Editors Note: Ari Herstand, a soft-spoken veteran within the local music scene with a look reminiscent to that of Bob Dylan, met up with Borangutan one evening to talk about his experiences in the music scene as well as the exciting release of his first DVD/CD collection premiering one of his latest music videos, “Rose Stained Red.” The following interview has been edited for clarity.

Schwaz: You’ve been compared to prior artists such as Cat Stevens, and Howie Day, in particular when it comes to your live looping technique. What have been some of your most significant influences?

Ari Herstand: I’d say some of my earliest influences are probably The Dave Matthews Band…. That was a band that I was nearly obsessed with during middle and high school. They probably inspired my acoustic guitar playing the most. There’s also this folk artist out of Canada, Bruce Cockburn, that’s been around for a long time. He’s not very well known, but a big influence. I enjoy Cat Stevens a lot and got into him a bit later, a lot of people will compare me to artists that I’m either not a fan of or know of (laughs), it’s fine because then I’ll go get into that, research their albums and find out that I like them a lot, so I end up being turned on to other artists that I like.

“Last Day” by: Ari Herstand

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posted February 24th, 2010 at 12:36 am Interviews Ari Herstand

Very few musicians enjoy it when their equipment malfunctions. However, since disbanding 12 rods in 2004, Ryan Olcott has made it his mission to “control the chaos” by modifying old forgotten keyboards and turning them into unique, one-of-a-kind tools of expression. As if that’s not enough, Ryan’s also managed to use this malfunctioning technology to create catchy pop songs with his band Mystery Palace. I recently had a chance to question Ryan on his music and the creation process.

Todd: When and how did you “discover” circuit bending?

Ryan Olcott: The ending years of 12 rods when I was looking for something else to do… A few chance moments and open Speak & Spell gave me a couple weird ideas about how I could utilize hacked electronic sounds and apply them to my already challenging songwriting style. It was just something else that wasn’t a guitar, drum set, market keyboard or computer, something that was still only a few years old in discovery so I knew there were lots of doors still to unlock.

In a way, circuit bending saved me as an artist and I’m a little shocked that more musicians haven’t dabbled in it. I see it like a modern day piano, not for the obvious reasons, but that bending is such a concept driven sound tool that I believe every musician should try to wrap their head around the art of malfunctioning technology. There’s so much tech around and we have obviously become slaves to it, so I think it’s my way of staying ahead of the curve and a way to retain a human power over technology.

“Too Much” by: Mystery Palace

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posted February 12th, 2010 at 9:05 am Interviews, MN Rock 12 rods, FoodTeam, Mystery Palace, Ryan Olcott

Despite numerous line-up changes and audio identity shifts, Adam Powell has been the driving force behind Thosquanta for over a decade.  I recently had a chance to question him on the band, the music and technology.

Todd: Starting out, Thosquanta seems to have been around forever.  Would you mind telling me a little bit about the band’s history?

Adam Powell: Thosquanta has been around since about ‘96 or so, back when a series of failed high school garage bands led me to buy a drum machine.  Since the actual bands never worked out (they usually lasted one song and then ended with a shouting match), I started doing stuff on my own as “girl next door,” which eventually changed to “Thosquanta” around ‘99 or so.  I had been writing and recording before I moved to the Twin Cities, and continued to, but never really played live until Darren (from Avenpitch) asked me to open for them – at all places – at an ice cream shop in Hopkins.  I quickly put together a four song set with my then girlfriend Kari singing vocals and myself on keyboards, and that’s how Thosquanta started playing shows.  In the time since then, we’ve gone through a LOT of lineup changes, some amicably, some not.

Todd: How did you come up with the name “Thosquanta”?

AP: It’s hard to remember specifically, since it was close to 10 years ago, but I think it was just a combination of “those” and “quanta” – meaning, literally, “those values,” which was an oblique reference to my interest in objectivism, logic, and reason (the philosophical logic and reason — not the software. Heh!).

“Pedipol” by: Thosquanta

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posted February 1st, 2010 at 8:00 am Interviews, MN Rock Adam Powell, TC Electropunk, Thosquanta

Knol Tate is one of those guys that has been around the Twin Cities’ music scene for quite some time now.  The last decade and a half has found him involved with bands ranging from Killsadie to The Hidden Chord to Ela to Askeleton.  Most recently, he can be seen fronting Satellite Voices.  I recently had a chance to question him on the creative process behind the music.

Todd: Where have you been for the last year and a half or so?  It seems like you played a handful of shows with the release of The Personalization and then you just sort of disappeared.  What’s the status of Askeleton?

Knol Tate: After playing a few shows for the release of The Personalization we lost our drummer and a guitar player, (and) the 3 of us left in the Askeleton band couldn’t really decide what we wanted to do.  I just started working on a new record (and) came up with a handful of songs based sort of on the idea I had had for the first couple of Askeleton releases.  Just simple structures based on a few loops or samples, but this time I just sort of improvised my own sounds and treated them as samples.  Soon after Scott (SBJ) and Noah (Paster) came in with ideas for more guitar, keyboards, bass and drums parts for the songs.  Noah and I basically played all the drums on the project. Noah is a fine drummer and bass player, and would do takes all the way through songs.  I would play a few bars on the hi-hat and kick drum and loop them; then overdub snares, toms and random pots, pans and other non-traditional things for percussion.

“Isolationsist” by: Askeleton

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posted January 18th, 2010 at 6:30 pm Interviews, MN Rock Askeleton, Knol Tate, Satellite Voices

Cizzy: How are you trying to connect with the audience through your music and your live performances?

Nate Sipe: For us, in a selfish way, it is all about having fun. We like to get on stage and just jam.  Acoustic instruments could be played on their own and you could practice some tunes in a living room, but when you get friends together and instruments it makes a great sound and endless fun. That is what it is really all about for us; enjoying people and enjoying what we are doing.  And if it ceases to be fun for us, we will try to do something different.

“Wild Bill Jones” performed by: Pert Near Sandstone

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posted January 4th, 2010 at 10:50 pm Interviews, MN Rock Pert Near Sandstone

Joey Ryan & The Inks are preparing to release their debut album Well, Here We Are Then this Friday, December 18th at the Triple Rock Social Club. They’ve only been playing as a band for a little over a year-and-a-half, yet their catchy throwback sound and fun stage presence already sets them apart from much of the Twin Cities music scene. Go see them live already and pick up their record too, as I am certain you will undoubtedly enjoy this band.

From left to right: Paul Flowers (keyboards & vocals), Chris Mitchell (guitar & vocals), Joey Ryan (guitar & lead vocals), Ryan Mach (drums), Matt Mitchell (bass).

Mike: You guys are pretty much a new band on the scene. You’ve only been playing for about 18 months now, so tell me a little bit about the band’s origins and how you all met?

Chris: Matt and I are brothers. (band laughs)

Matt: We’ve known each other for quite a while. (more laughs) Other than that, Joey and I played in a band together called The Exchange that ended about two years ago. And Joey and Paul were in a band together…

Paul: We were in a band called The School Shootings for like two years (background laughter), and you can tell by the name it didn’t really work out. (continued laughs) We went to elementary school together as well.

Joey: That is the truth, Paul and I went to elementary school together, and Matt and I played in a band together. And then, like Matt was saying, The Exchange came to an end, and I started playing some solo shows for a while. Got bored with seeing myself on stage, and had talked to Ryan Mach—actually, well, talked to everybody kind of at the same time—because Matt and I were looking to play with some other people and start recording some other songs more geared towards the full-band realm of things. We got some other guys involved, and then Mach’s back-story goes… Read more…

posted December 16th, 2009 at 4:54 pm Interviews, MN Rock

Cedar Avenue is releasing their debut full-length album Someday Soon this Saturday, December 12th at The Varsity Theater with The Alarmists, This World Fair, and Will Hutchinson supporting. I sat down with Jesse, Derrin, and Shawn from Cedar Avenue one afternoon before a recent rehearsal as they prepared for their CD release show.

From left to right: Jesse Mathews (vocals and guitar), Kyle Wachter (bass), Shawn Burtis (drums), Derrin Shafer Mathews (vocals and keyboards).
All Cedar Avenue promo photos copyright Jonker Portrait Gallery.

Mike: First off, let’s talk about how the band came together and how you all met originally.

Jesse: At Eastview [High School] we were all band nerds. Which was kinda cool at Eastview, because band nerds weren’t the lowest on the hierarchy of social-ness there… (half-joking) I think it was senior year I picked up guitar. Left for college… and then I came back summer after freshman year having learned how to play guitar and sing a little bit. And because of a past girl that I dated in high school, I had a free ticket to basically record at Atomic K studios. Read more…

posted December 11th, 2009 at 2:59 pm Interviews, MN Rock Cedar Avenue

So It Goes has gotten audiences dancing to their brand of new-punk-wave dance rock from Minneapolis all the way out to New York for the past 5 years. On Friday, December 4th at The Fineline, they will be playing their final show. I sat down with the band before one of their final rehearsals and they told me stories of past shows, influences, and even a local band who they originally wanted to beat the shit out of! But before you alert the local tabloids, these two bands are actually the best of friends. Read on.

Clockwise from top-left: Travis Gislason (vocals and guitar), Micah Thor (drums), Brian Gruidl (bass), Adam Gislason (vocals and guitar), Lee VanLith (keyboards).

Mike: Tell me about the origins of So It Goes and bringing the band together towards the current lineup.

Adam: The origin of So It Goes dates back to circa 2003/2004 when Travis and I got together. We were writing songs separately, I dunno, I think I invited him over to my place and said “Hey, let’s just bang out some songs together.” We did that for a while. We didn’t have a bassist, we didn’t know anybody, we didn’t even know how to play our instruments. (background laughter) It was basically just a good time, then we realized we were writing some really good songs. So we decided, we should try to form a band. Read more…

posted December 2nd, 2009 at 6:12 pm Interviews, MN Rock So It Goes

One afternoon at a quaint Minneapolis cafe, Cizzy visited with Halloween, Alaska’s James Diers, who expounded upon the band’s latest album, recent successes, and easy listening.

Cizzy: What are some of most significant milestones in your musical career?

James Diers:  The two proper bands that I have played with are the Love Cars (with David King, Halloween, Alaska’s drummer) and then Halloween, Alaska.  I have been doing some DJ’ing on the side, but those are the only two bands that I have ever played with.  I have also been working on many re-mixing projects.  The Twin Cities is a very collaborative community so I am able to work on a lot of different projects, putting on tribute shows and remixing stuff.  And of course, an important milestone for us was having a great show at First Avenue.  It was very satisfying to perform what we recently recorded as well as to have the album completed.

“In Order” (The Remote Age Remix) by: Halloween, Alaska

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posted December 1st, 2009 at 4:03 pm Interviews, MN Rock, Reviews Halloween Alaska

The Arms Akimbo formed in Minneapolis in early 2009 and are releasing their debut EP You Want To! this Friday, November 27th at the Kitty Cat Klub with support from The Alarmists and The Invincible Kids.

From left to right: Chris Dillon (guitar and vocals), Nick Schaser (bass and lead vocals), Ian Schaser (drums).

Mike: Though you are a new band to most people in town, your bio says the three of you were actually in another band here several years ago called The Serfs. What inspired you three to come back together and make music again as a “new” band?

Chris: Well, Nick moved off to London after college and played with a band there called Jack Maggs for about 3 years. When Nick moved back to Minnesota, he and I decided to put together an acoustic set for the purpose of making money playing at local coffee shops and restaurants. That got old pretty quick. Before long Ian was sitting in on drums during our rehearsals and I was bringing my electric guitar and we were doing “This Charming Man” and “Heart in a Cage” rather than working on our acoustic rendition of “The Kids Are Alright”. We started working on our own material and booking “real shows” shortly after that.

Ian: The Strokes – “First Impressions of Earth”. I was working on some of the drum parts on that album and getting sick of drumming alone with my headphones on. Nick had just got back from England so we decided to all get together. The first song we did was “Heart In A Cage”.

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posted November 25th, 2009 at 2:48 pm Interviews, MN Rock The Arms Akimbo