things were going quite well for rye coalition: major deal, recordings with dave grohl... now there's this ep on their new/old label gern blandsten. good reason for contacting guitar player jon gonelli and ask him about all of that. and more...
while we were recording in la with dave grohl, the original dreamworks/skg was sold to universal/vivendi and basically became an imprint under universal merging with geffen while a few dreamworks bands went over to interscope. first rye coalition got moved to dreamworks/geffen. and then we got moved to interscope. neither of the new incarnations of dreamworks were excited about the record we made. on the contrary, both dave grohl and rye coalition were and still incredibly excited about it. both labels wanted us to compromise our sound and attempt to write more songs that they thought had more potential of being "hits." rye coalition has never been about compromising our sound to fit in. we do what we want whenever we want and no one is ever going to be able to tell rye coalition how to sound or what kind of songs rye coalition are supposed to write. it goes against everything our band stands for. also, keep in mind that as the old dreamworks was sold all the people at the original label whom we met andformed strong relationships with, all the people who supported rye coalition at dreamworks no longer worked there. we felt that we would be better off leaving the new dreamworks which really wasn't the label we signed with any way. we were asked to be let go from the contract we signed. we were. we also asked to be given the full rights and control to the record we made. we were also granted that. this is a rarity for major labels and we felt lucky. it took some time for all of this to actually be settled, about a year and a half after actually having recorded the album. once we were back in control of our record it made sense to us to want to put it out on an independent label thereby giving us as much control over the record as possible. gern balndsten is run by charles maggio who released the second rye coalition 7" in 1995 and our first two full- lenght lp's, hee saw dhuh kaet in 1997 and the lipstick game in 1999. he is someone whom we completely trust. he has always been a friend and supporter of rye coalition. so after going through a long and drawn out major label saga and fight to obtain the rights to the songs we wrote and eventually recorded with dave grohl it only felt right to come completely full circle and have gern blandsten release the chariots on fire ep for our passed european tour as a prelude to the long overdue full length, curses, which will be released this coming april. charles maggio puts out records that he likes. and he is unconcerned with things like labels and genres. he is most concerned with putting out music that sounds good to him. this notion really resonates with rye coalition as we are a band that makes music base don what sounds good to us as opposed to what we think people want to hear.
finally there will be a new album soon. will it contain only brand new songs? and what happens to the ones that have not been released through the major label?
our new album, curses, is the record we made while signed to dreamworks. it wil contain 12 brand new songs, three of which, pussyfootin', burn the masters, and young yellers, are included on the chariots of fire ep. gone with the windshield is exclusive to the ep.
dave grohl is a big fan of rye coalition? how did that happen and does he have any impact on your work?
we luckily got our music to dave grohl through his management company and asked him if he wanted to produce our new record. we met grohl in new york city in october of 2003 and we talked over pots of coffee. he and our band really hit it off. we shared a similar sense of humor as well as a similar approach to recording and composition. by november 2003, we were in la beginning the recording process with him and his right hand man, engineer extraordinaire, nick rasculinecz at the helm. we wrote 15 songs in a jersey city rehearsal studio during august and september and demoed them with our friend alap momin before heading out to la. we had the bulk of something that we thought was going to amount to a great rock record. grohl impacted these songs by making suggesitons for how to tighten them as compositions. he worked with each member of rye coalition individually in terms of rythym and melody. grohl shared alot of what he learned from other musicians and producers while making the countless records he has recorded during his career. it was really a learning experience as well as something that our band felt extremely lucky to be able to do. the reality of it was that we had the luxury of working with a great musician for three months making a kick ass rock and roll record without having to answer to anybody but ourselves. thinking back on the experience the whole thing was really a double dipped cream dream.
i think there's a world of difference between your older stuff and the new ep, from this post punk thing to pure rock (in caps). how came that?
every rye coalition record differs from the one that comes before it because at heart we are a progressive band. we never want to rehash our older stuff. each record we make represents where we are at as musicians at a certain point in time. our goal as a band is to get better as musicians by playing together. also we make recors that we think sound good to us, something that we would actually want to listen to. people's tastes and sensibilites change over time. hence, the records we will continue to make will change as approach to composition becomes better informed, or more quirky, or crazier, or more minimal. for me that's the beauty of playingi n a band like rye coalition. there are really no rules and anything is fair game interms of what represents a rye coaltion song. also, it is very important that the songs we choose to write and play bring us a sense of enjoyment while performing them live. rye coalition is a high energy live rock and roll band. our recordings are not fully representative of the true rye coalition experience. rye coalition is best experienced, or best heard, loud and live. in the new dawing of the pro-tools era, i don't think many bands out there can say that.
even with that in mind, in my opinion the song "gone with the windshield" sounds a lot different to almost everything i've heard of you before. what's the story behing this song?
gone with the windsheild is actually a song that dave grohl wrote the framework for. he brought a version of it that he recorded in his basement into the rehearsal studio one day, with just drums, bass, and guitar. we really liked it. and he said that if we wanted to record a version of it that we could. we originally didn't think that we would get around to it because we had 15 other songs to track. d. lee, our drummer tracked drums to gone with the windshield. but it kind of just got put aside. ralph, our vocalist wrote some vocals for it, and we tried to add some guitar nuances to it. we never really thought we would release it. the song was more of a memento of our time spent working together with dave grohl. i like to think of it as our badfinger moment, like when paul macartney gave them 'come and get it.' the bridge of gone with the windshield and the chorus are so unmistakably grohl that we originally felt weird releasing it because it was something that our band had never done before. but in the end that became the impetus for actually releasing it. we always want to try things that we have never done before. and we thought it would be cool to include the track as something exclusive to the chariots on fire ep.
most of the band members list led zeppelin as on their all time favorites. just chance?
i think led zeppelin is a common thread that all five members of rye coalition are influenced by musically. as a group though, our influence are so broad and different between all five of us that i think alot of people outside the band rely on the led zeppelin out of convenience. plus i wouldn't understand how a fan of rock and roll music could say that didn't like led zeppelin. they provided alot of the groundwork for what most hard rock bands after them tried to do.
is "having a good time" the driving force behind rye coalition? do you think that people put too much emphasis on content than on just having fun?
having a good time is very important to rye coalition in that we have never had any other agenda than making good music and having fun playing it live to new people who we are lucky enough to meet along the ride. however, in terms of song writing, we take that extremely seriously and put utmost emphasis on content. sometimes people take our humorous song titles and sardonic sense of humor, which we try to incorporate in our songs, the wrong way in thinking that we are an ironic band or something. we love having a good time and think that part of the essenc eof rock and roll is having a good time, being rebellious, and doing whatever the fuck you want to whenever the fuck you want to. but when it comes to composition and making records, we take that very seriously. this is not to say that the writing and recording process can not be fun. we work very hard to make our records sound the way they do and then touring and performing live in support of them is a celebration of all that hard work. we really want to encourage people who come to our shows to let go, get loose, and just forget all the bullshit that plagues the everyday routine. i think this should be the purpose of any great rock and roll band which is exactly what rye coaltion is.
with statements like that you seperate yourselves from the artsy fartsy scene, from the indie/emo scene, to be more explicit. do you do that deliberately?
rye coalition's essence cannot be labeled. we have always felt that we were on the outskirts of whatever scene or genre people would try to lump us into at any given time. to us the essence of making music transcends all language, in turn transcending all genres. what makes an experience truly musical is that it is beyond words. to put labels on music defeats the purpose of truly immersing yourself in it and surrendering to it. i think once a musician becomes to conscious of genre he or she starts to make music that is less genuine thereby contributing to the surplus of bad music that is out there.
you call yourselves as the "hard luck five". is this what you are?
our luck has fluctuated over the years kind of like the way a pendulum swings. i would say that the way things have been going for us in 2006 we should atrt calling ourselves the good luck five.
i've noticed that some people that haven't met you before (interviewers etc.) consider you as an arrogant band? how did that happen and what do you think of it?
i don't think much of it. anyone who really knows the five members of rye coalition on a personal level knows that as human beings we are honest and grateful people. sure each one of us has our problems. and we have all made our own mistakes. but to try and generalize a band as being arrogant without really knowing the first thing about their individual personalities is simply petty. in terms, of having confidence that your bad is good. i think that is something totally different. if you choose to play music in a live setting where yo put yourself on the spot by getting up in front of people to perform you are inehrently saying, "look at my band. i think my band is good. and i would realy love it if you thought so too." otherwise there would be no reason for a band to perform live or make records. having confidence and faith in your band is extremely important if your band wants to achieve things and continue to make records and grow musically. if people deem that to be arrogance i would say they are missing the point of what it means to play rock and roll and put your heart and soul on the line.
interview done by christian. visit www.ryecoalition.com