Canton OH @ Buzzbin - © Chris Jordan
Rather than drawing rash comparisons to a
certain two-piece band or beguiling eccentric multi-instrumentalist I will let
the name speak for itself, The End Men.
The intriguing New York City duo consisting of husband and wife Matthew
Hendershot and Livia Ranalli Hendershot have been producing their unique brand
of circus-centric blues based rock ‘n roll for almost three years now. On a recommendation from a friend about “the
wickedest drumming he’d heard since John Bonham” I decided to check them
out. It’s no exageration to say that
Livia uses her drumset like few other musicians out there, utilizing techniques
and producing sounds adding a layer to the two-piece that is usually sorely
lacking in duos. Comlimented by the
bluesy, cruning rock stylings of Matthew on vocals and guitar, The End Men
haven proven themselves a force to be reckoned with. Blazing their own trail and taking little
notice or instruction from anyone but themselves they’ve managed to create a unique
and mysterious sound that burrows its way deep into your brain in a time when
it’s hard to remember your cellphone’s ringtone. On the heels of the release of
their debut full-length Play With Your Toys Matthew and Livia took some time
out of their busy schedules to discuss all things The End Men with Psychedelic
Baby!
Are either of you in any other bands at
this point? Have you been in any other
bands that have released anything?
Matthew: Right now, no. The End Men is our number one priority. We have played shows with other acts
though. For instance Liv did a tour stint
with Sea of Bees and later this year I'll be doing two shows with Matt
King. That stuff is mostly fill-in work
though; creatively we are focused on The End Men. When I met Livia she was drumming for Top Ten
Lovers, and I was in The Dead River Company.
The D.R.C. put out two EPs and I think Top Ten Lovers had two albums
worth of music that never came out.
Prior to the D.R.C. I was also part of an EP that was released for the
band EVENEYE, which was a band full of Kansans all transplanted in Brooklyn.
Where are you originally from?
Matthew: I was born Western Kansas and went
to school in central Kansas before moving to Phoenix, and then up here to New
York.
Livia: I am from Milan, Italy.
How did you two meet? How long have you known each other?
Matthew: We met through an introduction
from another NYC band, Hank and Cupcakes.
I was booking a monthly showcase at the time, and I was on the hunt for
up and coming bands to play. Her band
was suggested and we booked them. The
band played a great set but it was mostly Livia that I was watching, as was
everyone else! I ended up organizing
another show where our bands were able to share the bill and then she reached
out to me for a letter of recommendation for her as an artist. We talked a lot during that time period about
music and about what kind of things we wanted to do with this musical project,
sort of just brainstorming. This would
have been the end of 2009. As the year
came to a close things went south for both our bands, so it was an open door to
start making music together.
Did your relationship or The End Men come
first? What led you to start The End
Men?
Livia: The reason why we ended up dating
was we both were looking to build a new project as both of our past bands had
felled thru, so the idea of The End Men did come before our relationship. However, we only really started playing after
getting married three months after our first meeting, hehehe!
Matthew: Yeah, we were already married by
the time the first show happened for sure.
I knew from minute one of meeting Liv that I wanted to make music with
her, seeing her drum has that kind of effect on people I think. It’s really a sight. Just getting to know her was another sort of
motivation as well. We just
clicked. I think there’s really only
been a handful of days we’ve been apart since the first night we went out
together. Getting the boot from the
D.R.C. was the event that triggered me to start thinking about fronting a band
with these musical ideas I'd had for a while, but Livia was the catalyst for
sure. Working with her gave all these
little bits and pieces of inanimate stuff life.
In a way I just sort of dumped a pile of puzzle pieces out in front of
the both of us, and it was really her that figured out how they were all
supposed to fit together.
I
imagine there are some really cool things about being in a band with your
wife. I also suspect there’s some stuff
that’s drives you nuts sometimes. Can
you talk a little bit about what it’s like to be in a band with your
husband/wife respectively? Some of the
ups and downs?
Livia: It’s very easy to organize tours,
band meetings, band practice and all of that stuff as you are always thinking
and acting as one, you don’t have to argue about leaving for a while when you
go on tour. There are lots of benefits about
being married in this deal. I’d say the
downside of it is that you don’t talk about anything else. Seriously!
We are crazy one-track minded.
And also, if you have a music-related quarrel, that bleeds into the
husband/wife relationship. Luckily, we
almost never have any of those; they’re trivial most of the time anyways.
Matthew: I think most of all it is that we
share this dream as a team in a closer and more real sense than a lot of the
bands out there. There is a lot of
juggling that goes into being in a band, and a lot of the time it is between
the two relationships; your personal relationship and a band relationship. Ours has the unique ability to grey those
lines. When we are working on our own
relationship, it’s also helping the band and vice versa. We have strong communication all the time and
that helps with both the marriage and the band equally.
How long have you been in New
York now? How involved are you two with
the New York music scene? Has it played
a large role in The End Men’s history?
How would you describe the local scene there?
Matthew: I moved up here in July of 2006,
Liv in September 2007. As far as our
engagement in the scene, I mean I have had my hands in it in some way or
another ever since I got up here; my first week in town I was auditioning for
bands to play in. EVENEYE and The D.R.C.
came after that, and I always found myself sort of internally managing the
bands I was in so I know tons of people and bookers and venues and the like. But at the same time, it always seems like we
find ourselves in one place when the 'scene' starts to bubble up in
another. There is a world of difference
between what people think the scene is like here and the truth of the
matter. There are a ton of bands and a
ton of venues, and just when a person, place, or thing starts to break through
suddenly, everyone is already past it, onto the next thing; it feels like it’s
almost by design. Looking around you see
a lot of people trying to capture lightning in a bottle a second time. But, new stuff keeps coming all the time, and
bands move up here all the time, and it just keeps feeding the mystique of it
all. But I don't see a solid scene in
any of it. Just a lot of people fighting
to get what little attention they can.
It's actually something I'm very vocal about, trying to get at least
small factions organized and working together.
Like, "hey let's all start booking this venue and make it
cool" or "let's start sharing shows and get people interested in this
group of bands" instead of always being just out for self. I guess the good news is that as of late you
hear a lot more talk like this, but all in all, it still kind of feels like
crabs in a bucket sometimes.
Livia: Yeah, I don’t think there’s really a
“New York Music Scene" anymore; if there’s ever been one.
I heard you discussing the meaning of your
name, The End Men and was really impressed at the level of thought that you two
had put into it. Can you explain some of
the different meanings behind the name, why and how you chose it?
Matthew: So, the name of course comes from
Vaudeville. From the get go I have
advocated bringing back the “show” element to it all. I mean not to be rude, but there are a lot of
boring live bands. I can love an album
but seeing that same band live can be like exercise, a chore to watch! I guess the idea of the show, the variety and
the jokes and stories were going to be there even without the name. That’s what led us to even be looking into
that sort of source material to begin with.
It's funny though because we found the name and liked the idea, but then
we were also able to snap up the website address and all the social media
rights. It was like this untouched thing
that seemed too good to be true really.
Plus it sounds good. It looks
good written down and it’s easy to say and remember. We are still training the populous. Some folks like to combine End Men into one
word or not include "The", that type of thing. It has this great natural symmetry though,
three words, three letters each. Each
one capitalized, The End Men. We’re
still working on a solid logo though hahaha.
Livia: In fact, if anybody reading this
interview feels inspired to craft one please do so!
I know that there was a third member in the
band initially who subsequently left the band after you recorded Build It
Up. However that was some time ago and
at this point and you’ve played most of your shows as a two-piece. How did the transition into a two-piece
work? Was it a difficult transition or
did it just seem to kind of come naturally?
Livia: Jason is a good friend of ours and
we had a great time collaborating with him but I think we all felt we had come
to a point where we needed to take different paths. After Build It Up came out Matthew and I
started planning frequent trips out of town, we really wanted to play a lot
more anywhere we could. We also wanted
to tour Europe and the U.S. Jason was
much more hesitant about investing all that time and sometimes money, into the
band, as he also had a video production company he really wanted to focus
on. Our problem was that the music we
had at that time was not meant for a two-piece band. So we decided we would start working on new material
that would make it possible for us to be independent, and eventually have
people on board for some jams if they wanted, but without having to depend on
them. So we started writing as a
two-piece and it really seemed to be the right direction to go. We talked to Jason about it and he was really
understanding about it. I’d say it felt
really natural.
Normally I don’t like using The White
Stripes as an example of duos because I don’t think there are many other
two-pieces out there like them. They
were very aware of the restrictions and limitations that arose from playing
with two people, but they didn’t fight it.
Instead, like you, they seemed to embrace the fact it makes you “think
outside of the box”. What unique
attributes do you think being a two-piece band brings to The End Men? What are the major pros and cons of working
as a duo?
Livia: I really like how it motivates you
to think of a much wider variety of sounds and how it sort of forces you to
push yourself, nobody else is filling that blank for you. I feel like I’ve started using the drums as a
much more complete instrument since we started playing as a duo. I also truly enjoy the silence that you can
build. Some bands fill every moment with
sound out of fear of that silence; I think silence is a very important element
in music. Working in the studio is
easy. You can add all you want. Sometimes though we wish we had somebody on
stage play whatever it is on the record that we can’t play on stage because
we’re too busy on our respective instruments!
Matthew: In the studio environment it's
fine because you have the time to craft the sounds you want. I think because it’s just the two of us. We let each other go with a lot of slack and
a lot of experimentation and that kind of stuff, which is great when you have
the tracks to play along with and you can always add and sculpt. I've never been keen on trying to play live
to tracks, loops or samples, so we actually have to be able to do everything in
the live show. It’s a challenge,
especially since the sound that we produce is very, very full sounding but
that’s also part of the benefit. People
see a duo setting up and they get this idea of what they are about to get, then
it drops in and immediately, we've got them.
I think it comes as a genuine surprise and that adds to the impact. People want to expect the White Stripes
because it is the easiest common denominator, and I think the White Stripes are
great, so that works getting our foot in the door of their brains or whatever,
but it doesn't take long if they are actually listening for them to say,
"This isn't like the White Stripes at all, but I still like it"! It actually leads to a lot of people saying a
lot of really flattering things that I'm not sure they otherwise would! But it is kind of great to get those ego
cookies from time to time.
Columbus OH @ Scarlet and Grey - © Chris
Jordan
You recorded your first album Build It Up
before you had really begun playing out much.
Can you talk a little bit about why you went about things that way?
Livia: We arranged the songs during the
recording sessions! It was a little
insane but I enjoyed working that way. I
like how recording pushes you to create, fast.
It just happened this way out of necessity. We needed to have something recorded so we
could get people to hear what we were doing in spite of the fact we hadn’t done
anything yet! You might call it
impatience, we were just very eager to produce something.
Matthew: The songs we did out for the first
gig were all tunes that had been kicking around for a while that I had
done. Again, sort of the puzzle pieces,
but none of them were finished. Having
started and ran with two other bands already in NYC, I just couldn't see a
point at all in putting in all the effort to gig and not having something that
people could take with them. It’s easy
to love a band when you are drunk and at the show but even easier to wake up
the next morning and not remember their name or something. The album was a preventative measure. I think we all knew this had serious potential,
and I think the audiences at the first two shows saw it too. That was the real motivation. It was like,
“look, people like this stuff, let's make sure they are able to remember it,
and talk about it and share it” and all of that. So getting the EP out became a priority.
How have things changed as far as writing
and recording goes since that first album?
Livia: The songs from the first album are
mostly all Matthew’s idea, which we took and put together as a band, but the
raw material was already drafted. Play
With Your Toys was really a co-writing experience for the two of us. We pretty much wrote and arranged all the
songs together, and we had played that material quite a lot before hitting the
record button. The only exceptions are
the Play With Your Toys I and II tracks which we sort of improvised during
recording.
Matthew: There is a lot more, 'production',
I guess you could say on Play With Your Toys.
Build It Up was viewed as this sort of functional necessity. I didn't want to be out there without the
best business card a band can have, so we made the songs just as they were
live, we just tried to capture it and make it sound as good as we could. With Play With Your Toys we had and took a
lot more time to really create and craft an album. Writing since then has, as Liv said, been
almost totally collaborative. I'll still
write lyrics on the train or whatever, but musically we hash all that stuff out
jamming in the rehearsal studios. All
these little jams and riffs come out of goofing around and then when they start
to take shape, I tend to look through what I've been jotting down and see if it
will fit with the ideas and melody, or if we can manipulate the words to fit
the music or whatever. The songs are
stories, so like all things there are a lot of ways to tell a story. Maybe we cut a word or six or whatever to
make it fit the idea of the melody, but that's all part of it.
You’ve self-released two albums at this
point, 2011’s Build It Up and the recently released Play With Your Toys. Can you tell me a little about the recording
of each of those albums? Who recorded
them, the equipment that was used?
Matthew:
I went to school to be an audio engineer so I have, just by nature of
that, amassed a fairly decent collection of microphones and recording equipment
as well as a great deal of knowledge and philosophy. It's a funny dichotomy though because half of
the stuff is real legit, like a bank of Focusrite preamps and a stereo tube
compressor, that kind of thing, some nice microphones. Then the other half of it is stuff I've
built, or stuff that’s in disrepair but under the right circumstances sounds
great totally by accident! More than the
gear though, I think what pleases me most about the records is that we trusted
our taste when it came to the sounds. We
did a lot of listening but not a lot of contrasting with popular music. It was like having an idea for a sound and
tweaking and tweaking to get it the way it sounded in our heads instead of
trying to copy a sound we knew from something else. Jason's leads on Build It Up are a great
example of this I think. It was this
fantastic Sheraton but we played it thru this seventy-five dollar bass practice
amp that is pretty much transparent sounding.
If you just peg everything at 10 all the sudden it starts to sing. I used something like three different mics on
it, and then had a tube pre in the chain.
After messing with and blending those sounds, it just turned out epic
sounding. All in all I think knowing
that what we had was simply what we had and we had to make the best of it
worked in our advantage. Also with both
records, we went for a very natural and very 'live' sound to convey the vibe
and energy we wanted, Play With Your Toys is a great example of that. I've had people tell me that it isn't a very
loud record, and honesty they’re dead wrong.
Compared to something that has been slammed in mastering, like most
modern releases, sure, it is going to seem that way. I promise you though, reach for the volume
knob and goose your system a bit and that album cooks. The difference is of course that it moves up
and down and so the loud can surprise you and add some depth, instead of just
being compressed and loud from start to finish wearing you out.
Was the Play With Your Toys album easier to
record? You had experience with the
first album and there were only two people playing this time around, did it
make thing simpler or easier at all?
Livia: No!
I felt like an eight-month pregnant lady walking around wishing the
thing inside of her were out already.
All jokes aside though, the album took forever to be launched. There were more songs to work on than Build
It Up and we had a much more specific idea of how we wanted the album to sound,
which instead of making it easier made us more demanding of ourselves and each
other. We also struggled with the mixes
for a while. The fact that there was
only two of us and we had only worked on one album before may actually be the
only reasons why it is out now hahahaha!
Matthew: I think the open ended nature of
it made it more difficult actually.
There was no rush to get it out, so we took our time. Also time was a huge factor in the whole
thing. From start to finish it probably
took us less than a month to record, mix and master the album. The time issue being that we didn't have a
month straight to work on it. It was a day here, two days there and so on over
the course of nearly a year. That and we
didn't do it the same way. We had a
different approach to getting the drums, new gear and amps, new instruments, as
well as a much larger scope that we wanted to bring to the finished
product. If you listen to Build It Up
and then Play With Your Toys they are really from two different worlds. I think that also makes it fun for us
though. If it was cut, copy, paste, we
just wouldn't want to do it. We are big
advocates of, “Hey what if we try this?
Hey what about that”? It was all
about experimentation and exploration, finding ways to entertain ourselves in
the process of trying to tell our story.
You have played several overseas tours at
this point; do you particularly enjoy playing overseas? Do you have any international tours planned
for this year?
Livia: We have only toured Europe once so
far, but I am happy to say that we will be going on our second European tour in
mid-September. We’ll play in Italy,
Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and maybe Switzerland. I’m excited to be back on my good ole
continent. It’s a good way for me to get
back and reconnect with family and friends and play shows and travel a lot all
at the same time. In general also, I
think that touring is my favorite aspect of playing music.
Italy @Il Circolino - © Laura Pedrali
Matthew: I am an experience-junkie by
nature, so I love doing all kinds of things and getting to travel and see new
places and history and all of that while playing shows, it’s my perfect idea of
a vacation. That and I love food, and
between Italian food and German food, yeah, count me in. Also it is something not a lot of bands get
to do, I mean, not a lot of bands get too tour for quite a while and here we
are touring Europe for the second time in as many years. It's like getting a scout badge or something,
I kind of love that. But I got that same
feeling from our recent tour of the US as well.
I guess what it comes down to is new places, meeting new people, trying
new things and to be afforded the opportunity to do that by way of touring with
your music, that’s just beautiful to me.
What else do you have planned as far as
touring this year?
Livia: We will play three to four day
mini-tours almost every weekend. Pretty
much anywhere in a seven or eight hour radius from NYC. It would be nice to schedule another proper
tour before the end of the year, I guess we’ll see how things go.
Matthew: We are going to be heading out to
Ohio again in July and doing a lot of stuff in upstate New York with friends
there. We try and make it up there every
other month or so really. One thing, kind of like what Liv mentioned, we do a
lot are these long musical weekends when we can string together three or four
shows over a weekend somewhere. We've
done trips like that to Albany/Rochester that we will do again; also
Boston/Worcester and Ohio. We've made
some awesome friends in some great areas.
So again, it's like vacation for us.
We get to go see some of our favorite people and it just so happens
we’re also playing shows in the process.
That's how I know we will be at this kind of thing for the rest of our
lives, because these trips are the trips that we would be taking for fun
anyways. Some people go rock-climbing,
we go rock-making.
I hear the work “circus” thrown around a
lot in reference to your music. Why is
it that people seem to keep making that comparison? Do you agree with it?
Matthew:
I love it if people get that from the records! I would really like to be able to convey that
at the shows, and I think we do to some extent.
There is a lot of that ramshackle sound to a lot of it sure, and this
sort of fun atmosphere and whimsy, but at the same time, there’s cracked paint,
loose bolts, some dirt and maybe a few undesirable characters. You know, all that stuff that makes circuses
so great in the first place! At the end
of the day, a big priority for us is to make a performance an event, create a
spectacle out of playing our songs live.
It’s where I think we have our most fun and we hope people are having
fun along with us. I've never been to a
pristine circus. They are always a
little rough around the edges, and I kind of love that. Moreover, I've never come across a circus, no
matter how dodgy, and didn't want to go and do everything that could be done
there.
I’ve already referenced The White Stripes and I’ve also seen strong
comparisons drawn to Tom Waits from others.
I’m curious to hear who you would cite as your major musical influences
though?
Livia: I think that it’s funny people keep
comparing us to them. I cannot see where
the similarity is apart from the girl on drums and guy on guitar combo. As for Tom Waits, I do admit he is an
inspiration to us. I like how percussive
and earthy his music is. I like a lot of
different stuff. My recent playlist is
made of the most bizarre mix of artists. From Cab Calloway to Them Crooked
Vultures… I don’t know if I can mention
any specific artist as major musical influence.
I would rather say that I think that our musical inspiration is a
product of everything we listen to, from actual bands to the sounds surrounding
us.
Matthew: We listen to all kinds of music
all the time, one day Clutch, one day Gorillaz, the next Rolling Stones, but
that isn't really what I think of when I think of actual influences. My personal influences come from a few
different sources and memories. One of
those of is fishing with my dad and mom when I was a kid and the radio was
always on the classic rock and oldies stations.
Singing along to everything from, I don't know "This Diamond
Ring" by Gary Lewis and the Playboys and that era of music, and then also
Zeppelin, Stones and that whole rock thing.
We use to cover all those song in these brunch gigs we would do. Playing songs like "Love Potion #9"
and "The Weight", all this stuff that would come from that particular
set of experiences. Another was this
place called The Watering Hole in my hometown that had this juke box I would
play with all the time. My parents would
be in there with friends and us kids would get quarters from the bartender to
keep us occupied or whatever, and it was all these great country tunes like
"The Race is On", "If the Devil Danced in Empty Pockets",
again all over the board but all in that same vein. Then of course I'm hanging out with my
friends and we’re playing Metallica and rock and roll that was current to that
time frame, I think I was like 7 or 8. I
remember tapes that my neighbor and I would make where we would fake our own
radio show and just play songs off the Metallica tapes we had, talking in
between them into the little onboard microphone. It wasn't until I was eighteen or nineteen in
college studying music history and appreciation that I was introduced to the
deeper blues stuff, Robert Johnson up thru Howlin' Wolf, the origins of rock,
and at the same time people who were really out there like Jaco
Pastorious. I was a bass player from the
time I was fourteen years old, not guitar, so Jaco blew my mind. Pat Metheny, guys like Michael Hedges, Bela'
Fleck and the Wootens, all these kinds of folks who were just really pushing
boundaries. I think that’s why a guy
like Tom Waits was very appealing to me.
Because there were no rules to that music, he was just doing whatever he
wanted but basing it all in that bluesy kind of vein. So yeah, when the Tom Waits comparison comes
up, I understand that. I mean I'm
flattered by it. That anyone would even
put me in the same class as him, but I do get where it the comparisons come
from because I think he was probably listening to Howlin' Wolf and Chuck Berry
and Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin just like I was.
I don’t like classifying music, its art and
I think it kind of defies logic in that respect. Instead of labeling or classifying your music
how would you describe The End Men?
Matthew: Its rock 'n roll, that's what I
always say! Rock 'n roll the way it
should be. I'll leave all the colorful
descriptions to folks like you hahaha!
And there have been some great ones for sure. One of my favorites was "a musical fall
down a flight of stairs, laughing all the way". That seems about right. Hopefully though, people can describe it as a
really fun couple of people having a really great time making music.
Livia: As a terrible twosome!
Nashville TN @FooBar - © Chris Jordan
Digital music has exposed me to a whole
universe of music that I wouldn’t otherwise be privy to and it’s rapidly
changing the face of the music industry.
What are your thoughts on digital music and distribution?
Matthew: I think the "rapidly
changing" part of that question is an understatement. With the democratization of music that has
come about through the advent of technologies and what have you, the Industry
with a capital I is long gone man. This
is the new world and no one knows what the hell we are doing yet. Some folks are having success still going at
it the old way, others are completely rethinking it and that’s working for some
of them as well. I think you will still
see major labels staying fairly dominant for a while, but even that success
isn’t near what it used to be. The rest
of us will just have to be content that the whole ‘gold plated diapers’ era is
gone and we may never see anything like it again. I think what we are all, well most of us
anyway, need to wrap our heads around is a new definition of success. For myself, I just want to see a situation
where we can make our art and perform it and have that be a sustainable
practice, and I think that is completely possible even without a major label
record deal if need be.
Livia: Digital distribution has certainly
opened a whole new world to all those musicians who aren’t part of a major
label, it’s the blessing and, somehow, the curse of the current music
non-industry. It has offered an
opportunity for unsigned and emerging bands to get their music out there, but
it has also saturated the music industry with a lot of good, mediocre and bad
stuff. Sometimes I wonder if people are
getting jaded by this constant, excessive flow of music. Similarly, the spreading of digital music has
allowed many broke artists to produce their own material, but it comes down to
the same problem, some of it is just bad quality. And it just doesn’t sound as honest as
analog, sorry to say, but it’s true…
As much as I love digital copies of the
albums I have so I can listen to them on the go, I am very much a physical
release guy. I like being able to look
at album art and liner notes, feel something in my hands while I listen to the
music. Do you have any sort of
connection to physically released music?
Livia: I agree with you. It’s the whole sensory involvement that makes
it worth it! The listening experience
combined with reading the notes, watching the album art and even just the smell
of the record paper, I just love that smell!
Matthew: I absolutely agree. CDs aren’t the experience that records are
but having that booklet filled with art and messages makes for a great visual
experience. I would love to give people
an amazing packaging experience, but I’d like to see us find a positive and
good way to do it. We dealt with that
when we had our CDs manufactured. The
choice came up if we wanted them shrink-wrapped or not. Now, first I thought to go without it, easier
on the environment, which is a good thing.
But then I thought that people, whether they realize it or not, wouldn’t
go for it. Tearing that wrapper off
makes it yours; no one has been there before you! That said, I can’t wait to do vinyl releases
instead of CDs and go with reusable sleeves, that way we can get the best of
both worlds.
In a time where most people are pushing
vinyl product and many musicians are releasing cassette tapes why release the
two albums on CD? Is it a conscious or
aesthetic decision in any way?
Livia: Nope, it was just what we could
afford! I would love to release music in
vinyl format, as I enjoy the dirt in the sound of it, but it takes a little
more money. We are thinking of releasing
a vinyl version of Play With Your Toys if the CD sales go well enough.
Matthew: Yeah, exactly what she said. I am itching for a vinyl release too, just to
have that experience of seeing it and knowing that your music is physically
etched into that record, I can’t wait for that day. Unfortunately it isn’t that easy and it costs
more money than CDs do, so, audio quality wise you still get the best sounding
format from the disks. Maybe minus the
character of vinyl, but it’s something you can have, a little something you
made that people can take home with them to remember the experience, or perhaps
have their own more personal one with.
Where can our readers get copies of the
Build It Up EP and the new album Play With Your Toys?
Matthew: Well currently if you want to buy
the physical product you need to find us.
Either at a show or contact us via email and we can ship them out. Build It Up is nearly out of print
though! Digitally you can grab downloads
from our Bandcamp page at http://theendmen.bandcamp.com. We found out that soon you will be able to
tune in and hear us on Pandora, so that’s quite cool. We did have a service that put us out on
other streaming sites and also got us on iTunes, but they were taking a pretty
big cut of the sales, so it just wasn’t making sense to keep it going. If you are buying through Bandcamp though the
money goes straight to us instantly and that’s pretty cool.
I’ve seen more and more female rock
musicians, drummers especially, the last few years; in fact only one band I’ve
interviewed so far hasn’t had any female members. Rock definitely used to be a boy’s club
though. How do you feel about how women
are treated in rock these days? Do you feel like gender is still an issue?
Livia: I’ve honestly never cared whether
girls are involved in bands of not, as long as the music is good. I think that women can contribute a lot to
the world of rock, as long as they don’t let their gender define what they
do. If you like what you hear regardless
of who is playing, then gender is not an issue.
If you need to check the girl’s skirt or cleavage to make it
interesting, then there is something missing in the music and that’s a problem. I do believe there is still a stereotypical
approach to this topic though. Many
people compliment me as a ‘girl drummer’.
It used to bother me; it felt like they put me in this sub-category in
the main ‘drumming’ world. I don’t mind
anymore, I don’t care. I just hope
people can evaluate what they hear regardless of who it’s coming from.
Matthew: I also don't know that I would
agree that it’s valid to say “more and more females” are in the game now than
before. I mean, we are talking about
rock, which is maybe 60 years old in total.
There have been a lot of women rocking right along with everyone else
the whole time I think. Really the only
reason gender is still an issue is because people think of it being an
issue. If we got over that initial hump
though, I think everyone would find that they’ve been listening to women rock a
lot more than even they realize.
I ask everyone I talk to this question so
please list as many or as few as you’d like, who are some bands from your local
area that our readers should be listening to that they might not have heard of?
Livia: Thanks for asking. There are a bunch of really interesting bands
in the NY area that are worth checking.
To mention a few: The Moho Collective from Rochester, they are really
one of my favorite bands, and not just in the area. Then The Slaughterhouse Chorus (Albany),
Henry’s Rifle (Albany), The Skeletons In The Piano (Saratoga Springs), Ghost
& Goblin (NYC), The Gypsy West (NYC).
Matthew: Ghost & Goblin is one of my
favorite bands out there right now. They
just put out a new record that is really brave and I love hearing that out of
such a young band. The Moho Collective
are also amazing, like mind-blowingly good stuff. I can’t wait to hear the new album they are
about to put out. Liv also mentioned Skeletons In The Piano whom we absolutely
love. Not only do they rock musically,
they are some of the best folks. We go
to Albany a lot to play, but we would go just to hang out with them and Kane
Grogan and the Slaughterhouse Chorus guys, they are all like, friends for life,
even if we didn’t absolutely love what they are up to. We’ll be playing Skeletons release part for
their new record called Please Don’t Die in May. I’ve already got the digital pre-release, but
I’m also winning an eBay auction for one of the test pressings of their record.
I could probably just ask for one, but it is much more fun this way! We belong to two different music collectives
also that are just great groups of people and friends who are also out there
rocking. One is Built 4 BBQ, based out
of upstate New York. Liv mentioned a few
of the bands, The Slaughterhouse Chorus and Henry’s Rifle that are kind of the
anchors in that group. There’s also the
Pistolwhips (a band to really look out for), Charmboy, Maggot Brain, and Linear
North as well. Here in Brooklyn we are
part of something called Bear Republic, Republic of Bears, that includes the
Ghost & Goblin guys along with Teen Girl Scientist Monthly, Boy Girl Party,
MindTroll, Jackpot Tiger, and a few more.
That spans a really broad spectrum of music just in that little
group. We’ve also just moved into a new
rehearsal space with some great friends that are making killer heavy music,
Bröhammer and Godmaker. The Mad Doctors
which are this insane act here in Brooklyn, that we are really excited to do
more shows with, they get nuts on stage and there is a dancing robot. We have several Brooklyn bands that we
consider great friends, Liv mentioned The Gypsy West. Also Band Antenna who are in part responsible
for getting us started doing shows.
How about nationally and internationally?
Matthew: The Misery Jackals out of Ohio,
also Dave Hammer’s Power Supply and Black Betty who all helped us out on
tour. Skinny Jim and the #9 Blacktops
from Illinois, Stuck Lucky in Nashville, The Latenight Callers out in Kansas
where I’m from, they were all great.
Also out in Kansas there is a band called The Gypsy Sparrows that my old
roommate, Jeff Perkins, plays every possible stringed instrument for. He’s a true musical genius. The guy builds his own Frankenstein-guitars
and kills playing them, but also has the ability to just pick up any instrument
with strings and murder it within minutes.
He’s one of my best friends and biggest motivators musically, just how
great of a player he is. I guess lastly,
but not least we got hooked on a band from Chicago called Mutts that are doing
some big things now which is great to see.
Utica NY @ The Uptown Theatre - © Nicola
Raggi
Is there anything that I missed that you’d
like to talk about or anything else that you wish to mention?
Matthew: I have to be honest, I think this
is by far the most thorough and in-depth interview I’ve ever done! You got it all and then some!
Livia: Really? Are you asking that to Matthew? My friend, I hope you took a day off…
© David Hannan
DISCOGRAPHY
(2011) The End Men – Build It Up – CD? –
Self-Released?
(2013) The End Men – Play With Your Toys –
CD? – Self-Released?
Interview made by Roman Rathert/2013
© Copyright http://psychedelicbaby.blogspot.com/2013
