The interview I did with the Mexican music website "Musica Inclasificable" just went live. I answered in English, and the interviewer translated into Spanish. (If anybody would like, I can post the interview in English.)

http://musicainclasificable.blogspot.mx/2014/08/entrevista-con-madeira.html

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

Of course, post it Ivan!

Danny Snyder

Latest project - Now That's What I Call SURF
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"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

I'm back playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Thanks, guys! OK, here it is:

Ivan, all your life has been associated with surf music. What most attracted you to this genre?

The mystery of its sound, how evocative it can be, painting pictures in your mind and unleashing your imagination, transporting you to another place. I remember when I first started listening to the Shadows around the age of 11 or so being completely fascinated with how the songs related to their titles– the idea that the pure abstract sound could have some sort of meaning really amazed me. Obviously that’s the way classical music has been for hundreds of years, but I had no background in it, unfortunately. Instrumental surf music, when done well, really has the ability to transcend the mundane and somehow connect to the romantic, exotic ideals. And then as a guitarist, I was really drawn to having the guitar playing actual melodies that can connect with the listener, rather than just shredding solos. In surf a guitarist can make great use of his technique for the GOOD rather than EVIL! (Though I still do enjoy an occasional shredder solo!) And finally, I really love hard-driving, energetic music as well as melody, and surf music had plenty of both!

What equipment (guitar and amplifier) do you use?

I’m a dedicated Strat guy. I had a Jazzmaster for quite a while, and used it a fair amount in the Space Cossacks, but ultimately decided that a Strat is really all I want in a guitar. All my main guitar heroes – Hank Marvin, Dick Dale, Jim Skiathitis and Theo Penglis of the Atlantics, Ritchie Blackmore – are closely identified with Strats, and to me it’s really the perfect instrument - I’m absolutely in love with it! I have five that I use, three US-made ’62 reissues (’87, ’97 and ’08), a ‘12 US-made ’65 reissue that was given to me by the Surf Guitar 101 community last year (which was pretty incredible and this guitar is extremely special to me), and then my ’87 fiesta red USA Strat Plus which I’ve had since ’90, and which I’ve heavily modified since then.

My main amp for the past five years has been a 100-watt Gomez Surfer (which is a lot like an early ‘60s Showman) with a 2x15” Gomez cab with JBL D130Fs. Pretty much the perfect surf amp. I also sometimes use a ’62 Fender Bandmaster, or for more mellow gigs an early-‘90s reissue Fender Vibroverb with EV speakers. For recording I also always use my 2001 Vox AC30 reissue (with Celestion Blue speakers) as the second amp. And then, of course, I always use a reverb unit – for the past five years I’ve used a Gomez G-Spring, and before that a pretty good-sounding ‘90s Fender reissue one.

Is it difficult to have a surf band in the United States today?

Yes. Well, I think it’s difficult to have any kind of a band playing original music in the US today. But actually, we’ve done OK. We approach it as a hobby, since we can only play one weekend a month, and we’ve been able to do that quite easily, playing around our part of the Midwest (Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin), with an occasional mini-tour outside of that area, whether to California, the East Coast or the South – or even Italy! However, if you were trying to have a band that played all the time and maybe that allowed you to make a living, it would be extremely difficult if not actually impossible for most people to do that playing surf music. Daikaiju seem to be the only newer surf(ish) band that are able to do that.

In 2010 The Space Cossacks came together for a few shows only. Are there any plans for that to happen again in the future?

No plans at this point, though who knows what the future holds….

How did you meet Patrick, Todd and Dane and how was that you decided to create The Madeira?

In ’98 I moved out of Washington, DC to Indianapolis for a job. Between ’98 and ’00, I would still fly back to DC to play an occasional show and to finish up the Space Cossacks’ album “Tsar Wars”, which came out in March of ’00. But once the album came out, the band was basically finished – it was not really practical (or affordable!) for me to fly back all the time. Meanwhile, I met Patrick and Dane – Patrick through a flyer in an Indianapolis guitar store looking for a bass player and drummer to start a surf band, and Dane through my work. My parents live in Indiana, so in ‘00 my father and I decided to start a Shadows tribute band (he’s a rhythm guitarist whose greatest influence is Bruce Welch). I knew that Dane was an amazing drummer, so despite him not having any background in that music I asked him to join, which he did. We named the band the Troubadours and we were quite active until about ’04 (even playing two Shadowmania North America festivals in Toronto, Canada, with Bruce Welch and Licorice Locking of the Shadows), slowing down after that but still playing here and there to this day. But as much as I love the Shadows, I started getting fed up playing other people’s music, and I missed the energy and the aggression of real surf music. So, I asked Dane and the Troubadours’ bass player Scott if they’d be interested in doing an original surf band, to which they both agreed. I’m a big fan of rhythm guitarists in surf music, and thought we definitely needed a great one, so I asked Patrick if he’d be interested in joining, though he had already been playing in his own surf band Destination: Earth! for years. I had gotten to know him and knew he was immensely talented as well as being a really good guy. He said yes, and we had our first practice in April of ’04, just over ten years ago. Scott had family obligations which prevented him from sticking with the band, so he quit in early ’05, and we were very fortunate to find Todd though a classified ad. There you go, the story of the Madeira!

Why did you decide to pursue a ‘desert sound’ in The Madeira?

The Middle Eastern influence in surf music of course goes back to the very beginning, with Miserlou and other songs by Dick Dale (whose father was Lebanese). I always really liked that stuff, and decided to study those exotic scales a bit more. What I found was very interesting – that the scale that Dick uses for Miserlou (and Hava Nagila and The Victor, etc.) is often referred to as the Byzantine scale, and is present in all the countries that were once part of the Byzantine Empire – which was basically all the countries around the Mediterranean Sea. I started finding out about all these historical, musical and cultural connections between Europe and North Africa, and found it all quite fascinating. There’s a lot of mystery there, and that’s what always attracted me to instrumental and surf music, so that seemed like a very cool concept for the band. I also thought it would allow us to do something a bit different than what’s already been done. I love the history of surf music, but I do believe it’s important for modern bands to add to the tradition, not just continue it.

You just released a new live album to celebrate the first decade of The Madeira. What have you most enjoyed in this 10 years?

I think first and foremost the camaraderie of my bandmates, which has been great! I really love playing as well as just spending time with these guys. The main reason that our 10-day tour of Italy in ’09 was very special is that we got to spend all that time together, and we just had a blast! I have a huge amount of respect for them as musicians, as well as love for them as my musical brothers-in-arms. The second most amazing thing was the ‘success’ we’ve been able to achieve – not in financial terms, but rather in terms of gaining the respect of the fellow surf musicians and establishing our band as being among the top of the surf heap! I also have to say that it’s been immensely satisfying recording our three (studio) albums, all three of which I’m very proud of!

Any story or anything that you remember about the two shows that you played in December which were recorded for the live album?

Well, the reason that we titled the album “Sonic Cataclysm” is that we have unbelievably bad luck with the weather when it comes to our live shows! We’ve played shows with record low temperatures, record high temperatures, hail, tornados, blizzards, almost any natural calamity you can think of! (Not earthquakes, thank God – at least not yet!) Most times we play live we seem to summon the elements! That once again happened for our December shows – there was a massive snowstorm just south of Indianapolis which prevented a bunch of people from coming to the show, and it was unseasonably cold – even though it was early December, there really was not supposed to be a bunch of snow on the ground and such low temperatures. So, we once again got a cataclysm! Also, once we started playing that first night, it seems like everything that could go wrong DID go wrong! Murphy’s Law! It definitely didn’t help our nerves, which were already quite tense. But we recovered and had a really good show, I think, allowing us to record this very cool document of the band at this point in time. And the audience, especially the first night, was really amazing, so many of our fans showed up and gave us huge support. Though it’s a fairly raw recording, I think we captured something pretty special. I like it, anyway!

This live album features two previously unreleased tracks. Do you have plans to release a new studio album soon?

In fact, yes, we do! In addition to those two, we have eight other songs that are either finished or pretty close, and we have some basic ideas for three more – so, that’s 13 songs right there! We hope to record them in March, and have the new album out next summer. I suppose every musician is always very excited about the new material, and I’m no different – I think it’s turning out really great, and I can’t wait to have it out! It’ll be a bit different, as I’ve co-written three songs with surf musicians outside of the band – Jim Skiathitis of the Atlantics, Danny Snyder of the TomorrowMen and Jeremy deHart of Aqualads! And they’ve definitely added something fresh to our sound.

Have you ever received a proposal to come play in Mexico City? What is needed for that happen?

Some people have mentioned it on a few occasions, but we never got any serious offers. We’d love to do it, but we would need to make sure all of our expenses are covered, and also make sure the timing is right. Playing surf music will not feed the family, so we all have real jobs – and therefore we can’t always all get the time off at the same time. But it’s been amazing to me to see the dedication of everybody in the band and how willing people are to do what they have to in order to make some of these shows and tours happen.

Besides being a musician, you also are a journalist writing for The Continental magazine on several occasions, and now you have a column in the Guitar Player magazine. How did you decide to start writing and doing interviews?

Well, I don’t think it’s right to call me a journalist! I’m a fan, so I do interviews with people that I admire and whose music I like. I’ve been writing for surf music internet forums for nearly 20 years now, and I am very long-winded – I often write a LOT! So, Sean Berry, who runs The Continenal zine, some years ago thought I might do a good job and asked me to start contributing to the magazine. I was happy to accept, and have had a lot of fun with that. But I only interview people that I’m interested in, which is a nice luxury. As far as the Guitar Player magazine column, I’m not sure what’s going on with that now. I submitted my first piece to them almost two months ago, and I haven’t heard anything from them since then, despite asking what’s going on. I have a feeling they changed their minds! Very disappointing, but that’s life, right?

Which musician (alive or dead) would you like to interview and why?

That’s an interesting question. I haven’t really thought about that lately, quite honestly. The big one would be Jim Messina, since so little is known about his surf music years and he doesn’t talk about it. People like Dick and Hank have been well-documented by now, so I don’t think I would be able to add anything new. I think it’s more exciting to interview the unsung, relatively unknown surf musicians from the past 10-20 years, and that’s what I’ve focused on so far. El Ray would be fun to interview, as would El Supernaut from Finland, I find both of those bands pretty fascinating. Maybe Laika & the Cosmonauts, getting their full story would be pretty amazing. Though I have to say that I have to put an end to the interviews for a while, I’m just too busy, and they take up a lot of time to do right!

Some new (or relatively new) surf bands that you recommend?

Some bands that have emerged in the past several years that I’ve really enjoyed are the TomorrowMen from San Francisco, El Supernaut from Finland, Bevel Emboss from the Netherlands, the Mystery Men? from Atlanta, the Reigning Monarchs from California, BANG! Mustang from Germany, the Road Runners from Finland, the Crazy Aces from Nashville, the Illuminators from Sweden, La Luz from Seattle (though I’m not sure if they entirely qualify as a surf band, but very cool stuff, nonetheless)…. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few right now, but that’s who comes to mind at the moment. (The Derangers from Boston just released their debut album which I love, though the band has been around for more than 20 years, so I don’t know if they qualify!) I know you guys have a lot of new surf bands in Mexico and Latin America, but it’s not so easy to keep up with that, it’s often difficult to get to hear any of those releases. I’m sure there are great things going on there that I just don’t know about.

Surf music is more than 50 years old - do you think it is possible to still create new things in this genre?

Oh sure, you hear new things all the time! I love trad surf music, I really do, and am glad there are bands that play trad surf music. But just listen to the last Frankie & the Pool Boys album, or the TomorrowMen or the Barbwires or the Bambi Molesters or El Ray or the Phantom Four – they are all doing NEW things with every release! That’s what continues to excite me about surf music: musicians using basically the same tools for the past fifty years can still create a very distinct, personal sound imbued with their soul and their character that nevertheless definitely sounds like surf music. I find that completely remarkable! And it’s why I plan to stick with surf music for a very long time to come!

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

Last edited: Aug 28, 2014 21:37:54

And so little ones,that's how the Band Madeira came to be.

Excellent. Thank's.
JP

Really interesting article Ivan. I enjoy your lengthy style! Thanks for sharing.

Paul

Thanks, all. Very glad that you enjoyed it!

Shock wrote:

Thanks for all Ivan, It was a dream come true can interview you.

Thank YOU, Rodrigo! You asked great questions, I really enjoyed answering them! I greatly appreciate the opportunity for more people in Mexico and the Spanish-speaking world to find out about us. Thanks also to Danny, who was instrumental (ha!) in connecting Rodrigo and me!

Badger wrote:

Great interview and a fine perspective; thanks for sharing that with us as well as checking the box for gear-nerds. Nice that the interviewer asks a question seemingly based on some actual homework and then lets you expound - professional at that end too. The whole thing flows really well.

Wes, completely agreed! Rodrigo definitely did his homework, which doesn't often (usually?) happen.

I'm keeping my fingers x'd over the GP thing. The bigger the glossy the longer their cycle seems to take and a couple months isn't much. These mags sometimes have so much stuff they can be 3-6 months behind the curve.

That's crossed my mind, too, and I do still hold out some hope for this. But getting no response whatsoever to my emails is a bad sign. Very puzzling also, since it wasn't my idea in the first place, but theirs. I don't get it.

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

Last edited: Aug 30, 2014 11:40:35

Great interview.
I'm also thankful and honored you mentioned us.
Coming from you it really means a lot to us.

Cheers,
Jeff

http://www.facebook.com/CrazyAcesMusic
http://www.youtube.com/user/crazyacesrock
http://www.reverbnation.com/crazyacesmusic

Thanks, Noel!

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

Wow, cool, Greggae, thank you! Happy to give credit where credit is due!

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube