Culture :: Interviews
AARON SHADWELL
September 05, 1998 |
| Aaron Shadwell |
BAZOOKA JOE: Was that Tree House Union? I remember that. That was ages ago!
AARON: Yeah, a band called Tree House Union. Greg was the bass player--
BAZOOKA JOE: That was you!?
GREG: That's me.
AARON: That was him.
BAZOOKA JOE: How does feel to play out live on the radio for once?
AARON: It feels really, really great. Unfortunately for the ten years I've been playing on the guitar it has been a relatively painful thing and it hasn't always been fun.
BAZOOKA JOE:Why has it been painful?
AARON: I think it's because I put a little too much importance on it. And now thanks to friends like Greg I have relaxed about that.
BAZOOKA JOE: I've known you Aaron for like, what, five years now?
AARON: Yeah, probably.
BAZOOKA JOE: I've known Steve for eight or ten years. Greg I've met once.
GREG: Ten?!
BAZOOKA JOE: Ten years! We go way back!
AARON: They, uh, still sleep together.
BAZOOKA JOE: I just want to bring this up to the listening audience, Aaron has done sound for me many, many times and I got off the train stop in lovely Kenmore Square and that was, what a Thursday?
AARON: Thursday or Friday.
BAZOOKA JOE: Thursday, actually, because Friday I was getting drunk as well.
AARON: You were wearing a short sleeved button-down shirt and khakis.
BAZOOKA JOE: That's because I was coming from work. I saw you and you had been on my mind that very day because I wanted you to come down and play. So finally after all these years of knowing that you were a musician, knowing that you were doing sound with...what was that band?
AARON: I played with Tree House Union and then I was playing with Daniel James and the Breed.
BAZOOKA JOE: That's right.
AARON: I did some other things around town and I sat in with a guy named Dave Dahms.
BAZOOKA JOE: Oh, Universal You!
AARON: Universal You. He's really fucking good.
BAZOOKA JOE: He's really into the Lou Reed sort of thing which Steve would appreciate.
AARON: Yeah. He's good. He's a great bass player.
BAZOOKA JOE: We'll have to get him back here. Did you know I used to work with him?
AARON: No.
BAZOOKA JOE: This was when I used to worked as a telemarketer and that's where I met him. Where are you working these days? You're still slinging coffee, right?
AARON: I'm going back to Fuel in Kenmore Square. I was there for eight months and then away for about three. I'm going back.
BAZOOKA JOE: Where'd you go?
AARON: I went to Bread and Circus.
GREG: And the unemployment line.
AARON: I didn't go to the unemployment line. I went to Blanchards in Allston. A liquor store.
BAZOOKA JOE: What are you doing for the holiday weekend?
AARON: Um, when is the holiday weekend?
BAZOOKA JOE: Right now, this is the holiday weekend. Labor Day. Where have you been?
AARON: I'm doing this. I'm going to go home.
BAZOOKA JOE: Greg, what are you going to do?
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| Greg |
BAZOOKA JOE: Are you doing sound for them or are you going to play for them?
GREG: I've been doing sound for them for about a year and a half now.
BAZOOKA JOE: Doing the ska thing.
GREG: Yeah, doing the ska thing.
BAZOOKA JOE: How many members in that band now?
GREG: Uh, anywhere from seven to ten depending on the given day. Depending on how many guest appearances they have.
BAZOOKA JOE: I think we need to have you come back and do more sound.
GREG: I'd love to.
BAZOOKA JOE: What do you play? You're a bass player?
AARON: He's a fine song writer.
GREG: I am a bass player.
BAZOOKA JOE: Do you think you could do a solo bass set with four songs?
GREG: No. Absolutely not. I haven't played bass in three years.
BAZOOKA JOE: Why did you throw the bass down?
GREG: I got into engineering. Actually, Aaron drove me away from playing bass.
BAZOOKA JOE: How did he do that?
GREG: Aaron stepped on all my lines. It was him and a drummer named Chris Montacavo. Both of them stepped on all my lines.
BAZOOKA JOE: What are future projects for doing sound for various people? What are you engineering? Are you doing albums and cds and stuff like that?
GREG: I do the Allstonian recordings, I also work for a company in Cambridge called Terry Hanley Audio. We do lots of events around here and some big events like the Vermont Reggae Fest and the Boston Reggae Fest. The Boston Reggae Fest is coming up really soon.
BAZOOKA JOE: This leads me to another interesting question to ask each of you individually. What was the most memorable thing that happened to you this summer?
GREG: Um, becoming homeless.
AARON: If you have an apartment to rent call the station right now.
GREG: Yes, call the station right now, let me know if you have a room to rent. I have the money, I just need to find a place!
BAZOOKA JOE: What happened?
GREG: Too many B.U. students, I think. I think that's the whole thing, yeah.
BAZOOKA JOE: Okay, Steve, what about you?
STEVE: I got divorced this summer.
BAZOOKA JOE: That's heavy.
STEVE: It's beautiful, man. Let me tell you.
BAZOOKA JOE: Aaron, your turn.
AARON: I think to be on the opposite spectrum of Steve, I fell in love. In a big way. I fell in love with a wonderful woman named Jeanne who I live with.
BAZOOKA JOE: Now how come she's not here tonight?
AARON: She has bronchitis. She's home sick.
BAZOOKA JOE: And where does she work?
AARON: She works at Payless Shoes in Allston and she's a special-ed--
BAZOOKA JOE: Will you guys shut up? He's talking!
AARON: Piss off, you lonely drunks!
STEVE: We don't have any girlfriends, man!
GREG: We got our bottles in our hands!
BAZOOKA JOE: Aaron's the only one here with a girlfriend. Aaron's the only one getting laid.
AARON: Yes, I got laid last night. Profusely.
BAZOOKA JOE: Shut up! I don't want to hear it! You know what happened to me last night?
AARON: What's that?
BAZOOKA JOE: I went to the Good Life. Steve's been to the Good Life.
AARON: What's the Good Life?
STEVE: Oh man, the good life, man, is a large pepperoni pizza, a six-pack of Bud's tallboys, some couch, boxer shorts and a good football game.
BAZOOKA JOE: As a concept that would be the good life, but the Good Life is a bar in downtown Boston. I should not say this--
STEVE: Why are you promoting this place, man? Because of the martinis?
GREG: Gin martinis?
BAZOOKA JOE: No, vodka martinis. Gin makes me nauseous. The Good Life is a bar on Kingston Street. The Good Life is a dive. The reason I like it is because it's popular but not popular to the point of being pretentious.
GREG: I know where that is!
BAZOOKA JOE: Have you been there?
GREG: No, but I've seen it. I've been to Foley's--
BAZOOKA JOE: Forget Foley's, that's has business people and bike couriers hanging out there. It's so eighties.
GREG: It used to be a great bike courier bar. Not anymore! Now it's full of suits and that's it!
BAZOOKA JOE: This is why you have to go to the Good Life. Now you like gin martinis?
GREG: Absolutely. Gin martinis with a little bit of vermouth. Very dry. Wave the bottle of vermouth around the glass.
BAZOOKA JOE: This is the way it works, my good friend: you get a vodka martini. Ketel One vodka martini, extra dry, with a twist. They cut you off at two so you go downstairs and have another two.
GREG: They cut you off at two? This is not the good life!
BAZOOKA JOE: Have you seen the martini glasses? It's not a glass, it's a bowl with a stem. I was there last night and I met this woman, I hope she's not listening right now, she used to be a private investigator and now she's an attorney--
GREG: Is her first name Magnum?
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| Aaron, Greg and Steve |
STEVE: And he didn't.
BAZOOKA JOE: No, I didn't.
