The Panic Manual sat down for a pre-show interview with B Side Shuffle members Jasper Drisko, Carter Jones, Geoff Browning, and Nik Sus before they take (and dominate) the stage with White Ford Bronco at DC’s venerated 9:30 Club on Friday, December 19:
No better place to start than the beginning! Can you tell me a little about how you guys teamed up, why you’ve made Washington DC your home, and where your name comes from?
GEOFF BROWNING: In 2009, I moved to DC to work in the House. This was right after the financial crisis, and there were a lot of big legislative fights going on – it was an intense time to be here. The year before that, though, I had been completely captivated by my first trips to Bonnaroo and the All Good Festival. My heart was really drawn to that world. But it felt oddly incompatible with this one. And I assumed the two would never really jive.
That all changed when my friend Corinne Baker convinced me to reconsider. Guitars came out of their cases for the first time since high school. Eventually I wrote a song and played it at Barney Frank’s wedding. That same week, I ran into Jasper at a reunion in Vermont. Then we started trying out bandmates. Then Corinne booked us our first show. Then we met Carter. Then Nik found his way to us, blew us away in his tryout, and convinced us we needed a lead guitar player rather than a keys player. Then a real-life Rube Goldberg machine of amazing events happened, and we started playing shows all over the place. And now we’re playing a sold-out 9:30 Club for the second time this year. It’s kind of crazy.
I think there were a few extra steps in between, involving jello shots, figure skating, and Carter dressing up like Sesame Street characters. But I can say this definitively: the B Side Shuffle is an elaborate mating dance performed by penguins at the North Pole, which Jasper discovered when he was working on his Ph.D. in penguinomics. He has published several scholarly articles about it. And he knows how magnets work.
So here’s a fun fact. When I Google B Side Shuffle the first hits have taglines that include “B Side Shuffle is a highly collaborative, good-times musical collective”; “It’s more than just music – it’s an experience”; and “B Side Shuffle are one of the most exciting and kinetic up-and-coming bands hailing from Washington DC.” Awesome all around. Combining this Internet commentary with the fact that you’ve played our District’s most-revered 9:30Club three times in 2014 makes me think you guys are on to something good. Can you tell me a bit about these shows and what you think has prompted all this super positive commentary?
JASPER DRISKO: I think “good-times” is a key phrase there. Every time we play, we try to put on a really fun, energetic, engaging show for everyone who comes to see us. We’re doing this because we love music and we love playing our music for others. So when we’re on stage, we’re just having a ton of fun sharing that music with the world, and I think the audience really picks up on that and responds to it.
NIK SUS: It’s been a true honor to play 9:30 twice this year already, and now a third time. Over the years, I’ve seen some of my musical heroes grace that stage, so it’s surreal being up there. Each of our shows there in 2014 has been very different, too. Needless to say, we’re really excited to close out the year with a sold-out show at 9:30. We’re bringing a full horn section and have some surprises in store that we think the crowd is gonna love.
Speaking of the 9:30 Club and all that is the DC music scene, let’s hear a bit about how you see the Capitol City’s music landscape and where you find yourself fitting in among the musical crowd. Are there any specific venues where you really feel at home?
NIK SUS: I think we’re able to fit ourselves into a variety of musical settings. Indie crowd, professional crowd, jam crowd, whatever. We just want to get the music out there and for people to have a good time. One stage I feel really comfortable on in DC is Rock and Roll Hotel. It’s the definitive rock club. Intimate, great sound, intense crowd energy. Love the staff, too.
CARTER JONES: This city has very eclectic musical tastes: from jazz to punk, indie rock and gogo – there’s a local band to fit the tastes of pretty much everyone in DC. We see ourselves and our music as a reflection of that diverse listenership. Just like this city, we try to bring all of those influences together in each of our songs to make something that appeals to the differences among us.
Maybe 9:30 Club will feel like home eventually after a few more shows there, but I’m not going to count my chickens before they hatch. I still get chills every time I set foot on that stage. And that’s unlikely to change.
Your newest album Farmalade is great. I love how diverse the sounds are, while remaining cohesive and true to the B Side Shuffle ethos. (I especially love Gauntlet.) What is the process in putting together such an ambitious work? Do you take on specific roles or is it more of an artistic free-for-all?
JASPER DRISKO: It’s a long process, very collaborative and democratic. It really started about six months before we even set out to record on the farm, with actually writing the songs. Then we played them all summer and really developed each one of them, tweaking things as we went along, seeing how the audiences responded, giving each other feedback about what we liked and didn’t like, and getting more comfortable with them. When fall came around, we felt ready to put them down. We spend an amazing weekend on the farm doing basic tracking, and then another few months putting the finishing touches on. It took a whole team of awesome, creative people, more than just the guys in the band, all working together to create the final product. I think we are all really happy with how it came out.
Looking ahead, what’s after Farmalade? What types of plans are you crafting for 2015?
NIK SUS: Look for some live releases, some brand new material, studio releases, and bigger festival appearances. B Side plans our moves strategically. I’m looking forward to working on new songs. In a busy band like ours, it’s easy to lose sight of the importance of generating new material, yet it’s the most important thing you can do to keep the train moving.
CARTER JONES: Writing new songs and giving them a chance to fully form. We have lots of new songs already written, but the process is now about filling in the gaps and leading the songs to become the best they can be. That takes making more time to write and jam out new parts rather than just rehearsing for shows. The writing and songcrafting is where the real fun is for me.
You’ve had several awesome partnerships with other, mostly local, musicians (Frank Mitchell of Thievery Corporation, Jason Hann from the String Cheese Incident and Washington DC based saxophonist Ron Holloway as well as Danny Davis and Mario from Yellow Dubmarine). How do you identify possible partners? Can you give us a high-level idea of what that type of partnered collaboration looks like (is it structured? Impromptu? More or less challenging than keeping the creativity to the band alone?)? Is it a learning experience for you or more an exchange of ideas?
JASPER DRISKO: First off, I just want to say that having a drum duel/breakdown/jam with Jason Hann was probably one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life. It was an amazing experience to get to play with such a prominent and accomplished musician, but also someone who was extremely cool and down to earth. We had a ton of fun on stage without ever having met before and then after the show I talked to him and he was just a really nice guy too. I’ll never forget that experience.
NIK SUS: Have to give a big shout out to our horn section, which is anchored by Will Sautter (alto sax) and a recurring cast of players including Danny (trumpet), Mario (tenor sax), Frank (tenor sax). This is the first band I’ve worked extensively with horns and it’s actually helped me grow a lot as a musician. It definitely takes a lot of work to do the arrangements, but once you get there, it’s amazing how a well-orchestrated horn section can breathe new life into a song. All around it’s been a game changer, and I’m glad we’re moving in that direction.
The sit-ins have ranged from being meticulously planned to impromptu. When Danny joins us, he usually has everything charted out and it’s very polished and structured. But other sit-ins are completely spontaneous, like the one with the Ron Holloway. He was the artist-in-residence at a great festival we played this past summer in West Virginia, the Mad Tea Party Jam. In the middle of our set and seemingly out of nowhere, our buddy Marc Worden rides up to the stage in a golf cart with Ron and we’re like “What? YES.” He jumped on stage and killed it, of course.
GEOFF BROWNING: In each one of those cases, the circumstances were different. But each was amazing for its own reasons. Frank Mitchell has been part of the Thievery Corporation team for a long time. His sax-slaying skills are mindboggling, and he has a very distinct style. He has been playing and practicing with us a lot recently. Ron Holloway has played with literally everyone—the Allman Brothers Band, Dizzy Gillespie, Government Mule, Gil Scott-Heron, you name it. It’s a privilege to play with these guys, and they each a lot of lessons to impart on younguns like us.
As for how it effects our creativity, it’s always a net positive. We always learn something, and it’s really exciting to think these people actually want to play with us. Sometimes when Frank’s ripping a solo, I almost forget I’m on stage and not in the audience, because he just has such a mastery of sound, and I’m rocking along so hard with my ear monitors. We’ll be playing more with him in 2015 for sure.
What is the question (and corresponding answer) you most wish interviewers would ask?
CARTER JONES: A perennial favorite question for me is “What are you currently spinning/listening to?”
To answer my own question: Lettuce, The Pimps of Joytime, Moon Taxi, Opeth’s latest album “Pale Communion,” and Blood Orange – just to name a few.
NIK SUS: You know when you find a band you really like and you dig deep into their catalog and want to tell all your friends about them? For me, both Tame Impala and White Denim fit that description. Also Chromeo and St. Vincent put out killer albums in 2014.
GEOFF BROWNING: There have been a couple times where we played with a band, and I got to know them, then got into their music afterwards. It’s cool, you can almost hear people’s personalities reflected in their songs. Tauk, Moon Taxi, Big Something, the Revivalists, and ELM come to mind in this category. Also, Rubblebucket is amazing. And Tune Yards. And the Daktaris.