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Hubcap07/04/2004
Where can I start … how have things in Belgium been so far? Belgium has been wonderful, we’ve been having a really, really great time. We’ve had really enthusiastic response, people have been really interested in the CD’s and T-shirts and usually said really nice things. We couldn’t be happier with how everything is going. It’s a great experience, definitely. Is it comparable to what you’ve had in the States so far? I think it takes I a little bit longer in the United States, uh, because there’s so many bands… you have to play a club a few times, at least two or three times before you start to get people that go to that club to get excited about seeing you play. We played a lot of shows, especially early on, when we were playing in front of 15 or 20 people, and then the sound guys loved us and then maybe a couple of people said really nice things and that’s all we have to take away from it, which is really nice in itself, because we’re not afraid to play for ourselves in that situation. We can just relax and have fun and even if there’s only a couple of people, we’ll be enjoying it, you know, it’s still worthwhile. Yeah, that reminds my of one of my favorite Henry Rollins-quotes where he goes on about how you have to give it your all as a performer, even if there’s only a crowd of two people, because they chose to see you and didn’t lie in front of the TV instead. Yeah indeed, and some of our best shows have been to an empty room, so yeah, we’ve always felt that way. Have you been playing a lot outside of New York State? We played Toronto for the first time a few weeks ago, at the North by Northeast festival, which is a large music showcase, and we played in Philadelphia, across Pennsylvania. We’re gonna start playing Boston as well and perhaps New York City… A lot of those places are probably ‘student cities’. Yeah, that tends to be the place where people are most receptive to new bands. So when did you start working on the first album? The first one we started in, uh, 2001 and we recorded the drums and some of the basis tracks at a studio nearby, but the rest of it we did at our house. We have a ProTools-rig computer and we did it and mastered it at the studio. This new record was recorded entirely at our house. That was something that struck me about the debut album. I was reading the liner notes and saw that it was self-produced, and I thought “Wow, the sound is pretty… well not slick, but professional, it’s got a huge variety, like the rock stuff and Americana…” Yeah, you know, recording starts with the songs and if the songs are good, then you’re gonna have a hard time making it sound bad, you know, and if you have good instruments and guitar tones, drum sounds, you can record it really, really cheaply, and you can still sound big if you want. Well, also Matt Morano, who mixed that record, had a lot to do with making it sound bigger as well. You write all or most of the songs, right? When you start rehearsing as a band, are the songs already finished by then, or do you just offer the band a skeleton of the song that they can dress up? When we record or when we learn the songs? Mainly in the beginning: do you say to those guys “Well, I want that there and drums should be like that” or more like “We’ll see what happens, but here’s a start”? That really depends on the song! Usually, more and more I found that, when I write… the body of the song and the arrangement will be in my head as I’m writing it and so I bring in the songs and the chords, while most of the arranging will be together, and sometimes I have specific ideas as far as, you know, a drum beat or occasionally a bass-line, a lead guitar-line, but a lot of it is what these guys bring of themselves to the songs as well, and it depends on the song. There’s other songs that are a lot more open-ended, that are more… … less rigid? Yeah, some are less rigid in the arrangement and in those cases it becomes much more about how we play it live and the interplay between the instruments and how we’re listening to each other. Concerning the lyrics… what do you start from? Is it your own experience that’s the foundation or is it more important to touch upon universal stuff? I would have to say that it’s pretty autobiographical, more often than not. There’s certain songs that are more, uh… Examples, examples, Steve! (Laughs): Okay, “No Myth/No Less” would be an example off the first record, and “Constellations”… But it’s not so much thought out. When I’m writing, it just sort of comes out that way, I don’t really edit lyrics a lot, it’s sort of – when I have a melody in my head… something will come to me and I’ll just start writing. Do you always start with a melody? More often than not, yeah. In fact, at this point, often I’ll have the entire song in my head – melody and chords – before I even sit down, pick up a guitar and play it. Then I’ll play it a couple of times just to see that I have it and then I’ll start writing the lyrics to it and those usually come pretty quickly. But there are other songs that are not so autobiographical – “Two Bits + Shirtless on Main St.” might be an example of that – and in those cases it’s probably because I wanted to write a classic country, broken-hearted kind of thing, you know, so then it’s more like a country song – lyrically, than most of the other stuff. But they still tend to pretty dark though (laughs). Yeah you can notice that on Halogen Sons: there’s quite a few songs that you can sing along to, like “Henrietta Universe,” and there’s a rock song, like “Rinsewater,” but you indeed do lot of dark stuff, also sonically, like “Bullfights on Acid” and “Shitstorm”… Yeah, “Rinsewater” is lyrically more about imagery and “Roman Holiday” is similar, they’re more like snapshots, within the lyrics it’s just a series of snapshots, whereas “Henrietta Universe” was more of a character sketch, about a kind of imaginary character. “Henrietta Universe” is actually the nickname of a friend of mine and I created this coked-up, over-the-hill drag queen, so that’s where that is… What kind of music did you grow up with? Because there’s like ‘roots’ and then there’s ‘roots’, there’s roots made people who obviously grew up with it – bluegrass and country, etc - and roots music by people who grew up with different stuff, whether it be punk or hard rock or whatever, like Uncle Tupelo, but got into it later on… You probably belong in that second group. Yeah, I didn’t listen to much country music, or roots music, uh, very much at all until I saw Son Volt… Jay Farrar’s band… Yeah, that was about ten, or eight years ago, when I was living in Colorado. I’d just bought their record because I really loved one of the songs. The first album? That’s a good one! Yeah, Trace, a beautiful album, and that first song, “Windfall”… I heard that record just as I was… I’d been starting to play guitar and start to try to write, and I found the… his kind of voice, the way he sings, was very comfortable for me to emulate… You still sound a bit like him as well… A little bit here and there, yeah, and especially early on. I think most musicians start trying to emulate the people they love, you know, and then if you work with it enough you develop your own voice and sound. So I got into them and started going backwards and started getting into Uncle Tupelo and, you know, these Texas songwriters like Townes Van Zandt, and Johnny Cash. I find it very hard to write a straight-up country song, like very simple, plainspoken song. It’s deceptively tricky to do, because it’s so much more plainspoken and honest and raw… The other sing I’d love to say is that my favorite band of all time is The Replacements. Really? Yeah and one of my favorite songwriters is Paul Westerberg. Cool, you could’ve chosen much worse! Indeed! What’s your favorite? Let me guess: Let It Be? I’d have to say it’s a tie between Let It Be and Tim, and actually, All Shook Down, the last one. It’s the one… it’s not even a Replacements-album, it’s a Westerberg solo album, but they wouldn’t let him put it out. It’s not like the rest, it’s very, very different, but the songs are incredible and the record just sounds really great. One of the things that I love about him, and people like Elliott Smith, is that lyrically, there’s this vulnerability to it and they’re not afraid to show it, and I found that the more I write, the more that that starts to come out, you know, sort of that kind of ‘heart on your sleeve in the best of worst way’-kind of thing, you know… But I really admire songwriters that can do that and write the most raw things… and even if they’re dark and disturbing and terrible, but make it beautiful. It’s very honest music… Let It Be was one of the first “alternative” American rock albums that I bought and at that age it’s the music you should listen to… Oh yeah! A song like “Unsatisfied”… Oh, it’s so raw and so… you know, it could fall apart at any minute, and sometimes it does, but it’s so shambolic and beautiful. They also had quite a reputation… always being drunk, getting into fights and stuff… Yeah, I got to see them once, after Bob Stinson had left the band, when they were opening for Tom Petty. There was this big fairground, you know, six or seven thousand people and nobody that was there to see Tom Petty like them at all. There were like five guys cheering for them and everybody else was walking in and booing and whatever, and they were just so unbelievably loud, brutally loud, and just all over the place and they were bratty and they were snobbish and stuck-up and I thought it was the greatest thing in the world, I thought it was what the Rolling Stones would sound like if they grew up on Johnny Thunders instead of Chuck Berry. Other bands, besides the Replacements? I’ve always loved the Pixies as well. Have you seen them play live this year? No… (This is where I make the “TODAY”-sound (pointing the index finger downwards), because at the evening Hubcap played the WirWar, the Pixies were playing at the Werchter rock festival) (Nearly jumps up with excitement) I KNOW! This was the last show that got scheduled and for a month I thought we were gonna go to Werchter today, and see Wilco and the Pixies and then at the last minute they booked the show for us and I was so disappointed. No one else understood me when I said “I was looking forward to that more than anything” (laughs)… And they’re getting rave reviews, too! (below the belt-attack) Yeah and they’re not playing anywhere near where we are in the United States! You know, I have to come to Belgium to be close enough to see them… We were also gonna try to see Wilco in Copenhagen, but we didn’t realize how far it was… nine or ten hours of driving. Do you like the directions Wilco has taken? Being There is like, well, that could’ve been a Hubcap album, so to speak… Yeah. Somewhere between rockin’ and roots… And it’s got that ‘70’s kind of rock-pop thing. My favorite Wilco album is Summerteeth, it’s just a brilliant pop album, really well put together. I liked Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and I’ve heard most of the new record and I like it as well. I don’t know if they’re ever gonna be able to top Summerteeth, though. The first three albums are all really great and very different, and that’s what I respect the most about them: they always progressed, yet it still sounds very much like them and it still works. Enough about other bands. Hubcap! The second album is almost finished I heard… It’s mixed and mastered, but we don’t have a title yet, we don’t have artwork or anything like that, but it’s all done and it’ll be out in the United States in mid-October. In which was does it relate to the first album? Uh… I heard it and immediately noticed it’s different, but I couldn’t put my finger on the biggest difference yet… This time around, we worked with Billy Coté, who’s a great songwriter and musician. He was in a band called Madder Rose that was quite popular in England and Europe in the ‘90’s. We asked him to produce the record, he also lives in Ithaca, and what we were going for was first to capture as much as possible the sound of the four of us playing in a room, a live sound; and secondly, to try to make a record that really held together as a statement from beginning to end very well. Billy and I talked about this a lot. We both felt that the best records sort of have a vibe, feeling or sound that ties it very well and the records needs to be satisfying when you’re done. So we were really trying to do that. We found that… so about half of the album, we got this very, very live sound. There were some songs that needed more attention, though, more attention for getting the right guitar sound, getting the right part… So, there’s the song’ “Perfect”, for example, which is the second song on the album, and we spent a lot of time on that one, I overdubbed my guitar parts again and again, and it’s a BIG pop song, so I felt we had to do something. The new material sounds more straightforward than the previous album and more like a cohesive whole… I think it is, and within that it’s also very diverse: there’s “Kindasortawrong,” which is almost bluegrass with the mandolin and the upright bass and then there’s “Stuart Sutcliffe,” which is very garage-y and shambolic… Then there’s the last song, “Untitled,” which is just acoustic. Originally, I wanted to make a loud rock ‘n’ roll record, but somehow we ended up with lots of acoustic guitars on it, which is kind of neat… It seems to have lesser extreme moments than the first album and a less experimental production, you know, with less of those psychedelic effects and stuff… Yeah, Peter and I were doing the overdubs for the first album and we tried a lot of things, different kinds of distortion and feedback, backwards guitars and stuff like that, and then Matt Morano - who mixed it - also put a lot of effect into things. With this record, we decided we weren’t as interested in that as much. We were also a lot more prepared for this record, we rehearsed the songs well in advance and half of the songs were brand new, we never played them out live, so we basically had acoustic demo’s that I recorded and then everyone went away and learned the song and came back and we just worked it out and then went in to record them. That’s also the stuff I’m most excited about; there’s something about recording a song right when it’s still fresh, when it’s new to you. Is that also why you didn’t wanna play them live up ‘til last week? Yeah. I heard one of the guys say that they were constantly asking to play them, but that you refused. We started rehearsing them specifically for Belgium and we played one show, right before we came to Europe, where we threw out all the new songs and played them for everybody for the first time. I didn’t know how long the record was gonna be before it was done, and uh, I’m just most excited about things when they’re new … I didn’t want the record to come and then have a whole bunch of new songs that I’d just written… Yeah, you didn’t wanna grow tired of the album… Exactly, yeah, it’s rather selfish, but at the same time, when the album comes out, it’ll not only be still somewhat new to us, but it’ll still be new to everybody else… rather than put the record out and everyone’s like “Oh, they’ve been playing all these songs for a year already.” Yeah I was taking a few notes yesterday, trying to get an accurate set list and of the 20+ songs you played, I only knew six or seven! Haha! … and I went like “Oh shit, this review is gonna suck!”, because I didn’t know what you were playing. But hey, I thought it was cool that you weren’t just playing the entire Halogen Sons. On the other hand, you don’t have to be like Hüsker Dü either, who released an album and only played songs from the next one! Beck is like that, too. Is he? Yeah, he’ll put out a new album and play only new songs. I’m always most excited about songs, like right when I write them or right when the band learns them. There’s a certain energy there and over time it gets a bit more difficult to recreate that and that’s one of the reasons we don’t do “Shitstorm” anymore. I got to a point where I just felt like I was singing it, but I was just reciting it. I didn’t really feel it anymore, you know… so the most gratifying thing for me is right when I write a song and there’s something you’re in love with, so you can’t stop playing it or running it through your head… assuming it’s good (laughs). There’s just something really, really great about that. Right when we get back to the US, I’m driving down to New Jersey to record a solo record with some friends of mine. It’s gonna be very acoustic and very raw. Keep me informed about that! Yeah, I’ll send you a copy when it’s done. OK. Just suppose that one of your songs will make a true impact and be a classic in, say, twenty years from now… which one does it have to be… if you wanna remembered by just one song. That Hubcap has done so far? One from the first or the second album. Uh… “Two Bits” seems to be the most popular off the first record, but I like “Henrietta Universe” a lot, I think that’s the best song. Unfortunately, I’m not happy with the version that’s on the record. Why is that? We didn’t record it very well… we sort of did the best we could with it, but – and we were gonna leave it off the record… (Laughs) That would be insane! … well, we wanted to save it for another record and do a better job on it, but Doug wouldn’t let us, he said we had to have it on the record. Maybe it worked against us, because we could’ve recorded a much better version for the new record and it would’ve been perfect for that one. So yeah, “Henrietta Universe” and from this new album… probably “Perfect.” That song, the way it came out, when it was all done, was almost exactly the way I envisioned it when I first wrote the song. The loud guitars and the dynamics and the melody and harmonies, that’ some of the things I’m most proud of. I’ve only heard it two or three times so far, but there were a few songs that immediately struck me. With the first album, when Doug sent it to me and I was playing it in the car for the first time, I was thinking…. “Well, okay, that’s a good album,” but it didn’t make much of an impact on me, perhaps because I was in the car watching the traffic and all… but then suddenly it clicked. With the new album, I had that immediately with a few songs: the first one (“Birthday”), “Perfect”, the fifth song and also “Wish,” that’s a great song. It reminded me of early Crazy Horse, with that warm, almost muddy sound… Yeah, a lot of that comes through Peter, he’s a huge Neil Young fan and always has been. It’s his style of playing… it’s very informed by Neil Young and we all love Neil Young and I especially love Crazy Horse, Walt does too. I think from the beginning that was kind of, we sort of had that, uh… … ties that bind? Yeah, so we have a few Neil-songs that we’ll pull out every once in a while – the songs we did for the tribute and that influenced how the songs come out. What about the future? The album’s coming out in October… on which label? We don’t know yet. Before it comes out, we’re gonna try to shop it around to some larger indie labels in the United States and possibly in Europe, which could be very cool. I-Town records is very small, it’s more of a collective than a label, all the distribution is local, where we live and we’d like to see the record get into stores more, nationally, in the US. Is making a living off of your music something you aspire to? I would love to, that would be a wonderful thing and sometimes I get very, very tired of having to worry about a job… What do you do now? I work at a library in Cornell University and it’s a very good job, I like it, but you know, sometimes I get very edgy because there’s so much I wanna do with music that I don’t really have the time for, but if that never happens… we all do this because we love it and we’re gonna be playing music, whether as Hubcap or other things for the rest of our lives, that’s not even in question… and I can do what I’m doing now for the rest of my life and still write the kind of songs that I wanna write, make the records I wanna make and play with the kind of people I wanna play… and that’s what’s most important, you know. If 500,000 people hear it and love it, or 500 people, it’s all gratifying for the same reason. Right… Elliott Smith once said “music is just because” and I think that’s absolutely gospel… … and nice words to end the interview with! Thank you! No, thank you.
Uh, I was living with Peter, it was our first year out off college, out of university, and we were both young and employed, with daytime jobs, workin’ all day for the same company and living together and getting along great. He was a guitar player and I was a music lover and we worked and we had money and you know – not a lot of money! Was he already in Hubcap at the time? Well no. No Hubcap at all! Basically, when I lived with him, he used to sit on the couch with another guy – not Steve, another guy – and they would write songs and they kept playing these incredible songs, you know, in our family room, and I was just like “You guys are awesome!” and “You guys gotta play out!” so I ended up helping them to get some gigs around town and they formed a band with Ryan, not Walt. So it was Peter and two other guys and Ryan, it was a band called Electric Co. They played for about a year and then kind of fizzled out, but while Electric Co. was together, - we had met Steve before that band, we used to have him open for Electric Co. a lot, and while Electric Co. was happening, Hubcap formed as well… and Electric Co. kinda died out and then Hubcap stepped up and I just took over Hubcap and did some bookings. You know it’s just like a hobby, I just love the music, that’s it… You certainly seem the type to… you’re, like, the talkative person while Steve is more like… … the quiet type. Oh yeah, I’m a total business guy! It’s perfect, it’s a really nice combination. I really enjoy doing what I do and I think I’m good at it and we’ve gotten far – hey, we’re in Europe, you know, uh – I think where they are a little more shy – it’s also really nice having a manager that… I can talk about the band, “These guys are amazing!”, you know, and it’s not someone in the band. None of them ever talk like that of themselves… they’re really shy, you know, like even stage presence… it took me forever to tell ‘em, like, you know, announce yourself, tell ‘em you have CD’s for sale. They’re just getting it now, you know, ‘cause they’re just a little shy about the music, you know, but I’m the opposite, I wanna tell everybody about the music. Yeah, right what the band needs! Have you been managing them since the beginning? Yeah, since the early days. I was there during the formation of the band some five years ago. Do you also try to contribute to the songwriting or recording process? Very, very rarely. I don’t do much of the music at all… …but you’re probably one of the first to give some feedback. Yeah, that’s true, even though my tastes are sometimes a lot different than theirs… not a LOT different, but like, … I was more like into the hippie, kinda like jam-band thing… The Dead? Yeah, I was a deadhead. Steve can never be caught at a Grateful Dead concert, but Peter likes them. But you know, my love of music – I love Neil Young, but my idol is Bob Dylan, I love Bob Dylan, so that translates well… What’s your favorite Dylan album? My favorite album? Right now? Gosh, I have a lot… I can give you a Top 5 if you want… Perfect! Definitely Oh Mercy, the one with Daniel Lanois, it’s from 1990. No matter what, you gotta say Blood on the Tracks, I’m sorry, but it’s just so fucking good. Blood on the Tracks, Desire also… Desire was basically the first Bob album I got REALLY into. Uh, and then the other two: one of my absolute favorites is Nashville Skyline, I love that album as well. The fifth one, uh, it’s hard. Right now, I’d say Planet Waves! What? Really? Yeah. Mainly because… Bob at that time in his life, was kind of where I’m at in my life right now, like, Planet Waves when it first came out… Was that in ’74? Yeah, in 1974 with The Band- first of all, I love The Band – and he’d just married Sara and they were living in love in upstate New York and that’s where I am right now, I’m living with the girl of my dreams in upstate New York and we’re getting married in August when we get back. Congrats! Yeah and you know, at first the critics panned it, saying “It’s not protest-Bob anymore”, but the last song on the album, “Wedding Song,” is so good. So, I’ve been listening a lot to Planet Waves and I love the sound of The Band, like my favorite movie of all time is The Last Waltz… like when Bob comes out, in that hat and the beard, it’s just like… every time I see it, I won it and watched it about a hundred times, it makes my heart beat faster… the thing about Bob and me… Bob can touch my emotions like no other person in this world. You know, and sometimes Hubcap does the same, which is like a high that I can’t even explain. Well, my favorite for the moment is Blonde on Blonde, the predictable one… Blonde on Blonde, OK. That’s a classic, of course… Yeah, but I also love stuff like Time Out of Mind. Ah, that’s a great album, I just listened to that before I left. “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven,” “Not Dark Yet”, “Highlands”… (sings) “I’m listening to Neil Young”… I love that! Bob referenced Neil Young and then on Greendale, Neil’s latest album, he gives a Bob Dylan-reference… Have you ever heard “Talking New Bob Dylan” by Loudon Wainwright? No, I haven’t. I think it was written when Dylan turned 50, and he tells the story about him and people like Springsteen and Van Zandt being considered the new Dylans and does all these imitations and references… and it’s really funny, check it out if you get the chance! I will! Would you like Hubcap to become a full-time day job? Yes. Is that the ultimate goal? No, that’s a dream, and it’s like, Dream Number Five. The first dream is taking place right now, it’s a European tour. That’s dream number one and we’re doing it. I’m living my dream right now, I’m serious. I’m enjoying it, it’s been great and it’s been amazing and probably Dream Number Four would be to come back here. Dream number two is to get signed on, like, a legitimate label that would help with distribution and get us promoted, maybe a few shows here and there… Not even money, I don’t even want cash. I believe in the band, I think that when more people hear the band and see the band, great things are gonna happen. I’ve been doing all this, everything we got so far, I’ve been doing it by myself, I’m a one man-show and I’m proud of the work I’ve done, actually, ‘cause besides managing Hubcap, I’ve been having two other things going on in my life, you know, I’ve been a full-time student and I’ve been working a day job… What are you doing for the moment? I work at the Chamber of Commerce. I’m kind of like a schmooze, I promote businesses in the area that I live in. I mean, I truly believe in the band, I really think they could get big, I really do… SShhtt! Not too loud, Ryan’s nearing! Ryan: Keep on talkin’, I just wanna roll back this thing [actually, a girl] I just filmed! Yeah, anyway, you can count me in, I’m one of the converted. I get some reviewing requests once in a while and people send me their CD’s and most of it is pretty OK, but this was the first time that I was really amazed by the music and the fact that they aren’t any bigger… Well, yeah, but it’s rough in the States: there’s so many bands… You know, I don’t know anyone… I don’t have any connections in the industry whatsoever, nothing. But lately, what I’ve been doing, and things are starting to fall into place… I’m sending out the press kits like I sent you one, and also the 3-song sampler, to places like the North by Northeast-festival in Toronto, Ontario. I sent that to them and we got in, cool. So, I’m actually pretty amazed about how well the responses have been to the press kit. I haven’t got much feedback from labels, and I’ve sent some press kits to some labels… Also in Europe? No, just American. That’s my next goal basically, to really try to get some response and support from a label and I truly think that if they see actually see the band or listen to the CD, but more importantly see the shows, because the sound is incredible… and also the CD’s go a long way in capturing that. Yeah, Steve told me that you were aiming for a live sound on the second album… What’s gonna happen when you get back to the States? Uh, we have some shows, some festivals in July and August. We’re gonna take off some time as well, in like September, mainly because these guys are all in other bands as well. Also, I wanted to regroup a little and take some time off before the new CD comes out. Once that one’s out, we’re gonna be playing all over the place, in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Buffalo, around the Northeast. As long as you don’t forget to come back to Belgium! We would love to come back! You’ve been here for a few days and the band played three gigs. Could you already put your finger on the main difference with an American audience? Yeah. The main thing is… where we come from, Ithaca, New York, where also Johnny Dowd is from, there are 15 to 20 top-notch bands… in our small town. While we’re starting to kinda stand out a bit from the rest, we’re also just one of those bands, you know. A lot of people in our hometown still haven’t even seen us, they’ve maybe heard of us… Here, I think our sound just stands out a lot, and the thing is, we don’t sound like any other band in Ithaca, we really don’t, but here it stands out even more. They immediately hear it’s different, you know… We indeed don’t have that many bands that play your kind of music… not that I know of anyway. Maybe I can start harassing Ryan now… Doug: Yeah and I’ll give Walt my seat. Ryan: And Walt can’t interrupt me (laughs). Actually, we can do a rhythm section-thing, can’t we? Whatever you want! Walt: I’m just gonna sit here and be very quiet. You play in two other bands, is that comparable to what you do in Hubcap? Ryan: No, they’re very different. I think I really tried to join bands that were completely different from Hubcap. I wanted to, you know, basically exercise my different styles and go in different directions and play different types of instruments. The Moles is an example from another band I’m in, which is with two guys from Plastic Nebraska, another band from Ithaca. So that gives me a chance to play a lot of different styles, a lot of different instrumentation… What are these styles? Is it more experimental? I would say it’s some traditional stuff, some latin grooves, bossanova grooves, there’s different instruments in there: accordion, French horn, fiddle, it kinda runs the gamut… and then the other band I’m in is Boy with a Fish, which is a band that I was hired to play in and that’s more something of a dance group, but rootsy. Are their Hubcap songs that are more challenging for you, because of the other bands? Or are their songs you enjoy playing more than others? I like to have a bunch of different styles in the set. I really, really enjoy the stuff that we started with five years ago and I really enjoy mixing older stuff in the set, so that one songs doesn’t necessarily go into the next one and do different things within a set, rock out when it’s louder and go back to a slower tempo song… Is that also the case for you, Walt? Walt (seems to return from a mental trip): Uh? OK! He wasn’t listening! I started to space out, looking at the beautiful architecture (laughs). But Ryan also forgot to mention that I also play in The Moles… And also in Wingnut, right? Yeah Wingnut, which is a jazz trio, “jazz-ish” let’s say… and it also takes from things like hip hop, fusion… So that’s probably more demanding, technically? Yeah, I think more than any other band, I really gotta be on my toes, because it’s very improvisational – the arrangements and songs are pretty challenging, with keyboards like Hammond B-3 organ and Rhodes, vintage keyboards, electric acoustic piano. Did you grow up with stuff like that? Well yeah, I’ve been in that band the longest and then second Hubcap. Hubcap has been together for five years, Wingnut for seven, I think. Did you release albums with that band? Yeah, three full-length albums and then some live stuff and an EP that focuses more on traditional piano jazz. Is the band non-active for the moment, then? Wingnut’s still going strong, but it’s different now, because the original drummer doesn’t live in Ithaca anymore. He lives in Rochester, which is a few hours away… so we use some different drummers once in a while, which gives us the opportunity to do some different stuff… and one of those drummers is Brian Wilson… From the Johnny Dowd Band… Yeah, so there’s a lot of overlap with musicians playing in each other’s bands, like I play with Ryan in The Moles, and both of us also play in this other group Saint Low, with Mary Lorson, who is a great songwriter. Yeah, I heard the MP3 on your website, a version of Neil Young’s “Change Your Mind,” with her on vocals. She’s also a guest on our new album… actually most of these people we’re talking about probably are… So it’s really a scene where everybody knows everybody. Indeed. Do these bands also support each other in other ways, like when one bands gets a gig, they try to bring along one of those other bands? Yeah, we try to do that. Cool, because over here, it’s still very often like “I play in a punk band and you play in a metal band and that’s not cool!”. Peter, do you play in another band as well? Peter: No!! Lazy man!! I’m the only lazy Hubcapper, indeed. Walt: Well, Peter has a very demanding day-job. Oh yeah? What is that? I work for a company that makes hard-drives for audio stuff, like recording studios and television studios… Walt: And it helps us, too. Peter: Yeah, I have access to all the gear. (laughs) Was it hard for you guys to arrange that at work, taking off for Europe for a few weeks? I got three weeks of vacation and I had already taken a week and a half, so I’m only a little over… but it’s not a big deal. My boss was pretty cool about it. … and you won’t complain, ‘cause you’ve been to Europe, right? Yeah. And what did Mr. Dowd say about you leaving, Walt? Well, that’s the whole reason why I took a job, it’s for the flexibility. If you have two bosses that are musicians… as long as I give them notice, it’s fine. Are there that many musicians in that company there? A lot of bass players! The whole company is like ten guys and there are four bass players… Pretty ironic then, that Johnny Dowd doesn’t play with a bass player. (Laughter) That’s true… It proves again he’s a special guy! Peter: Where I work, it’s ALL musicians, like, 80% of ‘em. The accounting and shipping department, those are the only people that aren’t musicians. Everybody else is a bass player, guitar player, sound guy and a lot of people I work with are also playing in these different, related bands… so it’s very incestuous (laughs). What are your expectations for the second album? What would you like to achieve with it? Walt: You know, we didn’t really shop the first album around to labels and stuff and we’’ll definitely be doing more of that… you know, try to sign up with an indie label and get some distribution. I mean, outside of that, I don’t really have any expectations… Ryan: I think we’re all really happy with it and I think it’s necessary to take the next step… to get that distribution, get those albums out and have a few good people we can trust to work with, so we can make the goals come true… Peter: I just wanna be rich (laughter). Ah, you’re the one who’s only in it for the money, not for the love of music! Peter: Yeah, totally! Walt: It’s like The Mofos song “Fuck Art, Let’s Make Money.” (laughs) Peter: I’m so far away from that, though. No, seriously, I think the album’s even better than the first album and that I think we have a good shot of getting a decent company behind us. It might take a while, but that’s okay, because we already recorded it ourselves and were able to pay for that ourselves… Yeah, I mentioned to Steve how I amazed I was by the debut’s sound in itself… it doesn’t sound like the product from a band that doesn’t know how to play, it’s a finished album, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the second time around, the music might make something of an impact. Ryan: It would be great to play at Werchter next year! Is that too high for us, or what? No, not at all, but I don’t know if they’re still concerned enough about music that isn’t selling enough, and they’ve obviously chosen to make money out of what’s new for the moment, what appeals to young people… Okay, they also have the Pixies, but there’s this mixture of hit wonders and the same old headliners like Lenny Kravitz, who haven’t released an exciting album in, like, a decade, that makes me wanna skip that festival. Ryan: Yeah, he keeps releasing, or re-releasing all these Best of-packages as well. But there are some cool festivals in Belgium where you’d fit in nicely. Like the Sjock Festival… it’s all about rock ‘n’ roll there – hard rock, punk, rockabilly, etc – but the people who organize it really seem to be in it for the music. Ryan: I’m looking forward to playing there. Let’s return to the second album… how did the actual recording happen? Peter: What we did is, we gathered a bunch of gear, assembled a recording studio from stuff that we had and that I had at work and that the band already owned, like microphones and cables, etc, and whatever we could borrow… Where did you do that, at home? There’s this house that these guys all live in, that I used to live in, with a big room upstairs, almost big enough to play a game of tennis in it. Walt: Or basketball. Ryan: Steve and I live there now. He has a roommate, but there’s two apartments on the ground floor, and this huge, like, it’s pretty much like a dance hall, on the third floor of this barn, so to speak, and that’s where we did all the live recording, all the basics, you know… the drums, the bass, that’s where the drum sound comes from. Walt: A place with 24 ft ceilings and a lot of junk, so we just put it aside… That was probably good to get a live sound. Peter: Yeah, it worked out great Walt: … with all the wood and the big open space, it was a really nice, ambient sound, so the band tracked all of the songs live. Really, the only thing that was definitely done over in every case, was the vocals. A lot of those basic live tracks were kept… while we did a lot of overdubbing on other tunes as well. Was it always a collective thing, or did the one who felt like playing around just go there and do it? Peter: With the overdubs, we’d basically do bass and guitar for a couple of songs, while sometimes we’d o all the guitars for one song, depending on what we wanted to do. A lot of times, Steve and I wanted to do the guitar parts again, because of tone or something. Not always, we kept a lot of stuff as well… but, you know, he’d do his part and then I’d put my pedals in and we overdubbed right there, and once we’d recorded the whole album in the barn, it was already October, so it got kinda cold, so we broke everything down and put it in the upstairs bedroom… basically a computer with two speakers and uh, you know, just plug in a mike and do all your overdubs, right there. That must’ve been much more convenient than going into an expensive studio and have it done with as fast as possible… Walt: Indeed. So, the basic tracking was in the big room and one day of the week, when everybody could get together, we would slowly do this stuff, these overdubs. One day would be bass, another day would be guitars, or we’d bring somebody in to play accordion, the other day would be vocals. Peter: The only people we annoyed were roommates and neighbours! Ryan: Billy Coté also got annoyed once in a while! (laughs) Why? Ryan: Because it was taking so long. Peter: We could easily spend an entire night on one guitar part. Are you guys nitpickers like that? Ryan: That’s the understatement of the year! Walt: We’re anal pricks! (laughter) Peter: I don’t think we’re too anal, I really don’t… Ryan: We’re totally too anal, shut up! (hilarity) Peter: How many times do I do a solo? I probably do it five times. Five, maybe eight, maybe nineteen… fuck! (hilarity again) Doug: And what about Walt? He bought his new bass, that Rickenbacker, after he’d recorded his parts. He wanted to re-record all his parts! Walt: That’s not true! Steve said that in an e-mail we sent to a bunch of people, it’s actually not true. Maybe your real name is Walter Becker and then I’ll start calling you guys Steely Cap! (laughter) Walt: Although I did re-record one tune on the album the day before it was going into the studio, but actually… it was a good thing, everybody agreed that what I recorded was better. Peter: I think we were really on the line of being too much and not enough… It’s not that we replaced every little thing and we would pretty much do a take and say “Okay, I like this take, maybe switch this half with this half”… Weren’t there any moments when somebody suddenly said “Now it’s been enough, please shut the fuck up”? Peter: Oh yeah, that was Billy’s job, ‘cause we could sit there a whole night! Ryan: “Come back to reality, boys” Walt: And Ryan… because we’re doing all the drums, everything is miked up to, like, five microphones, he doesn’t have the luxury of overdubbing, it’s all a live take. Ryan: I had it done, like, on the first day and for about six months, I didn’t have to do any overdubs… Walt: … and then, six months later, he does a tambourine part on something, overdubbing… Ryan: That’s the way to do it! Get everything done on the first day, it’s perfect! I think everybody was prepared that first day that we did it… Walt: We also knew some of those tunes really well, we’d played them before; other songs were songs that Steve brought along on a tape and they were new to the band, so in some cases… we weren’t composing as the recording was going, but we were coming up with parts, you know, during the process of recording. It’s really nice to have those too: songs that are really, like, straight-up live and songs that are more pieced together in the studio in the traditional manner. You can’t be too perfectionist, otherwise you’ll kill the live feel of the music, the chemistry of everybody coming together. I think this album captures the sound of the band live better than the first record. Yeah, the first album sounds more “produced”, with more obvious sonic experiments, while the new stuff seems much simpler… Peter: Yeah, Steve and I basically did the first one ourselves. We were living together at that point, so we would work on it, like, two days a week. In general, the new one’s indeed very straight ahead… Walt: It’s more raw and natural than the first record. Doug: What did you think of “Kindsortawrong” the bluegrass song with the mandolin? I like it! Walt: We’re kind of doing a totally different electric version this tour, the whole groove and feel of the song is different now. Okay, I see you guys gotta play now! Good luck! All four: Thanks!
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