MDN note: I apologize for being slightly tardy, there was a detail I wanted to clarify with CMC before posting! Here you are, hope ya’ll enjoy.
CMC: Okay - I'm Christopher Mann Christopherson. The guitarist from The Greg Olsen Experience. I’ve learned I apparently left under a “wave of controversy” in 2008. I was best friends with Greg's father and played lead in Pocatello's favorite Airhead coverband. Fan rumors on the Tavern say I refused to allow my playing on Nordic Storm or Tainted Importance on Sounds of Travel. Ask me anything, Marc!
MDN: So, considering the buzz on this forum, I have to ask, did you refuse to have Greg include your parts on Nordic Storm and Tainted Importance on Greg’s seminal album, Sounds of Travel?
CMC: It’s funny you should say that. You know, up until 2 years ago I wasn’t even aware I had become a villain for the tunerheads. From my end of the stick, I had just finished Greg’s from Airheads to Tuneheads tour and was just lookin’ for a break. I don’t know how much ya’ll would know of the behind the scenes, but Greg can be a pretty intense person. That’s just not my scene, so when he asked if I’d stick around, I politely passed.
MDN: Where do you think the rumors on Nordic Storm come from?
CMC: I guess people confused “I will not record an album” with “I will not allow you to include my songs”. Truth be told, I co-wrote almost every song on Sounds of Travel with Greg. The thing with Nordic is that nothing was written down, outside of Greg’s driving riff - it was all improvised. I think what went wrong is Greg wasn’t sure where to go with it when I left. I think we’d all agree that the Sounds of Travel’s Nordic Storm isn’t up to snuff. I think a reason for that is that Greg was just getting to know Nugget asked Matthew to play a very standard bass line behind him instead of asking him to improvise like I did. Nordic Storm on Sounds was missing The Storm! You know?
MDN: Oh, I’m a paid member of the band - I’m not sure if I can agree to that or not. Any truth to the fact you came back for the re-recording?
CMC: Oh, I can’t say - no matter what Negut is the rightful star of the show, but perhaps I did do some “consulting” ha ha. I guess it's fun when Nugget and I can get together, huh?
MDN: Oh it is, what do you think works so well when you two can pair up?
CMC: In short he's a chords guy and I'm a tabs guy. I'm not classically trained or anything and playing was always just sort of a "feeling" for me, and I let the songs just sort of "write themselves."
MDN: Really? I gotta say I'm surprised by that. Your chords are really impressive.
CMC: But that's the fun thing about music in general, right? It's accessible to everyone, especially now when you have such advanced [apps] available to all the kids these days. You don't have to be an aristocratically trained expert -- you can just love the soul of a sound and follow it to create something that's all your own.
MDN: How does that compare to Negut?
CMC: Oh, he's as studious to music as anyone I've ever known. Books, and practice and is constantly updating his sound. He knows how to conduct orchestras and constantly challenges himself on his craft. I admire it, cause he ain't elitist about any of it. I think together we sort of fit together like a puzzle, and you add Greg into it and it's like a constantly changing work of art... or at least a defined mess, depending on the eye of the beholder. I for one thought we sounded the best we ever did live last year.
MDN: But with that I have to ask. We heard some really upsetting rumors about your last show, is it true you asked for luudes from the audience?
CMC: Gah, I miss the 80’s?
MDN: Big fan of the gipper?
CMC: God no he was corrupt as hell - big reason why our country is in the state it’s in today to tell you the truth. I was just having fun, the government put an end to luudes in the 90’s anyway - everyone knows that. I was always a guy who preferred a good bake sale anyway - but you are familiar with that, har har.
MDN: I see. How have the bake sales been in this time of quarantine?
CMC: With loosened green laws there is no better time for a quarantine in this country.
MDN: how have you been holding up with everything?
CMC: Ah, I’m fine. As you know, I’m neighbors with Greg so that always keeps things lively.
MDN: In what way?
CMC: oh, he’ll start the day yellin’ over and sayin’ “WHAT ABOUT SOME NORDIC STORM?” and strums until I get my guitar out and then we kind of pick back and forth. He says that I can always yell over for a conversation, I can actually see him on his deck now.
MDN: No joke? Can I ask him a question for the interview.
CMC: Sure! (Opens window, yells to Greg) Greg I’m doin’ an interview for the Tuner Tavern. Can they ask a question?
GO: (inaudible) sure!
(No joke, CMC was holding his phone out the window here so Greg and I could communicate).
GO: Hey am I on the phone with some… TUNEHEADS?! You all know I love my fans. Ho-oh! Seems it is an interview, huh? For the Tunehead Tavern as I recall...yes I believe even Thad posts there. MDNuite a stir in that forum!
MDN: Hey, Greg! Let me think of generic rockstar questions for you. I’ll start here, what’s a favorite story of yours about a live show?
GO: I gotta say first of all that talking about MY band out in the open isn't something I like to do. I keep it close to my heart and soul. That being said, the many Tuneheads of the world deserve to hear more from what I would call a pretty good group of musicians.
As always, seeing us live is an Experience with a capital ‘E’. Our shows aren't about accuracy or continuity. I read people's “setlist” reports on this fancy web portal called Setlist FM. Catchy name, might have come up with something similar myself if they hadn't done it first! Ha! Big money!
MDN: Greg paused for about 45 seconds here for some reason. He continues.
GO: Anyway...I see those setlists and I think, GOD. The kids just don't get it. There is no sequence to our shows that could be captured by a setlist. Many times I will play parts of Nordic Storm right in the middle of Westward to Nowhere. A great combo, might I add.
But our most memorable time performing was likely at the Pocatello lamb auction many moons ago. Very few got to enjoy what I always called a cerebral event. One where the early sounds of my band coalesced with the rustic unknown found in auction jingo. Or maybe lingo? Jarlo? Largon? Well, whatever. It was a time where the band was really focused on PERFORMANCE ART, not the ART of the performance. Make sense or did I talk too fast? Hahahahaha!
MDN: Greg laughed for about 2 minutes here on and off, so he must have had a funny memory or two attached to their time performing in conjunction with the lamb auction. One can only imagine...
MDN: Okay, so Greg let's get back on track, here. Let's do desert island. Top 5 bands, Greg (Airhead doesn’t count). Go!
GO: Well excluding Airhead makes it tough but I understand the need to explain where terms like “fat sounds” and “Rold Gold” come from. It's also worth mentioning that we even have influences such as (B-Bam?) Darkthrone and Dream Theater, though I always thought Portnoy and their vocalist were too indulgent, there’s a couple of other progressive metal acts I’m forgetting, so sorry to them - I think they’re from Sweden, anywho. While I love my heavy sounds on a hot and sweaty day I wouldn't dare call the rugged and crusty metal Jim Jams my favorite for island tunies. No, I think I'd better focus on the very significant “worldly” sounds that started this band.
I'll start off with… The Residents, Negativland, Captain Beefheart, Xiu Xiu, Phil Collins and of course, Paper Ceilings. Wait, is that six? Oh well, you all get six, then.
MDN: [After a pause] Nice! I’ll finish up with the question EVERYONE always wants to ask - what was it that inspired you to start The Greg Olsen Experience?
GO: I can tell you the day, David, I can tell you the day. I grew up in a really strict sort of household. You know, always getting tutoring and piano lessons and all that. It was too much. Mom left the picture early and Dad and I butted heads. I worked an office job through the early to middle 90’s and wrote off music forever.
MDN: Wrote off music forever?
GO: Yeah, I didn’t listen to it. Period. Dad had just made it such a regimented Type A thing that I didn’t enjoy it anymore. I had played Piano in some live events in college. Real swanky, classical music type gigs, but it just didn’t interest me anymore. That all changed when I met this guy right here, Christopher Mann Christopherson, at a party my Dad was throwing. Christopher was playing the music at a… what was my Dad even doing?
CMC: It was his 60th birthday, I believe.
GO: Yeah. That checks out. That’d have been what? Early 97? God it takes you back, don’t it? Anywho, at that event Chris was just nailing this cover of Adrian Legg’s Cajun Interlude. I had never even heard of Adrian Legg. Chris was nice enough to give me a cassette and it just rocked my world. I mean, heck, even Steve Vai calls Adrian Legg “Uncle Adrian”. You have this guy, who sounds like he should be leading Classical Guitar shows at the London Philharmonic, or damn, no, The Royal Albert Hall - ha, I always get those fancy-do places turned around. Anyway, Adrian’s breaking all the rules, doing double hammer-ons, and bending the conventional rules of what should be possible with music. I knew exactly what I wanted to do then. Chris was the first one who asked me “why not? to my music ambition. Basically, I was broke, Dad didn’t support me, and that was that. Well, that was until Chris found out about my Dad’s love for Airhead, and we pitched to play acoustic covers of Airhead for my Dad’s events and at gigs around Pocatello. The late 90’s to the infant 2000’s was such a good time in my life, around then I found Cymande and Quantic’s “The Fifth Exotic” during this time and kept adding cassettes that challenged everything I once thought wrong about music. It goes without saying but this time also allowed my Dad and I to settle our beefs and he saw my music interest in a whole new way, even bankrolling our “Airheads to Tuneheads” tour. It’s part of why I feel like Chris can just walk on water with anything he does, really. Patching up the beef with my Dad is how I ended up with a few of his apartment properties [they're mine now] and his rentals are how I find TGOE today. I'm not making as much as Dad did. Do you know if you charge rent TOO CHEAP you can't get tax breaks from it? Bah. My lawyer thinks I'm a moron but I never charge high enough for the tax breaks. Eventually that cash will eventually run out but it'll probably happen after I pass this on to my nieces.
MDN: Is keeping your tenants happy real important to you?
GO: Yeah, I lived under a terrible landlord for a longtime and it's easy to remember that time. I send out little Google Forms for feedback whenever I can and try to address any concerns that pop-up. Anyway, all of my income there is frozen with the corona, of course. Not exactly gonna ask for rent when people aren’t sure how to find work, and that means TGOE is on hold too - but there are more important things.
MDN: Sorry - I keep asking questions. Did TGOE start immediately when you started a cover band?
GO: You know the answer to this. But no, no, no. It was a while later before I started branching out and doing my own thing - and much, much longer before I could even touch a piano again. The young fart (d pilz) got me back doin’ that on “From Moscow..”. Gah we’re all geezers now! But even in my old age [MDN note - Greg is only 50, btw] I don’t know - I mean I really don’t know if you’ll ever hear me make a “traditional” song. You can hear that wherever, Mozart, the radio, whatever. I want songs that break the rules, that make you wonder if I’m in the middle of a bowl with Chris here, but songs you will never forget all the same. You know? Alright, I’m gonna bounce! Hope the tavern likes this!
MDN: Of course - goodbye, Greg! Thanks for that, Chris. Wow, you really heard how impactful you were in Greg’s journey here and the story of this band. It’s been “rumored” for a while that you were also instrumental in bringing the band back together after Galore. Care to comment on that?
CMC: Ah, “instrumental” is too strong of a word, unless you’re referring to the guitar I played on the album - har har! My small role came around the time 2015 or 2016 rolled around. Greg had been pushing for me to come back for the Galore sessions and I still just wasn’t ready, I don’t think. I sort of stepped back from studio work a while, gah, around a decade now that I think about it - and honestly, outside a few recordings I sent Greg from my house, I planned to keep it that way.
MDN: Did you not have any involvement on Galore at all?
CMC: None! Honestly I haven’t even listened to that album. I just wasn’t in the right headspace to work on the experience. That changed, though. I ran into John Berry and David Pilsby at an open mic. I had never worked with them directly to that point but they were very, very kind. Asking if I’d be interested in playing on a new project with them. I had to stop them, I was like “Dudes, whatever happened with Greg?” I think they just needed to talk it out at that point, but I asked them, point blank, I may add, if they had any opportunities, or ever recorded anything without Greg. They said no, and that’s when David asked if we’d be willing to reach out to Greg on their behalf to “get the band back together”. John didn’t think Greg would even be interested in playing with him again. A week later the whole band (including myself) was in the studio and later that day we had finished Bermuda Joyride. I loved, loved, loved working with the entire band Greg has put together. Some of my best memories were staying up through the witching hour with Greg and John as we experimented, scrapped, and pushed each other on the back half of Bermuda.
MDN: Were you fully involved from that point to the end of the album?
CMC: Oh no. Not even close. I think I dropped licks on Bermuda Joyride and Moscow Boogie with the band. Greg had me record some riffs on Canadian Traverse in around 2013 too - but I did that from my at home studio. Not with the band at that time. I don't want to downplay my role on the album, though. Greg gave me regular updates and for the first time he had us sit down as a band and listen to it at a BBQ he threw together. I told him that day that this was the album he had always dreamed of making when he first told me about his band idea - and I was proud to be a part of it!
MDN: Are you willing to divulge your involvement in #2 Pencil, too?
CMC: Ah, fine. You wore me down! I worked on the Nordic Storm remake - which basically amounted to a 3 hour jam session with Matt and Greg. So happy I got to do that before all this madness began. Definitely my favorite social exercise of this waking nightmare we’ve called 2020 so far.
MDN: Chris, I’ve already taken so much of your time, do you have anything else before I let you off the hotseat?
CMC: Your timing is impeccable. The brownies just finished. This all has been so much fun, Marc. Keep the faith, tunerheads! We’re in this together.
MDN: Thank you, Chris! See you, Tuneheads [whispers] have a good night. [Turns on Pointless Tombstone Convention]
CMC: Okay - I'm Christopher Mann Christopherson. The guitarist from The Greg Olsen Experience. I’ve learned I apparently left under a “wave of controversy” in 2008. I was best friends with Greg's father and played lead in Pocatello's favorite Airhead coverband. Fan rumors on the Tavern say I refused to allow my playing on Nordic Storm or Tainted Importance on Sounds of Travel. Ask me anything, Marc!
MDN: So, considering the buzz on this forum, I have to ask, did you refuse to have Greg include your parts on Nordic Storm and Tainted Importance on Greg’s seminal album, Sounds of Travel?
CMC: It’s funny you should say that. You know, up until 2 years ago I wasn’t even aware I had become a villain for the tunerheads. From my end of the stick, I had just finished Greg’s from Airheads to Tuneheads tour and was just lookin’ for a break. I don’t know how much ya’ll would know of the behind the scenes, but Greg can be a pretty intense person. That’s just not my scene, so when he asked if I’d stick around, I politely passed.
MDN: Where do you think the rumors on Nordic Storm come from?
CMC: I guess people confused “I will not record an album” with “I will not allow you to include my songs”. Truth be told, I co-wrote almost every song on Sounds of Travel with Greg. The thing with Nordic is that nothing was written down, outside of Greg’s driving riff - it was all improvised. I think what went wrong is Greg wasn’t sure where to go with it when I left. I think we’d all agree that the Sounds of Travel’s Nordic Storm isn’t up to snuff. I think a reason for that is that Greg was just getting to know Nugget asked Matthew to play a very standard bass line behind him instead of asking him to improvise like I did. Nordic Storm on Sounds was missing The Storm! You know?
MDN: Oh, I’m a paid member of the band - I’m not sure if I can agree to that or not. Any truth to the fact you came back for the re-recording?
CMC: Oh, I can’t say - no matter what Negut is the rightful star of the show, but perhaps I did do some “consulting” ha ha. I guess it's fun when Nugget and I can get together, huh?
MDN: Oh it is, what do you think works so well when you two can pair up?
CMC: In short he's a chords guy and I'm a tabs guy. I'm not classically trained or anything and playing was always just sort of a "feeling" for me, and I let the songs just sort of "write themselves."
MDN: Really? I gotta say I'm surprised by that. Your chords are really impressive.
CMC: But that's the fun thing about music in general, right? It's accessible to everyone, especially now when you have such advanced [apps] available to all the kids these days. You don't have to be an aristocratically trained expert -- you can just love the soul of a sound and follow it to create something that's all your own.
MDN: How does that compare to Negut?
CMC: Oh, he's as studious to music as anyone I've ever known. Books, and practice and is constantly updating his sound. He knows how to conduct orchestras and constantly challenges himself on his craft. I admire it, cause he ain't elitist about any of it. I think together we sort of fit together like a puzzle, and you add Greg into it and it's like a constantly changing work of art... or at least a defined mess, depending on the eye of the beholder. I for one thought we sounded the best we ever did live last year.
MDN: But with that I have to ask. We heard some really upsetting rumors about your last show, is it true you asked for luudes from the audience?
CMC: Gah, I miss the 80’s?
MDN: Big fan of the gipper?
CMC: God no he was corrupt as hell - big reason why our country is in the state it’s in today to tell you the truth. I was just having fun, the government put an end to luudes in the 90’s anyway - everyone knows that. I was always a guy who preferred a good bake sale anyway - but you are familiar with that, har har.
MDN: I see. How have the bake sales been in this time of quarantine?
CMC: With loosened green laws there is no better time for a quarantine in this country.
MDN: how have you been holding up with everything?
CMC: Ah, I’m fine. As you know, I’m neighbors with Greg so that always keeps things lively.
MDN: In what way?
CMC: oh, he’ll start the day yellin’ over and sayin’ “WHAT ABOUT SOME NORDIC STORM?” and strums until I get my guitar out and then we kind of pick back and forth. He says that I can always yell over for a conversation, I can actually see him on his deck now.
MDN: No joke? Can I ask him a question for the interview.
CMC: Sure! (Opens window, yells to Greg) Greg I’m doin’ an interview for the Tuner Tavern. Can they ask a question?
GO: (inaudible) sure!
(No joke, CMC was holding his phone out the window here so Greg and I could communicate).
GO: Hey am I on the phone with some… TUNEHEADS?! You all know I love my fans. Ho-oh! Seems it is an interview, huh? For the Tunehead Tavern as I recall...yes I believe even Thad posts there. MDNuite a stir in that forum!
MDN: Hey, Greg! Let me think of generic rockstar questions for you. I’ll start here, what’s a favorite story of yours about a live show?
GO: I gotta say first of all that talking about MY band out in the open isn't something I like to do. I keep it close to my heart and soul. That being said, the many Tuneheads of the world deserve to hear more from what I would call a pretty good group of musicians.
As always, seeing us live is an Experience with a capital ‘E’. Our shows aren't about accuracy or continuity. I read people's “setlist” reports on this fancy web portal called Setlist FM. Catchy name, might have come up with something similar myself if they hadn't done it first! Ha! Big money!
MDN: Greg paused for about 45 seconds here for some reason. He continues.
GO: Anyway...I see those setlists and I think, GOD. The kids just don't get it. There is no sequence to our shows that could be captured by a setlist. Many times I will play parts of Nordic Storm right in the middle of Westward to Nowhere. A great combo, might I add.
But our most memorable time performing was likely at the Pocatello lamb auction many moons ago. Very few got to enjoy what I always called a cerebral event. One where the early sounds of my band coalesced with the rustic unknown found in auction jingo. Or maybe lingo? Jarlo? Largon? Well, whatever. It was a time where the band was really focused on PERFORMANCE ART, not the ART of the performance. Make sense or did I talk too fast? Hahahahaha!
MDN: Greg laughed for about 2 minutes here on and off, so he must have had a funny memory or two attached to their time performing in conjunction with the lamb auction. One can only imagine...
MDN: Okay, so Greg let's get back on track, here. Let's do desert island. Top 5 bands, Greg (Airhead doesn’t count). Go!
GO: Well excluding Airhead makes it tough but I understand the need to explain where terms like “fat sounds” and “Rold Gold” come from. It's also worth mentioning that we even have influences such as (B-Bam?) Darkthrone and Dream Theater, though I always thought Portnoy and their vocalist were too indulgent, there’s a couple of other progressive metal acts I’m forgetting, so sorry to them - I think they’re from Sweden, anywho. While I love my heavy sounds on a hot and sweaty day I wouldn't dare call the rugged and crusty metal Jim Jams my favorite for island tunies. No, I think I'd better focus on the very significant “worldly” sounds that started this band.
I'll start off with… The Residents, Negativland, Captain Beefheart, Xiu Xiu, Phil Collins and of course, Paper Ceilings. Wait, is that six? Oh well, you all get six, then.
MDN: [After a pause] Nice! I’ll finish up with the question EVERYONE always wants to ask - what was it that inspired you to start The Greg Olsen Experience?
GO: I can tell you the day, David, I can tell you the day. I grew up in a really strict sort of household. You know, always getting tutoring and piano lessons and all that. It was too much. Mom left the picture early and Dad and I butted heads. I worked an office job through the early to middle 90’s and wrote off music forever.
MDN: Wrote off music forever?
GO: Yeah, I didn’t listen to it. Period. Dad had just made it such a regimented Type A thing that I didn’t enjoy it anymore. I had played Piano in some live events in college. Real swanky, classical music type gigs, but it just didn’t interest me anymore. That all changed when I met this guy right here, Christopher Mann Christopherson, at a party my Dad was throwing. Christopher was playing the music at a… what was my Dad even doing?
CMC: It was his 60th birthday, I believe.
GO: Yeah. That checks out. That’d have been what? Early 97? God it takes you back, don’t it? Anywho, at that event Chris was just nailing this cover of Adrian Legg’s Cajun Interlude. I had never even heard of Adrian Legg. Chris was nice enough to give me a cassette and it just rocked my world. I mean, heck, even Steve Vai calls Adrian Legg “Uncle Adrian”. You have this guy, who sounds like he should be leading Classical Guitar shows at the London Philharmonic, or damn, no, The Royal Albert Hall - ha, I always get those fancy-do places turned around. Anyway, Adrian’s breaking all the rules, doing double hammer-ons, and bending the conventional rules of what should be possible with music. I knew exactly what I wanted to do then. Chris was the first one who asked me “why not? to my music ambition. Basically, I was broke, Dad didn’t support me, and that was that. Well, that was until Chris found out about my Dad’s love for Airhead, and we pitched to play acoustic covers of Airhead for my Dad’s events and at gigs around Pocatello. The late 90’s to the infant 2000’s was such a good time in my life, around then I found Cymande and Quantic’s “The Fifth Exotic” during this time and kept adding cassettes that challenged everything I once thought wrong about music. It goes without saying but this time also allowed my Dad and I to settle our beefs and he saw my music interest in a whole new way, even bankrolling our “Airheads to Tuneheads” tour. It’s part of why I feel like Chris can just walk on water with anything he does, really. Patching up the beef with my Dad is how I ended up with a few of his apartment properties [they're mine now] and his rentals are how I find TGOE today. I'm not making as much as Dad did. Do you know if you charge rent TOO CHEAP you can't get tax breaks from it? Bah. My lawyer thinks I'm a moron but I never charge high enough for the tax breaks. Eventually that cash will eventually run out but it'll probably happen after I pass this on to my nieces.
MDN: Is keeping your tenants happy real important to you?
GO: Yeah, I lived under a terrible landlord for a longtime and it's easy to remember that time. I send out little Google Forms for feedback whenever I can and try to address any concerns that pop-up. Anyway, all of my income there is frozen with the corona, of course. Not exactly gonna ask for rent when people aren’t sure how to find work, and that means TGOE is on hold too - but there are more important things.
MDN: Sorry - I keep asking questions. Did TGOE start immediately when you started a cover band?
GO: You know the answer to this. But no, no, no. It was a while later before I started branching out and doing my own thing - and much, much longer before I could even touch a piano again. The young fart (d pilz) got me back doin’ that on “From Moscow..”. Gah we’re all geezers now! But even in my old age [MDN note - Greg is only 50, btw] I don’t know - I mean I really don’t know if you’ll ever hear me make a “traditional” song. You can hear that wherever, Mozart, the radio, whatever. I want songs that break the rules, that make you wonder if I’m in the middle of a bowl with Chris here, but songs you will never forget all the same. You know? Alright, I’m gonna bounce! Hope the tavern likes this!
MDN: Of course - goodbye, Greg! Thanks for that, Chris. Wow, you really heard how impactful you were in Greg’s journey here and the story of this band. It’s been “rumored” for a while that you were also instrumental in bringing the band back together after Galore. Care to comment on that?
CMC: Ah, “instrumental” is too strong of a word, unless you’re referring to the guitar I played on the album - har har! My small role came around the time 2015 or 2016 rolled around. Greg had been pushing for me to come back for the Galore sessions and I still just wasn’t ready, I don’t think. I sort of stepped back from studio work a while, gah, around a decade now that I think about it - and honestly, outside a few recordings I sent Greg from my house, I planned to keep it that way.
MDN: Did you not have any involvement on Galore at all?
CMC: None! Honestly I haven’t even listened to that album. I just wasn’t in the right headspace to work on the experience. That changed, though. I ran into John Berry and David Pilsby at an open mic. I had never worked with them directly to that point but they were very, very kind. Asking if I’d be interested in playing on a new project with them. I had to stop them, I was like “Dudes, whatever happened with Greg?” I think they just needed to talk it out at that point, but I asked them, point blank, I may add, if they had any opportunities, or ever recorded anything without Greg. They said no, and that’s when David asked if we’d be willing to reach out to Greg on their behalf to “get the band back together”. John didn’t think Greg would even be interested in playing with him again. A week later the whole band (including myself) was in the studio and later that day we had finished Bermuda Joyride. I loved, loved, loved working with the entire band Greg has put together. Some of my best memories were staying up through the witching hour with Greg and John as we experimented, scrapped, and pushed each other on the back half of Bermuda.
MDN: Were you fully involved from that point to the end of the album?
CMC: Oh no. Not even close. I think I dropped licks on Bermuda Joyride and Moscow Boogie with the band. Greg had me record some riffs on Canadian Traverse in around 2013 too - but I did that from my at home studio. Not with the band at that time. I don't want to downplay my role on the album, though. Greg gave me regular updates and for the first time he had us sit down as a band and listen to it at a BBQ he threw together. I told him that day that this was the album he had always dreamed of making when he first told me about his band idea - and I was proud to be a part of it!
MDN: Are you willing to divulge your involvement in #2 Pencil, too?
CMC: Ah, fine. You wore me down! I worked on the Nordic Storm remake - which basically amounted to a 3 hour jam session with Matt and Greg. So happy I got to do that before all this madness began. Definitely my favorite social exercise of this waking nightmare we’ve called 2020 so far.
MDN: Chris, I’ve already taken so much of your time, do you have anything else before I let you off the hotseat?
CMC: Your timing is impeccable. The brownies just finished. This all has been so much fun, Marc. Keep the faith, tunerheads! We’re in this together.
MDN: Thank you, Chris! See you, Tuneheads [whispers] have a good night. [Turns on Pointless Tombstone Convention]
Last edited by Marc David Nathin on Thu Apr 09, 2020 12:24 pm; edited 1 time in total
for an interview on the tavern!!
