1. What have been your musical epiphany moments?
Well, I would have to say that whenever I get together with my bandmates and we start laughing and messing around, once I hear a drum beat or bass lick or something like that, I sort of space out and have these moments. If I have a few drinks and a nice toot in the yard with my headphones on, I have these other moments where I space out and come up with ideas. Once the ideas come to me, I run to my guitar and quickly record them. I once woke my wife up in the night to show her the musical working idea of "In Shadows." She woke up, gave me the stink eye and said "that's great babe" and even though she doesn't really listen to heavy ass music, and she was probably asleep and doesn't really remember, she was right. "In Shadows" felt pretty good.
2. Talk to us about the song-writing process for you. What comes first, the idea? A riff? The lyrics? How does it all fall into place?
Usually the music comes first and then we build a vocal melody for that riff. Sometimes it's an idea all together, like a complete song but all fuzzy and foggy in your mind and you gotta try and get one of the guys to sit down and get the idea onto paper or a video or something. One great tool the band has been using is BandLab. It's an app where you can record ideas and share them as a group. Sometimes we work on things at home, then meet up during the week and try and make sense of things and go from there. We are also good old friends, and have been jamming together since we were kids. That always helps.
3. Who has influenced you the most?
My friends and their bands for sure. There are a lot of great players and bands on the Southside of Chicago. I mean lots. There are some great, kind people that show you guitar tricks and teach humility and friendship. Whenever I get to go out away from the fam and see my friend's band and see my friends on some random Wednesday night, I feel like I just wanna keep playing music and having fun and having drinks for as long as I live. Playing is so fun and when you have fun with it and your friends are doing it it's like man, I'm feelin' influenced! So, my friends, in short.
4. Where do you look for continuing inspiration? New ideas, new motivation?
My bandmates for sure, they are always coming up with new ideas and that keeps me motivated. We all love all sorts of music it's impossible to say a particular band or artist for me anyway. I could be listening to John Prine, Fugazi, Clutch, AC/DC or some lady on the subway and if it's snappy then its snappy. I guess I steal other peoples ideas and try to find my own thing somewhere in those doors of those snappy sounds. Everyone else who's awesome at music is the king motivator.
5. We're all a product of our environment. Tell us about the band's hometown and how that reflects in the music?
Well four of us grew up on the Southside of Chicago, and our singer is from the Northside. Both of our neighborhoods carried the same dynamics. We all attended Catholic schools except out drummer who went to a public school. Despite our geographical and schooling differences, we all ended up hanging out together in the '90s when we were teenagers. Our drummer and singer were in a band when we were young called Renegade A-Bomb, a super cool punk band. Bands were common in our neighborhood, but mostly they were cover bands, which is Ok, but checkin out an original punk band was way fucking cooler, so when some friends I knew wanted to check out a band that was cool, I went and saw Renegade and after the show I met Matt McDonald and Mike Scales and I continued to hang with those guys. Dave Fitzgerald grew up four houses away from me and he and I would often hang out in his room and play his crappy black guitar that he found in the trash, I got an even crappier one from babysitting job I had. We would mess around for a long time with those things.
I met Bill when my sister was hanging around his block and she introduced us, Bill and I had not played music together until we were adults. We had a solid childhood friendship that included funny cartoons video games and movies. The neighborhood we grew up in was all working class, most dads and moms were cops and firefighters or union workers. It was the '80s and '90s, summer's were hot, the music was either the oldies with your dad fixing some yard stuff, or it's the Misfits and Nirvana at night with your friends in an ally smoking all the cigarettes and feelin so cool. That was the environment we shared. Now we are all working dads and doing music because we love the shit out of it.
6. Where'd the band name come from?
It's a snake.
7. You have one chance, what movie are you going to write the soundtrack for?
Fast & Furious 12: Coronius Maximus
8. You now write for a music publication (The Ripple Effect?). You're going to write a 1,000 word essay on one song. Which would it be and why?
I would be fired promptly for not writing enough words. I'd pick "Soul Suckin Jerk" by Beck. I think I could actually write 1000 words about why I like that song so much. It's a real time capsule, that one.
9. Come on, share with us a couple of your great, Spinal Tap, rock and roll moments?
When I played my first show ever in 1996, our guitarist Dave gave me a metal pick for good luck. With one pluck I broke 3 of my strings and proceeded to do the show with only 3 strings. It was really stupid and I sounded terrible, but it was pretty funny too.
10. Tell us about playing live and the live experience for you and for your fans?
Playing live rules. I love getting there early with the boys and setting up for the night and then having some drinks and words with everyone. I love getting to show off our new songs and I like that our show offers something else to do for the night for some people. Getting out of the house is awesome and live music just completes any night really. After it's over I get to see other bands that were nice enough to play with us. I really enjoy that part. I also even like packing up our stuff at 4am and having one last beer with Sully under a street light on the Southside. In the morning I can still feel the buzz in my ears and in my head. This feeling usually kicks off a great mood for me for the week.
11. What makes a great song?
Great hooks, good lyrical content and the performer must adopt the song and become part of it.
12. Tell us about the first song you ever wrote?
The first song I ever wrote was about a fish that dealt weed from.the side of a river. Was weird as f and not that good at all. The first Hyss song I ever wrote was "Wolf Spider" and that one was good for once I thought. The riff was pretty sweet and wolf spiders are cool.
13. What piece of your music are particularly proud of?
"Disco Frankenstein" for sure. Bill started it with the riff and I had it in my head for a while and then I just started thinking about this funny Frankenstein monster at a disco for some reason and I started digging in. Bill approved of the melody and lyrical work and then I added the breakdown which gave Dave the green light to go crazy on his lead parts and then we thought our friend Chris might be cool if we added keyboards. The whole band really piled on and it feels like our greatest one yet.
14. Who today, writes great songs? Who just kicks your ass? Why?
I've really been digging King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, they seem to have a nonstop kick ass song list, they speak of the environment and other things to help us pull our heads out of our ass.
15. Vinyl, CD, or digital? What's your format of choice?
Everything is digital now. Vinyl sounds rich and soft but I don't have a record player. CDs force you to listen to the whole album which is good, but it's easier to make a playlist on your phone I think, rather than fumble around for CDs while driving down the ol' bumpy road ya know?
16. Whiskey or beer? And defend your choice
I always like to go for the dragon's throat by sippin' the brown first, but to be fair I'm a double fister and I always do both. A party ain't a party til we start greening. This triple threat is the only way to go for me. A sort of father, son, holy ghost of alcoholism and drug use if you will. Once it all hits it's time to blast the Hyss for all the neighbors to hear. They can pull their windows shut and call the police all they want but I'm doin' it anyway babe.
17. We, at the Ripple Effect, are constantly looking for new music. What's your home town, and when we get there, what's the best record store to lose ourselves in?
You def want to hit up Beverly Records on the Southside of Chicago.
18. What's next for the band?
We are stuck inside while the world burns down at the opposite of mach 5. Until that's over, we are just pushing our new EP and working on new ideas at home. I hope more shows would be next.
19. Any final comments or thoughts you'd like to share with our readers, the waveriders?
Thank you for supporting local music. People who take interest in small bands in the hood are awesome people that get it. They get that it's better, it's more human. Not too many hands turning the wheel offers a better product always. That's why local music is better. Ripple Effect is awesome for having us, you guys give us a place to go with our project and we appreciate it. If you are actually reading this... I mean... thanks. You are awesome.