Parachute Musical On the Local

by Dave Sharp on Nov 07^th, 2010

Audiocast: Parachute Musical On the Local (Part 1, 20:04)
Audiocast: Parachute Musical On the Local (Part 2, 18:46)

On The Local is a routine feature of local artists perpetuating good music, thoughts, ideas and initiatives.

You’ve heard of “It,” right? Not the sewer-dwelling spider-clown of Stephen King character fame.  This is a music publication, so come on, try again.  We’re talking about the “It factor” and it’s not a term that’s dropped a lot in underground music. Often it’s a belief and a self-fulfilling prophecy that once you’re underground, that’s your permanent address.  Sure, you may have a few extended vacations or spend some time in a mansion before foreclosure, but that address is still waiting for you.  Parachute Musical doesn’t buy into that.  Through massive DIY efforts, thoughtful music and personalities that cause people like PM before even hearing their tunes, they’re aiming high and making strides toward a full-bodied, in-your-face “It factor.”

Their live act  mixes indie-punk Weezer sounds with Ben Folds melodies and keys; it’s a stripped down translation of their recorded songs, which float more on the melody of the piano and infuse grandiose musical visions like full orchestras on the opening title track on Everything is Working Out Fine in Some Town.

In an effort to create their ideal album with a top producer in Los Angeles, Calif., they are currently amidst a giant fundraiser. So, if the vibrant crowds and relative longevity aren’t proof enough of their fan base, take a look at that $13,000 plus their backers have donated to create this album.  Through their KickStarter.com page (click to dontate), they’ve surpassed their initial goal and kept on growing toward producing the album.

Sinizine.net sat down with Tom Gilbert, guitarist, and Josh Foster, vocalist and pianist outside of Fido’s in Hillsboro Village.  Tom sported his faded Washington Redskins shirt, the design inspiration for some Parachute Musical merchandise (check out Andrew modeling the t-shirt here) and, despite groups waltzing by singing Lady Antebellum and Josh’s phone blowing up (let the record show it was three calls from the same person), the guys offered their full attention and insight as they discussed their fund-raising endeavor, connecting via social media and the tenacity that brought them together in Nashville after their initial formation in Maryland.

Keep in Touch

SZ: Right now, you guys are kind of on a hiatus, you won’t be playing any shows until 2011, Josh just got married.  Looking through your touring diary, this looks like the longest time you’ve had off since you came to Nashville?  How does that feel?

TG: When you say hiatus, it’s like we’re not playing shows, but there’s still just as much stuff going on.  We’re on a break, but we’re writing songs and preparing to record anything full-length.  Just because we’re not touring doesn’t meant there’s not a lot going on.

JF: Yeah, we’re trying to stay away from that word. You want so badly to make sure people know that you’re still out there and working really hard.  But, it’s hard to judge that when they can’t see the cognitive.  There’s nothing they can tangibly see.  We can tell you what we’ve been doing, but unless you see on the tour docket where we’re going…I think that’s how people judge the work of a band, but there’s so much that we’re doing right now at home that we could not be on the road.

SZ: You are really connected with your fans via social media.  Will you make an effort to keep them updated that way, so they know there are things going on?

JF: Yeah, we’ve done a lot of stuff.  Right now were in the thick of our KickStarter, raising funds for our next record.  Just prior to us launching that, we recorded a song we’ve played on the road for probably three years now and we did another single as well; we did this in Charlotte over a period of three days. They’re going to be released as part of this KickStarter, if we hit $15,000 on that fundraising event.  If we don’t, we’re still going to release it a little bit later in the winter.  That will be one thing to let people know we’re alive and kicking.  This year we’ve released three singles and those will be our fourth and fifth.  So, basically, it’s an EP over the period of a year.  We knew we were going to do a record, but it wouldn’t be until 2011.

TG: Anything that we do that’s substantial in any way, we’re going to document. We’ll make a video or post a blog or something like that to keep people informed and excited.

SZ: How much of that strategy is planned or has it become second nature?

TG: I think its second nature.  If we go to the studio, we’re going to be documenting it, putting out a video. It is second nature.

JF: The camera is as much a part of what goes into the van as our gear and stuff.  That’s really the only way we have; it’s the platform for us right now.  If you think about what I said earlier about being on the road and that’s how people judge your activity.  That’s just your fans or the people that they may or may not mention it to.  Well, if they weren’t at the show, they have to wait another two months for us to come around.  In that time, they might have forgotten. So, this is one main way that we keep people informed – via the internet and videos.  People can see activity that way and we can reach a more vast audience.

TG: Its funny, with our Twitter account I have it hooked up to the phone, but I only post stuff when we’re all together, because that’s when things are happening.  So, when we’re in Nashville working our day jobs, I’ll do a normal post like “Hey, we’ve got this show coming up.” But, really when the fun things happen is when we’re all together.

Help Us Make a Record

SZ: Tell me more about the KickStarter fundraiser. What’s entailed with it and what’s the goal?

JF:  The goal was to get enough funding to independently make a record with a great producer who believed in us and wanted to see his name on our record.  It was someone we had been courting a little bit.  We wanted him to be a part of it because we like everything he’s done and his production style matches up with where we are sonically. He saw us at a show in Los Angeles, Calf.  That’s when we hooked him into doing this thing with us.  But, he’s a big time dude and he’s basically giving us a gift, but he still has a fee even as a gift.  So, the idea was to shop around to see if we could get a label to do it.  It turned out that we needed to do it on our own.  So, we did the KickStarter with that in mind with the goal price of $10,000.  We set up tiers of prizes, so anyone who donates gets something.  For $10, you an get a free digital download of the record.  For something as crazy as $2500, which someone just did, you become the honorary fifth member.  You’ll spend the day with us in the studio and we’ll pay the plane fare to get you out.

So, the original idea was $10,000, which covered production and mixing.  Beyond that there’s pressing and mastering.  So, we’re looking for $15,000 now.  We hit 10,000 in the first two weeks, which was awesome! That left us with like 25 days.

TG: At that point we said we’d come this far and decided to see if we could get the pressing and mastering covered.  So, we’re at about $12,000 now.

SZ: What was your expectation going in?

JF: We set the goal at $10,000 thinking that if we get it, it would be so awesome!

TG: I remember early on asking where we should set it.  We felt confident with $5000, then said $8000 would be pushing it.  Then we started talking about $10,000 and thought, man that’d be pretty awesome!

JF:  In hindsight, we should have done $15,000.  When the word was out and our fans saw what we were trying to accomplish and realize we were doing t independently, it was a frenzy and everybody wanted to get involved.  The idea behind this kind of fundraiser is that you have the opportunity to be part of something more than just a gift.  Everybody who donates beyond $40 gets a thank you credit [on the new record].  You get to be a part of a little piece of Parachute Musical’s history.  And if you’re a true fan, and I assume the 153 backers we have at this point are, then they get to be a part of our history.

TG: I think the success the we’ve had with the KickStarter correlates to touring; to the ground we’ve covered and the people we’ve met and played in front of.  If we hadn’t done that touring, I don’t think we could have met that $10,000 mark at all.

JF:  This is also a one-time thing.  We’re not going to turn around and say “Our van broke! KickStarter part two!”  We’ve paid our dues big time; we’ve paid for everything thus far and we’ve remained debt-free. This was a point where we really needed to ask for help and had the opportunity to do so.  And people stepped up and did it.  I think we hit $5000 in seven days and it was just mind-blowing to see everybody’s generosity.  It was awesome.  It made us feel like the hard work paid off and that we’re developing friendships outside of the just the people we grew up with.  A lot of the people on the KickStarter, we’ve met at shows one or two times and they’ve become immersed in what we’re doing and follow us almost religiously.

Nashville by Way of Maryland, Milwaukee and Murfreesboro

SZ:  You guys are visibly a very dedicated and thorough band.  At what point did you all get together and deicide this isn’t a fleeting thing and we’re all in.

JF: This band existed in Maryland and, without going too deep into the story Tom and Ben were both in Parachute Musical in Maryland where we’re all three from.  Eventually, Tom came down here and Ben went up to Milwaukee.  I eventually visited Tom while he was doing that country gig.  Parachute Musical had a revolving door of members and it was not serious.  So, I visited [Nashville], loved it and moved down.  Ben was visiting the week before and I had not talked to him in a year and a half.  We were not friends and did not communicate at all.  We did a record together, he moved away and that was it.  He was visiting the week before and we found out we were both starting a new life in Nashville and we said “let’s do this.”

When I got down here Tom and I were playing some solo shows playing some random acoustic songs and old song Parachute Musical tunes, duet style.  Ben showed up a month later, we got a bass layer within weeks and immediately we got a record done and a van and we toured out asses off.

SZ:  I’m curious how you hooked with Andrew.  Three guys who know each other come together, but how’d you wind up with a new guy in a new city?

TG:  We actually had another bass player before Andrew.  We existed in Nashville a good couple of years not having met Andrew yet.

JF: But, you knew Andrew.

TG:  I did.  I went to [Middle Tennessee State University] and I had a band down there and Andrew did as well.  That’s how I met him and we stayed friends.  When we needed a new bass player, he was the first person we thought of.  He’d been playing in Mondo Primo, which used to be Feable Weiner.  These are all bands I knew and he was the first guy I had in mind and he fits very well.

SZ:  What affect had Nashville had on your sound since you’ve been here?

TG: That’s interesting.

JF:  Parachute Musical is my first band.  Tom had been in a few bands prior to that.  I had not written too many songs and I used maybe three main influences and those were my muses.  I had not been to a lot of live shows and was immersed in jazz culture, that’s what I studied in college.  I think that and the bands I listened to at the time are what I based a lot of my song structure and styling on; I hadn’t developed my own voice in Maryland.

When I came down here, I saw a lot of people doing some unique things and went to a lot of shows right off the bat.  I still carried over those influences, but then, having Tom and Ben back n the band with their likes and influences, they drew me in and opened my horizons.  That inspired me and that affected how I wrote quite a bit.

It’s also a competitive market down here and, in that sense, you see something that everyone else is digging on and, its not like you copy it, but you kind of realize what you do and don’t like about yourself through watching other people.  I’m headstrong in a lot of areas, but when it comes to music, I’m very wide open and I feel like I always have to maintain that.  Seeing lots of bands and people I respect down here, it made me realize what I do like about what and how I’m writing and what I don’t like and what I can do differently. This is obviously very country-oriented town and I became immersed in this culture and the idea that that was pop in basic form.  I learned the song structure of pop music and that helped a great deal.  That was the main thing that changed.  It’s not as much a sonic change, but the form and song structure.  I said I’m going to start to use a A-B-A-B-C-B format and finish the fucking song in three minutes and thirty seconds or four minutes tops and try to stay in those boundaries a little bit.  If I don’t, that’s fine too, but I wanted to try that for a while.

TG: Also, you can go out and see bands and say “Holy shit, these are good songs! That guitar player’s parts are bad ass and the drummer is great.”  There a lots of bands here that, if given the chance, could succeed to a high level.  We would go out and see that and say “Shit, we can do that too!”  So, you feed off of it.  It’s a good place for us to be.

JF: It’s easy, I don’t have to buy tickets to the 9:30 Club [a venue in Washington D.C] to see whatever dude is coming.  If I want to do that in my hometown, I go to a coffee shop and hear a dude doing John Mayer covers.  It’s original music down here.  There’s original music in D.C., but for me to get there, it takes an effort and it was something I was not willing to do unless it was a pinnacle “I have to go see this show!” which did not happen often for me.  I don’t know why, but it didn’t.

SZ: When you’re seeing these bands like at Next Big Nashville who a month later have taken the next step.  Or some band that is making a splash on something that’s a big turn from what you’re doing now — how do you maintain the integrity of Parachute Musical amidst all that?

TG: I feel like we have to take a step back and look at what we’re doing.  We’ve built a base from touring and I feel like these people are dedicated and will follow us for a long time to come.  It’s not something where if I see another band gaining success, its not so much about the competitive thing, but I would look at it and see why there’s having that success and take something from that.  We just try to stay positive about things, keep in mind hat we’re doing and stay true to what we’re trying to do.

JF: We have to do what we want or like to do.  If we are not doing that, then there’s no point in doing anything revolving abound this. We need to disband and become chefs or something.  This is a very selfish endeavor and if Joe Shmoe doesn’t like it, then fuck him, that’s fine and he doesn’t have to come to my show.  But, I definitely like playing these new songs.  The old songs are little difficult to play, they’re old and if you talk to any artist, that’s how it is.  You grow and you like the new.  You still have to placate and play old stuff and that’s fine, but we need to do what we enjoy doing and that’s always been our MO. We’ve always stuck to that and I’ll always write what I want to write or feel like writing.  If its not “parachute musically”, the first ones that hear it are these guys because I have to play it solo in the practice room.  I have to be on the firing line, it’s the scariest place to be, when I sit in front of my piano or guitar and play a new song.  They’ll say “you sound like an idiot, that’s a terrible song, what are you trying to achieve with that?” or they’ll say “yeah, we could try that.” And we do and something awesome happens!

TG: As time goes on, we’ve become more comfortable with our individual roles.  When I first joined the band back in Maryland, Josh asked me if I wanted play guitar and I didn’t think he needed guitar.  It was piano, bass drums and they sounded great.  There was no need for guitar.  He insisted and I ended u doing it.  So, I was trying to write guitar parts for a band I didn’t think needed guitar.  It was weird for me and I had trouble finding parts and my niche.  As times goes on, and I think this speaks to all of us including Josh’s writing, we find ourselves as a band.  I think we’re still in infancy in terms of the career we could have.  We’re still in the baby steps of what could turn into something unique.

Crossing Musical Paths

SZ: On a more personal level, what kind of outlet does Parachute Musical serve for you guys individually?

TG: I have made up my little role to add color to [Josh’s] songs, essentially.  He brings them upstairs t our practice room and presents it to us and we play through it.  I want to add color and depth and something that takes it to an interesting place.  I take joy in coming up with those parts and I’m really painstaking with it.  I have to have a seal of approval on each song; I have to be pumped about it and love what I’m doing on the song.  If I don’t reach that point, I’m like “I need more time, guys.”

SZ: [To Josh] It’s much easier to read what your outlet is with the lyrical content.  Is it as obvious as reading the lyrics?

JF: I love recording and getting everything down on a tangible thing that I can put in my CD player and other people can do the same and I love playing live.  Any song will not exist if I don’t relate to the subject matter.  If you look back on our discography, happy or sad sounding, all the songs are a little downtrodden or I’m bashing someone I’ pissed at.  It reached a point where I was so pissed and so sad and blah, blah, blah, poor me! The songs were my outlet; I used it as my soapbox basically, to just spout out my shit.  But, then there was a point in my life where I was like “Shit, I’m really happy!” Our tours were great, I’m enjoying it, and we have a cohesive unit.

When we got Andrew, things got a little more raucous and started going in a direction I had always wanted.  I was super happy, so I’m trying to write and I’ve never been able to write happy.  So, I’m writing these gumdrop, rainbow songs and I’m fucking pissed about it!  So, I try doing third party shit and it didn’t work.  So, I started regurgitating old stuff and started to think about it in another person’s frame of mind.  What is their experience with this? – and making a story out of that.  That seems to be working a lot better.  It may not be something I have personally gone through – I’m happily married and everything is awesome in my life right now – I’ve found a way to write what I feel is a good song.  In turn, I feel like the songs now appeal to a more vast audience.

SZ: I’m glad you talked about how when Andrew came in and made it more raucous.  In listening to recorded stuff and seeing you live, there’s a disparity there.  Recorded, it’s more poppy and graceful, live is more attitude-driven and raw.

JF: That’s something that’s irked us for a while.

TG: We have different sides.  As far as the recording sounding polished, we like that sound. Often, the music we listen to is good quality like that.  We just made a strong effort to make something sound polished that can appeal to lots of people and sounds professional and all of that.  At the same time, on stage there’s four of us, we have a loud drummer and we’re trying to keep above him and, over the years, we’ve turned into a more rockin’ live act, which I like.  As time goes on, I think we’ll be able to cross those two bridges in terms of being polished in the studio and being raw live.

SZ:  Is that something that’s appealing with this new producer – to bring that live sound to the record?

JF: I would really like that.  It still has to get our stamp of approval and, equally important, it has to have the producer’s stamp of approval.  He’s putting a lot into this and basing a lot of what he’s doing in the next couple months on this.  He’s not doing it just because we’re paying him a shit ton of money.  It has to reach his standards as well.  If he wants it to be uber polished, like sheen, we really trust him and I think we’ll have our say and he’ll tell us what he thinks about it.

I’d like to see those paths cross and meet in the middle where the recording is able to match the ferocity and energy of a live show.  If we do this record live style, real raucous, you could probably fucking bet that in a month when we’re playing them on the road that we’ll be playing them two times louder and even more raucous.  Like Tom said, they need to cross paths at some point and I think they will with his record. I’m already on 10 on my devices, it can’t be louder.

Influences: The Big Three

SZ: I want to talk a little about influences.  Considering we’re in the Country Music Capital of the World, I have to ask what role country music has played.  I have to smart with Tom, because when you came here you were playing in a county outfit.  How did that transition to Parachute Musical?

TG: First off, that country gig was strictly a hired thing.  Growing up, the only country songs I knew were “Achey Breakey Heart” and “Don’t Take the Girl.”  So, I didn’t know much about country at all coming to Nashville.  Honestly, it doesn’t play a large role in my musicality.  I love Gram Parsons, I love pedal steel guitar, its like my favorite instrument.  I love Flying Burrito Brothers and shit like that.  As far as pop-country, I don’t really care for much of it.  If its a good song, I’ll keep it on the radio, but it doesn’t play much into my musicality.

As far as influences on guitar, being in Maryland and D.C. area, I grew up listening to a lot of punk and post-hardcore bands from D.C.  Spazzy guitar and really busy, but at the same time melodic and interesting.  At the same time, I love pop.  I’ll listen to The River [radio station] every once and while.  I like the Beatles like everyone does.  I like metal, like Meshuggah. I like hip hop, like Wiz Khalifa and lots of people like that.  It’s kind of goes all across the map.

SZ: Josh, what were the three?

JF: The big early three?

TG: Budweiser, Coors and Milwaukee’s Best!

JF: It was Muse, Rufus Wainwright and Jeff Buckley.  And then, along with Muse was Say Anything, but that was slightly later in the game in terms of the Maryland Parachute Musical.  Let’s be clear, it was Say Anything’s …Is A Real Boy, not the major label re-release.  Dude, when I was in college, I was in a hardcore jazz world.  It was bebop, big band, swing charts. That was my whole bag.  That was what I was immersed in and then serious heavy composers like Bach and Beethoven and all that shit for my degree.

Tom came home on college break and he was like you got to listen to this and he put on a Rufus Wainwright record.  At first I didn’t care about this at all.  Then, the next morning I woke up humming it and called him to find out the name of it.  He said I should probably get this Jeff Buckley record I’d really like.  Dude, I bought those two records from Best Buy and I sat there in my car and I think I listened to that Rufus record two times before I put the car in fucking drive.  It changed my whole world; it changed my whole life.  Really, it did.  I listened to that and I could literally feel my whole self change.  It wasn’t because I was so emotionally drawn to his lyrics, it was how he wrote a song and incorporated things in my life that were prevalent, like big orchestrations.

Then Jeff Buckley, his voice and how daring he was.  If you asked a hundred people this question, I would bet 90 of them would say Jeff Buckley.  That’s fine because it really did change my life that day and I don’t care how many people have said the same thing.  Then, the Muse thing happened and I was like “Ok, that’s rock and roll.” And then Say Anything happened…

TG: That was a more of an adolescent, “angsty” vein.

JF: I had bruises on my legs from air drumming to [Say Anything] with a friend of ours, staying up all night listening to it.  Those things fucked my whole world up.  I haven’t listened to any of those records in a very long time, because I could vomit you every part – I played them out.

Nowadays, I would say the things I’m drawing from – you mentioned country – I don’t really draw from country music except two main things: good song structure, something that gives me a formula; I like having formulas.  I could probably catch a lot of shit for this, but I don’t care. I like having a formula and I like having a way I can count on a song being delivered.  I also like doing that because of the next thing: when a song can deliver a story or a good overall synopsis of what’s going on in three and a half or four minutes tops.  That’s a good lyricist, someone with a lot of talent.  I strive to have that in my life. The lyrics are my seal of approval.  I pine over the lyrics, dude.  A part can come and it’ll be easy and chord changes, those are not a problem.  But, the lyrics telling a story and getting it out – I draw that from country music.  That’s where I first realized those people are super talented at that.  Whether it’s their dog dying or visiting their childhood home, they’re able to emotionally wrap you in and tell you a story in three and a half minutes, I want that for Parachute Musical all the time.  If you listen to old records of ours, its not quite that way and I’m cool with that but that’s something I wanted to change in Nashville.

Building on Something Awesome

SZ: The intro in your press kit says “Since it’s conception in 2003, the Nashville-based, piano-fronted indie rock quartet is building a better city with perfect song-craft, highly energetic performances, and a hearty work ethic. At this point and going forward, what’s the impact of Parachute Musical, either visibly or audibly, on Nashville?

JF: We want to build on something that’s already awesome.  This town, just the festival [Next Big Nashville] alone is amazing.  They put so much into it and it grows every year.  We’re really grateful to be a part of it and we have been for a couple of years now.  It’s already great.  You can go out any night of the week and cover any genre you want and be blown away most of time or pull something from it as a musician, avid listener or music fan.  We want to build on what’s already great.  We don’t want to let that quote mislead anything.

TG: I think the next two months in the writing we are doing for this new record and recording the new album and putting it out we’re going to find some way to recreate ourselves and come back fresh and better than before.  Hopefully, we’ll capture people’s attention.  Like I was saying before, I feel like we have potentially a long career in front of us and we’re really at the beginning and there are lots of things that need to happen and people we need to meet. There’s going to be a lot of change to come because we’re not going to be comfortable or happy staying the same at all, we just can’t do that as four guys playing together.

JF: Nashville is not like one of those “if you can make it hear, you can make it anywhere” towns, but it’s a competitive town.  If you’re playing to 100 people, you can probably bet 95 of them are in a band.

TG: And we’re probably friends on Facebook with all of them!

JF: it’s difficult here, it’s not like you need a shtick or anything, but we want to do something new and keep invigorating the music scene.  We tour a lot and this a second home of ours.  We’ll be DC people for ever and we have that hometown pride s well. We want to work hard to contribute to what’s already bad ass here and always try to stay a part of it.

Notable Links

Parachute Musical
Mondo Primo
Feable Weiner
Meshuggah
Wiz Khalifa
Rufus Wainwright
Muse
Jeff Buckley
Say Anything