Interview with Jerry Arsenault (drummer of RCY)
First of all i wanna thank the guys from RealCoolYeah, especially Jerry Arsenault, who is the drummer, for answer my questions.
I put it exactly the way Jerry wrote to me, because i think it´s the best way to know his thoughts.
Take the time to read it, trust me.
Here it goes...
How did you guys met? I mean, who had the idea about starting the band?
Back in 1990 I met a guitar player through a mutual friend, His name was Mark Wardell. We would jamm out in my Mom’s basement sometimes. Then in 1993 me and Mark decided to put a band together. That bands Name was "Candy Jar". Candy Jar’s music was very fitting of 1990's and I would say we sounded like experimental grunge. By about 1995 Candy Jar broke up and we all kind of went our separate ways.
Then around 1996 I started to get itchy to play in a band again. So I contacted one of my skateboarding buddies who I knew played guitar (Brian Saxton). So we got a bass player, a singer, and another guitarist and formed a band called "Mississipi Black Snake".
I would describe the music we made in that band as sounding like soul rock, with a little bit of a jam sound too. We where probably closest too sounding like "Black Crowes" ”Mississipi Black Snake” had done pretty well for them selves playing around south New Jersey and Philadelphia, and even had talked to a couple of producers and talent agents. But there were some serious riffs within that band and once again I was left with out a band.
I played in other bands for a while here and there but nothing was coming of it.
Sometime in 2002 I got the idea to get my two guitar playing friends from my previous bands (Mark and Brian) to play together, and form a new band. So I called them up and they came over and we started jamming. Brian Saxton had a friend who was a pretty good funk bass player named Sean Friel. So we invited Sean over and he fit right in. So then we where doing these weekend jam things and not even playing any songs, just jamming and seeing where the music would take us, because we had all these different influences. We then started to try out singers and kept jamming for the next year, but none of them fit our style of music (probably because it was so different).
In 2003 we pretty much realised that we weren’t going to find a singer who fit us. So Brian Saxton said he would sing for us as well as play guitar (He used to sing the back up vocals in Mississipi Black Snake). We found that his voice fit our music well, and we started to write actual songs, instead of just jamming.
One day after practice we came up the band name "RealCoolYeah". The band thought that the lack of any true meaning that the name had was a perfect fit for the open ended style of music we where playing, nor did we want to have a name that would type cast us or pigeon hole us into a genre. RCY spent the next year and a half then crafting songs and recording our first demo (simply named "Demo").
2004 was the year that RealCoolYeah really broke out, and we played a huge amount of shows that year, sometimes like 8 shows a month.
RealCoolYeah released a live cd in 2005 ("RCY in NYC", recorded from one of their headlining shows at the Continental in Manhattan, Nyc. They also kept a steady diet of shows as well.
2006 saw RCY releasing their second demo cd (which was self titled "RealCoolYeah") in the winter. Then in the summer they released a single "Swim" for a compilation cd for Danimal records.
That was handed out at the Danimal Record's booth at the east coast Warped Tours.
2007 will be a big year for Realcoolyeah as well, as they will be releasing their first full length album, and we have a few other tricks up our sleeve as well.
Do you have musical studies?
Yes, I do have musical studies. I took music lessons for a year so I could know how to read and write drum music and improve my technique. Prior to that I am a self taught drummer. Brian Saxton teaches guitar lessons now as well as playing in RCY, and took lessons for four years when he was in his teens.
Sean Friel is self taught, but did take bass lessons for a year.
Mark Wardell is self taught and never had any musical studies.
Your kind of music is very unique. Is there any influence you wanna talk about?
Well we have so many influences. I like everything except for new country or any newer pop music. I really like progressive rock (Yes, Tool, Rush, Genesis, Mars Volta, Radio Head). I also really like old rock (Chilli Peppers, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Sublime, Smashing pumpkins, Pink Floyd). And enjoy jazz and old school rap as well.
Brian likes the jam band stuff (Phish, Grateful dead, Government mule) and likes jazz a lot too, (John Scofield, Medeski Martin and Wood, Miles Davis.) The rock he likes is( Jimi Hendrix, Tool, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, System of a Down, Mars Volta, Talking Heads)
Sean Likes Just rock pretty much (Chilli Peppers, Mars Volta, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Fugazi, Radiohead )
Mark is really into the Blues and Southern Rock ( Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Pink Floyd, Allman Brothers, Black Crowes, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy.)
What’s your musical expectation? Are you happy with the course of the band?
We are all very happy to be a part of this band. We love what we do and we love the music we create. These songs are our children to us. Everyone in RCY is a HUGE music fan first, so we are basically music fans writing music for music fans. We would love to connect to millions of people around the world thru our music.
We feel as though RealCoolYeah has become its own entity, and is much larger than any of us in the band. We also realise that we are all musicians, but more importantly we are all brothers first. Ideally we would like to see this thing grow to the point where we could all live comfortably just doing this.
You’re making a lot of show, are you?
2004, our first year of playing out as band, we where playing out so much it was crazy, like 8 shows a month, in three different states. We found it to be too exhausting and didn’t always make for the best shows. In 2005 we played out about four times a month to make sure that people got the best RealCoolYeah experience. Which was ok, but we still found it hard to have anytime to record and write new material. Now we play out about twice a month which is really much better because it gave us time to write and record the new songs for our new full length album, and to have new songs for our shows. We also pick and choose our shows more wisely now, so that we have great fan turnouts, new material so they aren’t always seeing the same show, and seeing us in the best clubs in the best shows with the best bands around. See, before we where into quantity, now we are about quality when it comes to shows. We have been told we are a great live band, and we want to keep it that way.
The demo is ready, what’s the next step to RealCoolYeah?
What’s next for us.... well a lot of things. We just bought a new tour bus, we just finished building our own 42 track recording studio (in my house).
And most importantly our first full length album is coming out in the beginning of 2007, which is going to have a lot of new material on it, and even new sounds. We have expanded a lot on things we where already doing, as well as trying some new things. So the rock will rock harder, the funk will funk harder, and the trippy stuff will be even more trippy. If you like what we are doing already, you are gonna love what’s coming.
So yea, basically were gonna keep playing out like we are, but also keep playing new venues and probably some larger festivals. Were also gonna start working on getting more radio and press exposure, and promote the hell out of this new album. New merchandise as well. And then in the background to all this we are gonna keep writing new tunes and start recording our second album ourselves in our private studio.
Tell me how is a regular day for RCY (rehearsals, pre and post shows)
Well, we practice on weekends if where not playing out or recording. Before shows we usually hang out with each other and walk around the clubs and talk to people, then when its time to play we have a big group hug. Then after we play we usually go back to somebody’s house and party all night with our friends and fans. We are all very down to earth and silly, very easy to approach and love having good times with friends. We have nothing but love for the people who come to see us, so we try to hang out with them before and after the shows.
Listen this music, I put it one song so everyone could heard it.
Thanks again to Jerry and i will let you know about any news of the band.
Will see you soon!!
I put it exactly the way Jerry wrote to me, because i think it´s the best way to know his thoughts.
Take the time to read it, trust me.
Here it goes...
How did you guys met? I mean, who had the idea about starting the band?
Back in 1990 I met a guitar player through a mutual friend, His name was Mark Wardell. We would jamm out in my Mom’s basement sometimes. Then in 1993 me and Mark decided to put a band together. That bands Name was "Candy Jar". Candy Jar’s music was very fitting of 1990's and I would say we sounded like experimental grunge. By about 1995 Candy Jar broke up and we all kind of went our separate ways.
Then around 1996 I started to get itchy to play in a band again. So I contacted one of my skateboarding buddies who I knew played guitar (Brian Saxton). So we got a bass player, a singer, and another guitarist and formed a band called "Mississipi Black Snake".
I would describe the music we made in that band as sounding like soul rock, with a little bit of a jam sound too. We where probably closest too sounding like "Black Crowes" ”Mississipi Black Snake” had done pretty well for them selves playing around south New Jersey and Philadelphia, and even had talked to a couple of producers and talent agents. But there were some serious riffs within that band and once again I was left with out a band.
I played in other bands for a while here and there but nothing was coming of it.
Sometime in 2002 I got the idea to get my two guitar playing friends from my previous bands (Mark and Brian) to play together, and form a new band. So I called them up and they came over and we started jamming. Brian Saxton had a friend who was a pretty good funk bass player named Sean Friel. So we invited Sean over and he fit right in. So then we where doing these weekend jam things and not even playing any songs, just jamming and seeing where the music would take us, because we had all these different influences. We then started to try out singers and kept jamming for the next year, but none of them fit our style of music (probably because it was so different).
In 2003 we pretty much realised that we weren’t going to find a singer who fit us. So Brian Saxton said he would sing for us as well as play guitar (He used to sing the back up vocals in Mississipi Black Snake). We found that his voice fit our music well, and we started to write actual songs, instead of just jamming.
One day after practice we came up the band name "RealCoolYeah". The band thought that the lack of any true meaning that the name had was a perfect fit for the open ended style of music we where playing, nor did we want to have a name that would type cast us or pigeon hole us into a genre. RCY spent the next year and a half then crafting songs and recording our first demo (simply named "Demo").
2004 was the year that RealCoolYeah really broke out, and we played a huge amount of shows that year, sometimes like 8 shows a month.
RealCoolYeah released a live cd in 2005 ("RCY in NYC", recorded from one of their headlining shows at the Continental in Manhattan, Nyc. They also kept a steady diet of shows as well.
2006 saw RCY releasing their second demo cd (which was self titled "RealCoolYeah") in the winter. Then in the summer they released a single "Swim" for a compilation cd for Danimal records.
That was handed out at the Danimal Record's booth at the east coast Warped Tours.
2007 will be a big year for Realcoolyeah as well, as they will be releasing their first full length album, and we have a few other tricks up our sleeve as well.
Do you have musical studies?
Yes, I do have musical studies. I took music lessons for a year so I could know how to read and write drum music and improve my technique. Prior to that I am a self taught drummer. Brian Saxton teaches guitar lessons now as well as playing in RCY, and took lessons for four years when he was in his teens.
Sean Friel is self taught, but did take bass lessons for a year.
Mark Wardell is self taught and never had any musical studies.
Your kind of music is very unique. Is there any influence you wanna talk about?
Well we have so many influences. I like everything except for new country or any newer pop music. I really like progressive rock (Yes, Tool, Rush, Genesis, Mars Volta, Radio Head). I also really like old rock (Chilli Peppers, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Sublime, Smashing pumpkins, Pink Floyd). And enjoy jazz and old school rap as well.
Brian likes the jam band stuff (Phish, Grateful dead, Government mule) and likes jazz a lot too, (John Scofield, Medeski Martin and Wood, Miles Davis.) The rock he likes is( Jimi Hendrix, Tool, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, System of a Down, Mars Volta, Talking Heads)
Sean Likes Just rock pretty much (Chilli Peppers, Mars Volta, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Fugazi, Radiohead )
Mark is really into the Blues and Southern Rock ( Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Pink Floyd, Allman Brothers, Black Crowes, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy.)
What’s your musical expectation? Are you happy with the course of the band?
We are all very happy to be a part of this band. We love what we do and we love the music we create. These songs are our children to us. Everyone in RCY is a HUGE music fan first, so we are basically music fans writing music for music fans. We would love to connect to millions of people around the world thru our music.
We feel as though RealCoolYeah has become its own entity, and is much larger than any of us in the band. We also realise that we are all musicians, but more importantly we are all brothers first. Ideally we would like to see this thing grow to the point where we could all live comfortably just doing this.
You’re making a lot of show, are you?
2004, our first year of playing out as band, we where playing out so much it was crazy, like 8 shows a month, in three different states. We found it to be too exhausting and didn’t always make for the best shows. In 2005 we played out about four times a month to make sure that people got the best RealCoolYeah experience. Which was ok, but we still found it hard to have anytime to record and write new material. Now we play out about twice a month which is really much better because it gave us time to write and record the new songs for our new full length album, and to have new songs for our shows. We also pick and choose our shows more wisely now, so that we have great fan turnouts, new material so they aren’t always seeing the same show, and seeing us in the best clubs in the best shows with the best bands around. See, before we where into quantity, now we are about quality when it comes to shows. We have been told we are a great live band, and we want to keep it that way.
The demo is ready, what’s the next step to RealCoolYeah?
What’s next for us.... well a lot of things. We just bought a new tour bus, we just finished building our own 42 track recording studio (in my house).
And most importantly our first full length album is coming out in the beginning of 2007, which is going to have a lot of new material on it, and even new sounds. We have expanded a lot on things we where already doing, as well as trying some new things. So the rock will rock harder, the funk will funk harder, and the trippy stuff will be even more trippy. If you like what we are doing already, you are gonna love what’s coming.
So yea, basically were gonna keep playing out like we are, but also keep playing new venues and probably some larger festivals. Were also gonna start working on getting more radio and press exposure, and promote the hell out of this new album. New merchandise as well. And then in the background to all this we are gonna keep writing new tunes and start recording our second album ourselves in our private studio.
Tell me how is a regular day for RCY (rehearsals, pre and post shows)
Well, we practice on weekends if where not playing out or recording. Before shows we usually hang out with each other and walk around the clubs and talk to people, then when its time to play we have a big group hug. Then after we play we usually go back to somebody’s house and party all night with our friends and fans. We are all very down to earth and silly, very easy to approach and love having good times with friends. We have nothing but love for the people who come to see us, so we try to hang out with them before and after the shows.
Listen this music, I put it one song so everyone could heard it.
Thanks again to Jerry and i will let you know about any news of the band.
Will see you soon!!
yaninapdv@gmail.com 9:33 p. m.
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