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Guster
in the CD101 Big Room - 9.30.03
Andyman: Oh, we are live in the Big Room. We’re live in the
CD101 Big Room With Guster! Whoo! OK, Joe said when you get in there I’m gonna
pound on the door and give you the one minute mark. I got in here, he pounded on
the door and gave me the “Hey, you’re on now” mark. That’s OK, that’s good.
Welcome to the CD101 Big Room, brought to you by Mountain Dew. “Do the dew.”
Guster: Do the Dew.
Andyman: Do the Dew.
Guster: With new Code Red Dew
Andyman: Dude, you like the Dew?
Guster: Is that really a Mountain Dew product?
Andyman: Code Red is a Mountain Dew, yes.
Guster: Good, I was afraid I was gonna get the sponsor
really mad at me.
Andyman: Thought you’d screwed up, yeah. Then the sponsor’d
be no more, and you’re not gonna get under written be the Mountain Dew staff.
Guster in the CD101 Big Room. Gentlemen thank you for coming in. They’re playing
a show tonight at Promo West Pavilion, touring to support the latest record:
Keep it Together. Yes?
Guster: Yes, that’s correct.
Andyman: Ok. I’m looking for some kind of smile or
something like acknowledgement. You’re like “No, we’re not Guster, and I don’t
know what you’re doing in here.” So gentleman, thank you once again for coming
in. Big show tonight, and been out on the road. It looks like the tour lasts
through the end of next month. Is that sort of, no longer bigger? How long have
you been on the road?
Guster: Forever.
Andyman: Ever and ever? Since the release of the record
back early in the summer?
G: Yeah basically, end of June. Actually even before then
really. But, uh, from June till December we’re pretty much on tour. Then we
start off in February again.
A: You get any free time to go home and spend with family
around the holidays?
G: Yeah, we have two days for Thanksgiving.
A: Oooh! How wonderful, it probably is wonderful. Depending
on how close you are with your families.
G: Is thanksgiving wonderful at your household?
A: Yeah, actually it is. I don’t have a drunk uncle Carl
that gets in a fight with my dad, or anything.
G: Yeah, I’ve got an uncle Harris. Every show he sits right
in the front row and just kills our vibe every time. It’s terrible. It’s like we
should kick him off the bus at this point, ya know? Since we know he’s gonna
ruin every show.
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A: Does he tour with you just to be
comic relief?
G: He’d like to, but no, he doesn’t.
A: What provides the…When you guys are on
the road what provides the biggest comic relief? Is there one thing?
G: Joe. Uncle Harris.
A: Joe provides the comic relief.
G: Yeah we have a new fourth guy who’s
touring with us, so uh, his name is Joe. And he’s holding a banjo right now.
A: Joe ladies and gentlemen. Also Ryan
miller, and Adam Gardener, and Brian Rosen… Rosenmorsel.
G: So funny, seriously. It’s Rosenworsel.
A: Rosenworsel, what’s wrong with that?
Umm, Ok, so would you…I would love for you guys to play a song. You into
that? Like to hear what we can expect for the show tonight. |
Amsterdam |
A: Guster, live in the CD101 Big Roon. That was “Gonna
Write You a Letter/ Amsterdam.” The big hit single from their latest record. So
now we got that one out of the way. Say, when you go to do live performances, do
you hate to do the big single thing, or is it just, you know, another song on
the record and part of, you know, this song, people just kind of dig, and they
know it?
G: It’s probably a bit better for us than it is for a band
like Dishwalla, or something that has only one song to it. We have a whole bunch
of records, and so that’s not so bad, and it doesn’t feel like the biggest hit
of all time either, so it’s still we’re trying to kinda tell people we exist.
G: Actually Ryan, do you own any Dishwalla records, cause
some of those deep tracks are like some of my favorites on those records.
G: Like what Brian?
G: I like, uh, “She’s a Winner,” I like “Gotta Have Your
Lovin Tonight
G: “Rambler Man”
A: Classic Dishwalla.
G: Poor Dishwalla isn’t even here to defend themselves.
A: I know. You guys stop with that. I’ll have to be there
for Dishwalla. You guys cut it out with the Dishwalla stuff. You guys look like
you’re having just a ton of fun. Doin it very casual, we have shoes off and, is
that how you approach… and ripped pants. I can see your manhood. Thank you very
much, I appreciate that. I have a new appreciation for Guster. Is that how you
approach being on the road and getting on stage? Just walk out and whatever
happens?
G: Oh, everyone looked to me so I’ll answer this one. Well,
Ryan’s not wearing shoes cause he’s a hippy. But yeah, we approach our shows as
hippies.
A; Much like Dishwalla. Approaches theirs.
G: What was the question?
A: Do you take it seriously when you go out there. I know
you take your music seriously, obviously, but when you go out to do a show do
you, is it something sort of set in stone. This is our set list, this is what
we’re gonna do. Or are you four guys who just kinda get together hanging out
playing music.
G: I think the better shows are the ones where we aren’t so
rigid about things, I mean the most fun for us is when we just kinda veer from
the set list. Like someone screams the Dishwalla song, and we just kinda go into
it. That’s usually the most fun for us. I don’t even know if that’s even more
fun for the audience or not, so we try and stick to the program.
A: Sure. I can imagine it’s good for both. When you guys
are haning a good time, that energy just kinda goes to the crowd.
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G: Unless you’re having too good a time.
Then people just look at you funny.
A: Yeah, you’re drinking and slurring
your words, and you’re off key, and you haven’t tuned your guitar the entire
show.
G: That’s really really fun. I love
those.
A: That can happen. And my speaking
history of Guster didn’t even know it.
G: There was one show where I drank a
little too much at like Princeton University, and I peed in a bottle of
Nantucket Nectars offstage, and brought it back onstage and my band mates
looked at me and said never again.
A: never ever ever. Ya hippy. Wash your
feet. Get a haircut.
G: Actually I think we passed the
Nantucket Nectars bottle around to feel how warm it was outside. This is a
family station right?
A: I don’t know, if your kids are
listening, close their ears, or flip away and we’ll be back in a bit. On
stage tonight, Promo West Pavilion, indoor Guster. Play us another song? |
Jesus |
A: Guster Live in the CD101 Big Room. Promo West Pavilion
tonight, Keep it Together, their new CD. You just released Keep it Together
early this summer. I have to ask, anything new from the band in the works, do
you have any time frame on new music.
G: We have, I don’t know if you’re familiar with this, we
did “Meow Mixes” of a record. Basically for people who wanted to download our
record. There’s some meowing that happened over the entire record, So we kinda
poked fun at the fact that people are trying to download the record for free.
And people actually liked it so there’s a Christmas song that I recorded with
the “meowsto,” who’s our tech engineer. So, that’s what’s in the works, at least
for me.
A: That’s good, I like that. Funny how things like that
happen. I was reading some interview, somebody asked a bunch of different bands
what was the strangest thing a fan had ever sent you. And I think the Guster
response was that you had put that you love baked goods on the web site, and
people started sending you baked goods. Is that a true story?
G: Yeah but then we had to have our guitar tech taste each
baked good to make sure they weren’t poisoned.
A: How many guitar techs have you been through since then?
G: Just three.
A: Just three, so not too bad. So, only the highest quality
baked goods make it through to the back stage. Any particular baked good you’re
a fan of? Cookies, cakes, pies?
G: Chocolate chip banana bread.
A: Chocolate chip banana bread, huh.
G: You stumped him Brian.
A; I wouldn’t have figure you for the Chocolate chip banana
bread type really.
G: What would you have figured us for?
A: I guess maybe banana bread makes sense.
G: You were gonna say pot brownies, cause of the whole
hippy thing. We wouldn’t have said that.
A: I would never say that. So when you’re on the road, you
guys are on the road so much, since the last record release. That where you
find, I guess that would be the only time you find yourself writing new music.
Is that where you do it, on the road, or on stage?
G: Well. We don’t actually write that much on the road. In
fact, that’s the reason that there was so long between the records is because
after we got off the road from supporting “Lost and Gone Forever,” our last
record, is because we hold ourselves up in a recording studio basement for like
a year to write. So, there’s not a whole bunch of writing that gets done on the
road.
A: Do you feel it just kinda gets in the way of a live
show, or…
G: What the writing? No,
A: You just wanna kinda hang out and play music?
G: Sorry bout the monosyllabic answer.
A: That’s my worst fear, walking into an interview and
asking a question and getting a “no.” So thanks for making that dream come true
for me.
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G: Just once though.
A: That was nice. That was good, I liked
that. Big show tonight, Promo West Pavilion. Guster, playing, who’s opening
the show tonight?
G: Uh, this woman, Kathleen Edwards and
her band. We haven’t played any shows, she’s doing like a month of dates
with us, tonight’s her first night. She’s from Canada. So we should give her
a warm Columbus welcome.
A: You guys are from Boston, one of my
favorite Boston based bands, you’re wearing a Buffalo Tom shirt.
G: Yeah, I got this about ten years ago.
A: I know mine’s getting some big holes
in it, and paint on it. Do you feel that being from a city like Boston it’s
a Mecca of rock bands? Was that a good or a bad thing for you guys trying to
break in and sign a record deal.
G: I think it was generally a pretty
good thing because, usually when you’re young and you get really competitive
with other bands. But the thing is about music scenes, when one band
succeeds from a town, it brings attention to your town. It’s not like every
town gets one band that gets signed, and you just witness what’s happening.
Every year there’s a new scene that pops up. So having such a, I don’t know,
rich musical history there, there were clubs, and people were used to going
to see bands.
A: A lot of Venues.
G: Yeah, it’s just the infrastructure is
set up to look for the good bands. So, I thought it was really helpful.
A: Play us another song. Please. |
Barrel
of a Gun |
A: Guster Live in the CD101 Big Room. “Keep it Together,”
their latest record. There’s also a limited edition, I think, that contains a
thirty-two-page booklet is what I read, but I’ve no idea what’s in the thing.
G: Lots of pictures and stuff.
A: Lots of fun cool stuff.
G: One word of every lyric on every page.
A: Wow. Thirty-two pages, there you have it, right there.
Playing the Promo West Pavilion, it’s Guster. Thanks so much for coming in you
guys. Joe, Adam, Ryan, and Brian. I appreciate it.
G: Thanks for having us.
A: Any time. Live in the CD 101 Big Room brought to you by
Mountain Dew, “Do the Dew,” and we send it back to the studio now.
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