Over
the last two years the Sim Redmond Band has become increasingly popular in
Rochester… and in Japan. At its initial Milestones appearances, audiences
were mostly out-of-towners, fans that had followed the band from its hometown
of Ithaca or from some jam-band haven like Geneseo.
But
lately what I think of as the “Dave Matthews crowd” (he in baseball cap, she in
casual sling backs) has discovered the mellow groove of SRB. They stand elbow
to elbow with women in cotton smocks and men in dreadlocks, swaying together to
a sound that is intense without being aggressive.
The
new CD, Shining Through, may broaden
the band’s audience even more. SRB is breaking the mold in a number of ways.
Its record label is a collective, based in a small college town. The band
appears to be blissfully uninterested in musical trends popular in the mass
media, and is expanding its audience through informal networks rather than
trying to land a contract with a media corporation. This, in fact, is how SRB
got to be big in Japan.
Last
week, fresh from a nine-day Japan tour, Redmond took some time to answer a few
questions about the new album and his musical history.
City: Why were there three years
between “Life Is Water” and “Shining Through”?
Redmond: We’ve been busy. Raising families,
making homes, playing music. We just really took our time finishing this
record.
City: Why does “Shining Through”
have more of a reggae feel and less of an African feel than the previous two
CDs?
Redmond: We don’t make a conscious choice about
what kind of record to make or even what kinds of songs to write, we just feel
it out. It is hard for us to even see it like that, the songs just are what
they are, we try the songs a variety of ways at shows and in practice, but
usually the songs dictate the sound. We always want to be trying new things.
I think there
are some very new kinds of beats for us on this record too. The rock groove on
“In An Instant” is quite a bit different, as is the Motown pop feel on “Ancient
Chinese Secret.” There is still a bit of the African beat too, but you’re
right, there is a lot of reggae on this record.
City: Why is Kevin Kinsella [of
John Brown’s Body] such a frequent presence on the new CD?
Redmond: Kevin played a big role in helping us get
this CD finished. He gave us energy, ideas, songs, and has supported us in
every way he can since we joined I-Town [the Ithaca record label]. We are all
very good friends with him and he also happens to be married to one of our
singers — and it’s not me!
City: How does playing a song
live influence the arrangement that ends up on the CD?
Redmond: We do try songs a number of different
ways. Trying to find that perfect arrangement can be hard. We experiment at our
shows quite a bit to see what works. Sometimes we’ll go with a different
arrangement for the disc than live, whatever feels right. The arrangements tend
to change even after the disc is released too. We are not concerned with
reproducing the CD at live shows. They are really two different worlds.
City: Why is the sound of the
first CD so different from everything that came after?
Redmond: It was probably a holdover of what I was
doing acoustically by myself. It was really my senior project at Ithaca
College. I was studying audio production and had been playing with the guys a
little bit, so I called them in to do some tracking. I also met Uniit [Carruyo,
the band’s other singer] right around then and asked her to come sing on a few
songs. So what you’re hearing is the very early stages of us coming together,
based mostly around my acoustic songs.
City: How did the Japan tour come
about? Is your music played on the radio in Japan?
Redmond: Our discs were being sold to a couple of
jam-band stores in Japan by [US distributor] Homegrown Music Network. Through
word of mouth the music spread. Buffalo Records, a distributor in Japan,
contacted us and began ordering directly in bigger quantities. The distributor
really worked the record stores, found buyers who really liked SRB, and got the
music on more shelves. They also worked the radio and had great success.
Life is Water has gotten a lot of airplay on the radio
in the Tokyo area on three of the biggest radio stations. And there are only
five real stations there, so that is huge. So Buffalo Records brought us over
for a short promotional tour to support the new CD.
City: Where do you place SRB
relative to the constellation of sound that folks call jam band?
Redmond: We got this question a lot in our
interviews with Japanese media as well. I think the beauty of the jam band
scene is that it is very inclusive of many different kinds of music and
influences as long as there is some element of improvisation. Bands whose music
doesn’t fit easily into one of the pre-existing genres are often embraced by
the jam-band community.
I myself am not
a big fan of a lot of jam bands, but I do really appreciate the open-minded
attitude in the scene. There is a good bit of improvisation in our live shows,
but not nearly as much as a more jazz-based jam band. We are much more focused
on the song writing, representing the song as best possible.
In short, I
don’t really think we are a jam band, but we are happy to be included in the
jam band scene.
The Sim Redmond Band will appear for a CD
release party on Saturday, September 18, at Milestones, 170 East Avenue, at 10
p.m. Tix: $7. 325-6490.
This article appears in Sep 15-21, 2004.
