THE DUKE TALKS TO
STEVE YUTZY-BURKEY
OF ONE STAR HOTEL
STEVE YUTZY-BURKEY
OF ONE STAR HOTEL
I don’t know if you maybe got a chance to read The Duke’s Review
of the latest One Star Hotel record, but if you didn’t, then what
I advise is that you go ahead right now and do so, if for no other
reason than to hear the MP3 posted alongside. The jist of what I
concluded regarding the record, Good Morning West Gordon, was that
it was nothing less than a motherfucking work of glorious
Americana wonder. In the couple weeks or so since flinging my
thoughts on the album onto the site, my appreciation of it has
only grown ever more intense and so on. If maybe the thought of a
Wilco-meets-Flaming Lips type-shindig gets your pulse racing, then
there ain’t a reason in the world for you not to dig the melting
fuck out of that record.
Anyhow, as happens now and again, The Duke got the chance to wax
interrogatory with frontman Steve Yutzy-Burkey. Have a read, is
what I suggest, and then head the hell out and pick up Good
Morning West Gordon. Seriously, I wouldn’t bullshit you. It’s
fucking great, is what.
The Duke- Hey Steve. How has the critical reaction to the record
been so far?
Steve Yutzy-Burkey - Most reviews have been very positive. On one
level, it is nice just to have people really listening and
responding in their own ways to the album. It means they take it
seriously enough to judge it on its merits as a work of art.
It is easy to spend so much time in writing the songs and
producing and recording the album that the music seems like it
exists only in our own little world. After all the work, it is
just nice to push it out the door and let the people say what they
will. It is great when they are positive, but generally I can also
agree at least on some level with the negative reviews. I think it
is also important to not take reviews so much to heart that we
think sooner of critics’ opinions than our own artistic
sensibilities when we create and record our music.
We learned after releasing “Good Morning, West Gordon” that almost
every critic thinks we sound like Wilco. There was literally only
one review thus far that did not mention Jeff Tweedy or Wilco.
This is a pretty accurate way to get people to understand what we
sound like, I realize, but the comparison can also get a little
old. It makes me want to work harder on the next recording to
transcend that comparison. It makes me try to understand why we
come across that way, and work on communicating our songs in a way
that seems a little less specifically derivative of other bands.
TD - The pre-production of the record was seemingly fraught with
difficulties. Did you ever feel like saying “Screw it, let’s
forget about it.”
SYB - I don’t think that it ever crossed any of our minds to quit,
but I can’t speak for everyone. I knew we’d get it finished one
way or another. I am pleased to have the album completed and I am
very happy with the results.
And it is not like it has gotten a lot easier since the release.
We just went to New York City this weekend, fighting through a
foot of snow to make a show. We had to carry our instruments and
spend 7 hours on different trains and trudging through the snow to
get to the show. We could have cancelled, but it is something we
believe in and hope that as other people find out about us they
believe in what we do as well.
But, I don’t want to play up the things that we’ve been through to
put out this record. It is a lot of hard work being an independent
band, and even though it seems pretty useless sometimes, we keep
on trucking. A whole of other people in the world have been
through a lot of tragedies. We are pretty privileged to be able to
do what we love.
TD- To my ears, anyhow, there seems to be a strong Wilco / Flaming
Lips influence going on. I’m not suggesting that the sound is
derivative or anything like that, just that, certainly the
orchestral side of things seems very much inspired by The Lips.
Would you say these are justified assumptions? What other
influences were at work? (musically, obviously. Although if you
wanna through some scandal down, I’ll be all for it.)
SYB - As I was saying, the Wilco thing is played out. Just
kidding. I love most of Jeff Tweedy’s songs and a lot of the
production on the Wilco albums. I think the comparison lies mostly
in the songwriting and the vocal range. We also strive for pretty
warm and natural production, which you find on most of their
stuff. They are definitely an influence, but I would say we are
probably also influenced as well by many of the artists that they
probably listen to. I am also inspired by their ability to reach a
wide audience even though they aren’t played on mainstream radio.
They seem like they have kept true to whatever it is that they
believe in and still been moderately successful.
I also love the Flaming Lips, though I think we only dabble with
some of the studio orchestration that they have taken to levels I
never thought any band that I like could do. No pink robots were
harmed in the recording of our album.
Years ago I listened a lot to Red House Painters, American Music
Club, Nick Drake and other really chill, introspective artists. I
still do to an extent, though these days I mix my Elliott Smith
and Richard Buckner more with a double shot of The Shins and
Flaming Lips and slightly more upbeat indie-pop, as well as other
timeless classics like Neil Young and Johnny Cash and Gram Parsons.
TD - The lyrics seem to continue along the path trailed by folks
as far back as Woody Guthrie and such, in that they romanticise
certain elements of small-town America, almost painting a picture
of a mythical USA. Do you think that in an era of increasingly
corporate, commercial Nashville Product, these elements of country
music, of Americana, are in danger of becoming obsolete? The idea
that working-class, grass-roots America is worth documenting seems
to have been jettisoned in favour of a more “Baby I love you” type
approach.
SYB - I love small-town America, I grew up in a small town
[Lancaster, PA], and really Philadelphia is a city composed of
neighbourhoods that feel like small towns. The street in the name
of the album, West Gordon Street, is in a small neighbourhood
called Strawberry Mansion where I worked at a pipe-organ repair
shop. I love all the history and characters and drama going on in
neighbourhoods and small towns. I love the stories in the old
songs of Guthrie and Cash and try to communicate stories and
interesting settings in a way that makes sense today.
As far as commercial Nashville, I cant think of anything farther
from the sentiment of those early country artists. The crap I hear
today on country radio is pop music produced for the ears of
people who are used to country instruments and harmonies. I think
the independent artists will always react to commercial movements
like that and attempt in their own way to take back the heart of
the music they love. I think that is what the alt-country movement
was partially a response to - country music being incorporated
into mainstream pop music. They mixed that punk or
alternative/counter-culture attitude with a desire to get back to
what they thought early country songwriting was all about.
TD - How did you fellas get together in the first place, way back
when?
SYB - I moved to Philadelphia around six years ago and met Alec
[drums] through a sign I posted at a local music store. Daryl
[keys] I met through some friends of friends. We started playing
together around 5 years ago with a different bass player, then
Rick [bass] jumped in around a year and half ago. Rick and I met
in college and played together a lot back then. This is our second
album, our first is self-titled and was released in 2003. We have
been playing in and around Philly all this time, and have been
gradually touring and playing more around the country as we can.
TD - Do you think Americana as an admittedly poorly-defined genre
is in danger of being swallowed and commercialised by the country
mainstream? That the sounds and ideas presented in works like Good
Morning, West Gordon get appropriated and ultimately diluted by
mainstream performers? (I ain’t wanting to fan the flames of the
old Indie Versus Mainstream argument. Just thinking along the
lines of how Gangsta Rap, for example, was appropriated by
mainstream music, leading to the parody it became.)
SYB - I don’t see Americana getting swallowed up by mainstream
country. Nashville is a contest of who can be the slickest pop
country artist. That is very different than the majority of
Americana, which is a very grassroots, heartfelt movement to rid
itself of all slick production. In some sense, Americana is at the
heart of all modern American rock and country music, and not a new
genre. I think it just peeks its head out every time people get
fed up with the mainstream and try to get back to their
interpretation of the roots of American music.
If Americana gets diluted, I see it getting diluted into general
rock sooner than country. That to me is already happening in the
case of some bands, as they attempt to bring the elements of
Americana to a larger audience. Mainstream success by Ryan Adams,
the ‘O, Brother Where Art Thou’ soundtrack as well as The
Jayhawks, Wilco, Beck point to this. I don’t necessarily think
this is a bad thing, as long as each of those artists bring their
own sound and artistic vision. As long as artists can communicate
through their music something sincere, immediate and somehow
truthful, I think the music is worthwhile.
Americana as a genre has had a broad range of influence and as you
said is often poorly defined. In its tightest definition, we would
not be considered a member. Our use of synthesizers and rock
instrumentation does not hold with the most grassroots back-porch
style of music. It is certainly an influence, however, and in many
ways our music is a reaction to mainstream rock and perhaps
country.
I think there is a lot of music these days that is poorly defined,
since most of what exists today is some composite of what has
existed before. The definitions matter less to me than a sense of
true emotion and quality songwriting that make what I consider
good music.
TD - On the back of the CD, there's an invitation to make illicit
copies of the record. This is obviously a world away from the
stance of most recording artistes. What are your thoughts on the
whole file-sharing debacle? Obviously you're supportive, to some
extent anyhow. Would you say it has helped increase the visibility
of the band?
SYB - We have even made some of the songs available for free
download from our website. We feel it is in our best interest to
just get our music out there, and let people decide whether it is
valuable to them or not. If people copy the CD and spread the
music around, it probably at this point is not cutting into our
sales, it just helps get the words out. Maybe when we come to
their town they will come see us play, or will buy our next album,
or somehow support us if they like us. We want people to be
responsible with copying music, and if they really like the
artist, I think they will.
I don’t think that in general file-sharing has cut into CD sales
as much as the record industry would have us believe. I don’t want
to encourage people to steal other artists music, but I think that
only the artists at the very top of the charts are getting much
money in the current model of the industry. The record industry
has built itself up into a huge machine that feeds itself more and
more money and thus requires more and more money to operate, so
less money is passed along to artists. And, the music is
suffering. In the same way that we are reacting to the generic
music of mainstream, we also react to the mainstream industry
machine.
The glory of technology [though it is not without its problems and
pitfalls] these days is that it is easier than ever for
independent artists to record and release their own music. Many
artists are successful in a much smaller business model and are
able to do it themselves with some success. This is good for both
the artist [no record execs to tell them what to do] and the
audience [more pure version of the music from the artist], and
more of the money gets to the artist and doesn’t just go to feed
the industry machine. In some ways, I think file sharing is
bringing some changes to the industry. Hopefully they will be good
changes. And hopefully more independent artists can take advantage
of the situation to abandon the impossible dream of getting signed
to the huge label and rather get their music out themselves and
hope that the people out there that truly love their music will
support them.
TD - When do you intend to start work on a follow-up? Too early to
even consider that?
I would love to release something about once a year, though we are
giving this album as much time as it needs to see where it can go.
We are working hard to play shows and promote this album now, so
it is hard to think about a follow-up just yet. But, there are
certainly some songs in the works and I am always kicking around
ideas of how things might fit together into another album.
So there you are folks. I gotta say, yacking with a fella like
Steve makes a man that bit more hopeful about the state of affairs
in the old “music business” and such. You may have heard The
Duke's EP’s, and you may have noticed there ain’t a chance in
frozen fuck of record company types snapping up those songs about
whine whine and swear and whine. Talking to someone who does,
however, put out the records and so on for a living, and finding
them to be as strong-willed and conscientious as those cats in the
One Star Hotel, well, it gives a fella a fair old glimmer of the
old “inspiration” and the "drive" and the like.
Thanks folks.
Drop The Duke A Line
of the latest One Star Hotel record, but if you didn’t, then what
I advise is that you go ahead right now and do so, if for no other
reason than to hear the MP3 posted alongside. The jist of what I
concluded regarding the record, Good Morning West Gordon, was that
it was nothing less than a motherfucking work of glorious
Americana wonder. In the couple weeks or so since flinging my
thoughts on the album onto the site, my appreciation of it has
only grown ever more intense and so on. If maybe the thought of a
Wilco-meets-Flaming Lips type-shindig gets your pulse racing, then
there ain’t a reason in the world for you not to dig the melting
fuck out of that record.
Anyhow, as happens now and again, The Duke got the chance to wax
interrogatory with frontman Steve Yutzy-Burkey. Have a read, is
what I suggest, and then head the hell out and pick up Good
Morning West Gordon. Seriously, I wouldn’t bullshit you. It’s
fucking great, is what.
The Duke- Hey Steve. How has the critical reaction to the record
been so far?
Steve Yutzy-Burkey - Most reviews have been very positive. On one
level, it is nice just to have people really listening and
responding in their own ways to the album. It means they take it
seriously enough to judge it on its merits as a work of art.
It is easy to spend so much time in writing the songs and
producing and recording the album that the music seems like it
exists only in our own little world. After all the work, it is
just nice to push it out the door and let the people say what they
will. It is great when they are positive, but generally I can also
agree at least on some level with the negative reviews. I think it
is also important to not take reviews so much to heart that we
think sooner of critics’ opinions than our own artistic
sensibilities when we create and record our music.
We learned after releasing “Good Morning, West Gordon” that almost
every critic thinks we sound like Wilco. There was literally only
one review thus far that did not mention Jeff Tweedy or Wilco.
This is a pretty accurate way to get people to understand what we
sound like, I realize, but the comparison can also get a little
old. It makes me want to work harder on the next recording to
transcend that comparison. It makes me try to understand why we
come across that way, and work on communicating our songs in a way
that seems a little less specifically derivative of other bands.
TD - The pre-production of the record was seemingly fraught with
difficulties. Did you ever feel like saying “Screw it, let’s
forget about it.”
SYB - I don’t think that it ever crossed any of our minds to quit,
but I can’t speak for everyone. I knew we’d get it finished one
way or another. I am pleased to have the album completed and I am
very happy with the results.
And it is not like it has gotten a lot easier since the release.
We just went to New York City this weekend, fighting through a
foot of snow to make a show. We had to carry our instruments and
spend 7 hours on different trains and trudging through the snow to
get to the show. We could have cancelled, but it is something we
believe in and hope that as other people find out about us they
believe in what we do as well.
But, I don’t want to play up the things that we’ve been through to
put out this record. It is a lot of hard work being an independent
band, and even though it seems pretty useless sometimes, we keep
on trucking. A whole of other people in the world have been
through a lot of tragedies. We are pretty privileged to be able to
do what we love.
TD- To my ears, anyhow, there seems to be a strong Wilco / Flaming
Lips influence going on. I’m not suggesting that the sound is
derivative or anything like that, just that, certainly the
orchestral side of things seems very much inspired by The Lips.
Would you say these are justified assumptions? What other
influences were at work? (musically, obviously. Although if you
wanna through some scandal down, I’ll be all for it.)
SYB - As I was saying, the Wilco thing is played out. Just
kidding. I love most of Jeff Tweedy’s songs and a lot of the
production on the Wilco albums. I think the comparison lies mostly
in the songwriting and the vocal range. We also strive for pretty
warm and natural production, which you find on most of their
stuff. They are definitely an influence, but I would say we are
probably also influenced as well by many of the artists that they
probably listen to. I am also inspired by their ability to reach a
wide audience even though they aren’t played on mainstream radio.
They seem like they have kept true to whatever it is that they
believe in and still been moderately successful.
I also love the Flaming Lips, though I think we only dabble with
some of the studio orchestration that they have taken to levels I
never thought any band that I like could do. No pink robots were
harmed in the recording of our album.
Years ago I listened a lot to Red House Painters, American Music
Club, Nick Drake and other really chill, introspective artists. I
still do to an extent, though these days I mix my Elliott Smith
and Richard Buckner more with a double shot of The Shins and
Flaming Lips and slightly more upbeat indie-pop, as well as other
timeless classics like Neil Young and Johnny Cash and Gram Parsons.
TD - The lyrics seem to continue along the path trailed by folks
as far back as Woody Guthrie and such, in that they romanticise
certain elements of small-town America, almost painting a picture
of a mythical USA. Do you think that in an era of increasingly
corporate, commercial Nashville Product, these elements of country
music, of Americana, are in danger of becoming obsolete? The idea
that working-class, grass-roots America is worth documenting seems
to have been jettisoned in favour of a more “Baby I love you” type
approach.
SYB - I love small-town America, I grew up in a small town
[Lancaster, PA], and really Philadelphia is a city composed of
neighbourhoods that feel like small towns. The street in the name
of the album, West Gordon Street, is in a small neighbourhood
called Strawberry Mansion where I worked at a pipe-organ repair
shop. I love all the history and characters and drama going on in
neighbourhoods and small towns. I love the stories in the old
songs of Guthrie and Cash and try to communicate stories and
interesting settings in a way that makes sense today.
As far as commercial Nashville, I cant think of anything farther
from the sentiment of those early country artists. The crap I hear
today on country radio is pop music produced for the ears of
people who are used to country instruments and harmonies. I think
the independent artists will always react to commercial movements
like that and attempt in their own way to take back the heart of
the music they love. I think that is what the alt-country movement
was partially a response to - country music being incorporated
into mainstream pop music. They mixed that punk or
alternative/counter-culture attitude with a desire to get back to
what they thought early country songwriting was all about.
TD - How did you fellas get together in the first place, way back
when?
SYB - I moved to Philadelphia around six years ago and met Alec
[drums] through a sign I posted at a local music store. Daryl
[keys] I met through some friends of friends. We started playing
together around 5 years ago with a different bass player, then
Rick [bass] jumped in around a year and half ago. Rick and I met
in college and played together a lot back then. This is our second
album, our first is self-titled and was released in 2003. We have
been playing in and around Philly all this time, and have been
gradually touring and playing more around the country as we can.
TD - Do you think Americana as an admittedly poorly-defined genre
is in danger of being swallowed and commercialised by the country
mainstream? That the sounds and ideas presented in works like Good
Morning, West Gordon get appropriated and ultimately diluted by
mainstream performers? (I ain’t wanting to fan the flames of the
old Indie Versus Mainstream argument. Just thinking along the
lines of how Gangsta Rap, for example, was appropriated by
mainstream music, leading to the parody it became.)
SYB - I don’t see Americana getting swallowed up by mainstream
country. Nashville is a contest of who can be the slickest pop
country artist. That is very different than the majority of
Americana, which is a very grassroots, heartfelt movement to rid
itself of all slick production. In some sense, Americana is at the
heart of all modern American rock and country music, and not a new
genre. I think it just peeks its head out every time people get
fed up with the mainstream and try to get back to their
interpretation of the roots of American music.
If Americana gets diluted, I see it getting diluted into general
rock sooner than country. That to me is already happening in the
case of some bands, as they attempt to bring the elements of
Americana to a larger audience. Mainstream success by Ryan Adams,
the ‘O, Brother Where Art Thou’ soundtrack as well as The
Jayhawks, Wilco, Beck point to this. I don’t necessarily think
this is a bad thing, as long as each of those artists bring their
own sound and artistic vision. As long as artists can communicate
through their music something sincere, immediate and somehow
truthful, I think the music is worthwhile.
Americana as a genre has had a broad range of influence and as you
said is often poorly defined. In its tightest definition, we would
not be considered a member. Our use of synthesizers and rock
instrumentation does not hold with the most grassroots back-porch
style of music. It is certainly an influence, however, and in many
ways our music is a reaction to mainstream rock and perhaps
country.
I think there is a lot of music these days that is poorly defined,
since most of what exists today is some composite of what has
existed before. The definitions matter less to me than a sense of
true emotion and quality songwriting that make what I consider
good music.
TD - On the back of the CD, there's an invitation to make illicit
copies of the record. This is obviously a world away from the
stance of most recording artistes. What are your thoughts on the
whole file-sharing debacle? Obviously you're supportive, to some
extent anyhow. Would you say it has helped increase the visibility
of the band?
SYB - We have even made some of the songs available for free
download from our website. We feel it is in our best interest to
just get our music out there, and let people decide whether it is
valuable to them or not. If people copy the CD and spread the
music around, it probably at this point is not cutting into our
sales, it just helps get the words out. Maybe when we come to
their town they will come see us play, or will buy our next album,
or somehow support us if they like us. We want people to be
responsible with copying music, and if they really like the
artist, I think they will.
I don’t think that in general file-sharing has cut into CD sales
as much as the record industry would have us believe. I don’t want
to encourage people to steal other artists music, but I think that
only the artists at the very top of the charts are getting much
money in the current model of the industry. The record industry
has built itself up into a huge machine that feeds itself more and
more money and thus requires more and more money to operate, so
less money is passed along to artists. And, the music is
suffering. In the same way that we are reacting to the generic
music of mainstream, we also react to the mainstream industry
machine.
The glory of technology [though it is not without its problems and
pitfalls] these days is that it is easier than ever for
independent artists to record and release their own music. Many
artists are successful in a much smaller business model and are
able to do it themselves with some success. This is good for both
the artist [no record execs to tell them what to do] and the
audience [more pure version of the music from the artist], and
more of the money gets to the artist and doesn’t just go to feed
the industry machine. In some ways, I think file sharing is
bringing some changes to the industry. Hopefully they will be good
changes. And hopefully more independent artists can take advantage
of the situation to abandon the impossible dream of getting signed
to the huge label and rather get their music out themselves and
hope that the people out there that truly love their music will
support them.
TD - When do you intend to start work on a follow-up? Too early to
even consider that?
I would love to release something about once a year, though we are
giving this album as much time as it needs to see where it can go.
We are working hard to play shows and promote this album now, so
it is hard to think about a follow-up just yet. But, there are
certainly some songs in the works and I am always kicking around
ideas of how things might fit together into another album.
So there you are folks. I gotta say, yacking with a fella like
Steve makes a man that bit more hopeful about the state of affairs
in the old “music business” and such. You may have heard The
Duke's EP’s, and you may have noticed there ain’t a chance in
frozen fuck of record company types snapping up those songs about
whine whine and swear and whine. Talking to someone who does,
however, put out the records and so on for a living, and finding
them to be as strong-willed and conscientious as those cats in the
One Star Hotel, well, it gives a fella a fair old glimmer of the
old “inspiration” and the "drive" and the like.
Thanks folks.
Drop The Duke A Line
