Check out if and it at Slainte with Great Western Plain and the Class Machine this Friday, November 11; it's free and begins at 8 pm.
The stereotype of the North used to be that it wasn't all about country and Americana music, so how would you explain the insurgence of high quality, talented bands in Portland especially who are playing this sort of music?
I'm not too sure. I think along with the world getting smaller Folk, Country, and Americana are a huge part of music in general. I myself grew up in Florida where there is no shortage of musical diversity. Portland is home to so many amazing musicians and artists so it comes to me as no surprise that we have such a great representation of this type of music here.
Who is in the band and what do they do?
Chris Dibiasio, Tim Alan Walker, and Myself (Evan Parker). Chris (Dabizness) plays drums and sings. *(In his spare time Chris likes to play tennis and bird watch. He once saw a Spix Macaw while spectating a tennis tournament in Brazil. To this day that is his greatest moment.) Tim (Two Man) plays bass and sings. **(Tim enjoys leaf peeping, driving, and coconut donuts. Once Tim drove all the way from New Hampshire to Ohio in the fall for what he heard was the best coconut donut in the US. I later found out that he did not like the donut but did enjoy the drive and took many great pictures of the foliage.) I play guitar and sing. *(I enjoy Winnie the Poo, tree climbing and Nintendo. Once I played Tetris in a treehouse for three days straight only to later find out one of those days was my birthday. Best birthday I've ever had.)
How did you initially get involved in music?
When I was younger my brother James played in a band called Discount (Allison Mosshart from that band went on to form The Kills and also plays in The Dead Weather). I was lucky enough to go to awesome shows all through out my teenage years and Vero Beach actually had a pretty cool music scene in the 90's. However, I didn't decide to start writing my own music until I first heard Modest Mouse around 1999. After hearing that something inside me said, "Hey, I want to write songs." Ever since then I have been writing my own songs.
Who do you listen to? Anyone you really think everyone should be listening to?
I listen to a lot of different music. I tend to like some pretty depressing s@#$. Some of my favorite bands are Sparkle Horse, Band of Horses, Bon Iver, Modest Mouse, Elliot Smith, Wilco, Damien Jurado, The Walkmen, John Prine, Van Morissen, The Shins, Willie Nelson, The Cure, Cat Power, The Flaming Lips, Jason Molina... I don't know, I guess I could go on for quite a while.
Someone that I have been listening to a lot and would recommend is Damien Jurado. Saint Bartlett and Caught in the Trees are both amazing and beautiful albums.
If you could steal a member of another band, even if just for one album, who would it be and why?
Wow that's a really tough question. How about Willie Nelson. Just because he's f@#$ing Willie Nelson and for no other reason.
Do you have a favorite local venue?
I think my favorite local venue would be The Oak + the Ax in Biddeford. Greg and Kristen do an amazing job of getting really good bands up to Maine and it is just a special place. I wish we had something more like that up here in Portland.
How much does the instruments you choose to play impact the music that you are making?
Typically all our songs start on an acoustic guitar (even though we usually play electric sets) so I'm pretty sure that shapes the music we write in some way. I think all of our songs can be stripped back down to just vocals and guitar and they would still sound like a working song.
Sometimes I may have some chords worked out on guitar but don't share a melody with Tim or Chris and let them have it, that's how we worked out some songs on our new EP "ratpig" that's coming out soon. High Blue Skies is a good example of that approach. The bass is killer on that song.
Is there a favorite story behind a song you've written that you could share?
I think Winding River may be one of may favorites. There's not really a story but rather a moral to it I suppose. Basically it states that we all make promises with the best intentions of fulfilling them, but sometimes we don't. Time changes things, people change, but that doesn't mean the promise has been broken, sometimes they just get lost.
Pooh once said - Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering.
I like that a lot. Let your life lead you and don't be disappointed if things change in ways you didn't expect. That's the moral i guess.
Any additional thoughts?
We have a new LP titled "Sparkly Gold" and a new EP titled "ratpig" coming out very soon. Hopefully late December, early January - only time will tell.
* The course of events might be slightly altered from reality.
** This is completely true.