Three Stars: Caverns

How did you guys meet each other?

KH: We actually all went to high school together. But we didn’t start the band until Ross and I went to college in New Orleans and when I moved back here, he stayed down in New Orleans but Pat came back from Tufts in Boston the same time I did and Pat and I had played together in high school in a jazz band and some other stuff. So we, basically I just wanted to work with him again because I never played with him outside of the school band type situation so I knew that he was a really really good piano player and it was something, stuff I was writing at the time, I was really interested in trying to do. The guitar I was writing was really kinda nuts and discordant but I really wanted to juxtapose that with somebody that I knew that really wrote classically beautiful piano sound, stuff like that. So that was kinda the idea and then Ross moved back to DC a couple years ago. And initially it was Pat, me and a drum machine, more or less. There used to be a bass player as well, but he didn’t make it past the first month. He’s our friend and everything but he wasn’t as into doing it as me and Pat were. It was basically me and him and a computer doing everything else. We basically had nothing but problems with computers. Including hanging onto computers. We had a computer stolen, actually, one time after a show.

PT: At that point, there were threats that the band was going to over.

KH: And it just so happened that Ross was moving back. He was living in Portland. And when I had played with Ross before, I had played bass and he’d played guitar but he had always had a rhythm in his heart (laughter) so we decided to try him on drums and he took to it right away. And ever since then we’ve been together in this lineup.

Where’d you guys go to high school?

KH: Georgetown Prep. It’s up in Rockville.

RH: Northern Bethesda.

KH: It’s on the Rockville Pike in North Bethesda. I think North Bethesda is an invention of realtors to raise realty values. If you say Rockville that’s not quite as illustrious.

Did you all play music in high school?

KH: Yeah, Ross and I played in various bands together since we were in sixth or seventh grade. And Pat and I and Ross did various things together.

RH: Incredible ska cover band. Unbeatable Ticket, I believe the name was or was it Persian Melon?

KH: We had a bunch of different amazing projects in high school but we learned from our mistakes I think. But mainly Pat & I played together in a jazz band.

What were some of the more embarassing mistakes?

KH: Well we played a Sublime song…

RH:Our singer! Our friend. Terrible.

KH: In high school you couldn’t put out an ad or anything like that, “Curious Singer Wanted,” ya know so we had a talent show basically once a year.

RH: But we did find one guy…

KH: That was years later though.

RH: But that was a singer.

KH: Our friend who was an unfortunate singer, we did try to replace at one point but the only person we found was this dude who could’ve sang for Queensryche or something like that. Very strong voice but just not our thing.

RH: But we had to sit in the car and listen to his CD, going “oh this is great! This is awesome!”

KH: He was also, like, 30.

RH: We were at what, 19?

PT: I wasn’t around for that.

KH: But I would say the most embarrasing thing that we played. Just because of now, we probably would not list Sublime as one of our favorite bands, we played a Sublime song. And not only did we play it but we absolutely destroyed it, butchered it in the worst imaginable way. Cause I was already bummed about playing it but then playing it and sucking at it just added insult to injury. So I wasn’t a huge fan of that.

RH: I wore a wig once. I didn’t know how ridiculous it looked and it was in the yearbook. And it looked pretty ridiculous.

Who would you list as some of your influences now?

KH: I guess it kind of depends. When I first started writing the early songs I was listening to a lot of Frodus at the time. An old DC hardcore band. Especially my guitar playing is really influenced by Shelby Cinca from Frodus. They were sort of around in the late 90s in DC. But I’ve always been a huge fan of classical music and that was a huge reason why I was really psyched about playing with Pat. Because even when we were playing jazz, I knew that his penchant was always to play stuff that was very melodic and pretty and I thought it would be really cool to juxtapose the two things. So I would say stuff like Beethoven and jazz stuff. I was really heavily into Ornette Coleman at the time. I still am but at that time I would listen to it a lot. We’re all big fans of stuff like Mogwai and the Dillinger Escape Plan. We’re recording a new EP right now and Ross has been doing a lot of electronic stuff. So I feel like that influence is coming in as well. He’s adding a lot of electronica, Aphex Twin type element. So kind of a hodgepodge of different things.

How long have you been recording that EP?

KH: We did our first session in May. We knocked out most of the drums. We sort of have been recording and taking time and then recording again. So we did a session in May where we got the drums laid down and then we just did the guitar and some of the synths basically Labor Day weekend. And then Pat is on his own going to record some of the keyboards and stuff. And then we’re hoping to mix and master in November and then CD release in the end of December. Hopefully on the record label we’re on now, Lujo Records. It’s actually a Nashville label but Eric who runs the label actually lived in Louisiana when I was in Louisiana, moved to DC for awhile and now lives out there. But they release artists from all over the country.

Like who?

KH: Another DC band called Drugstore Cowboys is on it. A bunch of bands from Seattle. There’s a band called The Fall of Troy who released their first record on that. They’re kind of like a screamy hardcore band. Then there’s a band called Dark Romantics from Florida, Suffering and The Hideous Thieves from Seattle, The Pomegranates from Ohio, Look Mexico also from Florida. So it’s a really eclectic label. They don’t put out any one style of music. So that’s why we’re psyched to be on something like that.

Where are you guys recording?

KH: With J. Robbins. He’s actually a hero, especially to me and Ross when we were younger, growing up. Actually the first show I ever saw was Jawbox, in my entire life was Jawbox opening for Stone Temple Pilots at the Patriot Center. The first band I ever saw ever was Jawbox. J’s been a hero of mine forever so it was really cool to work with him. He’s pretty much the man. He’s the best drum recorder I think we’ve all met. He’s just whiz at recording drums. We try to support him in all ways.

PT: It’s funny, he said the first concert he’s ever seen was Jawbox. The first concert I ever saw was Cash Money and Ruff Ryders. Lil Wayne came in on a helicopter. Getting ideas for our next concert.

I noticed that the buttons at your show have Pat’s face on it. Whose idea was that?

PT: Of course it was Ross’ idea. He’s the “jokester.” Like you might come to practice and see your face on a button that says “I Love Patrick.”

>KH: That’s supposed to be the first in a series. I haven’t seen the second.

PT: I haven’t seen the second either!

RH: The second ones are coming. The Spelunker of the Month. He was Mr. August. I was going to be Mr. September…or October.

KH: I really want to be Mr. November.

RH: But everybody who has one of those buttons should feel very lucky because we only made like 25 of those buttons. So they’re very limited edition.

Do you do all of the art?

RH: I don’t really do any art at all. I’m not very artistic. The only art I did was one of our designs was like the DC flag, so I created the DC flag.

KH: He reimagined it.

RH: No that’s the only thing I did, I added blood or paint or whatever you want to call it and put our name on it.

KH: This guy named Steve who did limited run shirts for Dillinger Escape Plan. We actually met him through them because we’re friends with them. He designed our most recent T-shirt design and I think he’s going to do our record so we’re really excited about that.

Have you played with them?

KH: We’re hoping to at some point. We haven’t yet. We’re just friends. We haven’t taken it to the next step yet. I’m actually doing a documentary of the early years of the band. It should be coming out next year some time.

How did you end up doing that?

KH: Actually, I’ve been friends with the band I mentioned earlier, Frodus for awhile. And the drummer, Jason Hamacher is now a masseuse. That’s his profession now. And he knew them from way back when Dillinger and Frodus used to play together. He’s been friends with them for a long time. And he went off on tour with them. Actually it was for Megadeth on the Gigantour, a sort of arena-y tour. It was so funny, they did not fit the bill at all. The closest show I went to, Jason got me in and I met the guys in the band and just kinda stayed in touch with them. Then eventually I just got in with them. Then the guitar player, he and I were talking one day and he just wanted somebody who knew a lot of the band and had a perspective of how they came along.

So they asked you to do it?

KH: Yeah. Actually, as a courtesy, Pat runs a video company called Ddot Films.

PT: Yes I do!

KH:So I use his equipment to do the documentary. We’re a very horizontally integrated band.
What else do you guys do when you’re not playing music?

PT:I just run a video company. Honestly, that’s all I do all day.

RH: I’m the assistant director at a music school in Virginia. I get to teach kids guitar and drums. Make little rock stars.

KH: I’m a bloodsucking lawyer. I work for the International Trade Commission.

You guys seem to put a lot of thought and energy into your live show. Do things switch up from show to show?

KH: Yeah, our lighting guy is a friend. Ross is behind all of the lights but we have a friend who’s cool enough to come do it for free but it’s whenever he can be around to do it. But we just thought it was cool because it’s completely gerry rigged. It’s not like we went out and bought some like ridiculous light setup. Ross pretty much made the entire thing the old fashioned way. A lot of people don’t realize it’s happening. We’ve had a lot of people write articles saying that there was a guy on “electronics” not realizing that the guy was just doing lights. They actually believe he’s up there playing some weird instrument with buttons. Our live show is definitely supposed to be very direct and intense and confrontational but only one of us is standing up so sometimes it’s kind of hard.

PT: Sometimes I’d like to jump into the crowd. But I can’t. I’ve got to get a keytar.

KH: We try to incorporate it when we can because I think it adds something. Or it’s really pretentious one or the other.

RH: We’re just trying to help Ira get some money on the bar mitzvah circuit and bat mitzvah circuit running lights.

KH: He missed the last show because he went to a bat mitzvah. Which isn’t the most rock and roll excuse of all time.

Who are some of your favorite local bands?

RH: We’re very good friends with the guys from Imperial China, they’re awesome.

KH: They’re definitely our favorite band in DC right now. There’s been a lot of bands I feel like, in the last year and a half. I feel like there’s a lot of good bands that have come on the scene. I feel like in early 2000, some of what DC was known for was lost a little bit. And I feel like just recently I’ve heard some cool, interesting stuff. I think True Womanhood was amazing. I really like that band. I think they’re really doing something cool. And Imperial China. There’s Cannot Be Stopped, this guy that just plays drums. I feel like there’s a collection of musicians who are all finding each other and they’re all really interested in what the other is doing. And it felt like this whole dance punk thing came to the city from some music town somewhere else. It was all the rage for awhile.

RH: Came with the release of Plans. “Sound of Settling.”

KH: Well, I don’t know about that. But like bands like The Rapture.

One of the members of The Rapture is from DC.

KH: Really? Well, nothing against that band it just I felt like for awhile it seemed so unorganic to what we knew coming from DC. Where as DC took hardcore and put it out of the world. I’d like to think that we’re a part of something right now that’s a little bit more tradition. There’s some bands right now who are taking that legacy and adding something to it.

PT: New Rock Church of Fire,

RH: Black & White Jacksons. Solar Powered Sun Destroyer

PT: Mambo Sauce. That’s my shit.

RH: Deleted Scenes. But even in some surrounding areas. We’ve been playing a lot in North Carolina. There’s some incredible acts down in North Carolina. Like the scene that we were talking about we remember DC being almost kinda moved down there. Red Collar. Hammer No More The Fingers. We’re trying to get them to move here.

PT: I want to move down there. Way cheaper. The drummer down there is paying $150 in rent.

RH: But it’s in kind of a wooden serial killer cabin.

KH: It’s in sort of a scary backwoods location but it’s really cool.

PT: It has running water!

KH: I feel like I’ve done shows for a long time where if it wasn’t a band made up of dudes from a band from the ‘90s that broke up and then they got back together with some new project, I wasn’t inspired by that. The last year or two I’ve seen a lot of shows coming out of the city that I’m very excited about.

You’re saying that you play North Carolina a lot. Do you play other places on the east coast a whole lot?

RH: Yeah, we play Baltimore, Frederick, New York, Richmond, Charleston, South Carolina. We’ve gotten around.

KH: And we’re hoping to do that even more. We’ve met a lot of bands that have either come through DC or we played other places. So it’s like, the more different places you play the more opportunities you have to play in even more places. We all do have jobs. It can be hard to put aside that stuff so we can tour.

PT: I’m good. I’m ready. Whenever. Whenever! Really. Let’s go.

RH: Pat’s always ready to drive, that’s for sure.

PT: Oh no. I don’t drive. At all. On our trips. I have a problem. I sleep.

KH: He’s incapable of…

PT: Oh no I’m very much capable of driving. They just like to drive so I let them drive. I’m capable of driving. I’ve driven before. I haven’t died.

Do you have any stories from the road you’d like to share?

KH: We just recently came back from North Carolina and we played in Baltimore the night before and probably the most harrowing experience we ever had. A while ago, there was a hurricane coming through North Carolina and it came up the east coast and it was our bright idea to try to beat it there because we thought that the eye of the hurricane was supposed to pass over Chapel Hill, where we were supposed to play at like 8am the following morning. And we played Baltimore the night before and went on last so we didn’t leave the stage until 1:30am.

PT: That show was awesome by the way. Somebody knocked my piano over.

KH: That was the show where we didn’t finish the show, though. Anyway we decide to head down to North Carolina and pull an allnighter and things were going fine until we got to 81. So we were on 81, which isn’t the most well-lit road to begin with. There’s like two lanes and trees. There’s not a lot going on. There’s not a lot of exits. There’s not a lot of shelters and we got onto that road and it was like the sky just opened up. And it was just wind and rain and cars swaying and trees were down and we were on a bridge and I turned on my high beams because I could barely see and I turned them off immediately not because it made my visibility worse but because I actually didn’t want to see what was out there. We made it through there alive and at least now no one can say that we didn’t risk our lives for rock and roll.

RH: My other favorite part about North Carolina, and Imperial China talked about it was the Spazzatorium. It’s the greatest music venue in the United States of all time. Unbelievable. The first time we played there we played with Imperial China. And then that place closed down. And they simply moved it to this other thing and it looked like a kid’s theater on the inside that was taken over by these gutter punks.

KH: There’s nothing like it around here.

RH: And then a couple weeks later that shut down and now they’re doing it in houses or something like that but it’s not really a physical place but a movement. And it’s something that I wish was happening more up here. This guy Jeff loves music.

KH: We went to King’s Dominion afterward with Imperial China and that was good times. Pat (Gough), though, from Imperial China, let’s just say wasn’t in love with the idea of going on rollercoasters.

RH: (Laughing) And the pictures.

KH: We should’ve gotten them. We didn’t get them out of mercy but the thing was it was on the Volcano and instead of just taking a picture there’s a video of your entire ride. And I got him to ride up front with me. To give him credit, even though he was that scared he got on the ride. We have to give him credit.

PT: No, no we don’t. Another road story in North Carolina. I heard bluegrass live for the first time at a party after a show. And it was amazing.

KH: This is North Carolina-ist, right? That’s what we’re talking about!

RH: Let’s talk about DC.

What do you think is the best thing going for the DC scene right now?

KH: Like the bands we mentioned. I feel like people are taking risks again. I think that the Velvet Lounge has really become a club that’s starting to book a lot of cool acts. Even out of town bands. Like when we saw True Womanhood play with HEALTH, that was the first time I’d ever seen or heard of HEALTH. I thought that they were sweet. That was a really cool show. Black Cat, that’s not new.

RH: That restaurant Dahlak is starting to book bands now. Free shows. Which is – that’s really really good. There’s a couple of house shows happening now. There was the Party Pit. The Kansas house got shut down this past weekend at, coincidentally, the Imperial China show. Also, Farley from Cannot Be Stopped is booking a lot of bands at American University for the radio show and he’s bringing in a lot of good acts. Apparently, they’ve been very successful. Kids are going out and checking it out. But Do It Yourself is kinda coming back around here. Except it sucks because everything is so expensive around here. The rent is ridiculously expensive around here so you can’t have the luxuries that the podunk places have. Throw these shows in a warehouse because you’re spending 50,000 a month.

What would you like to see happen in DC?

KH: I’d like to continue to see more bands that surprise me. I would like to see something else come up where there’s a hub, like a Dischord records but just like a new thing where it’s a new generation of people taking the reigns. I feel like that record label is a great thing but it documented a certain group of people in a certain time and they haven’t really been as active recently. But I’d like to see another something come through that’s like a nexus for that where you know that this group’s documenting cool, current DC music. It’s really easy to get access to the world without being a part of a record label. I do think DC has a very good history and a very interesting setup. It’s very transient. There’s a lot of cool stuff and it moves very fast. I’d like to see someone documenting it throughout time.