They're the talk of the town right now. I sat down with guitarist Jason Rich for a look into the world of Coworkers.Is there one band who influences how you play guitar more than any other?
I got my first guitar when I was 13. At that time I liked pop metal bands like Skid Row and Warrant. The main purpose of the guitarists in those bands was to look cool and to play rippin', reverb-soaked, uber-complex solos after the second chorus of each song. I was just a kid with a Fender Strat and an 8 watt practice amp with no distortion. It seemed impossible. Seriously, I didn't even know what distortion was. I thought glam bands had that guitar tone because of their pointy, hot pink guitars. I had the same guitar Buddy Holly was pictured with on my Dad's records, and that was why it sounded clean and twangy. It was hopeless, so the guitar collected dust for a couple years. Then grunge hit in the early 90s. I loved everything about it...it was just so real. With glam it was hairspray, spandex, and songs about having sex. With grunge it was jeans, t-shirts, and anger. Much more relateable for a teenage dork like me. Plus the songs were great, but simple. My friend showed me how to play a power chord, and I finally got an amp with distortion. If you know power chords and have distortion, you can pretty much play the entire Nirvana "Nevermind" album. I was blown away that the I could play along with the best band in the world at the time. I began to realize that quality song writing need not have complex solos or a zillion parts- it just needs to be good. The whole punk ideal of "anyone can do it" has always been very appealing to me. So grunge really influenced my playing early. Just power chords, and keep it simple. As I branched out in to punk and hardcore in the following years, speed became more of an issue. You can still play power chords, but you have to get that fast Minor Threat-style strumming down. I also learned to play bass and drums a little, and that helps with guitar playing and song writing a lot. I gradually tried to actually use a few non-power chords here and there. In Coworkers, I have made an effort to use my high strings a lot more and not just play rhythm guitar all the time. Playing with Chelsea has been a bit of a revelation...her bass parts are amazing. She rarely plays root notes, and I'd say in over half of Coworkers songs we are playing different parts at the same time. It has added a whole new demension to my song writing. Now I make up the guitar parts and KNOW the bass will be doing something funky and different, and in the songs she writes I always play something different over top of her bass line. The main reason for the latter is that her bass parts are so crazy, I couldn't play along if I wanted to! She is just too good. So in short, I guess my guitar influences would be grunge, hardcore punk, and Chelsea Merlo.
On the demo, you have a song called "Kingdom Bound and Gagged." Who's your favorite right wing nut job?
By favorite do you mean least favorite? I dunno, probably Ann Coulter. She sucks because she is stump dumb on a lot of issues, but gets by,and makes points, by calling the other side names rather than accurately analyzing the situation. As far as right wingers I actually LIKE...the author Matthew Bracken is pretty cool. I like local Buffalo radio guy Tom Bauerle because he is conservative on most issues but liberal on personal issues like sexual preference. I can listen to conservative arguments on economic or even foreign policy. I even may agree with some of their points. But I have no time for anything even remotely racist, sexist, or homophobic. It is important to note that nut jobs are not exclusive to the right- the left is as bad or worse sometimes. The Obama-is-god crowd makes me just as sick as the Rush Limbaugh crowd. I am actually really dissapointed in the left, who spent 8 years attacking Bush ( and deservedly so) and now lets Obama off the hook and make excuses for him. If this oil spill happened under Bush, ANSWER would be setting up demos and building puppets of Bush hanging from an oil derrick or something. But with Obama, they are mum. That is not to say Obama is at fault, I'm just using that as an example. It is that kind of partisan blind-eye shit that is destroying everything. Until people start to read the already HUGE writing on the wall and realize ALL current American politicians are criminals, nothing is going to change.
What can we expect from the new stuff you guys have coming out later in the year?
We have a split 7" record coming out with Inerds, who also hail from Buffalo. It SHOULD be out by late summer, but you know how those things go.
The quality of your demo was great. Did you stay with the same producer?
Our friend Jay Sallese recorded our demo at our practice space. I thought it came out great, he did a very nice job. The new stuff that will be on the 7" was recorded by Matt Smith at Hi/Lo studios south of Buffalo. It was recorded above his garage in the mid January. We were totally out in the middle of nowhere, it was actually quite beautiful. The basic tracks were recorded live, which I have mixed feelings about. It was quicker and easier, but there was a lot of bleed in the sound I'm not that fond of. But overall it came out great, and Matt was a pleasure to work with. All his recording stuff is analog too, which is nice, and rare these days. I highly recommend Hi/Lo.
Any touring plans? No, no tour plans. We have a hard enough time organizing a practice. We are all super busy and it makes it hard. Aaron and I work full time day jobs, and he spends a lot of time working on his other band, Sonorous Gale. Chelsea and Craig are full time students, and also work part time. In addition, we all have our own hobbies and interests, musical and non-musical. I would like to think we will play more out-of-town shows in the future, but multi-week tours ain't gonna happen.
Favorite local release of 2010 thus far? Probably the new May Day! 7". I love that band. Surf has always been a favorite genre of mine, and they have an element of that mixed with rockin' punk. I have always thought Melody has the best voice. May Day! reminds me a lot of a band from Luxemburg called Petrograd. I have to make an effort to see them more live, I think I've only seen May Day! three times. There are lots of other great local releases. The new Sonorous Gale 7" is good, the Everything Falls Apart LP is nice, I still rock the Resist Control demo. I will be picking up the new Gas Chamber and Iceberg recordings soon. Probably more I am forgetting. Buffalo has tons of good bands right now.
You're a big horror movie buff. If Coworkers could be featured on the soundtrack to any horror film, what subgenre would you like it to be in? I don't think Coworkers music would fit in very well in a horror film. In horror, I like orchestrial music, like in Psycho or The Exorcist. Or ominous music like God Speed You! Black Emperor in 28 Days Later. Or wierd, noisy stuff like Goblin in Dawn of the Dead. A lot of times, you don't want songs, you just want snippets or sounds. Like the droning sound in Night of the Living Dead after the truck burns up and the zombies eat the remains. Or John Carpenter's music in Halloween...super simple but eerie, repetitive, and building. I dunno, maybe if someone chooses to remake and ruin Return of the Living Dead, Coworkers could cover that "Do you wanna paaaarrrty!" song by .45 Grave.
