EXPOSING YOU TO MORE NEW MUSIC

THE SKY CRIES OUT

Stubble Interview by Ken Zebbyn

It was Autumn and the scene was Boston's Rathskeller in Kenmore Square. We entered the club to do this interview and after being told who was headlining, which was some Boston band I forgot, Keyboardist Gordon Raphael introduced Roderick and Anisa to us and we traveled the back alley of the club to the tour bus. After the interview we viewed (and thats the correct term) a most excellent performance. The stage light show is extremely intense and the whole aura of psychedelia made this a show to remember. This is a band you must see to appreciate fully......

Ken: You were listed in advertisements to be on tour with Miranda Sex Garden, What happened ?

RODERICK: We got letters and faxes from all over and even in the internet "Whats going on? We showed up at your show and drove 7 hours." and stuff like that. We never approved that we were going out on that tour, and we wanted to but a lot of the clubs were pretty small. With the size of our band it wouldn't work.

Ken: How's the tour going?

RODERICK: We played Burlington, VT last night and it was a blast. There were a lot of kids a pretty cool town actually. New London, Atlanta all those were really great. We are vegetarians and its always a trick to find the right food but we are finding some really good places.

Ken: Where are you all from ?

RODERICK: Most of us grew up in basically in Seattle; TR Gordon, DJ Fallout. Anisa grew up in nearby Olympia 45 minutes south of Seattle. I grew up in Edmonds 5 miles north of Seattle and Michael our guitarist is from Wales. Our bass player is from Laguna Beach, CA.

Ken: Do you consider yourselves part of the "Seattle Sound" ?

RODERICK: We are just a different side of it I suppose. There is not so much a scene as people think. Most of the bands don't get to see each other because they are on the road most of the time. Every so often we will see each other in some town. We don't see each other in Seattle, if you are working you are not in Seattle.

Ken: Its says here you were a pre-med student, tell us about that ?

RODERICK: I hadn't really discovered acid yet .... I don't advocate drugs, I just think that people are doing them than whatever. sure, I would never advocate drugs cause someone might take it too far and totally fuck themselves up. When I was doing Pre-med stuff I was very serious and hardcore studying so much I had my mind completely warped by it. I was trying to fit into a mold there and it was something I put myself into. I thought I'm going to college, paying all this money I better really do something real here and the I realized that I was kind of faking myself out. what I really wanted to do was theatre, and the arts, I went into the theatre and got into music that way.

Ken: I heard your senior thesis was colorful !

RODERICK: They passed me but I think that was just to get me out of school. It was more the mushroom days back then I was just mixing every political statement I wanted to make into one big theatre piece and slamming it down people's throats. I was freaking out throwing pieces of bacon in my professors face I had the doors locked so no one could leave the performance before it was done. Then the screen pulls up and behind it is a stained glass kind of alcove area with my friend Robin on cello and Anisa singing a most beautiful thing and then the screen came back down, the flames went back on and AAAARRRGGGHH!! Tromping around for 45 minutes.

Ken: So you were the first band on internet !

RODERICK: We beat the Stones by a week, We were supposed to do it tomorrow in Penn State then The Rolling Stones announced they were gonna do it on the 18th. Then Penn State said, "Well that's not gonna happen now, The Stones beat you to it so we are not gonna knock ourselves out for it." We bummed out, then TR DJ Fallout who works at a company called Starwave and We approached them cause they have the capabilities to do the broadcast. So Paul Allen, the former partner of Bill Gates, Microsoft Corporation, so Paul Allen's company said we would be interested in doing this with you, we like the band. We would like to be the first company to do it. We think you would be a great band for it. So our manager Nick Turner and Starwave set it up and we were in front of 37 thousand people typing in while we are playing. People in New Zealand saying I'd like to hear the guitars more, is that possible? Then that gets a note to the sound board, oh he wants to hear more guitars. Or someone asking what do the people in the audience look like ? So the camera crew had these headsets on so it was cool. We had a few of our friends and the Starwave employees, brought in a keg and it was totally funny cause we are using the latest and greatest technology and at the same time it was more like a kegger in an executive office. Really cool, totally funny with The Stones they are like "Who cares if some obscure band did it, we are The Stones so we are the first big band to do it" but when you come down to it you are second.

Ken: Didn't You also make "2000 Light Years From Home" a single ?

RODERICK: It wasen't our idea. we liked the idea of doing it live, I wanted to add another song to our live set that really pumped it up and you know people who didn't know us from anywhere drunk at the bar and its kind of sad but some guy will say cool The Stones and will watch this band instead of going to piss off somewhere. That actually worked and the label head heard it in NY and we had allready finished the album and he made us add "2000 Light Years" and "Broken Down" to that album. and for me "Broken Down" is the weakest track we ever recorded. I really despise that cut. And then the 2000 thing was fun, then it became the single. it should have been our own song. Its those damn Lemonheads, if they didn't cover "Mrs. Robinson" then this might not have happened.

Ken: So you are going to be on Conan O'Brien Monday ?

RODERICK: Yeah, that happened 2 weeks ago, they told us he wants us on the show. We have been trying to do it or The John Stewart Show for a couple of months now, kinda pursuing them and Conan said yeah. we are going to do "Scapegoat". They need a 3 and 1/2 minute song and thats about the only one that fits that category.

Ken: You have Hendrix in your name, song titles ect, but the only similarity is the psychedelia there is a more vocal less guitar style. What's the link.

RODERICK: It's more of like a bizzarre mystical link to Hendrix, I feel, I never even knew anything about Hendrix until, which is bizarre, I was 23-22 and after I graduated from the university I went to Europe traveling with 2 guys from Belgium who were big hashish smokers and we were just going at it day in day out all the way thru Romania and Yugoslavia or what used to be Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria and all that on our way to Istanbul. While we were doing that I was listening to Hendrix cause that was their main band they just loved Hendrix so they totally turned me on to him I thought "Wind Cries Mary" was like the greatest song ever written. There is Hoo Doo Child Publishing, our publishing company, and "Exit At The Axis" our first EP and "Return To The Inner Experience" obviously I always dub his face into the collages. On the new album where the girl is spinning and like these spacemen, well look onto the moon part of it, you'll always see me do that. Anisa did the big paintings that are on the back panel. Those are 7 and 1/2 feet high, in real life they are gorgeous. She has had 3 shows in Seattle and sold everything she put up, and I'm really proud of her.

Ken: Do you like the label of visually oriented?

RODERICK: People reach us on all different levels, it could be the rhythm section, it could be the subtle guitar tones, it could be the lyrics or the vocal harmonies, and it could be the full on light show and I come on with these big gold horns and weird shit and its more like a ritual. There are film projectors and slide shows are going its not like 4 guys standing up there staring at their shoes. When you come see our show you are going to see a show. This is David he does all our lights, light show he goes by the name of Seer Images he has been with us the last 2 years and he's fabulous, amazing stuff. He comes to our practices.

Ken: Final Comments ?

RODERICK: The power of music and the healing art is just so unbelievable. If you are high in the sense that is being together as a person and really into the ritual of the music then that high is more accurate. You are not receptive to all the other energies in the room, you are just into what you are focusing on.