I thought, why not feature some independent musicians as well? Indie covers lots of things that I love, and music is something I love. So for your viewing/listening/reading pleasure here is an interview with Greg Bucking of Broken Carousel. They are a local band that my husband and I have seen numerous times! We LOVE their sound, and I wanted to share them with you guys! Here’s the one of my favorite songs:
If you’re looking for some good live music and you’re in the area, they’ll be in Brooklyn at Hank’s Saloon this Friday night April 17th at midnight – NO COVER! Hope to see you there!
Interview with Greg Bucking of Broken Carousel:
Please list the name and respective instrument of each band member.
Greg Bucking – guitar, lead vocals, songwriter
Ricardo Rodriguez – bass
Joe Beninati – drums
Jon Huss – keyboards
Pandhora – vocals
How long have you all known each other? How did you meet? I was doing acoustic solo stuff around the city when I decided I really needed to get a band together and I originally found Ricardo on craigslist. He had played with Joe, so after some other attempts at getting a drummer, we eventually got him on board. I had been doing some work with Pandhora on her songs, so when I needed a backing vocalist, I asked her to do it. And I had been playing with Jon in a reggae band called the Alphabet City Street Stars, and I recently got him to come down and play.
When did you form your band? What inspired you to make music together? It’s been about two years since Joe, Ricardo, and I got into the studio and started putting down tracks for what became “…your proven alibi”. There was some different people on the CD and on some of the shows as well.
How did the name Broken Carousel come about? I had a song years ago called “Broken Carousel” that I never quite finished. But I always loved that term and knew I was going to use it for something at some point. So a couple of years ago when I was getting the band together, I knew that this was going to be the name of it. As for what it means, I’ll usually ask “What does it mean to you?”.
What genre of music do you consider your work to be? Roots music. Funk, Blues, Soul
Who are your major influences? Music with soul. I love the old Stax and Motown stuff, just about anything out of New Orleans, any of the rock n roll stuff that’s got soul permeating it like the early Allman Brothers where Gregg Allman’s voice has that urgency, or the Stones on Exile on Main Street where they have the girls in the chorus, or when Bob Marley’s got the I-Three’s behind him.
Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs? Do you think these topics will change over time? I write the songs for the band. There’s no set theme that I intentionally try to push during the song writing process, it’s definitely more of a spontaneous, organic thing. Whatever comes out is what I’ll follow until I’ve got a complete thought on paper. I’ve written a lot of semi personal songs that have a basis in my own personal experience or observations of the world, but I also enjoy the storytelling angle as well. Usually, what comes out is a combination of personal experience mixed with storytelling.
Could you briefly describe the music-making process? I’ll have a song together with the lyrics, melody, and chords and then I’ll bring it to the band. A lot of the time, I’ll have a specific bass line as well. I give the band a general outline, then we play it and see what everyone comes up with for their specific parts. It’s usually pretty apparent if something is going to work with the band or not. There’s times where I have a great song that I’m eager to show the band, and then when we do it, it just doesn’t work. Sometimes, a song is better with just the acoustic guitar and voice. But the ones that do work with the band generally work almost right away.
How has your music evolved since you first began playing music together? The more we play, the tighter the music is and the more we instinctively know what the other guys are going to do. You can let go and do your thing knowing full well that the band is going to keep their parts going strong. The most important thing is to make the song work, however that happens.
What advice do you have for people who want to form their own bands? Take the music seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously. Allow yourself to take criticism without taking it personally.
What’s the one question you’re totally sick of being asked? Who’s your favorite band or artist? It’s something that changes from minute to minute, day to day, song to song. I am just physically unable to answer that one.
Which songs do you perform most frequently?
There’s a couple of tunes from the CD that we pretty much do all the time like “Method to the Madness”, “On the Inside”, “Oh Jesus”, and “Till the Morning”. Not surprisingly, these are the ones that we did at the video shoot last summer.
Do you ever play any covers? Yeah, we recorded the ’70s hit “Brother Louie” for the CD. I’d never recorded a cover in the studio before, so this one was a lot of fun and it came out great. We have some others we do sometimes like “People Say” by The Meters, and we’ve been doing “Just Dropped in to See What Condition My Condition Was In” that was in the Dude’s trip out scene in “The Big Lebowski”. And once in a while we’ll do a reggae tune like “Get Up Stand Up” or something like that.
Do you have a set play list? No. On any given day, I’ll be into different songs and different song orders, though there’s a core of tunes from the CD that we almost always do. But we do USE a set list at the shows, I just write them up usually on the day of the show.
Where have you performed? Broken Carousel has played mostly around the city. We recorded the CD during 2007 and have really only been playing live for the past year or so. Some of the clubs are Galapagos in Williamsburg (when it was in Williamsburg), National Underground in the East Village, and we’re doing a show Friday the 17th in Brooklyn at Hank’s Saloon. I personally have been performing for over 10 years solo and with different bands all over the country. Colleges, summer festivals, clubs. BB Kings, Philly, Fargo North Dakota, Eureka Springs Arkansas, a bunch of other spots. My old band Mother Freedom played at the Van’s Warped Tour at one point.
What are your favorite and least favorite venues? Haven’t found the favorite yet. The nature of the show and the situation is just as important as the venue. When the crowd is cool and the club treats you right is what makes it good. We’ve done a couple of shows that were booked by an outside booker as opposed to the club, and it ends up being a raw deal for the band. There’s a lot of independent club bookers in the city who see it solely as a money thing, there’s no personal relationship, and a disregard for the musicians and the people at the club, so the music scene sometimes suffers as a result.
How can fans-to-be gain access to your music? We’re at myspace.com/brokencarouselmusic and we’re on Facebook, Reverbnation, etc. You can get the CD or download the songs at CDBaby (cdbaby.com/cd/brokencarousel), iTunes (phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=279056473), and all the other ones online. There’s also videos at woozyfly.com/brokencarousel
What has been your biggest challenge as a band? Getting better gigs. I’d love to do some more festivals with the band, get a decent tour together that pays enough to at least allow us to keep it sustainable. Finding that right venue we were talking about before, with a laid back, comfortable vibe from the room, the club, and the crowd.
What’s the ultimate direction for your band? To become a functioning, sustainable working band. Having a solid fan base all over the country, all around the world really. I want people anywhere and everywhere to hear the music and dig it. That would be the ultimate goal I guess. Right now, I’m just hungry to record a new album and get the band out on stage in front of as many people as we can.
Are you seeking fame and fortune? Obviously, those would be nice in that they would enable us to continue to do what we like to do. But I put away the rock star fantasy thing a while ago. I enjoy my privacy and actually have a lot of sympathy for people that get chased around by tabloid reporters and have every aspect of their personal lives put on full display. At least the ones that just want to have their personal life be left alone so they can do their form of art.
What’s the day job and what other interests/hobbies do you have when you’re not playing? Right now, I’m pretty much just doing music, playing guitar for a bunch of different bands in addition to Broken Carousel. I like to ride my bike around Brooklyn, travel everywhere I can, drink beer. But I’ve done all kinds of work: gardening, painting, tutoring high school kids in math and reading. I’m going to try to grow some vegetables this year, we’ll see how that turns out.
If I were to turn on your MP3 player what would I find? Oh man, lots of different things. Right now, I’ve got Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings on the Pandora Radio. Bobby Byrd, Tom Waits, Grant Green, it’s all over the place.
What’s the most bizarre thing to happen while you were on stage? One time I was playing with my old band and we were doing this fast, funky tune we had called “Gotta Get in in Your Shoes”, and at some point, someone took off their shoes and threw them up on the stage. Pretty soon, the whole place was doing it and there was this constant flow of shoes flying around the place. It was all good fun, nobody was being aggressive or anything. That was pretty cool.
Do you have any upcoming shows? Hank’s Saloon ( 46 Third Ave., on the corner of Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn, hankssaloon.com) on Friday, April 17th at midnight.
Do you have a website with sample songs or a demo CD? myspace.com/brokencarouselmusic, brokencarousel.com, cdbaby.com/cd/brokencarousel, iTunes (phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=279056473)
