Band
Name:
Reverb Galaxy
Genre:
Interstellar Surf from the Invisible Planet
Geographical
Area:
Maryland / DC / Virginia
Interview
with Captain Nitro et al by email on 4/27/06
1. What is the current line-up of your band?
Lead Guitar: Captain Nitro (Art Svrjcek)
Rhythm Guitar: Rumblesurfskin (Joe Atkins)
Bass: Mojito (Jim Colby)
Drums: our newest member, and still in need of an appropriate nom de
guerre, Jeremy Carlson. Right now the leading candidate is "the Pigtown
Strangler", if only because there is currently an opening.
Neptinas: Dana, Jalila, Sharon, Nadine, other willing souls.
2. How and when did you get started with your band?
Everyone was hooked in by musician ads in Washington City Paper. Art was
burnt out with playing with Still Surfin' (a Beach Boys cover band) and
wanted to start doing his own songs. He posted an ad seeking to start a surf
band in the cold and dark of December 2003, which Joe answered (and passed
the audition). After a few episodes (and beers) playing along with CDs in
Art's condo at low volume, we got our first drummer, who still lived in his
parents' basement and had perpetual car and employment issues. Still, that
was our practice space.
We then scored our bassist, Mojito, a tiki-tattooed ukulele collector. Four
strings is his absolute maximum. Mojito is also the proprietor of the Surf
Shack, our much improved practice space and adult Honeycomb Hideout. As a
former Insect Surfer for a brief stint back in the 80's, he said he had been
reading the ads for six years waiting for this one.
The drummer lasted for two shows before his "issues" led to his departure.
Mojito is a closet artiste and had done a large painting of a kamikaze pilot
that was just lying around the Shack. He is now on display at all of our
live shows.
Art recruited his brother Dave ("Dano") to fill in for us for a show in
December 2004. His filling-in lasted until March 2006. As with all good
drummers, this was not his only band and he is more of punk/goth guy at
heart than a twanger. We wish him the best with his much busier band, the
Opposite Sex. We were compelled, however, to add an grotesque Indonesian
mask, now named Dano, to our stage paraphernalia in his honor as well.
Now with Jeremy, not only do we now have a fabulous, hard-hitting new
drummer, but at 6'4", we now have someone to play center on the Reverb
Galaxy intramural basketball team. Freshly married and honeymooned, his
first big gig with us will be Unsteady Freddie's event at Otto's on May 6.
We added the Neptinas for our first big club gig and they have been a
smashing addition to our live show.
3. What bands or music have influenced you most?
Art: A huge Space Cossacks fan. Probably the band's chief influence,
as Art writes most of the lead guitar lines. He really got the surf urge
when he hung around Cossacks rhythm guitarist Mark English during their
heyday and listened to Ivan Pongracic's fantastic technique. Add the
Beatles, 50's Hawaiian instrumentals, any Gerry Anderson Supermarionation's
TV themes from the 60's, and the Cars for melodic inspiration.
Joe: Keith Richards, Link Wray, Ramones and other 80's punk,
Hawaiian, lounge, and bluegrass. Joe comes from a roots music background
(Cajun, zydeco, blues, country, old timey), so the stuff he write tends to
be more danceable and less abstract than a lot of surf. Lots of pull-offs
and hammer- ons in his playing too; might as well be Doc Watson.
Jim: Zappa, XTC and other '80's new wave, blues, Hawaiian (uke!), ska,
swing, and top-notch cheese like Annette Funicello. Never misses a James
Bond marathon on TNT either, so there's a little spy-fi in his musical
arsenal as well.
Jeremy: The first two Bread albums.
4. What is the break down of cover vs. original material in your live shows
and/or recordings?
Like most bands, we were all covers at first. We are probably now about
50/50. Everybody has been writing and contributing ideas and our goal is do
at least 80-90% originals. With Jeremy now integrating his beats with
guitarists, we can finish a bunch of half-formed songs.
5. What recording have you done?
We did a four-song demo of originals called "Invisible Planet" in the spring
of 2005 so we could have something to use to get gigs. We used ProTools and
multi-tracked and that failed to capture the band's energy. The full-time
dedicated drummer now puts us in a position to go into the studio this
summer to do a real long-player of all originals recorded the old-fashioned
surf music way: live in the studio with everyone going at once and bleeding
into the different mikes.
6. What kind of gear do you use?
Art: Surf green (w/matching headstock) US Strat w/plus
hardware split between a '65 Twin Reverb Reissue (drenched wet) and a '65
Fender Deluxe Reissue (clean). Flatwounds 52-12's, usually DR Legends, and
"COOL" textured picks. Boss Digital Delay - Boss Chorus - Fender Reverb
Tank.
Joe: DiPinto Belvedere with twang-buckers. Modified with a Bigsby
vibrato, roller bridge, and Delrin nut. D'Addario 12-54 roundwounds. 89 MIJ
Fender Strat strung with D'Addario 11-49 roundwounds. 98 Fender US
Telecaster with Kinman stacked humbuckers. Silverface 70W 1970's Fender
Super Reverb amp. Boss Compressor/Sustainer. MXR 10 band EQ. Sparing use of
Danelectro Echo, MXR Distortion Plus and Phaser, Ibanez Tube Screamer.
Ernie Ball Jr. Volume Pedal. Seagull S6 cedar cutaway acoustic with Fishman
Rare Earth soundhole pickup.
Jim: Brand new Fender Jaguar bass with groundwound strings. 8x10
Ampeg cab with either an Ashdown or Ampeg SVT head. Also a Spector bass with
active pick-ups.
Jeremy: Favors Gretsch drums and Zildjian cymbals.
7. What is your band's favorite food/beverage?
Yuengling is the house beer, although whatever is on sale is popular as
well. With the warm weather coming on, mojitos and mai tais are back on the
menu and the rye whiskey returns to the cabinet.
Jim is a wonderful host and has been laying a spread of Trader Joe's hors
d'oeuvres for practice lately, which is a big improvement over Art's Diet
Coke and Doritos.
Top of the food heap however is Pollo Campero, the finest chicken in all of
El Salvador. People used to fly back to the US from Central America with
suitcases full of this stuff like it was gold or something. Now an outlet
has opened not too far from the surf shack and a big box brought to practice
will meet with roars of approval. The grease is also good for helping
your fingers slide over the strings on those Dick Dale glissandos.
8. How do you get gigs?
Joe is a combination diplomat and pest. Using a combination of charm and
persistence, he works club owners, friends, promoters, and other bands until
they agree to the booking. Unsteady Freddie had been enormously supportive
as well. When you are playing for love, a gig is a gig.
9. What are the difficulties you find playing your kind of music in your area?
There is no surf scene here in the DC area at all. There are other surf
bands, like our friends Monsters From the Surf, the Atomic Mosquitoes, and
the BobWhites. The Diamondheads and Swiv-o-matics are kind of dormant right
now. However, we are all totally on the margins of a classic and blues rock
town. Cover bands and acoustic combos rule down here. There is no venue that
will reliably and regularly book instrumental surf. Haven't gotten the call
for that surf wedding reception either where the bride walks down aisle to
the strains of the Shadows. Even the beach towns don't know what to do with
us.
10. What positive attributes does your band have that sets you apart from other
bands (of any genre)?
Our recipe is aggression plus melody. The surf style demands a
interesting blend of power and delicacy. The trick is to find that balance
between the dissonance of all those half-step shifts, twang bar bends, and
minor scales with something that will catch the ear and have you humming
along or moving your ass with the song. We think we have done that. A lot of
our stuff is created collaboratively. Art has an amazing ear for melody and
can channel it through his fingertips. His sense of song structure is very
strong as well. Jim and Joe are serious music geeks and genre sluts, so they
tend to toss in ideas from way outside of the surf canon and that adds a lot
of variety. And Jeremy is hitting HARD and driving us.
In order to break up the monotony of watching four middle-age guys with
guitars in jeans standing around and not singing for an hour, we felt it was
important to add the spacesuit costumes and the Neptinas. We have a unified
concept and look, which helps us stand out. Blinking blue glasses, rayguns
that shoot smoke rings, a little cheesecake, and a fog machine. Most people
won't remember what you played (except a bunch of surf geeks like us). But
we leave people feeling like they just went to an event; and that helps them
to dig the music too.
11. What have you found to be the single most effective promotional tool you've
used to further your band's musical path?
The Internet of course. The web is great because it allows us to easily
network and do shows with other bands, whose members and dates help bulk
up the audience. We've put together a promo package that contains a brief
biography sheet, a demo CD and some other general information on the
band. But Joe contacting people, shaking hands and making phone calls is
still our best promotion tool. We have a website, but everyone says we
should be on MySpace so we can more easily cruise for cops posing as
over-developed underage girls with under-developed morals. Maybe...
12. What's the most interesting performance experience you've had?
We played the giant municipal gym in Ocean City, MD for our second gig and
opened for Art's previous band, a Beach Boys cover band. All ages, no beer.
Let us just say the applause was polite from the puzzled populace for our
set of Space Cossacks and Dick Dale covers. It was kind of like "Puppet Show
and Spinal Tap" at the amusement park. The teenager dug it.
13. What do you hope to get out of being a NESMA member?
1) To destroy the Sun. (After our first failed effort, we decided maybe
we should wait for nightfall before attempting a second full scale assault).
2) We see it as our starting point for making $1.3 million dollars, which
will be hard to divide up evenly among the band and will hopefully lead to
litigation and then a VH-1 Behind the Music profile.
3) Make friends with other bands so we can trade out-of-town shows and
then sleep on each others couches/girlfriends.
