Photo credit: Brittany Powers
Tell us about your tour vehicle.
We drive a maroon 2011 Ford Econoline E-150 with about 167,000 miles on it, by the name of Gerald Ford (see track 1 side 1 of our new EP) We’re on the cutting edge of preventative medicine so no major repairs or breakdowns yet. Thanks Ford!
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
Well, Pat and Adam are vegetarians, so that’s one thing. They usually just chew lemon rinds or whatever they do. Also Pat’s superpower that he contributes to the band is to consistently find the best restaurant for the morning meal within a given radius. It’s uncanny.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
I mean, like none. That’s not true, Avi can strum with some force. But it’s pretty rare. And once or maybe twice, the mandolin pickup fell off mid-show. Avi is a guitar tech for his day job so he scrambles to the rescue if anything like that happens.
Where do you rehearse?
Our home court is Avi’s living room in the Sunset District of San Francisco. There is a mid-century modern green couch, many clocks that don’t work, and a permanent drum set. He just found a rug under his futon, it looks great in the room actually. Sometimes we’ll hit up Scott’s rehearsal space in the Tenderloin or like somebody’s attic in Poughkeepsie before we start our tour.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
Pat, Age 7: Title – “In The Snow” Lyric – “No one will enter their school today / everyone just will stay home”
Avi, Age 3: Title – “I’m an H” Lyric – “I’m an H” (it’s kind of like YMCA but just with H.)
Describe your first gig.
As a band? Pretty sure we announced the band name opening as a duo for Chuck Prophet at a KC Turner house concert in the East Bay circa 2011. Before the band name, we had a killer scene at the Brainwash Cafe (RIP) in San Francisco which brought together beer, food, art, music, and laundry, the five points of the eastern star.
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
Avi: Guitar tech / Guitar tech
Pat: Dad / Tie between dad and Italian Language Customer Service Rep
How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?
Bands are starting to make some money from streaming, and we got our song on a Coors Banquet commercial, so that’s nice. Also I don’t know if we’re just getting older but we used to be excited about a hundred dollars, now you can’t even get us to hang out with each other for less than eleventy billion dollars.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
Release things and then think about them later. See: our new EP.