1. PGH is all about helping artists highlight their most recent projects, so let us all know what your new project is – and tell us about how it come into the world. What has the initial feedback on it been like?
Our new album is called Hurry Up & Wait and was released in November 2010 on the FDR label. Band members who played on the record include Troy Messina on drums, Paul Gil on bass, and myself (Paul Crane) on guitar, vocals and keyboards. I wrote all the songs. We also had a little help on background vocals by our label boss Mick Chorba and Scott Treude, our current drummer.
The initial feedback was great. We got great press, all of it was really positive. We sent the record out mostly to online magazines and blogs that specialized in power pop and everybody seems to love it.
The recording process took forever and at times I thought we would never finish the record. We released our last record in 2003. By 2004 we had all new band members (except me) and some new songs so we were all itching to record a new record. I bought a house in 2004 and decided to invest in a pro-tools system and record the record in my basement. I recorded a few scratch tracks and we were ready to get things going but then my first son was born in 2005. I soon realized that finding the time to record when you work full time and have kids is not so easy. So basically the record was recorded in my basement a bit at a time over the course of 4 or 5 years. An hour here, a half hour there, nothing for 3 months…I remember recording a guitar track once while watching my son on a video baby monitor perched on top of my amp. Every time he would move, I’d stop playing, make sure he didn’t wake up, erase what I just recorded and start over. My second son was born in 2008 which was about the time I started having thoughts of scrapping the whole thing. The guys in the band would keep asking when I was going to finish my parts which kind of kept me focused. So I just kept on going bit by bit until I was done. I remember when I finished recording the last track it felt like a tremendous weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I was so happy to be done and so proud of the results.
3. Are there any particular songs on this project that are special to you or communicate a message that you’d like to share here?
Exit 10 is the song I think I like the best. During the recording process, I bought tons of vintage amps and gear. One of the things I bought was a ’74 Fender Rhodes keyboard which I absolutely love and is featured prominently in that song. The song also has that bouncy “Good Day Sunshine” beat that we had never really done before and we tried some vocal harmony ideas that we had never tried. I think it broke a lot of new ground for us. Lyrically, the song was inspired by my move to the suburbs, buying a house, not being sure of your new surroundings. At the time I was writing it, it was just another song. But looking back, it seems to have a lot more meaning to me than it did when I was writing it.
4. As we all know, the music industry has been devastated for many reasons over the past 10 years, what are you thoughts on these changes and are you finding some of them helpful to you with getting more people to hear your music?
I don’t really have too many thoughts one way of the other. I don’t rely on gatekeepers like record labels or industry magazines to influence what I listen too so the fall of the major labels isn’t something I think about a lot. I think the advent of mp3’s and social media is a great thing as a music fan. It’s so easy now to find good music and there’s a lot of it out there. Also some of my favorite bands are just bands that we’ve played with that handed me a CD after a show. None of them have major label deals and not that many people know who they are but who cares, they make great music. As far as getting more people to hear our music, it’s really tough to know how many people are actually listening to your music. I can tell you how many itunes downloads we have but I have no idea of our reach because there is so much sharing and there are so many sites that offer our stuff for free. Once in a while somebody in Europe will purchase a CD or someone in Japan will download a song and it’s kind of like, really? We’re huge in Japan! Maybe we are. Who knows.
I still buy and listen to vinyl. Most of the stuff I buy is old stuff I find in dollar bins, which means I have lots of Herb Alpert records…I download a lot of music too. I don’t buy or listen to CD’s anymore. I’ve ripped all of my favorite CD’s and they are sitting collecting dust. I think the best thing to happen to music in the last few years is youtube. There is just so much great stuff. Really obscure stuff too that you can’t find anywhere else. I have discovered so much great psychedelic, power pop and garage music from the 60’s through youtube and have developed a real love for lounge and orchestral pop from 50’s and 60’s. I can spend hours at a time on youtube listening to music and often do.
6. So many artists are wrestling with different ways to approach the recording process now – I would love to hear what your plans on with your next project – Are you going to a full CD, an EP or just release songs as you finish them. Release them digital only or combine physical with the digital or what?
The plan is to record another full CD. I don’t know why. Maybe we’re just old fashioned. We probably won’t press as many physical CD’s as we have in the past because with each release we are seeing more people download our music rather than buy CD’s. Press and radio people still like CD’s so you have to press a few. Why they still insist on getting CD’s I don’t know. I’d be perfectly happy just going digital and sending them mp3’s.
7. What are you finding that is working well for your music right now that others may find interesting to hear about?
Social Media is a godsend in my opinion. We still have an email list but we gave up on our snail mail list a long time ago. It was a lot of work and money for very little return. I love using facebook to let people know about shows or post reviews or videos or just to let people know what’s going on with the band. I have had high school friends that I hadn’t seen in 20 years that didn’t even know I’m in a band come out and see us play because I posted a show on facebook. It’s hard to tell if facebook has generated any CD sales or downloads but I’m sure it has. I think myspace was great too before they ruined it.
With this record, our label seemed to really hone in on press outlets that specialize in power pop. I think it helps in getting more and better reviews when the people who are reviewing your record are already fans of the genre you fit into. So niche marketing definitely works. As I said, we got a lot of reviews and all of them were really great.
On an artistic level, all the guys in the band have very similar tastes in music and we have all had similar life experiences so the music comes real easily. When I write a song, I just have to tell the guys what Beatles song I want it to sound like 🙂 and they know exactly what to do with their parts.
We played at an indie music festival in 2000 where we played right after a band called Punch Drunk Monkees. According to their bio, they are “A unique rock & roll side show influenced by Punk, Metal, Cartoons & Freak Shows.” They brought about 10 garbage bags full of confetti and probably 20 rolls of toilet paper which they blew around the venue with a leave blower during their set. One of the PA speakers also blew during their set. We had to follow this – An entire room filled knee deep with toilet paper, confetti and beer with a broken sound system. Add to this that the formerly packed house quickly emptied and we started playing in a huge hall to 3 people. A few minutes into the first song the sound man, a friend of ours named Gibby, decided he couldn’t do anything about the crappy sound so he proceeded to walk to the front of the stage and cover us with confetti and toilet paper. The rest of the “crowd” soon joined in. It’s really hard to play guitar with confetti and toilet paper hanging from the neck so let’s just say a lot of chords were missed. Our guitarist Bill and I also could not see our pedal boards so while I was trying to hit my distortion pedal to get a nice chunky rhythm sound, I instead hit the phase pedal to go along with wrong chords I was playing to create something that sounded truly disturbing. Eventually Bill decided to make the most of things and have a little fun, so he ran out into the empty room and did the most amazing power slide across the wood floor a la Pete Townshend in the “Won’t Get Fooled Again” video. He did it again. It was so Rock & Roll. I decided to give it a shot myself. I ran out onto the floor as fast as I could, fell on my knees to slide but instead of sliding, I came to a dead stop and landed face down on the floor with my guitar underneath me. Gibby and the “crowd” came and helped me up. I walked back to the stage and we finished the set. I don’t remember much after my ill fated power slide attempt, but I think we slogged through the rest of our set and hi-tailed it on out of there as fast as we could.
Elvis Costello. He just seems like he’d be a fun guy to collaborate with. Obviously, he’s a great songwriter and an icon but he doesn’t seem to have any pretensions about it, just a love of music and wealth of knowledge of different musical styles. Despite his status in the rock world, he still does club tours and really seems to still enjoy what he is doing.
10. Advance apologies: the ‘classic’ questions. What other artists and bands have influenced your music and any particular reason why? Also, push come to shove: “Your Top 5 Albums Of All Time”? (Pop Geeks really are interested in this, trust me!)
The Beatles had the biggest influence on me. I can still listen to their records and not get sick of them. I have loved them since I was a little kid. Our bass player Paul’s favorite band is Cheap Trick which I love too. Other influences include Big Star, Sloan, Kinks, Superdrag, Zombies, Replacements and Husker Du. We got compared to the Replacements early on because we were fast and loose live and our first couple of records were basically recorded live in the studio so we had that devil may care vibe. We also had a monster guitar player in the band at the time. My biggest songwriting influences were Bob Mould & Paul Westerberg. I had tried to write songs since I was a kid but never thought I was much good at it. In the late 80’s and early 90’s, I remember listening to Husker Du records while reading the lyrics and I thought, wow, I can do this. I don’t know why, but a bell went off and I stopped caring whether I was a “good” songwriter or not and just started writing what I felt. I try to channel Westerberg a lot when writing. His humor and the way he turns a phrase.
Paul Crane’s Top 5
Beatles – Rubber Soul
Big Star – #1 Record/Radio City
Replacements – Pleased To Meet Me
Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bullocks
Guided By Voices – Alien Lanes
Paul Gil’s Top 5
Beatles – Sgt Pepper
Cheap Trick live at Budukon
The Knack – Get The Knack
Jellyfish – Spilt Milk
Queen II
Scott Truede’s Top 5
Radiohead – The Bends
Weezer – Pinkerton
The Beatles – White album
The Cars – The Cars
Descendents – Milo Goes to College
11. We’re always trying to find new music discover here at PGH – what are some of your favorite music releases of 2011?
I don’t think I’ve listened to any new releases in 2011. I got the latest, self titled Huck album when we played with them about a month ago which I love but I think it’s actually a couple of years old. I also got Paz Net by True Love this year which I think was actually released in 2010. Great record.
12. Yes, it would be great if most indie musicians could work on music full-time but the reality rarely the case for most of them. I always am asked by music fans, what are the careers or full-time jobs that the musicians of the music they are listening to do…so ‘what’s yr main gig?!’ ;-P
Paul Crane – Business Controls Manager for a Cable Company. I crunch numbers for a living.
Paul Gil – Works for a law firm in New York City
Scott Treude – Runs his own business as a computer programmer and web designer.
13. We’re taking an informal PGH poll of all musicians: Do you own a Kindle or Nook? Any thoughts on what reading books looks like to you?
The last few books I read were actually on my iphone using an ebook reader called Stanza. I also have an ipad which I recently downloaded some books on but haven’t had a chance to read them yet.
14. Okay, last question: Where can we learn more about your music and any other releases you have?
From any of these sites:
www.bastardsofmelody.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/
http://www.myspace.com/
