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Kings of Leon - Because of the Times

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I'll be honest - when I gave the new Kings of Leon a spin for the first time, I was expecting a crash and burn. I was expecting it to finally be the one I didn't like, the inevitable letdown, the one we wouldn't bother stocking at HGMN. I don't know why, exactly. Maybe I underestimated the band, or maybe I overestimated the rip current of the music world at large. I just figured that they had their nice little run and that they would fade away like most of the rest. Little did I know that not only would I love Because Of The Times, but that I would have to completely re-evaluate my outlook on this band.
As Railroad Earth sets out on there Spring/Summer tour, we interview John Skehan, mandolin player, of Railroad Earth. He explains the times on the road, his feeling at festivals, and states how everything leads back to Garcia.
Blue Sparks over Good Homes for Railroad Earth:
An Interview with John Skehan
Interview by Jordan Stutz


HGMN: You are the mandolin player of Railroad Earth. What made you decide to pick up the mandolin as an instrument?

John Skehan: Well, I played guitar for most of my life, I studied piano out in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania at Susquehanna University. Piano was my main instrument for a while but I always enjoyed playing guitar and I had an interest is roots music, folk music and in particular I started to get real interested in the old Irish fiddle tunes and the whole Celtic creation. However, a lot of those fiddle tunes, those jigs and reels, don't really fit all that well under your fingers on the guitar. A friend of mine, who I used to play guitar with, happened to put a mandolin in my hand that he had picked up somewhere cheap and said 'Hey John, maybe you can figure this out'.
Sure enough, as I went back to some of my Irish jigs and reels that I had in the book there I said 'Wow, this makes a lot more sense". One thing kind of lead to another throughout the years and I just gradually became really hooked on it.

HGMN: If it works for you man, then why not stick with it right? So then how about influences? Who did you listen to the most when you were starting out your mandolin playing to pick up your style?

JS: You know, in the beginning, a lot of David Grisman and Andy Statman. I really actually didn't necessarily listen to a whole lot of different mandolin oriented music, I just kind of picked it up and started fooling around with it. At that time I was playing with a lot of singer/songwriters kind of doing the guitar duo thing. So gradually, as I began learning a little more about the mandolin, I would use that to supplement my guitar playing as I started to learn which keys I could and could not play on the mandolin. So I just played and fooled around and approached it with no real particular bluegrass or set mandolin tradition. I then eventually got turned onto a lot of really cool stuff through a good friend of mine named, Todd Collins, who is an phenomenal mandolin player and composer, and I started studying with him in the beginning and he kind of opened my eyes to a whole lot of bluegrass oriented music beyond just Old and in the Way which I had gotten hooked on. Somehow it all ties in with Jerry Garcia no matter what you do.

HGMN: We're looking at your tour schedule now and it seems pretty hectic and all over the place. May, June, July, and so on, so how is life on the road to the band?

JS: It's strange, there's a whole lot of everything all at once, which means it's really fun sometimes but it's also really twisted every now and then. You run into various little dilemmas like vehicle breakdowns, to weather, you name it. Good food, bad food. Good coffee, lousy coffee (laughs). It's good though, we're looking forward to heading out again and especially getting out across this big great country. There is a lot of ground to cover out there.

HGMN: And on the tour schedule we see that you are playing Bonnaroo Music Festival this summer...

JS: Yeah. That's a new festival for us. It's going to be exciting because I have been led to believe, anyhow, that it is the biggest festival of its type in the whole entire country.

HGMN: We have been there and it is...it's insane; you're going to have a great time. If you get a chance to just get out there and watch the other bands...which brings me to my next question. You have played festivals before, the Celtic Festival you played. So when you play festivals, do you get out there with the audience and actually watch other bands perform?

JS: Absolutely. I always try to as much as possible; again it often depends on the tour schedule. One of the great things about festivals, compared to just running through bars for one night shows, is that typically you're there for a whole day, if not two or three days. So, when you're doing a lot of touring, and moving across the country, festivals are often the first time you get to cool your gears for a few days and enjoy the great big playground that a festival can be. You get to hear a bunch of bands and quite often we come across fellow "Road Warriors" like Hot Buttered Rum and the Greensky Bluegrass Band and we all get the chance to sit in with them. So yeah, whenever possible we try to get out there and catch as many bands as we possibly can.

HGMN: The classic interview question, how did you guys (Railroad Earth) all meet?

JS: Most of us all knew each other and had worked together musically and in one form or another as side-men on other projects or in the studio, and we all were certainly playing in different bands, different groups, at the same time. So, if we weren't working with one another, we were probably going out and seeing one another's bands (laughs) on any given night. The drummer, Kerry Harman, and our fiddle player, Tim Carbone, and I played together in a couple of different groups you know working with different singer/songwriters and working in the studio together. Timmy produces quite a few records in his off-time. Jimmy and Andy, Andy being our multi-instrumentalist and plays absolutely everything with strings, mandolin, banjo, guitar, dobro, you name it, and also all woodwinds, have played together for many, many years and they had a very popular band together called Blue Sparks from Hell. And of course Todd was the lead singer and front man of From Good Homes, which is one of the best, if not the best local roots bands to come out of New Jersey. So we all certainly knew From Good Homes and I had seen them many times and I had also worked quite a bit with other members of From Good Homes in various side projects. We were all very mixed in with one another to begin with (laughs).

HGMN: So that explains the fruition, if you will, of the band. Where did the name Railroad Earth come from? Was it the workings of one man or a group effort?

JS: Well, Jack Kerouac came up with it actually from a poem of his called October in the Railroad Earth. It just sort of had a ring to it.

HGMN: Let's backtrack about two years back to New Years Eve 2005. Railroad Earth played a show at the Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia. The stage production, which was a very Pink Floyd-esque visual with the big heads, the costumes, the videos...

JS: That was certainly one of the first times we had gone as far as bringing in something of that nature to the extent of that lighting rig. Like a lot of what we do, it was an experiment. We've used similar style of productions a couple of times for different things like New Years Eve when you always just want to try something a little bit bigger. Due to it being New Years Eve, and just a party, we had a variety of friends join us to kind of bring their own thing to it. I had forgotten about the giant head. I didn't even know what was happening until I turned around on stage and it scared the hell out of me (laughs). I remember walking in that day and seeing the big screen, I remember thinking 'Oh no'. I hadn't seen anything like that since I had been to a Pink Floyd show over 10 years ago. It's something you know we have done on all different levels. You know this past run-through of New Years we brought in some people with some lighting rigs and kind of took a different approach, more of a stripped down stage backdrop with lights. And instead of video this time we just had the shifting color palettes and things like that. It's something fun for us to experiment with which hopefully brings an extra dimension to the show.

HGMN: Any words of wisdom for your fans to hear?

JS: We are kicking off the tour all over the country starting off March 30th up at State College in Pennsylvania. We are excited to get back out there. It has been a number of years and we have played State College and I believe the University (Penn State University) in the past, but it has been a while. We have spent so much time out west just trying to make tracks around the great big U.S.A. We are looking forward to getting out there for sure. We have been working on a good bit of new material here and there so we'll be starting to try some of that out as we head that way. So enjoy.     

SeepeopleS - Apocalypse Cow Vol. 1

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With most of the United States drunk on a cocktail of Prozac, American Idol, tabloid drama, and YouTube drivel, not to mention the soul-crushing trials and tribulations of their everyday lives, it's little surprise that constant death continues in Iraq. Those who wish to end the war, even those in powerful positions, are completely ignored or have their sensible proclamations filtered out of the collective American consciousness by a screen of static and slop. It's not fun to think about such weighty matters, and most citizens are content to drown them out with anti-depressants.
In a musical world increasingly beset by big business, big contracts and gloss, Eric Noble remains a simple man with an even simpler mission: spreading exceptional sounds, one concert at a time. His main partner in the journey is Loyal Family, a St. Louis-based independent promotions company focused on the jam, roots music and festival scene. Along with the sister enterprise Noble Empire, they are burning a trail through not only the Midwest’s vast grassroots network, but increasingly capturing a national spotlight as well. Their biggest venture to date is Dogstock, a four-day, 100-band, multiple-stage campout extravaganza happening in Melvern, Kansas July 26-29, on 81 acres of pristine, private land. A majestic “little guy” amongst festival-world behemoths, Dogstock’s aim is to emit the same down-home, get-funky, say-hello-to-your-friends vibrations that each of Noble’s local shows puts forth – with the added benefit of halting time, if even for just a few days.
Interview by Clara Rose Thornton

HGMN: - What is the connection between Loyal Family and Noble Empire?

Eric Noble - Loyal Family is a collective of like-minded people that are out there promoting and booking. What it boils down to is that I'm very closely associated with Loyal Family and its growth, and I just put Noble Empire out there for Dogstock this time around. But Loyal Family is definitely working hard in the background.

HGMN - So Noble Empire came along after Loyal Family, as an outgrowth?

EN - Yes. We're essentially just using it for Dogstock right now. Loyal Family is positioned more for our Midwest bands and some of our bigger projects. Dogstock is definitely a bigger project, but Loyal Family has taken a background role, I guess is the best way to put it.

HGMN - How long has Loyal Family existed and how did it come together?

EN - Loyal Family started with my partner Joshua in St. Louis. Josh is the main guy behind it; he's [also] my roommate. He's been booking and promoting live music for seven or eight years. [When we met] we'd both gotten to a point where there was so much going on that we couldn't just operate under our own names anymore; we had to create a company. It birthed from all the business we'd built booking and promoting bands in and around St. Louis.
He threw a festival about three years ago called Zoe Jam. It had Greyhounds, P-Funk, Hot Tuna and a bunch of other bands at the same place that Schwagstock is thrown (Camp Zoe in Salem, MO). That was one of Loyal Family's big stepping stones. I came into the picture at that time. I met Josh and we both quickly realized that we'd be better off working with each other rather than competing for the same market. It was easier; I figured that instead of reinventing the wheel, just jump on with Loyal Family. And we've grown it well, I'd say.

HGMN - What year was it that you got involved?

EN - 2003.

HGMN - Is there a philosophy at work at all, in terms of the artists that you select to represent and promote?

EN - There's no philosophy. As you know, a lot of the bands in what we call the jamband community are culturally collected. The only philosophy is that it's good music. A lot of it is that we really are like a close family, when it gets right down to it. All the bands, all of us - we all cross paths at a point.

HGMN - Who are some of the musicians that you work with?

EN - We've gotten to work with so many stellar bands. I don't know if you're familiar with last year's Battlerusa tour, but that was a Loyal Family event for Wakarusa. We do the Cosmic Breaks Tour for the 10,000 Lakes Festival. Other than that, in terms of specific individuals, we've helped out a lot of St. Louis bands, a lot of Midwest bands. Some of these acts are Mississippi Flapjack, Public Property from Iowa City, Station, Shanti Groove, Moonshine Still... Just this past year we've branched out amongst the region itself by throwing shows in Ft. Collins, Omaha and Iowa City. We're grassroots promoters who dig deep into the local scene.

HGMN - So there's a sort of "Think Global, Act Local" dynamic at work?

EN - Exactly. And I'll tell you, when I was going to school in Nashville, one of my professors told me to "think national, not Nashville." I definitely carry that philosophy with me every day.

HGMN - Looking at the entire collective of bands and types of bands that you represent, i.e. musicians in the jamband family, what would you say are the unique qualities of a band like that that makes it worth so much more to go see them live, as opposed to other bands for whom the live show isn't as big of a component?

EN - I think that for anybody, when they go to a live show they want to experience something that they couldn't just hear on a CD. There's something to be said for going to a live show and feeling like you went to a singular, special concert and had a good time. You feel young again, or however you might put it. That element of passion for their music and passion for what they do is attractive.

HGMN - How many other festivals has Loyal Family put on besides Dogstock? You mentioned that one, which was the first.

EN- Zoe Jam and Dogstock are the bigger ones [that we've put on ourselves], and I mentioned that we worked with Wakarusa and 10,000 Lakes. By no means did we put those festivals on, but we've definitely done some pretty big projects for them. 20-city tours - that's not a small thing to pull off by any means.

HGMN - Definitely not.

EN - We'll help a festival out whenever we can, but there's 365 days in a year and I think the majority of those days are spent promoting club shows. We're predominantly local promoters, working around St. Louis and the Midwest region, helping these small, fantastic bands get the word out. But we'll definitely step in and help out a festival when needed. We're down for the cause.

HGMN - I read that Dogstock is a benefit for the Akita Adoption and Rescue Foundation. That's really cool; it's a beautiful thing and quite rare for such a large event to directly benefit a cause focused on animals.

EN - It's cool to get behind a cause, definitely.

HGMN - Was this the original impetus for organizing Dogstock? Did you specifically have this in mind or did it just fall together?

EN- To be clear on the origins of Dogstock - this is the fifth one. It's grown from the first three being a one-stage, just-a-few-bands, one-afternoon thing into this multiple-stage, 100+ band monstrosity that's happening this year. The first three years it was Randy Long and his Akita Adoption and Rescue Foundation putting on the event as a benefit for his onsite dog sanctuary. Last year I personally came onboard, aside from Loyal Family, because of my experience with Wakarusa and other festivals. It was quickly realized between Randy and I that we could grow this event into something that it deserves to be. We started planning for this year before last year's event even took place.

HGMN - How did the event evolve as an organizing strategy as the event itself grew?

EN- We've increased our street team efforts; we're now marketing in over 20 cities. Mine and your conversation right now is an example of how [our marketing] has grown, as far as our ability to get combined Midwest and national promotion. Working with Relix, Jambase, the people at Home Grown, Conscious Alliance... these things weren't happening in the years past, but they're definitely happening this year and we're very thankful for it. Our overall intention has been to increase the number of people that are getting involved with the event itself. We want to create a lot more noise out there this
year.

HGMN - How do you see Dogstock fitting into the current array of festivals and within festival culture in general? Meaning, there's been such an explosion in the scene that there's literally a festival booked somewhere every weekend of the summer. Does Dogstock aim to have a unique place amongst the offerings?

EN - Dogstock is a different beast because we are a benefit show - we're not just a straight-up music festival. We do have a cause that we're backing, so that separates us a little bit from the rest of the pack. Of course, we will have 100+ bands, multiple stages and four days of camping, which is, generally, the same deal as most festivals. Yet, we're
not competing with any other events - well, we're trying not to. It's simple: We offer what we offer. It's for a good cause, so people can come out and support, knowing that they're getting a lot for half the price of a normal festival. Right now we're offering buy one get one free specials, and last month we did buy one get two free, which has never been done before in the festival world as far as I know.

HGMN - Does Noble Empire want Dogstock characterized as a return to a more classic, old school festival-style good time, or by coming out of the box with something new, with something off-kilter? What are you going for - classic or off the wall?

EN - We just want to throw a party, and wherever the chips fall, that's where they fall. [How it ends up is] not for us to decide. We'd definitely like to market to several different demographics. We went for some of the bigger jam-friendly bands that you'd see at a Wakarusa or 10,000 Lakes, but unfortunately, for various reasons, some of those bands won't be in. So we have a line-up that goes in different directions; we've got some classic rock, but we're predominantly heavy on up-and-coming artists. It's very Home Grown-friendly music. Through our experiences out on the road with Battlerusa and Cosmic Break Tour we've been fortunate enough to meet so many great bands that I wouldn't even feel comfortable if I didn't invite as many of them as I could to the party.
Hopefully when people come to Dogstock, they'll see music that they've seen in the past, that's comfortable for them, but also at many times during the weekend they'll experience bands that they might not have heard of, but that they'll definitely be hearing of soon. It's all good music - I can personally guarantee that.

HGMN - Can you single out a couple of the artists that will perform and describe some of their unique qualities?

EN- I'm always excited to see Moonshine Still, and of course they're bringing their lights with them. Bands like 56 Hope Road, Public Property, Green Lemon, Madahoochi - they're going to give a good example of what the Midwest music scene really has to offer people in general. I don't want to dive too deeply into specifics because I don't want to show favoritism towards anybody, but I will say that we have a lot of phenomenal bands and I'm very honored to have them at all at our party. It will be something unique
that you don't see at every festival.

HGMN - How did the band selection process work? Did you mostly pull from the Loyal Family pool, or did you try to recruit from all corners of the map?

EN- It's a little bit of both. We're doing a campaign with Sonicbids, and I've reserved ten slots for Sonicbids artists. I have a partnership [with that promotion company]. Some of those bands - Shanti Groove, Moonshine Still, Chicago Afrobeat Project - were easy choices for us because they are bands that we've worked with many times over the past couple of years. The more classic rock ensembles I leave up to Randy. That's his forte.
He'd have to speak on that himself.
We tried to provide a diversified line-up. For instance, we're bringing in SoulEye, hip hop guys out of Colorado. They're going on tour with a band called Boulevard. They have, somehow, gotten into the mix where they did the String Cheese New Years show, they've done Jam Cruise the last two years, Wakarusa, 10,000 Lakes. We're bringing in people like that whom a lot of folks in our area haven't heard of. I just want people to have a good time and a good party, and no matter what stage they go to it'll be good music.

HGMN - Switching gears, what do you, as a music promoter, think of the current state of the jamband/roots music scene? Do you feel that a harmful amount of commercialism has crept in any way?

EN- I think that's going to happen with any good thing. Yet, it depends on what side of the fence you stand as far as commercialism and what that really means, for events themselves or for the culture at large. The jamband community is a smart one. It's progressive enough that it always stays ahead of the corporate world. I think [commercialism] happens, it has happened; there are definitely some festivals that have been around for only three years or so, and going into their fourth year they're getting more commercialized. That, to me, can be looked at as the general life cycle of a festival. But the culture itself is alive and well, and represented in our own unique ways. I still think there are plenty of people out there who have no idea who Green Lemon is, and that's perfectly fine by me.

HGMN - For our sign-off, let's end this on a personal note. Do you remember the moment you realized that music was your life's passion, that you were bit by this bug and this was, indeed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, your life's path?

EN - You know, I actually have a couple stories to share on that one. (laughs) When I was a kid, there was the moment that I got my first shiny red bicycle...and on that same Christmas I got my first record player. I have a picture at my mom's house that shows me holding up this record player, and in the background you see my shiny red bicycle. I didn't care anything about that bike, yet I always remember how I felt when I got my record player.
All through life music has been there. More specifically, as far as the festival world goes, at the end of Bonnaroo 2002 I was hanging out backstage - I was fortunate enough to be on staff and got to share a different experience than a lot of other concertgoers; I was privy to more inside information - and I remember thinking, "Wow. This is such a great thing. You get 80,000 people in one place and no one's fighting or arguing." That propelled me into motivating myself to produce an event on some level that could possibly become that, one day. Not to be a Bonnaroo! (laughs) Just to throw a good party where a lot of people have a good time.

HGMN - To have an atmosphere where people feel peaceful, where they feel as if they're merely existing - just enjoying existence - during the time that they're there?

EN - People work 50 or 51 weeks out of the year. If they get one week off and can camp out for a couple days, have a good time, get taken away from the "real" world and let themselves experience life, then by all means - we should have a festival every weekend.
Seepeoples provide the cathartic tension and release of improv stunts, but with a firmly grounded songwriting style and lyrical impetus. Hard-hitting political lyrics skitter over dreamy, moody, echo-laden songs that are all about substance and style. Leaping from style to style within their own musical framework, Seepeoples astounds with masterful production and serious sounds. Truly a must-hear!
Interview by: Chris Robie

SeepeopleS:
Will Bradford - Vocals, Keys and Guitars
Tim Haney - drums
Dan Ingenthron - Bass
Peter Keys - Keyboards


HGMN: How would you describe the music of SeePeoples?

Will: I can't. I hope I never can. That's what makes SeepeopleS special to me.

Tim: Seepeoples music to me is the challenge of simplicity. The material is really centered around accomplished songwriting rather than musically challenging arrangements. It's a really dynamic approach to playing---sometimes we will be playing really loud yet it is still reserved. Keeping the music dynamic is the most important thing to me because you really get the point across with whatever vibe you are trying to accomplish with the music. With us its "songs" not "hey lets see how many notes we can play in a minute and how many times we can change time signatures." Don't get me wrong, I love the really hard shit but that's not SeepeopleS, and that's really great. It's also really great because we all come from different musical backgrounds and I think that shows through the material seeing how a lot of the music really ranges in different genres. The range in genres to me keeps it fun and interesting.

Dan: It ranges from nice and polite to full freakout explosion. We have fun with it. It's not so easy to go beyond that.

HGMN: So what does Apocalypse Cow mean?

Tim: My guess is that it has some type of personal reference to Will in some type of sarcastic way tied in with some satirical political views.

Dan: That's a good question. Maybe it refers to all the people out there feeding on the idea of the end of the world instead of making the most of the days they have in it.

Pete: Apocow means the end is near...I think the bovine revolution is close at hand.

Will: The actual meaning of the title is perfectly captured in the Butter Battle Book, by Dr. Seuss. "And they all marched down a hole for their country, and right side up butter!" It's about the sacrifices we all make at the ends of things, if that makes any sense whatsoever.

HGMN: "Holding" is one of my favorite tracks off of Apocalypse Cow. Do you guys favor any particular song from the new CD?

Will: I can barely remember what songs are on the album! I'm sure the other guys have some songs they like...and hate.

Dan: "Last Sane Man." It's simplistic; but solid. I think it best represents how we bring sound together as a band, but in an opposite way as we've usually done it before; all subtlety, no frills.

Tim: "Holding" because it alternates 7's and 8's and it rocks, and at the end when all of the crazy stuff is going on there is a synth sound on it that when I listen to it I feel like I am licking a battery.

Pete: "Last Breath" may be my favorite song because of the wide dynamic range. I really dig that it starts so laid back, and ends so powerfully... with lotsa cool textures n stuff in the middle...also that it is so organic...and I love Will's melodic...uh...melody.

HGMN: How is this new album different from the previous SeepeopleS albums?

Will: I'm not sure how, but it is different. But we always try and make a different album every time we make one. I think this is a more mature record than anything we have put out before, but I suppose if we didn't get wiser as we got older, than we would really be in trouble!

Dan: There was less production - less overdubs and less instrumentation, and the focus was more on letting the songs speak for themselves than experimenting with ways to sauce them up. There are exceptions, of course - we do like the sauce. But it took a fraction of the time to make, compared to the first two, because we could let these songs go out completely stripped down.

Pete: This album strikes me as more mature than the previous two. Not that they were bad, or adolescent, just that on this one, I think we really worked as a band. All the shows and miles in the van together solidified us as a whole. Rather than a bunch of separate minds, we melded.

Tim: I feel that it is our most professional approach to recording as of yet. When we recorded For The Good Of The Nation seven years ago, in my opinion, none of us were really all that studio proficient and hadn't had much studio experience so we didn't necessarily go about it in the best way. I'm pretty sure none of those tracks were recorded with a click track so that automatically made the rest of the tracking fairly difficult I'm sure. Also, when we recorded that I think we were SeepeopleS for like two weeks or something because that was when Will, Dan, and I decided to leave Cosmic Dilemma which cut our song list down about a quarter. In my opinion though, I really kind of like that record a lot - it has a very charming character for a first release and I was very young at the time so listening to that record makes me reflect back on a very transitional period of my life. The Corn Syrup Conspiracy I think is a very brilliant record and the whole album is basically Will. Dan and I had nothing to do with that record seeing as how we weren't in the band at that point. That record to me shows how incredible Will has become in the studio and what different types of twacky shit he can come up with when he is given the time. Apocalypse Cow to me is a extremely beautiful record in the sense that it is the first recording in over three years that Will, Dan and I did together and then adding Pete to me is kind of like the icing on the cake so to speak, or cherry on top kind of thing. That whole record was basically ready to be recorded for a long time and we cranked it out. As far as I know when Will went into the studio to record Corn Syrup, a lot of that record kind of happened in the studio rather than it being kind of done already in his head and ready to be tracked. I gained a lot of studio experience while I was with Dreadnaught, which was the band that I was in when I took a few years off from Seepeoples, and going in to record Apocalypse Cow was great, I felt really good going into it and the studio experience that I gained had a lot to do with that, and in my opinion it really shows through on apocow with all of us and you can almost hear raw emotion and that is what music has pretty much always been for me.

HGMN: What's Cosmic Dilemma?

Will: I haven't the faintest clue as to what you are talking about.

Tim: Cosmic Dilemma was a Boston based jam band in the nineties that Will and I played with for a few years. Dan later joined and a short while after that the band broke up mainly because Will, Dan and I had some musical issues with the other guitar player. Long story short, the other guitar player came up with the name Cosmic Dilemma and wanted to keep the name. Will, Dan and I wanted to keep playing together so SeepeopleS was born.

Dan: There was a link on the band's site for a while to explain what it meant. It linked to some guy's grad school thesis and about 50 pages of quantum physics equations. I didn't read it, so I can't sum it up. Basically, it was a not-so-good band name and the first time that Will, Tim and I played together.

HGMN: Tim mentioned that both he and Dan took some time off from Seepeoples for a couple years. Why were you guys not in the band?

Dan: We broke up, as bands do, usually for reasons that don't make a lot of sense further down the road. We had our own thing going for a while. Will kept playing with a couple different lineups, Tim started touring with Dreadnaught, and I moved to Chapel Hill and played with a few bands, including the Three Torches. Our first gig back together was almost 3 years to the day since our last one, and was the first of a 3 month tour. I think we had three rehearsals before it.

Tim: Bands to me are kind of like marriages. Sometimes they work, most of the time they don't, and sometimes they can really piss you off. We had all spent a lot of years together at that point and we were all still pretty young so I think there was maturing that needed to be had, other musical ya ya's to get out, personal differences, you know the whole nine yards. To be honest I knew that that wasn't going to be it forever. I had a feeling that we would regroup at some point. I didn't really know when, how, or to what extent but I knew it wasn't over. I've been playing music with Will since I was about eleven and I am very close with his family so I knew that splitting up wasn't carved in stone. It was just kind of a break so to speak.

HGMN: You guys have a cool little music video on YouTube What's up with that?

Pete: A photo shoot gone horribly wrong.

Will: When I lived in Boston I saw two homeless guys in Kenmore Square with a boom box, and two cardboard cut out guitars. They were just rocking out while Red Sox fans were leaving Fenway Park. Their performance was captivating, and I never forgot it. Also, much Thanks to the Grey Eagle, best rock club in Asheville, for letting us act like morons in the club while they weren't there.

Dan: I didn't know we were shooting a video until about 10 seconds before it started. I was running around trying to find twine to make a guitar strap for my cardboard bass. There's a high kick in it that had me walking funny a couple days later. This is what the business is all about.

Tim: We felt very silly that day and ended up getting a great result out of it in my opinion anyway. I think that originally it was going to just be a press photo shoot and we decided to try actually playing cardboard instruments along with one of the album tracks and "Apocalypse Cow" just made sense.

HGMN: How long do we have to wait for the Apocalypse Cow Vol. 2 release? What are your plans? Will it have a similar sound?

Tim: Will? Answer please.

Dan: No, you don't get to know, that would spoil the fun.

Will: Hopefully we won't have to wait too long. I am already writing songs for the album after Part 2. I promise, as always, that it will be different.

HGMN: Pete also plays with George Clinton. How did he end up playing with SeepeopleS?

Will: I met him backstage at a Pfunk show. They had just screwed him on a ride to the airport, so I drove him. The rest is history. Funny thing though, we had actually met years before when SeepeopleS played with Parliament at a festival in Maine. We partied all night together, and neither of us really remembered it for some reason.

Pete: SeepeopleS opened up for P-Funk in Maine a few years ago, and apparently I hung out with Will and the boys. I didn't remember a thing. They erased my cerebellum. Or it was the mass quantities of bad things I used to use? A year later, Will showed up at a show where I was stranded without a ride back to the airport (bad planning, a P-Funk regularity). He said he'd give me a ride to Boston, where he was going to record this new record (The Corn Syrup Conspiracy). I happily got in the car, and was quite surprised - no, blown away - by the rough mixes he played me. We got to talking, I played him some of my tunes, and he asked if I'd like to be on the album. I said fuck yeah and flew to Boston a couple weeks later and tracked an obscene amount of keyboard parts in two days. Much to my amazement they all made it onto the record! After working with Will in the studio, and hearing the end result, I knew I had found something very rare and special, so I joined the band, and have been touring with them ever since. I still don't remember meeting them for the first time and we hung out for hours apparently. Must have lost some marbles. Shrooms were involved I think. Lots.

HGMN: How did the rest of you guys meet?

Dan: I met Will in Boston in 1999 through another guitarist, and we started playing. He told me he was waiting for his drummer to get out of high school. Tim got a front-page feature in his hometown newspaper for blowing off college and joining a rock band; he moved down to Boston and we started touring around New England. Pete came along during Corn Syrup. He'd put tracks down on the record and was originally going to come out with us just for a handful of dates, but then he decided to stick around instead.

HGMN: Front page in the paper?

Tim: I started playing with Cosmic Dilemma when I was a sophomore in high school. By the time I was a senior I knew that being in a rock band was something I had to at least try and after a few arguments with my folks, they kind of agreed with me. As far as the paper goes, that just kind of happened. I called the newspaper to see if they could put an ad in it seeing how Cosmic Dilemma was playing in my hometown the same weekend as my graduation. The person I was put in contact with was actually a reporter and I think he found it interesting or something. He ended up coming to my parent's house and interviewing me at the dinner table over a cup of coffee. At that point I REALLY wanted to be in a rock band.

HGMN: Any regrets?

Tim: I don't really have any regrets. I still haven't received a day of college education and it bothers me a little bit but not to the point where I am necessarily worried about it. College will always be there. Being in a successfully touring rock band may not.

HGMN: Do you find that your politically charged songs make for better songwriting or do you plan to mellow out anytime soon?

Will: I try and plan as little as possible. But I will always write about the world around me as long as I remain a part of it. Ever since I became a father - my son is four - I began to see many things for the first time again. Many of those things inspired me, and filled me with motivation to make big songs with big emotions. Some of the things I've seen again for the first time, piss me off almost as much as when I really did see them for the first time, and for some reason, some crazy reason, politicians just do lots of things that really piss me off. I have no idea when they will stop making me so angry! I do hope they try and stop.

Dan: There's a lot of mellow on this album. It's impossible to not get angry with the state of affairs, and so it's more important than ever to make sure people are awake and aware. But for exactly that reason, it's just as important to be able to find happiness. If you can't find peace within yourself and the people you know and love, there's no chance of the world ever finding it.

Tim: I feel that there are a lot of pressing issues in this world and even in everyone's everyday life that can definitely spark some creative flares in everyone. They just need to figure out how to do it. Will is a prime example of being able to harness what it is he is trying to say through very smart, thought provoking lyrics. I think Apocalypse Cow is kind of mellowed out in a way. I think that it is a very personal record for Will and a lot of the personal things that come out through the lyrics are comparable to some of the issues that everyone is pressed with everyday in this world.

Pete: I Hope we never mellow out...the world needs to wake the fuck up! Music can change the world if people listen.

HGMN: On Corn Syrup, you had a few guest musicians appear on some of the tracks - Tim Reynolds, Dan Colley, & Dave Shaul to name a few. Anything like that with AC Vol. 1?

Will: Nope.

Dan: We had a string quartet come in on a couple of songs. Other than that, it's just the band.

Tim: And an alien kids toy megaphone.

HGMN:  What's it like setting up a tour with band members living in three different states? It must be difficult.

Dan: Nah. More tearful reunions. It's sweet really.

Tim: This is definitely a question for Will but the way I've seen it is that it seems like its kind of worked out in the sense that all of us living in different parts of the country has allowed us individually to focus on different markets. Before I lived in Asheville, I was going back if forth from Maine. So I was able to promote for northeast shows, Will for Southeast, and Pete and Dan for Midwest. We've seen pretty decent results. I think living apart from each other has also prevented us from going commando on each other, you know like throwing on night vision goggles with a paint ball gun and sneaking into each others rooms at four in the morning, either that or a hand full of flour.

Pete: Divide and conquer. I got Detroit, Dan's got Chicago, Will and Timmy got the south. When we get together, the whole damn country should know about it. Makes rehearsals a little rough though. The good thing is we never get sick of each other, hardly ever.

Will: It sucks. Please tell Dan and Pete to move to North Carolina 

Assembly Of Dust - Recollection

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Recollection is the third album from Assembly Of Dust and their songwriting master Reid Genauer. With an honest, simple approach, the band (comprised of veteran players Nate Wilson, Andy Herrick, John Leccese, and Adam Terrell) finds a pleasantly grooving space on this album. Recollection enchants the listener with of a combination of classic sounds: the freewheeling instrumental bounce and earthy vocals reminiscent of Genauer's former band, Strangefolk; the storytelling songwriting style of folk masters like Bob Dylan; and the friendly, genuine sounds of soulful 70's rock and roll, among others.

The New Mastersounds - 102% CD

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The New Mastersounds are four chaps with some serious funk chops. Hailing from Leeds in the UK, they revel in the soulful music that has long been all the rage in Northern England. Having rightfully gained a reputation for out-Metering The Meters, their latest effort, 102% is another retro-fueled funkathon that sees the band expanding its range into previously unexplored territory.

moe. - The Conch CD

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It's no secret that moe. has been trying like mad to shake the "album curse," the prevailing belief that bands with excellent live pedigrees simply can't make do in the studio. Well, they may have just gotten over on all the naysayers with The Conch, which shows the band's ingenuity at work. They put themselves in the perfect situation to record a representative album.

Peter Rowan & Crucial Country: Live at Telluride CD

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This is one of those CDs that should be given the same treatment as a good novel. While it’s a perfect disc to spin during a gathering with your best kinfolk, it should also be heard on your lonesome at some point; take a long drive through the country with it. Only then can you really absorb all of the nuances and the story telling that made it such a great performance.

Stanton Moore - III CD

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Having seen The Stanton Moore Trio (including old friends Cranston Clements on guitar and organist/keyman David Tarkanowsky) this past May touring in promotion of this new release, it’s great to finally have III spinning in my CD player; this is Moore’s third solo recording. Don’t expect to hear exact replicas of Galactic or Garage A Trois (Skerik guests on Tenor Sax) material from this one, but you can anticipate the familiar invasion of fine bayou funk in every note. Robert Walter (Hammond B3 Organ) and Will Bernard (Guitar) are the other two lead musical personnel on Moore’s organ trio, and while it would have been great to have seen them along for the tour back in May, what’s more impressive is realizing the positions Clements and Tarkanowsky had to fill on stage without much practice time.

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