February 2017

Artist: Iron Reagan

Album: “Crossover Ministry”

Label: Relapse Records

Format Reviewed: Digital Advance

Lyrics of Note:
Strangers suggesting I keep my voice down
Just because it’s 5 am
Not my problem or fault you picked this place to live

Thrash meets hardcore meets punch-you-in-the-face politics. That’s Iron Reagan’s third album, “Crossover Ministry,” in a nutshell. A very angry, impossible-to-crack nutshell.

Improbably paced (18 songs in 30 minutes… say what?!?!), “Crossover Ministry” tears into your ears out of the gates and never lets up. Singer Tony Foresta viciously delivers his vocals, a relentless lyrical rage that resembles a passionate general going to war, while guitarists Mark Bronzino and Landphil Hall raise a 30-chord-salute that seems too merciless to be catchy, but the revolving riffs defy that logic, particularly on tracks “Grim Business” and “Bleed the Fifth.”

“Crossover Ministry” is fuel for the adrenal glands. If you can listen to the album and not want to go out and accomplish something of great personal importance, then you need to find a better outlet for your anger. Iron Reagan has. Use what they have given you constructively!

Name: Chris Brunner

Hometown: Jamesville, NY

TrunkSpace: The first issue of your new series, “Loose Ends,” was recently released by Image Comics. Can you tell us how it came to be, and, what readers can expect?
Brunner: Our writer, Jason Latour (“Southern Bastards,” “Spider-Gwen”), describes it as “a coming of age road trip as crime fiction.” I can’t improve on that much, except to maybe add that the road is a dead end. Following a lethal bar brawl, Sonny (a drug mule) and Cheri (the bar waitress) go on the run. They head to Miami, tailed by 2 crooked cops and Sonny’s ex-army pal Reggie in cuffs.

We, Latour along with colorist Rico Renzi and myself drawing, wanted to create a tight modern crime story. We were all “breaking in” to comics, or trying to, when Jason first wrote “Loose Ends” for a screenwriting course. As I read it, I couldn’t help doodle in the margins. Rico took full reign of those and showed us something we all found exciting.

After years of cooking on the back burner, we finally pitched it and 3 of 4 issues were published by 12 Gauge Comics in 2011…under difficult circumstances that slowed production of the 4th issue to a crawl. While I struggled to complete the art along with an M.F.A. program, Jason and Rico’s other projects met with great success. Seriously, “Spider-Gwen” and “Southern Bastards” are ginormous, and deservedly. This opened the door for “Loose Ends” at Image Comics, and now that the final issue is complete, all 4 are being released. Issue No.1 came out Jan 25th, floppy and digital. The cover is probably somewhere on this page.

TrunkSpace: The series is described as a “slow-cooked, Southern crime romance.” How much of the feel and look of the south did you want to incorporate into the overall visual storytelling?
Brunner: Much as possible. It helps in storytelling to engage the reader’s sense memory; and the south is ripe with details that do that. The actual atmosphere is overwhelming- the deep heat and humidity. And it’s a haunted place too.

Additionally, when people refer to the south I think they are referring to a generalized country redneckery, or plantation “aristocracy.” There’s a wider variety of regionally-specific culture though, it’s diverse, it’s just not often represented that way. We wanted to highlight that with Atlanta, Miami, etc. “Loose Ends” is a road story; and excepting the first and last set pieces, every location is a real place.

TrunkSpace: As an artist, how important is it that the world is just as much a character as the characters themselves?
Brunner: When you create the world, you create the context for the character. I’m a “context is eveything”guy. A drawing of Batman comes alive in proportion to how rad you draw Gotham City, and how believably he exists within it. The unfortunate reality is that certain types of stories, like “Loose Ends,” demand (or beg for) so much laborious drawing in order to sell the sizzle. That said, I’ve come to think that there is an interesting angle to everything if you look hard enough, even if it’s a distinct lack of interest (think of Mr. Incredible’s office).

Environment informs us about character, it is revealing of their choices/motives/vices/compulsions/contradictions/origins. With “Loose Ends,” I thought a lot about “Children of Men,” whose true agenda is forwarded primarily with the background imagery (see both Slavoj Zizek and Nerdwriter1 on this). By creating the space for Rico and I to exploit the environment visually, Jason was able to write hyper economical dialogue, he has less to explain with it, it feels more natural, and the story kind of fries in the silences.

TrunkSpace: As part of the creative team of a new series, what are the biggest hurdles you face in promoting the book and making people aware of it?
Brunner: Overall, I think our hurdles are pretty minimal, compared to what most new books face. On the strength of our publisher, and Jason and Rico’s well-earned reputations, I think/hope enough fans/retailers will give the book a chance.

There are two things that give me some cautious optimism about this. One is that we are (trying to) scratch an itch that is under served, meaning that if you like this kind of comic, you are probably pretty hungry for it. A second benefit is that “Southern Bastards,” and it’s success, provides us a handy reference point; “Loose Ends” is a different animal, but if you like Bastards, you’ll like this.

TrunkSpace: The way people read comics has changed quite a bit over the last few years. Binge reading seems almost as popular as binge watching. Does it put stress on a new series like “Loose Ends” knowing that many people may just wait for the collected version, and, how do you bring people on board from the outset?
Brunner: It must, I do not know though. I’m not in possession of enough facts to offer an opinion about the business of it. Our initial run, the first 3 of 4 issues published in 2011, was work by 3 unknowns with an independent publisher, and sales reflected that. They didn’t, I think, reflect anyone waiting on trades.

My experience here is limited, and if there is such a thing as a representative consumer, I am not one of them, so it’s hard to grok our potential audiences buying habits.

As far as bringing people on board from the outset, this is not dissimilar with what you are trying to do with a cover or an opening scene: make it impossible for the audience to walk away. If a reader has the book in hand when they are deciding whether to buy it at all, I hope a glance is enough to circumvent that decision – get hooks in and don’t let go.

TrunkSpace: What is the earliest memory you have of applying your passion for art?
Brunner: Drawing was always a thing I did, like a basic body function, on it’s own not something I was applying. There was a portfolio review section in this Marvel promo mag “Marvel Age,” where they were clear about what a standard comic page should be; the tools, page dimensions, the editor you sent it to, etc.; and they were actually hiring people (like Tom Raney) out of this. So I started sending in portfolios to-spec with letters of introduction. That was about 12-years-old.

TrunkSpace: Did you have a mentor or someone specific who inspired you to turn that passion into a career?
Brunner: Yeah, more than there is room to talk about. I was lucky as hell with my art education, and my parents were open-minded, it made all the difference. They signed waivers for me to attend nude figure drawing classes, attend adult cartooning classes, when I was (maybe too) young.

These cartooning classes were taught by a cartoonist named J.P. Crangle. He was like comics incarnate; my memory of him is a cross between Jack Lemmon, Hunter S. Thompson, and Popeye. In J.P.’s class we looked at Wally Wood, “Love + Rockets,” “Crumb,” “Heavy Metal,” undergrounds, pre-codes, and other sick shit. It was (maybe) inappropriate, it permanently warped me and I’m grateful.

He also taught us how to format and print mini-comics with a typing paper template, and I did a Punisher knock-off series and sold them at school. That was such a charge, to finally print a comic, and I kept that up until I went away to art school. J.P. really lit my head on fire.

TrunkSpace: What changes, if any, would you like to see come to the comic industry in the years ahead?
Brunner: There’s a broader range of styles in the mainstream, that’s self-evident, and I think a positive. For a long time Rico and I were regularly getting push-back for using colors like pink, that’s not a concern anymore. It’s a change that I appreciate on a daily basis, that we have that much more latitude. Still, comics could be a much funkier ecosystem, at least on the comic racks, even superheroes are bizarre.

TrunkSpace: Is there a personal mark of achievement for you that you’re hoping to accomplish in your career… something you’ve set your professional sights on… and if so, what is it?
Brunner: The goal would be to draw something that’s like a midnight movie as strong as “Goodfellas.” That movie just kicks your ass so hard, right away, and doesn’t stop, and you can’t stop watching. It’s a perfect little grenade.

TrunkSpace: Again, your latest book is called “Loose Ends.” If the world was ending tomorrow, what loose ends would you hope to tie up before it all goes away?
Brunner: Not so big an “if” there. Today I wondered if it would end before issue 4 of “Loose Ends” could come out. A ridiculous way to personalize the apocalypse, but the universe has that sense of humor. Getting this story all in print finally, it’s the one thing.

Artist: Dave Hause

Album: “Bury Me In Philly”

Label: Rise Records

Format Reviewed: Digital Advance

Lyrics of Note:
I might need your help to sing these songs
I’ve been losing blood and spinning wheels for far too long
You clap in time, I’ll make it rhyme
And we’ll pretend we’re in our prime

With his third solo album “Bury Me In Philly,” Dave Hause suppressed the totality of his punk roots and added some Americana twang-meets-arena rock choruses to his already-impressive musical repertoire. While not a completely familiar sound to fans of The Loved Ones frontman’s catalog of music, the Philadelphia-native delivers what feels to be a successful transition in the career of a lifelong musician without serving as a shock to the system.

“I wanted to write shorter songs and have them be more, you know, power pop oriented,” Hause told TrunkSpace.

Hause achieved his goals tenfold, bringing a sonic flood of melodies and front-and-center guitar riffs to tracks like “Shaky Jesus,” and “My Mistake,” a rock anthem with touches of 80s nostalgia, an influence that makes perfect sense when you consider that the producer of the record is Eric Bazilian, singer of The Hooters. The punk rock vibe is not completely stripped from the songwriting, however. “Dirty Fucker” is the middle finger on an album that is both honest and honest about being vulnerable, two traits that should be considered sub-genres of music itself.

While “Bury Me In Philly” is not 100 percent in line musically with what we have seen from Hause in the past, it is also not out of line. In fact, it doesn’t feel like a departure from his previous work, but instead, an evolution… the next step in what will surely be a songwriting career that will influence countless Hauses to come.

Check out the full TrunkSpace interview with Dave Hause here.

ARTIST PROFILE

Artist/Band: Jae Ari

Website: www.JaeAriMusic.com

Hometown: Born in Toronto. Raised in Markham.

Latest Album/Release: #TCBW (EP) released in 2016

Influences: People. The environment. The future. Good mental health. R&B, Hip Hop and Soul. Too many artists to name, but as you can see, not limited to just artists.

TrunkSpace: How would you describe your music?
Jae Ari: An eccentric sound with a distinctive voice. Hip-hop music complete with bass, beats and bars.

TrunkSpace: We read that you weren’t expected to survive past infancy. What happened and how have you translated those early experiences into not only life, but your music?
Jae Ari: According to my mother, I had some complications when I was a baby. I was very ill. It has really just translated to a sense of infinite gratitude. My upcoming album is titled “Things Could Be Worse,” which is a reflection of that.

TrunkSpace: When you’re sitting down to write rhymes, where do you find your motivation? Do you look to tell a particular story, or, do the words take on a life of their own?
Jae Ari: I usually know what I am going to talk about when I’m in a writing process. The creative process comes at anytime and anywhere though. It is a combination of many things, personal or observational. The important thing is that it is rooted in realness. It is rooted in truth.

TrunkSpace: In your opinion, what is the single-greatest rhyme you’ve ever written and why are you so proud of it?
Jae Ari: I like this question. So difficult, but if I had to choose it would be from a song called “Something New.” The rhyme was: “How can I get better if I ain’t ill / so ill, the Doc’s can’t brand it, No Frills.” I just think the first line is thought-provoking while the second exudes confidence.

TrunkSpace: Is it true that there is only one commercial urban radio station in Canada? Obviously radio isn’t what it once was, but does that make it difficult to promote your music when there is such a narrow path, at least in terms of mainstream radio?
Jae Ari: Yes. In respects to your second question, the only things that are difficult are the political and over-saturation aspects when it comes to promoting my music. You have an overwhelming amount of mediocrity being pushed on a platform, creating such a lack of balance. Some of it isn’t bad, but most of it isn’t good. Its dog eat dog and for those like me who care about creativity, culture and commerce. it’s challenging. The political aspects are the lack of integrity in journalism, nepotism within the industry and this instant-gratification-era we seem to be in where there is no real quality control.

TrunkSpace: How important is social media in the promotion of your music and how do you stand out in a landscape where every artist is using the same tool… in this case, that very same social media?
Jae Ari: It is important. I stand by certain beliefs; being yourself, being consistent and qualitative. If it is good music, marketed well, if you are consistent, and you engage, people will come to you.

TrunkSpace: How did you transition writing and performing from a hobby into a career? What was it that pushed you to commit all of your energy into your music?
Jae Ari: I just never looked back. I have always been about consistency. A hobby is a small thing; it’s not an obsession or something you think about all the time. There is a little casual interest here and there, but that’s it. A career? You can just tell, look, and see when someone is about his or her business.

TrunkSpace: How do you look at the production element of your music and what do you look for when choosing producers? What do you hope that they’re bringing to the table?
Jae Ari: This is hard to explain. I just chalk this up to having a great ear for beats and being musically inclined. When choosing producers I always want to work with someone who wants to work with me. I already have an idea of what they bring to the table in respects to what I’ve heard. It’s just really maintaining a business-oriented rapport with some great interpersonal skills. I don’t like to work with people who see me as just a transaction.

TrunkSpace: You have a new single due out tomorrow. What can people expect from the track and what do you hope they take from it?
Jae Ari: Yes. The single is called “Miss. Andry.” I think people who listen to my music can expect what they normally expect from me – something refreshing. It is somewhat of a politically-charged single as I touch on dating women who identify as feminist. I still was able to make it fun and enjoyable which is a skill and a craft in itself. I enjoyed putting this together. You can buy it exclusively on Bandcamp February 7^th!

TrunkSpace: The world seems more divided than ever, with viewpoints driving a wedge between people when it comes to social, political, and racial issues. Some people believe we’ll be heading into a renaissance period for music, at least in terms of artists speaking out against and for issues. What are your thoughts on not only music’s influence in a time like this, but, how effective music is on influencing future generations?
Jae Ari: Nina Simone said once, “It is an artist’s duty to reflect the times.” I stand by that statement 100 percent, but I feel with the times we are in it breeds more opportunists than socially-conscious artists who have been talking about these things before they became popular. Nothing happening today is new. What I see is a song here, maybe a hashtag there, then they are back to their regularly-scheduled mundane music. I believe they mean well, but it is inconsistent. For better or for worse the ones carrying the torch for future generations are the ones whose music will stand the test of time.

People need to be paying attention to artists who have been consistent with their plight, not ones who trend hop on current issues with their pseudo concerns. I see them all over social media and I let them be who they are. I know as a Black Canadian artist there are many challenges and BS that I have faced and probably will continue to as I progress. I just keep working and creating great music. I do my part through my own actions. From how I represent myself publicly as an artist to the overall message in my music is what I can control, so I take it very seriously. I do not just talk about it. I am about it.

TrunkSpace: What can fans expect from Jae Ari in 2017?
Jae Ari: The best album ever. (Laughter) But seriously, my album is going to be a problem. “Things Could Be Worse” is the title and I am grateful to be doing what I love to do!

Check out Jae Ari’s latest single”Miss. Andry.”

Brewer: Rivertown Brewery

Beer: Winter Ale

Alcohol Content by Volume: 7%

Some emoticons prefer the warmer months where they can rest their circular bottoms in the sand of ‘sum beach, ‘sum where. Me, I’m all about the blustery bluntness of cabin fever season. There’s something about the smells in the air and the beer in my yellow belly that make me feel particularly festive when the temperature drops. Case in point: Rivertown’s Winter Ale, a perfectly blended mix of flavor flavs that tastes as if the brewer bottled and fermented the holidays. With one sip, the pleasant spice of cinnamon lingers. With the next sip, the childhood-inducing sweetness of molasses remains. All sips to follow? Sheer wintery pleasantness!

For those who don’t know me personally, I also fancy myself a bit of an emoti-cook. Next time I prepare a batch of my famous beef stew, you best believe I’m adding a little of this Rivertown offering into my broth. And take my word for it, there’s nothing better than multifunctional booze!

DRUNKEN EMOJI RATING

Eric Lichter
Musical Mondaze

You don’t have to be in a funk just because it’s Monday. Instead, get funky!

TrunkSpace brings you another edition of Musical Mondaze. This week out we’re chatting with Eric Lichter, a singer/songwriter turned sought-after producer who founded Dirt Floor Recording & Production. When not making records for some of the most talented folk and Americana artists performing today, the Connecticut-based Lichter is still writing and recording his own material. He hopes to finish his third album by June of this year, though he admits that his art tends to take a back seat as he continues to help others with theirs.

TrunkSpace: Before we jump into your career as a musician, tell us a little bit about Dirt Floor. For those who don’t know, how did it come to be?
Lichter: Well, Dirt Floor came to be, officially, in Spring of 2006. Before that I was a singer/songwriter, which I still am, although I didn’t know I was a multi-instrumentalist at the time… or that I had any desire to be in the production end. I was in New York City and, you know, the music scene changed a lot in that time. It became about boy bands and Brittney Spears. The type of music that I was always into, which was Neil Young and Crosby, Stills & Nash, and singer/songwriter-y type stuff, wasn’t really popular anymore. So, I quit music for awhile and got married and my life kind of changed. And then early on, right before my daughter was born, I really made the decision to commit myself to art… to creating, knowing that it would probably be a long haul and financially it would not have been the smartest move. So, I bought some equipment. It was pretty rinky-dink at the time and I made my own record, called “Chorduroy” just for me. And what happened was, people started to hear that record and they really liked it and wanted me to produce their record, which I started to do. I didn’t know the term producer. I didn’t know that that’s what I was doing. I didn’t know that it was even something I could do, but, basically that tag kind of stuck as the years went on. I started to work with Ian Fitzgerald (featured here)… he was the second year that I was doing it and we did his record “Empty Like the Lion Den,” which was three albums ago. And then I started to work with MorganEve, my friend who was in Brown Bird, and a lot of folks from Boston and Rhode Island. And so that’s where that all started.

TrunkSpace: So the becoming a producer aspect of your career just kind of happened serendipitously?
Lichter: It did. I mean, even right now, I sit here and I wonder how the hell it happened because I didn’t really know how to play a myriad of instruments when I was doing the singer/songwriter thing. I was a troubadour. I was trying to be Jackson Browne, you know? And suddenly I was playing drums and keyboards and pedal steel… and basically it was by default because if I was bringing in somebody for a session and I had a drummer coming in, it suddenly became all about the drums. And you’re taking hours just to get the drums going, so I learned how to play all of these things just to keep things efficient and I knew that I didn’t want any of these instruments to be like a lead instrument. I wanted them to serve the song and serve the purpose for the genre that I was working in.

TrunkSpace: We’d imagine that it would also open the door to creativity because if you suddenly get an idea for a sound that could improve a song, you don’t have to call that musician in to try it out. You can just jump right it and give it a go.
Lichter: Exactly. I like to think of it as, what I was doing was really being a mirror for the artists. I was their hand. But then what started to happen was that people wanted my own ideas… my own input and the interaction and true nature of the collaboration. Suddenly it became a collaboration and I didn’t really have to explain myself after awhile. I no longer really needed to do that and it just sort of seamlessly began to unfold.

TrunkSpace: So as it started to come together, did you put a vision in place for Dirt Floor?
Lichter: I did. I sort of started to model it a little bit after what Ethan Johns was doing for Ryan Adams, you know, when Ryan Adams made “Heartbreaker” and “Gold.” And, there are a few other producers out there who were doing the same thing, like Jonathan Wilson on the West Coast. My sound became, sort of the Laurel Canyon sound, but in New England. I was really mining that sort of Southern California sound. I wasn’t trying to sell a studio. That was the thing I was selling initially, but as it became apparent to me that folks were really coming for what I was doing, I wanted to put less emphasis on the studio itself and more on what I was doing, so that way I could go anywhere and do it. I could take a plane and go out to California and produce somebody’s record. So, it wasn’t about this location and I’m not selling a recording studio. If I was going to carve out my own niche on a smaller scale with a low overhead, it was going to be me trying to sell my own services and my own art. I’m right now on the cusp of really finally being able to do that, which I’m thankful for.

TrunkSpace: Looking at the artists you’ve worked with, and I know this is a cliché to say but it really seems true here… it feels like those who have worked with you have sort of become a family of musicians.
Lichter: It is. You’re right. It’s not a cliché at all because it really is a family and I’m amazed at how the family grows. It’s like just when you think you’ve got enough family, it gets even bigger. And what I really like to do is put people together, like if I’m playing with somebody and they’re looking for a pedal steel player somewhere, I know them, so I can put people together in bands and something really wonderful has sort of sprung forth from the whole Dirt Floor experience. Like I said, it kind of blows my mind still… every day.

TrunkSpace: So as you started to roll forward with Dirt Floor and were looking at what you could bring to other artists, did you apply your own experiences as a musician to the production aspect and look at it from sort of both sides of the studio glass in terms of a POV?
Lichter: Oh, absolutely! When I started this to begin with, it was basically my knee jerk reaction to my experiences everywhere else… as an artist and being in New York City. It was very cold and sterile types of environments and nobody really listened to what I was looking for. I was very particular. I didn’t want things to be too perfect. I wanted the imperfections that made the music so special. When we listen to all the classic records that we love, there were those little things that just suck you in. This was at the dawn of Pro Tools and really, computer-based music, so everyone was so hung up on getting things so perfect that they weren’t making “After the Gold Rush” anymore.

TrunkSpace: The problem with perfection is that you lose those beautiful imperfections that sort of encapsulate life.
Lichter: Exactly. And so when I started it, it was really to retain that. And there were detractors at the beginning… people who I knew who were actual recording engineers and they would say, “You can’t do that… you don’t know what you’re doing.” Which, I guess I still don’t from the technical perspective, but I know how I want things to sound and it really was sort of a guerrilla approach to things, which has sort of worked.

TrunkSpace: In helping and nurturing other artists, have you had to put your own music on hold at times in order to focus on Dirt Floor?
Lichter: Oh, absolutely. It’s a daily battle. I’m getting married in June and I wanted to finish this third record that I was working on and I started it like five years ago now, so that’s how long it’s taken me. And I have a studio in the house. I mean, I’m in it, but there’s so little left in the tank at the end of the day. I’m drained, but I’m happy. That’s the rub. I’m very, very content. And I am slowly starting to dig myself out of the hole. A lot of these artist who I work with, who are my friends and family, they’re also very supportive of my own music and they’re the ones saying, “Listen, man, don’t forget that part of yourself.” (Laughter)

TrunkSpace: Explain to readers what your journey has been as an artist. How has your music evolved sine your early days of songwriting to now?
Lichter: Oh boy… well, I started in high school. It was because I had a soccer coach who was also a band teacher and he made a bunch of us take chorus. (Laughter) And, it was the dorky thing to do and I didn’t want to do it because I didn’t really want to risk being made fun of, but I wound up getting sucked into it. I was brought up on my parents’ record collection, which was that first Crosby, Stills, & Nash record and “Sweet Baby James” and Dan Fogelberg and Carole King and all that stuff. So, I really loved that stuff and never really strayed from it. So, I started writing songs and singing and laying harmonies down on a 4-track and trying to sound like the Eagles or Crosby, Still, Nash & Young. So it started then and then I had a couple of bands in my 20s, which sucked. They were sort of Hootie and the Blowfish style.

TrunkSpace: Doc Martens and flannels?
Lichter. Yeah! Flannels wrapped around my waist. You know, that whole thing. (Laughter) And then in the late 90s… my brother and I were on Martha’s Vineyard for a long time and we became really close with Carly Simon and James Taylor’s kids, Ben and Sally. So, we wound up sort of taking a gig with Carly, doing some background vocals stuff. So we thought we had it made at that point. And a little bit after that, I had my sort of first record company experience. I had Mercury, under PolyGram, was really interested in me at the time and it was just before the whole Brtiney Spears thing hit. It was post-Lilith Fair so they were looking for male songwriters and I remember Duncan Sheik and Shawn Mullins and a few of those types… so I was one of those. I kind of slipped in just under the radar there. They put me in a recording studio and I had really never been in one before. I didn’t really care about it very much, but they didn’t really let me play guitar. They were like, “Don’t worry about that. We’re going to leave that to somebody else. You just sing.” And I remember they put drum loops all over my stuff. It really sounded like Shawn Mullins or something… kind of slick and it wasn’t at all what I wanted. Ultimately I got dropped because the company was bought out by a bigger corporation and I gave up music for a long while and worked the corporate end of the record company to try and work off some of the debt that I incurred through the advance.

TrunkSpace: You mentioned your musical influences. Do you try to obtain that sort of throwback singer/songwriter sound with your own music?
Lichter: I don’t even try to do that. I think it just permeates. I mean, I have definitely tried to NOT do that, but in my mind I’m making an Iron Maiden or Thin Lizzy record, but it comes out sounding like Dan Fogelberg. There are times when I try to outrun it, and I fail every single time, so I just have to resign myself to the fact that I’m a pretty mellow guy and that I make mellow music. (Laughter)

Artist/Band: Arms and Sleepers

Members: Max Lewis, Mirza Ramic

Website: www.armsandsleepers.com

Hometown: USA

Latest Album/Release: Life is Everywhere

Influences: Milan Kundera, Philip Roth, Pedro Almodovar

TrunkSpace: How would you describe your music?
Ramic: A healthy mix of sadness and hope.

TrunkSpace: “Life is Everywhere” is your sixth official release, though you’ve amassed some 26 albums and EPs in your 10-plus year career. As artists, creative is ever-changing, but the way in which art is created is not always different. How do you keep the process fresh, particularly after that many recordings?
Ramic: I think the process indeed remains more or less the same, and that’s quite okay because it means that the technical aspect of music-creation that is supposed to transmit our ever-changing feelings and emotions is in place and ready to fulfill its duties. So to be quite honest, I don’t think we even try to keep this technical process fresh – we are okay with the familiarity of creating art because the influences and motivation that lead us to that point are so drastically changing all the time that it would be way too confusing if everything was always chaotic (aka if we recorded new music in different ways each time).

TrunkSpace: When you’ve produced as many releases as Arms and Sleepers have, especially in such a relatively short period of time, does it mean you’re already discussing the next album while in the process of completing the current one?
Ramic: I would say yes – we’re always processing in our heads what we can do next, and how we can challenge ourselves even more. We get bored with music very easily, so we never make the same album twice. At the end of recording this last album, we already started discussing recording a more folk-inspired album next summer.

TrunkSpace: Do you experience any stress or anxiety on the eve of releasing new music? As an artist, do you concern yourself with how it will be received, both by existing fans and by those who have yet to be exposed to your music?
Ramic: I think a bit, yes. It’s natural to feel some anxiety and self-doubt when you put something so personal out in the world. After doing this for over 10 years, we’ve become accustomed to negative comments and the fact that not everyone will be satisfied. So we’ve learned to take everything with a grain of salt, but I’d be lying if I said reading a negative review/comment doesn’t affect me in some way. I just don’t lose any sleep over it.

TrunkSpace: When you look at the Arms and Sleepers body of work as a whole, from the first track to the latest track, where do you personally see the biggest evolution musically?
Ramic: That’s difficult to answer now because a natural tendency is to say the latest record. I do think our most recent album is a step in a very different direction, especially since we’ve never had actual rapping on any of our songs. I think we’ve matured a lot as musicians (I would hope so at least, after 10 years) and that’s, in my biased opinion, illustrated on ‘Life is Everywhere’. But I also think our last album. ‘Swim Team’, was a pretty big step forward. And I would say our 2009 album ‘Matador’, where we really challenged ourselves to focus on composition and instrumentation in a way we hadn’t done before. But if I had to pick one, I’d say the latest record.

TrunkSpace: Does the Arms and Sleepers genre of music make it more difficult to market an album or a tour, as opposed to say, a pop rock band? Is the process different or more focused?
Ramic: Yes, very difficult. For one, our sound is constantly changing which is not good for branding and forming a cohesive identity. Our identity has become to always surprise our listeners with a new sound, which I think is welcomed by most of our audience, but it has also meant losing some listeners. Then, the genres that we dig into are all fairly obscure, so that doesn’t help. Finally, doing all these different styles of songs live can be difficult – some people want to hear loud guitars, others more electronic sounds. We try to do a little bit of both, but someone is always bound to go home disappointed.

TrunkSpace: You were a refugee who fled Bosnia with your mother in 1992. As someone who has a voice and the ear of people willing to listen to that voice, do you feel it’s necessary to speak out about what is going on in this country… a country that took you and your family in and is now closing its borders to many in a similar set of circumstances?
Ramic: For sure. Lately I’ve had a lot of arguments with people, including our own listeners, about the connection between arts and politics. Some folks feel like music should stay out of politics, which I completely disagree with and don’t understand at all. For us, it’s not so much politics per se, but the world and society in which we live. If in that place there is injustice, whether it’s related to politics or not, we as artists—but most importantly as human beings—have a moral obligation to address it. And if we have a moral obligation as human beings to address injustice, then naturally that’s going to influence our art. If it doesn’t, then we’re being dishonest with ourselves. The connection between the matters of the world and art is very obvious to me – just like a movie or a conversation with someone or a country might influence our music, so might what we see happening in front of our eyes. And in front of our eyes right now, we see some incredibly negative things happening in the US and elsewhere, which we absolutely feel like we need to mention through our platform, which is art.

And specifically with regard to immigration, it hits very close to my heart. I posted something on my Facebook page recently which I want to share here because it’s directly related to your question:

“I arrived to JFK airport a little over 20 years ago as a Muslim refugee. Seeing the news of what’s going on there right now is absolutely sickening. To the folks claiming that music should be detached from politics and social issues, wake the fuck up – there ain’t gonna be no music or independent culture when the human rights of fellow human beings are taken away. Arts are about humanity and truth, and this is our time to stand up for precisely that. Follow this logic – if I was turned away from America in 1996 as people are being turned away right now, Arms and Sleepers would never fucking exist and the music we’ve created over the last 10 years would simply not be there. We must hold on to our moral compass, no matter what. If there is one lesson I learned fleeing war as a kid and seeing adults turn into complete savages, it’s that.”

So yeah, I do feel like I have an obligation to say something because those of us that have experienced the process of being refugees, immigrating to far-away countries, and assimilating to new cultures, we need to speak up against stereotypes and generalizations.

TrunkSpace: At the same time, does it fill you with hope to see the thousands of people showing up in protest at airports and in cities around the country?
Ramic: It does, though I worry about protest-fatigue, especially since this is happening within the first two weeks of Trump’s presidency. But it does feel good to see people reject what they feel is morally wrong and make the effort to go out into the streets to exercise their right to protest. Unfortunately I am out of the country at the moment, but I look forward to joining in when I return home in a few weeks.

TrunkSpace: While the world seems more divided politically than ever before, music remains one of the things that can bridge the gap between different types of people with different types of views. Two people could be standing next to each other at an Arms and Sleepers show and share nothing in common other than a love for music. In your view, as someone who found music and now has made it a career, how important is music? We know that’s a big, loaded question in a lot of ways, but as protesters sing in unison in the streets and at airports, it seems more important than ever.
Ramic: I think music and arts in general are going to play a crucial role in criticizing the status quo and standing up for truth. I think that’s always been the case throughout history, and I think that needs to continue to be the case. Artists simply cannot turn a blind eye to the injustices, scapegoating, and lack of empathy that seem to be penetrating the moral fabric of our society. I often talk about current issues at my shows, and not everyone wants to hear that. But I insist on it, because it matters to me and playing through a show without saying anything just seems empty and dishonest. Of course, standing up for what you believe in is not a walk in the park – I fully anticipate criticism, arguments, and Facebook “unlikes”. And that’s already been happening. But we have to live in truth ourselves or otherwise history will continue to repeat itself. And history repeating itself is fucking scary – I’ve already been thrown out of a country because of my religious and ethnic background, and I don’t intend on making that a tradition.

TrunkSpace: What can fans expect from Arms and Sleepers in 2017?
Ramic: Probably not post-rock, but definitely lots more music.

Remember When
John Pound

It’s that time again. Let’s sit back, relax, and take a trip down memory lane with those individuals who inadvertently played a role in our childhood. This time out we’re chatting with John Pound, artist of the legendary Garbage Pail Kids sticker line for Topps. With between 500 and 600 of the characters under his artistic belt, his work has been treasured by kids (and adults) for generations.

TrunkSpace: Garbage Pail Kids transcended trading cards to become a part of pop culture. To this day they remain a symbol of the 1980s, recently being seen as part of set dressings in the ABC television series “The Goldbergs.” What does it feel like to have been a part of something that not only found an audience, but helped define a generation?
Pound: I’m glad people liked them. From working on many obscure projects in comics, I had no idea they’d be so popular. They were just fun to make.

TrunkSpace: For those who aren’t familiar with your story, can you tell us how you got involved with the Garbage Pail Kids line and how many characters you did the art for?
Pound: I started my art career by doing underground comics and heavy-metal style fantasy art prints and book covers. Topps art director Art Spiegelman was also an underground cartoonist. He often hired underground artists to do humor art projects for Topps. (I was in California, and he was in New York.)

He called me up one day in 1984 and asked me to paint a few Wacky Packages parody stickers for Topps. I said sure. I did 9 paintings, from idea sketches they sent me. One, called “Garbage Pail Kids,” was not used, but in a few weeks Topps decided to start a new sticker series using that name. They asked some artists to come up with idea sketches and a color rough example of how they could look. Evidently nothing was working, so they also asked me to do some ideas. Somehow, it was easy, and lots of ideas came. I sent in a pile of notes and sketches. I got the job. Then it was just a matter of painting very fast, a painting a day, for the 44 stickers they needed. When GPK stickers hit the market, sales were great, so Topps asked me to paint more GPKs, for a 2nd series, and so on.

They resumed again in 2003, so all together, I did between 500 and 600 GPK paintings. About half were based on my ideas, and the rest were from ideas other Topps artists came up with. (Mark Newgarden, Jay Lynch, and others.)

TrunkSpace: Many parents and school administrators of the 1980s made Garbage Pail Kids a cultural villain, much in the way they did the heavy metal music of the time. Was that something you were consciously aware of while working on the line… the idea that your artwork was being seen as something that could “poison” the minds of kids? And, was there ever any push-back from Topps to, I guess, purify the line in some ways to appease the parental masses?
Pound: Art Spiegelman’s idea was to make GPKs mean, nasty, gross, and disgusting. And ugly. Use plenty of shock value, which would make them attention-getting. My own idea was that these little paintings also had to feel good to look at. Mix in some pleasure with the pain.

TrunkSpace: In many ways, Garbage Pail Kids are the grandparents of toy lines of today such as The Grossery Gang and The Trash Pack. Some of them have caught that same lighting in the bottle, but none of them have achieved the same level of pop culture crossover as Garbage Pail Kids. Why do you think the GPK line connected with so many people? Was it a matter of the right product at the right time?
Pound: One easy answer, I know it sounds superficial, is that the name “Garbage Pail Kids” sounds like “Cabbage Patch Kids”. Not only does it have an attitude, but it sounds so familiar, and so famous. And when something is familiar, it’s easier to sell.

TrunkSpace: Your designs did not only hit on the gross out factor, but at the same time, there was an accessible cuteness to the characters that sort of humanized them. Was that something you consciously thought about during the creative process of designing new characters?
Pound: Yeah, I like cuteness in cartoons. Since I had to look at these little kids while I painted them, I wanted them to feel good to look at. Plus I thought these little kids I painted secretly enjoyed being weird and misfits and rebels and disgusting. At least, some of them.

TrunkSpace: Were there any characters or designs that you worked on back in those early days that were deemed too disgusting or controversial to move forward with?
Pound: A few were, like a baby in a jar of formaldehyde. And an Abe Lincoln GPK, complete with bullet holes.

TrunkSpace: You have been working on some really innovative and captivating artwork that is based on computer code. Can you tell us how that came to be and how it has developed since you first started working in that style? As technology advances, does the art form advance as well?
Pound: I got a computer when I was working on Garbage Pail Kids, something to play around with. I started looking at all kinds of art made with computers, especially art made by writing code. I liked the painter Harold Cohen’s AARON early experiments with code art. They looked like kids’ drawings, but strangely mechanical.

Which made me wonder, since I was a cartoonist, what kind of comics could a computer program make if it randomly wrote and drew everything? At that point I realized I had to learn a bit about writing code, to make it happen. I bought some programming books and a laser printer. I was stumped at first, there was so much to learn. Months later, I realized all I needed to get started was a really minimal, dumb version of a comics-drawing program. A simple little figure, with a horizon line, and a nonsense word balloon overhead, repeated in panel-boxes, in a grid. Soon, I had instant comics!

I kept playing around with the code, adding more features, details, layouts, color, etc. Over the last couple decades, I adapted my comics-drawing code to make randomly generated art prints and sketchbooks. And now I’m learning how to make code-generated animations, videos, and sounds.

TrunkSpace: For those who aren’t technically savvy, is there a sort of layman’s way of explaining how an idea goes from your head to the final product? 
Pound: Basically, I write words and numbers in one window (for the computer code), and in another window, the art magically appears. (Unless I make a mistake.) My code draws everything as a combination of simple shapes.

Instead of starting with a blank page, I usually copy my previous day’s code, and then make little changes in it, to add new designs, colors, or layouts into the code. I save it and test it, every few changes. If things go wrong, I just use “Undo” to go back a few steps to a version where it was last working okay.

This process makes my code grow longer over time, as I add more stuff it can do. I like to find new ways to combine parts together.

TrunkSpace: What do your code art pieces say? Are they telling a story or are they a transfer of visuals from your brain to the page?

Pound: The code art started as a “fake comics” project, and grew into a fake-art-making process. As the work gets deeper and more intricate and more entertaining, who can say if it’s “real art” or not?

It’s usually not a one-way process of having an image first and transferring it to the page. It’s more like I see things the code has drawn, and get ideas for ways to take it farther, or combine parts in a new way. Like a fake wallpaper, or a fake landscape design, with random parts and figures in it.

It’s like making up a game, to see what happens visually, with certain rules I make up. Sometimes I think the simple cartoony art style allows more room for imagination and relaxation than a heavily-rendered 3D-style image would. More room to breathe, perhaps.

TrunkSpace: We feel like there is a really interesting lesson for kids in your code art. Often times kids are taught that numbers are numbers and they serve a function… one that can get lost on those who think with a creative brain. Here, you’ve used numbers to create beautiful works of art. There’s an old Harry Chapin song called “Flowers Are Red” where a teacher tells a young boy that he has to color a flower the color nature intended and he responds, “There are so many colors in the rainbow/So many colors in the morning sun/So many colors in the flower and I see every one.” The modern day version of that song could be written with your art in mind. Anything can be anything with an open mind and a unique perspective.
Pound: I like to think that most kids can learn to do code art. I was comfortable with basic math and English, but I started with no background in code. I learned a few bits at a time to make code make some marks on paper or on the screen. I like the idea that with just words and numbers, and an imagination, you can make so many things out of nothing.

TrunkSpace: Finally, before you go, John, what can people be on the lookout for this year in terms of your art and what is the best way for people to follow the latest?
Pound: I’m planning a show with And/Or Gallery (Pasadena, CA), with some code art prints and videos. ( http://www.andorgallery.com ) (Currently scheduled for May 2017.)

My website www.poundart.com has both my illustration work and some code art.

My Tumblr blog http://codecartooning.tumblr.com has hundreds of code artworks, plus some code-generated video experiments.

Trunk ADventures
Adrienne LaValley

For many of us who consume pop culture, the actors who appear in commercials are as recognizable as those who star in our favorite big budget popcorn pictures. Unlike the A-list celebrities, however, we rarely get to hear from those performers who woo us in 30 seconds or less. TrunkSpace is looking to change that with Trunk ADventures, our regular feature spotlighting the recognizable faces and voices of the commercials that infiltrate our lives.

This time out we’re shining a spotlight on Adrienne LaValley, an actress who has appeared in spots for Pizza Hut, Ferguson, and Kit Kat, to name a few, but it’s her ongoing run in ads for National Floors Direct that has made her a part of the family in many homes, particularly throughout the New England area.

TrunkSpace: Talk to us a little bit about how you came to be one of the most recognizable faces and voices in commercials, especially in New England where the National Floors Direct spots have more of a regional reach?
LaValley: Totally. It runs more in the New England area. There have been some sightings in the tri-state area. (Laughter) But yeah, although it’s called National Floors Direct, it primarily serves people in the New England area. That was one of my first jobs, several years ago when I first got into acting. I just sort of continued with them. When I joined the union and they were interested in using me again, I said sure but that they’d have to make it a SAG project, and that can be quite the undertaking, but they were like, “No, no no… we really want to use you again,” so they went ahead and did it. It’s a good gig. We shoot several commercials at once so they can use it for a few years, so it’s always funny when they’re still commercials that are being aired three years later because we shot them three years ago.

TrunkSpace: It does seem like the shelf life of those commercials greatly outperform those of most national spots.
LaValley: It’s true. It’s totally true.

TrunkSpace: When did you do your first shoot with National Floors Direct?
LaValley: Originally, oh my goodness, I want to say seven years ago. Maybe eight years ago. But we just reshot again just a couple of months ago. So, I had shot with them eight years ago several times, over a two to three years period, and then I joined the union and it kind of had to be put on hold for awhile. And then they came back just a few months ago and said that they wanted to do more.

TrunkSpace: But even during that period where you weren’t shooting new spots, those original spots were still running.
LaValley: Yeah. They can hold them for up to like three years and then they have to stop running them until they get permission to use them again. So, there was a lapse in coverage, which is why they wanted to reshoot instead of just running the commercials again because obviously they have all new deals and it’s very specific to whatever time of year they’re running these campaigns.

TrunkSpace: Have the new spots started running yet?
LaValley: They have started running. I will be in your living room. If not yet, very shortly. (Laughter) I have a lot of family who live in the New England area and they love it because they’re like, “It’s like you’re having coffee with us every morning.” (Laughter)

TrunkSpace: Well, it’s probably true for strangers as well. If someone is sitting down every day and watching the news, and every day your spot runs during that time, then you’re pretty much a part of their daily routine.
LaValley: Right. I used to get these messages… and you never know what to do, because I get a lot of private messages… people find me on Facebook. I made a professional page where I try to direct people to if they want to be Facebook friends because, me personally, I feel like Facebook is for your friends and your family and people who are close to you and know you because I have pictures of my wedding on there. And not to be rude or anything, but that’s not public. It’s not something that I want spread across the internet.

TrunkSpace: Unfortunately there isn’t always an understanding of that private life when it comes to social media.
LaValley: Exactly. And, like, I get marriage proposals and weird things like that. And you don’t want to be rude because it’s very sweet and you’re very grateful for people that are watching your career and want good things for you.

TrunkSpace: But at the same time, marriage proposals are USUALLY reserved for people you know.
LaValley: Correct. Especially this day and age. (Laughter) But, I did have this one woman who was so sweet. She had sent this picture of her two-year-old son kissing the television because every morning he would see my commercial and he would waddle up to the TV and kiss the TV. And that was so unbelievably sweet. But, I have to direct you to my professional page. (Laughter)

TrunkSpace: It does point out how inclusive commercials are though. Person A may watch one show and Person B may watch a different show, and neither may know the actors in both shows, but they know the actors in the commercials that run during them.
LaValley: Exactly. And it was really eye opening once I started doing a lot of commercials… when you’re first getting into acting, your brain is sort of trained to say yes to everything just because you’re trying to make your way. You have to sort of be careful about the companies you represent because your face is representing them, and so as many lovely emails as I would get, I would also get really horrible, horrible, horrible emails. Which is shocking to me… the amount of time people have to make fun of you online and just rip you apart. And a lot of them were coming from disgruntled customers, which unless the company is like this horrific, awful company and it’s public knowledge that it’s terrible, there’s always going to be both sides to it. Some people are going to love the service that they get and some people are not.

TrunkSpace: I’m sure a lot of people just assume you work FOR the companies you’re starring in the commercials of.
LaValley: Right. I worked for this car company… it was for a whole slew of dealerships in the New England area, and they would call the dealership and say, “I want the woman in the commercial… I want her to sell me a car.” And they’re like, “Well, technically she can’t.” (Laughter)

TrunkSpace: When it comes to commercials, even more so than scripted TV, people probably view those portrayals as a real person reciting lines, not an actor reciting lines, so it makes you more approachable in their eyes. Not everyone connects the dots that it’s still acting.
LaValley: Exactly! And it’s this weird disconnect that people can have, especially in the… and I hope this isn’t taking a turn for the negative, but I think it’s important… especially in the realm of internet bullying. I have whole blogs written about me… just people making fun of my face. Just like ripping me apart. As many people saying really lovely things about me, there are equal amounts of people saying… I mean… the things that you can think about to make fun of somebody is awful.

TrunkSpace: The internet has certainly become the Wild West of bullying. And while that’s nothing new, it does seem like it’s more prevalent these days.
LaValley: It’s so fascinating to me that people have time to see a Crest commercial and then go online and just rip this person apart. It’s crazy to me. There are so many better things to be doing with your time. And I know one of the arguments is, “Well, you opened yourself up for that by getting into this business,” but they’re not taking into account that those are kids. Those are THEIR kids who had dreams of being an actor, and in order to get there, you’re going to do commercials. And I’m super grateful to do that. It’s just part of the process. So, they’re ripping people apart that are really good people.

TrunkSpace: What about in real life? Do you get stopped on the streets or in the gym by people who recognize you?
LaValley: Yeah. I got stopped in New York midway when those commercials were airing for the first time. This woman had come from the New England area and she knew me immediately. She was like, “I’ve only been here for the afternoon, I just came from Boston, and I saw a celebrity!” I remember thinking to myself, “Would we consider me a celebrity?” (Laughter) Of course I was very grateful and I signed her piece of paper and it was very lovely. (Laughter) I have another series of commercials that were running in the New England area at the same time, so I knew I was all over these people’s TVs morning, noon, and night. (Laughter) I would go to a bar and I could tell people were very, very awkward. A whole row of people would be staring at me from across the bar. And there’s nothing that will ever make you comfortable with that. (Laughter) Because you don’t know if you should just stand up and address it and be like, “Let’s just get the giant pink elephant out of the room. Yes, those are the commercials.” Or, if you just sound like a big, huge jerk. (Laughter)

TrunkSpace: You also recently starred in a film called “Hell’s Heart,” which was recently released on Amazon. Can you tell us a little bit about it?
LaValley: That is a fantastic film. The trailer sort of makes it feel that it’s a horror film, and it definitely has elements of scariness, but really it’s kind of a thriller based around a family drama. It’s a love story. I play this mother named Lisa who was murdered 20 years prior and the film starts with her murder and then flashes forward 20 years. The boy that witnessed her murder has sort of been, not obsessed, but really couldn’t detach himself from her family. When he saw her murdered, he was living across the hall from her family and she had three very young children, and so he has become involved and is marrying one of the daughters… the eldest daughter. But, there are some twists to that as well. And I end up coming back, not haunting this family, but inhabiting this guy’s body essentially and everybody gets very confused as to where he ends and where I begin. The family obviously doesn’t believe him for awhile and then they do. It’s the most romantic exorcism film you’ll ever see. (Laughter)

Musical Mondaze
Dave Hause

You don’t have to be in a funk just because it’s (feeling) like a Monday. Instead, get funky!

TrunkSpace brings you another (bonus) edition of Musical Mondaze. This time out we’re sitting down with Dave Hause, a living legend of the punk rock scene and frontman of the Philadelphia-based The Loved Ones. His new solo album “Bury Me In Philly” drops tomorrow and highlights his incredible songwriting abilities, a process that was helped along by his love for his working class home and the creative input of his brother.

TrunkSpace: We know you’re a few days away from the release of your new album “Bury Me In Philly.” Do you get butterflies right before new music hits?
Hause: It is. There’s definitely that anxious anticipation. The good thing was, when the stream went up yesterday… we have full band rehearsals all week leading up to the first shows, so we were able to really dive in. I was really focused all day and not able to read the initial comments or the initial feedback… positive or negative. We were entrenched in sort of living in the music and figuring out how we were going to perform it and stuff, so that was a really welcome distraction. But, yeah, it’s really exciting but scary. You’re kind of showing your flank, so to speak. And, the internet can be a strange place. The world can be a strange place. And when you’re showing sort of the vulnerable side of yourself, it can be scary. Thankfully, I’ve been down this road before and there’s a little bit of muscle memory to the whole process that I can lean on more than I could have in past release times.

TrunkSpace: You mentioned the welcome distraction keeping you from following the reaction to the stream, and what’s interesting is that everything is so instantaneous nowadays. It used to be that the instant reaction came from a live audience, but now there’s a live audience everywhere.
Hause: Yeah. You’re right about that. The other thing that I found peculiar was… by and large music is simply streamed or consumed online… when the record gets streamed, it’s out. For all intents and purposes, it came out yesterday. You know, I get that on Friday that’s when it will download onto people’s phones or their pre-order vinyl will show up and all that stuff, and that certainly is a much more personal sort of tangible thing directly with the fans, but ultimately once it’s streaming and you can play each song… the record is essentially out. So, it does sort of feel like we just let the cat out of the bag, but I guess things are marketed… you know, they’re marketed however they’re marketed now. Once you are done with mastering, the record starts to be out of your hands. (Laughter) It’s a weird thing.

TrunkSpace: It sort of feels like marketing these days is kind of fluid because, it’s changing just as quickly as new practices are established.
Hause: Yeah. It’s interesting. I follow Bob Lester and even he seems to be chasing answers and asking lots of questions about making music and what this time is all about and all of that. It seems like every couple weeks he’s got a newsletter where he’s like, “Throw out the rule book!” (Laughter) Which is fine, you know… I think, again, I’m more interested in the process, especially the older I get. I’m more interested in the creative process and the recording process and I’m a veteran of the road so all of that stuff kind of comes naturally. The marketing of it and the way to get the music to people, thankfully, is not as much… not my job, I guess. But that said, I have taken a much more committed approach to this record in terms of… because I have a direct line on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and all that stuff, I’ve been trying to respond to every fan and every person that comments or says something about the record. Not necessarily as a marketing tool. I’m sure that helps to a degree, but more because the lines of communication are open and, you know, it makes for a community vibe and I think wasn’t available when I started making records. And it occurred to me that having that direct line is really cool. The whole point of this thing is to communicate, so I’ve been trying to take that seriously and sort of add that to part of my job right now… to thank people for giving the record a shot. I don’t really assume that I’m owed anything or entitled to their ears. If they want to spend the time listening and supporting it and stuff, I’m going to do my best to thank them personally, even if it’s four lines on the internet.

TrunkSpace: So when you personally look at the new album as a whole, at least from a songwriting standpoint, is there a theme that connects all of the songs for you?
Hause: It’s sort of coming to grips with that fact that I’ve always been looking forward… always been looking past the constraints of where I’m from. I think that now that I’ve ended up in California and I’ve found someone that I love, I wanted to sort of honor where I’m from and like, sort of put a flag in what made me who I am and what shaped the way I think.

TrunkSpace: Is that a sort of creative homesick?
Hause: Yeah. It’s tough when you move this far away from everything you know. And everyone you know. As great as this town is and as great moving here has been, there was a homesickness. There was an element of displacement that I couldn’t quite wrap my head around. California culture is as different as Philadelphia as going to Europe… moving to England or something. So, sort of wrapping my head around that and trying to deal with that ambivalence sort of also gave me a real appreciation of where I’m from. I realized how much of an underdog mentality and how much of a Philadelphia working class spirit I have. It’s never going to get out of your system. It’s like being taught about Jesus when you’re little. You may not believe it when you’re older, but it’s definitely a specter over most of the things that you do.

TrunkSpace: It was ingrained in you.
Hause: Right. And so I was trying to really figure that out and write about that. I served a few different masters. I wanted to make a much more uplifting album than the last one. I wanted to write shorter songs and have them be more, you know, power pop oriented. I wanted it to be really concise. So, in order to get to say all the things that you want to say, and be concise, it gets pretty difficult, so I think that was part of the reason it took awhile… to figure out what was fat and what was bone and real meat and boil it down to its simplest and most direct elements.

TrunkSpace: So was that mindset also applied to the production itself because in listening to the album it feels like, the record as a whole is a pool table and each song is a pocket in that table, and without any of them, you don’t have a complete table?
Hause: Well thanks! One of the interesting push and pulls that we experienced in making the record… it was Eric Bazilian and William Wittman co-producing… and I think Eric astutely wanted Bill involved because he’s so talented and has so many ideas that he can get to tape so quickly. So Eric is the kind of guy that when I’m like, “Hey, this is a Stones-y kind of vibe,” he goes, “Oh, well do you want the Ronnie Wood guitar or do you want the Keith Richards guitar?” And it’s like, “Oh… both?” Can we put it all in there? (Laughter) And he’s like, “Well we can put a little Harrison thing here.” His frame of reference is so vast… he’s been making records that have done magic things for a long, long time. And William is Cyndi Lauper’s band leader and bass player and so, I think his role became a lot more like, “Alright, that’s cool, we could put an accordion, a melodica, a harmonium, and four twelve-string guitars on this, but what do we NEED to put on it?” So he would do a lot of the, What Would Tom Petty Do? sort of approach, and it would distil down the various… you know, the litany of ideas, it would distil them down to the ones that counted the most. Eric could take six passes at a lead guitar part and every one of them is better than the last, so it just became about making decisions and thankfully William has worked with him so long that he’s able to really quickly say, “That’s the best one… keep going!” And yeah, it certainly was an amazing, mind blowing recording process. My brother helped me write a bunch of the lyrics on the record, so his first recording experience was with these two masters of the craft who have Grammys and million-selling records. (Laughter) It was crazy. His mind was certainly blown… as was mine.

TrunkSpace: With Eric being a childhood idol… in terms of taking advice in the studio, particularly when it comes to creative, is it easier to be collaborative when the advice is coming from someone you’ve admired for so long?
Hause: It was. It certainly relaxed the pit bull in me about my own work. (Laughter) There’s been other sessions that I’ve worked in and other situations where I’ve worked in where I’m like, “No, no, no no! I know. I know.” And I always fight that anyway. I think you’re better off collaborating and listening to other people, but it became particularly easy to do that knowing the pedigree of these guys. And certainly having that childhood fascination with Eric and his work… you know, one of the days we finished up drums and Dave Hidalgo Jr. is a big baseball fan and we all went to see the Phillies play because Eric and Rob (Hyman) were playing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” because they’re the Hooters guys. To me, I was like, “Oh my God!” If you were to tell seven-year-old me that I was going to be going to the Phillies game and hanging out in the dugout area with Rob and Eric from the Hooters, I would have never believed you.

TrunkSpace: Seven-year-old you was sitting a few rows back, eating popcorn captivated, watching adult you.
Hause: (Laughter) It was pretty crazy. I mean, I’ve had my share of brushes with idols… I’ve met Springsteen and I’ve met Joe Strummer and all that stuff… but there was a certain thing I think just because of the imprint that those guys made on me at such a young kid. I mean, it was bizarrely young to be fanatical about a band. I was only seven. So, it was a trip. There were definitely points where Eric was like, “Man, that fucking vocal take was awesome!” And I was like, “That’s the guy from the Hooters.” (Laughter)

TrunkSpace: You mentioned that your brother co-wrote some of the lyrics with you. Can you walk us through what your songwriting process is. Does it start with the music? Does it start with the lyrics? What are their origins?
Hause: The more I study songwriting the more I find that my method isn’t that off the wall. I stock pile tons and tons of melodies and then typically I’ll take the melodies and write out the chords and make an arrangement. There will be little lines in there that pop up. You’re like, “Okay, well that’s clearly a lyric there” like in the chorus or in the bridge or something. And then a side exercise is that I’m always collecting quotes or coming up with lyric lines that are free and clear of the melodic parameters. So then, once things start to really pile up, which they really did… I wrote about 40 songs over the course of “Devour” being complete and recording this, so I have a ton of unused material. I start to put it all together and see what fits and what lyrics feel right in which songs. I really started to get pretty deep into the forest and my brother was super pivotal in pulling the threads that became the record. Lyrically, I kind of just dumped all of my ideas, which is like, you know, dozens and dozens of pages of little snippets and he found ones that he liked and we started to put it all together… just like I usually do, but to have another set of eyes on it was really helpful.

TrunkSpace: It sounds like it was kind of like having a lyrical producer.
Hause: Right! And then he started to add lyrics, you know, add lines of his own where I was like, “Oh my God!” There are lyrics on the record that I’m jealous that I didn’t write that he wrote. There’s a line in “Divine Lorraine” that says: “The middle of the road takes a toll.” And I was like, “Goddamn it! You little weasel!” (Laughter) I’m not sure I ever would have gotten to that! I mean, it was sitting right there all these years… living in the middle of the road takes its toll. It’s just such a good metaphor. So, there were moments like that once we really dug into the process where, he was pivotal. Even the concept of writing about the Divine Lorraine and just seeing this old hotel that’s always being threatened to go away and really it’s like a symbol of a working class, old Philly. To even write about that was such a great idea and that was one of his contributions.

TrunkSpace: You mentioned having written 40 songs. What is the status of those that didn’t make it on “Bury Me In Philly?”
Hause: I have almost a full record in addition to this one, just about finished recording. So, yeah, I don’t know what to do next. (Laughter) It’s going to be interesting.