: The places we’ve seen, we definitely have a safety net for our lives.  We’ve seen a lot and we’ve done a lot and met so many wonderful people that we have a copious amount of information.

JS: We’ve had things happen to us as well.

AF: It’s going good so far.  We were running around with Michael Franti.  Right there on the back of the bus – his work ethic and his responsibility to his fans had a definite effect on us.  If we were sold out he would go out and tell everyone it’s all about the music.  We took instruments that we could play on the back of the tour bus and put a mic into our laptop and start recording.  Before you know it you were throwing around ideas. 

Has your time in America affected the way you write songs compared to before you came over here?

JS: I started using more instruments that were indigenous to Americans like the banjo, we started.  And maybe they don’t make it to the album, but we’re writing on a different instrument that will give you a different sound and you pick up things you normally wouldn’t pick up.  We have tried a few more indigenous instruments  thanks to our friends in America.

When I listen to your music, it paints a very visual picture lyrically and also through instrumentation.  It seems difficult to produce live.  How are you able to marry the production aspect with performing live?

JS: There’s a lot of multi-tasking.  I’m trickering.  There’s a lot of samples, kind of one-shot samples on the machine.  We hit the triggers with our feet.  Jamie is playing bass and singing and playing fugal horn at the same time.  We have kind of a strange writing process where we started writing the album. We had bits and pieces that we brought into the production of the music. One process works out the other.  It would probably seem we’re all quite busy. 

Do you see yourselves as a live band or a studio project performing live?

AF: Absolutely both.  It’s a quandary.  That’s a great thing going in the studio and building something and feeling really impressed by it.  Then you can’t wait to take it out on the road and try it out on people.  It’s important that we go around.  The more you play something live the better you can foster it and develop it.  It’s really important. 

You guys have been in the United States for a good while touring, picking up the culture and picking up on different idiosyncrasies.  What do you think you will bring back home to London from America?

JS: I think my fiancé has picked up on my use of words I don’t ordinarily use like gas station, sidewalk, trashcan, where they have been petrol, pavement.  Two countries divided by a common language. 

 - Dave Weinthal

Hope For Agoldenummer is an Athens, GA Flagpole Magazine band of the year featuring vocal harmonies and multiple instrumentals by sisters Claire and Paige Campbell and latest addition to the band, Suny Lyon. They have released a new full length album Hours in the Attic, containing eighteen songs all recorded live at their concerts. Audiences are typically astounded by the sophisticated harmonic approach to their original southern ballads and lyrical storytelling.  I recently caught up with Claire to talk about the band and their music.

Being from Athens, GA,  how have you managed to set yourself apart from other bands there?

We didn’t set out to intentionally separate ourselves from college rock, it’s just the music we make is much more mellow.  What comes out is quieter and pretty, and quirky I would say maybe.  We get called eclectic sometimes.  When I hear eclectic I hear free-jazz, and we’re not free-jazz or psychedelic or anything like that. (laughs) We didn’t intentionally set out to play stranger music than the mainstream.

I wouldn’t call it stranger. I would say maybe it’s more original, perhaps.

Yes.

While music is literally in your blood did you at any point look for a different outlet to express yourself?

When I was growing up I really badly wanted to be a comedian.  And then I really badly wanted to be a chef.  Then I wanted to have a comedy chef show. (laughs) And then it turns out I’m not really funny or a good cook.  So I was in drama – the theater club most of middle school and high school, and then when I went to college is when I finally started to focus on music.  I started to play shows before I graduated from high school and then I’ve been playing shows ever since.  We’ve been playing shows for a long time.

Your videos are more sophisticated than the traditional videos produced by a majority of today’ artists, taking on a mini movie/indie film tone.  Was that the intent and/or how much involvement did you have with the projects?

My sister Paige has the most involvement.  She studied film and she comes up with really interesting screenplays/ideas.  And what we’ve always done is just pitch them to a group of gentlemen in town that we work with.  Actually, they’re no longer here.  They moved to L.A. in the last year.  We would always pitch our weird ideas and they would figure out a way to make it work.  Sometimes it comes out looking a little bit hokier than you think or maybe too dramatic or not dramatic enough.  Obviously my role in our music videos is I was given the title of “craft services”.  That just means I’m in charge of bringing the food (laughs) And that’s all I do.

Do you see yourself more as a performance artist than a singer/songwriter?

No, not at all.  I would call myself a musician before I would call myself a performing artist, I guess.  I do love performing. I guess when I started out playing music I never set out to be a performer.  I was playing to have something to play and writing, it was an outlet for stories and heartache.

The band is very much a family affair.  How has that worked to its advantage?

Well I get to see my sister all the time, so that’s great.  I guess it’s brought us closer.  Since we both still live in Athens, every time we have a show in Atlanta we can count on our folks being there and we can usually talk them into getting on stage, singing a couple of old songs.  It’s bonding.  My dad still plays music a lot, so we’ll go to the big dance he and his friends do.  It’s nice.  Music is definitely one of the ways we all commune with each other. 

Do you consider yourself more of a lyricist or a music composer?

Equal.  I guess my sister and I don’t really write songs together.  We both come up with the music and the lyrics on our own.  And usually it happens at the same time for me.  I’ll sort of be humming a tune and then have an idea abot something and it will all flow together. 

You composed works for the soundtrack of Off the Black, a Nick Nolte film.  What was that experience like?

It was great.  It was just like the movies... (laughs) where you’re in front of a big screen and they’re conducting musicians as the movie is playing in the background and everybody’s watching the screen and seeking their cues.  That’s pretty neat.  I would love to do more work like that.  It was intimidating that time because that was the first time I really conducted other musicians. I’ve done scoring work before, but never with professionally hired musicians that I didn’t know.  That was kind of intimidating.  I had a lot to learn at that point. But it was great.  And they let us work in the Foley room, which is where they do all the sound effects.  We were surrounded by all sorts of weird sound effects equipment and toys, and you know – things that make the sound of walking on sand or rowing a boat across a river – things like that.  It was a wonderful experience. 

What did you take away from that experience that you were able to bring back to the band?

Initially the band was supposed to come with me, and Hope For A Goldensummer was going to score the entire film.  We only had a $10,000 budget and almost all of that got eaten up by working in a studio that was almost a grand a day.  There was no money left to fly the whole band there.  I honestly don’t know if it changed my relationship with my band at all or the music we make.  I was only gone about ten days.  I mean, I worked on the score for a couple of months before then. It did help with forcing out ideas at the last minute.  I learned about coffee.  I wasn’t a coffee drinker before then. That’s where I learned if you drink coffee you can really stay up for four days. 

The lyrics and imagery in your songs seem rather intimate at times.  How comfortable are you opening up like that in front of a live audience?

I’m pretty comfortable.  Sometimes I shroud things in metaphors I’m not comfortable with.  I say what I need to say to make the song feel complete, but not necessarily let everyone know the true story or the true emotions behind the lyrics.  But I write a lot more literally now than when I first started writing.

What keeps Hope For Agoldensummer motivated now in this day and age?

Well, we all just like playing together.  We like recording and putting out new albums, and we all love touring and visiting people, seeing new faces.  I don’t know, if it’s sort of like an addiction, but it is a habit that once you get into being a performing musician, it’s hard to walk away from it because it sort of becomes your life.  We keep doing it because it’s something we love to do.

 - Dave Weinthal

Hope For A Godlensummer will perform along with Zoe Boekbinder and Alex Thomspn Friday at Barking Legs Theater.

Jerrod Niemann is a fresh voice in country music.  He began writing songs at a young age growing up in Kansas and moved to Nashville about ten years ago.  When he first got to town he co-write a trio of songs with country music icon Garth Brooks, one of them being the hit single, “Good Ride Cowboy”.  The next ten years found him grinding it out and trying to get his songs and music heard.  In the fall of 2010 his hard work paid off as he hit number one on the charts with the song and infectious video for “Lover, Lover”.  Jerrod took time out of his busy schedule to catch up on everything from hitting number one to singing with Carrie Underwood.

Things are going really well for you these days.  Do you think it’s about time for things to have started rolling your way?

(laughs) I think everybody moves to Nashville instantly thinks, well they hear, “It’s a five-year town, it’s a ten-year town.”  You’re like, “no way!”  You’re thinking, man, if it is it’s gonna suck because you had to wait forever.  But you know what?  It’s all worth it because all that takes pretty much five years or ten years, depending on how it falls, if it falls in your direction ever.  You get to run around a lot and get a lot of experience under your belt. You also get to appreciate the opportunities that you had because nothing is handed to you for sure.  It’s all focused and it’s all very helpful.

It seems country music is different than other musical genres in that there seems to be a lot of collaborating and shared songwriting, whereas others seem to be every man for themselves oriented.

Yeah.  The great thing about Nashville… it’s a city of course, but it’s fueled by people from small towns, be it music, or we have an eclectic town with medical and things like that.  It’s a very versatile city.  The people that we work with are people from small towns where handshakes seal deals and you can leave your door unlocked.  You put all those people in a city all together, you’re going to have a lot of people looking out for each other and I think that’s part of it.  Country music has always been based on values and it’s been handed down through the years that way.  For the people who aren’t like that, we never hear from them and they go home pretty quickly because nobody likes them around here. (laughs)

What led you to country music over the other genres out there?

I grew up in a small town in southwest Kansas that didn’t really have anything but cows, me and beer. (laughs) I was raised in a small town.  I love all types of music – absolutely a big fan of talented people in different genres.  For me, where you’re raised in a town with a lot of agriculture and stuff that fuels the economy, then you’re going to be able to relate to country music.  My parents always played music around the house and it was usually country music.  It was sort of natural, so it was easy for me to be a part of it, because I loved it.

I’ve read in other interviews where you stated that you began writing songs at the age of eight.  Do you consider yourself more of a songwriter or a performer?  Do you have a preference?

It’s weird – not even with songwriting, but playing music, producing music, singing music – all that stuff to me is the same thing.  It’s under the umbrella of creativity.  I love to do them all equally. With our album we produced it, played on it, and wrote a lot of it along with a lot of the other guys in the band.  It’s definitely fun to be challenged and challenge yourself to be a better, creative person.

When you arrived in Nashville one of the first things you did was hook up with Garth Brooks and co-wrote three songs with him.  What would you consider that, beginner’s luck?

(laughs) It’s a double-edge sword, that’s for sure, that beginner’s luck thing.  There’s beginner’s luck and beginner’s curse. Of course getting to meet Garth Brooks was an honor. Writing music with him showed me how amazing a person he is.  Beginner’s luck… I’m thankful for that.  But what happens in a city where people have been waiting around for ten years to have an opportunity to have a song out by anyone. Me and my friend Duke helped me get back and write with him (Brooks).  Well, that was kind of easy.  Wrong!  It’s pure beginner’s luck, but what it did was sort of the Man upstairs giving me a pat on the back just saying, “Hey, this is a tough city.  Hang in there, you’re in the right place.” I don’t know.  And it’s taken many, many years – it took five years after meeting Garth Brooks for a song to come out.  It can be one of the most wonderful things you can imagine, but be afraid.  Like they say, it’s always worth it in the end.

One of your songs “Old School New Again” – which side do you find yourself leaning – traditional country or modern/current day country?

I grew up so strictly country.  I mean ‘70s stuff was too new.  There was a time with trial and error that all those people, the heroes, the guys that we all looked up to growing up, it’s not necessarily sound that makes them original, it’s the fact that they had a voice, something that fit their music uniquely at the time.  At that time it was very fresh and fun to listen to, and became classic music.  People go back and listen to it.  When they say “what do you think about Willie and Waylon?”  When they came out that was pretty progressive.  The “Outlaw” movement, a lot of people didn’t like it.  People thought they were too wild and all that.  Now you look at it as classic, great country music.  I realized one day, instead of trying to sound like people that were original and iconic, why don’t I figure out what I can contribute to a format uniquely to myself, whether it works or not.  For me that was a huge challenge – just trying to forget the fact that you want to be like the guys growing up. We’ve all got to be somebody.  So you might as well be yourself.

You’ve made a couple of entertaining videos for a few of your songs.  Have you embraced the lost art of the music video?

For me, it’s all new and kind of scary because in the studio you can kind of micro-manage stuff a little better and know at least what’s going on at all times.  (laughs) Getting in the video world is all kind of new and so it’s exciting to just throw ideas out there – and these directors are actually good.  They don’t have an ego about things.  They really like to incorporate your ideas and let you be a part of it.  It always makes the artist feel good.  I just look at that as a challenge too, just to be cool and try to give people a three-minute movie and an angle of the song they maybe might not have looked at before. 

What’s it like to wake up and see your song number one on the charts?

You know, it’s pretty weird.  I hate to say this because it’s so true, but you hear everyone say it’s surreal.  And it is so surreal it never sets in.  I don’t know how many years it takes for it to finally click in your head, you’ve been given that wonderful gift and a number one hit song by everybody.  It’s unbelievable.  And I never really fathomed the word unbelievable until you look at something like that.  You’re like, that can’t be possible.  But it’s very, very awesome.  I’m thankful every day for it.

Has having a number one song changed your perspective or how you do things?

Yeah, you know, it’s kind of weird, the one thing that changed is before you make music just in hope you can get recorded by somebody or get a record deal.  But once you make music and you put it out and people are kind enough to support it, then that changes things because now you’re writing music for people who care about it.  And that never happened before.  It’s just real inspiring, if anything to have something like that because you’re thinking of all these years of working my butt off an failing miserably has now given me and my friends an opportunity to make music for a living – at least for awhile as long as country music will have us. (laughs) Everything is a learning experience.

I understand you were recently joined on stage by Carrie Underwood.

The label came to me and said we’re all going to be on a Sony boat and we’d love you to sing “What Do You Want?”  And since Carrie Underwood is there we talked to her and she said she’d be glad to sing the female part on our song. And so I was like, whoa… really?  So I was really excited about that and obviously she’s an extremely talented artist.  We’re on the same label, so it was cool.  I got to know her really well.  We were visiting upstairs before for a tiny little bit then went down there, and then Gwyneth Paltrow introduced me.  So I was already kind of freaked out about that.  And you would think there would never be a reason for that to take place.  While I was singing “What Do You Want?” Carrie Underwood walked on stage and of course the crowd was very excited.  She did a wonderful job.  So at the very end of the song I said, “Well, I guess you can scratch that one off my bucket list”. (laughs) That was one of those cool moments.  It was only a three-minute song and you really try to live in the moment and be thankful for it.  I don’t know very often having Carrie Underwood singing backup will ever happen again. (laughs)

 - Dave Weinthal

For many years Chokeslam reigned as gods of metal in Chattanooga and the region.  The four hardcore rockers lived and played hard.  However, after limited success and more of a cult following the band began to fall apart.  One by one members left the band until there was no more.  Some moved away, others joined other musical ventures, while others abandoned music all together.  As fate would have it after five year apart three of the four found employment at the same business.  One thing led to another.  After renewing friendships, they realized they still had that fire inside to perform as one.  The four came together and are now more focused and mature and ready to make their cause heard in the music scene once again.

It’s been a number of years since you guys played together as Chokeslam.  What differences have you noticed in the scene?

The difference that we noticed is that there is no scene.  We don’t see the scene we used to see four years ago.  I know the bands are still playing out there, but it seems to me that it’s kind of died down in Chattanooga.  It seems that back in the day you would see five or six bands that were known in Chattanooga.  You knew when you heard that name – Pistol Whip, Chokeslam, whomever, you knew they were from Chattanooga.  They were Chattanooga celebrities.  And now you don’t see it.  You hear the name of a band, and that’s generally if you’re on Facebook – everybody seems to like to advertise it there.  We see a major change now that we’re all back together and put our heads together.  We’re going to try and change that in Chattanooga and get our peers back together who have been in the shadows.

Are you concerned on how people will perceive you compared to who they are seeing perform live now?

No, we’re not concerned on how they’ll perceive us because we do what we do.  That’s why we haven’t veered from what we do.  People that have seen us in the past live… I know we’ve had many requests to see us live again.  And they’re going to see it a lot better, a lot more involved.  They’ll see the difference.  To answer your question people won’t perceive us any different, only better.

Do you think it was inevitable that you guys would come back together?

It seems that way.  We were apart.  Chokeslam and I had left the last time to pursue other things.  They had gone through a few bass players, but apparently it didn’t fit.  I guess they put it down and everybody went their separate ways to do a separate thing.  I came back into town and practically the first person that I run into is Tim (Grey).  We talked – good friends still and all of a sudden Jeff is back in the mix.  Okay, here are the three of us again.  The all of a sudden here comes Troy (Grey).  And we’re all thrown in this mix, all together at the same time and yet we haven’t seen each other in four years, so apparently destiny was involved and it was inevitable that we come back together.  Once you get the four of us together with a clean slate, it’s pretty much unstoppable.

How has rehearsal changed from the first time you guys got together?

It’s a lot richer.. Everybody is goal-oriented.  We’ve already been through the  highs and lows of being together and being a band.  Obviously we know each other’s attitudes and each other’s personalities.  We’ve gotten a little bit older.  If it didn’t stop us from rocking, we probably rock a little harder.  In the rehearsal room it’s obvious everybody wants to make it happen and everybody will do what it takes to make it happen.  It’s a major difference. 

Any concerns going back to this?

We didn’t see any downside whatsoever – nothing at all.  The one thing we seem is optimistic.  The downside we have seen are the club owners, for the type of music we choose to play and the fact we choose originals and not cover songs, we don’t think we get the respect from the club owners that they should give us a chance to play in a few places.  There are some who have helped us immensely and welcomed us with open arms regardless of the turnout.

What do you see the band’s legacy being?

Hopefully some of the younger bands will see us and say, “look at those old men rockin’” and maybe that means I can make it sometime.  All of us have kids now.  If you really want to talk about legacy, my son is an awesome guitar player.  Tim’s son, they’re all coming of age, too.  Tim’s son is a guitar player/drummer.  He’s in it.  Jeff’s got a daughter who is more than likely going to fall into that mix, too.  We feel that hopefully we’ll have a legacy in Chattanooga just for people that are playing after us and also on a personal front with our kids.  Hopefully one day we’ll all be sitting in the audience watching our offspring on stage.

What now?

We’re chugging.  We’re booking gigs.  We plan on getting back out there and being a show of force again.

 - Dave Weinthal

Chokeslam performs Sunday, April 10 at Spectaters

Playing alongside Crossfade, will be our local boys, Mighty Sideshow. We have not heard a lot out of these guys in a pretty long time, and quite a few rumors have been flying around. One, in particular, that I heard was they disbanded completely, and a few others that just did not make any sense at all. The rumors are very far from the truth. The band has been working consistently on their music, while enduring a few struggles along the way, that according to the band, has only made them stronger. They should have a new album out in May, and are going into the studio this week with producer, Jeff Tomei. Tomei has produced for some bands that may sound familiar to you. Such as, Smashing Pumpkins, Matchbox 20, Jerry Cantrell, Corrosion of Conformity, the list goes on. When I sat down to see what was going on with our homegrown boys, this is what I found out:

Kevin Nelson: Anytime you lose or replace something like a member of the band, the elements change. The core Mighty Sideshow is there, but it has expanded. It’s heavier than the last three albums. It’s what we have been going for all along.
Alan Whitener: We always hear, “you guys are so much heavier live”, and now it’s rounded out stylistically.
Steve Swanson: The tunes are moody. There is a lot to get out
AW: Between Charm and now, we’ve gone through a lot more challenging times in general. In the last two years we’ve all had our own struggles. Personally, musically, all across the board, it’s just been trying. We’ve gone through injuries, financial issues, losing and then trying to replace a member, all while trying to keep it together. But, we’ve been producing music consistently. Everything just finally came to a head.
KN: The amount of time and money we’ve put into this band is unfathomable to most people.
Hellcat: Okay, so let’s talk about this losing and gaining a member business.
AW: We mutually parted with Rodney Smith, our old guitarist. His personal life got too consuming, to put enough time and effort into the band.
KN: When we confronted the situation, after a very long attempt at trying to work through the problems; we were not happy and he wasn’t either. So, it was done. After a long time of trying to make it work, it was a huge weight off of our shoulders and his. Keep in mind this all happened while we were putting down a new album.
AW: We tried out several people and continued working on our music. It took about 6 or 8 months to find the right fit, and then we welcomed Steve into the band.
HC: Who is this Steve? Steve, who are you? What is your deal?
Steve Swanson: Well, I played for the original line-up of Soulbread, back in the 90’s, and then a band called Arrhythmia, and finally, Seven Under Suicide, until they disbanded. Alan got a hold of me to jam, and I really didn’t have to think twice about it.
HC: What were you expecting and what did you find?
SS: I expected to find professional musicians, from everything that I had heard, and that is exactly what I got. They have pushed me to be a better musician and guitarist, which is what I wanted. It was a little awkward, at first, finding my comfort zone, but now it feels natural. I am just psyched for people to hear the new stuff.
HC: Kevin...Alan...same question.
AW: I was expecting a comparable musician, but I wasn’t sure about the chemistry. Now, it seems like the perfect fit.
KN: I didn’t know what to expect. I knew he would have a certain level of ability, which he does, but I also found that Steve is a pretty cool freakin’ dude, without a lot of drama, and that is what we needed.
HC: Describe the new album in three words, go!
AW: Personal, Vulnerable, Heavier
KN: Engaging, Diverse, Creative
SS: Intense, Raw, Thick
KN: We just run from one genre to another, so it definitely diverse.
AW: We’ve changed up some of our old stuff to make it more interesting and we have a new energy. We haven’t played in Chattanooga, in a while because we wanted to make sure that everything was just right, before we re-presented ourselves to our hometown.

Come see for yourself! Support local music!

Crossfade w/ Mighty Sideshow
Rhythm and Brews
April 5th, $12

- Hellcat

With a new tour kicking off now as well as a new album in the works, Lords of Acid find themselves busy as ever or even busier as the pioneering electronica dance band and their hedonistic music and lyrics wreak havoc on everyone sounding as fresh as ever.  Leader Praga Khan took a little time to catch up on what’s going on.

So, are you looking forward to this club tour you got coming up here in the States?

Yes, of course.  (laughs) I’m looking forward to it. We always have a great time. We have a lot of fans out there. It’s always good to see them on tour. So, I’m looking forward to it. Especially with new lineup, it’s got a lot of interest again.

Lords of Acid have kind of been on the down-low for a number of years. First of all, you did a lot of solo work, I guess, and then what made you decide to bring back Lords of Acid?

Our government and public demand. (laughs) There’s so many people, so amazing about Lords of Acid fans … and now there are a lot of new bands referring to Lords of Acid. So, everybody starts asking when Lords of Acid are going back on tour, but I told them I need to be ready for it. I need to find the right vibes because I can only do a good show when I’m really in the mood and that’s where I thought I needed the right vibes to go on tour. Check out if it felt like there was a fan base there. Found that there was a lot of interest and a base, so it made me decide to go back in the studio and work on a new album. That’s what I’m doing right now and I’m more than happy that I started trying to make it …

Was it an arduous process to put together the new band, picking up people to work with?

… that line-up that stuck together for a while, it went through a rock phase. It was really special. I really liked it. It was like sort of a harder version of Lords of Acid. But now, this year, because I’m working on an album that I feel is going more and more dance-oriented, I needed another line-up and that’s why I looked for another singer and looked for one that I can also use for live, and finally I made the decision to go with DJ Mea because I checked her out and listened to the work she did and she fits perfectly well into the new sound. That’s why I’m really looking forward to the tour and getting to know her better and, the tour, once it’s finished, we can start laying down vocals for the new album.

How important is feedback from your audience? Do you take into consideration what people tell you they like, what they don’t like, what they look forward to, in your music?

I’ve always had a very, very good relationship with my fans. I’ve been able to reach the fan base with Children of Acid community. It’s like a version of Facebook that went up ten years ago that people could relate, see what concerts are coming to the countries and all that stuff. So, we always have a very, very nice relationship with the fans with, like, a lot of feedback from the fans and I really appreciate it. And I allow them to do that ‘cause, at the end of the day, if you don’t have fans, you can’t have the live tour. If you don’t have fans, you can’t work on the music. So I always have a lot of respect for my fans and I really want to know what they feel went over the best when I talk with the crowd after the show, especially with the fans that we’ve had for years; they’re the fans that I really know and I really appreciate their feedback on the shows.

Your lyrics are always known for being hedonistic in nature. Does the music itself run to the lyrics or do the lyrics run to the music? Which influences the other?

It’s kind of a social experiment. That’s what I really like about the shows that we do in the States, that people essentially come to a festival and that gives it a special atmosphere … that’s what I like about it – it’s a soulful experience. It’s the show. It’s the atmosphere. It’s the drive that sparks the sexual atmosphere that’s hanging in the air … that’s what makes us unique. There are bands that try to copy us here in America, try to take it over the top, and then they come up with shows or then they make out like a sex version of it and that also doesn’t work. Because what we do is try to find the right balance of music and sexually erotic image, you know? And that’s something that’s very, very hard to get balanced in the right way.

What kind of influence do you think your music has had on popular culture, ‘cause the sounds and structures of all your songs seemed to have been picked up especially by the hip-hop community and as a great influence on other genres outside of bands in electronic/industrial music?

The thing is, these days, I listen to new artists, a lot of new bands coming up, and they use a lot of sounds that we were using back in the early Nineties and it’s really strange because the music that we were doing twenty years ago is now on the soundtracks  in movies, the sound effects. People tell me about this new electric-acid band and I tell them, no, it’s a song from twenty years ago and they say, wow, that sounds amazingly up-to-date, what’s happening now. I think that we were a little bit ahead in those days and now it’s really becoming extremely popular … I prefer to use the old electrics because – I don’t know if it’s nostalgia or maybe I’m becoming a little bit blinkered – but I still think that I can get more out of these old machines than I can with (modern) versions.

That’s a true testament to what you do, because your music, unlike a lot of other genres or even bands, you can listen and your songs sound as relevant today as it did 20-22 years ago, where other bands, you can here the song and say 1995 or 1987 or such?

… there were bands that came up with one unique sound and then they copied and copied and copied it again, so we tried to take it forward.

Your music has traditionally filled all the dance floors and yet you’re playing traditional music venues where people just sit around and stare at the band. How have you developed your show over the years to deal with the venues you’ve performed in?

Well, in the early Nineties, people with dance music, there was a real big gap between dance music and rock music. In those days, it was almost impossible for a dance-oriented band to play in a rock venue or at a rock festival, but over the years it’s changed. In America, most of the time, there isn’t a problem with it but over in Europe, you do have a problem, because you’re a dance band, so you can play at a discotheque or a rave festival or you’re a rock band and you can play at a rock festival. It has changed over the years … in America, people are really open-minded. People think it’s the other way around, but in America, people are really open-minded when it comes to music or vibes. We’ve never had a problem in America. We’ve always played at the right venues. We’ve always had a nice crowd. It’s a social experiment, so if you want to dance, you can dance. If you like to chill and just see the show, you can have a great time just watching the show.

Lords of Acid have been around since the late Eighties – the first couple of singles came out in ’88 – and you have continued on along with great popularity with the American public. What do you think has led to you staying so relevant all these years?

I think the most important thing is that we’re a unique band. There were a lot of bands in Europe that want to make the big poppy pop, but they don’t have that uniqueness and I think that made our success. The combination between rock music, dance music … we hit the right mixture. It’s really unique. Also, the show that we were doing made us a unique band. 

 - Dave Weinthal

Characterized as "explosively intoxicating," Greensboro, North Carolina's Holy Ghost Tent Revival cannot be pigeonholed into any popular genre. Melding brass with banjo, guitar, bass, drums and keys, this six-piece ensemble boasts an eclectic mash of instruments and styles --  a musical alchemy all their own.   We recently chatted with drummer Ross Montsinger to give us some insight with what’s going on with the band.

You music is difficult to categorize as it has a myriad of influences. Was this the band’s intention initially or did the sound evolve to what it is now?

As individuals, we have a diverse background of musical tastes and experiences, so that played a large part of how we sounded originally, but being together as a group for the past four years and being exposed to new ideas together has evolved our sound and created something that defines us even more than our backgrounds.

You guys are on the road a lot.  How has being on the road affected your songwriting?

We haven't had much time to learn new songs, but our experiences from the road have given much inspiration to the individual songwriters of the group.

How difficult is it being an original band today taking into consideration the economy where people are more judicious with their money and may opt instead of something original and new to them, something safe (band playing more cover material)?

If people want something safe, they'll put on their favorite record and stay at home. If they're venturing out to see live music, chances are they want something new. We've never been a band in any other type of economy, and we haven't concerned ourselves with record sales very much at this point, so in a way, the economy works to our advantage. People want to feel something to take their mind off of their hard times, and that's the experience we want to provide.

You guys are from North Carolina, which had a burgeoning music scene in the mid ‘80s and seems to be coming back around with the likes of you guys and the Avett Brothers.  How nurturing, if at all has your local music community been?

Very! All our friends liked our music when we started playing in college, which gave us the confidence to expand into more serious clubs, where we found that most everyone in the old north state is supportive to live music. We've started to find that this nurturing exists almost all over our great country!

Since your music can’t be pigeonholed into one specific genre or style does this lend itself to improvisation?

The improvisational nature of our music comes from the drums -- what I play. I have a bit of a background in jazz and I've always found that mixing up what I do keeps the other members of the band more on their toes. It makes playing music more fun for me which makes it more fun for everyone!

You guys have been around a few years now.  How has your focus or ideals changed or been modified from when you started out?

Our ideals have remained mostly the same: to have fun playing music and let others be helped by the joy which that brings. Our focus has had to shift as we are finding that to keep this dream going, we need to expand to larger fan bases and be able to make some money doing it.

Being in a band is a non-stop maturing and growing process.  What do you believe is the next step for the band?

Were currently finishing up our new album for which we will be seeking out as much exposure as possible.

 - Dave Weinthal

Holy Ghost Tent Rival perform Wednesday, March 9 at Rhythm and Brews along with Hoots and Hellmouth.

The band that brought you such pop/punk anthems as “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” and “The Anthem”, riding the crest of popularity of the genre to all sorts of attention and awards return with their strongest album in years, Cardiology.  A little more seasoned and focused, the band has embarked on tour to spread the word about the album that critics hail as a return to what Good Charlotte does best.  Guitarist Billy Williams gives us a little insight to what’s been going on.

Cardiology, it took you guys a little while to get that out. Did you actually have to re-record the album?

Yeah, that’s right. It was a bit of a roller coaster this time around. For one, the majority of us either got married or had kids. You know, lot’s of family stuff going on, so we kind of took a little time to focus on real life for a little bit. So, it took us a while to get back into this record. Then we get into the studio to finally start working on it and thought it’d be nice to work with someone different. So, we went with Howard Benson, who has produced a lot of records we love. He’s had a lot of success, really big-time producer, and we thought, hey it’d be a great combination. We were a little more than halfway through the record and everybody had that gut feeling – no, it doesn’t sound right, it doesn’t sound like what we thought it was going to sound like. He kept saying, just trust me; in the end, you’re going to be happy. So finally we heard three mixes of a finished song and everybody was like, oh man, this is not what we were looking for. We were like, would we be crazy to stop while we’re ahead and start all over? And everybody was like, we have to ‘cause who wants to go out and tour for the next few years and play songs you’re not happy with and talk in interviews about a record you’re not happy with? You can’t do that. You’ve got to love it, so … lucky for us, we have a really great relationship with  Don Gilmore. We’d done two records with him in the past and he’s like family to us. We went to Don and said, listen, we need your help. We already spent all the money and we got to make this record over again and he said, you know what, let’s start tomorrow. So, he’s awesome like that. We came through and he really helped it and I think everyone knows it was the right thing to do.

Now, how much material from the original recordings … did you guys just re-record the songs or …

We didn’t use any of the original recordings. I was like fuck that. We started over from scratch, probably a little more than half of the songs we recorded before, maybe like four or five new songs came out while we were working with Doug.

A lot of critics have hailed the album as being a return to the band’s roots. How do you feel about statements like that?

I agree to an extent. I think that this record is like a conglomerate of all the records put together. I think we wanted to take all the elements from the old records that we liked the most and find a way to bring that back into this record. We’ve done a lot of experimenting, a lot of different styles in the past, and not to say that we’re not proud of all those … I don’t think that we could’ve got to Cardiology had we not made all those other records and there’s still some things from those other records that we’re proud that we wanted, you know, we wanted to keep those elements in. So, it’s definitely a little bit of a return to form but I think it really falls in line chronologically as the next record in our cycle, in our career.

Well, you guys have already had a couple of singles get major radio airplay. When you listen to your music, are there certain songs that you’re surprised make it on the radio or don’t make it on the radio, be it off Cardiology or some of your earlier works?

Yes and no. I think we always have our ideas of what songs should be singles. Some of them, the label has a different idea of what they think should be a single, so sometimes there’s a bit of push and pull there, but I think, for us, we always try to write catchy songs. I kind of think you could take any song off any of our records and they could potentially be a single. So, for us, we make a record we’re happy with and whichever one the record label thinks is the certain song, we’re like, cool, we like ‘em all. So whatever you feel like …

I noticed on this tour you’re out on, you’re playing a lot more theater-type venues than traditional amphitheaters and festivals, stuff that you’ve done the last ten years. How do you like playing the more intimate kind of settings where there is more attention being paid to what you guys are doing?

I love both, ya know? Who doesn’t like playing a big show to a bunch of people? But we haven’t really toured America that heavily over the past couple of years. We’ve seen a lot of success for the band in Europe and Australia. We spent a lot of time in these other countries and kind of neglected America a little bit and we’ve come back on these big package tours with us and a bunch of other bands or summer festivals but we haven’t really done just a Good Charlotte tour in a long time, so it kind of seemed like that’s the way to do it. We’ll go back like we used to do it when we were a young band, just playing these small clubs and having that really nice fan/band connection there where you can see the whole crowd and go out and meet the fans after the show. You know, I think we were kind of scared to do that, been a long time since we did that. Should we? Can we? I think that’s where we need to be and everyone’s really looking forward to this tour; it’s been a long time.

Cardiology is your first album with Capitol. Was the transition from one label to another pretty seamless? Or were there some uncertainties going on there?

Um, yeah. We actually finished the record on Sony and then switched to the label after the album was finished, which is probably what made it so seamless. If we had done it in the midst of recording it, it probably would’ve been a nightmare. Had we done it right before recording it, who knows how much involvement the label would’ve had in recording it? It could have been a really different record but you know, we’ve got a good manager. He really helps make everything go seamlessly and, for us, it was all pretty easy. I know other bands have gone through the same thing and not so easy, but it worked out very well for us.

Well, you guys are still very young. You’ve been in the mainstream eye for over ten years now. What’s the feeling like, instead of looking up to other bands, where you’ve had bands citing you as an influence?

That’s pretty cool. You know, you can’t deny that. I mean, when I was a kid, I read every magazine for my favorite bands and everything on them, I wanted to see. Everything they said meant such a big deal to me. To think that we’re that band for some other kids out there, that’s awfully flattering. It’s cool. It definitely makes you feel older. The first time we went to a show and these kids are coming in look like they’re fifteen or something like that and we’re like, man, these guys are so young. Man, that was us on the first record. We were just these little kids on tour, looking up to all these other bands, and things have certainly shifted. It makes you feel a little older but there’s also a nice sense of pride there. We’ve made it for ten years and we’re around to see the next generation of bands go out. It feels nice.

You guys shot out of the gates pretty quickly, with your music all over the radio and used in other media as well. How were you able to keep things in perspective with all the success?

That’s definitely a hard question. I think openness, honesty … we definitely talked about it as a band. If things are not going right, we talk it out. Sometimes it’s not pretty but you’ve got to get down to the surface of things and put everything on the table and hash it out until everybody’s happy. You have to realize in this business, there’s good and there’s bad. There’s going to be days where everything’s going the way you want it to, there’s days where it doesn’t, and you got to be there for each other. You all have to have the same picture. You have to realize the most important thing is longevity for the band, success for the band. The big picture is more important than the little picture. All the little things – what songs are we going to play on the setlist tonight … all that little shit doesn’t matter. You know what? It’s the big picture that matters. We all need to be on the same page for that. If you can get through the day-to-day stuff, the end result is a lot easier.

You’ve been called an active vegetarian. Explain what an active vegetarian is as opposed to a passive vegetarian.

I don’t really think I’m much of an active vegetarian. I’m a strict vegetarian. I have been for close to twelve years now. It’s one thing I do take seriously, but I’ve been a little turned off by PETA and stuff like that. I think sometimes they’re a little too quick to use celebrity to impress kids into being vegetarians. I think that it’s one of those things that if you want to do it , great. All the guys in the band eat meat and I don’t look at them and give them the stinkeye like, you shouldn’t eat that or show them videos of animals being tortured. I’m not that dude at all, ‘cause it should be a personal choice. I don’t eat meat and that’s cool and if some kid choose not to because I do, that’s cool, but I’m not going to go out and preach. I did when I was really young. PETA was like, hey we want to get you involved and I went out and did a couple of things for them. It just didn’t feel right; it didn’t feel like me. I felt like I was shoving it down peoples’ throats and that’s not me. We haven’t done anything with PETA in eight, nine years, although PETA still chooses to use our name all over the place. We haven’t done anything for them in almost a decade, so … I’m a vegetarian and if all our fans choose to be one, that’s great but that’s bout the extent of my activism.

You guys have been together as a band for over fifteen years now. In your wildest dreams, did you think that you’d not only still be together, but that you’d still be going this strong?

It’s hard to say. Otherwise, I’d say yes, we did think that, ‘cause all of us are really passionate about music and this job and this has been a dream for so long that I think we would do anything to make it go this long. We’re very fortunate and very grateful that it has gone this long and we’ve seen a lot of bands come and go since we’ve been signed, but we must be doing something right ‘cause we’re five records deep and we’re still here. We have no intention of stopping. We’re lucky that this is our job, so did we not believe we’d be here? No, because we believe in ourselves. But it’s still crazy and we’re still thankful for it every day.

 - Dave Weinthal

Good Charlotte kicks off their tour Thursday, March 3 at the Center Stage in Atlanta.

Austin, Texas’ Dexter Freebish has seen their career mirror the roller coaster they were named after.  Starting off fast, winning the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, sgining a major label deal and releasing two albums that saw them climb charts and win fans, things did not set right with the band.  The band lef the label went independent and took a hiatus for a few years before coming back strong with Shine On released late last fall.  Now older and wiser the band has everything in perspective and is writing and performing music out of their true love of it, not as a business decision.

Your new album is being released independently.  Was there less pressure in the studio working on this album without record label bosses breathing down your neck?

Oh definitely.  It was on our own timeframe and we were able to be as creative as we wanted to, as outlandish as we wanted to.  It was such a relaxed recording atmosphere.  I’ve got a studio in my home that we did most of it at.  When you’re making a major label album, and when we used to make the albums, five, six, seven, eight, nine years ago, these were half-million dollar budgets.  So every day you’re in the studio it was costing $1,500 to $2,000 a day.  You’re constantly feeling the pressure of that budget.  We made our entire album from start to finish including production, mixing, pressing the CDs, mastering – everything, we did it for less than $10,000.  It was guy time.  When we were getting together to write the music, it was like a bunch of friends just hanging out.  Rather than watching a football game, we were making music.  And we were recording that music really for ourselves.  And we put it out there for anybody else who might enjoy it.  And that was the whole thing this endeavor was very pure because we’ve all got other careers that we have right now that are all very successful. And this Dexter Freebish, we were doing this because we loved playing together and we love the music.  I think those are really good reasons to do art.

What kind of control did you have to deal with before when choosing singles and deciding what songs went on an album?

When you’re on a major label, you never have enough singles.  Even though when I look back at our other records, I think every song could have probably gone to radio.  It’s never enough for the label.  And that makes you a little paranoid.  But it also means when you’re in that label system you might be forced into writing a kind of song that’s very “radio-friendly” that might not be your best material because they’re looking for a certain kind of hook that’s within 20 or 30 seconds of the song’s beginning.  And so you don’t get to be creative because there’s very formulated things they’re kind of wanting.  So you hit all the right buttons to capture the radio promoters’ ear.

When you guys first launched years back Top 40 music and what was charting is completely different from what is on there now.  How do you feel Dexter Freebish has had to adapt to the change in the public’s musical taste?

You know, when we were doing this album it wasn’t about us changing for the public as much as it was us wanting to put out a record that we wanted to listen to ourselves.  If you kind of went through our old back catalog prior to listening to this record, we have adopted a more dancier rhythms and more keyboard-ish kinds of things but not necessarily to be more relevant, more within the context that we grew up in the ‘80s and we’re into bands like Depeche Mode, Echo & the Bunnymen and old U2, Duran Duran – stuff like that.  We were like we like to do something that’s a tribute to what we grew up on.  That was kind of our approach and sonic perspective for this album. 

I was impressed when I looked at the Billboard 200 chart the other week because three to the top ten albums on the chart were alternative rock bands – Cake, the Decemberists and Cage the Elephant, something I thought was unique at least right now that we haven’t seen in a couple of years. 

You’re right.  I didn’t even catch that.  I gave up on looking. (laughs) That is great news. 

How do you feel the songwriting of band has changed as we are in 2011 now?

We’ve had an opportunity to meet a lot of other writers/performers over the last ten or 15 years and one of the constants if you ever talk to really good writers, they tell you to write about what you know.  I think that’s the one thing we try to do in our songwriting is write about things that we are experiencing.  “The Need Machine”, for instance, was written at a time when we all had really little kids that were all babies.  They were all need machines.  And that was the thought behind that.  So we’re writing about what we know.

Has your perspective changed as you guys have gotten older and have families?

I think our perspectives have definitely changed in that you start viewing the world in a completely different pyridine when you’ve got little ones that you’re trying to teach and protect.  You really start thinking more about what the long-term ramifications are of things that we do today.  I think it just gives us a much broader context for our own lives – and that’s pretty heavy.  Because now you’re starting to think of a legacy of people.

Your career has stretched throughout the digital age with the birth of social networking and downloading music.  How have you kept up with modern technology?

I think we’re pretty much a band of geeks. (laughs) We’ve all got our iPhones and I think  one of the greatest things that I’ve seen in the last year or so is Dropbox – the ability for you to have a kind of eclectic digital storage thing that multiple people have access to.  That’s how we did the album.  We would upload tracks and let everyone hear the mixes and get everyone’s perspective on them, make changes, upload them again.  I love that.  It makes it so easy. 

What do you think you’ve learned most over the years and what mistakes did you learn from that you don’t want to repeat?

I think the biggest mistake was early on and we went in to try and make a living at it, and make money at it at the expense of the art.  Now we approach it from that the music really does come first – and that’s what it’s about.  The music and just trying to create a sonic landscape that people can resonate with – the soundtrack of their lives.

How long did it take to get the latest album together?

I’d say start to finish, like all the way through from the first songwriting session until the CDs were actually pressed, it was probably about 14 or 15 months.  It actually went pretty fast.  If you look at the time between when we stopped touring for A Life of Saturdays, which was our first Capitol release until the release of number two, which was Tripped Into Divine, I think it was probably three years there.  So we were able to be a lot more agile.  Truth be told, if all we were doing was music we could have cut that in half, but we’ve got families and other priorities as well.  So we had to squeeze music in when we could. 

So you’re actually enjoying the music aspect of it now compared before when it was more of a business?

Yeah, definitely.  Because it’s pure expression now.

How are the live shows going?  What kind of crowd reaction are you getting?

It is so much fun because when we’ve gone out to support some of the new material we’re amazed at the number of people that know every word of every song on the new record.  And that’s awesome.  We love performing live.

How difficult is it to emulate live what you’ve done in the studio?

We don’t even try. (laughs) There’s a lot going on in this record.  Why go out and pay to hear a band play live just like the record?  All the vocals are still the same, but the music is more rock.  It’s cool. 

As a band what do you guys look forward to more now compared to when you first cranked this thing up?

I really look forward to every show.  I look forward to every opportunity we get to write.  You know, when you’re doing it all the time and when you’re on the road it can be a grind.  Now it’s like everyone of it’s special.  Every time we get together it’s special.  It’s all just completely different now. 

 - Dave Weinthal

It’s a nondescript Saturday afternoon and Wes Hartman, drummer for Downstream is sitting across from me with a goofy grin.  I mean that as a compliment.  The grin is one of eternal optimism and boyish charm.  When he speaks, at times his voice still cracks in adolescence joy as he talks shop.  He’s the eternal optimist.

It’s refreshing to see and hear the enthusiasm in Hartman’s voice and actions as his band finishes up their third and still untitled album.  Downstream has been around since 2004 and have seen and witness a lot.  They are survivors, which makes his still youthful exuberance refreshing.

In truth, they have been through a lot in the past six years.  Hartman and his bandmates Nathan Loveless, Curtis Anthony, Chris Hancock and Joseph Carrick have had to toil with everything - death, substance abuse and being in a music scene that tends to eat their own.

Despite all this Hartman still has the same goofy grin and positive outlook he had when they practiced for the first time almost seven years ago.

“Definitely a lot of maturity,” Hartman says when discussing how the band has evolved from their first album to where they are now.    “There’s more open communication and experiment a lot more as sounds and tunes and attitudes and feelings – it’s all blending in so well.”

The drummer says the band has grown so much together over the past five years making the writing process simpler and finding themselves actually having fun with it.  Hartman believes their overall maturity and being with each other and knowing exactly where everyone is going has made the project and the band better.

Nathan Loveless remains the leader of the band when it comes to writing the music for the band.  “Nathan will sit at his house and play with the computer on tempos and drum tracks,” says Hartman.  “He’ll write riffs on top of that, then he’ll email it to me or send me a CD.”

Hartman says he’ll take a listen and find a change here and there and then go into the practice room with the rest of the band.  “Everybody’s got the format of what Nathan has come up with and just hammer it out and make some changes then move onto the next song.”

Since the band’s inception almost seven years ago a lot has changed style-wise for the modern rockers.  “It’s changed a lot due to losing members and letting go of some,” says Hartman.  He calls it a carousel of players that have come and gone as the band has looked for the right guys to fill the band’s needs.

And despite the personnel changes, Hartman doesn’t really think the band has changed that much  “It’s more progressed and it’s more radio-friendly,” he says.  “We don’t have a lot of attitude.  It’s very aggressive but still upbeat and melodic.  It’s a lot more fun.”

As the band has progressed Hartman says they’ve become more aware of being radio-friendly.  “We’re definitely shooting for more radio-friendly,” he says.  “We really don’t care what other people think, but yes, we do apparently because we want to make a living off this.”

Downstream has learned a lot in their six-plus years in existence.  Some of it is enlightening and some humbling.  “It’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll,” says Hartman.

Patience is the key the one of the founding members of the band says.  “It’s weird for me now, “ says Hartman.  “I can’t speak for the other guys, when we started playing – especially live, everything was rushed and everything was crazy.  Everything was chaotic but slightly controlled.”

Everything moved fast for the band at first as they learned to play together and had to figure out everyone’s difference nuances.  Things have started to slow down for Downstream as they have finally become comfortable with each other and their role as part of the band.  “Now, I ‘m actually enjoying the shows more,” Hartman says.  “I’m actually paying attention to what the crowd’s doing.  It’s like I’m taking a step back and wow, it’s almost like I don’t want the show to end.”

The band is looking forward to wrapping up the album for spring release and have been contacted by Howard Frank at Warner Brothers, who is showing an interest in the band.  The band is also itching to hit the road.  “We’re really wanting to hit the road and let everybody see the energy that’s behind it and see where we’re coming from and our long years of playing music,” says Hartman.

“When they see the live show they’ll see how much we have grown, how much stage presence is to it,” says Hartman.    “We’ve got a lot of crafty stuff we added to it and we’re looking forward to seeing everybody’s face when we’re on stage.”

 - Dave Weinthal

Downstream performs Friday night at Rhythm and Brews with Black Betty and Dangerous New Machine.

Brit sensation V.V. Brown is a bit of an enigma.  A good enigma.  In a world of one dimensional artists Brown stands out from the rest.  Not only can the Northhampton, England lass sing, she writes her own material as well as material for other artists, has written and published a graphic novel, and since she has so much free time on her hands, she has also found time to model as well.  With a unique style whose voice is reminiscent of soul and jazz singers of the past mixed with an almost punk and alternative rock sound she is quite the aural experience.  People in Europe have picked up on her and have been picking up her first album, Travelling Like the Light.  Here in the states many have put a face to the song, “Shark In the Water” which began charting as she started her first American tour the past summer in support of Maroon 5 and American Idol winner Kris Allen.

In today’s day and age we’re living in an American Idol, X-Factor generation where everyone thinks that singing is easy to do, just get on a stage and sing your favorite song. There is a lot of work that actually goes into it.  How much work do you have to put in?  You have to practice quite a bit.  I know there’s a God-given amount of talent, but it’s not just simply stepping up to the microphone is it?

I think it involves a lot of stuff behind the scenes like the music.  I produce my own albums.  I take it seriously in a sense that it’s more than a voice.  It’s who you are. I want to make sure it comes across well.  I’m into fashion.  To me, it’s a whole package – everything that I am. 

You’re a writer and also a singer.  Did one lead into another, or how did it all come about?

I think I started writing before I realized I could sing.  I used to make song compositions on the piano when I was about seven.  Nothing complicated.  Then I think growing up in the church I discovered my voice. I was maybe around 10. Then I started to make up more songs for my voice.  And I think the relationship between writing and singing has evolved together as I’ve gotten older.  I’ve gotten better songwriting and knowing what I am writing about.

Not only do you write your own material, but you write for others as well.  When you’re in the songwriting process, do you write all songs with yourself in mind or do you have other artists in mind?

When I’m writing songs for myself it’s like internal and it’s about the things that I’m feeling and thoughts that I’m thinking.  When I’m writing for the road it’s much more external where I’m thinking about what they want to say.  It’s a different type of psychology when you’re writing for people. It’s like being dressed up.  You get to be somebody else.  When you’re writing for your own album you tend to get selfish.  Again, at the same time I have matured, especially as I started to write my second album, I think I have become more aware of the things around me and I’ve got more questions about life.  I think the second album will be less about me but more about the world and the things in it.

I also see that you have written a graphic novel as well.  When you’re writing something like that’s not musically based is it easier for you to write since you only have to worry about the narrative? 

Yeah, I get bored quite easily.  And I’ve been singing the same 12 songs these last few years over and over.  I think that was the kind of creative project that has kept me sane.  I love to create all the time.  I never got into this business for money or fame, it’s just because I love music.  And I think if I was in any industry I would be great..  I would get more out there.  When you’re working with a major label.  The concept is my way to stay sane. 

When I listened to your songs, vocally elicited to me a smooth jazz kind of feel to it.  It reminded me a lot of Lena Horne, and maybe Shirley Bassey.  Am I far off with those comparisons?  It’s a lot more sophisticated sound than you find on Top 40 radio.

I definitely think it’s alternative and takes reference from the past.  At the time music from the ‘50s and ‘60s was inspiring me.  I think there’s a contemporary twist to it, which gives it this kind of alternative nature, which not makes it straight up ‘60s or ‘50s.  In a way it’s really good and interesting and in a way really hard because it’s not going to get played as much because I’m not doing the absolute pop that’s on the radio.  I’m in this for the long run and I make music and sing about what I like, not to follow the crowd.

You just completed your first major North American tour.  How has your perception of America been since you landed her compared to what you’ve read or had people tell you?

I love the experience.  I definitely realize touring America is very, very difficult from Europe.  It’s a lot of hard work and every state is very, very different.  It’s a really different culture.  The reception is brilliant.  I think American people love music. There is a strong, strong history that music is a part of their culture.  I think people appreciate what they hear.  If the people like what they hear they react to it in a very obvious way.  Our shows have been that way.  That helps me because of the energy.

You just finished touring with Maroon 5 and Kris Allen.  Was it a bit intimidating taking into consideration that these guys have a built in fan base and you were introducing yourself to a new audience?  How were you able to win the crowd over in your favor?

To be honest we were quite shocked at how many people actually came to hear “Shark In the Water”.  That song sold half a million singles in America.  I thought when I was going to go on tour here, no one would know who I was and would have to work extremely hard.  But there’s been a good 20 percentage of the crowd singing along with “Shark In the Water” or people who turn their heads and don’t connect the dots that I am the girl that sings the song. They’ve heard on the radio but they didn’t know it was V.V. Brown that was singing it.  So they get shocked.  There was probably 80 percent of the crowd that didn’t know who I was.  You know, you just have to let the music speak for itself.  I think if you try to be yourself people that like it will like it and those that don’t, don’t.  Pushing any harder isn’t going to change much I don’t think.

 - Dave Weinthal

Shinedown: Into The Sound of Madness

All I really have to say, before diving into this interview, is that for someone who has sold millions of records, Brent Smith is one of the nicest guys I've ever interviewed.  I really enjoyed it.  I guess, I shouldn't have been so surprised considering he is from our very own Knoxville, Tennessee.  My, my...Southern boys do have their charm.

Hellcat:  Apart from changes in line-up, what would you say are the main differences in Sound of Madness and the last record, Us and Them?

Brent Smith:  Quite frankly, the quality of the songs and the actual sound, the sonic quality.  The last record was a bit rushed for the public.  We didn't really know what we were doing.  Finish a song, it goes on the record.  You have an idea?  Let's put it down and onto the record.  We had a six month turn around, which means, it was written, recorded, and in stores for the fans within six months of the start time.  We really had no time to dissect any of the songs.  So many personal things went on, that led to the changes in the line-up and changes within the band.  Honestly, I had fallen out of love with music after Us and Them.  The touring was brutal and I had been battling my own seven year drug addiction.  This album is truly a rebirthing of the band.  I said everything I wanted, and did everything the way we wanted it to sound.  We took our time.  It took 18 months, but we did it right.  It is a true statement of what Shinedown really is.

HC:  Since you have been able to tour for this album for a while now, do you see more interaction from the audience on this record?

Brent:  Yeah, on a lot of different levels.  It's a way better record, for one.  But our demographics have changed.  Don't get me wrong we love our dudes, but for a long time, all of our fans were 18-35 year old males.  Now females in some markets outweigh the males.  A lot of younger kids love this album, too, so we've been trying to do more all ages shows, to make sure they get a chance to be included.  I've always said, I have one boss, and that boss is the audience.

HC:  For someone who hasn't ever listened to Shinedown, which I am sure, has become less and less common, how would you pitch your band?

Brent:  It's just honest.  That's the only word I've ever used.  It's almost alive, with its own heartbeat.  The name describes what it is.  Sometimes you shine and sometimes you're down.  It is the style of music that if you've ever felt like the whole world is coming down on you, if you put any of our records on, and listen all the way through, hopefully by the end you will feel like you can conquer the world.

HC:  Considering all the different changes in media and formats of how music reaches people these days, do you think radio airplay still as important now, as it was when the band started? 

Brent:  Absolutely, 100% yes.  If not more now, than ever.  Radio is a connection that will never die.  Not everyone can afford all the latest fancy things.  Not everyone has an Ipod or I-Tunes, or whatever else, but everyone has a radio.  Radio is still free.  Your car might not have a brand new bumping system or even a tape deck, but it has a radio.  You can always turn on the radio and get music.  Ultimately the radio decides what to play, and by doing so, it decides what people will hear.  Shinedown's success was built by radio.  We're a radio band.  Without the radio and touring we wouldn't be anything like we are now.

HC:  If you could snap your fingers and solve one problem in the world, what would it be and why?

Brent:  War.  There is just no sense in it.  All the violence and hate in society.  If I could snap my fingers and make one thing go away, that would definitely be it.

HC:  Are your biggest musical influences now, the same as they were ten years ago?

Brent:  Yeah.  I still go back to my soul music.  Otis Redding, Sam Cook, Al Green, Ella Fitzgerald, and Nina Simone, just off the top of my head.  My core influences have stayed the same.  Post grunge Seattle, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Zepplin, Sabbath, you know.  Lately, I've gotten into some folk singers and some poppy stuff.  Hell, I like Lady Gaga.  She has shock value, with class.

HC:  Because there has been a lot of “he sold out” controversy over Steven Tyler accepting the position to be the next judge on American Idol, I wanted to ask if you had the same offer would you do it?

Brent:  (laughs) Yeah.  I'd totally do it.

HC:  Aside from family and friends, what three things do you miss the most when you are on the road for extended periods?

Brent:  There is really only one way to answer that:  My son, my son, my son.

 - Hellcat

Come check out Shinedown, at the Tivoli Theatre, on November 6th, and see what all the fuss is about.  As of right now, there are still tickets, but very few.  You can find them at the City of Chattanooga's website, ranging from $36.50-$42.50.

Hellcat:  Describe The Trouble with Angels, your new album.  How does it differ from your previous work, or does it?

Richard Patrick:  It goes back to the sound of the second record, our title record, but still stays hinged in 2010.  It is a great old Filter record, a return to classic Filter sound, reminiscent of Short Bus.

HC:  Your last two releases have been a “best of” and a remix album.  What inspired the new full length album?  Were you working on it throughout?

RP:  Well, yes and no.  The first song, “Drug Boy” goes back for ten years.  I never used it, but I saved it.  Some of these songs are really old, but you go back and look at them like it's the first time, and you can make them pretty fresh.

HC:  Do you have a particular favorite song on this album?  Why?

RP:  Hrm...”Drug Boy” and “No Love”,  I think “No Love” is pretty awesome.  “Inevitable Relapse” was the funnest to do though, it is pretty controversial with the fans.  I used auto tune and everyone shit themselves.  I mean, I used it as an effect, an effect I wanted.  I'm not f*cking Little Wayne, hiding behind auto tune to make me sound like I am a good singer.  I know I can sing, I wasn't hiding behind anything, I wanted the song to sound like it was in a club, and have that club feel.  I wanted that because it is inspired by a bad part of my life, when I'd go to the club to score, and that's what it sounded like in my head.  So far, it's like a 50/50 response from the fans, some are pissed, some love it, but f*ck it.  It's been a crazy ten years man, but The Trouble With Angels is a great return album, come see us live, because we are back.

HC:  Who are you listening to or really into right now? 

RP:  I've been reintroduced to Mudvayne, by my buddy Chad (Gray), who is the singer.  So, hell yeah.  Diggin' that right now.  It's pretty amazing music.

HC:  What haven't you done with Filter, that you would really like to do?

RP:  We never really played arenas, I mean, we did a little bit, but that was pretty fun.  I would like to do a nice theater tour, you know?  Like, crazy, old theaters.  That would be cool.  I'm not talking Broadway, here, definitely not like that, at all.

HC:  If you like old theaters, you should check out the Tivoli Theater, here in Chattanooga, the next time you come back, it's been around a long time, and has some pretty cool history behind it, hell, it might even be haunted.

RP:  See, now that sounds awesome. 

HC:  I'm sorry, please don't take this the wrong way or anything, but I have to ask, do you ever get tired of “Hey Man, Nice Shot”?

RP:  (snickers) Well, when I wrote it I was like, how the f*ck could someone not have written or figured this out?  It was so simple.  Put it this way, if I had known at all, what it would do to my life I would have done it sooner.  Here is how it happened... I was in Nine Inch Nails at the time, and I played it for Trent.  He was like, “eh...it's okay.  Maybe we'll do it on an EP or something” and I was like, “Really?  That's all you hear?”  So, I took it to some of my friends at Warner Brothers and they were like, “Okay, where are you?  We want to sign you right now.  Here is a half a million dollars...” and so on.  Now, don't get me wrong that's not at all how the industry works, and I don't want to make it out like it's just that easy, this was just a freak thing, but yeah, it changed everything. 

HC:  Since you are coming on Halloween to do Billy and Boner's Halloween Spooktacular, for Rock 105, I have to ask, what was the best costume you've ever pulled off?

RP:  Ha!  When I was 10 years old, I grabbed an army blanket, some cotton, a golf ball tube, and a red light from my Operation game.  I made a cool light saber and was Obi One Kenobi.  It was great, because when I went to school everyone was all wowed and jealous.

HC:  What is the strangest thing a fan has ever done to you? 

RP:  I can tell you the strangest thing that almost happened but didn't, luckily for me.  Some fan chick showed up with handcuffs, one already on her wrist and tried to handcuff herself to me, but thankfully, the PR person blocked her.  It was kind of funny because the same thing had just happened to Mike Patton, where a girl succeeded in handcuffing herself to him, and he was f*cking pissed.

HC:  Because you are calling me from California, let me ask you, what do you think about the legalization of pot for recreational use?

RP:  I think it's fine.  They should.  Huge battles are going on right now in parts of California and all over Mexico.  Drug cartels are becoming really powerful.  It is very reminiscent of Prohibition, if you think about it.  Al Capone made his whole career out of successful crime sprees, all relating in some way to booze, and organized crime because there is a lot of money to be gained.  It's the same sort of thing happening now with the cartels.  California is broke.  This is a resource that, if legalized, we could tax the sh*t out of it and create new revenue for the state. 

HC:  Thank you so much for your time, it's been great talking to you, I will see you at the show.

RP:  Yeah, this has been a great conversation, I really enjoyed your questions, so thanks for doing the interview.

 - Hellcat

Rock 105 Presents: Billy and Boner's Halloween Spooktacular w/ Filter

Rhythm and Brews

Sunday, October 31 8pm, $15

Ryan (Piano, keys, trombone)

Why do you play the instrument that you do?

 You know, when we were six years old mom use to sit us down and make us practice these damn things over and over again, so that eventually.... we had to be proud of what we were creating.

Now, when I get the chance to play for all of these beautiful wild people I still have that little kid inside me just wanting to show everyone all the new sounds he learned to make with his mouth or the cool new way he learned to play his instrument. I play my instrument simply because it makes me happy. Something I can always hold onto no matter how far out there I get. Everybody has one ....I've just found mine through music….

The reason I want to play music…

Family.

We love when the crowd interacts, yells back, gets all weird on us and creates a new part of the show, because that's why were doing this - for the people, the celebration, and the experience of....Opposite Box. Now we're not trying to be your next "Chattanooga Local Celebrity" or your local pin up boys, we're just a group of strange individuals that love what we do and just want to share it. I just want people to know that when they see our name on a bill they can count on a good show. Even if it's not your thing. I promise we'll entertain you, or at least leave you smiling.

I play music to share. Stay with me.... If this was a village of characters, I would be the giggly kid in the corner playing on his instrument getting others to bang on things and make music with me. Then I would find the other kids that could draw and paint and that love to dance, and see if they wanted to show off what made them happy in their corner. Then we would tell the whooole village that we are putting on a performance that night showcasing everyone - for us and all the drunken towns people to get down to.

The best part of being in a band is…

....to pile in that room, shut off the lights, turn the sexy ones on and just get out all the dirty, sweaty, rough madness. It's called musician sex. You know. The couple of weeks before the show are my favorite though, because we get to be those annoying people with fliers, "Here, you throw this away for me" and i love to meet people.

 This is our baby, man. Right now he's walking around the corners of the table trying not to spill the paint everywhere but still falls down and bumps his head on the fireplace every so often.

Soon he'll be running.  Then you won't be able to catch him because of all the shiny new things he's found to get into.

We want to see it live its life - watch it create its own scabs and scars and learn what not to do from helpful others along the way. Im doing it for the experience.....and all feet and hands are inside the vehicle.

The best part of being a guy is…

Letting my long brown hair blow in the wind and being told I should've been a girl.

What is the first thing you want to do when you finally get to quit your day job?

Buy everyone ice cream, and beer. Then proceed to make good - bad decisions.

The easiest way to win a crowd over is to…

Poke at them and let them be a part of the show. They paid for the experience. So, with a little guide and the right environment, they sleekly become part of the entertainment without even knowing it - If it's a back-up dancer or a cowbell player, someone's constantly making noise....and that's ok. Make noise.

My favorite song to play (original or cover) is…

Devil's Lettuce (original). You'll understand when we put the CD out at The Boneyard Boogie on the 29th. We wanted no real words. Just the crowd singing together, drunk or sober.

This last show we got to do on the Riverhouse's final weekend, R.I.P., brought such a inward guilty pleasure when we got to play that song. The crowd for two hours became such a fun group of weird individuals that left their stress outside and just wanted to put their shoes in a circle and just dance.

Watching everyone sing with the ones they came with and act a fool because of what you are doing…...now those are those little personal satisfaction things that you get handed under the table.

Fill in the blank.  I do ________ before every show.

The Mom Check -"Everyone in the car...ok lets go."

My musical hero is…

Mike Patton. Hands down.

The best reason to see/hear Opposite Box is…

To forget about that Econ exam you've got next week, Forget about the dirty rumors Kyle is spreading about you by the water cooler, and forget about the scary news thing you saw on TV that morning and just come down and get down to your local village weirdos.

Richard (Guitar)

Why do you play the instrument that you do?

When I was around 7 or 8, I found an old acoustic guitar in our storage shed. Before my parents split, my dad was a huge Elvis fan, so I guess it was his. I begged my mom to let me have it, and I spent a few weeks banging on it, making noise. After a while, I took lessons from my cousin Greg Nipp (of Hypnowheel). He gave me lessons until I was 18 and taught me pretty much everything I know.

The reason I want to play music…

Honestly, music, and sounds in general, are the only things I’m really interested in. I just like making noise – doesn’t even have to be music. I go into these John Cage mindsets sometimes and want to bang on pipes with jars of pennies and hair. My only other passion was writing in high school and college, but even then it was either for CD reviews or something music-related. I play music as a release. Since I'm a college grad, society dictates that I get a job, start a family, blah blah blah, pay taxes and die. I'll start playing that part when I lose my hearing and get arthritis, but until then, jamming with a bunch of weirdos and then coming home covered in beer, sweat and vomit means my life is so much better than yours.

The best part of being in a band is…

There’s a lot of camaraderie between the five of us. Yeah, some of us might click on more personal levels than others, but for the most part we’re all pretty tight as friends and have a lot in common outside of music. As far as being in a band though, the best thing is knowing that you’ve got this little five-person family watching out for you. We all mess with each other pretty hard when we’re playing live, so it’s kinda like a game to see if you can throw the other guy off a little. Also, writing new songs together is where everyone’s identity really comes out. Dave, Ryan and I are pretty much “chunk” writers and Curtis and Rash are pretty good sequencers, tying together the parts we write so that it actually sounds like music.

The best part of being a guy is…

75 percent more money every year and no glass ceiling. Also, I can actually tell a joke without saying “no wait … was it the … oh I forget … but anyway, they totally walked into a bar together.”

What is the first thing you want to do when you finally get to quit your day job?

Buy my mama a car … and spend the rest on PCP. (2 points if you get the reference.)

But seriously, I’ll probably build a project studio and hire myself out as a studio or live engineer. I’d also save up my money and learn to build my own instruments, a la Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.

The easiest way to win a crowd over is to…

Not try to win them over. Some people are going to hate what you do. Some people are going to love it. Some people just want to get drunk and grope underage girls. It’s whatever. But if you don’t like what we’re doing, I’m sure there’s a band of 40 year olds wearing eyeliner and playing ripped off Seether riffs down at your local bro bar. For those that dig what we’re doing … then they get it. That’s the family we want.

My favorite song to play (original or cover) is…

Either Boating Under the Influence or System. I like Boating because the riffs constantly change throughout the song all the way up until the very end when we do the big Freebird-ish guitar solo. If we’ve got enough Captain in us, curtis and I will double up and do a double guitar-sax solo and throw in parts of the actual Freebird solo. And I like playing System because it feels like the weirdest song we have right now. I just make noises during the verses and then we get SOAD-heavy on the outro (which, I think, is part of the reason why we call it System).

Also, lately we’ve been doing some live improv with Sparkz and letting him rap over a few songs. My favorite has been when we let him go off over Led Zep’s “Moby Dick.” That just sounds sick.

Fill in the blank. I do ________ before every show.

I change my strings before every show. It’s a hassle, but cuts down on the anxiety of string breakage. Took me six years to learn that lesson. I like to hang out with the fans before the shows, too. Other than long hair, I don’t really look like I should be in a band, so when we play places where people don’t know us, people don’t usually talk to me too much. Which is fine because I just sit and eat chicken salad in peace with Rash. One bad habit I did develop though is if we’re playing at a venue that gives us drinks on the house, I usually end up power chugging all the way up until 10 minutes before we go on. Then spend seven minutes in the bathroom puking my guts up. I hate playing on a full stomach. If I’ve got the cash, a shot or two of Jack will replace that whole scenario. I’m convinced that Jack Daniels invented time travel, and I like to be in space when we’re playing

My musical hero is…

I’ve got a few musical heroes. Fat Mike of NOFX is probably my biggest personal influence, but beyond that I’d have to say Adrien Belew, Frank Zappa, Buzz Osborne, Daron Malakian, Django Reinhardt, Dave Brubeck, Ben Weinman, Les Claypool and probably 200 more that I’ll regret not saying later.

The best reason to see/hear Opposite Box is…

Because if Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride came to life and tried to drag you through the rotten wormholes in Lewis Carroll’s brain, you’d need some sort of soundtrack. And as far as seeing us … just check out some pictures on our Facebook page (note to editor: update this reference every three years to whatever web site hipsters are using the most) and you’ll see what you’re missing. We’re not going to get on stage and talk down to you because you don’t get our “deep and meaningful” lyrics … we’re going to pull you up on stage and make you drink beer with us. We’re going to make you family.

Dave (Bass)

Why do you play the instrument that you do?

I was a sheltered kid so my parents started me off taking lessons from my Chattanooga Symphony Director of a sister Nikki... I started on violin cello and piano but the high frequencies resonating off the strings was like nails on a chalk board to me..so she moved me to upright bass. I loved it the low frequencies the bottom end, the drop the feel, the thickness of the strings everything.  A few years later I became a highly rebellious teenager and desperately wanted to play electric guitar but I ended up with an electric bass....so I can’t complain ‘cuz I already had the forte for it. Primus helped change my mind too. (laughs)

The reason I want to play music…

I got real big into punk rock like the Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys, and Misfits as well as other bands like system of a down and stuff. just watching their live shows where they would just give off so much energy and destroy equipment even Kurt Cobain was a stage assassin...I wanted to be in a band badly after that always saying i would move more and provide an abundance of energy to the show. Dancing is my forte anyway so music plus my dance skills equals Sick Dave’s antics. A few years later my musical tastes changed but I still always fall back to my punk rock roots...

The best part of being in a band is…

The best part of being in a band is free beer meeting people and causing a scene everywhere we go.....

The best part of being a guy is…

Being a guy? Not ragging once a month or childbirth. Also peeing outside is definitely more rewarding then they know.....

What is the first thing you want to do when you finally get to quit your day job?

Rock n roll all night and party every day duh…..eighties style…destroy hotel rooms have orgies all that jazz

The easiest way to win a crowd over is to…

Give them free beer and vomit on them....they will vomit everyone will vomit.....it seems to be our show rituals. Also rag on them it’s like dating a preppy chick just talk a big game and rag on her the whole time and you’ll definitely get the crowd to third base on the first date.

My favorite song to play (original or cover) is…

My favorite songs we play would definitely be creepy ‘cuz zombies meets Latino pop? C’mon... that and criminal it has one of the sexiest bridges we've ever wrote and I always get wood playing it....

Cover-wise?  We used to do “Girls Of Porn” by Mr. Bungle that was a fun one if we could manage to do it perfect...plus we had to edit the lyrics half the time....still a sexy groove....

Fill in the blank.  I do ________ before every show.

I warm up with rounds of Primus bungle and Estradasphere followed by peaceful rituals rounds of Ywengling and Pabst and just other various tomfoolery to get the jam juices flowing...

My musical hero is…

Well obviously Les Claypool influences 40 percent of my playing but my favorite musicians are: Frank Zappa, Mike Patton, ESTRADASPHERE, BUCKETHEAD, Trey Spruance ( Mr. Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3), Frank Black (the Pixies), Geddy Lee (Rush), Jimmy Urine (MSI), Trevor Dunn(Secret Chiefs 3, Mr. Bungle) other various bands: Man or Astroman, Parliament Funkadelic, Les Claypool’s Frog Brigade, C2B3, Melvins, Pink Floyd, The Specials, and others I could go on all day...

The best reason to see/hear Opposite Box is…

The best reason to see Opposite Box would be we're crazy, awkward, can throw down on anything, love to drink party and celebrate, and c’mon blacksaphone????  Can’t find that at a Shinedown show……..

Curtis (Saxophone)

Why do you play the instrument that you do?

Why do I play the instrument that I do...? Well here is the truth one day I sitting in front of my mom’s big 1990 CD Player with the huge speakers listening to the Simpsons CD. It was my favorite CD in the whole world. Eell there was one song I always skipped but this time i didn't. The song was called “Marge Springfield Soul Stew”. Like I am having flashbacks talking about it. And then all of a sudden she told Lisa to solo and I was like, I like it and like it and a lot. So I screamed at the top of lungs and asked my mom what is that, and she told me.  Then I got jealous.  “Lisa Simpson”,  I said “I am better than a girl”. Then when I started playing in high school it was a lady magnet and trust me I know. I think it fascinates the ladies that I have to use my tongue. Fella ladies think just like we do.

The reason I want to play music…

The reason I play music is for me and my love for music. Music is my first and only wife so ladies just know you can only be my mistress. and if you think you can change that you are a bad MAMMA JAMMA.

The best part of being in a band is…

I love being in the band cause we look out for each other no matter how dumb we get or fights we break up, or drive in circle for two hours, the crazy girlfriends, or the trying to keep women from trying to rape Ryan, or women asking can we have 10 person orgy. Ok maybe that was wishful thinking. (laughs)

The best part of being a guy is…

The best part about being a man is that I won’t bleed at random and have a baby daddy who I don’t know who the baby belongs to.

What is the first thing you want to do when you finally get to quit your day job?

Have money to invest with so I don’t ever have to work again, have babies like 10, I want a team of little Curtises and Curtas. (laughs)

The easiest way to win a crowd over is to…

The easiest way to win a crowd is if we go naked

My favorite song to play (original or cover) is…

I like the ones where women start dancing. That’s the only time I look up.

Fill in the blank.  I do ________ before every show.

Before every show I say make sure you are in the right key, and sing my theme song, “Let’s Go Half On A Baby”, and pray

My musical hero is…

Stevie Wonder, John Coltrane, Bonny James, Snarky Puppy

The best reason to see/hear Opposite Box is…

The reason to come see is because WE ARE SOME SEXY MOTHER::::::: Curtis Shut yo Mouth: I am Only Talking About Opposite Box.

Rash (Percussion)

Why do you play the instrument that you do?

Because when I was a teenager I wanted to play the guitar because I was into Guns N Roses at the time but my hands where too long for the frets but either way it was meant too be, because I found out that my wingspan was five inches then my height so I've got the gorilla arms...

The reason I want to play music…

Playing in front of people that don't get a chance too see or hear live music so basically I like too see people having fun - and the ladies dancing that's a plus...

The best part of being in a band is…

I like being in a band .is the friendship and teamwork that we have in this group and kicking ass on stage for you to enjoy

The best part of being a guy is…

Best part of being a guy.... is being me 24 hours a day that's crazy enough...and the reason way I want to play music is? I love playing music it is second nature too since it was the one thing I could learn and do on my own without my parents and any other things getting in my way, god gave me this gift so I play through him also

What is the first thing you want to do when you finally get to quit your day job?

Buy some kill devil's lettuce and party with all my friends then hit the studio and work my ass off because hell yeah that's my job

The easiest way to win a crowd over is to…

Let Curtis play some sax for the ladies.....also if the crowd is seeing that we all enjoy it on stage they seem too feel the fun vibe with us .............

My favorite song to play (original or cover) is…

“Criminal” because I love the lyrics and everyone what's that hot senorita.......also it kicks my ass thinking about the crazy swing change.... (laughs)

Fill in the blank.  I do ________ before every show.

Run two to three miles in the morning ,drink my smoothie and eat a chicken salad.......and then the smoke some lettuce and the classic piss before I get on stage but I have too leave a little drip of piss left because that's my tradition (no shake)......

My musical hero is…

God. He gave my the ability to play and to listen to music and basically everyone else that I listen to.

The best reason to see/hear Opposite Box is…

Because we are fun party band and we blend all styles of music that everyone can enjoy young and old so come on out and see for yourself...later.

 - Dave Weinthal

Is the band Runner Runner ready to save radio listeners from sound-alike, look-alike artists that are glorified karaoke singers?  Unlike most artists on the Top 40 this band writes and sings and plays their own music.  Hailing from Huntington Beach, CA, they originated as an emo-pop side project for the members of the skatepunk band Over It, allowing for more exploration of the group's pop and electro influences. The band is comprised of members Ryan Ogren (vocals, guitar), Peter Munters (vocals, guitar), Jon Berry (vocals, bass), Nick Bailey (vocals, guitar), and James Ulrich (drums).  We recently got to hang out with them backstage.

You guys are out of Huntington Beach, California.  You actually migrated that way.  How did you end up switching coasts?

Nick: We all grew up in different places and we all played in different bands that toured around together around the country.  Ryan was in a band in New Jersey, Peter and myself and our drummer James were in a band in Virginia. And John was in a band from California.  And over the years the three of our bands all toured with each other and worked with each other.  As we gravitated as songwriters and musicians ew started a new group of friends.  That’s how Runner Runner was born.  The band ended up in California because that’s where we were all living and we love it out there, so we kind of kept it going.

Ryan: From the ashes of these other bands Runner Runner was born.  Like a Phoenix rising – a musical Phoenix.

I’ve liked the stuff I’ve listened to so far.  It’s anti of what I’m hearing on Top 40 radio right now.  Are you guys going to be the savior of popular radio?

Nick: Actually we love the radio.  We grew up listening to the radio.  We’re huge fans of bands like Cheap Trick, The Cars, Elvis Costello, bands that were on the radio and we’re fans of bands on the radio now like The Killers and Goo Goo Dolls.  We’re hoping for Runner Runner to put a good blend of our ‘80s influences and modern radio bands of today.  So we’re hoping that the radio world finds a place for us.  It would be a dream come true for us.

Ryan: We’re getting some feedback from some stations that it’s a refreshing change of pace, but our song also fits with what is out there.  We hope radio embraces us because we have embraced the radio.

I hope so too because radio – you guys write your own material and most of the artists on Top 40 don’t.  There are a couple of songwriters responsible for most of the songs on the charts. It kind of reminds me of the disco era when you had all these “artists” that sounded alike and were packaged alike.

Ryan: There are a lot of talent out there that can’t actually write songs, but have a great voice.  They are wise to make it as far as they do.  We would like to write songs for other people as well some day.  We’re really passionate about songwriting and if we get the opportunity it would be really exciting to do.  One step at a time, though. 

I hear a mix of influences when I hear your songs.  They’re labeling you as a punk/pop band.  I can hear the punk influence in the aggressive drumming and the energy in the actual music where the lyrics are more pop oriented.  A lot of traditional punk is more political in nature where you guys avoid taking a political stand. 

Ryan: All the lyrics are more relatable to the public.  I’ve never been a big songwriter as far as politics and stuff.  I leave that to the other type of bands.

Nick: Light-hearted but everything has a meaning as it deals with personal experiences and relationships in which we’ve been in.  I think normal everyday stuff.  But we all had punk rock influences growing up.  All our previous bands were raised on NOFX, Bad Religion, Pennywise, The Clash.  But as far as the lyrics we write and the melodies, they’re way more pop-influenced.

I hear a lot of influence from early Kinks…

Nick: I love the Kinks!

To the Knack.  They have that power pop sound.

Nick: We love all of that too.  We actually did a cover of “Good Girls Don’t”.  My dad raised me on British Invasion stuff.  I love the Kinks, the Yardbirds - all that British Invasion stuff.  I was a huge fan of it. 

Ryan: I grew up on the classic stuff too, like [Led] Zeppelin was one of the first big groups I listened to.  Good stuff.

You guys have been around for two years.  Things have gone pretty quickly for you.  How have you been able to handle the sudden rush you’re experiencing?

Ryan: We’ve been playing with these guns in other bands for a few years before Runner Runner started.  We’re really excited that our music is getting out to a broader audience.  We’re taking things as they come.  The fact that we’re reaching a large audience and getting connected is amazing.

Nick: We’re hoping to use our previous experience in other bands as a catalyst for Runner Runner.  There’s not enough we can do in a day.  We just want to keep working and get better.  Every day we try to continuously better ourselves, make better music and improve our fan base and just really put ourselves out there. 

I enjoyed your music video for “So Obvious”.   I’m glad you guys are embracing the lost art of the music video.  While still big in Europe it’s overlooked by a lot of bands here.  You were also able to add a little social commentary with the girlfriend texting in every scene ignoring you for the most part. 

Ryan: We thought it was a cool concept. Obviously it’s very tough to get away from technology.  Like look here – I’ve got the laptop, the cell phone.  Sometimes you’ve got to put it down or you’re going to miss something that’s really cool and funny.

Your record label is a subsidiary of Worldwide Pants.  Have you guys had any contact with David Letterman?

Ryan: Not yet, but we can’t wait.  To be affiliated with a guy like Letterman, he’s a classy guy.  He’s very big on music.  He has music on the show.  We’re big into the comedy as well.  He’s a really funny guy.  We’re really excited to be part of this venture.

Is this your first major tour as Runner Runner?

Nick: Actually our first major tour was last fall.  This is actually our first and a half tour.

How have you adjusted to being on the road so much?

Ryan: We like being on the road.  It feels like home when we’re traveling, all these different cities we’ve been in.  We definitely feel comfortable being on tour. 

 - Dave Weinthal

By infusing soul, country, blues, and rock, then layering that on top of organic urban grooves and a voice reminiscent of Otis Redding and Chris Robinson, you find a new sound in Nic Cowan.  His music is full of texture and grit with lyrics that are engaging, self-reflective and down right clever.  Nic’s musical versatility allows him to silence a crowd with his serious and softer side but he can also make a crowd cut loose. After one listen you’ll know that this Texas native, Georgia transplant is anything but your run of the mill singer-songwriter. Nic has shared the stage with some of the nation’s best touring musicians in the industry including Zac Brown Band, Sister Hazel, Shawn Mullins and Drivin’ N Cryin’. 

I’ve been listening to your music and you have a really unique voice.  There’s a lot of soul to it, but there’s also a little bit of folk influence.  How long did it take you to find your voice?

I just love all kinds of music.  I grew up listening to a lot of different genres.  I listened to a lot of different things.  I love soul music, I love country, blues and rock and roll.  I just love it all.  When I write I guess it’s whatever I’m feeling at that moment is how the song works out.  As far as finding my certain sound or voice, I guess a couple of years ago I figured out my little ways of doing things.  It took a while.  It took me four or five years to develop it.  I figured it out about three years back.

You’re based out of Atlanta most of the time.  What is it like doing your style of music in a town predominately influenced these days by hip-hop days?

That’s a big reason as to why I have such an influence of soul and R&B and at times almost hip-hop.  Living in Atlanta you hear it, it’s in your house.  There’s a southern country influence, but there’s a heavy urban influence as well.  I think it’s kind of a big factor as to how I developed this.  I love living in Atlanta.  People seem to dig it.  People down there love southern music and they love hip-hop.  It’s a very accepting city as far as those two.  There are a lot of things involved.  It’s not one way or another.  You can blend the two genres and people are really accepting of it.  I love it.

Do you consider your music southern music?

Yeah, for sure it’s southern.  I’m a southern guy.  I was born in Texas, raised in Georgia.  I kind of call it southern soul.  People kind of call it whatever they want, but it’s always going to be southern overtone even if it’s R&B, soul or a blues tune, it’s going to have a southern influence to it.

This new album you’ve got coming out, will that be your second album?

Actually, I guess my first real studio album.  The first one I recorded with a friend of mine in Athens (GA).  It was pretty much an underground project just with me and him in his basement.  This record that’s coming out in the spring, Zac Brown’s producing it and I guess you could call it my first real studio record.  We’re really proud about it. Our fingers are crossed on it and hopefully it will have some success and people will enjoy it.

What will be the big difference I will hear after listening to Cheap Wine compared to the new stuff?

The Cheap Wine record really was what I call front porch music. All instrumentals were acoustically based.  We had bongos and slide guitar - acoustic slide guitar, mandolin and stuff like that, but no electrics, no drums or anything like that.  I guess the main big difference from that record to this one is this studio record is a full band.  It’s a whole other scale I guess.

Is it easy to take a song you recorded and replicate it live or vice versa?

We cut some of the records on the album actually live all at once with the whole band playing at the same time.  It’s a really big deal for us at Southern Underground records with Zac, Levi Lowery, Sonia [Leigh] and I.  We’re all big on being able to reproduce it live, just like it sounds on the record.  I don’t really think I will be an issue for us.  I think people will listen to the record and come to the live show.

What have you picked up from touring with Zac Brown?

When he found me I was just playing bars around Atlanta.  That whole year I was out with him was just for me, pretty much for me a learning experience, just soaking up information and wisdom.  I think everybody can agree he’s an amazing entertainer.  He’s a really clever, smart guy.  I did pretty much as much learning as I could.  I watched him as how he worked the crowd and how he segued some songs.  I learned a whole lot.  I definitely am a lot smarter as a musician, a better singer, a guitar player and all of that because of being out with him.  I owe a lot of that and ability level to him because in my opinion I improved a whole lot from before I met him to now. 

How do you think your songwriting has changed in the last couple of years from Cheap Wine compared to where you are now?

Some of the songs on that record are actually years old, some earlier stuff that I really dig and some of it is new stuff.  I know definitely in the last year or two once I can on with Southern Ground Records, just being around Zac, being around Levi Lowery and                        Sonia Leigh. Those are some of my favorite songwriters out there.  I’m thrilled getting out with those guys.  I’ve always kind of written alone.  Being out with them, being out together, the four of us we learn a lot, all of us together.  I learned to get in the heads of some really good songwriters.  I used to shy away from writing with other people, but now that I’ve written with them, I actually really, really enjoy it.  It’s cool to get into the head of another songwriter and see their methods and their process of how they create, try to come together and make something happen.  It’s a really cool thing. 

How honest do you think you are as a songwriter?

I try to be as honest as I can.  I think that at the end of the day that’s really what comes across to people when they listen to the music.  People really identify with something I believe because they identify with the honesty and how genuine the song is.  Even if it’s a happy go lucky party type song or if it’s a little more of a serious subject, relationship, breakup, or whatever type song it is, I try to be as real and genuine as I can.  Almost all of my songs came from personal experiences.  And if they weren’t from personal experiences they were from experiences and things I saw going on around me or in friends and families.  I would have to say, yeah, in my opinion it’s honest music.

When can we expect to see the new album out?

They’re telling me spring, so that’s what I’m hoping for.  I can’t really give you an exact month, but some time in the spring.  I’m really excited.  It’s taken a little longer to get out than we anticipated, but I think in the end it’s definitely going to be worth it and I think it’s something people will like and enjoy.

 - Dave Weinthal

Nic Cowan performs Friday night at Raw.

The Brooklyn-based duo Kaiser Cartel, made up of Courtney Kaiser and Benjamin Cartel, have been creating luscious harmonies and infectious melodies together since 2004. Both write, sing, and play multiple instruments on the albums and on-stage. Courtney is a former member of John Mellencamp's band and a classically trained vocalist, while Benjamin a DIY, self-taught musician. Each had their own solo projects well underway when they met, but the pairing was an unmistakable success. Warming hearts and bones with their delicate and sensual but nonetheless punchy folk-pop, Kaiser Cartel has been going nearly non-stop since the release of their debut record March Forth in 2008. They recently released their second record, Secret Transit.

You guys come from different backgrounds. Courtney, you’re a classically trained musician and Benjamin is a DIY (do it yourself) and self-taught.  How do your diverse backgrounds mesh with your musical project?

CK: I think a lot of times in learning about music in the formal setting there are things they don’t teach you – improvisation and things like that and how to write with somebody else.  You have all these foundations of musical theory and you can have musical conversations.  You can take apart things that are written in standard notation and you sort of know where the composer’s going to go with some things and how it’s going to resolve, but they don’t teach you how to improvise and write.  While be it I sort of learned that because I sort of stood outside the box and had other bands since I was16.  For me it was much more interesting to get a partner who didn’t have that sort of background because regardless of experience we could both teach each other things all the time.

BC: My perspective on that I learn a lot about melody and stuff like that that I wouldn’t have just by playing with a regular kind of DIY people that I have been playing with all this time.  I’ve learned a lot about music and melody from Courtney.  I think we both compliment each other in a way because she’s got that experience that she can bring and I have experience from just going out there on the road with bands and touring year after year.  That’s my kind of musical education. 

You guys are in Brooklyn and that area is a pretty intense scene for the arts with all the competition out there.  Seeing you guys travel so much, what is it like when you travel to a more laid back town that is less competitive?  Is that a relief to you?

JC: That’s funny, being from Indiana and growing up in a really strong music scene and then moving to New York, I don’t ever feel a competition in New York City because New York City, even though there are a lot of bands and a lot of shows going on at the same time there are so many people from all over the country that moved there in our field to do music.  So because of the Midwest, a lot of the mentality of supporting each other’s shows and there’s a big community amongst the musicians themselves.  With all that transplanting from the Midwest to New York, I still feel that really strong sense of community within New York City.  I really think people think getting people out to a show in New York City may be really scary or whatever, and that’s when I used to play by myself when I first moved to New York City.  I just never experienced that.  I felt like a real sense of support.  There might be a bigger sense of a need to support the people around you because there are so many bands.

BC: From my perspective sometimes playing in smaller towns is even rewarding.  There’s not that much going on, there’s not as much competing for your attention entertainment-wise.  But when you come out to a lot of these small towns, what’s going on for the evening can be our show and maybe one other thing. So that’s some of the focus that we can get from some of these small towns and it’s really nice for us.

You guys spend a lot of time on the road.  Do you have a favorite stop?

CK: There’s a little shack in between Portland and Seattle.  It’s like a little coffee shack that has coffee and they have these cherry buttermilk scones.  If you drive that drive it going to be a little shack along side a gas station on the highway.  I love that place.  I don’t even know what it’s called but I know exactly where it is because there actually is a big giant fruit stand signs that your just about at the exit where the fruit stand is and that’s the same location as this little coffee shack.

You guys are living the dream of being a successful independent artist.  When did you feel safe finally quitting your “day job”?

BC: When we put out the album March Fourth we knew that we really had to get out and promote it and give it a lot of our effort and time.  Just as we were about to put that album out we knew we had to tour throughout the year or there wasn’t really going to be much point in putting out the album.  We had a lot of support from our manager, from our booker, from the people over at Blue Hammock.  We had that support and we had a lot of people working for us, and it was a good time to do it.  That’s why we did it.  That’s hen we did it. 

As an independent artist do you feel a greater freedom as an artist or do you feel more restricted since you’re responsible for everything without the safety net of  a record label behind you?

CK: To be honest, there is a lot more pressure and I think and if you talk to our managers and everyone around surrounding me, because I’m such a control freak and I take on a lot of the businessy stuff.  Ben will do our artistic drawings and things like that and I’ll do all the accounting.  It can be pretty scary and you have to make choices.  If you go out and you support another band as an opening act your guarantee might be lower for those shows.  But the trade-off would be that you have all these fans that may not have seen you otherwise.  You’re making all these choices, so I’m feeling a lot of pressure at times and worry about that.  But at the same time the creative freedoms that are probably priceless.  We have no label saying, “We don’t want this song on the record,” or “Maybe you should rerecord this one because it doesn’t feel like we want it to feel”. The first record we had was great for a lot of things.  They really wanted us to use some of our songs that were older, songs that were on solo records that really to us weren’t as much Kaiser Cartel as we are now.  For this new record it’s everything that we wanted to do.  It has a very slow, quiet buildup.  I think most labels would have thought that was an insane choice. They would have wanted to put “Ready To Go” at the very beginning.  It’s the poppiest song ever.  So we got to make choices that we wouldn’t get to make.  But at the same time you’ve got the other caveat – complete responsibility and having to check in and make sure everyone is doing what they said they were doing.  So it ca be kind of hard, too. 

BC: I think you hit it on the head with that question.  There are those responsibilities and on the other hand there’s the creative freedom.  The one thing that’s really important for artists really is creative freedom.  Really doing the things that feel right and are intuitively the right thing to do musically for the band.  So that is the biggest part of this whole experience.  And any situation that we get ourselves into whether we’re working with somebody else for the next album or whatever I think we’ve learned from this experience that we want to make sure that our creative ideas are really at the forefront of what we’re doing.

Secret Transit is your newest release.  Was it really recorded at different stops along the country?

CK: It was written on the road as we were touring.  In the beginning of it…actually it was.  In June we were in a tour of the UK with Matt Hales the producer of that and Aqualung, so we did that while on tour.  We were rolling through Indianapolis.  We had a day off and drove back to record a couple of new songs.  We wrote and recorded while on the road.  We played for a year and a half straight after March Fourth.

BC: So much of the stuff that’s on there is about our experience on the road and it was really so much of it was written on the road.  I often hear other artists say they can’t write on the road or you’ll never be able to write anything on the road.  Actually we wrote most of this stuff on the road, and it reflects the spirit of that. 

Do certain songs give the listeners a clue to where you may have been or when you hear the songs does it remind you of where you’ve been?

BC:  Definitely.  There are two songs that are written about where I can say where exactly they were written about.  One of them, was written about us being in Chicago hanging out with our friend Matt and Susan Suhar and their two kids.

KC: We wrote a song about them and their family.  It’s the one called, “Stella”. 

BC: And the other one would be “Memphis” which was inspired by a story that a friend of ours named Brad told us about a friend of his down in Memphis.  Those are two specifics.

You also recorded in a church that was over 180 years old in Blackheath, London.  Tell me about that experience.

BC: We recorded in an old Victorian church at night for about four nights.  We would start at eight o’clock at night and we would go until eight o’clock in the morning.  It was an old Victorian church.  It was dark, cavernous, there was this thick painting behind me with Jesus Christ on a cross bleeding.  It was really intense.

KC: The scaffolding inside from where they were doing renovations also added to the spookiness.  It’s on this big green pasture.  The area’s called Blackheath because that’s where a lot of the Black Plague victims died and supposedly they buried them on that green pasture.  You’re not allowed to build or dig into that green land.

BC: We’re recording at this big open green that a burial site for Black Plague victims and we didn’t know about it at the time we were recording.  That was probably a good thing.  We were recording at night and it was kind of scary as it was.

In your minds how do the songs on Secret Transit differ from some of your earlier recordings?

CK: Secret Transit is a little darker.  I think it’s moodier, darker.  I think it really encompasses the feeling of movement and travel and the changes that happen when your constantly getting there, whereas March Fourth is a little more soft and capped, a little poppier in places and I don’t think it’s very moody.  It feels kind of like one mood to me.

If I told you I found your music very friendly taking into consideration the state or commercial radio these days, would you take what I just said as a compliment?

CK: That’s awesome because we’re really proud of this record.  We feel like since we’ve been together since 2004 and we came from two separate projects and we’re trying and we’re traveling and experience, we feel like this record really is the two of us together equally.  And it’s a great compliment, too because a lot of people say they don’t like the sophomore record of a band very much if it’s not as good as the debut.  So that’s awesome.  I love that.  It almost feels like this is the debut record.

BC: Another thing about Secret Transit, I think that if it strikes you as sort of a radio-friendly thing, I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing.  I never think that any indie music can’t be radio music or radio music can’t be indie music.  I don’t really believe in drawing those hard lines like that.  Music that has energy and gets in your ear immediately is a good thing.  If that makes it radio friendly, then that’s fine to us. 

 - Dave Weinthal

Kaiser Cartel perform Tuesday, July 27 at J.J.’s Bohemia.

Do you consider yourself more a rapper or a hip-hop artist?

I consider myself more of a hip-hop artist than a rapper.  Rap is something that you do and hip-hop is the cultural aspect of it.  It’s something that you live out.  Hip means to be aware and hop is movement or revolution, which means be aware of the movement.  Be aware of the revolution, which means change.  That’s why I consider myself more of a hip-hop artist.

It’s been a few years since your first release, SubliminalThought.  You are an intimidating, almost menacing figure in person, while your delivery on that album was very soft-spoken by comparison.  The new album, Lanimilbus Drol your rap lives up more to your imposing presence in presentation.  Was that planned to be that way?

Yeah.  On that first album I felt it was more radical and militant.  This album is kind of a step back from that.  It’s not like I lost all those morals and values or anything, I felt like I had to go. The only way to go is change.  Revolution – you’ve got to change, so I couldn’t stay stagnant in the same sort of mindset as the first album was.  Those convictions are still there, I just had to grow a little to show people more.  I had to show the diversity of what I can do.  Those that have followed my career know I’ve done a lot of work since that first album.

Your vocals are more aggressive on Lanimilbus Drol.  They seem more forceful and intimidating than in past efforts.  What is behind that?

This go-around I wanted everybody to know that my way of life is Islam.   I don’t practice the religious form of it of Islam.  I’m not a Jihadist or anything like that.  I deal with the science of Islam. Lanimilbus Drol was supposed to be a change up from that.  It’s Lord Subliminal backwards, so it’s really a reflection of the inner-self.  This album is dealing with the higher self, because there’s two selves.  There’s the lower self and the higher self.  You let the higher self guide the lower self so everything will be in its proper perspective.

What did you learn between albums to make yourself more accessible than you originally were?

This one just took some time through trials and errors.  The mistakes I made on the first album, I wasn’t trying to make the same mistakes on this album.  I’ve done a lot more in between that time, so it’s given me a chance to gradually come into a different sort of being.  Things have happened since then.  My concrete etching into the Wu Tang family under Papa Wu’s leadership, kind of humbled me a little bit.  I was striving hard to get recognized and I started to et recognized.  Then I got picked up by one of the biggest families in hip-hop.  Not the biggest, but one of the biggest families, which is Wu Tang Clan.  I’m part of their family now.  I really needed to deal more with Islam because that’s what I deal with and give people really something to shoot for.  People can be like I can listen to this and enjoy it.  There’s no electronics on there.  It’s not like Lil’ Wayne and all this garbage music that’s out there now. This is actually good music.  It’s got soul. 

Was there any freestyle rap on Lanimilbus Drol or was everything scripted?

Everything was pretty much written down and etched in stone.  Some of the rhymes started out somewhat like freestyles, because that’s the way to build up the best kind of rhymes is from freestyle.  Take the freestyle and add on to it.  I’ll always keep freestyle part of it, but this was like freestyle that was written.  I actually had to take time to think out and write.  The first album I don’t think there was any freestyle element on it either.  This album is a little bit different because I decided to add deejays and whatnot on it, to have one of the raw elements of hip-hop on it, which is turntableism with a deejay, because that’s part of hip-hop.  There’s the emcee, the deejay, there’s the breakdancer and there’s the graffiti artist.  Then there’s one other hip-hop element that’s missing that most people don’t talk about, which is like you beat boxer.  Those are like the five elements of hip-hop, but I’m wanting to add some of those elements to this album so it really give you that feeling.  It was a step up from that first album.

Do you find yourself being a student of rap and hip-hop the more you get involved with it?

I’m going to continue to be a student and student continues to learn.  I don’t know everything about hip-hop, I can just give you the things I’ve seen from my own personal life.  There are things that I’ve experienced.  I’m going to continue being a student of this movement.  I’m going to continue to be a student and servant of the movement, to help better this movement.

Most rappers are known for their rhymes basically, or the verbal composition.  Were you involved at all with the backing tracks and musical bed?  Where did you get the music?

A lot of the music that was done on this one, I had producers to drop me off certain things.  I took in actual samples and composed certain tracks.  I sent in actual music for them to use so it would make it easier for me to do what I want to do and that certain feel that I wanted on this album with the music.  I think some of the producers like Golden Master or Last Bronzeman or White Lotus actually captured that element just the way that I wanted it to be captured.  Snake vs. Crane and Iron Curtin out of Berlin, they actually captured what it is I wanted.  So it made it easy for me to paint like a mental picture with my rhymes.  That’s what I was trying to do paint a picture so you could actually see. You listen but you can see everything that I am saying.

Is it easier for you to come up with the rhymes listening to music or for the music to come after the written word?

It’s easier for me, no doubt when I have an actual beat or rhythm.  It’s easier for me to write then, because then I can actually listen to the rhythm and get into the vibe of it.  If I have to have stuff written – and I’ve done that before where I wrote first and then put a beat to it later.  But then it doesn’t always seem to match up.  It always matches better when you can actually get a feel of what you’re listening to and kind of let the track dictate to you what you’re supposed to write to it.  That’s the way I do it.  I don’t know how everybody else does it, but I listen to the track and actually let the track tell me what to write.  It’s a lot easier that way.  That’s kind of a structural move.  Some people like abstract and all over the wall, and that’s cool.  That’s an element that should be respected, but I like a little more order than chaos with my music.

Does the music inspire your words, or what influence does the music have on your words?

It’s kind of like rhythms and vibrational patterns always stimulate some sort of movement or activation.  If I listen to a song, I listen to it close enough it’s almost like the track talks to me.

You like to write a lot.  Do you have a favorite poet or author?

I’ve had a few of those. Gil Scott Heron for instance is one of my role models that I pattern myself after.  I can actually feel his work the way he writes because he puts passion and soul into it.  He dabbles in jazz and some blues, but he’s a poet.  That’s what he’s known for.  Nowadays some of the people I still look up to in hip-hop, I still look up to Busta Rhymes even though he kind of changed his direction a little bit.  I understand that now.  You can’t just stay in this same state of mind all the time.  As you get older and time changes you must change. Sometimes you have to stick to the same formula that made you the person that you are, but sometimes you have to branch out too to try and draw in more.  Then bring it back to that universal sound that everybody knows and then you’ve got twice the fan base.

What is your goal with this new album?

Basically I’m trying to get out the message that hip-hop is real.  Everything is real.  Everything is everything and nothing is nothing.  I’m trying to bring back to the forefront righteous music.  Life is music. 

 - Dave Weinthal

Lord Subliminal will host his CD release party Tuesday, July 20 at J.J.’s Bohemia.

“In Your Lungs” is the long-awaited release from Eris that gets released this weekend.  The hard working rockers, who are made up of Jason Ewton, Andy Elliott, Nate Luttrell and Josh Cannon hope the new release will be a springboard for the band to go onto greater things.

What:

We’ve been working on this album over the course of this last year and getting ready to release six tracks on Saturday.

Why?:

Some are these songs are ones Jason had already written coming into the project. Then it was me, Josh and Nate with Black Betty and Charlie kind of fell out of that so we picked Jason up and he had some stuff he had already written.  We liked some of those, so we put those on there.  There were three or four we wrote all together and really liked the sound of what was going on, so we decided to track them and try to see if we could market it.

When?:

We started recording probably over the course of the last year on and off.  We weren’t up there every weekend, but we’d get some material and get it finished and go up there and track it over the course of the weekend here and there.

How?:

We played shows round in different cities and put our pay together and paid as we ent along.  When we hd enough money we would head back to Nashville to record at the Switchyard Recording Studios with Michael Saint-Leon.

Eris will be hosting a CD Release Party Saturday night at Thythm and Brews.  For more information on the show go to rhythm-brews.com.

Atlanta based Blackberry Smoke continues to grow into the premiere Southern Rock band of America. Over the last 12 months they have shared the stage with ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Shooter Jennings, Cross Canadian Ragweed and countless others.  The band has a look, sound and feel of what Southern Rock truly is and not what some high-priced publicist writes about the band.  The constantly touring band took time to talk with us the other day as we spoke with the band’s singer and vocalist, Charlie Starr.

You guys are considered Southern Rock and there is a big difference between the perception of what Southern Rock actually is and what is classified as such.  To you what is Southern Rock?

In my opinion, I had this same conversation with a guy the other day about bands that will call themselves Southern Rock and they only focus on a really narrow part of it. They’re not seeing the whole big picture in my opinion what is Southern Rock, with bands like the Allman Brothers and Marshall Tucker and Lynyrd Skynyrd, who they liked so many types of different music themselves and they incorporated all that into their music, especially the Allmans and Marshall Tucker with all the jazz and blues influence, and along with the hillbilly influence.  Their music was just a huge melting pot of influences.  It seems to me that people, as time goes by and people think about Southern Rock they have this one picture in their mind of a dude with a big black hat on and a rebel flag t-shirt, playing big nasty guitar riffs.  And it’s so much more than that in my opinion.  Maybe that’s why some bands have shied away from being called that.  We don’t necessarily want to shy away from people considering our music that because it is what it is.  If you break it down really, to me it’s a rock band and we’re from the south, which makes us very southern.  But it’s not just rock, it’s the whole thing.  There’s country influence and there’s blues influence, jazz influence – all that stuff.  There was so much British rock influence with the Stones, The Who, Free and all that, that they took it even further in that direction.

Those same British bands were influenced by American blues and, jazz and country as well.

Exactly.  It goes back and forth, back and forth. 

You guys have been often compared to Lynyrd Skynyrd and bands like that when you hear people describing you.  They culled their motivation and musical influences from non-traditional sources such as blues and jazz.  What are some of the influences on your music?

Definitely bluegrass, country music and hillbilly music if you want to call it such.  Flatt and Scruggs didn’t want to be called a bluegrass band back in the day because when they split from Bill Monroe they felt like that was his word for it.  They said no, we’ll call it mountain music.  That’s a big influence on it.  Anything from those legendary southern rock bands that we were talking about to the Stones and the Faces and Aerosmith, Free and Humble Pie, Little Feat and songwriters like Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt.  You can really break it down, all that stuff is so good, it’s all just good music. I just like to say we’re influenced by good music no matter what it is.  If it’s real and it’s good, then we’re influenced by it. 

I’ve seen you name on Pollstar a lot the past couple of years touring and gigging nonstop.  You guys sure seem to tour an awful lot.

We do.  That’s the only ways the bills can get paid. (laughs) And also we love to play the music.  Our reason to play live is because we love to play it so much and we want to play our music for people and have them enjoy it.  It’s not how cool can we look or how many t-shirts we can sell.  It’s all about playing that music. 

You guys have toured Europe as well.  What is the impression you got from the crowd playing southern rock over there?

They love it.  They’re such discerning listeners.  They just absorbed every drum hit, guitar lick and lyric, not that Americans don’t, but maybe it’s because they don’t have – there’s not too many bands like us playing that kind of music over there.  And they’re huge fans of it, obviously right off the bat.  I’m not sure that comes about, but it is and I’m glad that it does.  It’s more apples and oranges – it really is with American audiences and European audiences.  They came less to throw down and raise hell and more to just soak it up.

You have gotten to tour with some of the guys you look up to.  What’s it like to be playing shows with these guys?

It’s an honor, first of all.  It gets kind of surreal, getting to talk to them.  They tell stories and give advice.  It’s a good thing that all of them are such good guys.  They’re so appreciative of what we’re trying to do.  They give us nothing but support.

What’s the best piece of advice they’ve given you?

Billy Gibbons told us always wear good-looking boots. (laughs) They all agree – they come at us with a resounding don’t change what you’re doing for anybody.  Do exactly what you want to do.  Stick with what you want to do.

What was it like being on the Simple Man tour, being out at see with all those crazy fans?

It’s great.  This will be five years and it’s turned into a big family affair.  One of the best things about it is it happened in January whereas if we were on the road in the states it would be cold, obviously.  It’s sort of like our working vacation every year.  We get to go bask in the sun, drink fruity drinks, layout in the sun in the ocean and get to play music with Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker.

What is the writing process with you guys?  You guys are on the road constantly.

They just come when they come.  Being busy makes it a little more complicated to find time, but we do go home for short periods of time and sometimes a little bit longer.  We took most f March off to have some home time and that’s when they really start coming.  You get them down when they come.  A lot of lyrics on napkins and speaking into cell phones are an amazing luxury that have the little voice recorder option.

You guys are so used to playing out.  Is it hard to bottle up that energy when in the studio recording?

Not really.  We love working in the studio.  Out of necessity in the past we tried to work really quickly especially on Little Piece of Dixie.  We didn’t have a whole lot of time to get it done, so we didn’t have the luxury to go, “let’s over-think this”.  In hindsight that’s a blessing.  When you have a small allotted amount of time to do it.  Hopefully you go in there and do a good job and be efficient with the time that you’ve got, and I think we did.  We very proud of that record.  I was saying the other day, if we went into the studio and had tons of time to spend, who know what might come out of that?  It might be a triple album.

You guys are from the Atlanta area. How has Atlanta embraced you guys?

It’s great.  It’s family when we do go play shows like homecoming shows.  It’s a big family and friends reunion kind of thing.  They’re so sweet and good to make it a special event.  For years we didn’t play Atlanta much at all, we just went out on different tours – feeling like what you need to do is spread it out.  We spent so much time in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan, going elsewhere.

It’s the beginning of the summer now. What have you guys got planned for the summer?

We’ve got several shows to play right now before June 4.  June 3-5 is the Bama Jam, a big outdoor festival in Enterprise, Alabama.  That will be a really big show that night.  We play Friday, June the 4th with Randy Houser, Jamey Johnson and Travis Tritt, and Hank Jr.  Right after that we’ll play a show in Florida, some regional shows in the southeast and then we got to Europe for 16 days in June, and then come back and pick right up where we left off.

 - Dave Weinthal

Blackberry Smoke performs Friday night at Rhythm and Brews.

Post-grunge Michigan natives The Verve Pipe made their mark on late '90s rock with their sensitive college ballad "The Freshman." Formed in Lansing, Michigan in 1991 by brothers Brian Vander Ark (vocals/guitar) and Brad Vander Ark (bass), as well as Donny Brown (drums) and Brian Stout (guitar), they were a staple of modern rock radio for a number of years.  Fast forward to 2010, the Verve Pipe are at it again.  Recenlty they released a “family” album and are currently working on new material for another rock album.  The band that made a name for themselves touring extensively are preparing to tour once again.  We recently caught up with Donny on the eve of the first leg of their tour.

Children’s or family albums seem to be a popular thing for artists to do these days.  Is a children’s album the proper way to describe what you’ve done with that or is it more for the entire family?  

I think a lot of kid’s albums today drive parents crazy.  That’s where we’ve been told this one is different.  I think it’s one of the best compliments we get about it from parents is I can put it in the CD player and the kids enjoy it and after the kids get out I don’t have to eject it.  I don’t have to tear my hair out if they want to listen to it again.  That’s a nice compliment.

What was it like composing songs for a family album compared to more traditional rock songs you guys have on commercial radio?

I think it was different, because it’s okay to be silly when you’re writing stuff like this – to let your humor come out a bit, because kids and parents want to have that relationship.  You want to pass your sense of humor down to your kids.  You can’t help but do that.  The walls aren’t up when you’re writing.  It’s a little freer experience.  The subject matter can be much sillier, you know, so we write a song about cereal. 

Is it a relief for you guys to write something that is not so personal like some of your other works?

Yeah… absolutely.  The way it came about was we were asked to write a single song for a compilation that was going to go into stores across the state of Michigan and into Indiana and Ohio.  They asked us to write a song and they wanted to make it a positive kids friendly song.  Brian wrote a song.  I wrote a song and then I came up with another idea, and Brian came up with another idea.  Before we knew it, we had six ideas.  We played them for each other and we were just as excited by the one we ended up cutting and giving to these folks – we were just as excited about these other ones.  So we kind of ended up going down that path a little bit and holding those in.  We played them for a few people and they were all impressed, put a smile on all their faces.  We thought we were onto something.

The tour that you guys are kicking off this week, is that concentrating on this family album or playing mainly songs out of your catalog?

It will be a little big of everything.  We’re going to be playing some new stuff off of the family album, but we’ll also be playing stuff from the catalog.  We were actually trying to finish a couple of the rock songs that are going to be on the next record.  We’re trying to get those into shape, but we’ve been so busy.  We’ve been very busy writing and recording and playing that we didn’t get a chance to get everything cleared out.

How has the feedback been on the family album?

We’re getting great feedback.  It’s been positive in a lot of different ways.  We end up playing a kid’s show and the kids just really love it.  We end up playing a rock show and we can throw a song in there and people get it. 

I was at dinner the other night with a friend and we were lamenting the fact there was no longer a radio station that really played rock music any more.  What is your thought on the current state of commercial radio?

I don’t listen to it that much.  There is a glut of music that doesn’t speak to me.  It’s because I don’t think it’s simply because a change in my taste, I think it just isn’t as pleasurable for me to hear.  I don’t hear pleasing chord changes.  I don’t hear sweet melodies.  I hear studio wizardry and crafty hooks.  I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound so jaded, but really, that’s why I don’t listen to it.  That’s why I can’t live without my iPod.

I equate today’s Top 40 to the era of disco in the late ‘70s.  I read somewhere that a handful of people are writing a majority of the songs on Top 40 radio, making them all sound alike, just like when all disco songs sounded very much alike.

Back when major labels were powerhouses as soon as somebody hit they were looking for the next one of the same thing.  It’s like we’ve got our Foo Fighters.  Who are the next Foo Fighters going to be?  Everybody gravitates towards the same thing.  That’s why you get bands that fit into the same genre so easily around the same time – because everybody’s looking for it.  It sounds like that, so it draws people in.  I never listened that way.  I was fortunate to grow up in a really musical household where I had a brother who was crazy for funk music.  He was into the Isley Brothers and Brothers Johnson.  Then I had a brother who introduced me to Black Sabbath and made me listen to Quadrophenia from The Who.  Our whole family loved the Beatles, but my brother Ron was just nuts about The Who and the Stones, so I heard all of that.  Then my older sister got into the Doobie Brothers and then she got into singer/songwriters.  My sister Carol was really into vocals and things like that.  She was into Crosby Stills & Nash and for a while she was into super pop radio from the ‘70s like the Fifth Dimension where vocals were a big feature.  I grew up with all that stuff.  One moment I was listening to “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath and the next moment it was “Sunday Will Never Be the Same” by Spanky and Our Gang.

Radio used to be like that back in the day.

Yeah. Isn’t that just sad?

Now it’s been categorized and sub-categorized into so many different genres that you have to literally scan the dial to hear what’s really out there.

That’s very true.  That’s why Sirius has legs.  I was in a coffee shop talking to a guy and then I heard this song in the background and I said, “Hold on a second.  I want to listen to this song.”  How many times do you get that?  That doesn’t happen any more.  It used to happen with the radio.  I was talking with this guy and realized that it is because they’re playing Sirius Satellite Radio and they’re playing this thing called “Deep Cuts” or something like that.  I went up and asked what they were playing and they said Sirius Satellite Radio Deep Tracks.  It was a song called “Neal’s Fandango from the Doobie Brothers.  I think it’s off Stampede or something like that.  My sister was crazy about the record.  And I heard that record and I’m like, “I remember that song”.  And I told my friend, we’re going to talk after this tune.  I just sat there and got to listen to it.  I was talking with our lead singer, Brian about the other day – unfortunately I live in East Lansing, Michigan, so there’s Michigan State and they’ve got a good college radio station and there’s another station by the community college called WLNZ or something like that.  They started playing “Captain Fantastic” from Elton John. It’s a song you would never hear people play.  They’re playing the side of the record.  I was like in heaven.  I was on a long drive and radio finally turned me on.  It’s a shame that it has to be that way.

When you guys started to break through in the mid to late ‘90s things were kind of chaotic in music.  It seems like everyone was signed to a record label and then quicly discarded.  What was it like coming through the ranks in that era?

There’s good things and bad things about it.  Fortunately for us we always had strong management who knew the forte of the band is to play live.  So, we stayed on the road a lot.  We did a good two-and-a-half years of touring for the first Verve Pipe record for RCA.  That’s a long time to be out.  Just like everything else, the labels always waiting for the next hit.  If you can’t get their cooperation to push something or isn’t the flavor of what seems to be working at the time you find yourself in a very tough position.  And that’s just the way it is.

You guys are working on some new material know I understand.

Yeah, it’s going too slow unfortunately.  We’re getting too busy with a lot of other things.  I spoke with Brian, our lead singer today and we were discussing how we want to take advantage of this – a little bit of touring.  I sent a couple of the demos out to the other guys in the band – some really rough things that he and I’ve done, and say hey, get these under your fingertips because we’re going to be blowing through these at sound check.  We’re going to try and whip these into some kind of shape to perform.

How have you seen the songwriting change now compared to Villains?

I think the sound of what we’re doing now writing-wise is more along the lines of Underneath.  That’s cool with us.  That’s our last record and we like that record a lot.  We’ve gotten great response to it.

Has the family album changed your outlook on writing music?

Writing kids music is fun for me.  It’s a little easier because it’s freer. All you have to do is tune into that person that you were and that kid you were.  When you write rock and roll you sometimes it’s a little harder for me. It just is.  I appreciate clever lyrics and I can appreciate fun stuff that sticks in your head in all respects whether it’s a Genesis song or a Beatles song.  With rock and roll and changes like that, that’s a harder thing – to write rock and roll changes that are original, especially when you listen to a lot of music.  It’s hard not to find yourself lifting/stealing ideas.  It’s easy to. 

How long are you guys going to be on tour?

We’re just going to be out for a couple of weeks for this leg, but then we come back and we do another whole slew of dates.  It’s not a full tour because we’re going to be out for two days and then we’ll turn around and come back.  We’re going to be out about two weeks and then throughout June we’re spread out all over.  It’s going to be fun.

 - Dave Weinthal

The Verve Pipe perform Thursday night at Rhythm and Brews along with Brad Passons.

The Zut Alors are a Nashville-based band with a sound that bounds between the edges of power pop and electronica.  The young band sounds nothing at all like anything you commonly hear out of Nashville.  Their name is not the only thing unique about this group.  Venturing out of their hometown for the first time expect to hear a lot more from them soon.

A lot of bands come up with their name in various ways either to represent an attitude or pay homage to an influence.  How did you guys come up with your name?

The Zut Alors came from… it was a bit random actually.  I wish there was a better bad story to it.  I’ve always been a fan of French pop music all the way back from Yves Montand to modern stuff – Phoenix, Ed Banger records and stuff.  That’s where I was at musically in terms of inspiration.  It was kind of a cute name.  It translates to “dang” in French.

How long has the band been together?

We’ve been playing since summer of last year.

How did you guys get together in Nashville?

We were all kind of friends and had different musical projects on our own over the past few years.  It kind of started out emailing tracks back and forth between a couple of us.  That’s sort of how the first couple of tracks were born in the fall. It was kind of piecemeal.  We were going back and forth emailing and eventually got together to finally produce the songs and polish them up and finish them up.

You guys have a very original sound compared to what usually comes out of Nashville.  I haven’t heard anything like what you’re doing in Nashville. It’s an interesting sound.

Yeah, it’s kind of a strange mix of things.  When it comes to describing it I think of one common thing that joins it together, hopefully a strong sense of melody.  Some of them seem like straight up pop songs. It’s hard living in Nashville and having some weird country music at your disposal to not sort of let that seep in at times, too.  So there’s some strange instrumentation, like sometimes we’ll use pedal steel or an instrument called the Piple, which is a Cuban acoustic instrument, then of course the standard rest of the band.  We’ve got keys, guitar, bass, and drums.  I think like it or not some of that country influence is only the instruments maybe rubbed off some.

I hear a lot of early Depeche Mode before their music became so orchestrated and lush – a lot of their poppier stuff.

Yeah, that’s a big compliment.  I’ve always been a fan.  I’m into the simpler, more like you said, the early poppier, simple production.  The whole sound we called it bedroom pop, which basically means whatever instruments are at your disposal, just laying around, recording on a laptop kind of a lo-fi sound, but at the core of it hopefully they’re good songs, melodic, good arrangements and simple production.

What’s it like playing around Nashville playing this kind of music?

It’s a lot of fun.  This is the first chance we’ve gotten to get out of town at the top of the year.  Until now we’ve just been playing local clubs and the response has been really good.  There’s really a burgeoning unsung rock scene that maybe doesn’t get enough spotlight, but there are some great bands coming out of here.  Our EP release show we played with a band called How I Became The Bomb and Moonlight Bride who are playing with us Friday in Chattanooga.  That’s sort of a great example of a really good pop band that was lucky enough to have the support of the scene here in town and then promptly got out and did a bunch of stuff with that.  There are a handful of bands like that around.

Explain the songwriting process you guys go through when you’re putting together a song.

It almost always starts with a melody.  From there I’ll write some words to it.  And usually at that point sort of when it’s bare bones we’ll bring it to the table and start piecing it together as we go.  Sometimes that’s been in the studio.  We’ll wait and right as we record.

Does the music inspire the words you put to the melodies, or how does that work?

It depends.  Sometimes the melody will come first and that usually inspires the lyrics from there. 

When you guys put together your EP how were you able to tie all the songs together? Was there a theme or certain songs you felt worked together well being grouped together?

At the end of the process when we had I think eight songs on the EP, it did require putting some on the backburner that maybe didn’t fit in as well, kind of the nature of writing songs piecemeal like that early on.  We were literally putting songs together one instrument at a time.  It was kind of for a lack of a better word a disjointed process.  So that meant cutting a lot of stuff actually to make a coherent final product.

Is writing your music now different now that you’re a full band getting together instead of sending track and back forth online?

It’s become a lot easier bouncing more ideas off more people.  I trust the rest of the band.  They’re fantastic and they all come up with the greatest parts.  I play the bass and drums and terrible keys, but these guys know what they’re doing.  In that sense it’s a lot faster and it’s a lot easier.

How is it like performing live?  When I listen to your recordings your music sounds very pristine and organized in the sense that it sounds very polished in a way that might be hard to recreate live.

I guess starting out recording and then going into translating the songs live, which was the process for us.  We kind of had to think of it as a completely different thing.  The records are completely separate from the live show.  We try to take as much of the arrangement of the production as we could and translate that live, but I think the live show has an energy that’s just different from the record.  It’s a little bit more frantic and a little bit cooler.  None of us know where it’s going.  It’s exciting that way.

What kind of effort do you  put into the live show?  Is there a certain image you want to display?

I’m not sure.  We just try to be really accessible and friendly and open, which is kind of the nature of the music.  It’s just a bunch of friends playing stuff we wrote in a bedroom.  So when we get up and play live, it’s kind of that vibe in  a lot of ways, which is very comfortable and healthy I think.

 - Dave Weinthal

The Zut Alors perform Friday night at J.J.’s Bohemia.

Missy Raines is a beloved figure in bluegrass and a pioneering force in acoustic music. One of the most decorated instrumentalists in bluegrass, Raines has been recognized by the International Bluegrass Music Association as the best bassist in the genre more than any player to date. Known for her ability to seamlessly fuse bluegrass virtuosity and jazz-tinged licks with a song-driven sensibility, Missy Raines’ bass has yet to meet a genre it can’t groove with. Redefining the role of the female bandleader, Raines is currently fronting The New Hip - a group of fearless, gifted players who have the chops to travel the challenging territory Raines has mapped out like it's a walk in the park.

Music has been a part of your life from the very beginning. What influence has it had on your life outside of the fact it is your chosen career path?

I think it’s given me a wide circle of friends because music being the common denominator unlike some professions, you may be in a room full of people in your office but you might not hang out with them after you clock out.  I think with music because it’s such a blurred line between work and play that all of the people that music has exposed me to has just broadened my world completely.  So that carries into my professional life and pretty much carries into my personal life, being exposed to so many different kinds of people and different places in the world.

Music seems to do that.  Other arts tend to alienate to a degree whereas all musicians seem to have some kind of common bond.  Do you get that impression as well?

Oh yeah.  And I think it is because we share a common passion.  When you have that commonality then you immediately assume you can be friendly with folks and I think that opens a lot of doors.  It’s like everybody’s speaking the same language, which even if you really don’t – I’ve toured a lot in Europe and other countries and it very much has played a part there, where I have friends from all over the world and we may not speak the same language but we have that common denominator.

You’re a multi-instrumentalist.  How did you decide on bass as your primary instrument?

Well, I really wouldn’t call myself a multi-instrumentalist. (laughs)

Well, you’re able to play piano and guitar as well when you were growing up.

Yeah, but I wouldn’t consider myself affluent in either of those instruments.  The bass I can upon when I was young as well and once I started playing that instrument I knew that’s where I wanted to put my time.  What I most enjoyed about the bass was the way it felt to play it with other people.  It was an extremely satisfying experience to play the bass more so than playing the guitar with somebody else.

You’ve been recognized for your achievements on bass more that anyone else in your genre.  Who did you look up to as far as playing style initially?

There have been many folks through the years and many different folks in many different genres as well.  The earliest mentor that I had was Tom Gray, and of course that was back when I was young and just starting to play.  But since then there has been everybody from Todd Phillips to Mark Shatz, the guys who are my friends now, which is really awesome.  And then into the jazz world, Ron Carter was an early influence, Christian McBride, and people like that.  I could list everybody as an influence, honestly as an inspiration because there are so many great players.  I think early on Dave Hall I found early on and he was a big inspiration and Todd Phillips and Tom Gray.  They were pretty important.

How have you seen the genre of bluegrass evolve since you started playing?  It picked up a lot of mainstream momentum ten years ago through some high profile movies and seems to maintain a high level of popularity with the general public still.

I think because of the age in which we live in with accessibility being so heightened of not only hearing different styles of music but also being able to learn an instrument.  There are various teaching things available.  I think that I have seen it evolve.  I think the biggest thing is people are accepting it as a real genre these days and it’s not taboo to talk about it any more. (laughs) To admit that you like it is actually pretty cool and it’s been that way for a long time.  And people understand it better I think than they used to.  They realize it’s got many different approaches to it.  It’s not just the from the heart sort of thing.  It is that, but it’s also being carried on by the younger generation and being interpreted many ways.  It’s clearly, the world of the Internet and everything has changed it entirely and changed the accessibility.

You have your band The New Hip with you now.  How did you go about recruiting the players for the band?

Trying to find the right players was sort of a trial and error kind of thing, word of mouth and looking for folks.  The internet is an incredible thing because you can go on to MySpace and listen to folk’s music and then talk to people – such a wide group of people than we used to be able to.  It’s really just a matter of word of mouth, talking to various people knowing who is out there and having people who had similar goals and similar interests and putting them all together and seeing what works.  Seeing what works not only involves musical talent.  It has to be personality that has to be in the right place in their life that this is something they want to do right now.  And so that’s a tall order.  It takes a while and we’ve got a really great lineup now.

Your current album is Inside Out.  How did you go about writing the songs for this album?  Is the material you’ve collected over time and finally released as a collective or is it new material that you’ve put together once you got the band together?

Everything on that record was chosen for this band.  If you look at it you can see everything was collaboratively done for there’s tunes that various members of the band wrote - various groupings of us, some things that I wrote.  It was specifically geared for this group.  I will tell you that the configuration that we have now for the last year is slightly different than it is on the record. This band has been something that I wanted to do and thought about doing for a long time years before I actually did it.  I knew certain aspects of it, how I wanted it to be.  But I also didn’t know exactly how it was going to sound because I wanted it to be a collaborative effort with the band members so that I knew I didn’t want to dictate to folks who I wanted them to play.  I wanted to find folks who have something to say and could bring that to it and see how that all sounded once we put a particular ensemble together.  That’s been the beauty of this as that’s what happened.  I’ve found folks who do have something to bring to the table and they bring it.  The combination of that particular chemistry is what happens and you can’t predict that.  You can’t dictate it.  It just happens.

How did you know the time was right for this band?

It was just literally in my gut. In my heart I knew the time had come.  And even though I knew it, it was still a huge leap of faith.  It was kind of a terrifying jump to make.  I had no guarantees and I was working for Claire Lynch and had a perfectly good job that I was walking away from – a job I really enjoyed and loved.  But I knew that I needed to do it.  A lot of things were in place.  I had a booking agent and I had a manager.  I had band members who seemed dedicated and interested, so just do it.  I can’t tell you other than I had one of those gut-feeling things.

I know you were a little nervous initially, but was there a feeling of empowerment with you being the centerpiece of the band?

I was nervous because there’s never any guarantee.  You don’t know if other people are going to like it as much as you do.  Empowerment, not so much me being the centerpiece of the band, because I don’t feel that way;  I really don’t at all, but empowerment in that I made a statement to go out after something that I really wanted passionately, which was to have a vehicle to put out the kind of music and explore new music and develop something that is new and be creative.  That is an empowering feeling – doing it.  Risking it all and just doing it.  When I’m on stage with this band I really wanted to create an ensemble.  I really wanted to create something that was a collective.  And that’s what we do every time we go up.  There’s no one star.

As a songwriter do you think you take a different approach to the writing being a bass player by trade than someone else?

Oh yeah, I’m sure I do.  I honestly think I take a different approach because it’s me and I’m kind of quirky. (laughs) I never feel like I create things that sound like other bass players either.  There are some bass players I know that are great writers.  But yeah, I’m totally coming from it at a bass player’s standpoint.

It’s been a year since Inside Out was released.  Now that you can sit back and look or evaluate.  What direction do you want to take your next project?

We are actually working already on the next project.  The direction again is focusing on writing for this band.  Everyone in this band, we all do other things, too.  Everyone else is involved, including me in other musical projects that are sidelines.  And some of those are musical directions are different from this band.  So what we do when we get together we’re writing for this band.  What we want to do for this next record is explore the sounds that we’ve been making as a band so far and see where our strengths lie.  And so we’re writing stuff all the time right now.  We’ll write it, arrange it, and throw it up on stage right away and start playing it and start finding out how we like it, how the audience likes it.  We’re also doing a lot of improv on stage these days where we’re just literally just spur of the moment playing and listening to each other and recording these things.  We never know what this improv might end up being that night.  The idea is to just to stimulate more ideas and see what we come up with.  What we’re really trying to do is capture the live feeling that this band does.  It’s not necessarily going to be a live album, but it’s going to be something that’s going to have been born out of performance during live shows.

 - Dave Weinthal

Missy Raines and The New Hip perform Friday night at Barking Legs Theater.  For more information about the show go to barkinglegs.org.

History rarely repeats itself. In the music business that is a good thing many times.  Instead of trying to repeat past mistakes we can learn from our past and move forward into more fruitful projects.  This is part of the impetus of The Inanimate Tragedy.

The Inanimate Tragedy is a new band of sorts with guys that have played together in other projects or shared the stage with one another in competing bands. Milquelizard is on hiatus,” says Justin Lewis, vocalist for the band.  “We’re not able to do anything until March. 

 In the band with Lewis is Chris Moree who also plays in Milquelizard with him.  “Chris and I don’t like to sit still,” he says.

With the band on hiatus Lewis started planning another project to fill his time.  Talking to Moree, he found out they both had the same thing on their minds and began to work together to form The Inanimate Tragedy.

Lewis and Moree’s roots together both go back further than Milquelizard as they were core members of the band Crank Sanatra.

Charlie Cofer and Branden Fitzsimmons joined the project and those two had previous experience playing together.  “We’ve all known each other for quite some time actually,” says Lewis.  The group knew each other from high school and shared many of the same core friends growing up.

“We’ve all played in several bands,” says Lewis.  “We all pretty much knew what we wanted to do and what it would take to do it.”

Having played together in other projects made finding direction for the band easy.  “We knew what direction Charlie and Brandon would be wanting to go in,” says Lewis.  “They knew what kind of direction we wanted to go in.”

The four were surprised when they got together and saw how far each one was willing to take each individual thing brought to the table.  “The songs have been easy and they kind of wrote themselves,” says Lewis.  “It’s definitely been the least painless band I’ve ever been in.”

Lewis, the band’s lead singer says the writing is a collaborative process.  “Somebody will have a riff.  Somebody else will have a riff,” he says.  “It all comes together in practice.”

While the band handles writing the music Lewis says writing the lyrics are a give and take kind of thing.  “Sometimes I’ll bend to their will or sometimes they’ll bend to mine,” he says.  “You know how to choose your battle.”

While their other band is on hiatus Lewis and company look at The Inanimate Tragedy as more than a side project.  “I would day all options are open is a safe assessment,” he says.  “I am committed to it as any other band that I have been in.”

Lewis’ plans are to take the band as far as it will go and figures this is the attitude of everyone else involved in the project.

Having played together in other bands and being involved in the music scene for a number of years Lewis believes they have all learned valuable lesson that will be advantageous to The Inanimate Tragedy.  “The biggest thing I would say probably is compromise,” he says is what they have learned from previous experiences.  “That’s the biggest killer of any band – people getting bull-headed.  It always has to be give and take.”

Goals for the band include going into the recording studio.  “If you’re going to do it you might as well have something to show that you did it,” Lewis says.  He says the band is working as hard on this as they have any other project they’ve been involved.  “There’s stuff we want to do so we might as well get cracking.

 - Dave Weinthal

Christabel & the Jons (from Knoxville, TN) is currently on tour from Louisiana to Maine and everywhere in between, promoting their album “Custom Made for You” and singing a bunch of new bossa nova and country swing tunes which will soon be recorded on their third CD, "The Same Mistake." Lead singer and songwriter Christa DeCicco is earning a reputation as one of the southeast's finest laid-back jazz singers. Old suitcases and vintage clothes from the 1920s-1950s give the performance a nostalgic ambiance, but it's the songs that really captivate. They can often be found in thrift stores as they travel from town to town, hunting for clip-on ties and cocktail dresses.

It seems like you come from a really cool scene in Knoxville.  A lot and diverse music styles have come out of Knoxville in the past 15 to 20 years.  The Squirrel Nut Zippers were part of the swing movement that became the craze in the mid and late ‘90s and Gran Torino with it’s huge horn section played a style reminiscent of early ‘70s funk, and what you’re doing with your band is far more diverse than a lot of other cities.  A lot of cities will have rock, country, etc., but don’t delineate too much from the basic set genres. 

It’s a very healthy and diverse music scene.  There seems to be a receptive audience, too.  Some towns I think get a little over-saturated.  We were coming from both Nashville and Austin where it seems like there’s so much going on.  There’s a band in every hair salon and grocery store.  It’s overwhelming.  I think people get over-saturated.  But I don’t think people in Knoxville are.  I grew up here.  My dad played drums and bass in a rock band, I guess you would call ‘70s rock and pop like the Average White Band.  I’e kind of been around it my whole life. 

Do you think the college community has something to do with the diversity of music there?

There’s certainly a lot of the Greek System here and football, but the University of Tennessee, what it really produces is wonderful classical and jazz musicians.  I can easily name 20 people that graduated or worked on their degree at the University of Tennessee.  To some degree I think it could be a little more diverse than it is because a lot of jazz and classical musicians come out sounding like their teacher.  But it’s wonderful and brings out a lot of music.

Your style of music did you find it easy to pick up on as far as writing compared to other forms of music?

I’ve tinkered around, but it’s mostly folky/country that can be performed lots of different ways.  We will sometimes start with a song that is more folky and then if you change the drum beat, suddenly it swings.  A lot of the new songs that we’re doing were kind of experimenting with the bossa nova.  Our next album is going to come out next year.  It’s going to be kind of a 1960s bossa nova record.

What kind of writing were you doing before you put the band together?

It’s been an evolution, really.  I’ve always been kind of a singer/songwriter.  Maybe it was more plain Americana, kind of blues kind of feel.  For me it’s always been about the storytelling.  Every time I write a new song I convey a time, a place and a feeling.  I’m very descriptive with words like Paul Simon who is one of my songwriting heroes.  You always see the place he’s talking about in your head.

That being said, when you write a song do the words come to your first, and if that’s the case do you have a difficult time matching music to the words you write?

It’s usually at the same time.  Words to a melody.  I keep a notebook in my purse and I jot down little bits of poetry that pops into my head.  Sometimes I sit down and look at all these things and I use that to do songwriting.

Tell me a little bit about the Christmas show you’re doing.

The Chattanooga and Knoxville shows I’m particularly excited about because we’re doing it with the Actors Co-op from Knoxville.  They’re kind of a gypsy troupe and they’re doing performances in sync with the show – us on stage playing our Christmas songs, which we’ve never done in Chattanooga.  I’m excited about it.  We’ve been doing the Christmas show in Knoxville for three or four years.  We’re perfecting it.  Every year a couple of songs get dropped off.  We did that a lot this year, so we learned almost an entire new set for this year.  I think there’s only one song from last year hat we’re doing again this year which was “Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire”.  The rest are new, which is kind of an undertaking, because you have to have so many rehearsals and you do it once and you’re done. We’ve been rehearsing literally since October for this.  I’m glad we’re getting a chance to do four shows. The two in Knoxville and in Chattanooga are the only ones that are going to have actors.  The other two are just music.

Is it easy to get into the Christmas spirit in October when you start preparing?

Not so much.  We just do it because we know we will be better.  We don’t perform the songs until after Thanksgiving. 

I understand you’ll be touring the Virgin Island early next year.

Yeah, in February.  We’ve got the “Dream Tour”.  How it happened, we were on tour so many years ago.  I think it was me and Jon (Whitlock); we were touring together as a duet.  That’s Jon, my drummer.  We played a gig in Taos, New Mexico.  It was in a coffee shop and there were like six people there.  One of the guys there was on vacation from where he lived full time in the Virgin Islands.  He was a radio deejay and he loved our sound.  We have him a CD.  We said, “Play it on the radio.”  And strangely enough he did.  He played it often – often enough when you would do a Google search on Christabel & the Jons we would come up on their website.  It’s WVGN, Virgin Islands.  So we kept in touch with him and sent him another CD when the new one came out.  He liked that and he plays that one, too.  We told him if you ever know any booking agents or promoters that need a band down here keep us in mind.  Then sure enough he did.  It’s probably been four years since that original meeting.  He recommended us to a friend of his who books bands down there.  Through one booking agent we’re getting 16 gigs.  We’ll be working, but we’ll also be on the islands.  The catch is we have to buy our own plane tickets out there.

How is it coming along getting that together?

We just put up a new website and released new music – a new album on our website.  The album is called Live From The Walnut Room.  We recorded it in August of this year out in Denver, Colorado at a really beautiful listening room.  I think it’s ten songs off of that recording.  It includes three new original songs and a couple of covers then some really nice renditions of some original songs.  It’s like pay as you will.  We set them up as mp3s on our website so you can pay one penny for it or up to as much as you want.  I’m really excited.  It’s kind of our plan for how we’re going to play for our tickets to the Virgin Islands.

 - Dave Weinthal

Check out the band’s website for additional information and to also check out “Live From The Walnut Room” at christabelmusic.com.

The list of names that have either recorded or currently have holds on songs by James Cain reads like a Who’s Who in country music. The Tennessee valley native spent a grat deal of time in Nashville writing and performing.  Some people that have recorded his songs include Willie Nelson, George Jones and Jerry Lee Lewis with the likes of country giants Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney and other having “holds” on other songs Cain has written. In the past year he decided to start playing out again and perform the songs he writes.

You started writing at an early age.  What initially got you interested in writing?

I’m not sure. (laughs) I’m not sure what got me to writing.  I liked to write poetry as a kid.  I was in creative writing and English class.  I loved creative writing.  I guess that’s where the songwriting eventually came from. 

Out of all the musical genres out there what led you to country music?

That’s a long story.  Let’s just say I was abandoned at a Sears store when I was four years old in Chattanooga.  My mother eventually got me back many years later.  I spent a lot of time with my head up against a jukebox at night in bars.  That’s where the country stuff comes from.  I used to hang out with the bands as a kid.

At what age did you decide that music was something you wanted to pursue professionally?

The first time I was handed a guitar at age 12.  It was on from there.  I found a tool to use to write the songs that were inside me.

Did you pick up on guitar fairly easy?

I had to work at it.  I didn’t have a teacher or anything.  A family friend gave me a guitar and amplifier and asked if that would help keep me out of trouble when I was a kid.  I learned to play on my own.  It’s just picking up a chord here and there from other bands. 

You’ve been involved in Nashville for a number of years.  How have you seen the city change?

As far as the business itself, they need a new business plan.  The internet has completely taken over everything as far as people downloading music and be able to get it for free that’s causing a huge problem for guys like me as a songwriter and publisher that I write with.  With people getting on the internet and getting songs for free and getting paid nothing.  That’s something that the major labels, major independent labels and independent labels are all working on how to solve this problem.  It’s not been in a positive direction. 

A lot of people don’t understand that once a song is recorded there’s more to it than the record label making money or the artist releasing the song.

Right.  There’s a whole lot involved.  For me, I get paid from my publisher to write songs.  They’re paying me, I’m putting my time into it writing songs and then I’m going into the recording studio.  That’s more time and more money.  Then the avenues of pitching the songs to the other artists to get those cut.  There’s a lot to it.  People just don’t get it.  They listen to the music and they’re like, “Cool, I like that song. I’d like to take that.” 

How long have you been performing out as an artist?  You have a ton of songwriting credits and you’ve worked with some of the biggest names in the business.  When did yo reach the point that you wanted to play the actual songs that you wrote?

I had different bands from the time I was 18.  In my late 20s I had a record deal with an independent label in ’99.  I was out playing a lot then.  In fact, I got more serious about the songwriting.  It’s just been this past year that I was ready to get back after it on my own.

What is it like when you find out that someone like Willie Nelson or George Jones picks up one of your songs?

When it’s Willie or George Jones, one of those guys, it doesn’t pay as much as an Alan Jackson cut, but it’s so prestigious, man to know that those guys listened.  And for George Jones to walk up to you and say, “That’s a mighty fine song, son” that right there makes it all worthwhile.

The list of people that have recorded your songs reads like a Who’s Who in country music.  I was wondering when you write a song do you write it for yourself or do you have a particular artist in mind that you think when writing?

I tell you what man, I just write a song.  I don’t have anyone in particular.  It’s when I get into the studio and start recording that song that that’s when that flavor starts coming out.  This may be an Alan Jackson pitch or this could be a good Montgomery Gentry pitch.  That’s when it really starts to come alive.

Reading about you I understand you are fond of horses.

I am.  I’m really a big fan of making sure that they don’t start any horse slaughter plants.  I worked with Teresa Two Bulls out in South Dakota for a while.  We got a bill stopped that they were going to put a million dollars up for a horse slaughter plant.  A few people needed to step up to stop it. 

You’re also involved with Little Therapeutic Riding Center.

Yes.  I actually wrote a song called “He’s Gonna Run”.  I wrote it with a friend of mine, Ronnie Vines. It’s about muscular dystrophy.  It’s a very touching song.  As a matter of fact, the Jerry Lewis Telethon had contacted me about using it at one point.  I don’t know if they ever did.  The therapeutic riding center, one of the ladies that works with them, heard the song and asked if they can put an album together with some other songwriters.  As a matter of fact, the author of “The Horse Whisperer” does some narration on it.  I donated two songs, “God’s Whisper” and “He’s Gonna Run”.  They wrote a very, very nice thing in there that my song inspired the album.  I don’t know if I deserved it, but they wrote a very nice article about me in it.

How have your work habits changed as you play out more?

I’m having to juggle them both, actually.  My publisher called me today and asked me if I finished a certain song I had been working on.  I said, no I have not.  In my situation songs write themselves.  I just hold the pen.  That seems the way it is.  I never have forced a song.  If it’s one line away and I don’t get it for six months, then it’s going to remain that way until it writes itself.

Are you enjoying the performing aspect?

I love it, man.  It feels so good to be back out and entertaining. 

I guess you’re enjoying the crowd interaction instead of being in the background.

I get different people coming up that have heard different songs on the radio of mine and everyone has a favorite song off the album or that they’ve heard on the radio.  Alan Jackson had a hold on “Nobody’s Singing About Cowboys Anymore” for a long time.  He didn’t cut it and that’s unfortunate for me, but people love that song.  There’s another song called “Summer Home” on there that’s a very touching song.  I’ve had ladies from the age of teenagers to 50 and 60 that tell me that touches them – and guys.  “Blue Collar Holler”, the big party song on there, that one always gets everybody.  I get crowd participation every time.  They go nuts on that. 

What are you looking forward to for the rest of the year?

For the rest of the year I have to finish up a recording session here.  I’ve got three or four songs that I’m going to try and cut in January.  Rodney Atkins has a hold on one of my songs right now and I’m hoping that they’ll cut that song.  For 2010 I would like to see one of my songs as far as an artist for myself back to radio again. 

 - Dave Weinthal

Mix Master Mike first came to prominence upon winning the 1992 New Music Seminar/Supermen Inc. DJ Battle for World Supremacy in New York City, becoming the first West Coast DJ ever to do so. In the same year, his turntablism collective Rock Steady DJs won the DMC World DJ Championships, establishing Mix Master Mike as one of the pre-eminent DJs in the industry.  His most high-profile work has been with hip-hop group the Beastie Boys, working on the albums Hello Nasty (1998) and To The 5 Boroughs (2004). He is often credited with inventing the Tweak Scratch. The scratch is performed by moving the record back and forth while the platter is stopped. The inertia of the platter causes the sounds to slow and drop in pitch in an unusual manner. He is also well known for the unusual technique of using a wah-wah pedal, an effect most commonly used by guitarists, with his turntables.  We recently caught up with the busy turntablist  who has a new album coming out, a set of headphones and a new iPhone application newly available.

As a turntablist, you listen to music much differently than most people, don’t you?

I listen to music.  I hear music.  I see music. 

It is more of a mathematical thing compared to a sound thing?  I hear other deejays talking about beats per minute when mixing.

It goes through emotion.  You have to be able to express it in that sense.  It’s much more gratifying.  It’s like letting loose of a lot of bottled up energy.

A lot of deejays started in music playing in other musical outfits.  What got you interested in music?

I used to go to old hip-hop shows, radio shows, Malcom McClaren pretty much got me interested in the whole movement.  There was a period in that time in the mid-80s where we were really spoiled to a lot of good things coming out.  There was a lot of live music – a lot of hip-hop that came out that was incredible.  You could say I’m a product of that.

Do you find the genre of hip-hop easier to mix than other genres of popular music?

I started off as a kid listening to rock music and jazz.  That sort of helped me with my ties to music in general.  I don’t listen to one genre but all genres pretty much.  That helps a lot.  It’s a positive in creating music.  You keep your eyes open when making music – especially turntable music. 

You’ve been linked with the Beastie Boys since ’98.  How have you managed to keep your own identity separate from them?

I tour on my own.  I put out records on my own.  I’m releasing my fourth solo album in January.  It’s a good thing to have your own identity just as well. 

What benefits did you get working with them and likewise what did you bring to them?

If it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t be performing in front of 200,000 kids.  Just musicianship – the guys are musicians and they’ve shared that over the years. They shared that insight with me.  I picked up a lot along the way.  A lot of that sticks with you.

A lot of turntablists that I’ve seen seem to draw a lot of energy off the crowd.  Do you find working in the studio to be restricting?

No, because when I’m in the studio working I’m thinking about the crowd.  I’m envisioning what I’m making to play.  When I’m in the studio I’m aggressively driven and I see myself on stage actually playing songs.  I keep that in mind when I’m making music.  I’m thinking, “Can I play this live?  Does it belong in the car or can this be played in the arena?” 

Have all the technical advances you’ve seen in equipment and tools of the trade been a help or hindrance to your style?

It’s kind of like a love-hate thing, the technology.  Right now I could be booked in a hotel for a whole month and I can come out with 20 songs.  That’s the beauty of technology.  I have programs like Reason and Pro Tools, just a bunch of software on my laptop where I can make actual compositions.  Back in the day, say ten years ago you weren’t able to do that.  That’s the beauty of technology right now.  But as far as styling records it’s a whole different thing.  We try to make a living.  It’s tough these days because people are downloading music for free.  It’s a blessing and a curse at the same time.  You love it, love it love, and hate it, hate it, hate it.  That technology.  Just roll with it.

With the new generation of turntablists coming out do you think they have the same attitude towards the music as you did?

I guess they kind of miss the boat.  Me growing up, I’m a ‘70s kid.  A lot of great music was being created.  They weren’t around carrying actual records.  I was carrying hundred pound crates of records to shows.  Kids, they don’t have that lesson.  I don’t think they have that level of appreciation that we did being born in the ‘70s, seeing the rise of hip-hop in the ‘80s and ‘90s.  It’s a whole different thing.  I think it’s my duty to let them know.  To know where you at, you have to know where you’re from. 

How have you seen your craft evolve since you started and where do you see it headed next?

The music has morphed into its own.  Music is wide open right now.  It’s whatever you feel.  It can be created.  Right now it’s in an aggressive state.  My music is aggressive right now.  There’s a lot of bottled energy.  It’s a high-powered offense right now.

Do you feel like the deterioration of terrestrial radio has helped artists like yourself that might not normally get played on traditional radio with all the outlets now available for exposure?

The beauty of technology, you can go on websites and blogspots now.  People are on Twitter.  People are on whatever.  You can broadcast on the internet.  That’s a promo right there.  Also college radio.  College radio has always been a good outlet to get discovered.  There are ways to get it out there you just have to find a way

 - Dave Weinthal

Mix Master Mike is headlining MainX24 Saturday night at the Hills Floral Warehouse.

Jettison Never is a rock band out of Chattanooga.  They are one of the hardest working bands as hey stay on the road nne months out of the year spreading their music to whomever will listen.  The band is comprised of brothers Josh and Matt Gilbert and cousin Ben Phillips.  We recently caught up with Josh as the band prepared to play Chattanooga for the first time in months.

How did Jettison Never come about?

We started playing when we were little kids.  We’re actually brother and cousin.  My brother is the bassist and our cousin is the drummer.  We basically shared musical interests and wanted to play music together at an early age.  We’ve been playing for a while now. 

The band is very much a family affair.  What are the advantages/shortcomings of everyone in the band being related?

We really don’t have a whole lot of problems as a lot of families who get into it and argue and stuff.  We basically have room to settle our differences and look past things and focus on the music.  It’s not so personal as far as friends go.  We can just bounce things off each other and expect constructive criticism from each other. 

You guys tour around a whole lot.  You guys are on the road nine months out of the year.  What prompted you to be such a road band?

We like Chattanooga a lot.  It’s kind of hard to make it here - even in the southeast Atlanta and Nashville have got great music scenes.  We just wanted to build more than that.  We wanted to build an independent fan base of our own.  We’ve been touring the southeast for quite a while.  We just wanted to branch out farther so we could pull our own weight in the future if we ever negotiated record deals or whatever else. 

How has the excessive touring aided the band?

It’s tough because it’s tough to get out there.  You need a lot of money to go out there, but it’s worth it.  We have good fan bases in the Bay Area, Portland and Seattle and stuff.  People really like our music.  People from all walks of life. We still have an edgy alternative sound, so it’s not same old same old, but then at the same time we seem to connect with multiple audiences whether they’re all ages or people in bars, college groups, whatever.  It seems to be growing in every state we’ve been to.  We’ve been to every state except for Alaska, Hawaii and Mississippi. 

You guys have been everywhere.  I guess you’ve collected a ton of bumper stickers from all the states you’ve been through.

Yeah.  We ride around in a big van and pull a trailer that actually has a big Boy Scout emblem on the back.  That’s kind of a different looking setup.  We bought the trailer from a guy in Georgia.  He was a farmer.  The Boy Scouts sold the trailer to him and he gave us a good deal on it.  It kind of turned a few heads. (laughs) We make a joke out of it.  Nobody’s stolen our stuff so…

It’s worked out for you pretty good then.

Yeah.  Lots of bands, lots of fans – not a whole lot per show, but we’re at the point where we get three to five people know who we are and come out to see us. 

You guys have been around for a couple of years.  How have you guys changed musically from when you first started playing?

We used to be a lot heavier.  I think a lot of musicians in rock start out with an edgy sound.  We used to put a lot of our angst and energy in.  We were family, so we shared family things, family hardships, and family crisis’.  We put that into our music.  Now it’s not so much about expressing the anger, but expressing ideals and connecting with people from multiple levels.

You guys are working on a new album.  Tell me a little about it.

We’re going to start recording on December 21 and that will come out late spring or summer.  That’s going to be a full-length.  We’ve been touring on our current album, which we did back in 2007.  It’s called They Fall From Heaven Unassembled.

How does the material you’re going to record in a couple weeks differ from the material on They Fall From Heaven?

The last couple of things we’ve done – before that we did an EP called The Eye In the Sky and They Fall From Heaven Unassembled – both of those were more experimental .  We just kind of did whatever we wanted.  Some things clicked and others added experimental aspects to it.  With this new material, it’s more melody driven and more geared towards the radio approach.  Basically the songs aren’t as long. (laughs) Some of the songs we write, especially back in the day tend to be long.  They were experimental.  We jammed in them some, too. 

Do you find the writing process to be a lot easier now?

It’s different.  I think it’s always challenging.  I don’t try to write the same song twice.  I find that a little challenging.  I think as time goes on we’ve become better musicians because we’ve gone at it as a family.  We’ve definitely gotten better.  We collectively put our ideas together.

You guys are playing at home for the first time in a while.  Are you looking forward to the homecoming?

Yeah, we definitely are.  We’ll have a lot of friends and family come out.  That’s kind of what we’re doing it for.  That, and to raise money for the new album.  We knew a lot of our friends and family haven’t seen us in like a year.  We did play Riverbend this past summer, but people were kind of like all over the place.  We haven’t officially played a show here for about a year now in Chattanooga.  I’m definitely looking forward to it.  It’s going to be recorded on DVD.  We’re having some great bands come out, so it should be a lot of fun. 

How do you see the perception of the band now seeing that you’ve been out of the local scene for so long?

Our object is to get as many “scene” people to all our shows as we can.  We want to get everyone in one place on one platform.  That’s always kind of been our approach. 

You guys are road warriors.  What kind of advice can you give to other bands that are either just starting out or haven’t figured out since they haven’t gone out their touring comfort zone?

Be prepared to take anything, whether it’s just a coffee shop show, whatever crappy show in the middle of the week because your goal is to make fans.  Don’t travel more than two or three hours apart if you can help it.  The more shows you have together – not eight hours apart, the more chances of making it to the next show you’ll have as far as gas and stuff.  Stay on the East Coast as long as you can and go as far as you can without running out of money. (laughs) Be prepared to donate lots of time and do whatever it takes to make it as far as your goals are.

 - Dave Weinthal

Jettison Never performs Saturday night at Club Fathom.

The Meat Puppets have been around since the 80s but made it big in the 1990s, influencing the likes of Nirvana, Pavement, Dinosaur Jr., and Soundgarden.  Curt Kirkwood, singer and guitarist for the Meat Puppets, has played with Krist Novoselic and Bud Gaugh from Sublime.  The Pups are back with a new album, Sewn Together, and are on track to play Chattanooga on December 3 at Rhythm & Brews.  We caught Curt for a few moments to chat with him about the upcoming show, TV soundtracks, and what happens when your CD winds up in a bargain bin.

How do you feel the approach to making music has changed between the recording of In a Car and the latest album, Sewn Together?

I lose interest if I try to repeat myself.  I find that humiliating.  We generally just go with the first good take of a song during rehearsal, which tends to be the first take.  We can always go back and add stuff, but it all kind of runs together after 10 hours or so.

Are there any particular tracks from the new album that you are particularly fond of at the moment? 

“Go to Your Head”, that version of it’s pretty cool. I like “Monkey and the Snake”…I think “Nursery Rhymes” is a good one…the moody country songs are good.

For the first decade or so of the band’s existence, you were signed to SST Records. You obviously had a lot of room for artistic growth and experimentation with the label that most major labels would have never allowed. Do you feel that independent labels give new artists more room to grow and find the direction that suits them best?

Back then for sure; there was no room for us [in the major label scene].  We met with people in the mid-80s, who didn’t really what to do with us.  They would say, “well, we like your band, but we don’t know how to market you.”  It was hard to market artistic endeavors without some sort of consistency.  Back then it was only new wave and hair metal and whatever MTV was selling.  We never had a problem with that on SST though; we never did until we were on London Records, who would say, “well, we don’t see any hits here”, and we would say, “well, you’ve signed someone who doesn’t fucking care.”  But, it’s just the nature of the beast.  Everyone would like to have a hit except for the indies, who can say they don’t care, but you gotta have money to survive. 

Unless you want to tour everyday of your life.

That’s pretty much how we made our money in the 80s unless it was from publishing; we never made a penny off our records until later on. I’ve always loved playing shows, but I’ve never been looking for a pot of gold.

Many of my favorite bands were signed to the label at one point in their career. Do you still keep in contact with any of the bands you were signed with during this time? 

Yeah, all those guys.  I just played a show with Grant Hart [from HüskerDü]; I’m playing with Sonic Youth tonight.  I’ve done some shows with Bob Mould [also from HüskerDü] and Dinosaur Jr.

Who have been some of your major influences throughout the years?

The Beatles, Led Zepplin, Elvis, Hank Williams, pretty typical stuff.  I liked the Monkees; I really liked the Beatles when I was a little kid, because they had those cartoons, and Elvis had those movies. We didn’t really have a lot of albums growing up, so most of my influences came from TV.  I’m a big soundtrack guy.  The King and I, Close Encounters is a great soundtrack, Cabaret, Planet of the Apes is one of my favorites, and The Wizard of Oz was a huge influence. 

How soon in the existence of the band did you start feeling pressure to jump ship to a major label? What were some of the factors that kept you at SST for so long?

We didn’t until we did.  After a certain point there was increased interest in the band and more need for higher distribution.  We thought there was just more potential to move forward.  London [Records]was pretty much the only recording company that ever wanted us; there was never a huge bidding war for us or anything.  Elektra kind of courted us for awhile, they had this image of what we sounded like based on what they had heard recorded, but once they came out and saw us live, we didn’t really fit what we wanted them to be…we had a little folk, country, heavy metal…we are singularly ourselves.

It sucks that Forbidden Places is out of print now.

I think all of it’s out of print now.

I saw No Joke in a bargain bin for $.99, kind of pissed me off a little bit.

Well, that’s a pretty good deal!

When you signed with a major, did the overall experience of making music change? 

Not really.  Pete Anderson produced Forbidden Places.  He was a fan of ours, we were a fan of his, so there was a kind of mutual respect there.  We never got stuck with a pop producer who said, “okay, this is going to be your hit record.” We always got to kind of keep it in our inner circle.

After recording No Joke! The band went on hiatus for a bit. During this time you had a band with Krist Novoselic from Nirvana.

I actually released another album with a new lineup of Meat Puppets called Golden Lies that got put out on Atlantic and was pretty much ignored, but it was a good album too.  We played together for about four years.  Then I started doing some solo shows in 2001, and it was during this time that I hooked up with Novoselic, and we played together for a couple of years—year-and-a-half, realistically, until Novoselic decided to run for public office. 

Were the seeds for this collaboration planted during the MTV Unplugged appearance? 

Well, we were buddies, and he was bored, I think.  He contacted me while I was doing the solo shows to see if I wanted to collaborate with him, and it happened that Bud [Gaugh, from Sublime] called, and he and Krist didn’t know each other, but I said, I guess we’ve got a band if we want it. 

Volcano was another band that you had with Bud, the drummer from Sublime (who was also in Eyes Adrift). Are the two of you still in contact, and if so is any future collaboration possible?

I don’t know about that; I still talk to[producer Michael] Miguel [Happoldt], and he still talks to Bud, so you never know. 

I thought Volcano was a really good album, but it’s extremely difficult to find.  I think I downloaded it from the internet. 

We only pressed about 1000 or so copies of it just for fun; we sold some at shows and gave the rest away.  I think you can still download it from Skunk Records. 

While we’re on the subject of Golden Lies, wasn’t that the title of the opening track from your solo album, Snow?  Was this the leftover track from that period?  

It was never really considered for inclusion.  I thought it was a good album title, and I thought it would be funny to release a song with the same name later on.

Being the primary songwriter for the Meat Puppets, what factors led you to abandon the setting of a full band and put out a solo album?

Pete [Anderson] asked me if I wanted to.

Can we expect another anytime soon? 

Yeah, I can do both.  It’s good to play just acoustic material every now and then.

What is the story behind naming your band Neanderthal Orchestra at one point? 

That was kind of a working-title joke.  We played a few shows under that name at SXSW.  Then I realized I already had a recording contract, and the best way to put out an album would be to do so under the Meat Puppets’ name.

Cris had some legal troubles a few years back. When the dust cleared, what sparked the idea for a reunion?

His availability is what got him back in the game.  The years before that, he was kind of wrapped up in his own situations, but the time just felt right to make another Meat Puppets record.

Was [drummer] Derrick Bostrom invited to join? 

Yeah, I thought that he might have had enough time off, but he decided to take a step back, he wasn’t as into it, and at this point, I like to play w/ people who are 100% down.  When we first started, we were so young, we just accepted the way that everyone was, including the drug use, but now I just like to play with people who are psychotic about the music. 

Any chance I can convince you to play “Funnel of Love”? 

(Laughs) Yeah, yell it out so I can remember the words

That was never on a proper album, was it? 

No, I don’t think it was. 

Are there currently any plans for new studio material?

Yeah we’re with Megaforce now, so we’re working on some stuff now, and we’ll have something out soon.  We have thoughts for the new album, but we’re focusing on touring right now. 

What can fans expect in Chattanooga on December 3rd?

I couldn’t tell you; I have no idea.  We’re gonna play some of our songs and try to make it as fun as possible.  We generally try to play room-to-room, show-to-show.  I kind of count on that.  We might suck, the crowd might hate it--and you can print that—it might make people show up.  We could say that we’re gonna rock Chattanooga and it will never be the same, but we’ll just have to see. We could suck—you just never know. 

 - Kenneth Tucker and Jessica P. Wallin

The Meat Puppets will be playing at Rhythm and Brews at 221 Market Street with The Dexateens on December 3, 2009 at 9:00 p.m. 

The rap world is at a crossroads. In the face of shrinking budgets, music executives, resting on their laurels, search out the next YouTube sensation with a catchy hook and dance move in order to amass digital single sales. While many artists have tried to break through despite an industry melt down, few have been met with critical praise. And the applause for those that have has not been loud enough to sway the course of the current rap market. Looking to excel where his contemporaries have failed, North Carolina native J. Cole (born Jermaine Cole) brings promise of a new day in hip hop music.

I understand you learned the basics of rhyming when you were 12 from a cousin.  Explain briefly the difficulty in that and writing a rap song.  Does that make it harder to write than a traditional song?

Probably just a little bit more difficult - actually quite a bit more difficult because of the words in an actual rap song.  If you listen to a regular pop or R&B song they can be kind of vague, repeat a lot of words, and they don’t have to say much.  It’s a slow tempo and it’s sung at a slower pace.  A rap song is filled up with words.  I guess in that aspect it can be more difficult to write, but I never found it to be harder to write than learning to play basketball.  As long as you practice all the time, you’ll get good eventually.

Unlike many rap artists you insisted on learning to create your own music instead of relying on samples.

It just came from when I was young and I started rapping.  After a couple of years all I was doing rapping over songs that were already over the radio and any instrumental I could get my hands on.  I could never write my own songs because I didn’t have my own music, so it came from a place where I had no place to get any beats, so I figured I’d make them on my own.  Overall it gave me more artistic control.  I had an idea of what I wanted my sound to be like and I better understand myself as an artist or average rapper because of that.

Explain to me how you put together a song.  As a rap artist do you choose music or music bed first or write lyrics and try to find the music for them to fit together?

Usually 99 percent of the time I do music first.  I just write to the music and they inspire the words.  The concept and the story all come from the feeling of the beat.

Explain to me why rap CDs are called mix tapes.

I put out a mix tape and the only reason I call it a mix tape was because it wasn’t my album and I wasn’t selling it.  What a mix tape started out with I believe was the ‘90s, DJs would put together a CD, or back in those days it was tapes, more like a compilation of songs.  You may have TuPac on track one and a Jay-Z song on track two, and track three would be Nas or maybe the whole thing was a compilation of all TuPac songs and not necessarily an album.  The DJs would put the songs together like the original mix tape.  Back in early 2000s 50 Cent started to actually put out his own mix tapes, but he wasn’t a DJ, he was rapping on other people’s instrumentals, putting his own ideas on other people’s beats. He would take a chorus from a song that was already popular and change it up in his own way and do a whole ‘nother song to it. He’s do that 12, 13, maybe 20 times and put it on a CD and put it out and call it a mix tape.  That’s more like today’s traditional mix tape.

You are the first artist signed to Jay-Z’s label.  How did that all go down?

I met Jay-Z through my current manager, Mark Pitts.  Jay heard a song I had called “Lights Please”.  A few weeks later I met with him.  It was around election time.  The meeting went great.  After a three-hour meeting, we just talked.  I found out a couple of weeks later he was interested and the rest is history. 

Do you feel any extra pressure or a lot riding on you being the first signed artist?

It’s like a good pressure, not a bad pressure.  I don’t feel like I have to sell like an “x” amount.  It’s more like a motivating factor, the fact that I’m the first signed, and he believes in me is a positive thing.

Unlike a majority of recording artists (any genre) actor or even professional athlete, you graduated Magna Cum Laude from college (St. Johns).  How important was college to creating the person and the artist you are now and hope to become?

It was a big factor, man.  I feel like I became a man while I was going through college and the year after I graduated because when I went to college I was out of my element and in a huge city – New York City.  I didn’t have any family or friends so I had to create a new life.  There were at times different people that I met that helped mould me into the person that I am now and as an artist.  It was an experience.  The time at college was a good one.

The genre seems to very much to be a singles market.  Is that a good thing?  A lot of artists seem to get pulled off of YouTube and social sites.  Does that hurt serious artists like yourself – the one hit wonder mentality that seems so prevalent in all of music these days?

I don’t know.  I think it’s a good thing for those types of artists.  It’s good for them.  But I don’t know if it’s good for the album in general.  It takes the value of an album down a little bit, that I would like to bring back up.  But you still have artists out there that recognize the value of a complete album.  You need to put time into your craft.  If your album is worth it people are going to get it somehow.  Somebody will find out about it one day.  That’s how I feel.  I rather put my complete effort into a full album.

Rap or hip-hop is the most prominent musical genre out there at least for the last 10-15 years.  Other genres have been on top for proceeding raps rise.  What do you feel the genre needs to do to stay relevant and not have a drop of like rock and country have taken?

It has to be a little more creative.  You have to have artists that push the boundaries a little bit topic-wise or structure-wise.  It doesn’t all have to be so formulated. Sometimes it’s like cookie cutter.  You have to have artists that are willing to take a little more of a risk.  Also the shows in hip-hop have to improve because I feel like that’s a big aspect of it. 

What are you doing personally to keep rap relevant?

I’m trying to put out the best albums I can and not slacking one bit on the album.  I’m hitting on topics that haven’t been hit on much before, and if I have I think I’m going to approach them in a way they haven’t been approached before.  I think I’ve done a pretty good job.  We’ll see when the album comes out.

 - Dave Weinthal

J. Cole performs Friday night at Vanderbilt along with Jay-Z and Wale and N*E*R*D.  Go to ticketmaster.com for ticket information.

Take a hefty portion of Southern charm, add a dash of country livin’, a pinch of urban style, wash it all down with a sweet, fresh sound, and you have Colt Ford. A man with such a blend of unique talents and tastes can only be the natural recipe for this new sound and musical format.  We recently caught up with Colt who will be coming ot the Scenic City this weekend.

How did you get started in music?

I guess I’ve been kind of doing music my whole life.  I’ve always been involved in it in some sort of way.  When I was a kid I played drums.  I’ve always loved music – all types of it.  I was raised on country music and the way I grew up, being a country kid, and it’s the way my folks grew up.  I was a big fan of Johnny Cash and Waylon (Jennings) and people like that.  My first concert was Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton.  I got like a lot of kids did.  I got into a lot of hip-hop stuff and rap stuff.  Being a drummer I liked the beat.  For some reason I was able to write that stuff, but it was like a movie to me.  It wasn’t real life for me.  I didn’t really know anything about it. I was just able to write it.  I started fooling with that and was a professional golfer.  I played college golf, turned pro, did that for a while, and I always fooled with music.  My wife encouraged me to really do something that I was and I ended up being Colt Ford – just being country and slightly left of center, but country nonetheless.

You had interest in hip-hop and country.  Over the years there has been a lot of cross over between the two genres which on the surface may seem polar opposites.  How would you explain why country and hip-hop mesh so well or compliment each other?

Well, I think if you really broke it down to its core, it’s that both of them are about storytelling.  That’s where they both originated.  You look at some of the great rappers of all time a lot of them had influences from country music.  I think country had gotten away from that a little bit.  Country had gone a little pop now.  A lot of the stuff they consider country 10-15 years ago wouldn’t be anywhere near considered country.  Just because you put a fiddle and steel on it doesn’t mean…to me country is about the story and lyrics and what you’re talking about.  That to me is what makes a country song.  I spend a majority of my time writing about the stories and about what people can relate to.  I think that’s what people like that I do.  It’s honest and it’s real.  I talk like they talk and talk about stuff they know about. 

With the “poppiness” of a lot of contemporary country music, does that concern you?

Not really.  I think there’s room for everything.  It bothers me when people try to tell me that I’m not country.  And I’m like, “Wow, have you really listened to my record? ‘Cause I don’t know how you can say that.”  When you’re trying to convince me some of these artists are country artists and I’m not, that kind of blows me away.  I’m like I know some of those artists.  I don’t wear $1,000 boots.  I shop at Walmart, hunt and fish.  What I’m talking about I know about.  I think there’s room for everything and that’s kind of my position.  I don’t want to stand in the way of anybody else, but I’d appreciate it if y’all wouldn’t stand in my way too.  Let me be heard also.  I want the fans to decide.  That’s my deal.  If you play my record and people don’t like it, then I can live with that.  But don’t tell me that people might not like it and not play it.

What are your thoughts on the state of terrestrial radio for country music today and how it affects songwriting?

It obviously greatly affects songwriting because you hear so many songs that sound the same.  And that’s a shame.  A lot of the new younger artists to me are unidentifiable.  If you didn’t have XM radio you couldn’t tell the difference in a lot of them.  That’s a shame because the old country you knew what Garth Brooks was, you knew Tim, McGraw, you know who Toby Keith was, you know who John Michael Montgomery is, you know who John Anderson is, you knew who Keith Whitley was.  You know who George Strait is.  You know their songs, what they sound like.  It’s a little frustrating.  It’s frustrating to me that you’re so afraid to play today.  I always thought radio to me used to be about also playing some new stuff and if you brought something cool that people liked you weren’t afraid to play it.  Now it’s kind of the opposite of that. One person may say they don’t like it while a hundred others like it.  You can’t run your station because one particular person didn’t like one particular song.  If they are a fan of your station they aren’t going anywhere.  They just won’t listen to that song.  And maybe if you played it a few times they might learn to like that song.  That’s the whole point.

What is the songwriting process that you go through?

My stuff is so real and honest about stuff I know about that it kind of writes itself, so to speak.  It’s stuff that I see everyday.  I’ve got one of those Blackberrys with the notepads on the phone and stuff.  I’ve got three or four hundred song ideas typed in my phone.  If I see something or hear something – it could be anywhere from the gas station to my kid’s PTA, I don’t know.  It’s real life stuff that I’m talking about that I write about.  I’m constantly writing and working on it.

Compare and contrast the discipline it takes being a professional golfer to a musical artists.

When I played golf for a living, playing at a real high level it made me pretty relaxed as far as being on stage in front of a lot of people because I’ve done that playing golf.  I’ve done a few shows and everyone’s like, “Aren’t you nervous?”  I’m like, I’m nervous excited, but not nervous scared.  Anybody that says they aren’t nervous is a liar or there’s something wrong with you.  You should always have nervous excitement – I mean that kind of nervous.  No matter how good you are you should have that feeling.  There are some things that have certainly helped.  There are some things that are different, because a lot of times in music I’m going to bed when in golf I was getting up.  There are certainly some differences like that.

You say you’re a life long fan of country music.  What is it about country music that really struck a chord with you?

It was what they were singing about when I was a kid. It was so honest and real then.  It was about what I saw every day.  It was about stuff that I knew about.  It was about my life, I guess.  The stories, I liked the stories.  I think a song should create some kind of emotion for you.  Good, bad, happy, sad – it’s all of those things in different songs.  I get disappointed when I hear these songs that are “It’s just us – whatever”.  You hear it and you go, “Whatever”.  The stuff’s great but it should do something more to you.  It should move you in some sort of way.  That’s what it is about country music and the songs that I love. 

Where does politics fit it country music?  Do politics tend to stereotype the genre too much?

There’s probably a lot of politics in country music.  Country music fans I would say are more on the Republican side of things, but that’s what frustrates me when people question them.  That’s where I am.  I talk about God, country and friends, America, working hard.  That’s what country folks believe in.  I don’t believe anybody owes you anything.  Just because I’m not singing – and that’s what’s frustrating.. People will say, well that’s not country.  Are you saying it’s not country because I’m not singing? Aerosmtih sings and they’re not country.  Usher sings.  He’s not country.  Just because you’re singing it has nothing to do with it.  There are a lot of artists that have hardly sung anything.  It upsets me a little bit.  It affects me a little bit.  That’s why I hate the term country rap.  I consider myself a country artist.  I don’t think I’m a country rap person.  Other guys say they are.  That’s fine.  They can do that, but I’m not.  I’m just trying to be a country artist.

Do you feel that has a lot to do with the current state or radio, that they try to categorize you too much compared to radio 20 years ago?

Exactly.  I think that’s one of the things that happened to me as little bit.  I hate that.  A song should stand on its own.  If the song is good it doesn’t matter who did it, what you look like or whatever.  If people like the song and people out there call and request it, then you should play that song.  It’s not rocket science.  It’s pretty simple to me.  If you’re in touch with what your fans like and what they listen to, and they ask for the song, you should play it.  That’s what they want to hear.  What works in Chattanooga may not work in Raleigh, North Carolina or in Des Moines, Iowa – it might be three different things.  But that’s okay.  That’s what makes music great – it’s subjective.  That’s what makes it awful good that people can like different things.

What are you doing to break that stereotype?

I’m just going to continue to be myself and be me.  Everything about me is breaking the stereotype.  You look at me coming to Nashville: they’re like, you got this guy here from Georgia that’s too old and not good looking enough – everything about me is different.  But the bottom line is it’s still about the music and the fans relate to it.  As long as I getting seen and heard, I’m breaking down those stereotypes.  Luke Bryan is a good buddy of mine.  Jason Aldean is a good buddy of mine.  I know I don’t look like them.  I’m awful good looking for 300 pounds. (laughs) I know I don’t look like those boys, but the bottom line is I hear Nashville say all the time, “Well, that 24-44-year-old woman, we’re not sure…”.  Well you should come to my show and see the 24-40-year-old boobs I sign every night because they’re there.  I assure you.   A lot of people have lost touch – they don’t know what the heck is going on.  They don’t come out and see what’s going on at the shows.  That’s what it’s all about.  For me, I’ve got little kids that are five years old, having a record that a six or eight-year-old likes and their momma and daddy likes, and their grandparents like, that’s really cool.  That very seldom happens.  I feel lucky to have that.

 - Dave Weinthal

Joe Bonamassa is a guitar phenom who has in a short time rewritten the way we look at the blues.  A student of the British blues, he used that influence as well as an appreciation of Stevie Ray Vaughn and B.B. King to rewrite the way we look at blues guitar today.  We recently caught up with Joe while out on the road and get his perspective on the blues and his newest album The Ballad of John Henry.

When writing, how do you choose whether it’s for acoustic or electric guitar?

I generally have the guitars available when I’m writing.  So if I’m writing an electric song, chances are I’m playing on an electric.  Very rare do I write something on electric that translates acoustic or vice versa.  I write on the song that I try to use to record it.  Everything happens pretty organically, pretty fast.  I have a tone in my head, a\i have a guitar in my head and I have what I want to achieve with this song.  Then I start writing around that.  Chances are if it’s a good idea – if it’s a good idea it will stick with me.  Chances are if you have a good idea you’ll have a finished song.

You’ve a very vocal fan of the British blues.  What is the difference between the British and American blues?

Historically, I’m taking my opinion off the table.  The difference is the British blues is trying to do was copy the sounds that they were hearing from the American artists, but they didn’t have the equipment to do it.  My opinion of the British blues is, it’s a little bit more rock – it’s a lot more rock, actually.  It’s heavier, it’s more dangerous, and it’s louder.  When I was a kid – eight-years-old, it was much more appealing to me than the American style of blues.  I listened to John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers with Peter Green and Eric Clapton, Jeremy Taylor and I listened to Free.  That was the kind of music I grew up on.  I just love it.  Now it’s pretty much forgotten.  It’s a forgotten form of music.  So I started this one-man crusade about ten years ago.  I want to start the British-style again.  It wasn’t like this evil plot to take over the world, but it was definitely a labor of love for me. 

You took to the blues at a very young age.  What about the blues appealed to you at such a young age?

It’s just the kind of music I liked and the kind of music I played.  My dad was a big music guy.  He never influenced my musical path at all.  He gave me a choice.  It was very interesting because we would have record day.  One Saturday would be Yes songs, another would be Simon & Garfunkel, the following would be Free or Jeff Beck Group, the following would be Roy Buchanan or James Taylor or something like that or Jethro Tull Thick As A Brick. Over the course of the year I was listening to all kinds of music.  If you listen, our all over the place style is from what I listened to as a kid, being my dad had a great record collection and was willing to share it with his son.

On The Ballad of John Henry you worked with Kevin Shirley for a fourth straight time.  One of his credits includes working with Led Zeppelin – one of the bands that brought the British blues style into the mainstream.  Did that have influence on you initially wanting to work with him?

I knew Kevin before I knew his track record, so to speak.  I liked Kevin because his initial response to me was if you want to do something different with the blues, I might be your guy.  You can keep making blues records everyone else is doing, but I can help you try to do something different.  Those words – do something different with the blues – or just saying different, really appeals to me.  To me, that’s what the genre lacks.  If I do something that’s a risk it maybe something shunned or championed, but there’s no middle ground.  I’ve succeeded so far and I’m still making a living, but I’m not willing to put all my money on black on the roulette wheel and maybe it comes up green, maybe it comes up red, but whenever you hit black you’ve doubled out.

Do you feel that fans of the blues are less open to improvisation than other genres of music?

No.  There are purists in jazz.  There are purists in rock.  There are those that think rock is Chuck Berry and Little Richard.  There are certainly purists in blues, which I think sometimes hurt the genre more than help it.  It ultimately boils down to, the way I look at it: I’m in the entertainment business.  I’m not in the blues business or the guitar business.  My job is to entertain folks from point A to point B.  I have a two-hour gig that I do, and my job is to take people up, take them down and by the end go by the end of two hours, “That was a really great show and I’m glad I went”.  That’s it.  The picture’s already drawn.  What color do you want the sky?  Do you want it blue or light blue?  (laughs)  Or grey?  That’s kind of the way I look at it.  But generally when it comes to categorizing things I just kind of shy away from it.  How do you categorize Clapton?  He’s has made bona fide pop hits and he’s done many blues albums.  He’s his own genre.  Or B.B. King.

On The Ballad of John Henry you included horns for the first time on your recordings.  How did that come about?

I always wanted to do horns going back to You and Me.  I always wanted that Otis Rush kind of horn section and it just boiled out that I couldn’t afford them.  Horns are expensive.  That was the product of our success – having the horns.  We’ve had three or four really strong records come out sales-wise over the last four or five years.  It has allowed us to do things – like use horns and bring in the same horn section to England to do the Albert Hall gigs.  I always loved the sound of brass and I think Lee does a beautiful job mixing it modern but keeping it really traditional and making it warm without it being intrusive and people going, “Oh, it’s not a guitar record, now it’s an Earth Wind & Fire record”. 

During the course of your career your name has been mentioned alongside the like of Clapton, B.B. King, Jimmy Page and even early Rod Stewart.  How are some people that may have influenced you musically that people may not be familiar with?

Paul Kossoff, who played guitar in Free, Jeff Beck, Rory Gallagher, Danny Gatton, and Eric Johnson.

All guitarists own about a million guitars it seems yet they always have one that’s their favorite.  How did your main guitar beat out all your other guitars?

My main guitar means something to me.  I’m not buttering my own bread here, but it’s the very first Joe Bonamassa Les Paul off the line.  The serial number is 001.  And I love that guitar.  It means a lot to me because Gibson believed in me enough call and make me a signature guitar.  And it’s Les’ guitar, but that guitar means a lot to me because I could have been four-years-old when that box showed up at my house.  And every kid when they start playing dreams of a Gibson with their name on it.  And here it is; sanctioned by the factory and there it is in the box.  Out of the hundreds of guitars I have that’s my favorite one.

You describe the songs on The Ballad of John Henry as being the most personal ones that you’ve written.  Isn’t that what the blues is all about?

It is, honestly.  And more so in a sense that personal stuff tends to creep into my music, but it’s always kind of hustled away very quickly.  The names and places are changed to protect the innocent.  This is the first time I said, “Oh, whatever.  It is what it is.”  It’s hard to sing the songs sometimes when it’s completely biographical.  It was a really tough time.  What else are you gonna do? 

Blues is a well-respected genre.  That being said, it seems to be an overlooked genre compared to others.  Do you think that is because of the older demographic that is generally affiliated with it?

Any demographic these days is a good demographic.  People who buy tickets at shows is my type of demographic.  The reason why we do all ages gigs and we do them in theatres is because we want kids to come.  God forbid a girl shows up every once in a great while.  I want this kind of music to – it’s like an open door: Come one, come all.  You know what I mean?  It’s for everybody.  We really pride ourselves.  We run a family show.  It’s not Donny & Marie, but I’m not up there swearing.  We had a show where on the front row a father brought his two kids and 74-year-old mother.  And it was great.  Grandma, she was fantastic.  She was rocking out harder than anybody.  It was awesome.  And you see the same response from her as you did from the 12 and 13-year-old kids.  And that’s when you know you’ve kind of struck a nerve with it.

I have read where the demographics of people coming to your shows are getting younger and younger.  What do you think you’ve done to attract the younger audience?

Make records – not blues records.  We make records.  They have blues on them. But they’re not blues records to the true definition of a blues record.  I think also we draw from the younger kids because younger kids are into guitars.  They’re into shredding.  What gets me in trouble in the pears community endears me to the kids because they like to see a little flash.  As long as I’m vertical enough to do it, I’m happy to oblige them.

 - Dave Weinthal

When it comes to seeing a band perform who do most people think of?  Usually it’s the lead singer or lead guitarist and on rare occasions the bass player. 

What about the drummer?  Many people are hard pressed except real music snobs to name the drummer of the band.  The singers and guitarists?  Their names roll off the tips of our tongues at will, often without thinking about it.  The drummer is a different issue.  Sure, people remember Phil Collins and Don Henley, but they made their names signing for their bands more than drumming.  Jon Bonham of Led Zeppelin?  He’s more famous for his death.  Then there’s Mick Fleetwood.  Well, when your band’s name is Fleetwood Mac that might help out your cause.

The drummer tends to be the overlooked and overworked member of the band.  You always hear of bands complaining about the lack of drummers out there and you find drummers that are playing with multiple bands at the same time.

With all the glory going to the singer and guitar player, why would anyone want to play drums?  “Well, I tried playing guitar at the beginning,” says Rasheen Isaac.   “I just didn’t have the right feeling for it.”

Isaac is one of the drummers mentioned above as he plays drums full time with two Chattanooga bands.  “I ended up playing drums,” he continues.  “It just felt natural to me.”

The drum is a percussion instrument.  A percussion instrument is one in which sound is produced by being hit.  The drum or percussion instruments as a whole are considered by historians and anthropologists alike to be the first musical devices created.  While the human voice would predate that, the use of hands, feet, sticks and rocks were the next step in the evolution of music.

The percussion instrument has evolved greatly from its origins of rocks and sticks.  As man evolved and skill and technology grew the more complex and crafted the instruments became.

Despite being the oldest instrument the drummer seems to get overlooked.  That’s the impression Isaac gets.  Even though the drummer is the backbone of the rhythm section he tends to e left out Isaac says, even in the writing of a song.  “They basically go, ‘Hey guy, play this’ or ‘play this type of style and follow me’,” he says.

Isaac has been drumming since his youth and has played in a variety of bands over the past 17 years.  He has been the drummer for a number of bands in Chattanooga who have all had a wide varying success and failures in the music scene.  He’s been part of the rhythm sections for bands such as Necropolis, Project 40, Spit, Backseat Bingo and Rabidears just to name a very few.

The drummer is a very important part of the band.  “What we can do is change the dynamic of a song,” says Isaac.  The drummer is able to change not only the dynamic of the song but its pattern and tempo as well. 

Despite usually being setup behind the frontline of the stage (except in cases like Cowboy Mouth for example), the drummer is the actual leader of the band.  It is much easier to disguise of hide sloppy guitar play compared to sloppy drumming.  “If a drummer doesn’t use a click or is not on time it’s going to make everybody sound off even if the guitar player is one of the best guitar players in the world,” says Isaac.  “If the rhythm section is off, it’s going to make the whole entire band off.”

Depending on the style of music played a band can get away with sloppy guitar playing especially if they’re playing rock, dirty blues and metal just because of the distortion tone.  “You can pick out the worst part of a band and it pretty much starts from the drums,” says Isaac.

Where sloppy guitar work can be disguised, it’s relatively easy to pick out a sloppy drummer.  “For me it’s the hits, your fill-ins, the timing of your fill-ins, how you come from one roll to another,” says Isaac.  “If he’s lagging, then you can tell because it’s not going to give the whole dynamics of a song or what the whole members want to put out in it.”

The role of a drummer varies a great deal from one genre to the next.  1950’s era drummers played what was considered a rudimentary timekeeping role and the drums were low in the overall mix of the song.  Progressive (Prog) rock, metal and jazz fusion drummers often perform complex challenging parts and the drums may have a more prominent role in the song’s mix.

Growing up Isaac came from a home with a lot of music.  “My father gave me different types of music to listen to,” he says.  “I always had different types of music.”  When he listens to a song he’ll pretend he’s not the drummer and figures out what he feels the song needs filled. 

Personally, Isaac considers himself more of a metal drummer.  “I love metal,” he says emphatically.  “I love the style of metal but I’ve been able to expand out just because of the rudiments and practice and exercise I’ve been doing for the past year-and-a-half.”

As he’s gotten older Isaac finds a greater need to stay in shape.  “When I was younger I could pretty much do anything,” he says.  The veteran drummer says he’s at the age where he has to work out three days a week, be it running, lifting weights or other forms of aerobic exercise.  The constant banging on drums, while it may look like fun, is quite physically challenging.  A lot of drummers develop arthritis, bad back and bad knees.

Playing drums in Chattanooga has been a labor of love for Isaac – keyword being labor.  “It’s tough,” he says.  The drummer says he and the other drummers in town are a brotherhood.  “I know pretty much every drummer in town and we’ve all worked together.  We all talk together.”  Usually the drummers are in agreement on things in the music scene.  He says the drummers tend to run into guitar players and bass players that don’t feel like practicing at times and for the most part have gotten lazy. 

“To me, I think the guitar players and the bass player get lazy and they expect the drummers to work their ass off,” says Isaac.  “We can’t polish a lot of stuff, to be honest.  It’s hard work and it’s demanding work just to clean up anything.”  The best thing he says is to have musicians that are on the same level of commitment as the drummer.

It is often heard in many music circles that drummers are hard to find.  Bands seem to always be looking for a drummer.  The drummers that are out there tend to be playing with multiple bands at the same time.  Isaac is one such drummer.  “For me, I got to a point where I was with one band for a long period of time.  You got members in and out, in and out and your drums become stagnant,” he says.  “You don’t practice.  You don’t even want to practice.”

The constant volatile nature of the band and who was in and who was out made it to wear guys like Isaac did not want to work.  Guitarists and bass players play in side projects all the time.  Most of the drummers that were his influence did the same.  “I listen to so much music it seems natural to go from one band to another band without anything hard about it,” he says.  “I want to go further with my drumming and not just play one type of music all the time.”

As he’s matured as a drummer Isaac give props to his drumming fraternity.  “Roland from River City Hustler and Jonathan from Milquelizard, they improve the sound,” he says.  “It’s not as metal as it used to be.  They bring a lot of rock, they bring a lot of jazz, they bring a lot of funk influence into their music instead of just playing just hard rock/metal or anything like that.”

“Now, everybody is getting older, so we’re opening our minds to different styles of playing.”

 - Dave Weinthal

It was 20 year ago today that this local band came together to play.  Though different styles of music come in and out of style.  These lads have always managed to get folks to smile.  So may I reintroduce to you, a band that is really cool… it’s Chattanooga own, The Pool.

That’s right, folks…The Pool have been out and about playing for 20 years now. 

It all began in 1989 when Jay Norris placed an ad in the newspaper looking for like-minded souls who loved the Beatles.  Little did he know not only would he get together with some great musicians, but the band would be around longer than most of the bands they were paying tribute.

Michael Welch was the first to call.  Originally wanting to start a Beatles cover band Welch talked Norris into including all bands from the British Invasion into their repertoire.  They were soon joined by David Cornwell.  Well-versed in the Beatles, Norris was impressed when the trio started to sing “Please, Please Me” when Cornwell turned to him and asked, “Did you want to sing Paul’s part or John’s?”  Welch got Nick Honercamp and Dave Olsen whom he knew from another band to join to finish out the lineup.

Norris’ appreciation came from his older brothers, who had all the albums and of course television.  “I remember seeing the cartoon and all that,” he says.  “My brother was in college and we saw Elvis in concert,” he recalls.  “He sang ‘Something In the Way She Moves’.  I said I like that.”

From that Norris began taking piano lessons.  His first songbook was a simple Beatles songbook.  “I played it, I played it and played it,” he reminisces.

The Pool found early success.  The band’s first gig was playing the Kidney Foundation’s River Roast.  They were the first act to play that day which featured headliner Foghat.  Each year they were invited back until finally they were slotted before the event’s headliner.

The Pool found plenty of work playing a British-style pub called appropriately enough the London Connection.  The London Connection featured an authentic British double-decker bus on the property as well as an old English phone booth.  “We played there quite often,” Norris says.  “We filled up that place up and graduated on up to the Brass Register and other places at that time.  It was really a lot of fun in the late ‘80s.”

What started out as a tribute to the Beatles has actually lasted twice as long as the Beatles.  Norris credits the fact the guys in the band work well together as well as loving the music that they play.  “Everybody does their homework,” he says.

Despite playing songs that are over 40 years old The Pool managed to keep the material fresh.  “It’s constantly reworked,” says Norris.  The band’s song list is so extensive that on any given night they may play a song they hadn’t performed live in years.  “We’re really not a niche band,” he continues. “We do this British Invasion.  We continued on to British bands in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s,” he adds.  “Sometimes something will crop up from the ‘90s and even 2000 - we’ll give it a whirl.”

Norris says the goal of The Pool is to entertain people.  “People come see us and have a good time to hear songs they normally don’t hear in a bar band,” he says.

For some reason bands from the ‘60s hold a special place in may people’s hearts.  Bands like the Rolling Stones and Beatles are cited as a major influence on today’s artists as well as the people’s listening tastes.  “The huge popularity in the ‘60s was overwhelming and times were changing,” says Norris.  “My personal belief is good music is good music.  A good song is a good song.  Those are guys that know how to write songs and arrange songs and record songs.”

The Pool continues on 20 years since their inception.  The members have played collectively and with other projects over the two decades since they started, playing not only British Invasion-style music but southern rock and original compositions as well.

Twenty years and going strong.  So what does the future hold for The Pool?  “We just going to continue playing Pool music as long as there’s people out there to listen to it,” says Norris.

 - Dave Weinthal

Cutting Crew topped the charts in 1986 with I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight”.  They spent the secondhalf of the ‘80s on the Billboard charts.  Fast forward to 2009 and the band is still going strong.  Nick Van Eede leads a new crew through the new millennium as the band recently released a new album.  Listening to it there is no mistaking the voice and the man behind the music.  Nick recently took a break to chat with me about the ‘80s and music.

How have you enjoyed touring this summer with some of you contemporaries like Wang Chung and ABC?

The band is so strong.  You get all the hits.  I really enjoyed it.  Wang Chung are really strong.  We’re having a really good time

It’s kind of like a high school reunion in a lot of ways.

I’ve heard a lot of this stuff over in Europe.  I worked with Paul Young and Nik Kershaw.  I remember a funny story not long ago when we were in Germany.  We were all sitting around watching Manchester United play soccer.  It was Howard Jones and me, Carol from T’Pau and Bananarama all sitting there.  This fan walked in and said, “Oh my god it’s like sitting in the middle of “Smash Hits” magazine. (laughs)   It works, it really does work.  I guess the risk factor is high.  We’re all having a very good time.

This is something people have been looking for a long time to see. A lot of youth from the 80s were poor college kids and couldn’t afford a concert ticket if you even toured close to their town.

Well yeah, I guess so.  I just think the package thing - we’ve come full circle, haven’t we?  Before our time there were these packages where there were the Tremeloes, the Hollies, and everybody would play five or six songs.  We’ve come full circle, really, because some of the bigger tours – Lollapalooza tour is all the same thing, isn’t it?  I guess that really is a reflection of value for money and making it work.  Wang Chung uses two of Cutting Crew and we share the drum kit.  It’s just going out there and getting a good show on the road, like the old ‘60s packages.

One thing I’ve noticed about the music from the ‘80s is that it has aged well compared to many songs from the ‘50s through ‘70s.  The ‘80s never really went away.  As early as ’91 places were already having ‘80s revivals.  It was like the decade nobody got tired of associating with.

They don’t.  And I think, and I’m speaking purely from Cutting Crew’s point of view – and I’m not suggesting that we are better than the next, but we were luckier because we were kind of more guitar-based.  When you have the Human League, ABC really, you have a lot of that synthy brass south.  It has that big ‘80’s stamp on it.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  But we were doing it through guitars more than anything.  Our longevity is really tested.  It’s great.  We just played forever all over the world.  And I don’t think it was any clever planning back in 1986, but guitar aged better – if you know what I mean.  And you’ll see it when you come see us.  We’re the rock band on the show.  I’m really proud of that.  It’s a brand new band, a lot of energy. It’s not a pop group any more (laughs) 

The new band just came out with a new album and I read where the band now has a more aggressive rock sound compared to a pop rock group, as you were characterized in the past.

I never really sat down to do anything on purpose.  It just came out the way it did.  I guess this is the first time in my life when I didn’t have – excuse my French – a fuckin’ A&R man over me telling me it should sound like this or that.  You do your first ten songs, and then we have the hit, I remember so having to spit feathers, as we say in England when they say: “Yeah, that’s good.  I like the first ten.  Now go and write another ten.”  My god, this is the ten.  Trust me, I you the last album, now trust me on these ten.  To cut a long story short I wrote it, I produced it and I’m very proud of it.  I never, ever wanted to make a record that sounds like a 48-year-old making a comeback record.  It’s really alive.  You’ll either love it or hate it, but it’s very honest.

A lot of guys from your generation are still putting out new music and it comes off fresh, not like you’re trying to relive the past or take a stroll down memory lane.

Yes, absolutely, but I’ll tell you – if I sat down and wrote another song that sounded in the vein and with the tingle factor of “I Just Died In Your Arms” I wouldn’t duck it. (laughs) it’s not a conscious thing.  It’s been 25 years and all those influences and all the music since then.  When I go in the studio now – Oasis didn’t exist back then did they?  Not that ii like Oasis, actually, (laughs)  You take on board all these influences.  When I recorded the record I did it in Kevin’s (MacMichael) hometown out of coincidence more than anything, really.  I had a bunch of 24-year-old Canadian lads.  I didn’t make any older man’s version of the song.  I just stood in the middle of the studio and said, “Look, it sounds like this.”  So I got pure off the floor younger guy playing ideas.  That really worked for me.

You have a very interesting musical history.  As a solo artist you opened for Slade.  What was that experience like?

(laughs) You’re aware of Slade, yeah? 

Yes.

Well, I was 18.  I was playing a little tiny pub when their manager walked into the hospital pub where I used to be an orderly.  I would play Thursday nights in the pub.  He came in, tossed his business card on the amplifier.  And I think that was on a Thursday night.  I’m pretty sure within ten days I was in Poland supporting Slade in 20,000 seat stadiums.  It was pretty amazing.  They didn’t take any prisoners.  They had their road crew.  They still had electric shocks in the microphone.  I used to have one leg of my stool as I used to sit back in the day sawed off so it would flip on the floor and I’m fall head over heels on my ass. (laughs)  It was the initiation.  Then of course if you don’t have a tantrum or cry and tell the manager you’re in.  I was in and I toured with them three or four times.  It was all surreal being on stage with an acoustic guitar. Then Slade would come on as they were.  Deep Purple and Slade were the two loudest bands at that time in the world. (laughs)  You learned without getting too prophesorial about it, you learn your trade. You’re on stage in front of a thousand – two thousand – back in England really angry Slade fans.  They don’t give a shit about me.  And you learn something – survival.  You learn survival and you learn how to front it up.  Hopefully I’ve kept that still today. 

What was feeling like when you had the number one song in the world at one point?

The writing of the song is pretty well documented.  It’s not a very interesting story.  I did sleep with Andrea – I never married her but she is the mother of Laura, my daughter. I did say those words and I did write it down on a bit of paper.  I thought perhaps it was a pretty good title. (laughs)  It was one of those songs that wrote itself.  That side of the story’s not very exciting.  I just wrote it.  I wrote the lyrics.  I wrote the keyboard part – everything but Kevin’s guitar solo.  It was done in a couple of hours.  You knew you had something special.  I can tell you something very exciting I do remember. I had been in the business 10-15 years by then, really.  When you’ve got something you know or you think is special, you’re recording it in the studio and you’re mixing it, and you get the engineers from the next door studio come in and start listening, you know there’s something about that song. Without any kind of cockiness or arrogance I was really convinced that if we could just get it right and get it out and right to the last moment put a really good photograph on the front of it, it would work.  And by god it worked.  But as far as your initial question of how did it feel like, I don’t remember.  We were probably in Japan I think at the time.  Somebody phoned me up and told me it caught number one in America and then you have another interview to do. And I swear without being blasé, it was madness.  There was chaos and you went on to the next thing.  About two years later I think it all finally sunk in.  I remember being proud of it.  That song – she’s my pension, she’s my passport and I have no awkwardness at all about getting on stage and singing it.  She’s a very good friend. (laughs)

I was reading the other day that the song was on just about every ‘80s band play list that play out in the club circuit. What do you think when you hear something like that?

That’s great. Those are the best stories.  You can get all high flautent about a Grammy Awards and number ones, but it’s that that’s great.  Of course in the modern world we have YouTube and I just love it.  I don’t do it myself, but my daughter will say, “Hey dad, check this out!  Check this out!”  It will be some band in Seattle or a couple of Turkish guys sitting there in the bed strumming acoustic guitars.  That means the world to me.  That sometimes is funny.  Sometimes it is pretty cool.  Sometimes it’s awful, but the fact that here are people even today that are out there keeping that song alive.  That is a really, rally special feeling.  It’s a cool feeling, you know?  I’m never going to sit here and go “We weren’t a one-hit wonder!  We did ‘I’ve Been In Love Before’”.  Of course we did, but that song is the biggest that ever happened in this band.  So I’m very comfortable with talking about Cutting Crew being “I Just Died In Your Arms”.

The record industry has been in major turmoil for at least the last ten years, starting with file sharing.  What is your take on what has been going on in the music business the last ten years with all the social networking and YouTube, for example that has opened you up to a new audience that might otherwise not discovered you?

I wonder what it would have been like with that back in the ‘80s.  Who knows?  I think it’s a double-edged sword.  One is that anybody can get their stuff out now, which is fantastic.  So it you’re a young band from Atlanta they can still do something to get it out there and get noticed.  They may not get a hit record, but they might.  The other dark side of it is there are four million of the buggers. (laughs)  The competition is intense.  But personally, me – I love it.  I have never liked record companies.  I’ll go on record as that.  They’ve ripped me off.  They’ve ripped you off.  They’ve ripped the public off for 30 years and I have no sympathy at all.  I think they were slow in reacting to it.  I think they’re still being slow.  They’re still trying to look after their own job and shareholders.  Meanwhile the world is galloping forward.  File sharing and the whole Napster stuff, I just laughed.  And I’m a songwriter, but in the scheme of things it was just great to watch it happen.  I really mean that. 

Do you feel you have more creative freedom now than you did when you were under the wing of a major label in the ‘80s?

Kind of.  Of course there’s more freedom.  I hear stories from guys that got record deals and how that all still happens. Nobody minds good advice.  It’s those guys back then that: “Yeah we don’t think these five songs are really strong enough.  Or they say: Okay, now write another ten” - which I found just preposterous.  Just give me advice and I’ll take advice. I’m still an angry young man, really.  I still care a lot about the music business and I do a lot of work with young bands – advise them, listen to their CD, producing them.  I hope that anger doesn’t go.  I could be.. there are parts on this tour when you want to kick a few microphones over.  I want it to be fair.  I think fairness is the word that is not a common thing to have in the world, let alone the music business.  But it has gotten fairer.  That’s what I think.  Quote me on that.

You took a brief hiatus from performing and did a lot of work as a producer and whatnot.  Did not being behind the mike kind of clear your perspective of what you really wanted to do musically?

A little bit.  At the time I thought I was doing what I really wanted to do.  And I was pretty good at it.  No hits, but I could send you seven CDs I know you’d really enjoy.  I managed for a while, which I never want to do again. (laughs)  What I did learn from it was what I was actually supposed to be doing on this planet.  That is writing songs for myself and standing on stage and singing them.  Sounds like a clichéd, but that what I do and still think I do well.  You don’t realize until you stop doing it.  Then when I finally got back in the studio again doing my own stuff that’s when I realized this is what I should be doing.

What are your plans with Cutting Crew now?

We’re busy.  You’re aware of the Regeneration Tour.  I’ve been doing some similar stuff with Bobby (Kimball) from Toto, and Roger )Hodgson) from Supertramp and Chris Thompson from Manfred Man.  I’ve got those gigs coming up with them in the fall.  I’ve got a home in Barbados still.  I’m going back down there immediately after this tour for a month or two to do the sketches for the new album.  The writing and the main recording of it will be done by Christmas and finish it in February or March and there will be a brand new album next year. 

How has your writing style changed over the years now that you’re pretty much your own man?  Do you feel more at ease?

I do, yeah. It’s the old thing you don’t have anybody telling you what to do, you’ve got such a broad pallet you can disappear up your own butt like write a reggae piece next to a tactical piece.  There’s nothing wrong with that, but you have to have a little idea or shape for what you’re doing.  But I think this new album that I’m doing – I avidly read up on what people are doing in the music business.  I really think with this new album I’m going to try something quite different.  There’s going to be songs on there, but I think there’s going to be a bit of spoken word in it as well.  Sometimes I have lyrics and I don’t want to set them to music, why don’t I just say them?  Or why don’t you, Dave come and say them.  Why does it have to be a song?  I felt something the other day. Apparently R.E.M. has been doing it for years. (laughs) But for me it’s going to be different. It might just be a piece where I’ve written where I’ll recite something over top of a piece of background music.  I don’t think it’s going to be ten four-and-a-half minute songs.  Watch this space.

- Dave Weinthal

For so many years now Up With the Joneses have been an electrifying live, entertaining band.  Their live performances are infamous for their high-energy show and powerful instrumentation.  The band has literally grown up before our eyes.  The band has had to hurdle a number of obstacles over the past half decade including bodily injury and death.  But though it all the band has come back stronger with TJ Greever on vocals and guitar, Matt Bohannon on guitar and vocals, Dan Pinson on bass and Adam Brown on drums.  The always warp speed driven TJ took a minute out of his schedule to talk.

You guys have a new album out.  Tell me about it.

This is our first studio album since 2001.  We’re really excited about it.  I think it showcases our diversity, and for the first time I think since the band’s inception we have an album that showcases our range of rock music.  We’re really happy with it. 

You guys have released a number of live recordings.  What took so long to get back into the studio?

In 2004 I was in a bad car wreck.  We were out of commission for about six months.  Then we got rolling again and actually started working on another studio record.  Then the tragic untimely death of our bass player (Joseph Grubb) in August of ’06, kind of shook us up for a while.  We didn’t even play regularly until the end of ’07.  We played here and there with our original bass player at the Between the Bridges Fest. It was setback after setback that kept us from getting a record out there.

With all the obstacles that you guys ran into was there ever a point when you guys thought about giving up and calling it a day?

Yeah definitely after Joseph passed away we had some time to think.  We weren’t really sure if anybody would step in and take over the position.  That’s where Dan Pinson, who was a long time friend of Adam’s.  They played in bands since high school.  He was familiar with the band and we knew him.  We brought him in on a couple of practices.  When she showed up he already knew 15 songs the first time we ever got together and practiced.  He kind of blew us all away how technically awesome he was and his heart for the music.  It really fit well.  The personality and the dynamic was there.  I think after that first practice with the band, me, Matt and Adam all kind of knew that we found the missing piece to get the band back together, and really felt good about it at that point.

How has the dynamic of the band changed the last couple of years?  With all the changes, have you guys changed your approach to rock and roll?

Being a band for 11 years we definitely matured as songwriters and as people.  We definitely have a more serious or more evolved approach to the songwriting.  Me and Matt have been writing together now for 14 years.  We’ve definitely grown individually as songwriters, and when we work together I think we’ve got our understanding of how the song is going to go.  Matt, years ago didn’t sing in the group.  Now on this new record he sings on three or four tracks.  It’s really opened up the songwriting for Matt as a vocalist as well.  We’ve definitely got a more evolved approach.  I think with everybody growing as musicians the songs have definitely evolved as well with our sound.  I think we definitely honed our strengths.

Since you’re not doing all the vocal work, did you feel a little less pressure on you?

That’s another dynamic that has opened up now.  We have three-part harmonies because Adam does harmonies as well.  Now that Matt, Adam and I all sing, we can play around with different harmonies.  When Matt’s singing lead, me and Adam are doing harmony stuff.  I like it because it adds another depth to it.  We can add some really nice harmonies to the songs.  It used to be when it first started out there were no harmonies and me singing. It’s definitely nice to have some different things to play with vocally.  It’s always fun to be able to lay back and just sing some harmonies every once in a while.  If you’re doing a long set, it definitely takes some stress off your voice.  I think it adds a really nice dynamic to the group having three vocals now.

One criticism I’ve heard over the years was that the music was hard to categorize.  No one knew exactly where it fit it. It made it hard to get any radio airplay and even pairing you up with other bands.  Has the band changed it direction towards music to address this issue?  Also, what has Dan brought to the band?

Yeah, that’s interesting.  We’re still all over the board where it comes to where we kinda fit.  On our MySpace it says “punk, rock and jam band”, which is kind of true.  We all have different influences.  Ween is as huge influence of ours.  We’re a kind of band that’s similar to them in the fact we can change our style up from song to song.  We don’t intentionally set out to do that.  It’s just a culmination of everybody’s influences.  On that, I think we’re still kind of difficult to classify.  People ask me what do guys do?   Southern classic rock-based with some newer influences on it – a little funk, a little punk rock, a little jam band stuff from the southern rock aspect of Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd – stuff we grew up listening to.  Dan is a very skilled musician with a degree from Belmont in jazz music theory and he will write some music.  He will play guitar, drums, banjo, bass, sings.  He’s just one of those guys that picks up anything and automatically plays it better than you and makes you want to kill him.  He’s definitely added a new energy to the live show.  He’s a musician and a showman.  Definitely  our live show at this point, in my opinion is stronger than its ever been.  And the songs are stronger than they’ve ever been.  I think as a band we’re hitting on all cylinders better than we ever had at this point. 

What can I expect out of the new album when I listen to it?

You can look forward to a nice mix of music.  We really set the album up.  The song order I think really flows very nicely.  There’s a little something there for everybody.  And that goes back to our – we’ve got some pop rock stuff on there, some heavier songs, some kind of punked out songs, there are some ballads that are sort of slower that kind of touch on more of our southern roots feel to the music.  I think you get a nice buffet of rock and roll.

You guys have been around for a while.  What keeps you guys motivated to stay together?

I think we’re all now to the point where more than ever we realize that this is what we want to do with our life.  This is what we want to do.  It’s not just something we do on the weekends any more.  It’s always fun to play music, but at this point we’ve all realized this is what we want to do professionally.  And I think that’s motivated us.  We’re all on the same page with that.  Nobody’s married, nobody has any kids - everybody’s in a position where they want to play music as much as they can.  I really think that keeps us going.  Most bands when they go through some hard times they just split up or give up.  I’ve heard from some really talented people that not giving up is the key.  We still feel like we’re writing great music and we have fun doing it, so I think not giving up is the key.  We really feel like persistence is going to pay off.  That’s where we are – full forward – marching ahead.

 - Dave Weinthal

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Cracker, the group that veritably introduced brash irreverence and irony into alt-rock, are back and in top form on their 429 Records debut, Sunrise In The Land Of Milk And Honey. This rich new trove of sharp-witted songs showcases a bristling, late 70’s – early 80’s power pop punk aesthetic which hits as hard as it did at the band’s formation 17 years ago. Eight albums (one platinum and three gold) and a barrel full of anthemic hit songs later, Cracker endures, using their ability to weave decades of influences into an album that is seamlessly riveting. In Sunrise…, long-time partners David Lowery and Johnny Hickman, 12-year Cracker drummer Frank Funaro and bassist Sal Maida (since 2006), train a watchful eye on the current socio-musical landscape as they weave an eerie yet strangely soothing story of escapism, apocalypse and renewal.  Frank was kind enough to take a few minutes out of his schedule to share a little bit of Cracker soul.

You guys have a new album out. (Sunrise In The Land of Milk and Honey)

Yes we do.

You should be especially proud of this one because you have songwriting credits on this one.

Yeah, actually on this one.  For the most part Johnny would walk in with a riff idea and then we would elaborate on it.  And then the four of us would just get in the room.  We did something we haven’t done for years, which is called preproduction.  We haven’t done that for years.  It was good to do it this time.    We did separate writing sessions over the course of a year.  We then went in a room and recorded together. We recorded everything.  We pulled the best bits.  We would go home and listen to the best bits and put them together.  It was collaborative.

This is the band’s first release on 429 Records.  How has the experience been so far with the label?

It’s been good.  They’re very enthusiastic about the record.  They’re pushing it to radio. Currently they’re pushing our AAA song.  I ask that they take it to rock radio after that. 

It’s nice to work with people that are enthusiastic to work with you.  I know the band had an interesting relationship with Virgin Records.

Yeah.  I hate to really disappoint you, but I didn’t rally have dealing with Virgin.  David and Johnny pretty much handled their difference with those guys.  I do know they wanted to put out this “Greatest Hits” of the band and they had already put out a “greatest hits” of the band.  So that’s when we put out our greatest hits and rerecorded a bunch of songs and put it out on the same day that they put out there’s. 

You’re the third longest tenured member of the band behind Johnny and David, which is pretty impressive since the band went through a number of drummers before you came on board in ’96.  How have you been able to fill the role that so many others could not?

Basically, I’m a band guy.  I was in my first band, The Del Lords for ten years, and then I was in The Dictators for seven years.  Basically what I like to do is find something I can get behind and stay the course.  A band gets better and better the more years it’s together.  I don’t care what anybody says.  The more years a unit is together, the better it gets.  Right now it’s been the best lineup that I’ve been involved with.  We’ve been through a bunch of bass players.  We’ve had a few people come and go.

The Del Lords is an extremely interesting band that are highly regarded by critics.  They’re kind of like a predecessor to Cracker in a way.  They mixed the garage sound with a little bit of country and rockabilly.

Yeah.  We like to say we were part of the great rockabilly scare of 1984. (laughs) But the Del Lords weren’t really a rockabilly band, but more of a rock and roll band, but in ’84 with Los Lobos and Fogerty reappeared, Springsteen came out with “Born In the USA”, Mellencamp came out with “Pink Houses”, the Stray Cats.  There was a lot of interesting rootsy kind of rock and roll.  Jason & the Scorchers, Green on Red – there was a lot of that going on at the time.  We were kind of part of the deal.  Everybody had the same idea at the time, to bring back traditional song forms.

Before your very eyes you have gotten to witness the crumbling of the power of the major record labels.  They don’t seem to wield as much power over artists as they used to.  The power to a great degree has reverted back to the artist through various sources such as the internet and file sharing, and stuff like that.

My opinion has been that it’s good to have a distributor.  It’s really good to be at people’s fingertips and available in stores even now though stores are kind of dwindling.  It’s kind of good to have.  That’s really the main help I see that the record industry has in my experience.  All the artistic decisions I’ve been a part of or watched my band leaders be a part of, they’re coming out of the band.  The band is really directing things.  Sometimes a label can get it wrong.  Sometimes the label can pick the wrong song.  But sometimes they get it right.  But we’ve generated an up-kick in our concert attendance partially because of excitement about the record, partially because of the blogosphere.   We’ve got a really good publicist.  He mainly concentrates on blogs and online magazines, e-zines and things like that – not taking the old traditional route, and Facebook.  David Lowery, he is actually a Facebook maniac.  He gets the news out there, invites people to the gigs.  I don’t know as much about Facebook as he does.  He targets specific regions.  Apparently you can break out your friends by region or something like that.  Whereas we all used to be in bands, we’d put posters up on telephone poles and abandoned buildings and things.  Postering has now moved online, so we’re doing all that.  Of course we sell the CD at shows.  That also is collaborative as well.  The record label is helping, but they’re also getting help from us.

The band has predominately been a touring band since its inception.  You guys are constantly on the road spreading the word. 

For the rest of the band, I’ll say that it’s one of the great things to do – is to get out in a van or bus and get on the road and meet people and play music nightly.  That’s what it’s all about.  Writing and playing records together is great, but as far as being a working man – putting food on the table, there’s nothing better.  I have no complaints about working.  It’s nice to have a day off now and then.  Occasionally in the past we’ve had 13 gigs in a row, and that gets kind of crazy.  On the upside of that the band gets amazingly good.

You guys toured Europe as well.  Compare the audiences in Europe to the States.

I think they’re pretty much the same when you confront them face-to-face when you’re there playing live.  But then after the show I think the Europeans are more detailed and they’re asking you specific questions about specific songs and a specific single you may have released.  It seems like the Europeans still take an interest in the collectability of certain records and they want to know things about your lyrics.  They want to know what you mean.  Like I say, when you get face-to-face with an audience, it’s an audience really. 

Do you foresee in future Cracker projects where you’ll be included in the writing or was this kind of an experiment?

It was just a natural progression of things.  It was just the next thing to do.  I certainly hope that we’ll do this again.  Each time you do something you can get better at it and master the form.  I think the form that we took, to have preproduction and hammering out and rehearsing songs before recording them is valid and it really produced a good solid record.  We had played a number of the songs we had on the record, we played them live in front of audiences before we ever stepped forward in the actual recording studio.  So they also had road muscle on them.  I hope that will be the course of the next record.  Who’s to say?

You’ve also done some drumming with Camper Van Beethoven.  Compare and contrast the two different styles between Cracker and Camper.  David was involved with both of them, but there’s a different dynamic between the two.

I feel a little more musically challenged by playing some of the Camper stuff – some odd time signatures and there’s some fancy drumming.  Chris Peterson recorded all the Camper stuff.  He was a great drummer and he’s kinda – I don’t want to say experimental.  He’s willing to go out on a limb and try things that you might not expect.  I have always been a more of a traditionalist.  I’m just trying to get the same three beats to sound as good as Ringo or Charlie Watts for years.  Chris Peterson, it’s almost as if he’s a prog drummer.  There’s parts that I execute that are on those records that are different from Cracker.  Cracker, mainly for me is like grooves.  And I’m just trying to groove as well as I possibly can.  With Camper I get to flesh a little bit of chops.

What have you taken from your earlier works with The Del Lords and The Dictators and instill in Cracker?

The Del Lords taught me not to overplay, and to play passionately.  The Dictators taught me to do all that, just a little harder and faster.  Both were very song-oriented bands and I’ve always kind of aimed myself in that direction.   I always felt that a drummer who could play songs, other than show off is going to be able to work.  People are going to want to play with a drummer like that.  Right from high school on forward in my life I just went to play grooves to the point where I actually feel I can stretch out a little bit more if I wanted to.  But every now and then I do something flashy just for fun.  I played a fill at a show at the end of “Ger Off This” and we went backstage, and the first thing David said to me was, “I like that Rush fill you did at the end of ‘Get Off This’”.  I immediately recoiled in horror and made a mental note to never do that fill again. (laughs)

You guys have an extensive catalog.  Is there a song or two you look forward to playing on a given night?

We never work with a set list. It’s a different show every night, which is good for the crowd and good for the band.   My favorites, they come and they go.  Some songs different members of the band will get sick of playing after a while and then they’ll be retired.  There’s such an extensive catalog, even Johnny has been so prolific about it over the years.  There’s a lot of stuff to pick from.  To get specific I really love to play “How Can I Live Without You”.  I love to play that song – for no particular reason.  Off the new album I love to play “Time Machine” and I also like to play “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out”, which is two different approaches.  So, I can’t necessarily give you a shopping list, but the fact of the matter is, there are so many different styles going on, it challenges me as a drummer, I’m never bored.  Every night there’s some new song that’s going to be pulled out.  I like to call it “Stump the Band”.  Every now and then a song the band hasn’t played in six months or a year or tow years, David will just turn around and shout it out. And you’re expected to know it.  It’s kind of the way Dylan operates his band.  I mean those guys have to know like 700 songs I think – a slight exaggeration. And be prepared to whip them out in a moment’s notice.  That’s kind of the way we operate.

That keeps you on your toes, for sure.

Absolutely.  It challenges us. It feels really good.  It’s by no means a rogue exercise to get on that stage each night – absolutely not.

 - Dave Weinthal

Les Claypool

The most original rock bassist to come along in the '90s was unquestionably Les Claypool. With his oddball sense of humor and funky playing, Claypool took his varied musical influences and created an invigorating and completely inventive style. Released on his long-running label Prawn Song, Of Fungi And Foe is the latest aesthetic adventure from Claypool, the singer/bassist who, for the past two decades, has infiltrated the consciousness of music fans in his alternating roles as alt-rock personality (fronting future-funk icons Primus), inspired bandleader (as CEO of such units as Colonel Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, the Holy Mackerel and Bucket Of Bernie Brains), capable sideman and A-team player. Given Claypool’s forward-in-all-directions mindset and storied career—which also includes non-musical pursuits as directing feature films (2008’s Electric Apricot) and writing books (2006’s South Of The Pumphouse)—you might think he’d be encumbered by an ennui-ridden malaise of epic been-there-done-that-sold-the-shirt-on-eBay proportions. Of course, you’d be dead wrong,

A lot of times when you mention an artist’s name you can put a timestamp on their music to what era or generation they are from.  With Les Claypool and all of your collaborations that seems impossible.  Your music and style seems not only difficult to characterize, but to label as well.  Do you see this as a blessing or curse?

So far it’s been a blessing.  I just keep on going.  People keep coming. (laughs)  Each crowd, the group doesn’t seem to be narrowing, it seems to be widening.  I don’t really think about it, to tell the truth. (laughs)

Being difficult to label, does that make coming up with new music to keep an established following a more difficult task?

I just do what pops into my head.  If anything, I don’t put a lot of thought into what I think folks are going to want to hear as I make the music that’s in my head and record it, and hopefully someone will enjoy it besides myself and my family.  My kids are getting to the age where they’re probably not paying as much attention to it as they used to. (laughs)  At least my daughter.

You play a lot of festivals.  Do you feel greater freedom as a musician playing a festival where generally the audience would seem to be more open to improvisation, compare to a more traditional theatre or a traditional club venue?I don’t think there are any limitations to either. 

I think people that are coming to a theatre to see are coming to see me and they’re probably hoping I’m going to dance on the edge of disaster a little bit and try to jump 23 buses this time as opposed to 21.  I don’t think there’s any more or less freedom from either one.  I think as a performer I go out and do my thing, and that’s what I do.

I read an interview where you stated Primus wasn’t supposed to be on MTV or radio, and that it was like an added bonus for you guys.  People get into music for various reasons.  What was the reason behind your music?

I’m sure my perspective was different 30 years ago than it is now.  I’m sure there are some parallels you can drop.  When you’re a young fellow and you’re drawn towards the music and the power of electric instrumentation and what not.  I’m sure it’s part of a mating ritual as most things are at that age.  Getting into music was a way for me to express myself.  I wasn’t a sports guy.  It was one of those things that I found an element that I excelled at.  When you find those things as you move through life you tend to wan to pursue them.

You managed to cross genres well from the original alternative crowd you had with Primus to the jam band crowd with the Frog Brigade.  How have you managed to bridge those two genres and bring everyone together, so to speak?

I’ve always been the guy that never really fit into any genre, yet fit into all genres.  From the very beginning when they were trying to explain what Primus was, or even when they asked me.  When I run into people at the hardware store they go, “Oh, you’re a musician.  What kind of music do you play?”  I have no idea what to tell them – never have.  I’ve seen Primus described as a progressive metal band.  I’ve seen them described as alternative.  I’ve seen them described as punk/funk.  When we opened for U2 we were listed as a grunge band, so I think terminology moves around more than the artists do for the most part.  And the Primus audience has always been diverse, even back in the day.  To me, the scene that we played for with Bonnaroo and whatnot isn’t that much different than what we were doing back in the Lollapalooza days.  It’s sort of a cross-pollination of music and people.  I don’t see a huge difference.

You’re known for your amazing ability on bass.  Was bass your first instrument of choice?

That is what I picked up.  That is what I was drawn towards.

You find a lot of musicians who are multi-instrumental.  Do you see that being the case so they can envision or feel where others are needed in a composition?

I think it’s different for different people.  I gravitate towards the bass because it’s the instrument I’m most comfortable with.  But the music that’s in my head would be similar not matter what instrument I was playing.  It just happens to be the crayon I pull out of the box.  For some people when they create or write or they’re composing, they like to use multi instruments.  I don’t know if it’s necessarily to see where it would fit within the mix, but just to paint the complete picture.  It’s very similar to painting a picture.  You use a little oil here, a little watercolor there, use a brush here, use an airbrush somewhere else, maybe pick up a sponge and do a little matting – or as other people will use an entire piece of charcoal.  I think the end result, which is trying to get that sound that’s in your head onto the aural canvas.  I think folks should do whatever they need to.

On your newest album you seem to downplay your bass a little bit, using a lot of percussion.  What was the reason behind that?

There’s actually some pretty difficult bass parts on this record.  I don’t consciously think about, hey I’m gonna write a song that has a really technical or elaborate bass part.  I just don’t.  I think I ever really have.  Maybe when I was younger.  It’s all about getting that sound that’s in your head into the space where people can see it, which nowadays is the hard drive.  It used to be tape.  A lot of this record – not all of it, but some of it based on some soundtrack work that I did for a horror film about a 3,000-pound wild boar that terrorized the pot fields of northern California and a sci-fi interactive game.  So the visuals were kind of dark and creepy, so the music is kind of dark and percussive, and moody.  The end result is a record I think is a little darker than the stuff I’ve done in the past, especially the recent past.  It’s more along the lines of a more Captain Beefheart meets old Peter Gabriel.

When you write music do you think mainly about recording or do you take into consideration the live performance aspect?

It depends on what it is.  When I’m recording I don’t necessarily think how I’m gonna pull it off live.  I just want to get the audio painting done to the point where I see it again.  And I worry about replicating it later, for the most part. 

I noticed you’ve been getting involved in some independent films over the lat couple of years.  Do you see yourself moving more in that direction?

I’ve always been a big film buff.  My heroes are guys like Frank Capra and Terry Gilliam, and whatnot.  I made some Super 8 videos back in the day.  I’ve always wanted to put visuals to all of my music.  Now visuals are easier to put together.  It’s a cheaper medium for moving pictures.  So I do see myself moving more into that world.  But I think music and visual should compliment each other.  So I don’t think it’s a departure as much as an incorporation.

 - Dave Weinthal

Doug E Fresh

New York-raised Doug E. Fresh, born Douglas Davis, got his initial notoriety for being the original human beat-box, inventing a method to imitate a drum machine using breath control through the teeth, lips, and gums. He had a string of hit singles with his then-partner Slick Rick in the early and mid-1980s, most notably on "The Show" and "La-Di-Da-Di" in 1985.  He remains an active force in hip-hop music, appearing as a guest artist on many records, to the present day.

You’re one of the pioneers I wold say of the hip-hop movement.  How do you feel the movement has progressed since the early days when you were getting involved in the early ‘80s?

I look at it this way.  The situation is like this: I mean people consider me a pioneer and I appreciate that, but there’s so many people that came before me.  I am the originator of the beat box, and I guess you could say I’m the pioneer of that.  But as far as being a pioneer of hip-hop I would never take that level of credit.  There were so many people before me like DJ Hollywood, Granfmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Treacherous 3, Spoon-G, Cold Crush Brothers, Love Doug Scott and Busy B, Curtis Blow.  Those are just a few names off the top of my head.  But those are like our true pioneers.  You’ve got those guys that were really out there doing what they had to do.  I was a kid on the side that was watching what was going on.  I felt in an accidental kind of way I came up with the beat box and that was my contribution to change hip-hop forever.  It added another dimension.  Hip-hop is broken up into five elements.  You have the emcee, you have the deejay, you have the dancer, you have the graffiti and you have the fifth element, which is the beat box.  In all of those there is a light in-between all of them.  I just respect hip-hop and appreciate what going on in it now because it’s just another form of expression right now.  Any artist that has contributed with their experience they got guided and taught and advised by the pioneers or by the people like myself. 

I misspoke.  By pioneer I meant to say you were one of the artists that brought hip-hop into the mainstream.  I’m familiar with the history of the art. It’s been around since the ‘70s.  A lot of people in the early ‘80s probably thought hip-hop or rap was more of a passing fad than an actual music genre.  It’s become the mainstream pretty much now.

Right.  I going to tell you, I’m happy to hear that you know about it and appreciate it because I grew up listening to it and appreciating it so much that it just made my contribution in the best way that I could and yeah, I think my songs have created a mainstream effect in a lot of ways.  We had a pop record and we didn’t try to go pop.  We didn’t water down who we were.  We were who we were having fun and enjoying life.  It just turned into a major record.  And all my records have done very well for me – some different than others, nevertheless appreciated.

You are the pioneer of the beat box.  How did that come about?

I did it by accident.  I was doing at a friend’s house.  He said try doing it on the mic.  It turned into an overwhelming response.  Then I started to practice to get better at it.  As I was walking down the street going to school or going home I would just limit the songs that I would hear on the radio or what was being played out in the street.  I would just continue to do the beat box, make up those sounds from what I would hear, but I got so good at it that it was hard to tell the difference between me and the actual records.  That’s basically how it started.  From that point it became something that everybody loved.  I did what I thought I needed to do.  When you’re the originator of something, there is nothing there for you to copy.  You’re doing something nobody thought you would do, and sometimes they think you’re crazy doing it.  They saw me doing what I was doing. I just creatively said I’m going to give it a shot.   I was practicing every day, working on my rhymes, working on my routines.  I made an incredible impact.  Beat box changed the world, man.  And it changed the way we embraced hip-hop.  It changed it all.  I’m just glad I was the person that was able to contribute that to the world of hip-hop because there is no beginning before me.  I am the beginning of that style.  I know that if it wasn’t for me, it might not be what it is.  You can’t really tell who was the first real emcee.  There’s a controversy over that – the first deejay or something like that.  But most people in the game know exactly what’s going on with beat box, so I always appreciate that acknowledgment.  It was all in fun and I’m just glad it is something that people around the world are doing now. A kid from France came up to me doing the beat box.  He was doing it in a way that’s incredible.  Other guys are lining up in Japan.  It’s amazing what’s happened with this.

Music seems to be a unifying element in the world.

Oh man, that’s the key.  It unifies the world because we all love music.  And when hip-hop music was created it was an original expression.  We were all just happy to share that expression and it became something so powerful that I was in Germany one day listening to an Italian rap group to over rap to “Rapper’s Delight”.  It was mind-blowing.  I was literally watching a German rap group do “Rapper’s Delight” in German.  That’s wild, man.  I’ve seen some interesting things on the road.  I’ve seen some interesting expressions – when I say interesting I mean in a good way.  Hip-hop has become the ultimate expression, and it’s really, really good when it’s used in the proper way.

It seems very open to innovation compared to traditional music styles like rock and roll.

Right, right, that’s right.  You can play any form of music in there.  Hip-hop is the only form of music where you may have country banjo or a jazz saxophone play with a rock and roll drummer and a deejay scratching a record.  Hip-hop broke the way we make records.

Is there a difference between hip-hop and rap?

Hip-hop is something that you live.  Rap is something that you do.  When you’re rapping, you’re rhyming - and stuff like that.  Hip-hop is a lifestyle – the clothes, the conversational slang, the nomenclature.  It’s a language within a system.  Slang words change from year-to-year – month-to-month sometimes.  It’s very different from rap.  Rap is just saying some rhymes.  Same with the emcee – the emcee is someone who is the master of ceremonies that gets up there and is capable of entertaining the people and performing in a different way. It’s not just him rapping.  There are different dimensions to all of these things. They’re not so close as people think.

You should be commended.  You grew up in the Harlem community and reside there still to this day, remaining true to your neighborhood. 

Thanks, I appreciate that.  I love Harlem.  Harlem is the place I grew up in.  My friends and family, I have people around me.  I have tour buses that come by my house.  I’ve got a restaurant over here that I’m opening up called Doug E’s Fresh Chicken and Waffles which some of it is the customs of what Harlem created, which is the chicken and waffles.  I added the fish and waffles to it, a little bit of Caribbean style food to the menu.  Harlem is my place.  I’ve got a club in Mount Vernon that I’m getting ready to open up.  It’s called Fresh.  I try to stay community-based – do a lot of stuff in the community.  I’m doing this thing called Hip-hop Strokes where we go into the schools and try to educate kids in the things that you can detect some of the symptoms of your mother, father, grandmother, aunt, uncle might be catching a stroke.  You can call 9-1-1 before that happens. If you catch it in time you can prevent them from catching that stroke because a stroke is the number one disabling disease in the world.  Isaac Hayes had a stroke, Nate Dogg had a stroke – a lot of different rappers and a lot of people are suffering from strokes.  We just thought it would be good to use the kids to educate the parents.  Because the parents do listen to the kids even though it doesn’t look like they do.

You’ve gotten to work with some interesting characters in your days such as Prince.  What was it like collaborating with Prince?

I really think Prince is a great doer.  He’s a great guy spiritually.  We’re definitely brothers on a spiritual level.  He’s a great person.  I learned a lot.  I tried to give him a lot and show him a world he’s not from.  He was open to listen and learn from it as well as I was open to listen and learn from him.  And it’s that sharing back and forth that was incredible to me.  I’ll never forget.  I’m friends with a lot of artists, like me and Stevie Wonder are really, really close.  We do the Espys.  I do the beat box sound.  It’s crazy the way it sounds.  I knew Michael Jackson for a brief moment.  We spent maybe five or six hours together.  He came to Harlem and we did something.  Reverend Al Sharpton, brought him in here one time the time Tommy Mottola was trying to do that thing against him.  I wound up spending a lot of time with him.  He’s a beautiful person.  Then me and him became pretty tight.  I just feel honored that I able to impact the world with the stuff that I do and become pretty good friends with all these guys in the game because all of us are creative guys trying to learn more, experience more, her more from the world.  It’s just nice, you know?  It’s nice to do what you love.

- Dave Weinthal

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How did the label initially come about?

The label actually came about by mistake.  I actually used to rap with a bunch of different people around town.  We started doing a couple of shows.  We did a show at the Armory with Trill Bill and Haystack.  And the people that I wrap with now, we’re called the Valley Boys now, they actually came to the show and wanted me to do a couple of songs with them.  I went over to the studio.  We had such a good vibe that we decided to keep doing music together.  That’s sort of how Valley Boy Entertainment got started.  Everyone had a good vibe and enjoyed everyone’s music.

How did you initially get interested in hip-hop?

Honestly, it was the music that I seemed to relate to a lot better when I was younger.  In middle school and stuff like that, it seemed like the same type of struggles, and seemed to relate, it fit me, and that’s what I got into.

What issues did you have to deal with being a white rapper?

In Chattanooga it’s really been hell for how split up it is.  Basically with the dam you’ve got one side that is made up of white people on one side and black people.  I really didn’t care either way.  I used to go up in the studio and sit up in the studio all day pretty much.  People would look at me like, what re you doing here?  The more urban area.  Of course I didn’t dress any different or I guess look like a white rapper.  Until I started rapped on some people’s stuff they just looked at me like I was crazy.  I used to go put up the posters for Dirty Laundry when I met a couple of other local deejays and helped them get their start.  So I started gaining a lot of respect just by simply doing a lot of the side work that no one wanted to do.  And that kind of looked crazy I guess, a country-looking white guy out in the urban areas.

Where do you get the inspiration for your music?

All my inspirations are pretty much my life and going through stress and things like that.  I normally use my music to get things off my chest.  Also things I rap about – it’s a more aggressive type rap – some anger and more emotional type stuff.  But we also do songs for the ladies and stuff like that too.  You really gain an inspiration from that.  You go to the clubs, the ladies dance, what you do your music off of, you try to paint a picture of all this stuff.

How old is the label?

The label actually started in 2006 – around December.  Ever since then we’ve pretty much, I think as a label we dropped five or six mix tapes.  My album will be the first official album that are being distributing. 

How do you determine whom you’re going to work with?

As a label people get brought to us by friends.  We just happen to have others who happen to be at our studio and our shows like that.  The label is made up of Valley Boys, which is me, the Instigator, DJ Muddy Water and Celo.  Those are the three actual Valley Boys that are the group.  There’s a guy Big Ups and he was introduced through a friend and started to rap stuff with us.  Then there’s this other guy named Sparkz.  He was actually brought to us by a distributor.  Then we have an R&B singer named St. Jude.  Black Folk Inc. is also under our label now.  They are just long time friends and people that we’ve worked with who gave us respect in the beginning despite our skin color. 

Have you found a growing acceptance for your genre?

Our acceptance has shot through the roof.  We basically have people call us every day wanting to do tracks.  We probably do a song with every artist in town pretty much.  People call us wanting to get on our shows when before we couldn’t get on other people’s shows.  We have an average of 4-500 people at our shows now whenever we throw a big event.  For a local act that’s pretty much unheard of – rock/rap/country – anything.  We’ve been blessed with a growing fan base.  We can drop a mix tape and people wil go out and buy it.  We don’t really have to clear it with people or do as much work.

You’re trying to sell some of this stuff to radio?

We actually have for my album, we have three different singles.  One that’s for the urban, one that’s more of a pop type song and then we actually did a song with a band, Downstream. And also Nappy Roots.  Fish Scale – he’s on it.  We’re going to actually push that to the rock station, which I don’t think anyone else in town has ever done.  We have two singles – one or the ladies called “UFO” and then we have another one “Holy Ghost”.  That’s going to be more for the urban crowd. 

How is marketing going for everything?  Do you find it a difficult genre to market? 

We have a real good market.  We have a market outside of just the urban crowd, which really helps us a lot because our music is a little bit different and geared more towards the 9 to 5 type person as opposed to selling drugs.  We also seem to appeal to them as well just because of our hustle and things like that.  We’ve been making music for ourselves pretty much and it seems like it’s been sticking.  People enjoy it, I guess.  Something that seems a little different and that they can relate to a whole lot more.

What makes Valley Boys stand out to folks that makes people want to work with them?

What makes us stand out is because we are white, but we’re not trying to be – we’re being ourselves and I think that fans out to people.  We have a really good sound.  Our music sounds like it was made in a million dollar studio when the reality is maybe spent $500 and we do it out of a closet.  The truth is we just do us.  We sound good when we do it.  We don’t care to experiment and so whatever we think sounds good whether it’s what’s hot on the radio or not.  It’s just the proven thing that we’ve done a our shows.  We’ve gone from having 20-80 people at our shows to where I get disappointed when I only see 300 people there. Other people are like, that’s a great crowd, but it could be bigger.  I think it should be bigger like 500.  Our appeal is we’re not selling to the local things.  We’re doing big things and we’re not out here letting someone else do it.

You’ve worked with some heavyweights on tour such as Nappy Roots and Flo-Rida.  Tell me your experiences working with those guys.

With Nappy Roots, I’m actually friends with Fish Scales.  He’s actually from a little town outside of Atlanta.  He went to school in Kentucky.  I met him basically talking through MySpace.  We became good friends.  He comes up to Chattanooga and we chill sometimes.  The Nappy Roots thing, basically is what actually led me into other people.  We have the Juvenile show coming up the 31st.  That’s brought on because of the relationships I built with the people who know Nappy Roots.  We did the Flo-Rida show.  The reason we did the Flo-Rida show was because we were so good promoting that the person who wanted to bring in Flo-Rida did not know how to promote.  They put us on the show so they wouldn’t have to do as much work.  We had more people come to watch us and leave and didn’t even watch Flo-Rida.  As far as that goes I just think that work with big names is just something that was meant to come and is going to continue to come.  Everyone that has come through – Crime Mob, Nappy Roots, Flo-Rida, they all talk to us and say, “Man you really put on a great show.”  They want us to come do more shows with them.  They want us to do songs with them and stuff like that.  That’s sort of where we stand at with it and we’ve taken advantage of those things.  You’ll see some of those people on our albums.  And once we get the albums in the stores we’re probably going to start expanding outside of Chattanooga and doing more shows around the region and actually taking more advantage of the offers to do shows with these people.

What’s the key to good marketing of a show?

Letting the people hear about it.  We take about 5,000 flyers and we go and hand them out ourselves.  Other people think that I just put my name on a flyer and let it flow.  No, we meet the people.  We talk to people, “Hey you need to come to our show.”  We put them in specific places.  Our MySpace/the internet has helped us get the word out.    Just word of mouth – we talk to people. 

You have a new album coming out called “The Inevitable”.  Is that just you or a mix tape?

That will be my first solo project.  Every mix tape that I’ve done in the past, we had done as a group, The Valley Boys.  This will actually be my first solo album.  It will be the first album I put together that just has original music that I’ve made.

How will this be different from your collaborative efforts with the Valley Boys?

The Valley Boys we make more club/crunk type music.  With my album, it will still have some of that stuff on it, but it will be more emotional.  It will have more of an East Coast feel with the southern accent and beat and stuff like that.  It will have some new stuff on it and it will have some old stuff.  I have a song called “Inevitable” , which was actually the first song I recorded  as a solo.  It seems to be what everyone refers back to.  It will be on there.  And I’ll have stuff like that.

Was it difficult being the only one there responsible for the material compared to the group effort?

Mainly because whenever we do a group project I’m the one who gets most of the things together.  As far as putting it together, that’s the easy part to me – getting the beats, writing the lyrics and stuff like that.  I take time out of every day to write.  It came together easy for me.  It’s more of what I love to do. 

What’s the difference between east and west coast influence?

West Coast influence is more of that gangsta rap.  They have a different pattern of rap.  They may hit different marks in the beat.  They arrive to a different length as fr as their flow goes.  East Coast, they’re more focused on lyrics and I guess more of the hip-hop emotional side.  The south is known more for feel-good type music I think and more crunk type stuff.  I sort of have that mixture.

You talk about the pattern of the beat and all that stuff.  Does that come through the lyrics or through the music?

That will come through the music normally.  It really depends on the artist.  Every artist hears a beat and they may flow to it differently.  I hit a beat completely differently than what Muddy Waters hits or Solo hits of BiggUps or Sparkz.  We all have a different rap style.  I guess that’s the other part that makes the Valley Boys appeal.  We have three different rap styles that we seem to mesh, so you don’t hear the same thing over and over again.

Is “The Inevitable” the first full length artist album put out by the label?

This will be the first full length all original music album that we’re going to put out through the distribution company.  There’s a new distribution company Genix City Distributions.  They’re going to be putting out other artists.  They’ve put out a couple already, but we’ll probably be the first huge release that has marketing behind it.  We’ve taken out some ads in some other magazines.  We’re going to have some TV commercials, radio commercials, so we’ll be the first big release from our label.  Everyone’s backing me up on it.  They’re all going to be out promoting it.  Everyone from the label is actually on the CD.  We’ll be doing shows around my album and oing a lot of the songs off the album. 

You guys have Juvenile coming to town on the 31st.  Is that also kind of a CD release party for you as well?

No, my album won’t actually be released until September 22.  The Juvenile show is just more of a way to build up money and recognition.  I feel like every single time we do a show we get a couple of new people there. It’s just a way for us to prove how good we are and get the music out there and an awareness that we do exist out there. 

Will you judge reception to this album to how to proceed with the label?

We like being independent.  I see myself more of an underground independent type artist.  We have another artist on our label called DJ Muddy Water.  He’ll actually come out and let go of his album to get signed because he’s got the kind of stuff you hear on the radio.  He has more of that club dance appeal.  My outlook is to be more of an underground sort of like a Haystack or Pastor Troy – someone who sells 100,000 units independently and make his money that way.  We have a different path for each person on the label. As a group we can probably sell on a big record label.  Individually some of us are better as underground artists.   Then we have some that are out there that definitely appeal to the masses out there.

Mark Wills is having a sort of homecoming this weekend.  The platinum-selling country artist to perform in Chattanooga.  Born in nearby Cleveland,, TN Wills has a string of successful albums and singles including the number one hit “Wish You Were Here”.  Other songs from him you may recall of his include Jacob's Ladder," "Don't Laugh At Me," "I Do (Cherish You)" and his seven-week number one smash, "19 Something," to name just a few.  Mark took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to talk about his homecoming.

What I’ve read is that you listened to a lot of rock and roll growing up.

Well, I listened to mainly country.  When I started in the music business, I started my first little garage band, like at 13 or 14.  It was hard to find guys that played country music at age 14. (laughs)  I played drums in a rock band, had a little fun like that.  We had ourselves a good ole time in ‘80s rock and roll and then moved on.  When I started singing, I loved to sing country.  That was my first love.

You’ve been writing for a long time going back to your youth.  How did you initially get interested in writing?

I don’t know.  It was just one of those things you either like to do it or you didn’t like to do it.  There’s not a whole lot of ground there where you can – you either like it or you don’t. It was kid of the direction most people take.  To be perfectly honest with you, I love singing a whole lot more than the other stuff.

Did the music come naturally to you?

Absolutely.  The music for me was the natural side of it.  I love to sing and love to do what I do. It was truly a gift from God to be able to sing.  I never really had to do any vocal lessons or anything like that.  I just loved to sing.  Fortunately years later here we are.

You’re on tour with a couple of your contemporaries.  That seems to be the going thing these days for everyone to tour together.  Are you enjoying the camaraderie with your cohorts?

Absolutely.  Jeff (Bates) and Trent (Willmon) are great guys.  This tour was kind of put together in a world of concert tickets being $100, which I just think is stupidity.  Very rarely in an industry where you find someone saying you’re charging too much for your goods and services, but $100 for a ticket is stupid.  That’s just my opinion.  It’s entertainment.  So this tour is kind of put together with the fan in mind of listen, come out and hang with us for two hours and hear a bunch of hits and at the same time be able to make your house payment.  For a family of four to go to some of these shows it’s $400.  That’s before you ever buy a t-shirt, before you do anything else.  I can’t support that.  I don’t look at what we do as that type of moneymaker.  If you’re going to spend hundreds of dollars spend it on something tangible that you can have at the end of the day.  Once we play our songs, they’re done.  That was the whole thought process of putting this tour together was to save the fans some money, but at the same time give them a lot of entertainment for their dollar.

You’re one of the good guys in the music business.  You use your stature in the music business to work with many charitable causes.  You work with the Children’s Miracle Network for instance.  How did you get involved with them?

Several years ago we were approached to do some stuff with them.  One thing led to another.  We got in there and started checking out the organization, realized all the great work that they do.  When you donate to the Children’s Miracle Network that money stays local.  It goes to the children’s hospital there as opposed to going somewhere else. I like that idea.  I love the idea of basically being able to support these children’s hospitals.  There’s more than 170 of them around the country.  If you can support them and basically help out in a nice way, I thought that was the thing to do.   It’s the same thing we do with our other organizations. We do stuff for our troops, police officers’ families that are killed in the line of duty through the Taser Foundation, and our course our work through the Children’s Miracle Network.

On your album Familiar Strangers it was describe as having a little more of a rock edge to it.  When you’re writing the music with a little more upbeat edge to it is there kind of a different feel in the lyrics?

If you look at the songs that I sing, my songs are more story-based.  And what I mean by that is they are a lot more based in telling a story than they are about useless nonsense.  That’s what I’ve always tried to do.  I’ve always tried for my career to tell a story when you listen to a song.  We’re tried to do that from the beginning.  We’ll continue to do that and tell the story as long as the fan likes to hear the story.  I don’t think you really go with a different philosophy or a different direction just because you’re writing an up-tempo.  I think the song really dictates where it’s going. 

You have covered one or two songs as well as having a couple of your songs covered by other artists.  When you’re looking at someone else’s material to interpret what do you look at?

The quality.  There are songs out there that have been big hits that I don’t like, so I’m not going to cover those.  I look for relate-ability.  If it’s a pop song, I look for relate-ability for a country audience.  I try not to brand it that way.  That’s really what it boils down to, is a great song being able to jump from different lifestyles and still be a good song for that genre.  We’ve been pretty fortunate to have a lot of big hits throughout the years.  Hopefully we’ll continue to do that.

What’s your favorite part of being a musician?  Is it creation process or the interaction with fans and performing?

They both have their strong side.  I love the performance side.  The performance side is when you can tell somebody’s actually doing it.  In today’s world of auto-tune and all that kind of stuff, you don’t really know how good of a singer somebody is.  You can hear their record and hear them live and it’s horrible.  For me the up side of the live performance is being able to pull it off live.  I love to sing, but at the same time I love the studio side.  That’s the perfection side.  You get to go in and do it as many times as you need to to make it exactly what you want.  They both have their up sides or down sides.

What are your plans for the remainder of the year?

I’m going to finish out this tour throughout the rest of the year and have a good time with it.  It’s definitely been a positive.  To be able to give the country audience a really affordable ticket, for them to come out and have fun with it, has been a personal thing for me.  It’s been a good thing for me to be able to deliver that to the fans.  If we can continue to have a good time, to entertain large groups of folks and stay out there and have fun, that’s all that matters.

 - Dave Weinthal

Once upon a time there was this television network called MTV.  Founded in 1981, they actually were what their name said – a music television network.  A long, long time ago in a time many don’t remember, MTV actually played music videos around the clock.  Back then there was no reality television, no DJ Skribble or any of the otherwise annoying programs that now take up all the air slot on MTV.  About a year after their founding, MTV helped usher in what many, including myself call, the second wave of the British Invasion.

The 1970s were an era of arena rock and repetitive disco and the music business was on its heels.  Along came MTV and a slew of new bands under the banner “new wave”.  Amongst those crossing the proverbial pond were Duran Duran, A Flock of Seagulls, Naked Eyes, Human League, and one band that stood out the most for me – ABC.

ABC was like no other band I had seen or heard.  They were fronted by a young man named Martin Fry.  Fry epitomized everything I wanted to be.  Good looking, sophisticated, well-dressed and tressed and a voice like I had never heard.  Truth be told, I probably had a “man-crush” on Fry, the only time I had ever experienced one (other than Adam West as Batman as a child).  Like they used to say about another Brit, James Bond – all women wanted him and all men wanted to be like him.

 From the very first time I heard “Look of Love” and saw the video, I was hooked.  I went out to the Record Bar and bought a copy of their debut album, “The Lexicon of Love”.  The album is considered by many music critics as one of the best albums of the 1980s.  I played my cassette over and over driving to school and heading out clubbing every weekend.  I played it so much it finally wouldn’t play any more.

I tried to find out as much about the band as I could.  But back in those days there was no such thing as the internet and limited resources to read up on the band.  Rolling Stone would have an occasional article and a few men’s fashion magazines would have a story on Fry and the band because of their sartorial style.

After “Lexicon” other albums came and went as did some of the band members.  I remember jamming to “How to Be a Millionaire” on spring break one year, and a “comeback” a couple of years later with the song, “When Smokey Sings”.

Fast forward to today, after seeing and meeting just about every musical artist that I’ve wanted,, and becoming friends with many, I discovered that ABC was back and touring the states.  Would I finally be able to see my favorite band live in concert?  When they toured the states briefly in 1983 I was a poor college student who couldn’t afford gas money to Atlanta to see them.  Now much older, somewhat wiser and definitely with enough money for the gas to drive to Atlanta (even at $3.50/gallon), I saw that ABC and Martin Fry were taking part in what was called the “Regeneration Tour”.  The tour featured many acts that broke about the same time all from England except Belinda Carlisle (of the Go Gos).  On the bill was Naked Eyes, A Flock of Seagulls, Human League, Carlisle and of course ABC.

I called promoters trying to score an interview with any of the artists.  Receptive to the idea, I was only granted one interview – Martin Fry.  To be honest it was a shock.  He was the last person I thought I would be able to land an interview with.  I was on it. 

I was actually lined up to do a phone interview with Fry the day of the show.  This was going to be tricky since I was going to the event and had to figure out some way to do the phoner and not miss maybe my once chance to see ABC in concert. 

I headed towards Atlanta hoping I could pull this off.  I was worried if I would get along with Fry.  The last time I had a chance to interview one of my childhood heroes, Peter Tork of the Monkees it was a disaster.  He was one of the biggest asses I met, crushing my childhood memories.  It came time to call Martin and I pulled off to the side of the road to a rest area about 45 minutes outside of Atlanta and called.

On the phone I got his tour manager.  They had just pulled into the venue in Atlanta.  He asked if I was there.  I told him I was on the way there but was scheduled to do the interview over the phone per instructions of the promoter.

“Come on down to the venue.  Martin would rather talk with you in person.  Call me back when you get here and I’ll bring you back to meet Martin,” he said.  I was on it.  I squealed tires getting back on the interstate and pulled into Chastain Park.  Once there I called. About ten minutes later I was escorted back to meet Martin Fry.  There he stood bigger than life, and still looking quite dashing at age 50.  We shook hands and Martin invited me aboard his tour bus to talk about ABC then and ABC now.

I'm a big fan and I'll try to keep my composure during this whole interview, but one of the first questions I want to ask you is you were a music journalist before you started singing, is that correct?

I was kind of a journalist. Way back when I was an impoverished student, I realized that the only way to get into shows was to pretend to have a magazine. During punk rock, everybody had fanzines, which was kind of a couple of bits of paper you'd write your opinions on. My fanzine was called "Modern Drugs" and I'd review local bands and things I liked. I quickly realized it was a way of getting into concerts free and girls were really impressed, as you know. So journalism has its ups, but to be fair I wasn't a journalist like Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys; he worked at "Smash Hits". It got me in through the door to interview a band called Vice Versa and they let me join, they let me become the lead singer and out of Vice Versa was formed ABC. So I do owe a lot to my journalism.

Did you want to be a singer all along; was that your goal . . . how did it come about that you became a vocalist?

I was fascinated with music, you know, I love music. Bowie and Roxy Music and Bolan and Gary Glitter and stuff like that. Growing up in the early 70s. So I think it was always there. I was kind of frustrated 'cause I could never get a punk rock band together. So, I went up to Sheffield and the whole music scene was very different there. I think that it was really my destiny to be sitting here today, talking to you.

"Lexicon Of Love" was the first release by ABC; that album came out in '82, 26 years ago. After listening to it . . . I have to admit that I burned out my cassette back in the day. I was a poor college student at the time, But one thing I was impressed by on the album was that there was a lot of musical texture involved. You had strings upon horn sections and a lot of vocals. It was almost like a "Sgt. Pepper"-esque kind of endeavor, especially for a debut album. Was it a difficult album to record?

With the "Lexicon Of Love"; with "The Look Of Love" and "Poison Arrow" and "All Of My Heart", we coming out on the back of the Clash and the Sex Pistols, coming out of post-punk with bands like Magazine and Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Cure. I don't know. My generation was coming through saying they wanted the world to be a lot more Day-Glo, a lot brighter, more polished. We were kind of rejecting the ideas . . . I mean, something like "The Look Of Love" is kind of comical and serious at the same time, what with the way the song's written. The music, we put strings on the tracks and, at the time, my friends in bands thought, you know, we were crazy, that we were becoming like a cabaret band or something. We were playing around with a lot of different mediums and I think that's why "The Lexicon Of Love" today is still kind of very popular 'cause - and I don't know why - but it has a very fresh sound. So, we wanted to mix up a lot of showbiz with our rock and roll. We wanted to fuse the world of Chic, Sister Sledge and Earth, Wind and Fire and R&B were putting together alongside with Howard Devoto and Magazine or Pere Ubu or Joy Division - the stuff we were also listening to. So it was kind of a curious record but it has served us well. I suppose anything's a fusion. Listen to Pink Floyd. You can't really describe it as rock and roll. It's kind of like . . . I don't know really. I think that's what happened to "The Lexicon Of Love". It was an experiment, yeah . . . It's funny - we also wanted to write love songs 'cause a lot of people were writing songs about electric pylons or bleak kind of stratagems, kind of unemotional topics. So it was nice to flip it on its head and go right back to the idea of emotion and that's pretty much what's in the songs - they're kind of quite neurotic. And everybody's had love lost, so there are a lot of universal themes there that kind of clicked.

There's a lot of lyrical intensity in the songs as well.

Yeah. I mean, I like lyricists. I don't think lyrics should be really pompous or intellectual; I think lyrics should be really stupid and smart at the same time . . . Bob Dylan and people like Morrissey and the Arctic Monkeys or Motown, you know, some great songs. They're kind of a bit odd. Most really original lyrics are odd. I like lyrics, yeah, so there was that going on as well.

Was that a difficult album to tour on? It seems, back in the day, I read in Rolling Stone or Gentleman's Quarterly that you did multiple scene and costume changes in the show during this era. Was that taxing on you and the band?

It was taxing financially, yeah. We went all around the world with about nineteen people on stage. We had a very ornate stage production, which was very, very officious for a new band. We wanted to blow people out of the water. I mean, we had contemporaries like Adam and the Ants, who had an incredible show. So, yeah, we played it that way. It was kind of Vegas and financial suicide but it was fantastic fun. We did tour all around the world performing. It wasn't so much that the record was difficult to portray on stage; it was more that we were always pushing forwards. We made a film called "Mantrap" with Julien Temple who did "Rock'n'Roll Swindle". He also directed our video for "Poison Arrow", so we were always looking for ways to terrify the record company. Some of the things came off brilliantly and some of them didn't work but that's pretty much the spirit of ABC.

When this all was taking place, you guys were pretty much part of what I call the Second Wave of the British Invasion . . .

Yeah.

'cause most everybody on this tour except Belinda Carlisle came from overseas and you were also part of the original MTV generation. Did the visual aspect of MTV, not necessarily the network itself, but the fact that you had such a visual component of your show; did you feel more pressure to put on an extravagant show?

No. When we start making videos, when I first went to New York and kind of met the people at MTV, there were four of them and that was the sum total of the people that worked there. They sat around a table and they were basically showing Devo and Talking Heads and a couple of Rod Stewart and maybe a Queen video and that's all they had to play. But suddenly there's a whole invasion of bands like ABC; Depeche Mode; The Human League; Dexy's Midnight Runners, I suppose . . . Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran who were making their own clips and films . . . we were all trying to be movie stars. So it was an interesting time; it wasn't something that the record companies really liked because they had to pay for them. It was something that came out of the creative force; it was saying goodbye to the 70s, goodbye then to the bands that didn't have a big visual flair. It was almost like you had to have your music and a visual flair. That's what happened. The weird thing was, as well, when I went to New York , I met Andy Warhol and he came down and he invited us to the Factory and he was really interested as well in the whole English Pop Invasion and why we were making these kinds of crazy little films. He said he'd been trying for years with Paul Morrissey to make these kinds of "art films" but yet these were more insane. They were two, three minutes long and that's what we were seeing on MTV, you know. He was kind of fascinated by it all. So I guess something was going on back then. The beauty of those videos is that they really are entertaining; they're really stupid, ridiculous, some of them but highly entertaining. They're not very polite or flattering; they're just mad. So it kind of makes for great entertainment. Nowadays it's a bit more sanitized, it's a little bit more thought out. Today's a very different time.

Your second album was "Beauty Stab". Do you feel it got overlooked a little bit by the overwhelming popularity of "The Lexicon Of Love"?

MF: Yeah. People wanted us to follow up "The Lexicon Of Love" - we didn't. We made a record that was kind of different, a bit unfinished, and a bit naive. We had to do something. We didn't want to make a record that wasn't as good as "The Lexicon Of Love" and we weren't trying to be, so we went off on a different tangent. After that, we made an album called "How To Be A Zillionaire", which was kind of more machines and synthetic . . . I don't know. It was a totally different direction with club mixes and also scratches videos. We made videos they could show in clubs. And, after that, with " Alphabet City ", we kind of got more traditional, more classical ABC. We've always tried to change and keep changing with songs like "When Smokey Sings" and "How To Be A Millionaire".

You're currently on this Regeneration Tour with a bunch of your contemporaries; it's kind of like a high school reunion, I guess, in a lot of ways.

You know I avoid high school reunions. You never know who's going to show up and that girl you kind of fancied, she might not be hot anymore. There might be someone there you think is fantastic but you overlooked them, you never got to know them in school.

I was just wondering - do you have to go around avoiding thinking to yourself "they aged well"; "they didn't age well" or "I hope I stand up well compared to everybody else"?

No, no. There is a real nice energy to playing with other people. There is, definitely. With ABC, we tour all the time. We tour in different ways. We played with an orchestra in Kitchener in February. We played with a band throughout Europe and this is something different again. This is like joining the circus. There's a bearded lady and there's a high-wire act and there's a guy that puts his head in a lion's mouth . . . you check yourself a bit but at the same time you know "I've got my slot; I'm with ABC. We've got our moment to kind of shine." So, it works well. There's a nice feeling up on stage and also I do have a lot of respect for any of my contemporaries, like Belinda . . . like all the artists,

You have a new album that just came out, I'm not sure if it's available in the States yet, it's called "Traffic".

We're just getting that together. It is available online but we're just going to get a distributor to make sure you can get it in your local store. Yeah, it's called "Traffic" and I went back and started working with David Palmer who's the drummer on "The Lexicon Of Love" and who has kind of worked with ABC intermittently since he left way back to join The Yellow Magic Orchestra. He now plays drums with Rod Stewart but when Rod's not "Maggie May"in', he kind of comes and joins up with us. He's not here tonight but we wrote songs like “The Very First Time” on "Traffic" . . . but just got a freshness about playing to a new audience. There's an audience in each city that wants to hear some new songs in addition to the old traditional ones.

This has been an independent release in comparison to your earlier ones on a major label. How has the Internet and, in the past few years, sites like MySpace helped get you back out there to where people remember or recognize you, rekindle old flames, so to speak?

Funny thing is with us, you know, is the 70s weren't photographed but the 80s were. So I've got a YouTube sort of fame, where there's a lot of fans that have been around a long time and then there's a whole new generation that seem really fascinated by the flamboyance of the 80s and they kind of know more about Howard Jones and Kim Wilde than I do. They're very detailed and very, very observant and they follow the whole music scene. It was great having a major label in the 80s but in the 90s, it was more hindrance than help because everything was very expensive and slow. These days, it's just about getting your record finished and getting it to the people. I don't really ever look back; it feels good.

 - Dave Weinthal

What better musical prescription for troubled times than an impeccably dressed, throwback, neo-vaudevillian duo whose live performances are a festival of expert musicianship; clever, off-center original tunes; hilarious banter, rowdy audience interactions, and free kazoos for the crowd? Hailing from New York City, The Two Man Gentlemen Band combines hot jazz, vintage rhythm & blues, old-time country, and tin pan alley to create a joyous two-man sound that is all their own.   Performing with plectrum banjo, guitar, string bass, dueling kazoos, novelty percussion, and a cornet, The Gentlemen whip themselves into a frenzy that is unlike any acoustic duo on the road today.   And they belt out original songs that manage to be at once familiar, bizarre, fun, and entirely new.  The duo of Andy Bean and Fuller Condon had a brief moment and Andy humored me for a few minutes by answering a few questions I had.

How do you like touring the southeast?

We love it actually. We’ve been on the road two-and-a-half years.  That’s the place we go most frequently.  Even though we’re not playing bluegrass music per se, people feel comfortable seeing a banjo down in your part. 

We’re quite comfortable with those kinds of instruments around the south. (laughs)

That’s exactly right, yeah. (laughs)  And that can’t be said for the rest of the country.  Some places you go and whip out a banjo and people don’t react quite as favorably. 

Being from New York it was probably – being such a creative atmosphere it has that anything goes feel, don’t you think?  Or does it depend of the community you hang out in?

That’s exactly the truth.  Once you find the right circle then there’s certainly enough people who like out kind of music.  If you were to take a random subset of New Yorkers you’d get some strange reaction. 

Where do you see the appreciation of your music coming from – a younger or older audience?

We’re actually really lucky.  From night to night our audience is switched.  Some nights we’ll play to an older group who appreciate the old-fashioned sense of the music, and maybe tolerates the lyrics and then the next night we’ll play at a rock and roll bar for a lot of punk kids and the next night we’ll have an in between crowd – half and half.  A few people will get off on the wordplay and things like that.  We’ve been really lucky with that.  It’s been the most fun for us.  We love having a different crowd each night. 

People get into music for many different reasons.  What drew you to music?

I guess it’s always kind of in you.  Both of us were always into old records.  So when we were getting into making music on our own it came out sounding a little old-fashioned.  We’re just really lucky we got to do it for a meager living. (laughs)

There’s no other way in the music business unless you’re on MTV or a reality TV show.

I like our little corner of the music business.  A lot of our friends are in it too, which is the Do It Yourself Music Business.  It’s just you trying to get nearer to people and not trying to go through a middleman or anything.  We’re not on nationwide TV, but I think we get closer to the listener.

Was that more of a conscious decision?.  You’re playing more your very unique style of music.  The music style is traditional.  It’s a novelty now compared to what’s being made now.  It’s very much unique and a novel idea.  You’re being the outsider/independent artist by playing the traditional sounding music.

Yeah.  The funny thing is the records that we listen to – and we listen to a lot of ‘20s and ‘30s jazz and dance band stuff.  That’s kind of where we’re coming from.  The funny thing is we never considered doing any kind of mainstream promotion ourselves.  The records that we listen to for inspiration, those aren’t popular.  (laughs)  We never even considered our fun and weird version of that thing would even be popular.  At the same time we’ve been pleasantly surprised it’s gone as well as it has.  The folks I was just on the phone with, we along with a band somewhat like us were picked up to do some dates with the Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan tour this summer.  I guess there’s a little more mainstream appeal than we thought. (laughs) The old story do what you like and do it well, people will listen.  Seems to be working out that way. 

How much of what we see on stage is actually you and how much just a character that you are playing?

We’ve got a classic two-man, straight man/wacky guy kind of thing going on.  It’s only a small exaggeration of what our personalities are actually like.  The thing that’s fun for us is go out there and be a slightly exaggerated version of ourselves.  We don’t script anything.  It’s all improvised.  It’s the most fun part of the show for us.

How do you play off the energy of the audience at times?  Is it very off-the-cuff?

There are certain themes we address consistently, but if the audience does something we go with it.  We like bantering with hecklers and things like that.  That keeps it fresh for us.  We definitely respond differently to the audience, and it’s different depending on the songs we play, too.  You guys are down in Chattanooga, right?

Yes.

Yeah, that’s going to be at J.J.’s [Bohemia].  That’s a rowdy drinking crowd,, so we’ll be doing a rowdier drinking set.  There will be a lot of shouting along with the crowd. 

When you’re writing is it more of the lyrical content you’re working on first?

I wish we had more of a system so we could spit out more songs.  Sometimes a lyrical idea will happen.  It seems to be different every time. I wish it weren’t.  (laughs) Sometimes you have a great lyric and we can’t make the music work – or you’ve got a great little piece of music and can’t fit a lyric to it.  It can be a tricky process.

One of the bands you have been compared to is They Might Be Giants.  I can see that.  It’s almost a breather from over-produced over-hyped music to listen to you guys and acts like They Might Be Giants. 

Yeah.  The music isn’t so close, but I think we have some of the same esthetic.  We consider it a favorable comparison.

How global do you see your music being?  I know you guys are pretty heavy on MySpace and things like that.  Where are you finding you’re getting a lot of reaction from people?

We actually did our first tour of England and Scotland.  Things went over great over there.  We even did a big festival in Portugal and we didn’t know what to expect there.  Our act is very heavy on interactions and lyrical wordplay.  We were curious to see how it would go over in a non-English speaking country.  In England especially, it went over great because of tradition of kind of “cheeky” lyrics they called it over there. (laughs) But in Portugal it went over great, too.  In a lot of Europe and Japan, too I hear there’s not too much music like this and they looked at what we were doing authentically American, so they enjoyed it for that.  We’re hoping to get back to Europe and try to get to Japan as well, because it seems like they’re open to it over there.

Did you have to structure your shows differently being in a foreign country?

Yeah.  The one thing we learned in England – we often give out free kazoos at our shows.  Even in the rowdiest bar in America where we’ve done this, we established the rules that when we kazoo you kazoo and otherwise it’s fairly tame.  In the rowdiest bar they’d adhere to those rules.  In England people just couldn’t help themselves.  It was absolutely amazing.  You give people kazoos and they just start playing.  And it doesn’t matter if you’re doing one set or two or three sets, they will keep playing – louder than you are for the entire show.  We learned this after a show or two there and we started giving out kazoos for the finale only.  That was our one experience in international relations there that was pretty fascinating to me. (laughs)

What has been your favorite experience to date performing live?

The things that come to mind are more of a category.  We love playing in clubs, at coffeehouses and theatres and stuff like that.  We’ve had some of our best times ever – it’s also been college folks and a little bit older who said we’re going to put a concert on you in our house and a lot of them have done that where they pack a lot of people into their living room or their backyard and they’ll often dress up like us and really make an event out of it.  Those have been some of the most fun nights we’ve ever had.  It’s just about the music.  There’s no middleman – somebody just putting on a great night, really getting into the spirit of the old-fashioned thing.  Those have been great.  An important thing for folks to realize, if you like a band, you can put on a show for somebody – a party, and those are often the best kind of music events you can have.

Tell me about dressing up for the shows.  What’s it like being dressed up like a bunch of dandies on stage?

(laughs) I’ll tell you, when you’re on stage people appreciate that we appreciate the visual show as well as a music show.  When I’m in the audience, whether they’re dressing up nice, or however they dress up, that’s part of the performance.  I think everybody, even if they don’t have the same style as us appreciates it.  Or it becomes tricky as these are the only kind of clothes we own now since we’re on the road all the time.  I’m usually dressed up with the exception of the tie, pretty close to our publicity photos - right now actually, sitting at my house. (laughs) The tricky part is if you wander into a truck stop or something dressed like this.  That’s when the real questions come out. (laughs)

I remember a similar situation last summer when I stopped at a convenience store and there was a busload of Amish all dressed in their traditional garb.

That’s funny.  Especially in the summer, my bass player is wearing a straw hat and people will ask him if he’s Amish. (both laugh)  It’s pretty funny. 

Summer is about to hit its stride, what do you guys have planned for the summer?

We just booked three dates with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson tour.  Those are going to be pretty fantastic.  We’re going to be in front of 10-15,000 people.  Those are going to be great.  We’re also headed down to New Orleans and Mobile, AL for the first time.  We’re picking the best time to go down there in mid-July for the weather. (laughs) 

It will be awfully hot for those Willie Nelson/Bob Dylan shows since they’re taking place predominantly at Minor League ballparks.

Yeah.  We’re doing one in Orange Beach, AL July 31.  It’s going to be pretty steamy.  We learned a few years ago if you didn’t mind sweating a little, that’s the cost of looking good.  We’re grown accustomed to playing our shows fairly moist – you know what I mean? (laughs)

All part of being a sharp-dressed man.

That’s exactly right.  We just think back to the guys that fought back in the Civil War.  They were out there in full wool suits and carrying big packs.  Getting up there in a suit and playing a couple songs on the banjo isn’t so tough.

 - William Alexander

Over a half century ago we saw the birth of rock and roll.  Many historians point to a young man out of Macon, Georgia being not only one of the genre’s pioneers, but the architect.  The movie, “The Girl Can’t Help It” made Little Richard a household name.  The flamboyant and electric performer defined what rock and roll is, and has influenced many a legendary acts such as the Beatles, just to name one.  Not many remember, but Little Richard performed a few times in Chattanooga early in his career.  He performed at a black theater called the Liberty Theatre and on the mountain at a club called Behind the Moon. Still electric performer the man he world loves and knows as Little Richard closes out Riverbend Saturday night.

Being an architect of rock and roll, did you find it difficult to write songs for this new style (rock and roll)?  Today’s music bands have so many other artists to listen to and borrow a “sound” from.  You were truly the original.

No.  I wrote songs every day.  I didn’t write them on paper.  I wrote them in my mind constantly.   Every time I would sit down a new thought we come, like that.

What got you initially interested in music?

Being a poor boy in Macon, Georgia – which is one of the greatest little towns in the world.  My mother had 12 children.  I’m a momma’s boy.  I wanted to support my momma.  My dad got killed.  I was singing before that.  I wanted to do something to help support my momma.  I went out there not knowing where I was going, or what.  But, God just directed me, and I went to the right place.

Your career has spanned the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam War and all sorts of other cultural and political revolutions, and other important historical events.  Were you surprised either rock and roll or you, for that matter survived the Millennium?

Well, the world is in such bad shape today.  We need to just put a little love in our hearts.  I didn’t think I’d live to see 70-years old.

How has your songwriting changed over the years?

If I wanted to write, I could just sit down and write 20 songs in one day, easily.  They just come from nowhere.  But, I just have to sit down and get in that mood.  You understand me?

Does the music come to you first or do the words?

They come together.  It comes together.  It sounds like a big orchestra.  Sometimes I’ll be sitting down, and I’ll hear big choirs.  It sounds like somebody’s crazy.  But I hear a big orchestration and choir.

What about the way touring is handled these days compared to the infancy of rock and roll?

The difference today: we had buses in the old days.  They didn’t have sleepers.  There were no custom buses.  We took, like a regular Greyhound bus.  The system has gotten better.  Back in those days we couldn’t stay in a hotel.  I couldn’t eat in a restaurant.   I couldn’t go to a bathroom or drink any water; unless I had water with me.  To go to the bathroom I had to get out of the car and run behind a tree or something.  I couldn’t even dress in the place I was going.  But all that has changed thank the Lord.

What was going through your mind when the record labels took your songs and had them rerecorded with white artists  like Pat Boone?

I never knew Pat Boone was going to record that.  When I heard it I was surprised.  I never knew he was going to record it.  Pat recorded a lot of songs.  He recorded a lot of Fats Domino songs, as well as my songs.  But I never knew he was going to do it.  He’s such a nice gentleman.  He’s just a religious, nice guy.  I think the record companies got him to do it, because it was money.  Here’s something new coming out to the world and we hit with the white audience from the get-go.  They didn’t have to cross over.  We crossed over from the get-go.  It’s one of those things.  I’m a country music lover myself.  I love country music and blues all my life – and gospel.

Was there any social, political or historical event during your career that made you reevaluate what you do?

I’m not into politics at all.  I see that the world needs more love.  We need to love each other regardless of race, creed or color.  We need to show more love to each other.  If a man is hungry, he doesn’t care what color you are: he’s hungry.  I think we need to show the love.  The Jews, the Gentiles – we’re all brothers and sisters whether we think so, or not.  One God made all of us.  The God of Abraham is the God of the whole world.  H’s a great God.  He’s still opening the seas – the Red Sea for all of us to go over on dry ground.  I think we have to realize that – that God is a great God.  We have to help each other.  We have to let bygones be bygones and start anew and go on.  And thank God that we’re still here.  Take the love that God gives us and come see the architect of rock and roll – the Originator: the Emancipator.  Come down and have a good time, and let an old man make you feel good.

Amen.

 - Dave Weinthal

What began last year basically as a studio experiment has started to grow into a driving force in local music.  Douglass Garnett was pretty much a one-man band ala Ed Roland (Collective Soul) who was playing around in his home studio and posted a few of his creations on MySpace.   He began getting feedback from people who liked what they heard.  “It sounded liked a fun idea for me to take these demos and see what I could do with them,” he says.

Just like the aforementioned Collective Soul founder, Garnett had to assemble a band to play his compositions.  “I went through a few different lineups and it took some time to find the right people,” he says.  “Eventually it all came together and we were able to take it out in a live environment and take it out and transfer those demos into live entertainment.  And see how people react to them was really fun for me.”

The band has changed immensely since its inception last year.  Originally the band was a three-piece, however towards the end of the year Jason Lyles was added to take over vocals from Garnett.  After hearing Lyles, who had already established himself as a singer/songwriter around town, Garnett started to court him for the band.  “I really like his voice,” he says.  “It was really what I needed to complete the band so that we would be able to perform live without me having to worry about singing in key, remembering lyrics. I bit off more than I could chew when I first put the band together.”

“It really gives us a lot of possibilities because Jason Lyles sings so tremendously,” says Alex Herweyer, the band’s bass player.  “Doug can thrash out on his guitar in the middle of a chorus and not worry about singing the song,” he adds.  “He gives the band more dynamic.”

Garnett says he wanted to make sure the band could jump around on stage and raise havoc.  “When I was singing I couldn’t jump around and play because I was always having to stand there to make sure I was playing,” he says.  “I had all these worries going around all the time and it didn’t pan out the way I envisioned.”

While enjoying singing, Garnett says he has always been a guitar player since he was born.  “Jason filled in the void that we had.  The thing that I was lacking in vocals he more than made up for.”

The band has evolved greatly since its beginnings.  “Everyone is a musician.  Everyone has grown a lot,” says Garnett.  The band’s founder says they are constantly learning new things and it has overall made the band better musicians.  “It’s an enjoyable experience for me,” he adds.  “I just want it to continue and I’d like to see it grow.”

The band’s first official release, The Big Shaboom! contains 22 tracks – eight of which are available via download.  The number of songs for a debut album is quite ambitious for a first album.  Garnett says Rabidears had over 30 songs recorded but whittled it down to 22.  “We decided there was no way we could possibly live without these 22 songs,” he says, discussing the whittling down process. 

Originally cut down to 30 songs, then to 22 were it stopped.   “We figured this was a debut,” says Garnett.  “I know it’s something pretty unheard of, but at the same time we’re going to be living with these songs for some time for a while now,” he adds.

Garnett took into consideration the band would not be back in the studio for a while and feels the songs chosen all stand out on their own as singles.

The Rabidears founder says the material ebbs and flows on the new album.  “We decided for our first time out instead of going on a roller coaster ride with the record we wanted to give it the whole theme park,” says Garnett.  “It just goes all over the place musically, and it’s more in tune with somebody’s personal mix tape than it is a certain genre or certain particular band sound.”

With change evident in the music business, everything is no longer status quo.  The industry has gone through major changes and shifts in the last five years alone that has changed the way people do business.  With that in mind the band sees the release of a CD important.  “It’s really our springboard to the scene, really,” says Herweyer.  The band has been playing shows and trying to get momentum going, but they believe the CD will help get the word out further.  “We are an established band, this is how we’re going to have people tell their friends about us.”

“We want to leave an imprint behind us,” says Garnett.  “This way we have something to leave behind wherever we go – we have a CD out.”

Garnett says it’s important for people to know Rabidears exists because they want to be heard just like everyone else.  “I think that what we have to say and what we’re doing is just as legitimate as anyone else out there,” he says.

With the way music is transported these days bands like Rabidears plan to use their CD for marketing purposed opposed to pure profit motives and sales.  “I think it’s part of the overall picture,” says Garnett.  “As far as the grand scheme of things we want to place our little footprint or imprint on the world that says we were here at a particular time in this particular decade.”

The band, in releasing the album are wanting to put something out that will stand the test of time and have material that real people identify and have experienced, and avoid getting tied into a certain genre or fad.  “Because we’re putting out so much material, we’re planning on sticking with this material for the next two years and counting because it’s such a ridiculous amount of material to put out,” says Garnett.

The music and most of the material on the album are fun.  “Most of it’s kind of ass-shaking music,” says Garnett.  He says the band wants listeners to enjoy themselves.    “We are trying to establish fun in rock and roll,” he adds.  “We’re trying to make this a little more fun.”

Of the 22 songs the band is releasing a majority of them are new, written since Lyles joined the band.  “I think nine are from the demos,” says Garnett.  The new material he says represents where the band is now. 

The demos featured on the disc showcase some of the former band members.  “I think it’s grown by leaps and bounds from a single – somebody’s singular thought,” says Garnett.  “We’re having a lot of fun doing it and enjoy the music that we’re producing.”

Rabidears wants to spread the work that it can be fun to go out to clubs and listen to live music.  “It’s not something that has too be a painful experience,” says Garnett.

On The New Shaboom! most of the songs gravitate towards the pros and cons of relationships – finding love, independence, even stalkers. The song “Hey Now” is about a stalker, while the song “She’s On Fire” is about is about a beautiful girl who eventually became Garnett’s wife.  There’s even an instrumental piece called “Mafia Beach Party” which has sort of a Ventures meet “The Godfather” feel to it.  “Most of the stuff is about finding love, losing love, and everything in-between – all the different things that you go through when you’re nurturing a relationship,” says Garnett.

Rabidears has evolved greatly since its startup as a project in the den of Garnett’s house last year.  The band is hoping to become a force to be reckoned with for some time to come.  “This is my baby,” says Garnett.  “I want to see this thing through,” he adds.

The band is hoping to begin traveling the southeast circuit soon.  “We hope to evolve as a band and put on better shows, be more entertaining and we want to see our friends and people to come out and have a good time with us and be part of this experience,” says Garnett.  “It’s not just a project, it’s something that if that had been the case I would have just kept it to myself,” he adds. 

The music admittedly goes in different directions, but overall it’s good rock and roll Garnett says. While the music jumps genres, there’s a little something for everyone.  “If they’re bored with the status quo, I think we offer something a little bit different.”

 - Dave Weinthal

The Dirty Guv’nahs have been spreading their rock gospel across the Southeast for three years now, showcasing their sound that has been best described as "a passionate, jubilant slice of rock-meets-Americana." In their hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee they’ve graduated from playing packed out bars where latecomers are turned away from the door, to playing theaters where capacity crowds consistently cram in and press against the stage to hear another three hour helping of what has been dubbed, "rock the way God intended."  We recently spoke with the band during a recent downtime to talk about their raid ascension.

You guys have been described as a southern rock band.  To you, what is southern rock?

I think the thing that makes southern rock is it’s defined as regular rock and roll with country and a little bit of soul music and maybe a dash of gospel.  That’s how I describe southern rock. 

What was your relationship with southern rock growing up?

Me, personally I didn’t have a real relationship. I grew up listening to a lot of soul music – a lot of James Brown and a lot of Wilson Pickett, not too much southern rock.  Some of the guys definitely grew up listening to it. 

You guys have been compared to the Rolling Stones as well.  There’s a lot of blues and old country that influenced them.

I’ve said it before; the Stones are our greatest influence.

You’ve been voted “Best Local Band” in Knoxville the past two years by Metro Pulse.  What do you feel about being classified a “local band”?  Some bands don’t like being referred to as a local band.

We love it.  We love playing in Knoxville more than playing anywhere else.  If you can’t fall in love with your hometown and have your hometown behind you, you’re going to have a pretty tough time anywhere else.  It’s an honor for us.  The shows we’ve had in the past year here in Knoxville, that’s the reason we’re still doing it.  We played at the Bijou Theatre and came within 50 seats of selling it out. That was about a month ago.  We’ve been playing down at Barley’s Taproom for about two years and close to 600 people come every single time we play.  Being a local band – that’s great.  You’ve got to start as a local band before you go anywhere else.

You guys have been picked to perform at Bonnaroo this year.  What was that experience like, to get chosen to play one of the largest festivals in the world?

We’re playing Sunday June 14 at 6:30 pm. Basically what happened was our guitarist Justin [Hoskins]; he does a lot of the booking stuff.  He just got a phone call out of the blue from Ashley Capps at AC Entertainment.  He said, “Hey Justin, this is Ashley Capps and we’re really impressed with you all have done in your hometown.  We’re ready to offer you a contract for Bonnaroo.”  We said yes.  We’re really excited that we’re going to play on Sunday.  That way we get to see all the other bands leading up to it and know what other people are doing, and hopefully invite as many people as possible to come out and check us out. 

My understanding is that this band is the first project for all of you guys.

It is… well; our drummer was in another band when he was in high school.  The rest of us, this is our first time.

That’s unique.  Do you think it was an asset in the fact you didn’t have any past history?

Before we started the band, the band has a funny origin in that we booked a show before we even practiced.  None of us had been in a band.  It was really like a joke.  We had this opportunity to play at this outdoor festival in Knoxville because we knew one of the promoters. She gave us an opening slot.  We had three weeks to put something together.  We were like, “Oh, this is awesome.”  That first show was probably the worst thing I ever heard. (laughs) I can’t even imagine what it sounded like.  We played that show.  We played another show two weeks later and then we actually didn’t play again for seven months.  We were literally just joking.  About seven months later we were hanging out and actually at the time really weren’t even friends yet.  We said that was fun, let’s do it again.  That led to another.  And that led to a couple hundred people showing up at the next show.  Then that led to two years later – 600 people paying money to see us at the Bijou Theatre.  It’s been a really exciting thing.  The thing for us is we get this really eclectic crowd.  When we played at the Bijou this past time we had everybody from middle schoolers up to 60-years-old that loved ‘60s music.  It was just an honor to play original tunes.  We’re not a cover band.  We’re playing original music and we’re drawing people from age 12 to 62. 

You guys recorded your first album this year.  What was it like working with David Barbe?

It was awesome.  The chemistry there with him was really perfect for our situation.  We went into it and straight up told him, “This is the first album we’ve ever recorded.”  We sent him some tracks before we got down there so he would know the sound and kind of what we were going for. He acted rally, like a seventh member of the band.  He really kind of guided us while we were there.  It was just a really good experience.

What made you decide you wanted to work with him?

We wanted to work with him because we respected a lot of the bands that came out of Athens, GA, and just specifically he worked with R.E.M. and the Drive-By Truckers.  We’re big fans of both.  Those are two bands that are not rally that similar except that they’re from Athens. 

You guys are now in your third year of existence.  What was the catalyst for you guys to finally get in the studio?

We had done some basement kind of demos.  We actually did a demo we recorded in our basement and somebody else’s basement about a year-and-a-half ago. It had some pretty good songs on it, but the recording quality was not what we wanted.  We actually put it up for sale on iTunes and I think we sold close to a thousand units of it over a year-and-a-half, which is great.  But it was time to make a real record.  We has 12 new songs we wanted to do, so we went back and we recorded 12 new songs and re-recorded one from that demo.  I’m real proud of what we came out with.

Was the recording process something that helped the band mature and come together more as a unit?

It did.  It really humbled each of us because when you get into the studio you play a song and you immediately play it back.  That’s the first time that you can kind of just sit back and listen to yourself apart from your instrument, and especially for me, apart from my singing.  You sit there and listen to it in front of all your friends and brothers. It’s a very eye-opening experience.  It was a positive experience.  I think our drummer Aaron [Hoskins] said recently that he learned more in the five days in Athens about how to play with each other as opposed to playing drums than he had in the previous year.

Where do you see yourselves going from here?

Our next more is to really hit the road a lot for this fall.  There’s still a handful of music festivals that we’re waiting to hear back from that I think we’ll get into.  We want to play all of those and we’re looking to play a lot of dates this fall.  We recorded our last show at the Bijou.  We filled the whole thing with five cameras and recorded it with soundboard quality and we’re going to have it mixed professionally.  We’re going to release a series in a video podcast – one per week for five weeks.  We’re going to release different videos for free on iTunes.  Then at the end of the summer we’re going to release the entire concert for sale like a digital download.  And then get in the studio in December.

 - Dave Weinthal

Usually the release of a new album is a time to rejoice.  This wasn’t the case a couple of years ago for Downstream.  While their album, Forsaken was very well received and optimism was in the air, there was a sense of remorse ironically.  The album, mastered by the legendary Rodney Mills (Lynyrd Skynyrd) gave the band a boost in credibility it greatly deserved.  But things were not very joyous for the band.

Prior to the release of the album the band lost a guitarist in a late night car accident following a gig.  And just months after releasing Forsaken the ban parted ways with their lead singer.

After all the turmoil and pain the band is highly anticipating the release of their new album, Darkest Hour.  “It was kind of like out with the old and in with the new,” says the band’s drummer Wes Hartman.  “We wanted change.  We wanted a very professional direction,” he adds.   The band’s drummers says the band decided to make what changes needed to pursue music as a profession instead of a hobby like many bands do.  This involved changing singers.  Despite some initially hurt feelings the band remains friends with their old singer while bringing in new vocalist Chris Hancock to the fold.

Hancock came down from Knoxville to join the band a year and a half ago.  During that time the band cut down on live performances partially to avoid scrutiny of old fans who may not have been totally aware of the change and also to allow the and to write material that was geared more around Hancock’s vocal style.  “We had to find a new direction,” says Hartman.  “We’re looking for a new professional direction and I believe we found it with this five-piece.”

With a change in vocals also came a change in the writing process.  “I think there’s a lot more personality in the music,” says Hancock.  “The different guitars and melodies we used in Darkest Hour differ greatly from the Forsaken album.”

Hancock says he has really enjoys being part of Downstream and is having a lot of fun dedicating himself to writing for the new album and taking the band in a new direction, kind of bringing it into its own.  “I’m really, really pleased with the outcome,” he says.  “I look forward to putting out the album.  I think it’s going to be a good time.”

With loss and change comes time to redefine and even reinvent yourself.  “With losing the guitar player [Matt Meadows] it definitely shed the spotlight on maturity, especially in writing this album,” says Hartman.  He credits lead guitarist and the band’s main songwriter Nathan Loveless for stepping up big.   “He and Matt would come off like a team, like a little super group and they would write so much,” he says. 

Hartman credits Joseph Carrick for completely filling in shoes that needed to be filled.  “We’re all very proud of him,” he says.  “He adds so much to this record than I anticipated.  We had a lot of adversity to step up to,” he adds/  “With the addition of Joseph finally I think Downstream is completely formed.”

On Darkest Hour Hancock and Loveless share most of the writing credit, the singer of course taking care of lyrics and the guitarist mostly the musical aspect.  “Two or three of the songs that I co-wrote with Nathan have come from personal issues going on in my life,” says Hancock.  The singer says his life has gone in many directions over the past couple of years and you can hear some of these in songs like “Lie” and “Silhouette”.

People have been coming around to the new songs much to the pleasure of the band who was a little worried with all the changes they have gone through since they finished recording Forsaken.  “They’re connecting to with the songs somehow.  That to me is really cool to see,” says Hancock.

Expect a completely different album from the band Loveless says.  The music is lyrically different as well as the guitar work.  “The music has really matured in itself,” he says.  “It wouldn’t sound like something you heard four or five years ago.”

Loveless goes on to say that a couple of the songs come from the war aspect.  “That’s a big factor with life in general with all of our friends, people and fans,” he says.  “We’ve had a lot of fans that come to a lot of our shows and stuff that had to go over to Iraq and fight.  It’s been a big part of my life,” he adds.  “We wrote songs about it, how people feel, situations with war and what it does – the different emotions inside of that.”

“When we did Forsaken we were very young,” says Loveless.  “We wrote just about any and everything,” he says.  The lead guitarist says the band was learning as they were writing the first album.  They literally cut their teeth as a band recording that first album  Bass player Curtis Anthony wasn’t even a member of the band at that time the band recorded the first couple of songs for Forsaken.  Loveless, Anthony and Hartman have been together for about five years now.  “We matured a long way,” he says.  “I definitely feel as we have grown and matured individually I think the themes we write about have as well.”

Hartman says the band is proud of what they done with Darkest Hour and are proud of the music they wrote for it.  One of the things they would like to get out of it is respect.  There are some doubters out there because of the band changing singers and the loss of Meadows.  “So there’s a lot of changes within the band and with all those changes there were a lot of people who were doubting us,” says Hartman.  “They thought once we changed singers and stuff like that, we’re done – we’re finished,” he says.  “I think this album is going to prove we’re back.”

The underlying theme of the new album is emotion, thus the title Darkest Hour.  “There’s some grim stuff in there,” says Hancock.  “There’s some positive things also.”

“You’re always going to have some personal demons and you always have your skeletons in your closet,” says Hartman.  “You’ve got to battle the stuff within you sometimes.  It’s also about your personal selections, some flawed relationship, whatnot,” he adds.  “Even though you hate the darkest times, there’s always light at the end of the tunnel.  It’s just finding your way there.”

Despite changes that took place within the band, the one thing that Downstream did not want to lose with its older fan base and newer is the simple connection one gets from the song. “Maybe you find three or four songs you connect with,” says Loveless.  “And then you can tell yourself, ‘Wow, I’ve been there.’”  He goes on to say the band loves the interaction with fans after the show about how the songs relate to what’s going on in their life.  “You put on the music and it reflects us each individually as what happened to us individually and Downstream over the last three years and how that album brought us out of that,” he says.

With a new album about to be released and a change in lineup Downstream doesn’t feel any more pressure than they did before Forsaken was released.  “I’ll always have the same expectations that id did when I was nine,” says Hartman.  “I want to be a rock star, nod doubt.  But my expectations and the pressure is there,” he adds.  “It always will be.  I want to please people with my music, but I also want to please myself.”

Loveless says there is no pressure at all.  “We’ve lost some fans and we gained a lot more fans,” he says.  “I think we’re all confident people and I think we all have a goal,” he adds.  I think we’re all headed that way.”

 - Dave Weinthal

Ari Hest’s musical journey began as a teen.  After learning to play piano as a child, the Bronx-born singer/songwriter taught himself to play guitar.  Over the past ten years Hest has honed his writing craft culminating with a project in 2008 that called for him to write and post 52 songs in 52 weeks.  The outcome of the yearlong project is a 12-song album entitled Twelve Mondays, in which listeners and not the artist picked the 12 tracks.

You played baseball through high school.  Do you see a correlation between being an athlete and being a musician?

I think the only comparison I can draw off the top of my head is the preparation that goes into doing something well, hitting the ball well, take a lot of swings.  Most people aren’t generally natural home run hitters.  And I did not write good songs at first.  I hit a lot of foul balls.  For the last year I took a lot of swings so to speak. (laughs) I wrote a ton of songs.  I tried to go to another level of writing.   I remember having to do a lot of work in certain areas to get better.  That’s the best comparison I can draw.  I actually still play baseball on a summer team here in New York, so it’s not completely out of my life.

Last year you complete 52 songs in 52 weeks.  What was it like trying to come up with material on a weekly basis?  What is the songwriting process with that compared to more traditional timelines?

I got into a routine.  I knew I didn’t have a lot of time to do things, so I would try to anticipate a week or two in advance what I was going to write about so I didn’t get stuck like two days before.  I learned how to home record.  I was able to try out some things every week. If I was motivated I could try out a lot of things to see if they worked and set those things for a few listens before I put them out.  That was not enough listening for most people to listen back and say okay that’s good enough to give to the public.  I didn’t have a whole lot of time to do that.  That was part of the deal.  I knew this was going to be some errors along the way.  There are some songs I like more than others.  But I don’t think there’s anything I did I’m not proud of, and that was the best I could do at that point.

How did the massive amount of writing affect you?

The new album is the fan’s choices from the 52 songs.  It’s not necessary the 12 best songs, but it’s the ones they voted for.  The way it’s worked out the songs that maybe weren’t produced or recorded as well as I’d liked the first time around, I got to remix them and add parts or take parts away to make them sound a little bit better and was able to think things through a little bit more.  It actually sounded more like an album than any album I’d done just because at this point I’d done enough writing and recording to know what a well-rounded album should sound like.  I haven’t had a whole lot of well-rounded albums just because of lack of experience and the songs maybe weren’t as strong as these.

How did you decide on your backing artists with some of the material?

All the guys who played on the album are in my band.  There are three specific guys I go on the road with that when I come to Chattanooga will be there as well.  I really wanted to be as much of a band effort for the album although technically it’s not a band.  They’re hired musicians.  I’ve been playing with these three guys in particular for a few years now, and I trust them and they’re good friends of mine.  I really didn’t have to look very far to find the right guys for the album.

When you recorded the album did you use Apple’s Garage Band as well?

I did.  I learned a little more about Logic on Apple and I used that.  It was all again on my laptop and with very few microphones and not too much happening electronics-wise.  I just wanted to keep it pretty simple again.  I learned a little bit about mixing songs.  I had mixing speakers this time as opposed to last time where I just kind of threw it together without really knowing what I was doing. (laughs)  And now things sound a little bit better. Through the album I did get somebody who had more experience mixing and had better equipment to mix the album.  It does sound more brighter, parts are sticking out better.  That’s just a result of having better gear.

You grew up around music.  Your father wrote jingles and other music as well.  Did you feel like music was your destiny from an early age?

No, it was baseball.  I didn’t think music was my destiny at all until my parents told me I had to take piano lessons as a kid, and I couldn’t stand it.  There were certain things I knew that I liked but I had no idea it was going to be my career.  Really, I kind of fell into it back in college.  I started playing parties in school and started to develop a reputation of a good cover artist, like ten years ago.  Then I started to write my own songs and things started to snowball.  I finished school.  I luckily never had to do anything else, at least full-time asides from this. 

Explain the major label experience.  You are one of the artists that have abandoned a major label to put your music out yourself.  Do you see a future for the major labels in the long run the way things are going now in the business?

I think they have to drastically change the way they operate.  I think some of them have started to.  I think business models, sort of what I had with them subscribing to a service that gives you ”X” amount of songs for “X” amount of money each week or each month, whatever it is, I have a feeling that’s the way it’s going to go.  Sort of like cable TV, for whatever amount of money you get those many channels.  You’ll get this many songs from artists from Columbia or this amount from Universal, whatever songs they have.  I think things are going to go that way.  I don’t think anybody knows. It’s a weird feeling because I do feel like I wasn’t treated particularly well at the label in terms of they weren’t promoting me.  They were good people, but they just didn’t have my interests as their first priority.  Part of me is somewhat liking seeing them crumble, but at the same time it’s sad for people to be losing their jobs.  I do have some friends who were there.  It’s weird to watch this whole thing take place and not know how it’s going to pan out.  I hope people continue to sell their music.  At this point of my career I’m not a huge advocate of giving your music away.  I feel like to me that’s the beginning of a serious movement towards any kind of art being just given away instead of being sold and that can ruin a lot of artist’s careers.  We’ll see what happens.  I’m glad to be out.  It’s refreshing to be in charge of my own thing again.

How do you think your songwriting has changed in the past ten years and more specifically in the past year when you set about this project of posting a new song every week for a year?

It’s hard to get specific with it.  I think I’m intuitively doing things differently.  I’m crafting a little more than I was before.  I think I was settling too quickly for whatever I came up with first before.  Now after having written as many songs as I have in the last year.  Melodies and phrasing, part writing are coming at me a little bit quicker and a little more defined than it was before.  I’m understanding a little more my voice fits the music.  It certainly didn’t grasp that the first couple of years of my career.  I don’t have a rock and roll voice.  Less is more with my music, I think.  My voice is pretty thick sounding and if you put too much around it you start to have things conflicting with each other and that’s no good.  I just try to figure out different ways of writing and it’s gotten to the point where it’s more of a routine, but in a good way routine.

How has this influenced the way you play guitar?

The way I play guitar, I’m happy.  I think it’s gotten simpler.  I’ve become more of a finger picker, which is great.  I love to do that.  As far as strumming patterns and just leaving spaces for other things in recordings to be played live I’m much more conscious with the fact I can’t just be strumming away the whole time without thinking about what else is going on around me.  When you start out writing and playing by yourself and not really with no band around you, you do years of performances by yourself, you become this one man band, and I’m really pushing it with that, and I’m glad I’ve kind of gotten away from that and more towards knowing where the guitar is supposed to fit and where everything is supposed to fit around it.

Would you consider yourself more poetic as a writer or more of a melody and music kind of writer?

I think I’m more of a music writer.  The gap is narrowing.  It used to be more of like an 80/20 where music was much more important.  And now I think the gap is closing.  I still do consider my writing more music oriented than it is lyrically.  I think the more I write the more that will change again. 

What are you hoping to accomplish this year?

I want to promote Twelve Mondays as best as I can.  That’s tough doing it by yourself and trying to fund everything and plan everything.  It was hard to write a lot of songs, but now it’s even harder just trying to get it out there for people to hear when you don’t have a label behind you.  But again, it’s good to be in control of my own destiny.  I’m looking forward to the challenges of getting it out there.  I think people are really going to like what they hear. 

With spring training underway, who’s your early pick for the World Series?

I think it will be a Red Sox/Phillies.  I actually think the Phillies might win again.  I’m not a Phillies fan.  They really didn’t lose anybody, and I don’t think the [Tampa Bay] Rays will repeat quite as well as they did before.

 - Dave Weinthal

Growing up in Nashville Justin Townes Earle misspent his youth playing in bluegrass/ragtime combo The Swindlers and the louder, more rocking The Distributors and developing some very bad habits. During tours as guitarist and keyboardist in his father Steve Earle's band, his problems became untenable and he was fired. Ultimately he cleaned up his act, dropped his self-destructive habits and began to focus on songcraft. His newest album, Midnight At The Movies showcases his continual growth as master of his own destiny and not pinning all hopes on his famous musical legacy.

With this album did you play with a full band or is it mainly you with accompaniment?

On the record it’s a full band record.  I like making full band records because I’m not one of those people who is convinced – like I don’t believe you have to do the same thing live as you do on your records.  I actually find that really boring because people have the record at home.  Why would they want to come out and see the same thing they’ve been listening to for months?

I know a lot of guys who worry over sounding too much like the record or sounding “live” like they do on the record – one way or the other.  Depending on whom you talk to they’re kind of in a quandary over which direction to go and which they feel more comfortable in.

Yeah, I think you’ve just got to keep them separated.  My records are my records.  My live performance is my live performance.  I think having two creative approaches to the creative may keep it interesting because you’re not doing the same thing every time.

Before your solo project you took part in three different bands.  How do you feel being your own man now?

Even when I was in bands I was the songwriter. Like in the Swindlers I wouldn’t have called myself the front man, but it was my songs we were playing.  I’ve never liked, as greedy and childish as it sounds, I really don’t like collaboration, I mean except for when it come to from producers and then my musicians in the studio.  I’ve never wanted to be a player.  I never wanted to play other people’s songs for some reason.  This is what I’ve been working for the whole time and I very much like it.  I like writing my songs on my own and getting everyone involved when I’m ready to have them involved.

So it’s been more of a relief for you not to have so many people with their hands in the ole cookie jar.

Yeah.  I mean I’m really lucky that I have a band of guys that play with me – like several of them have been with me for years. They understand what it is I’m going for.  And everybody understands the job that they’re doing and they’ve always been like absolutely great at helping me expand upon what it is that I see as the project.  And it’s just been very nice.

Midnight At The Movies is your new album.  How did the songs come about for this album?

I’ve been labeled, and it’s very true I’ve been labeled a personal writer.  You know, Midnight At the Movies inadvertently – I didn’t realize until I was finished that it ended up representing exactly the mood I was in at the time.  It represents the mood and then I used a lot of older images to keep it from getting too personal.

How do you think it differs from Yuma or The Good Life?

I think it’s a little more grownup.  One thing, the past year definitely taught me that is I’m not old.  I’m 27-years-old, but I’m not 18-years-old any more.  The years are moving along very fast.  I just can’t do it like when I was 18.  I’m at a period in my life where it’s time to grow up.  And I think this record is kind of a step in that direction.

How do you feel your approach to songwriting has changed the older you’ve gotten?

Ever since I started completing songs I’ve written in the same fashion.  I write like a thesis. I like to make sure my songs have a very distinct beginning, middle, and end and always carry the most important information.  I used to write a lot and throw away a lot of songs.  I’m able at this point in my career to write records and not just randomly write songs.  I’ve gotten it to where when I sit down to write I’m actually writing for a project.  I think that’s real important to the way I write records so it doesn’t jump genres so much that I need to make sure it’s kind of a concentrated effort in other things. 

Did you have an easy time writing songs for this album?  After you’re out there a while as a performer and artist there can be a lot of expectations put on you.

I don’t read my own press – good or bad.  I just make records.  I think as long as I don’t pay attention to what people say about me – good or bad, especially good, I think it just takes some of the pressure off of you.  I’ve never felt any pressure to be Steve Earle’s son or to be the carrier of Townes Van Zandt’s name.  I just wanted to write songs.  I wrote songs like I always do for this record.  I wrote the first song for this record; I think it was “Someday I’ll Be Forgiven For This” a week after I walked out of the studio from recording The Good Life.  It came easy, but I’ve been around the business long enough to know how to make it easy on myself.  The minute you try to live up to other people’s expectations and living up to the expectations of your other works I think you’re going in the wrong direction.  It felt like going backwards to me.

Having a famous father, how has that affected you both personally and as a musician?

I had to when I started performing out live I think I had to make sure I came out of the box.  I started each show by saying, Hello my name is Justin Townes Earle from Nashville, Tennessee” so there’s no confusion in the matter.  I think that early on in my career it affected me greater than it does now just because people who have seen me live realize I am not my father.  They’re not going to get a gravely voice and a political quote from me.  Once again I’m really proud of my father and I love my father’s music, but I’ve never felt anything’s owed to me by being Steve Earle’s son.  I’ve got to work just like everybody else.  I’ve never really suffered.  I think it takes worrying about shit that stings to suffer – any kind of conflict of being a famous person’s kid.  You have to pay that mind and I don’t think I’ve never been one patient stake’s mind.

Did you come to music naturally or did you feel it was your destiny to become a musician?

I think I stumbled into it very naturally like a lot of people do.  I quit school.  I was just being a knucklehead.  I was just selling drugs, on my way to prison.  It took a songwriter friend of mine, Scotty Melton from Johnson City, Tennessee who kind of told me I was the drug dealing side of it.  And we still took a lot of drugs.  He was telling me the same thing my dad was telling me but I needed somebody else to tell it to me.  Scotty Melton is what got me going in the right direction.  He was a student of my father and the same guy that my father was – you know, Woody Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen – people like that.  I was getting the same message that my father was trying to tell me.  I just wasn’t listening to him. 

You say you write now for an album compared to just writing single.  Your albums will change genres slightly from one to another.  How did you decide which genre to embrace?  Was it a conscious effort or was it a song or two that made you pursue that certain genre?

The songs are just the songs.  And don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those people who think songs are alive and they’re beamed to me from outer space.  That’s another thing that comes along with the guys who play.  I can write in any fashion and these guys can figure.  They can help me out a lot at the right point to get it across.  I just write it. I don’t believe that songs have to be in genre.  I don’t think that I should have to make a country record or a jazz record or a singer/songwriter record.  I’m just gonna make records and put whatever the hell I want on them. (laughs)

That’s refreshing to hear.  It seems a lot of singer/songwriters I talk to seem to take themselves too seriously.  Do you see that as well?

Yeah, I do.  People have to take into account when it comes to songwriters they tend to be real touchy, anal creatures. Most songwriters if they know it or not, are personal songwriters.  When you’re kind of putting yourself out there on the line can be nerve-racking.  I think that the people getting ornery about it just don’t have fun doing this.  The songwriters that tend to be touchy are the kind I don’t think enjoy the whole package.  They would like it a lot more if they could sit in a studio and pump records out and not have to tour.

What’s the biggest lesson you learned since you started playing music?

Before I got to the point I had contracts on my shows it was get paid first.  But these days I’ve just learned to quit – I’ve learned the whole rock star thing is a mess.  I’ve learned you don’t have to be a lunatic to be a good songwriter.  And you can’t make it in this way of life if you have any of those crazy notions you have to be fucked up to be in this business.  I’ve learned you can be a perfectly normal guy and still write songs. (laughs)  Not to say I’m a perfectly normal guy.  I’m a weird fucker.  I used to be a bad man.  I literally was like a dangerous person to be around for a lot of years of my life due to the people I surrounded myself with from the drugs that I took.  And it created a lot of bullshit in my life.  I have all that to write about.  I’m discovering it’s a hell of a lot easier when I’m not fucked up all the time and people look forward to me coming back as opposed to not.

 - Dave Weinthal

Chatsworth, GA native, who now calls Chattanooga home, Jason Lyles is a dynamic musician that you need to hear.  In a world of poor copycats and others till stuck in the grunge music mold, Lyles performs high-energy power pop music filled with catchy hooks that leaves the listener wanting more.  Many are familiar with Lyles for his solo acoustic shows and his co-hosting of the local music show on Rock 105, however, the full-band experience is one that needs to be witnessed.  Without further ado, introducing Jason Lyles.

What got you interested in music initially?

I kind of always had an interest in music.  I took piano lessons when I was really little.  When I was in middle school I really got into guitar.  I wanted to write my own songs and perform them.  I started a band in high school and got to do that and continued that through college and am still doing it now.

Was there an artist or band that made an indelible impression on your musical tastes?

Growing up in the ‘80s and ‘90s there’s tons of bands to influence me.  The big ones that probably influenced me more than any were Matthew Sweet, Better Than Ezra, and bands like Cheap Trick, you know songs that I can instantly connect with emotionally and imitate and play and learn on guitar at the same time. 

Did songwriting come naturally to you, or was it something you had to toil with?

I’ve definitely gotten better at it over the years. When I started out I had all these ideas. I had snippets and all these things they never had trouble connecting them into one three or four minute pop song, but now I have a lot easier time at it and experience with recording and performing.  When I have an idea I can expand it and congeal it into something that makes sense song-wise.

How tough a road has it been being a solo artist these days with the way the music business is?

Well, to be honest, I’ve had more success playing solo acoustic.  I definitely make more money doing that.  And there seems to be more of a market for that than as a solo artist who’s backed up by a band.  Sometimes you’ll book and there will be some confusion – is it just you or do you have a band with you?  And that’s why I changed the name to Jason Lyles and the Sonic Avatars to let people now that this is a full band experience.  It’s me writing the songs, but these are the people backing me up and we’re putting on a full on rock show.

What process did you go through in finding the band to back you up?

It was actually fairly easy.  These guys that I play with, they’re road tested, they’re more experienced than I am, actually, they can pick things up really quick, and I’ve known them for years.  It was just a matter of convincing them and they seemed to be onboard with it.  It was fairly easy.  I wanted to try and get more people involved with it and try to find some people who were actually from Chattanooga, but these guys seemed to fit the bill.  They’ve stuck with me all this time.  They know my songs.  They know what I like.

You’ve got a new album coming out.  What was the process of putting this together?  Was it a collaborative member with the other band members or did you bring all the material to the band? 

Mainly, the songs were already written.  Most of the songs that were already on the album, I’ve been performing for a while out as Jason Lyles Band.  But I had the songs and would play the guitar music and sing it, and they would fill in the rest.  If I had an idea I would tell them I want it to go like this.  And they’re really good about picking up on that.  They know me.  They know what I like and are excellent musicians. They can really pick it up and it can gel pretty quickly.

Tell me about the new album.  What can I look forward to when I hear it?  How has it changed from your last release, Ethereal?

With Ethereal it was kind of more of a singer/songwriter album with a band kind of thrown in to back me up.  This actually is a full-on rock band experience – and that’s why I changed the name.  You can expect high energy.  It’s pretty much high-energy power pop.  You can expect some Cheap Trick flavor with my bass player – he plays the 12-string bass on most of the songs.  You can expect a little modern influence – some Foo Fighters in there as well as some heartfelt emotion power pop – Better Than Ezra/Matthew Sweet, too.

What was the recording process like compared to playing out live?

It came fairly naturally.  We recorded the drums first at Steven’s Music Company.  Then most of the overdubs I did at home because I’m over the process of the last two albums.  I’ve gotten better at producing, mixing and recording.  So I brought that all in and did it at home and mixed it all myself and got it mastered.  You know, it’s just a matter of perfecting what you already do live and just kind of expanding on it a little bit, but not much – just to make sure you’ve got any holes filled in and if there’s any you want to do artistically or sonically, you can get that down as well without distracting from what the full-on live experience is like.

Explain you songwriting technique.

Most of my writing is done around hooks.  I’ll have an idea pop in my head, or I’ll have a melody hook that comes to me in the car or shower and then I’ll think, “How can I build around that and turn it into a three-minute song?”  Most of my songs are written around hooks like that, whether the hook is a lyric, a melody or a guitar lick, it just kind of focuses on that. I like to write the kind of songs that get stuck in people’s heads.

When you put together the album did you write with the mindset of creating an album or was it just a collection of songs that you bundled as an album?

Well it is a collection of songs I put together, but for the most part it evolved out of me playing live over the past year with these guys and what we’ve doe together.  I really wanted it to convey what we do live.  That’s why this one has a more unified sound than my last two albums.  It really comes across that this is a full band deal. 

What can we look forward to from Jason Lyles in the near future?

Hopefully more shows, more local shows, more expanding regional shows.  Hopefully expanding the fan base, just keep on plugging out there.  At the same time doing acoustic shows to fill in the gaps.  And of course sell a lot of CDs. (laughs)

 - Dave Weinthal