Featured Band for 

May  2004  

        Fisherman             

Band Name: Fisherman (The Fisherman's Vibraphonic Trio)

Genre: tiki exotica, surf, lounge, garage & go-go-ass-shake!  (...and Burlesque bump & grind)

Geographical Area: New York City

Interview with Eric Farber on April 24, 2004 

1.  What is the current line-up of your band?

Brian "The Fisherman" Lease on the Electric Vibraphone, Log Drum, Flashpot & occasional vocals/birdcalls; Kyle Forester on the Electric Bass Guitar & occasional vocals/birdcalls; & Eric Farber on the Drums & Gong & occasional birdcalls...  15% of our set often consists of a slightly different instrumentation featuring the same performers: The Fisherman on the drums, Kyle on the Electric Guitar featuring his patented Low E-string Dive Bombs, and Eric on the Electric Bass Guitar.     

2. How and when did you get started with your band?

The Fisherman started it all in San Francisco in the late 90's after his proto lounge-core band "Frenchy" broke up.  Disillusioned and malnourished, The Fisherman decided to move his burlesque/tiki operation to the big apple.  After various formations and reformations, he eventually stumbled upon Eric & Kyle.  This fierce rhythm-section duo had been playing music together since before anyone can remember.  With no clear life goals of their own, they decided to hop aboard The Fisherman's steamboat & see where it took 'em.

3. What bands or music have influenced you most?

The Velvet Underground, Martin Denny, Combustable Edison, Black Flag, Capt'n Beefheart, Butthole Surfers, Arthur Lyman, The Who, Orchestra Superstring, Talking Heads, Hickoids, Frank Zappa, Les Baxter, Link Wray, The Sonics, The Kinks, Fugazi, Thelonious Monk, Henry Mancini, Eden Ahbez, Esquivel, Sun Ra Arkestra, Ornette Coleman, Man or Astroman?, The Beach Boys, Charles Mingus, Charlie Parker, Tito Puente...

We mostly perform music that we didn't write ourselves, but we're not ashamed of that fact.  We sprinkle in some originals here and there...  We plan on writing many more originals soon; and hopefully will be recording them.  We're waiting for the charm of our cover material to fade away... 

5. What recording have you done?

The Fisherman's Vibraphonic Jungle Exotica & Lounge, 2003,  which is comparable to a demo...  it was recorded in Eric's basement, mostly all live.  I happen to think it sounds pretty damn good.  It consists of 12 songs (2 original) and can be purchased at Fisherman shows for only $5. 

6. What is your band's favorite food/beverage?

The B. E. Chee...    for some reason people on the West coast don't fully understand our need for this vital food group.  (yes, it is it's own group)  We're going to be bring out a suitcase-full when we go on tour in LA in early May.  It's a sandwich on a hard roll consisting of bacon, fried (or scrambled) egg (s), and melted american cheese.   It's not a hard concept, but try ordering one in San Francisco; they'll ask you what kind of wrap you want it in...

7. How do you get gigs?

We usually just show up at a place randomly and start loading in our gear.  Nobody ever says anything, and sometimes they'll even pay us... 

No, seriously; we typically get a new gig from each gig that we play; talking to people, etc...   We have a fairly unique act, and people are often looking for that for some reason or another.     

8. What are the difficulties you find playing your kind of music in your area?

We haven't really had any problems.  People are very supportive in New York.  Getting our stuff around might be the only problem, but we've got a car...  Eric has legendary good luck when it comes to parking. 

It's important to seek out places that suit your music; and our band doesn't fit in at many NYC venues, so we've had to find the ones that work for us.  Fortunately, just as The Fisherman moved out from SF tons of tiki bars opened up all around town.  You can't fit a square peg into a round hole, but you can fit The Fisherman's Vibraphonic Trio into any decent tiki bar!       

9. What positive attributes does your band have that sets you apart from other bands (of any genre)?

I think that we're the only band ever that has been able to play at a one year old's birthday party at a Polynesian-themed restaurant, and at a topless bar supplying the bump & grind for the dancers in the same weekend.  We're fairly diverse in terms of the types of events that we can perform at.  We play for kids, weddings, strip clubs, burlesque shows, drunkard events, tiki lounges, punk shows, art museums, elementary school science-trip fundraisers, retro swing clubs...  we've played with surf bands, rock bands, rock-a-billy, psycho-billy, drunkard bands, emo, punk, country...   We're rather flexible. 

10. What have you found to be the single most effective promotional tool you've used to further your band's musical path?

Performing...

11. What's the most interesting performance experience you've had?

There's really too many to list...  we couldn't pick just one.  Burlesque shows at Coney Island in the summer; playing for kids at the Museum of Modern Art; Tease-O-Rama III at The Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood; The First Annual NYC Burlesque Festival at The Knitting Factory; summer barbeques at Lillies in Redhook, Brooklyn; a burlesque show on the roof of the Gershwin Hotel in a Swedish sauna; playing in a bar inside a windmill in Solvang, CA; a wedding in San Francisco on the shore of the Golden Gate Bridge; playing at Otto's Shrunken Head every Monday for the past 15 months!   

12. What do you hope to get out of being a NESMA member?

It's nice to know that there are people out there who are interested in the type of music that you make, and that there are other bands in the area to have shows with.  I think it's great that we can go up to Boston or down to Baltimore and find NESMA bands in those cities to have shows with, and lean on for support.  It's very hard to be a touring musician without a community for support, and NESMA offers that to us. 

(See more information and photos of the band here.)

          Back to NESMA website