The Power of East Coast Surf

Interview with: Crispy Bess by email on 3/30/11

Instro Summit instigated in: 2009

1. What is the “Instro Summit”?

The Instro Summit a three-day all-instrumental music festival, held in Chapel Hill, NC, at the Cave, Chapel Hill’s oldest continually operating music venue. Currently the largest festival of its’ type in the Southeast, this year we have 20 bands playing in styles ranging from surf, soul, lounge, country & western, rockabilly, garage, and of course, rock categories. We don’t have prog-rock or jam band noodlers here; we try to keep things fast, fun, and danceable, hopefully with rhythms that make your butt wiggle and melodies that stick in your brain like a pitchfork. 

 

2. What made you pursue such an event with all the work, planning and scheduling behind it?

I didn’t–it pursued me! My original plan was to invite a few out of town bands I’d been courting to come out to our neck of the woods and play with us, then maybe we [my band] could share a bill in their respective hometowns. At the time instrumental bands were few and far between ‘round here, so I figured it might be a good idea to network with the few I could find on the internet that were nearby. I managed to get four bands scheduled, and one canceled at the last minute, but upon hearing the first band (Atlanta GA’s, The Surge!) start playing, Cave owner Mouse Mock grabbed me and said “We’re doin’ this again NEXT year!”. 

That led to booking a second Instro Summit, and that’s when it REALLY got out of control. I planned on having six bands: The ones that played it the first year, plus a couple of bands that used to play Chapel Hill that hadn’t been seen around here in a while, and a few more bands that had my curiosity. Being on the safe side, I emailed more bands than I needed, figuring a  good chunk would turn me down–after all, it’s a small venue, you’re only playing for the door, and who knows what that’s gonna be? But guess what? NOBODY said no! They ALL wanted to play! So six bands on a Saturday soon became 12 bands over a Friday and Saturday. 

Then word of mouth spread, and soon I had bands I knew little or nothing about pestering me to play this thing, one of which was Daikaiju, who wanted to headline our Sunday night–and we didn’t even HAVE a Sunday night!  So it became a three-day festival, and suddenly we’re the largest all-instrumental fest in the Southeast, which meant even MORE bands we’re bugging me about wanting to play the following year! Clearly, I’ve hit some kind of nerve in the instrumental music scene, and frankly, I’m happy to cater to it–most of the time, anyway.
 

3. In what ways do you promote the Summit?

The Traditional ways: On the internet via our Facebook page, pestering the local press for coverage/interviews, getting on local radio stations–sometimes with bands that are playing the Summit, other times just with a mess of CD’s to play–and talking about the event. And putting up fliers and posters–LOTS of fliers and posters–all over town. We also run an ad in a local free entertainment guide, the Stagger, who last year gave us their cover page. Non-traditional ways: This year, we’re having a Raffle to raise money for the bands coming, which arose out of courting various sponsors, many of whom couldn’t offer us money, but were more than happy to send us swag to do with what we pleased. So when Cisco offered us some Flip video cameras, and Eastwood offered us a guitar, the raffle was born. Never done one before, so we’re hoping for the best here.

 

4. Can you rank the importance of the various promotional activities that you do, for the Instro Summit or other projects? 

I think they’re ALL important. I’ve learned from doing this sort of thing for years that you can’t rely or rank any one part of your promotion of a show more than any other thing, especially in this day and age, when folks get their information from everything  from a Smartphone to a cocktail napkin. So spread the word–by any and all means possible.

 

5. What’s the geographic range of bands that play on the Instro Summit? 

We’re still heavily focused on the East Coast and Southeast, although we have a strong Gulf Coast contingent as well. I’d love to get some bands from farther west to join in, and this year I did get inquiries from bands from both Milwaukee and Chicago, but just a little to late to make the lineup. They WILL be contacted next year. Probably our biggest geographic leap this year comes from the Space Rangers, who are coming all the way from Ulm, Germany to play our little wingding. 

 

6. How do bands get on one of Instro Summits, or other shows that you organize?

Either they contact me, or I contact them–pretty simple. If the timing is right, a gig is made.  If not, well...we can try again later. Hint: if you want to be part of the Summit for 2012, email  me in December 2011–but make sure you’re good. I hate to tell anyone no because they suck.

 

Now,  let’s talk about you.

8. You have a band “Killer Filler” – what kind of music does Killer Filler play?

Killer Filler is an all-instrumental band that alternately plays surf, soul, rock, and lounge-type music. We’re sort of a three way cross between the Ventures, Booker T & the MG’s and Henry Mancini, all playing a rowdy party.

 

10. Personally, what music has influenced you the most?

The music of Henry Mancini and Joe Raposo. The first two albums I ever remember listening to were the Pink Panther soundtrack and the Sesame Street Original Cast Album, and you can STILL hear their influences on me in the stuff I write.

When I’m playing instruments, I’d say my biggest influences on guitar are Steve Cropper, Nokie Edwards, Brain Henneman of the Bottlerockets, and Link Wray. On keyboards it’d be Booker T. Jones, Floyd Cramer, Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural, and Matt Pitinski. 

 

11. How did you get interested in surf instro music?

I’ve never been specifically interested in surf music, just instrumental music in general, of which surf is a big part. I used to live with a fella named Mark Stephens, a fellow musician who plays guitar and is a major hoarder of thrift store LP’s. Through him, I got to learn all about the music of the Ventures, the Sandals, Jerry Cole, The Mar-Ketts, plus lots of other non-surf guitar players like Vinnie Bell, Billy Strange, and Tony Mottola. His bug for gathering up these records led me to start doing so on my own, gathering up keyboard records from folks like Ernie Freeman, Dick Hyman, The Derringers, The Jon Buzon Trio, and others. 

 

15. How did you get your moniker “Cousin Crispy”?

I’ve been Crispy for a long time; back in the 90's I used to sit in with a band from Chicago, The New Duncan Imperials, who were a side project from another “serious” band, the Service. One of the unwritten rules for playing in NDI is that you never use your real name, and that someone else in the band will come up with your nickname for you. Pigtail, the NDI guitar player, dubbed me Crispy, and it’s been my name pretty much ever since. The Cousin part came from my stint with Southern Culture on the Skids, who wanted to throw a little hillbilly in thar. They gave me my walking papers back in 2004, so I’m back to being plain ol’ Crispy again.

 

16. How did you discover NESMA?

It’s been so long, I have trouble remembering. If my memory is correct, it came from me sending CD-R’s of surf songs I was stumbling around with in my home studio to Mike Rosado, and getting his thoughts. God Bless Mike–those demos were sloppy as heck, but he always said great things about ‘em. By the time I managed to parlay those surf songs and bunch of others into a full band–Killer Filler–Mike suggested I join NESMA to help pimp my band and network with others.