Brian Samuels- Bass, Mandolin, Vocals
Joe Phillion - Drums
Russel James - Guitar, Vocals
Dave Sanders - Keys, Vocals
Casey Butts - Percussion, Vocals
My first introduction to Ultraviolet Hippopotamus was “Square Pegs Round Holes”, a progressive rock album that offers brilliant compositions, diverse musical influences and is difficult to categorize. Their overall sound offers an eclectic and experimental approach with devastating beauty. In 2011 “Square Pegs Round Holes” won HGMN’s studio album of the year honors and continues to generate airplay on radio stations across the country and overseas. With a new album in the works set to be released sometime this year and countless live performances to follow, I expect great things to come from this break out jam band from Grand Rapids Michigan. They are a group of musicians that know no stylistic barriers, a band that excels in fusing multiple genres into an organized sound, a sound that is all Ultraviolet Hippopotamus.
An Interview with Russell James of UVH
HGMN: Tell me about Ultraviolet Hippopotamus and how you guys got started?
RJ: Kind of like what most bands really do. I mean, innocently enough, I guess. College band, Brian Samuels, the bass player started it up in Grand Rapids Michigan. He’s really the only original member left in the band.
HGMN: What year was this?
RJ: It was probably about seven years ago. We were a college band that just wanted to play music together, just friends really. They started playing out and around the area and started developing a fan base which pushed them out beyond just Big Rapids to the Grand Rapids area and some of the other areas in Michigan and then kind of onward from there. Members kept changing in and out which kind of pushed the band in different directions, taking it a little more seriously and trying to make it more of a profession, hiring an agent and starting up small tours of two weeks out on the road or a week out on the road to neighboring states and then just kind of growing from there.
HGMN: Where did the name Ultraviolet Hippopotamus come from? Is there any special meaning behind the name?
RJ: Not really any special meaning. When it first started the band was, you know, bands need a name and most of the time it can be cheesy or pretentious and the personality of everybody in the band is pretty cheesy so it kind of won out. The name was chosen from, there’s a book called “The Illuminatus! Trilogy” by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson and in the book there’s a rock festival (Walpurgisnacht) happening at the end of the world and there’s three pages of band names that played at the festival. Ultraviolet Hippopotamus was one of the bands that were there. The book was written back in the 70’s. I don’t know if other bands took their names from the book but there are bands like Steppenwolf, Nirvana and a whole bunch of other band names on there that have been used over the years.
HGMN: How would you describe the evolution of Ultraviolet Hippopotamus, starting back from 2006’s “Background Music” to your current release?
RJ: It’s grown a lot more serious. I think that we have more of a conceptual vision of what we want to put out there musically as a product. When bands first start out releasing albums it’s more or less, “we’ve got these songs, let’s put them on an album and get them out to people”. I think that we’ve progressed beyond that point to where we have way more material than we can put on…we’ve got enough material for probably three or four more albums but it’s more about putting out an album that…I don’t know, it’s a continuous thought. It’s the way that we approach our live shows now. It’s also how we approach our albums. We want it to be an experience for the listener. The songs flow together. It’s not just random songs going into one another. Either there’s a story to tell throughout the album, which will be one of the next projects that we’re working on or like with “Square Pegs” where it was more in the way we arranged the songs that it flows better than what most albums do, where each song kind of goes into the next song naturally. I think that’s one of the major differences between now and how we started out. There’s a lot more purpose in what we’re doing. Not because we’re trying to do it as professionally now but also just because we’re better as musicians. I think that as you become better musicians you start to see that the album is kind of an extension of that.
HGMN: Tell me about “Broomhilda Suite”. It’s a concept album, right?
RJ: Yeah, it’s a concept…I mean, it’s an EP. It’s not a full length album but yeah, it’s a concept piece. We went back into the studio over the summer to get started on our next full length album that we’re going to release in 2013. It was the first time that we had ever gone into a studio where we weren’t the engineers. I engineered and recorded “Background Music” years ago and I engineered and recorded “Songs for The Reaper” and a lot of “Square Pegs Round Holes.” This time we really wanted to go in to the studio and not be pressured with having to deal with all of that and hire somebody else to really take care of it. And because of that it has freed up a lot of time for us musically. We were able to accomplish way more than we thought we were going to be able to so we were left with extra time in the studio and “Broomhilda” is a piece that we have that really can’t fit on the album. It’s its own piece, its own thing. It’s twenty plus minutes long. It’s kind of a classic video game storyline, a princess that’s abducted by an evil witch and a guy has to go and save her. The music has a whole bunch of different movements that represents different portions of that storyline. Like I said, it wouldn’t really fit so we decided to put it down on a separate EP and do it as a Halloween release because it kind of goes along with the Halloween theme.
HGMN: Tell me about the new album. How is that coming along and do you have a release date set yet?
RJ: It really depends on how the mixing goes. We’ve got some free time coming up in January so we should be able to get it all done then. We would rather take the time to make sure that it’s perfect. With “Square Pegs Round Holes” we ended up recording it three times because the first two times we couldn’t stand how it sounded. With this one we’re really happy with how it sounds. Hopefully it will be out by the spring time. It’s a whole bunch of new material, some of it we’ve been playing for the last three months. There are a few songs on there that we haven’t played live yet. It’s going to be different than “Square Pegs”. Sam Guidry isn’t in the band anymore. It’s the first album we’ve done as a band without Sam. We’ve definitely tried to thicken it up. Every time we’ve gone into the studio we’ve tried to thicken up the tracks a little bit more. On this one we’ve layered it with a lot of piano and a lot of guitar, going into different studios and actually using a grand piano for the pianos and using actual Hammond organs and all sorts of stuff, as much of the original sounds that we can get. We’re really happy with how it sounds. Conceptually we really don’t know how it’s all going to fit together yet because there’s probably more material recorded than what’s going to be on the album. That’s all going to be brought down in the final mix down and everything. It’s going to be a really good album. We don’t have a title for it yet. That’s going to be decided over the next month or so. After this, hopefully sometime in 2013 we’re going to head back in the studio. We’ve also got our next couple of albums planned out that we’re going to be working on. One is a piece that Dave Sanders, our keyboard player wrote a while ago. The other one…I don’t want to talk too much about what they are because…I don’t know, I think that they’re pretty cool ideas but they’re going to be conceptual pieces that we’re going to release that will have art work, like graphic novel style stuff and things like that. We really want to try to push our releases in that direction where there’s a little bit more to offer to the fans than just the music but other things to go along with the music to tell the story of what we’re trying to do as well.
HGMN: How would you describe your music to someone who’s never heard it before?
RJ: Man, that’s always the toughest question to answer. It really is. We have so many different influences. All of us come from such different musical backgrounds that our music takes on, especially our live shows, and all of our personalities that we bring to it. I always hear people tell us at the shows that we sound like all these different bands but none of those at the same time. We take musical genres and kind of meld them together in a way that’s pretty unique. At our core I would say that we’re definitely a jam band, a progressive rock jam band. Some people hear influences like Umphrey’s Mcgee, Disco Biscuits and things like that but at the same time what we love and what we listen to comes out in the styling’s of Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd and Steely Dan and…I don’t know, I really don’t know how to answer that (laughs). I think Miles Davis said this, “There are two kinds of music. There’s good music and bad music”. We like to hope that we’re playing good music.
HGMN: How would you describe the song writing process? Is it influenced more by life experiences, politics…?
RJ: It would depend on the person whose writing. I think all of us approach it differently. Dave Sanders, Brian Samuels and I are the primary writers but all of us will bring musical ideas to the table. Story wise, Dave definitely is the type of person; he’s really unique in how he does it from what I’ve seen from musicians. He’ll sit down and write a short story of whatever subject he’s covering. Most of the time it’s a life experience that then goes into a kind of an odd ball fantasy story. Then he will shorten it up from there into lyrics and then write music to go around those lyrics. Brian definitely does more from personal experiences in his life. He’ll either write musically first or lyrically first and then bring the idea to the table and then we as a group would collaborate on it. Dave, when he writes his music it’s pretty much all mapped out. He’s written the drum part, he’s written the guitar part, the bass part, the piano part and, “that’s your part” (laughs). We do modify it a little bit but for the most part it’s a complete concept at that point and we go from there. Me, I don’t know, I would say politics does come out in a lot of the lyrics that I write but it’s the same style in the way that Brian brings something to the table. It’s mostly a musical idea that I bring in and we all collaborate together and finalize it.
HGMN: What do you guys do outside of Ultraviolet Hippopotamus?
RJ: When we’re not on the road, when we’re at home we do a lot of writing together and a lot of playing together as far as practicing. Everybody really tries to spend as much time with their friends and family. Some of us have jobs outside of this when we’re at home. I build and repair guitars when I’m at home. I’ve got my own guitar company called North Coast Guitars. It’s something that I really enjoy. For the most part when we’re home, if we’ve been on the road for two months or so together, for the first week or two when we’re home we don’t call each other, we don’t talk to each other, we don’t even look at each other (laughs). Being in the van for two months together is enough time. But after that we generally will sit down and start writing. We try to make a habit of taking most of January off every single year. For the first couple weeks we’re recovering because we kind of hit the road pretty heavy. Then the last few weeks of the month we’ll start doing a lot of writing and preparing for the next year. Generally most of our writing takes place in that time period because from there on out we spend a lot of time traveling.
HGMN: After the success of “Square Pegs Round Holes” did you feel any pressure going into the new album?
RJ: Yeah, there was a lot of pressure. We didn’t expect the success from “Square Pegs”. I mean, we knew that our fans would like it and we were really happy with it but you never know what’s going to happen with those kinds of things. So when we went back into the studio this time, I don’t know, there was a little bit of pressure in the beginning for sure but when we sat down and started playing the music and started writing and working it out the pressure kind of fell away, especially with not having to worry about the production stand point. It just really freed us a lot in a way that we never had before in the studio. So once we started working on it all that pressure kind of fell away. (Laughs) Hopefully people will enjoy the new album as much as we have enjoyed writing the music and doing the album. We’re happy with it but that’s really all you can do is try to produce something that you’re happy with and hopefully other people will enjoy the music the way that you do.
HGMN: Do you have any big plans for 2013 besides the new album?
RJ: Aside from that, touring. We’re signed with Hoplite Music now which we really enjoy quite a bit. They have been fantastic in every aspect since we started working with them. And from our experience they are the best agency that we’ve worked with in the short time that we have been with them. So we’re very excited to see how that relationship is going to grow in 2013. We’re planning on doing a lot of heavy touring which is nothing new for us as we try to hit the road as much as possible. The biggest thing that I’m looking forward to in 2013 besides from the current album release is getting started on the next two albums. They are things that we’ve been talking about for the last couple of years. Conceptually we haven’t been sure how we would approach it but we’ve kind of finally nailed that down. I’m really excited to get in there and record the next two. I personally very much enjoy being in the studio. It’s a creative process that’s just very free. I enjoy being in there as much as possible.
HGMN: Is this something we can also look forward to in 2013?
RJ: No, I would say 2014 or 2015. They’re both going to take a very long time to do. We’ll get started on them this year but it’s going to take months of recording to be able to get them down the way that we want. Hopefully, if we can afford it, have a symphony with it and all sorts of stuff, hopefully. It will depend on money (laughs).
HGMN: A symphony?
RJ: For a portion of it, yeah.
HGMN: Sounds exciting.
- Interview By Chris Robie
Discography
Background Music (2006)
Songs for the Reaper (2008)
Square Pegs Round Holes (2011) (CD Review)
Broomhilda Suite (2012)
Upcoming Tour Dates
1/30 - Headliners (Toledo, OH) w/ The Mantras
1/31 - The Loft (Lansing, MI) w/ The Mantras
2/01 - The Abbey (Chicago, IL) w/ The Mantras & EGI. Ethereal Groove Inc.
2/02 - Be Here Now (Muncie, IN)
2/06 - Kent Stage (Kent, OH) w/ Dopapod
2/07 - Mad Frog (Cincinnati, OH) w/ Dopapod
2/08 - Rex Theater (Pittsburgh, PA) w/ Dopapod
2/09 - Nietzsche's (Buffalo, NY) w/ Dopapod
2/14 - Lamasco (Evansville, IN)
2/15 - Cabin Fever (East Peoria, IL)
2/16 - DG's Tap House (Ames, IA)
2/17 - Rye Room at The Bourbon Theatre (Lincoln, NE)
2/20 - Railyard Ale House (Billings, MT)
2/22 - The Filling Station (Bozeman, MT)
2/23 - The Palace Lounge (Missoula, MT)
2/25 - Southern Sun (Boulder, CO)
3/01 - Quixote's (Denver, CO)
3/05 - Kirby's Beer Store (Wichita, KS)
3/06 - The Bottleneck (Lawrence, KS)
3/07 - Cicero's (St Louis, MO)
3/08 - The Vogue (Indianapolis, IN) w/ Dopapod
3/09 - The Intersection (Grand Rapids, MI) w/ Dopapod
3/16 - The Spot Underground (Providence, RI)
3/19 - Church (Boston, MA)
3/29-30 Dunedin Brewery Bash (Dunedin, FL)
4/09 Martin's (Roanoke, VA)
4/11 Doc Taylor's (Virginia Beach, VA)
5/17 - Tribal Connection (Bellafontaine, OH)
Be sure to check out their website as more tour dates are being added regularly!
WEBSITE FACEBOOK MYSPACE TWITTER YOUTUBE
