Guster |
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Tue. July 08.2003 10:23 AM EDT |
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Guster: Bongo Boys Balloon to Big-Assed BandBoston eccentrics talk about getting booed off stage, (not) hanging with Dylan, and adding "real" instruments to the mix. by Gil Kaufman |
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Guster (Publicity) |
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Two acoustic guitarists and a bongo player - Boston's Guster isn’t exactly working in the deepest of rock traditions. But with their stripped-down pop songs, humorous stage antics, and tireless touring, the offbeat trio has built a rabid fan base
Bongo master Rosenworcel says the boys, who formed the group in 1992 while freshmen at Tufts University, decided on the unusual lineup for a very simple reason: "None of us had any musical aspirations or talent. These are the instruments we could play when we brought them to college with us.” Humble as he might be, Rosenworcel can't deny that Guster's simplified sound struck a chord with fans. Many zealots were more than willing to join the band's "Rep Program," a volunteer army that helped market the band by distributing flyers and hyping them on the Internet. By the time they unleashed their 1998 major label debut, Lost and Gone Forever, Guster was no longer just an East Coast secret. With the recent release of their fourth album, Keep It Together, they're also no longer that quirky trio with the bongo player. Eager to break out of their self-imposed musical cage, the group added horns, a full drum kit, piano, and bass to such twangy pop gems as "Diane," "Careful" and the jangly first single, "Amsterdam." Rosenworcel took his swollen hands out of his ice buckets long enough to tell VH1 about being booed off the stage at a high school prom, making a waterlogged entrance at another venue, and having Bob Dylan cuss ‘em out. VH1: Why did you spring for the full band sound after keeping it spare for years? Brian Rosenworcel: Good question. After the last album we toured for years. Then we sat down to write this one and looked at our acoustic guitars and hand drums and said, “Oh no, not this again!” With Lost and Gone Forever we finally made an album with our band's signature sound and live energy, which we failed to capture with our first two records. Having done that, we wanted to do something different. When you pick up a bass guitar or piano and learn how to play, it's fun and interesting - you want to immediately write ten songs on it. I guess boredom and a desire to evolve are really the reasons. VH1: What kinds of rules did you have before about instrumentation on your albums? Rosenworcel: We didn't have a grand vision. We weren't on a mission to be a band without a traditional rhythm section. Lost and Gone Forever had one song on it with a lot of shakers for the high end and I wanted to put a hi hat on there and [producer Steve] Lillywhite said, 'We can't do that.' I thought, “Man, we sure have a lot of rules.” VH1: You're known for your sense of humor, what's the funniest stunt you've pulled live? Rosenworcel: We started this tradition of entering our Boston shows in abnormal ways. In 1999, we lowered ourselves from the ceiling of the Orpheum because we'd seen Marky Mark do it for some Boston awards show a few years before. In 2001 -- and this is my proudest moment in Guster -- two hours before a show at this pavilion on the water, we decided we wanted the guy to film us coming in on this yellow rubber dinghy, after which we were going to enter the show from the dock wearing our yellow lifejackets. Well, we were losing it against the current and we started to wonder if we would drift out to sea and never make it to the stage. VH1: Do you remember the strangest show you played in college? Rosenworcel: I could write a book of shows like that. We played every open mic ... we played a high school prom and got gonged after two songs so they could bring a DJ back on. This fraternity at Purdue University in Indiana booked us and we had just bought a van, so we drove out there to play and they hated us. They were yelling for us to play "Southern Cross" and we did a Madonna cover instead - they weren't into it. We barely got out of that one. One of worst shows we ever played was this radio festival in 1999 with Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, and Korn. We flew in for the show, walked on stage, and a bunch of metal heads were giving us the middle finger. We played our single, during which they kept their middle fingers up the whole time, and we played a cover of "I Wanna Be Sedated" and we left. VH1: You filmed the video for "Amsterdam" in Amsterdam itself. Part of the lyric mentions getting “lost.” Does that have anything to do with the city's famous space cakes? Rosenworcel: I think “Amsterdam” is a metaphor for an escape from reality. We wrapped the video on a Saturday night and had a few hours in the city and Adam and I wandered to get croquettes, these fried gravy things that are delicious . We got lost and didn't know where we were, couldn't remember the name of the bar where we were supposed to meet the group, and couldn't remember the name of the hotel where we were staying. We thought, “This is exactly what the song is about!” VH1: What's the first thing you do after leaving the stage following a show? Rosenworcel: Being the conga player in the band, I beat my hands up, so as soon as I get offstage I put them in a bucket of ice water for 15 minutes. That's the sucky part of being a percussionist. It's more like being an athlete. VH1: What double guitar, bongo band did you base your set-up on? Rosenworcel: [laughs] America. They’re definitely our biggest influence. VH1: Your fans are notoriously rabid, what's the most bizarre way one of them has shown their devotion? Rosenworcel: Some of them are a bit ... how do you say in english? Unstable? Back when we were touring in vans, we didn't want to pay for a hotel, so we'd crash on floors. We played in Ann Arbor and this girl invited us over to her house, and, of course, there was a keg there and 50 people from the show. We could have gotten back on the highway or stayed and drank. We stayed. It was around Halloween and Adam was in the kitchen with all these people around him. He was hungry, so he grabbed this orange jack o' lantern on top of the fridge thinking it was full of candy and he dumped it in his mouth, but it was full of cigarette butts. VH1: Do other drummers razz you for playing the bongos? Rosenworcel: I haven't been hazed so far. Mainly I get the mad respect for being such an animal out there. Now that I've moved over to a drum set, I've gone from being an innovative and special percussionist to a mediocre kit drummer. It's not easy on the ego. VH1: What's the worst bongo-related injury you've ever sustained? Rosenworcel: There are times when the drums are covered in blood at the end of a show. On the H.O.R.D.E. tour in 1998, I had tendonitis so bad that I had to play with my right arm in a sling. VH1: Do any of your parents still bug you about having a back-up plan? Rosenworcel: I think we're the only band in the entire world that still gets that question. All our parents are big fans. Adam's mom is chartering a bus from New Jersey when we play Radio City Music Hall in August. That's a high profile venue that shows you've arrived in the eyes of parents. VH1: Do you guys ever get mistaken for someone else? Rosenworcel: Ryan looks like the guy from Incubus. We don't dress the part, because we blend in and almost look like our fans. No one would confuse us for the Strokes. VH1: You opened for Bob Dylan. Did you get to hang with him? Rosenworcel: What I heard was that Bob Dylan is rarely social with bands that open for him. Ryan had a conversation with him and he said nice things, but Ryan was numb the whole time and couldn't speak. My friend Dave went to see Dylan a few years ago; he was hanging out in the parking lot after the show when he sees Dylan walking toward the tour bus. He's like, “Oh my God, Mr. Dylan, Mr. Dylan!” But he wouldn't turn around - he just kept walking. So he yells, “Bob!” and Dylan turns around, squints his eyes, and says, “I don't know you. Suck a d*ck.” VH1: Your high schools bands were called Toejam and Royal Flush, then you changed from the unassuming Gus to Guster? Not much luck in the name department, huh? Rosenworcel: People ask us what it means and to this day we don't have an answer. I guess there's a Charles Dickens character named Guster, and we just found out it means something in Dutch. Back then, we were just hoping to play an open mic night and there already was a few bands called Gus, so we added a 'ster to make it more familiar. |
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