INTERVIEW : HARLEM

 MAY 10, 2010 | The Summit | Columbus, OH

Photo by John Danner

Some people say you should never meet your heroes. I most certainly didn’t consider Harlem to be one of mine. However, I had been digging on their album “Hippies” for weeks before I found out they were coming through Columbus. After following them on twitter, I assumed they were going to be laid back, somewhat wacky, engaging guys. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

When I turned on my television a few nights before this interview, I was met with a pleasant surprise. One of my favorite rock and roll movies was on. “Almost Famous”. As silly as it seems, since I first saw that film, I knew I wanted be some form of a music journalist. Now I’m starting to think that movie was on specifically to prepare me for the events of this particular evening. When I posted the description of JackinthePocket to say “socially awkward interviews” I never expected it pertain to the painful interaction I had with Harlem. I may be screwing myself over for being so straightforward. But, I truly believe in giving you the entire absolute story, no matter how damaging it may be to my attempt to make a career as a music journalist through the often vilified blog medium. I’ve NEVER been so fired up after an interview where I’ve felt the need to immediately write down my response. The need to convey the disrespect I felt was overwhelming me. As soon as I returned home I immediately flipped open my laptop and began to furiously type.

When I went over the audio footage today, I could hardly understand anything. Coomers, Jose, and Curtis were talking over each other and going off on tangents that didn’t make any sense. Sometimes Coomers would break in after being silent and make an inappropriate remark. Jose would try to redeem his response while shooting him a scolding look. I asked what it had been like transitioning from being independent to working with Matador Records.

Coomers: I don’t know?? It’s like weird people in an office building.

Jose: They’re pretty nice. I mean, I don’t think these people would be working in an office building unless they could use their business expenses to go to shows and drink.

Coomers: They’ve got some weird sexual stuff going on there…

Jose: Coomers…!!! Delete! Delete! Delete…

It got worse as it went on. I felt I could have been asking the wrong questions. Coomers was sitting cross legged in a chair across from me and repeatedly rolling his eyes and running his hands through his hair in unabashed annoyance. Curtis and Jose seemed to feel the tension, but played along as their band mate tried hard to turn the interview back upon me. Jose volunteered some decent answers. We discussed their adventure in Bloomington, Indiana the night before. After I tried to get some more fun stories out of them.

KP: You guys seem to get into a lot of shenanigans. Who would you say is the biggest trouble maker?

Curtis: We all get into our own individual trouble.

Coomers: What kind of trouble do YOU get into?

KP: I try to stay out of trouble. [Laughs] But this is supposed to be all about you guys.

Coomers: About us?!

I decided to switch gears and asked a stereotypical interview question, “What has been your favorite gig so far?” Coomers groaned and started playing with his hands. I couldn’t tell if Coomers was aching to get the interview over and done with or add his own two cents to the whole ordeal. I uneasily ended the interview by asking them if they had anything to add, or any last words.

Coomers: I don’t know? You want us to give an epilogue to your own interview?!

When it came time for John take the photos, the tension was high. Coomers was visibly irritated, and wouln’t look into the camera. None of them followed John’s creative directions. Coomers even blurted out, “I’m not fuckin’ doin’ that!” when he asked them to stand back to back. Jose and Curtis just mumbled refusals in comradery. John’s photo above completely captures the whole ordeal.

I was steaming when I got home. A fellow blogger friend consoled my frustration by sending me examples of Coomer’s treatment of the press. It seems he thinks its a joke, a waste of time. He obviously considers himself to be one of the greatest musicians of all time, and no one can tear him down from his high horse who trots upon delusional clouds of grandeur. I guess I can’t take it personally.

Harlem’s “Hippies” is a damn good record. Make sure you pick up a copy here.

INTERVIEW : SAINTSENECA

APRIL 29, 2010 | The Short North |  Columbus, OH

Photo by Jen Killius

Have you ever gone to a concert with no expectations other than to see a enjoyable set by the headliner, and then suddenly a local band you’ve never heard of steps out and blows you away with the first few phrases of their song?  That is exactly what happened when Saintseneca took the stage before Horse Feathers back in early March. A hush fell upon the crowd, my hair stood up on end, shivers scurried down my spine. We had all been hit by a beautiful acoustic bomb of pure hearted folk. 

At the Girls show later that month, I was in the midst of conversation with my friends when I saw a young guy with fiery red hair walk by.  I immediately recognized him as the lead singer from Saintseneca. I quickly (and probably rudely) left my friends side to ask him and the band for an interview. He kindly agreed and gave me his email address.  

A few weeks later, I found myself outside of Surly Girl Saloon, with Zac,  Steva, Grace and Luke and photographer Jen Killius. This was the first interview I conducted outside of a performance so we took our time walking around the Short North as we talked about cults, small towns, and local music.  We settled down at a table at Surly Girl Saloon after our walk about the neighborhood…

KP:  I noticed at the show where you opened for Horse Feathers, you guys play so many different instruments.  Will you name some of the crazy ones?  I know a trash can is one of them.

Luke: Yeah, that’s probably the craziest. [Laughter]

Zac: There is the dulcimer, bouzouki… mandolin, banjo, guitar, violin… is that everything?

Luke:  The washboard!  There are a few dulimers… we have the stick dulcimer.

Zac: Yeah, we have two variations of the dulcimer.

Grace: Did you say ukulele?

Zac: Ah yeah! The baritone ukulele…

KP: That is quite a list of instruments!

Grace:  We have an auto-harp!

Luke: We’ll probably keep remembering as we go along and keep naming them.

KP: How long have you guys been together?

Grace: Two years and a month since our first show…

Zac: Actually, two years and a couple days.  I just realized I had my 8,000 day, like, three days ago. 

KP: Of living?

Zac: Yeah! I missed it by three days, I wish I would have known.

KP: So, how did you all meet?  I know earlier you said the three of you (Zac, Steva, and Luke) grew up together in Caldwell, Ohio.  But how did you meet Grace?

Grace:  We all have a similar scholarship at Ohio State.  And the school made us go to a meet-and-greet… and that’s where I met Zac and he introduced me to everybody else.

KP:  What is your creative process like while you are songwriting?

Zac: Well, a lot of times one of us will have, I guess what you  could say, the seed for a song. Like, If I did that I would write the song, but only write about 3/4ths of it.  That way, when I bring it to these guys, we’ll all sort of finish it together. We all make a point when we write a song, we aren’t saying THIS is the product, that way its more of a collaborative experience.  We all write our own parts.

 

KP: How did you get hooked up with your label, Paper Brigade?

Zac: We met Kurt at a House Show. We played with this band called Ad Astra Per Aspera which he played in for about 10 years. I was talking to him after the show, just hanging out I didn’t think anything of it.  But he contacted me on facebook a while after that, and we just started talking back and forth about things. Around that time we had recorded professionally and I was sharing that with him.  He asked if we would be up for the idea of them putting out a 7’’ for us.

Grace:  That’s how we met Matt, and Matt and Kurt had been high school friends who do Paper Brigade together. 

KP:  How long ago did you meet them?

Zac: Probably, about a year or so ago.

KP:  Have you noticed social media has affected your success?

Grace:  It’s really flattering when people write about us on blogs.  I don’t think any of us are too familiar with social media and music, so everything that’s happened is a surprise.  That Boom blog, none of us had heard of it until they did a post about us.  We were like, “Wow that’s a really cool blog!” its so flattering that they took the time to write about us.

Zac: The live show is the most important thing. But the social media, or any sort of publicity, it reaches out to a lot of people that we otherwise wouldn’t encounter. We tend to play more DIY shows or house shows.  For our sound it doesn’t make sense for us to play at bars all the time.   It certainly helps us connect with people we otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

Luke: Its kind of cool with blogs and stuff, like Grace said, its really flattering.  Especially, when considering, with a paper a lot of times, its like “Oh, we’re looking for a band to write about and we just wrote about you guys.”  With a blog, it seems like they write about us because they are into it. It seems a lot more heartfelt and it makes it more flattering than other press.

Grace:  They’re not writing because they have to meet a deadline.

KP:  What would you consider to be the best and worst things about being in a band in Columbus, OH?

Zac:  Best things, there are so many great people here and there are a ton of gold bands. I’m constantly blow away by how nice and down to earth people are.  I think as much as I love other cities, but sometimes it seems less orientated around community or the music and its more of a competition.  Here in Columbus, people are really supportive.  Worst, things there are no oceans or mountains.

Grace:  There are very few places we can play acoustically here.

Zac:  That’s true.

KP: What has been your favorite experience together on the road? Any crazy stories?

Zac:  Well, one of the most rewarding part of doing this has been being able to travel.  And all the people we meet. I think when we were doing this past tour it kind of clicked in my mind because we were getting ready to stay at this guys house, walking up to his door and he said, “What are your guy’s names again?”  I thought, “This is so strange. We are sleeping on this guys floor and he doesn’t even know our names.”

KP: You’ve been really quiet over there, Steva.

Steva:  [Laughs] Yeah, I don’t know. The first tour we did was so fun, amazing. We were swimming in mountain streams.   Getting to travel is the best part, I guess Zac already said that but yeah…

KP: Any ladies chasing you guys down after the shows?

Luke: Steva! [Laughs]

Steva:  I don’t think that really happens, though!

Luke:  Well, I’m in a committed relationship. So its not really what I’’m  going for.  I feel like I’m so oblivious to all that stuff that it doesn’t affect me.

Zac:  I think its mostly Steva.  He’s the heartthrob.

Steva: Yeah the single guy. [Laughter]

KP: What is it like for you, Steva, being the only single guy? (Zac and Grace are a couple)

Steva: It’s…

Luke: Well, a lot of times my girlfriend isn’t with us…

Steva: … In person…  But she’s there! [Laughter]

Zac:  I think I have more boys chasing after me at shows than girls! [Laughter]

Grace: Yeah!

Luke: Actually, that’s definitely true! 

Saintseneca’s Grey Flag EP is available through Paper Brigade. They will be performing shows around the Columbus area this summer.  Keep an eye on their myspace or tumblr for updated show information.

INTERVIEW : THE HOUNDS BELOW

  

 

 

April 24, 2010 | Skully’s Music Diner |  Columbus, OH

Photo by John Danner

This night had been in the works for months.  A joint birthday party between one of my best friends, and a rock star. Since they met back in October, and discovered they had the same birthday, Tracey and Jason Stollsteimer had been giddily planning an epic evening of red velvet cake and rock and roll.  This was Columbus debut for The Hounds Below, and even though he had played this town numerous times before with The Von Bondies, Jason admitted he was slightly nervous.  A whole new band, a whole new sound.  I sat down with him and Ben Collins in the Green Room in the upstairs of Skully’s Music Diner.

KP: Since you are fairly new, I would like to know what brought you together to start the band.

Ben: Jason started the band a couple years ago. It just started as an idea. They had played one show with totally different members.  More recently decided to do it more seriously, and he found a whole bunch of musicians from the Detroit area.  We all play in our own bands as well but we kind of took time off here and there to go play with him because…

Jason: …We tour!

Ben: Yeah, and we all really like his songs so we joined his band as well.

KP:  How did you all meet?

Ben:  I was Jason’s sound guy when he was in the Von Bondies.

Jason: And I liked his band, his other band.  It was nothing like this or anything I’ve ever done. But most music I like live is not something I’d ever play. I appreciate what I don’t do. I don’t like a lot of bands that sound anything like what I do… at all.   Not modern ones… But yeah, Molly, the bass player, I had never seen her play before in any other bands. Ben Luckett our drummer, the other Ben, I had never seen his band play either.  It was just like people recommended people and they just worked or they didn’t.  There are 4 people in the band, but we seem to have a new keyboard player every 10 shows… every 5 shows…

Ben: Every tour!

Jason: But they aren’t in the band.  They’re just friends who are normally lead singers of their own band but they like the break from the pressure of being the front guy. They just have fun playing live.

Ben: George is doing a great job.  He’s the one playing with us tonight.

 Jason: Yeah, the show last night was his first with us, and this will be his second. We practiced three times and that was it! Allison plays trombone for us.  We asked her to join the band, but she has too many others asking her to join.  … and she’s not behind you or saying anything right now.

Allison: I forgot my heels! 

Jason: You can borrow someone’s! What size do you wear?

Allison: Size 8.

Jason:  Anyone wear a size 8?

KP:  I do… but I didn’t bring an extra pair with me, sorry!

Jason: See… shoes!  That’s just like you… just like you.

Ben:  If it makes you feel better, I also forgot my heels.

Allison: I never forget anything…

Jason: You forgot them in my bedroom [Laughter]

KP: How long have you played collectively?

Jason: Seven months!

KP:  Seven months…. So what has been the greatest show you’ve played together thus far?

Jason:  It wouldn’t have been BRMC… but that would have been the biggest crowd.

Ben:  Oh yeah, I had fun at the BRMC show in Seattle though

Jason: You left!

Ben: Yeah… I left to see another band down the street.  [Laughs] But it was still good.

Jason: I would say… LA was fun.  I don’t know! We’ve been really lucky. We’re trying not to use my other band’s name.  I think this is the only show where we’ve used the name The Von Bondies to sell tickets.  We try to make it a fact that no one’s allowed to use it. We don’t want to live off of my old merit.  It’s a big thing because I don’t want people coming expecting to hear Von Bondies songs.  Which… believe me, happens when you advertise it.  And people drunkenly get pissed and say stupid things. But [The Hounds Below] have never played Columbus and the Von Bondies always did well here for some reason.  Which is weird.  Ben is a University of Michigan Alumnus.  He played in the Marching band.

Ben:  That’s right, that’s right.

KP: Uh oh!  Don’t go telling anyone that.  There’s a lot of drunk OSU fans out right now.  Today was their spring game.   Don’t get any sudden school spirit.  [Laughs]

Ben: Oh, well I never had any. [Laughs] It took me 6 years to graduate and I’m going to be in debt until I’m 60… so…. But that’s alright.

KP:  What do you guys do for other jobs, other than touring and recording with The Hounds Below?

Ben:  I do sound locally in the Detroit area and for bands. I also do web work, which is nice for the road. I can work from the car.

KP: That’s pretty cool.

Jason: I just do this…

Ben: He’s lucky enough that he doesn’t need to do anything else.

Jason:  Anytime I made money I never spent it.  So I have a tiny little house, instead of a bigger house I could have afforded at one point.   I don’t need a lot, you know?  I don’t need a three, four bedroom house when I live by myself.

KP: That’s admirable! You’re not trying to get on MTV Cribs or anything…?

Jason: No, no, no.  MTV Holes-in-the-Wall. [Laughter] No, but its funny, though. The Von Bondies, everyone kind of looked at it as a band. But, after the first two years I came to the realization and so did the guy that was managing us, that it was a solo project. I’d always end up in the studio, always by myself.  This is the first band that actually feels like a band. I know Ben kept saying it’s MY band, but he’s played more guitar in seven months than the guitarist for the Von Bondies did in seven years.   I’d always play the guitar parts because I could get it done in 5 minutes. But Ben is 10 better than I am. The drummer plays all of his parts and Molly the bass player also plays all of her parts.  This is more of a band, and we actually hang out and go out where I never went out with any one from the Von Bondies after the first year or two.  (To Ben) Maybe in a year or two we wont talk.

Ben: Hopefully! [Laughs]

Jason:  And that means we succeeded!!

KP:  What about SxSW? How was that experience for you guys?

Jason: Hot tub!  We rented a big house and got a hot tub!

KP: How many days were you there?

Jason: All of them.

Ben: We were supposed to play seven shows? Eight shows! But we only played 6.  The last day it was 40 degrees and pouring rain and lightening.  We were to play 3 outdoor shows that day, several on metal stages.

Jason: The best show was at Home Slice.  Which is a pizza place in Austin.  It’s the show I always love playing. No matter what, there are lots families there.  There were two little girls sitting right in front of me.  And I was like, “Is this too loud?”

The interview was interrupted briefly.  I had missed a payment on my credit card and Chase was calling me at 8:30 in the evening to harass me.  Jason began to explain how to make the creditors stop calling you forever…

Jason:  They had been calling Ben so, I picked up the phone and said, “What is this about?!” and they said they were a creditor trying to collect money. So I said, “I really don’t have the strength to talk…” They were like, “I’m sorry sir, is there a better time to call?” And I said, “Actually no, I have cancer.”  [Laughter] And they felt sooooo bad.  I know that’s horrible, and I’m totally going to get cancer. Everyone in my family has cancer. We all have cancer. But they never called back!!  I told them to take me off the calling list because I didn’t know how long I was going to be around.  They NEVER called back.

KP:  That’s good! I’m going to have to remember that next time they call.

Jason:  I am terrible, so terrible. But life is too short not to be. 

The Hounds Below are currently (top left to bottom right) Jason Stollsteimer, Ben Luckett, Ben Collins and Molly Jean Schoen. They will be touring with The Heavy this July. Keep an eye on their myspace for more dates to be announced. You can download three free songs off of their Last.fm page.