Born Mountaineer
Things Will Not Be Fine
Homepage: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Born-Mountaineer/103210856414332?sk=wall
Feature By: Jonathan Earley
Video: Chris Knoy
C-buz: What's the band's history? How did you guys all meet up and start
making music?
Matt Rust: Dave and I have been playing music together in various bands over the
past 12 years, adding Alex to the mix something like 3 years ago when we
played in Mockingbird and Opry Mountain together. Jimm is married to
Nate's sister Myra, who Dave and I have been friends with since middle
school. The five of us started playing music together a few months back
and things just seem to work.
CB: How many shows have you done so far?
MR: We've only played two 'proper'
shows as a full band, but we are playing some songs that Dave, Alex, and
I have been playing for a few years now--just new and improved I guess.
The rest are new songs that I've written over the past year.
Will you be touring or just playing locally?
MR: We
love playing in town but the plan is to share the love which means that
we will play out of town as often as our schedules and gas prices will
support. We have some shows in the works for Cincinnati, Bloomington,
Indy, Louisville, and Columbus Ohio. Nothing too far away.
What are some of your influences?
MR: My biggest influences lyrically are my dreams and the dark places in life mixed with the styles of Hank Williams, Al James and Damien Jurado.
“There is a risk involved in writing songs and singing about what is going on in my head--especially since I have a family to answer to and a job to go to in the morning.”
That being said, there is nothing more
frustrating to me than hearing someone sing a dishonestly happy song. If
we can't stand up and pour our hearts out, what is the point?
Musically,
it is hard telling who our influences are. We all listen to different
music: old country, indie, metal, grunge (yuck). We all have differences
in musical taste that I think translates to a solid, distinct sound.
Nate is the best musician in the group but he is also the most timid
about playing what he wants to. He actually emailed me tonight to ask
what I thought about the drum parts. THIS IS YOUR BAND. PLAY WHAT YOU
WANT. IT IS BEAUTIFUL. THAT IS THE POINT!!!
CB: Do you have an album yet?
MR: will get into some
trouble saying this but I am really against musicians who record an
'album' before they really play out or establish a fan base. It is so
easy today to record at home and burn CD-Rs and so you have a town full
of people who have all of these 'albums' and 'EPs' that nobody listens
to or really cares about while there are some really legit local
musicians who are actually out there playing regularly who SHOULD have
records: Lagoon Brothers, Viola Lees, Sweetmess to name a few... It will
be a good long while before you hear about a Born Mountaineer record.
But when it happens, it will knock your socks off ...and it will be
recorded in a studio and pressed to vinyl. In the mean time, come see us
play or listen to the clips we have up on facebook.
This band
is the most comfortable band I have played with. We all do our own thing
and there are no expectations other than keeping a beat/stay in tune.
Things feel great that way. We know each other well enough to be honest
and to push each other when we need to. I'm really excited to see what
this year holds for us.
CB: This is a pretty broad question, but how do feel about how things are
going with the local music scene?
MR: The local music scene has always been under-appreciated. We have had some really amazing musicians in town for as long as I can remember and the reason they are under-appreciated is that there has never been a reliable venue for music. We can play bars and coffee shops and open mics, but there hasn't ever been a specific location where we can go to see good live music. Things may be changing though... Fingers crossed.