What
is the name of your band?
The
of our band is: Lungs of a Giant
Band
members?
Paul Watling-guitar,vocals; Chris Belz-keyboards; Hannah
Cabell-; Andrew Harrison-keyboards;
Ted Harrison-drums,guitar and Greg Harrison-
bass.
What
have been your musical influences?
With six people in
the band who all contribute to the songwriting,our influences come from all over.
We are still trying to figure out if it's a good thing that none of our songs
sound alike.We are influenced by everything from independent rock to roots reggae
to country to experimental electronic stuff.
Some groups/individuals that
influences us:Johnny Cash, Lee Perry, Silver Apples, Dirty Three, Pavement, Sterolab.
What
is the history of the band?
The band has been around
for about two years.The core band members were Paul,Ted Hannah and Chris.
I think the bands name came about when one member (possibly Chris) walked out
into a parking lot on a foggy night and the light coming from the street lamps
looked like two giant lungs. Giant...lungs...Lungs of a Giant!
Looking at the places or venues that you've performed at how have they changed
or stayed the same?
We started playing only in Manhattan,
but in the last month we've played in Willamsburg,Brooklyn twice
and in Philadelphia.
We are trying to play more places where it's free to get in. This not only saves
our friends
who come to see us money, but it also makes it possible for us
to reach people who don't really know us. Most people won't pay a lot to see a
band they've never heard of before.
How
does being in an Urban society impact your band ( lyrically,audience that you
might want to target,style etc..)?
I think being in
an urban society accounts for our wide range of influences.In New York you can
see any of a thousand groups or hear a wide variety of DJs on any given night.There
are also more college radio stations providing an alternative to creatively limited
popular music.
Why do you think that Urbanism has this impact? Is it a vital role and why?
When I travel to other states and smaller cities you can
see that people are only exposed to music through what is on the radio (very little)
or what stores like Walmart choose to put on their shelves.People in these areas
have to work harder to find interesting music.They also have fewer places to play
if they are in a band and therefore fewer places to be exposed to other bands.Outlets
like MTV that should be giving people more options end up showing a small handful
of groups based more on image than music.
How do you feel about being categorized or being labeled?Does it bother you when
others compare you?
I would invite people to categorize
us. We keep trying to decided what 'type' of music we are but we've been
having some trouble. People will compare songs of ours to other groups,and sometimes
they will guess our influences that way. It doesn't bother us.