Watching Nathan Trueb play guitar reminds me why I like rock shows and still believes in the band. Where many are lamenting the “inevitable” demise of the rock band in favor of the solo-artist with the laptop, The Carolines do exactly what a laptop artist cannot: bring the music to life with performance. I will always favor a band over a solo artist running music programs for the simple reason that the solo artist can only re-present the work, rather than infusing it with life. To be sure, all experience is mediated, but some less than others. The magic of the live act can never be captured fully in a recorded work; something is lost in the translation. Music simply loses its teeth when it cannot be performed. Having said that, Nathan’s delivery packs wallop (what the kids may refer to as “boss solos like gangbusters”), and watching Nate Purscelley play bass and trumpet simultaneously shows a musical dexterity that few performers ever accomplish.
The Carolines consist of brothers Aaron and Nathan Trueb, Nate Purscelley, Matt Lenhart, and Jared Abraham. In 2001, they released the “Don’t Believe What You Hear” EP, following up in 2003 with their full-length album “Youth Electronics.” This year they have released the “Meet Me at the Marriot” EP, with the brilliant pop gem, “Ooh Ooh Satisfied,” my favorite of their offerings. Through a series of complications, I was finally able to conduct an interview over e-mail with Aaron.
How and when did you guys first meet/form?
As far as becoming a group of musicians who play together, that happened for the most part a long time back. I met Nate at church when I was in high school and he was starting college - we became friends and started writing songs. He would show me these demos of songs he had done and they were just great. He made them on this old reel to reel 4-track recorder. This inspired me to start writing songs and I wrote a couple on piano and a couple on guitar.
At the same time my little brother had quit piano lessons and started playing guitar. He obviously had a gift for it, because he picked it up insanely fast, and was even playing lead guitar stuff that no one taught him. He had a friend who was learning to drum, so we decided to go play with them. It was pretty bad the first time. But Jared (our drummer) and Nathan (my brother) soon passed us up in musicianship. They became quite good very fast, so that was exciting.
I guess that's about it, and the rest is all history as they say. We started playing shows and making records and have ever since.
We've had two close friends who were bass players, and now Matt, Nate's cousin is the bass player.
What bands/music/events have inspired you guys to play the music you do, and/or music in general?
I know that I can speak for everyone when I say Led Zeppelin and The Beatles music has inspired us.
But we all listen to such a wide variety of music, I think it is an ongoing process of being inspired by new ideas and music every day. I'm really into Wilco right now and I'm very inspired to write music when I listen to "A Ghost is Born." I listened to an interview with Jeff Tweedy today, and even hearing his ideas about music inspired me.
I think that is the neat thing about music. Anything can inspire you and you can have the outlet of that inspiration be your music.
You've independently released your two albums. Explain the music writing/studio process. What pros and cons do you experience by recording independently?
As far as the writing process goes, usually one of us will bring a skeleton of a song to the group. Then as a group we will elaborate on the idea, offer our own input, and maybe even write a new section to the song together. I like writing that way; I think the songs come out so much more interesting when we develop them as a group.
As far as recording goes, it has been different every time. For our full-length record, "Youth Electronics" we headed up to Washington to two different studios to record. Usually we have had someone outside the band act as producer. I like having someone outside the band to give input, but it might be fun to record a record by ourselves and see what comes out.
So, to answer your question the song basically is conceived by one of us, goes to the band and is worked on (probably becoming something much different or more evolved, etc.) and then goes to the studio where I would say we use the studio and the producer as almost two extensions of the band to come up with our final product.
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