April Birthdays 
THE CONCRETE RIVALS, THE INTERVIEW BY NOEL
My review of THE CONCRETE RIVALS EAT THEIR WEIGHT IN SNAKES is here.
http://surfguitar101.com/forums/topic/19630/
Noel: Would everyone take a turn introducing themselves?
Jay Ekis: My name is Jay Ekis!
Jen Wells: Jen Wells, bassist, originally from Kansas City, Missouri, lived in Vermont for eight years.
Ben Roy: My name Ben Roy. I am a 27 year old drummer from Eden, Vermont.
Noel: When did you start playing?
Jay: I began playing guitar when I was eleven years old - my dad had a beat up acoustic guitar that only had 3 strings on it. It was in the closet and one day he pulled it out and showed me how to play Ghost Riders In The Sky and I took it from there. I had played around on the piano for years before that and played the trumpet for a little while but for some reason the guitar took hold. I can probably say that it was because I was into rock music and there weren't many trumpet solos going on there.
Jen: I started on upright bass in sixth grade when my orchestra teacher (for reasons still unknown) asked me to switch from violin to bass.
Ben: My parents got me a drum set on my eighth birthday.
Noel: How long have you played?
Jay: I've been playing now for around 25 years. (With) the band - about 4.
Jen: Just about 19 years.
Noel: Do you remember the first time you met one another?
Jay: I was playing with a couple local singer/songwriters and we had started a band together. We needed a drummer and Ben had jammed once with one of the singers. I remember it was hard to get in touch with Ben 'cause he lived and still does, out in the Northeast Kingdom, which is way north in VT and I don't think he had a phone. When the bass player couldn't make the gigs any more he found Jen to take his place. I eventually wanted to do other things and moved on but they all stuck it out for a while longer.
Jen: I got a call from another bassist in Montpelier who saw me play at a party and he asked me if I'd take his place in a band called Flatbush, a jangly alt-acoustic folky group. I had a two hour cram session before the gig, showed up to play, and Ben and Jay were two of the six members of the group.
Ben: I met Jen and Jay when a band I was in expanded into the short lived Americana band "Flatbush" . There our friendships were forged at high heat.
Noel: How did the band come together?
Jay: I had a Friday month long residency at a local cafe and I wanted to put something different together for it. I have been writing and performing my own "Americana" songs for years and wanted something a little more explosive to present. I've always been into surf/instrumental music but it didn't hit me until a friend of mine came into the guitar store where I work and sat down and started playing some surf riffs and said he wanted to start a surf band. Well, it sounded like a good idea to me, so I took the idea. My friend is not very good at guitar, mind you, and not likely to ever start a band, so I had to.
Jen: Jay was doing a four-week residency every Friday night at Langdon Street Cafe, a sorely-missed Montpelier venue. He wanted to showcase four different styles of music there and asked Ben, myself, and another guitarist to group up and learn a bunch of instrumental surf covers and movie themes. The show was so successful that we just kept gigging and later, started writing originals that reflected our personal music tastes.
Noel: How long have The Concrete Rivals been together?
Jay: We started out playing strictly covers from Dick Dale, The Ventures, Shadows, Los Straitjackets, Space Cossacks, The Atlantics, Mancini and that was about, as I said, 4 years ago. I've been writing songs for the band and we've now been playing them for about 2 years.
Jen: The first cafe gig was four years ago. The original trio music has been going for about a year and a half.
Noel: Can you tell us about your musical influences?
Jay: Well, I've been influenced by so many, of course, but I remember from an early age loving blues - I learned the pentatonic blues scale from watching BB King on TV. My dad listened to country music so that has always been in my head and he always sang around the house so I suppose he might have been the biggest influence... I had older step brothers who listened to AC/DC and Judas Priest so that was the in the mix - when I really started playing guitar I was really into heavy metal, Iron Maiden and Metallica especially, and that influence carried me through my teens. Then I really dug into The Beatles- George Harrison is easily one of my favorite guitarists - I've thought about some of my favorite solos of all time and he has about 5 of the top 10- I really have delved into different styles of music and guitar playing that I'm kinda all over the map. It has never been static for me. I've played in Country bands, Afro Beat, Disco, rock and roll, blues projects, acoustic folk, reggae, heavy metal.... I love the guitar!
Noel: You mentioned a wide variety of musicians that the Concrete Rivals don't sound like. How did you get from those to your very different sound?
Jay: The Snakes record was a reconnection with my metal and hard rock roots. I've been playing in an Iron Maiden cover band for the last few years and really enjoying letting go and just shredding. I think that along with other 80's metal bands like Mercyful Fate and Metallica, (they) have had a huge influence in the style of the songs. And the Melvins who have an irreverent and humorous take on heavy music!
I love the way surf music and rock music in general is concise - you have to get to the point in 3 minutes or less. Play a good melody, hook 'em with a great beat, leave 'em wanting more. With that being said I'm a huge fan of big orchestration and I can say that Danny Elfman and Oingo Boingo and John Williams, Bernard Herrman and the like definitely influence me to write "pocket symphonies." And musicals, I've been in the pit for many theater productions, like Jesus Christ Superstar, and that really drives my writing style.
Noel: Your music so often turns on a dime. How long did you all play together before you got this precise and tight musically?
Jay: It happened pretty quickly really. We all appreciate and have performed music that requires a large amount of concentration to execute well. Ben especially likes to play with twists and turns, even when we are just jamming; he really likes progressive music like Yes, so it came pretty naturally.
Noel: Is the next record going to be similar to Snakes or something else altogether?
Jay: That is a question that I don't know the answer to yet as I have only begun to think about the songs for it. I will say that with Snakes I wrote as if there were a 2nd guitarist with twin-guitar harmonies and rhythm parts, but I am excited about the possibility of writing strictly for the trio and how to work within that limit. I think it is a good chance that the songs may be more groove-oriented as opposed to the fast and furious in-your-face style. We'll see.
Noel: Jen, which bass player(s) do you admire most?
Jen: I'm a huge fan of lots of bassists, but Mike Mills from R.E.M., Geddy Lee of Rush, and Charles Mingus are probably my holy trifecta of the bassists whose styles I admire most. Their albums are the ones I played along to when I learned to play. There are others, of course, but those three particularly are bassists who craft these beautiful melodies and harmonies that are so crucial to the song as a whole.
Noel: Do they influence your own performing?
Jen: Hugely! I spent so much time playing along to R.E.M. albums that I'd like to think I sound like that! Moreover, though, being a great musician is just about finding your own voice and unique style. We're all working on that constantly; that's the fun part of playing in this band is having the freedom to reference Fugazi, Rush, and Danny Elfman in one song.
Noel: Do you have any words of advice for anyone starting out today?
Jen: Listen to everything you can and I mean that sincerely. Check out some Tchaikovsky, some dubstep, acoustic folk, thrash metal, techno, classic country. The wider you cast your genre net, the more inspiration you can glean.
In terms of playing bass, though, I always recommend studying percussion rhythms as much as notes and theory. Bass is a rhythm instrument; it's not just a guitar with two less strings.
Noel: Is there something you'd like to say to everyone reading this?
Jay: I'm really looking forward to meeting and playing with all the great musicians and music fans out there!
Ben: I've been deep into progressive rock for almost a decade now, with Alan White and Bill Bruford (Yes) giving me a lot of inspiration but I think the bulk of my admiration and appreciation right now is going to have to go to Blake Richardson. He is the drummer behind one of my favorite bands, Between the Buried and Me. They do intense Prog Metal. They are extraordinary.
With the Rivals, because of our metal inspiration, I've been playing out of my comfort zone for a while now, and boy oh boy, listening to these true metal drummers, I've got quite a bit of work to do.
Advice for persons starting out . . . start young if you can. and I guess just listen to a wide variety of music. There is nothing that inspires me more than hearing something that is different or that I can't understand.
The Concrete Rivals are currently on tour. Here’s their schedule. http://theconcreterivals.com/
I was talking to the Rivals after their performance in Pottsville. While we were exchanging emails to get ready to start this interview, Jay said this, and it’s a perfect way to end the interview.
“Thank you so much for doing an interview/review with us. I am very excited about the tour coming up and some of the great bands and venues that we're playing and am happy to get the word out there. And I totally agree with what you were saying about the surf music community, they have been great and very supportive all around. I've been in different types of bands for 15 years and this is the first time I've really felt like I'm a part of something that feels right- to my musical sensibilities as well as professional attitude.”
—This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.
Last edited: Oct 05, 2012 16:41:16
