What have been your musical epiphany moments?
Paul: The first time I heard "Please Please Me," by the Beatles, and I heard that bass line when they sing, "I know you never even tried girl". Paul plays something like an AA-DD-A or maybe it's a DD GGD but it sounded so cool I thought I need to learn to play the bass immediately. I was 11 and borrowed a bass from my friend Dennis Giangreco immediately. His mom was pissed since she bought it for him to play and it wound up at my house.
Terry: The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - This music altered my reality.
Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced? - This music created a new reality.
Return To Forever - Hymn To The Seventh Galaxy - Bill Connors on guitar truly scared me.
Jeff Beck - Blow By Blow - Simply beautiful guitar playing.
Allan Holdsworth - Road Games - OH MY GOD!
Bela Bartok - String Quartet #5 - Where the brave dare not go!
Talk to us about the song-writing process for you. What comes first, the idea? A riff? The lyrics? How does it all fall into place?
P: Usually it's just a mood or a mind set that moves in like a weather front or something and then I tend to follow it. Lots of experimenting or hammering tends to clean things up after I get the basics figured out.
T. Anything can bring on a song. Most often something comes when I'm sitting with an instrument and simply playing around. After something sticks I'll usually let it gestate and return to it from time to time until I'm satisfied.
P: Living things tend to help, people, natural phenomenon, morepeople, animals and plants and thunderstorms, maybe a conversationor something overheard. It's pretty random for me.
T. Fighting with my spouse and children is always fertile ground. Also politics and religion seem to provoke me into expressing myself.
Genre's are so misleading and such a way to pigeonhole bands. Without resorting to labels, how would you describe your music?
P: Mainly just fun music to play, for me that is. I guess I have always got stuck on the concept of "melt music". I have always wanted to do music that would melt and flow, sometimes in front of those fours and sometimes behind but always melting. There used to be a whole lotta melting going on, if you know what I mean. I used to rant to Terry and Jeff about melt music. I really love Felix Papalardi's stuff. He is one of the real melt gods and Jack Cassidy! That guy is way into those levels.
T: It's pretty self-indulgent.
What is you musical intention? What are you trying to express or get your audience to feel?
P: Well, I just like to get it out of me and my gut and when I can get it out in a loud way with my buddies, well that's my intention. At least that's kind of how it is when we do play. We mainly have been recording with very little audience interaction so maybe it would be different if we played to a room full.
T: For starters see my answer above. I'm not sure it's any of my business what people feel.
The business of music is a brutal place. Changes in technology have made it easier than ever for bands to get their music out, but harder than ever to make a living? What are your plans to move the band forward? How do you stay motivated in this brutal business?
P: We'll just keep plugging along just like we have been, no big> > deal and no big deals. No big headaches either. We are actually in the black, (sounds dark doesn't it?) and the plastic is paying for itself. That's pretty motivating. We aren't trying to make it in the normal sense of the word. We just figure we have made it and every time we get together and make up more of this stuff we are continuing to "make it" in the business. There are probably a lot of famous people out there who have made it in many people's eyes but in their own minds and hearts have not. We, on the other hand,feel we have made what we set out to make and will go on doing that as long as we keep enjoying playing together.
T: Paying for food and shelter is a great motivator. As for brutality you gotta be kidding - There are several billion people suffering through wars, famine, repression and reruns of Happy Days.
P: I remember playing a loud smokey gig and noticing a small round table in front of the stage with two guys and two girls sitting there having drinks. We were slamming away at something and I wanted a better look at that bunch so I jumped off the stage, onto their table. It was a bit messy when all the drinks went flying but I kept playing and for some reason was able to do it without hurting anybody, including myself. They let me finish the song and didn't try to kick my ass so I guess it went well.
Another time I found myself at odds with my Hofner bass copy so I> took it to the gig and in the middle of an exceptionally raucous number I threw it on the concrete floor, (no stage at the gig) and proceeded to chop it into pieces with a big axe. It was a crowd pleaser and I enjoyed the hell out of it too. I forgot about all the foam I shoved into the f-hole until it was flying all over the room with every swing of the axe.
P: We drove all night to play the next day in Hobbs, NM. The trailer they gave us had been trashed by the previous occupants. I especially liked the footprints on the ceiling of the kitchen; footprints made from human waste.
Another time on an isolated stretch of Kansas highway we ran out of gas during a blizzard. I walked to the Interstate and hitchhiked to a gas station and got back in time to save my buddies from freezing to death. And I kissed a girl on break once. At least I think she was a girl.
What makes a great song?
P: Good question. There are so many and you know it when it hits you but how do you get to that point, I guess that's the question right? I don't really know. I have to leave that to the really great song writers.
T: Its ability to make an instant connection with the listener.
What piece of your music are particularly proud of?
P: There are a few things I like, there's "Jerry's Blues," "Burn in Hell" is probably my all time favorite but a lot of that has to do with how Terry and I wrote the first parts of it before he and Jeff finished up the lyrics. It was a very sober and honest moment in music for me, at the risk of being a corn ball. I really like "I've Been Waiting" too (on the forth coming Ripple release Acid Blues is the White Man's Burden). That sounds a lot like a song you might hear and what the heck, we actually wrote it!!!! But "Ramona" is a blast to play and I like floating around on the bass. I don't know, we have a bunch of stuff like" Theme From the Monsters Holiday." That is one tune that scares the shit out of me sometimes. I like that one a lot.
T: A couple of my personal favorites are "King Rat" and "Don't Count Me Out".
Vinyl, CD, or digital? What's your format of choice?
P: I don't care really. It's not like our stuff requires some exceptional recording setup. We could have a truck falling crashing into a glass store during one of our songs and you might not even notice it. Our music breathes but not in an airy way, more like somebody running for their life from some huge dark, shadowy beast, 666 feet tall, gaining on you every step. We like the Spinal Tap 11 bit. We'd turn it up to 12 if it went to 12. I am more concerned about what system I use to play the plastic, vinyl or mp3.
T: I like them all.
Check out JPT's last album, Rumdum Daddy
and don't miss the deluxe double-colored, gatefold LP, Acid Blues is the White Man's Burden, coming soon from Ripple Music. www.ripple-music.com
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