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BANDS: Punk
& Ska INTERESTS: Venues ETC... About LOTD
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Interview:
BALSA GLIDERS 6/1/02
Reared and schooled in North Carolina, the Balsa Gliders formed officially in Washington DC, post-college; yet in their songs, they recall past experiences with a Southern jangle sound that is representative of their roots. After being picked up by Boston's Intelligent Records in late 2001, they released their first full-length Cookout to a warm reception from critics. The band plans to re-enter the studio this month to record a follow-up EP. I met with the Balsa Gliders (Charles Marshall, Russ Tisinger, Michael Pearce, and Bear Bashford, minus bassist Layton Croft) before their show last month at DC's Metro Cafe. We discussed the scene and experiences that shape their music as well as what's upcoming for the band. LOTD: Tell me a little bit about
your projects during college down in North Carolina before the Balsa Gliders
formed. Michael:
I was in a band at Davidson College called the Heebie Jeebies, and I was
the lead singer. I was the drummer
and singer, and then we got a better drummer.
So you know we did a lot of original stuff and we probably had about a
hundred cover songs we did from you know, Sex Pistols to Neil Young we did a
lot of things. That was for a
couple of years. Charles here was
in a band called the Aggressive Pedestrians in Chapel Hill which actually had
quite a following from what I understand. Charles:
Layton and I were in it and we did 80s
covers and some original stuff, and we werent very good we were only
hired for late night shows. We got
one night at the Cats Cradle, so that was our big moment at the time. LOTD: Any other bands besides
those? Charles:
Layton had a lot of them. He
had two other side projects in college, and when he was in Mongolia, he drummed
for a
band called Bolor, and they were a commercial rock metal band in Mongolia. LOTD: Metal? Wow. Charles:
He would go into restaurants and get recognized!
That probably wont happen here. Maybe
one day. LOTD: What was it like playing
music and going to college in the North Carolina triangle during the climax of the
college band, and what bands were you guys listening to back then? Bear: I was in Raleigh, so its
sort of a different scene in Raleigh. Corrosion
of Conformity was from there. I didnt really listen to a lot of them but I
admire their chutzpah, I guess. LOTD: So were you ever punk? Bear: No, I was just young and
stupid. But, uh, I liked the
Connells. I liked Superchunk a lot.
They were fun. You remember Polvo? Polvo was a good band. And I gotta say
that if Johnny Quest played, I would go see it. Charles:
What about the Sex Pistols? Bear: What? Charles:
I mean, the Sex Police. Bear: Oh, I was gonna
say, the Sex Pistols - theyre not from Raleigh! The Sex Police were pretty
fun. 24-7 Spyz was fun. And
then my friends had bands that were Ashley Stove, Less Than Noteworthy, Dixie
Automotive, which was a great band. Zen
Frisbee was pretty good. Bear: I mostly went to see
friends play in bands that were playing for the first or second time just trying
to get things going. LOTD: So bands were starting and breaking up all the time? Bear: Yeah, my friends
would be like, Dude, we got a band, come check us out, were opening for
Superchunk, and Id be like, alright, Ill go see it.
And so I would go check that out, and I dont know why, but no one ever
wanted a keyboard player, no one ever asked, so I just enjoyed watching them. Charles:
I got two good stories on that.
It was 89 and there was a to be announced show at the Cradle,
and someone said you oughtta go,
and it was $3. And so I went, and there were maybe 50 people there, and it was
Connells, Lets Active double-bill. Lets Active was my favorite band at the time, and it was right before Every
Dog Has Its Day. For the Connells, it mustve been in and around Fun
and Games I guess. Literally 50
or 75 people there, and they each played probably 90 minutesin a small club
too. LOTD: Wow, itd be cool to have a tape of that show. Charles:
And then my favorite band was probably a
band called Teasing the Korean, which was later, What Peggy Wants and
included a couple of the guys that ended up in the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Michael:
And even though I didnt listen to them
the Archers of Loaf, gotta get a shout-out in for the Archers of Loaf. LOTD: You guys get
compared to the Connells a lot, or it seems like it. Charles:
I think we all listened to did you
listen to the Connells? Michael:
Yeah, Boylan Heights for some
reason made it to Birmingham, AL in 1986. And
then Guadalcanal Diary. LOTD: Yeah, thats a
great band too. Charles:
I think REM, Connells, Guadalcanal Diary,
Love Tractor thats what we all have in common. LOTD: It seems like a lot of your
songs are about college, so were they written back then or were they written
after you moved to DC in 98? Charles:
No, the first EP, Undefeated in Apex, was all written up here [in
DC]. It was actually just Layton
and Russ and I who were part of that. And
then for Cookout, I had two songs that I thought were kind of similar,
and as I was writing more songs, I would have these really vivid flashbacks to
North Carolina that I began incorporating into the songs.
So it became very retrospective, and I really enjoyed it. Michael:
In a way, it put sort of a theme on the
album. Charles:
Yeah, it was nostalgia really. LOTD: Yeah, I was going to ask
you, your lyrics seem so descriptive and episodic, so are they real experiences? Charles:
Well if theyre not literal experiences, theyre, you know,
composites. Yeah for every song,
theres definitely a visual image I have from growing up in the South. Michael:
Plus when these guys were writing songs in 98 and beyond, it was in a
group house sort of atmosphere, with a bunch of people from college all living
together. And so you know, you had
stuff that was happening then that was probably very reminiscent of college. Charles:
There
are two songs on the record that are both DC-based, written in those group
homes, and that was Usman, who was his [Russs] roommate up here, and
Ski Chalet which was the house these guys lived in last year. LOTD: So whos Ken
Scholl? Charles:
Ken
Sholl literally is- Bear: Hes an amazing human
being Charles:
What time is it? Youre going to love
this Michael:
Hes like a CIA agent Charles:
Youre going to love this. I
swear to you as I sit here, he is at the altar! 7:30 pm tonight. Its 7:45, hes getting married right now.
Hes a friend of my familys and my little brothers and he was in
school with us, and he was a big Yo La Tengo fan. LOTD: So, like in the song, he
always goes to concerts? Charles:
He always goes to the shows, and when a
friend of ours was trying to get us to go one night during the tournament, no
one would go, cause we [UNC] were playing Tennessee, and Duke was playing
Florida, and these guys wanted to go see Yo La Tengo, and that was the only way
they could try to generate interest was by bringing Ken Scholl into it.
Bear: I thought it was pretty
amazing. Ken Scholl was at a show
we played at Charles brothers wedding, and Charles was like, Thats
Ken Scholl, and I was like, holy shit. Russ: Yeah, wed never met Ken
Scholl. Wed never seen him, none
of us. So we made him sing back up, and he sang with us on Ken Scholl. Bear: I
mean, I went absolutely ape when I saw Ken Scholl.
He was like the most modest Russ: I cant believe he
actually did it. Bear: He
was drunk. LOTD: So what did he think of the
song about him? Charles:
He likes it. I told him
about it before I had any idea where it was going to go.
And then I sent him a final version, and I was like, Just so you know,
its going to be on the album. Toast
to Ken Scholl! Hes getting
married right now! [The
group raises their glasses and toasts to Ken Scholl.] LOTD: So how was working with Ken
Mosher of Squirrel Nut Zippers for recording Cookout?
Russ: It was awesome.
Ken has his home in Pittsboro. He
invited us basically into his home, which was the cool part of it, and his wife
you know entertained us basically while we were there, and we got to know their
cats. He did a lot of cool things
with the equipment that he did have, and what was it called? What do they call
it? Kena? Charles:
Kenginuity. Russ: Kenginuity!
He has this thing his wife and friends call kenginuity. So he did a
lot of cool things to make us sound the best we can sound. Charles:
He recorded everything in his living
room. And normally, like when we
did Undefeated in Apex, it was a walled off room, and if you did
anything, you had to go into the sound-proof room, and people would talk to you
through headphones. But with Ken,
he literally put us all around a coffee table, drums, everything, and they had
these really nice mics, and sound was picked up for the whole room, and so
everything was recorded live, pretty much. Michael:
I gotta say, when going there, I was nervous. I mean this guy recorded an
album that sold half a million records, you know, but when we arrived there, he
was just so cool, and he was welcoming us into his home.
I dont know; it wasnt like a rock star thing.
I mean he was super-cool. It
was an amazing experience. It was
my first recording experience, really. Charles:
And I think his musical tastes and so
forth I mean, he probably doesnt listen to a lot of music like we play.
But he was really gracious, in that he really liked what we did. We would leave at like 12 or 1 after 15, 16 hours, and wed
get up at 9 and go back over, and he wouldve been up, going over the tapes.
I mean he was spending literally 20 hours a day.
We were spending 16 and we thought Michael:
I was frazzled, man Charles:
Yeah, all of us were just fried, but he
didnt sleep at all. Bear: I was just a session
musician, so I was fine. I came in
for about twenty minutes. Russ: But the thing that
he was going for was what Charles said about sitting around the living room and
playing. Thats the sound he was
going for, and thats what I think it kind of sounds like.
It doesnt sound over-produced. LOTD: So how did you guys
who are from North Carolina and live in DC, end up signing to the Boston label
Intelligent Records? Were you like
the token Southern band to diversify their portfolio, so to speak? Charles:
Yes, absolutely.
Ted [Balsa Gliders manager] sent out our demo to fifteen or so indie
labels. Yeah, we sent a lot, but
two weeks after we sent them out, we got a call on my answering machine from
Shilo McDonald, the president. And
he said, Listening to the CD, cant get it out of my car, call me. So I
called him, and he said he wants to expand, didnt have anybody outside of
Boston. And Shilo basically said,
Heres our deal, its pretty low budget, but he had nine acts on his
label already. Instead of waiting
nine months to see who else bid, we just went ahead and accepted it because
theres something to be said when somebody immediately is latched onto it. And he seemed pretty committed to pushing it.
And Russ and I figured that itd be nice to have our label in a
different city because, for example, weve gotten press in Boston, which we
would never have gotten before. Its hard for us to get up there, but it helps spread our
music. LOTD:
Are you going to tour up there? Charles:
We went up there in October and played just to
get our foot in the door. It was
ok. Weve played better. Michael:
Well probably be there this summer.
Itll be Philadelphia, Boston, New York.
Charles:
Because Russ lives in Philly now. This
is why if were not tight tonight, its because we all live in different
places, and weve been drinking Red Stripe. Russ: We have this new
system where Charles and Michael will work together and make a tape and send it
to me and Bear and Layton and we have to practice to that tape. LOTD: Thats an interesting process. Charles:
It is, and by the way, therell be
songs tonight that will be debuted based on that process. Russ: We basically
practiced those three songs today for the first time, all together. LOTD: So your bassist
Layton, is he in Mongolia still? Charles:
Hes in California now.
Hes freelance writing, and his wife is in graduate school. And hes
the most talented musician, I think. Russ: On Cookout, he
played the drums, guitar, and bass. LOTD: How was the live
broadcast you did on XM radio last night? How did it come about, and also, what
do you think of XM radio? Bear: It was pretty fun.
I didnt think I was going to make it because I live in North Carolina
still, and then Charles called about an hour before the show, and he was like,
Yeah, were going to call you from the show, and I was like, Nice!
I participated from my living room. Charles:
And the rest of us played two songs in
the studio. LOTD: What songs did you
play? Michael:
We did Brand Name Girl, which is
off the first disc, and then we did Ken Scholl.
And she actually asked us a lot about Ken Scholl.
We were like, Hes a very enigmatic individual. Russ: XM Radio, it was an
amazing experience. I hope to God that they make it, because they have 162
channels, and 162 separate studios that broadcast the 162 different channels.
The channels we saw were XMU, where they take college radio, listen to
what college radio stations are playing, and then they provide those bands.
They also have an unsigned band channel. LOTD: Can you guys please
explain who or what is stm? Michael:
Stm, Stm is his name.
You pronounce it like S-T-E-M. Charles:
And why does he spell it S-T-M, Michael? Michael:
Well, hes from the planet called
Consonant, ok, because they dont have vowels on Consonant.
So, its S-T-M. See,
actually Stm has a cousin named Stn who Bear: I had nothing to do with
any of this. That goes on the
record. Michael:
Stm is an alien, basically, who we
havent seen in about a year, maybe year and a half.
Hes an alien doll. Charles:
I hate both of them. Michael:
Yeah, Charles does not like Stm or Stn,
his cousin. Stn, we have Stn at the
house. Stn had a message for the
Balsa Gliders, over at my house, you know, playing today.
Anyway, about when they recorded their first EP, Undefeated in Apex,
they went to a Dennys somewhere Russ: I won him for a
quarter, out of a I dont know Michael:
It was like one of those things where it
drops down the claw in the bucket. LOTD: And it actually
picked something up? Russ: Yeah, it picked up
Stm. He was like the lightest thing
in there, so I went for him Charles:
Layton was driving a truck, and we had
all been in the back of it. The
three of us were in a cab, all the way to Charlotte.
And Stm, they put that damn thing on the windshield. And they immediately
started naming it. Russ: By the time we got
to Charlotte, he had a personality. Charles:
I hated that stupid thing.
And he sat in the Undefeated in Apex sessions the whole time.
We have a video from Apex when we were recording, and about half
the video is Stm! Like what Stm was
doing at the time. And we contorted
him into all these uh LOTD: But wasnt Stm
the name of your record label? Charles:
We didnt have a label at the time, so
we just named our label, Stm Records. Michael:
Theres actually a short film, called,
what was it called? Deconstruction
or something? Stm is the subject of
a short film called Deconstruction, which is basically about life, you
know, in the modern world. Hes
an actor, you know, hes LOTD:
Where does Stm reside currently? Michael:
Well, we dont know.
He got kidnapped from a party that we had at the Ski Chalet, and we
havent seen him literally in a year and a half!
Nobody knows where he is. So
somebody took him! But we have his
cousin. Charles:
Hes gone. LOTD:
One last thing, your Warm Weather
Tour,
where are you playing this summer? Russ:
Our goal
is Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Charles: And then were
going to do a private show in Pennsylvania. LOTD:
Are
you planning on touring Virginia and North Carolina? Bear: Were keeping our fingers
crossed on Raleigh. Charles:
Yeah, and were keeping our fingers crossed on playing a show with the
Connells too, so you can bring that up when you see them.
But I think that at the end of the day, well probably try to do the
Northeast in the summer, and then maybe holidays, well try to do Virginia,
and well do Raleigh and Chapel Hill again.
We played Humble Pie down in Raleigh last year.
And we played the Cave, so Bears going to hook us up there. Bear:
Ill try.
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