Define your genre in five words or less:
Swing, rockabilly, ska.
Bearing the terrible clichéd nature of this question, what do you reckon people will say you sound like?
We played a gig a long time ago with the legendary LA punk rock band X and John Doe told me we were like Cab Calloways band with Charles Manson as the lead singer. That was a long time ago when we played a lot more punk rock and ska shows, but I think it speaks to an edge that we have. We are very swinging, but we don’t come across as tame.
What inspires or has influenced your music the most?
Currently my reading of the Greco Roman stoic and cynic philosophers is the most inspiring to my lyrics. I have been reading Seneca, Lucretius and Epictetus and trying to square up my own life by ruminating on what these guys have to say. I think stoicism began to creep into the new record in a few songs. The characters in those songs encounter difficulties yet they attempt to take a clear-eyed look at themselves in their struggles to overcome their fears and disappointments.
Do you have any record releases to date? What are they? Where can I get them?:
We have eight releases and a new swing album called White Teeth, Black Thoughts available in the early part of 2013. You can check out, download, or order and have me personally ship to you at daddies.com.
When are you playing live/releasing your album/EP/single/etc?
Monday November 5 at The Corner Hotel.
What makes you happiest about what you’re doing?
I like working through long projects and seeing them through to the end. Its like a long odyssey where I discover a lot about myself along the way. Making an album is like that, it hurts and is frustrating but it proceeds along its own peculiar logic and arrives at its particular place. Since I basically write everything, it is more like an auteur headspace. Though I do get blamed when somebody’s expectations are not met. It builds character.
What’s your favourite song, and why?
My favourite pieces of music are some late string quartets by Beethoven – No. 12 In EB Major and No. 15 In A Minor. To me they sound as if reason was sculpted into musical form. They‘re not tempestuous, romantic or flamboyant like much of what Beethoven did while younger. This feels like the music made by an experienced soul at the top of its game with nothing to prove, but everything to say. It makes me proud to be a human being.
