Inteview is done in a form of a test. Go through the answers and you will know who from the Balmorhea bandmembers is your soulmate!
Continue the sentences:
If compare your music with a fruit it would be like….
A) Peach
B) Pomegranate
C) Kiwi
D) Star fruit
E) Coconut
F) Durian – “king fruit”
G) Plum
Today’s concert was…
A) Surprising
B) Unbelievable
C) So energizing, amazing, encouraging
D) Like singing with a choir of ghosts
E) Unforgettable
F) Fucking amazing!!! So much love!
G) Sonically big and loud
My first impression about Ukraine is…
A) People are nice.
B) Big
C) Cold
D) Beautiful girls
E) Kind and warm people
F) When I come back
G) Cloudy
If I could take only tree things with me on tour it would be…
A) Iphone, a book, plenty of clean clothes
B) Camera, laptop, my lucky hat
C) A book, a camera, a notebook
D) My instrument, underwear, computer for composing music.
E) Book, motion-sickness medicine, deodorant.
F) Socks, underwear, tooth brush.
G) Microphones
If song was a cake, I would add more… (list your ingredients)
A) Chocolate
B) Strawberries and cream
C) Strawberries
D) Vanilla, sour cream frosting, sprinkles
E) Cream cheese
F) Ice cream
G) Chocolate
The last track that I listened on my mp3 player was…
A) Paul Simon – “Crace land”
B)‘Gold Tone’ by Kurt Vile
C)‘Hunter’ by Bjork
D) Beck
E) The New Yorker - Fiction Podcast
F) “Lotus Flower” by Radiohead
G) ‘Society is my friend’ by Kurt Vile
Three things real musician should do are…
A) Listen to a lot of music, let the music come at its own speed, practice
B) Listen to all types of music, collaborate, learn new instruments
C) Practice, practice and learn to listen well.
D) Practice, create and listen
E) Practice, get a part-time job and fall in love
F) Shower, eat fruits, run as fast as possible
G) Record, mix and master.
Best present I was given on my birthday was…
A) My first acoustic guitar
B) Personalized crossword puzzle.
C) A pepperoni pizza with the birthday candles in it!
D) Hand made music stand.
E) Microphone AT 4050
F) My first instrument.
G) Hot shot - basketball game
Besides music I also do…
A) Eating a lot of Mexican food
B) Photos
C) Writing
D) Play with my dogs, more music
E) Writing…and videogames
F) More music (electronic)
G) I love reading history
I was inspired to play musical instruments by…
A) My music teachers
B) My father
C) My mother’s singing voice
D) My teachers, my musical colleagues, Arlan Lackie
E) My older brother.
F) Good music
G) Mx Px - an American punk rock band
In my childhood I wanted to be…
A) An actor
B) Baseball player
C) An Olympic gymnast!
D) Professional snowboarder
E) President
F)…
6) Baseball player
My first concert where I was playing was…
A) At my church when I was a kid
B) Rudder theatre. College station, Texas – 1999.
C) An elementary school performance when I was 10
D) Five year old Recital at Library
E) Austin Youth Orxhestra – age 9
F) In school.
G) Arlington, Texas - 2001
In my past life I was…
A) President
B) Not alive.
C) Definitely an acrobat, probably in a circus.
D) A deserter soldier Procovief
E) House cat
F) A river
G) Field goal kicker in American football
Among Ukrainian bands I know…
A) Gogol Bordello
B) Gogol Bordello
C) All of them
D) Midnight Melodies Collective
E) Gogol Bordello, Dakh Daughters band, Midnight Melodies Collective
F) None it’s a shame
G) I need recommendations, please!
Transportation I would choose for touring is…
A) Jet
B) Train
C) A private jet
D) House
E) Sleeper bus
F) Teleportation
G) Cross country skis
My soul is like… (name musical instrument that represents it better)
A) Piano
B) Major chords of delayed electric guitar.
C) A cello
D) I can’t say
E) Upright bass
F)…
G) Harp
A person I would be shocked to see at my show is…
A) Alec Baldwin
B) David Lynch
C) President Obama
D) A unicorn headed human
E) An angry person
F) Thom York
G) Bill Clinton
The planet I would choose to perform a concert is…
A) Jupiter
B) Earth
C) Mars
D) Saturn
E) Jupiter
F)Pluto
G) Mars
If you get more answers A – then you are Rob Lowe — guitar, piano, melodica, banjo
If you get more answers B – then you are Michael Muller — guitar, banjo, piano
If you get more answers C – then you are Aisha Burns — violin
If you get more answers D – then you are Dylan Rieck — cello
If you get more answers E – then you are Travis Chapman — double bass
If you get more answers F – then you are Kendall Clark — drums
If you get more answers G – then you are Andrew Hernandez - sound engineer
Characterize yourself in some words
Rob Lowe – Shy, fun
Michael Muller - brawn, light sleeper
Aisha Burns - sarcastic, patient, quiet, bookish
Dylan Rieck - …
Travis Chapman – twitchy, loving, easy going, even tempered generous
Kendall Clark – squiggly
Andrew Hernandez - loving
On October 31st 2010, the day of Halloween, in the Kiev club XLIB, dark forces who usually show their greatest activity on this day, were forced to retreat under the onslaught of music – the kind of art that makes people become closer to God.
Like an avalanche from the mountains music fell on everyone and covered them with its powerful sound, allowing no chance for the dark forces to get closer. Music catharsis – that’s what happened this evening to all who came. The reason for this was the concert of post-rock, experimental, instrumental, math-rock group from the British city of Leicester with a charming name – “MayBeSheWill”.
This concert took place as part of the tour in support of their third studio album, “Sing the Word Hope in Four-Part Harmony”. The concert started with the music of Kiev post-metal band Alinda and post-rock band AL.ko_kc from Ivano-Frankivsk. After the concert, all participants of MayBeSheWill kindly agreed to be interviewed.
• Robin Southby (Guitar)
• John Helps (Guitar)
• James Collins (Drums)
• Jamie Ward (Bass)
Hi! How are you? It’s your first time here in Kiev – did you like the city and the audience here?
Robin Southby: Yes, the show was amazing, but we’ve spent here only three hours, so we will do it tomorrow and think of it.
John Helps: Everything was great. We haven’t seen Kiev but we enjoyed it.
Jamie Ward: It was one of the best shows.
If you compare your music with a fruit, what would that be?
John Helps: Pomegranate
Which Ukrainian musicians do you know?
Jamie Ward: I know “Perkalaba”.
It seems strange that you know this type of a band, because you play different styles of music.
Jamie Ward: Yeah, it was on the UK TV.
What was the last track on your mp3 that you listened to?
Robin Southby: For me it was Four Tett “Love cry”.
John Helps: David Hasselhoff.
James Collins: “Mr Blueskies” by an electric violin orchestra.
Jamie Ward: I could try to be cool and think of some bands, but really I listened to some remixes.
Do you have any musical education or did you learn how to play by yourselves?
John Helps: We all used to play by ourselves. Half of us did a slight musical course in the university. It drag us together, but in a way that had nothing to do with the band. Jamie went to the same course, but we didn’t know him then. We met Jim playing on his own band they were amazing! So we have stolen him.
James Collins: It was a good decision.
How long have you been playing together?
James Collins: In this line about a year.
How long have you existed as a band?
Robin Southby: Technically, about five years, but it was just me and John working together in a bedroom. We went as a band for about four years before Jim joined us.
What kind of music or which bands made you play musical instruments?
James Collins: I’m going to be uncool and say that The Beatles was that band for me. And it was my dad who taught me to play guitar. He played guitar but I taught myself to play drums.
Why did you choose “Maybeshewill” as the name for your band?
John Helps: It sounds nice, so we liked the idea of the phrase. If it means something to you – then it’s great!
Who did you dream to be in your childhood?
Robin Southby: I wanted to be a cartoonist. But I don’t paint anymore.
James Collins: I wanted to be a train driver.
Jamie Ward: I wanted to play golf for England.
John Helps: Probably I wanted to be an astronaut.
Who you were in your past lives?
Robin Southby: Probably some random guy.
James Collins: Train driver.
John Helps: An astronaut.
Jamie Ward: I was a type of whiskey.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
Robin Southby: It’s not necessary a normal place where you get inspiration from. Not necessary music. Because usually you are expected to be influenced by music. It can be something random.
James Collins: Also our friends or people that would come to meet us, like today. Some other bands, they don’t really have to sound as MayBeSheWill. It’s just nice knowing that someone is doing something similar to you.
John Helps: For me inspiration is in trying to do better every time. Trying to improve of what you’ve done the last time. It is just a challenge.
Do you create any music while you are on tour?
Robin Southby: We actually try to, but it’s been quite hard, because it’s difficult to find time to stay alone and concentrate on things.
John Helps: So it’s not a very inspiring place.
What is a synonym of music for you?
It’s very abstract to answer.
The first concert is like the first time sex. Tell us about your first concert experience.
James Collins: My first concert was in my high school? It was in a dinner hall before lunch time. We played Song 2 by Blur. People applauded us and continued their dinner.
It was amazing, not like the first time sex.
Tell us a funny story about your concert life.
James Collins: We played a concert in Innsbruck, Austria. There was an old Austrian man in his seventies, he got on the stage with us, took the microphone and shouted something out loud, but we have no idea what he said.
In one of the interviews Jonsi Birginson – frontman of Sigur Ros said that he is one of your fans? Do you have contact with him?
All: It’s just one of the rumors. But we’ve heard it before. We would love it to be true.
Do you earn enough money making music or you need to have some extra jobs?
Robin Southby: I used to work in a library, but I quit as we went on tour.
John Helps: I work for Venue.
James Collins: I was a train driver, but driving trains and touring at one time doesn’t work out. It would be really amazing if we could go on tour on train, but unfortunately there are not many train stations around where we travel.
Jamie Ward: I work in a recording studio, recording bands.
Do you plan more concerts with other bands?
Robin Southby: We like a lot of bands in U.K. that are at the same level with MayBeSheWill. And sometimes before the tour we would think which of the bands we like to take on tour and someone would appear in our minds. It’s usually the band that we liked before the tour.
John Helps: They don’t necessary have to be alike to MayBeSheWill, I mean not necessary playing post rock. We like taking bands that are different, because when you come to the show you get two different experiences.
Today is Halloween. How do you usually celebrate it when you are not on tour, do you celebrate it together or not?
John Helps: Jamie is great about Halloween costumes. He dresses up very strangely.
James Collins: well, sometimes we do celebrate it together, but usually they work and I get drunk. We live quite far from each other.
Where is your studio for making “do it yourself” recordings?
John Helps: It had various locations in Leicester but now it’s in Jamie’s bedroom.
Why did you choose “do it yourself” recording on your own label Robot Needs Home Records?
John Helps: Yeah, it’s a sort of idea. It’s basically because we didn’t have any money. We borrowed equipment from people and we tried to make it sound good. It’s not as good as we thought at that time, but we’re still proud of it.
You have put your music on the Internet for free downloading. Why did you choose that form of promoting your music?
Robin Southby: We didn’t, somebody else did. Some tracks were valuable for free, but people just wanted to get hold of the album without paying money. So we uploaded it on torrents and they just circulate from that. And it’s not bad, because if there were not torrents people, Ukraine would have never heard of us. So we owe a lot of our success abroad to people who uploaded our music on Internet, but we still would like people to buy our records when they come out.
You use different samples in your music. How do you choose which one you need? Do you have some special preferences?
John Helps: It’s seems like samples find their own place in the songs. Sometimes we feel that some tracks really need them. We usually take samples from the films we like or respect, mostly those are the messages that we want to bring to people, what we personally want to say with the song.
Do you often go to the concerts of other bands?
James Collins: Yes, we do. Mostly we go to those that John invites us, those that are at the place where he works. The club is situated between two big cities.
The titans of the modern post-rock, the mythical gods of music, whose sound raises all the hairs on the surface of human skin - they have mixed the usual 7 notes in a detonating cocktail of emotions, feelings, moods and experiences, and while you are drinking it, your musical taste receptors choke in the ecstasy of the long-awaited sound.
They are creating such dense wall of sound, behind which you feel yourself absolutely detached from the rest part of the world, you feel yourself protected from all life hardships. It’s the same feeling like when yousuddenly enter from cold street to a warm home and find yourself under a blanket.
It is all written about an American post-rock band Caspian, which had visited Kiev and made a concert in the club HLIB on 26th of May 2010 during their three-month tour that included about 60 concerts around the world.
Before Caspian show there were two bands from Kiev: "Nice Wings, Icarus» and «Alinda» on the stage. After the concert the Caspian musicians agreed to give an interview:
Philip Jamieson - Guitar, Tapes, Loops
Erin Burke-Moran - Guitar
Chris Friedrich - Bass
Joe Vickers - Drums
Calvin Joss - Guitar, Loops and Glockenspiel
If we compare your music with a fruit what it would be like?
Banana :)
What Ukrainian musicians do you know?
Calvin Joss: The best Ukrainian band we know is called “Youmaybe”. They are from Kiev.
The first concert is like the first sex. If we compare them what was better?
Joe Vickers: Sex is better than anything :)
How did you start making music?
Chris Friedrich: I started playing piano and tuba.
Erin Burke-Moran: I started playing music in my church.
Joe Vickers: I started playing saxophone when I was 8 years old, then I switched to clarinet because saxophone was too heavy, and few years later I picked up a guitar but since I almost cut one finger off when I was two years old I couldn’t make the chords right so I started playing drums instead. I became really really good in it very fast. And I just never look back – I love it!
Calvin Joss: I’ve got a guitar in 8th grade and I was really very slow. I needed 5 years when I started playing good.
Philip Jamieson: I do not have any formal musical education. I started playing guitar in high school after getting into Led Zeppelin a lot. It was a good way to hang out with friends and enjoy myself.
What was the last track on your mp3 that you listened to?
Philip Jamieson: "Bloodbuzz Ohio" by The National.
If you were asked to draw up a “Code of practice for good musicians” what rules would you include in it?
Chris Friedrich: There s only one rule – to work hard.
Joe Vickers: Yes don’t expect to become real good so fast as I did :).
Philip Jamieson: Hmm... Always treat your fans with the utmost, highest amount of respect. Take time to talk with them, sign things, and most of all, listen to what they have to say about the way your music contributes to their happiness. That, above all, is the number one thing every musician should be doing.
Is the music your only occupation?
Chris Friedrich: We don’t make only this we all have jobs. Music is the thing we come home and try to make it.
Erin Burke-Moran: I teach guitar.
Joe Vickers: I work in the coffee shop called “Starbucks”
Philip Jamieson: I work part time for my father at a company he started. It is a good way to pay my bills and it allows me to go on tour as much as we need, which is helpful.
Who did you dream to be in your childhood?
Philip Jamieson: I wanted to be an astronaut so badly. Then, a professional basketball player.
What kind of music reminds you a roar of airplane turbine when you are flying?
Philip Jamieson: Bardo Pond. %100.
Who you were in your past lives?
Erin Burke-Moran: I was a cat.
Calvin Joss: This is my first oneJ.
Chris Friedrich: Mine is also first.
Philip Jamieson: Probably a giraffe J. I say that because I am 6'7" tall.
Your tour started on 9th March in Washington DC and will end up only 29th May in Helsinki. Your 2010 tour list contains nearly 70 cities; do you have time to compose new songs during your tour?
No, we haven’t. During the tour we had the only one day off in Greece.
You planned to give a concert in Russia in autumn 2009, but because of the problems with visa you weren’t able to. In next two days you will visit Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Do you expect something special from these concerts?
Yes certainly it is special! It has been a place, were we wanted to go for a long time.
Style of music that you play can be called not a post-rock but sincere-rock because you play it sincerely. How did you find yourselves in the style that you are playing now?
Erin Burke-Moran: In the beginning we didn’t supposed to be a post-rock band. We just started playing with Joe, Calvin and then we took a brake for a long time before we came back together.
And then we got Phil and started practice for months. We never had singer because no one could sing well. So we always thought that we should have a singer as for the rock-band, we tried but we didn’t like anyone. Sometimes we use some voice samples of Charles Bukowski.
Creating a band can be compared with creating a family, tell us how did you meet each other, how long you were “dating” or you just “got married” on a music of each other soon?
Chris Friedrich: We all come from area of Boston and a lot of us came to school and university together. So we are all really close, we are a real family of friends, musicians.
What is the synonym of music for you?
Chris Friedrich: Sex :).
Joe Vickers: Drugs :).
Erin Burke-Moran: Life.
Philip Jamieson: Hope. Passion. Reality.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
Joe Vickers: I just want to be popular :).
Erin Burke-Moran: From life.
Philip Jamieson: Most of all from life experience - the things I experience with friends and when alone. I think everyone is looking for a way to make sense of all the things they go through and learn as they grow, and music is definitely the thing that helps me put all of the pieces together and gives me a sense of hope and direction.
You are working with Mylene Shyth label since your album ”Four Trees” and your music can be downloaded from internet – is it the best way for you to sell your music?
Joe Vickers: We make music for fun. We make money eventually but we are not trying to be rich.
You haven’t seen your girlfriends for 3 months and I’m sure that you are surrounded by so many beautiful admirers during the tour. Do you keep faithfulness to your girlfriends?
Erin Burke-Moran: When I see a beautiful girl I think of my girlfriend.
Do you make experiments with the sound? Are you satisfied with it or you are going to change something and the next album will be absolutely different from your past ones?
Chris Friedrich: I think we always try to change. We try to improve our sound with doing something new.
In Autumn 2010 you will have a common tour with Ireland post-rock band “God Is An Astronaut”. Do you have any common projects such as making joint record with some band?
Erin Burke-Moran: While you are in tour you see so much, you get acquainted with new bands, you try to learn.
Chris Friedrich: We toured with Red Sparrows, Arms and Sleepers, Constants and Ef during this spring. It is very cognitive to watch how someone else does music.
Tell us a funny story of your concert life.
Philip Jamieson: One time, at a show in New York City, I fell off the 6' stage during the final song of our show and ripped my jeans and my leg wide open. There was blood, and it was embarrassing to say the least.
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