June 16, 2025 • 49 mins
Kevin Hanson, an accomplished singer-songwriter-musician, was a member of Huffamoose, a 1990s alt-rock band that played Woodstock '94 and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." Since then, he's been busy with The Fractals, an alternative-indie-rock powerhouse quartet. The band's new 4-song EP is titled "Rescue." We discuss this project, the early days of Huffamoose, and more!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, welcome back to my little show here, my little
corner of the world. Thank you so much for joining me.
Today we have another music episode. I speak with Kevin Hansen.
He is from the band called the Fractals. But before
the Fractals, he was at a band called Huffa Moose,
which was pretty big in the nineties. Yes, they were big.
(00:23):
They were part of all those huge bands going way
back to those grunge days. We talk a little bit
about that and an appearance on the main stage at
Woodstock nineteen ninety four. Woodstock ninety four was huge. Now
that wasn't the one where there were all the fires
and all of that. That was ninety nine Woodstock ninety four.
(00:44):
I believe Todd Rundgren was there. I remember some people
covering Woodstock ninety four. Here we are, now well over
three decades later, talking and reminiscing a little bit and
talking about this wonderful new EP that the Fractals have
now check it out the fractalsband dot com. It is
a wonderful set of four songs. Their EP is wonderful.
(01:08):
It's called Rescue. Check it out. But Kevin goes way back.
Musical life for sure started out actually in the Washington
State area, as we talk about in our discussion. Then
he winds up in Philadelphia, just immerse in the music scene.
(01:28):
It is a blast to talk with Kevin in this episode.
I really do hope you enjoy this. Hope your summer
is going along quite well as these podcasts keep churning
out and stay cool. This summer another scorcher, but actually
it's been quite a bit wetter this summer so far.
(01:51):
So far, very very wet spring, stormy spring is a
lot of people have been experiencing throughout the Fruited Plane
here in twenty twenty five. Hopefully you'll be listening to
this well into the future. I don't want to date
myself to here, but this is being released in June
of twenty twenty five. June sixteenth, we're halfway through this
(02:13):
lovely month, heading towards the fourth of July, which is
always a lot of fun around here in the Southeastern
United States. So I will talk with y'all on the
other side of this discussion. I hope you enjoy my
talk with the Kevin Hanson from the band called the Fractals.
(02:35):
They are all over the place. Check out that YouTube page.
They have a wonderful video for the title track of
called Rescue. Check it out. Talk with y'all on the
other side. Hey, Kevin, how's it going this morning?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Good?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
How are you good? Good? I always ask where are
you broadcasting from this morning? I take it maybe Philadelphia
or you're somewhere.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Else Philadelphia at home in my studio.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Philly, PA, the home of Questlove. Who's been in the
news a little bit in the wake of sly Stone's passing.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yes, yes, yeah, rest easy sly Stone.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah wow, what a pioneer.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Just unbelievable, incredible, incredible musician and songwriter everything.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, well, you're one of many. I have to say that.
There's a lot of talent that comes out of Philly
and a very storied history there, so congratulations on that.
And somebody like yourself who played Woodstock ninety four, which
you can't believe how these years have passed.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I know, it's crazy. It's crazy that that was so
long ago.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Three good lord, it really is. So what was life
like back then? I think we're probably in the same
generation here, so we're speaking about the gen xers out
there who've just got to see what was going on
in the nineties with the rise of Pearl Jam, Nirvana,
and just so many of these bands. There was something
I really really enjoyed about that time, just like it
(04:15):
got real. It was just like after the big hair
band craze, I really did. I really got attracted to
that when all that started happening.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah, the early nineties.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
I've been talking about this a lot this past week
with friends from Philly who were who were in that scene,
and a lot of it had to do with the
fall of hair metal bands, in the fall of Paula Abdul. Yeah,
that was so huge in the in the late eighties,
and I mean that shift really just changed the pop
(04:51):
music business in the rock scene profoundly and in a
very short period of time, and a lot of you know,
it provided a lot of opportunity for bands that were
more you know, indy, but indye became just like a
marketing term.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Like within minutes. Yeah, yeah, but it did.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
You know, it kind of had like this kind of
like a punk rock ethos in that you could wear
flannel shirts and jeans. It's just that it was it
was commoditized so swiftly.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
And so completely. But it shifted the music.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
You know, I remember, like so many bands, so many
record labels signing bands that if your singers sounded remotely
like Eddy Vedder, you were you, you know, I happen
to like Pearl Jam. It's just like that shift was
was so it was just such a profound shake up
in the industry back then. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, and in the stations across the country. We had
one here in Atlanta and just was really glued to it,
and there was just something profound and it just felt
like you had a real connection to it rather than
what was going on before that in the late eighties.
It just felt like, wow, this is just like things
are getting real and people are really growing and progressing.
(06:17):
It felt like that it was like for a hot moment,
you know, it went so fast and you saw a
lot of that, and then some things had translated to
a lot of angst, which was in Woodstock ninety nine. Right.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I watched that documentary within the last year.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I hadn't seen it yet, and man, wow was that scary.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah, I mean talk about a promoter's nightmare.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Completely, yea completely, But life in Philly back then in
the early nineties, that's when Huffamu's, the band that I
was with back then was really, you know, we signed
a record deal, were playing all the time, and in
Philly it was I thought the scene was was great,
(07:07):
even though there was always I think in any scene
there's a little bit of hate thrown around.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
But was just talking to a good friend.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
We were on a game the other day and on
Second Street in Philly, within like just a couple of
block radius, there were you know, five or six venues
where bands were playing every night and you would be
loading out your gear and see your buddies in another band, and.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
It was there was a lot going on.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, in Philly too, with the rise of the roots
getting popular, the hip hop scene took off like crazy
as well, you know, and the Golden Age of hip
hop that ensued after that. So there was there was
a lot going on in the nineties that I didn't
really realize until much much later. You know, hindsight shed
(07:56):
shed some light on what how much positive stuff there
was going on back then. Yeah, that's a community and
it was, you know, a profound shift before Spotify took over,
where you know, you stood to actually be paige.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
That you created.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
It's unbelievable. Yeah, with Spotify and these things, it's like
when you get point oh three cents of play. It's
just like, wow, depressing.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
That is It's yeah, it's pretty criminal.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah yeah. But you know, in moving forward to today,
you have a great new EP out with your band,
the Fractals. It's just a really great collection of these
four songs and you have some really unique videos along
with that as well. What why an EP at this
point and not like a full LP or just doing
a single at this moment.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Well, we had this plan the last few years where
we were just releasing singles just because for a lot
of reasons. I mean, with the shift to digital streaming,
releasing in a full length album, you know, the chances
of somebody that you didn't know that wasn't a friend
(09:13):
of the band or an already fan listening to the
entire album there was a slim chance of that, and
so you just got much more traction releasing singles. And
with this latest EP, Rescue, our intention at first was
just to release the single Rescue, and then it was
actually our friend Maggie Pulos who suggested, why don't you
(09:35):
guys release an EP? So so that's kind of become
our new strategy. And on on this EP, we had
some songs that were released as singles and one from
a previous album, just to make a kind of a
nicer collection of songs and moving forward, our goal is
to continue releasing EPs with all new material. We've got
(09:57):
a couple EPs worth of songs that are in various
states and completion right now, and you know, we're I'm
writing new songs all the time, and so it's we've
definitely got got the material to keep pushing forward with
with new songs.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, how do you is? How's the process for you?
Are you the lyric writer and the band helps you
with melodies? How do how does that come together? When
you're you're you're sitting down with a song.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
The way that we do it now, it's the way
that Huffamus did it, where Craig Elkins, the lead singer,
room myself would bring in a new song that was
basically finished so that you know, everything was done in
terms of having a song like you could play it
on an acoustic guitar from beginning to end, and then
the band would play through it a few times and
everybody would kind of put their, you know, their own
(10:47):
input in there in terms of arrangement or rhythmic cues
and that's where the fun really begins. And so that's
our that's our that's kind of our model these days
as well, like all finish a song it in and
then we you know, turn it into a to a
band performance.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Yeah, rescue your title track is very unique with sound
effects and things like that and a very poppy rhythm
to it, very very it feels like it could feel
like Top forty. So it's really and very interesting lyrics
as well. So how long did it take to get
that one together?
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Well, that song this, this is kind of a funny thing.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
We've been playing that song for years and years, we
just never recorded it. And then Eric Johnson, our drummer,
said we have to record this song and it was
it was similar to how we've been playing it with
the skaby.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
With electric guitars.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
And then in this the current recording of it, like
you mentioned, we put in morse code and some leaves
and bloops and some sound effects that accompany the lyrics
like with the wuah won Co reference with the human
drumming in it. So that song was I rewrote the
verse lyrics and we kept the we kept the chorus
(12:07):
intact basically, So I'm glad to hear your assessment that
it could be considered a top forty song, and wouldn't
that be fun?
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yeah? Yeah, And it's so hard to do these days too,
because terrestrial radio is just incredibly limited. I mean, you
only have like you know, your Taylor's Swift's dominating this,
and it's it's hard to break. And even your legacy
artists are they're adult contemporary. It's not you know, the
Top forty is not like what it once was, so unified.
(12:39):
It's just to me, I think things have gotten very segmented,
just the way the entire businesses. And then you get
into streaming, so that's really you. I mean, the great
thing is everybody could do it, and the bad thing
is everybody can do it because you know, you can
record at home. Now it's it's amazing exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I mean radio pop, radio programming or you know the
conglomerates that you know, their their computer generated playlists and
DJs don't really have to say.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
We've been lucky in Philly to.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Have a radio station w XPN where DJs can actually
take a record off shelf and play, which is really
you know, a dying art form. And so we're We're
lucky to have that, and because like our music, even
though Rescue might have some pop appeal, and they they've
(13:34):
gave given that song. Some Spins are our last single
that we released, Christopher Walking, this radio station really embraced,
which is a very unlikely I thought, a very unlikely
song to appear on the radio. So we've been very
fortunate in that respect to have some some hometown love on.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
The Yeah, was there a particular DJ who just fell
in love with that track and just it's got a
great backstory, it's it's it's really hilarious. And also for
those who don't know, there's a great video out there
too where you guys have a little animated Christopher walking
in it. It's I love it. It's it's great with
bands can get cheeky like that.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah, well, we generally find ourselves working with people that
have a similar sensibility and sense of humor. And so
with that video that was done by our friend Christma
Jared's who's an incredible director and videographer, and so the
the animated Christopher walkin all him and his kids that
(14:39):
helped out with that.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yeah, Oh it's great, it's great, and it is the
actual actor aware of this, as somebody in his camp
might might be aware of this the song named after him,
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I mean that would be great.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
I'm sure that Christopher Walkin is completely had it with.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
All of the impersonations, But there was I was doing
a gig at a synagogue last spring and Kevin Pollock
was performing in the next room, and I thought, I've
got to get this song to him.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yeah, because his Christopher Walking, I think is maybe at
the top of the heap.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
But the song was written based on.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Real events and real people in my life, of people
that thought that they did a great Christopher Walking impersonation,
who in fact did not, So that whole song is
about like a few of these people in my life
that really did a horrible Christphal Walk.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
It's like the Yeah, it's the first song I could
really think of where somebody is like written about like, yeah,
your impression of this person sucks. It's it's unique, it's
never been done before, so there's a first thank you.
W XPN must be kind of like the old WMMR,
which I know has broken many acts, including Billy Joel
(16:02):
and people like that. So yeah, it's nice to know
that there's a radio station out there, at least terrestrial,
that could at least still have fun and not go
buy a huge corporation that's dictating a playlist, right.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
I mean, the station is great, and they've got these
featured shows like Nightly Dan Reid has a show called
Highs in the Seventies and it's an entire hour of
music from the seventies. So, you know, for music heads
and songwriters, it's like, I'm constantly hearing music that I've
never heard before.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
You know. So that's the station. It's very unique.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Yeah, it's really important to break out of the playlist
because even the streamers do that to you, Like I
have Amazon Music or Spotify. They're like, if they give
me a mix, it's staying within the genre of my
past play So it keeps you in that narrow scope,
so you don't discover new things. You have to go
out of your way to do that.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah, exactly right, And so in that respect, like WXPN
is you know, kind of takes the takes on the
role of podcast or you know, a separate playlist of
someone that you really love, you know that streams music
that is new, you know, and they give artists exposure
(17:24):
that otherwise would never get.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Yeah, true, true. So you grew up in Phillies going
way back, and when was your interest in music? When
did that start developing?
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Well, I grew up in Spokane, Washington, and.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
I started playing trumpet in the fifth grade and then
I got a guitar layer that year, and for me,
it was I just was obsessed from the word go,
and I played guitar.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
All the time.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
And in my house, like my parents had really great music,
you know, they were kind of they graduated high school
in sixty nine, and so we were little kids. There
was a party going on all the time with you know,
really loving, soulful people with music blasting and so you know,
we heard a lot of Stevie Wonder and Joni Mitchell,
(18:18):
a lot of Stee Dan was played, and these artists
all wrote songs that had you know, interesting rhythms and
interesting chord progressions, and so that just kind of like
seeped into our dna. My brother and my sister, who
were also musicians, were surrounded by great music and that
was music that I wanted to play. And so at
(18:38):
a very young age, I was I was playing music
that was a little bit more adventurous. It wasn't like
I didn't really learn like three chord rock before I
was playing, you know, like a Stevie Wonder song or
figuring out a Stee Dan song. So my development happened
pretty young. I moved to Philly in the summer of
(18:58):
ninety two with my teacher mentor Chuck Israels, who's a
jazz bass player who took a job at Temple University
for a year. And then the following year I met
the guys. I had been playing in a jazz trio
with Eric Johnson, the drummer and Jim Staker, the bassist,
and at the same time I was doing duo gigs
(19:21):
with Craig Elkins, who was the main songwriter and the
singer of Puffem's. And then after a few gigs with
both of these guys, were like, Hey, why don't we
bring these two things together? And I think we did
two gigs at Cosa Mexicana in Many Young, this Mexican
restaurant upstairs that actually had a really cool music scene,
and our first manager was there one night, and you know,
(19:43):
he had visions of Grand Jew or you guys are.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Going to be the biggest band suit.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Gosh.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
So I got in the studio like literally, I had
like two months later and released release an album and
it took off, and in no small part because XPN
kept playing this song James that was turning a lot
of people's heads. It didn't sound like anything else that
(20:10):
was out there. It certainly didn't sound like Nirvana. It
was kind of like this, you know, these R and
B jazz musicians teaming up with this great singer songwriter
who had a delivery that was, you know, more like
Michael Franks than Eddie Vedder. So it was a really
(20:31):
unique sound and that's how it started. It was just
like bang go. And then a year later we got
to play at Woodstock, and playing at Woodstock, obviously the
exposure was insane. The gig itself was completely bananas and incredible,
and then that started some interest from record labels, and
(20:52):
so we signed a deal with Interscope Records in ninety
four and the album came out in ninety seven.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yeah, touredict you got to really see the country made
of the world, and our.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Touring was mostly in the US, but we hammered it
like we were basically out for two years supporting that album.
Things were going great until Secrems bought the music industry.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah, and also an appearance on Conan O'Brien's late night show.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
That was another highlight of that time. That whole experience
for us was fantastic and they were so cool and
laying back about the whole thing, and so yeah, things
were really moving for the band. It was a really
fun time. I mean, touring is hard, but for me,
I was in my early twenties when we started touring,
and I had you know, I had just moved from
(21:46):
three thousand miles away a couple of years before, so
my wanderlust was still very much intact. I loved going
to a new city and meeting new people and then
walking you know, to a coffee shop in the morning.
Like for me, it was it was great. I didn't
have many attachments, so I didn't have many responsibilities, so
it was like the ideal time to go out and
(22:08):
and be.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
On stage in a new city every night. It was great.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Yeah, isn't it. It's a it's a huge difference over
all these decades, how much things change. I mean, you
have the energy, but like, yeah, now that age gets
on you. It's like your body saying a whole different thing.
It's like, yeah, not in the twenties anymore. This is
this is really tough.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
It's when you're when you're twenty five, it's it's it's easy.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
To drive for eight hours, but when you're in your fifties.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Driving two hours is painful.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Yeah, it's true. It's happens all across the spectrum. It's like,
oh my gosh, driving again. You just get tired of
You've done it so many years and it's just like,
oh gosh, not again. Traveling it's just like you know,
taking the gear and doing the setup, the breakdown. I'm
sure that's you know that that can get pretty tiring
(23:01):
after so many years.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yeah, absolutely it does. But i mean there's still you know,
the allure of touring is still. I mean, I've been
fortunate enough to be on tours where okay, now there's
a tour bus or we're flying somewhere, you know, yeah,
which makes it a little easier.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah. And then you know, it's the audiences too. I mean,
you know, to get the feedback and being on the stage.
There's nothing like that. I'm sure it's just probably just
an amazing feeling and you're like, oh yeah, this is
all worth it, and you have the passion for music
and to perform and to write and record.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Yeah, absolutely, And we were you know, I didn't realize
any of this when we were actually doing it, but
you know, we were so lucky that we did have
the support of a record label, so that our first
year of touring, we had a tour budget. And you know,
we were in a vand with a trailer, but we
got to you know, a Super eight or a red
(24:03):
roof in every night, you know what I mean, despite
the driving. And I know a lot of artists now
that you know, you don't get that love, you don't
get that support, and so it's a couch tour. You're
calling people like, hey, do you know anybody in East
Lansing where we get crashed tonight.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
It's a totally different scene.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
And because of the radio support, you know it used
to be back then, like the radios, Like the music
industry is so different because radio is still kind of
reigns supreme.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
And you know, a.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Nightclub would advertise on the radio and then the radio
would pitch the club and push your band. And so,
like you said, you were playing to people that already
knew your band, and if they loved a song, I
mean that's a whole that's a whole different thing seeing
people react to something you've created, something that has touched them.
(24:52):
Is you know, that's a pretty it's a pretty incredible feeling.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
And you've worked with and recorded with so many are
but the one that's really stand out and is the
head scratcher is Rosemary Clooney. So there must be a
story behind that.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
That's her basis. Jim Stigger, Jim has played as a lot.
I mean everybody in the band has played with so
many different people, and Rosemary Clooney was was somebody that
Jim performed with I think in the early nineties.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yeah, I think our generation doesn't really remember her so
much for her performing so much as that she was
she was in a commercial. Now I'm forgetting what that was,
but she was definitely I don't know what she was
selling back in the seventies and eighties, but that's what
we knew here were from. But yeah, and related to
George Clooney as wealthy, celebrated actor, that's that's you know,
(25:44):
it's a small world for sure.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Yeah, Yeah, that would do it.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
If you're George Clooney's parent, you're going to get a
little attention.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
So how did the Fractals come together after when Huffamu's
had you know, was done? How did the practical the
Fractals and how does that name come about for this band?
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Well, it started as like right, the hubbum was released.
There the last well not the last record, because we
did a reunion record in twenty eighteen, but this was
the last record in the in the timeframe where the
band was really active in two thousand.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
I think that came out.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
The albums called I Want to Be Your Pants, and
I think it was released in two thousand and then
I had a bunch of songs ready to go. Craig,
our singer, had moved back to la and so we
just went into the studio and recorded like a dozen songs.
And at that time we were called the Kevin Hanson Trio,
and that eventually evolved into being called the Fractals and
(26:45):
that band. We kind of changed the name because I
was I was using my name for so many different
things and playing jazz gigs, and then I lucked out
and became, you know, a sideman for the Roots, and
so we just I kind of wanted to keep those
those two entities separate and so calling it the Fractals,
(27:07):
it was a name that one of us had pitched
in the early before Huffamus was the name, and some
people like, you're the worst band names I've ever heard,
but the Fractals was officially called the Fractals in two
thousand and six when released an EP.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Yeah, and you've recorded with a lot of interesting folks
like usher In jay Z. How did that all come
about with getting connected with them?
Speaker 2 (27:34):
For me, it would be through connection with the Roots.
I met the Roots manager, Richard Nichols, who was kind
of like the center of the hip hop R and
B universe. I mean, the Roots were in Philly, but
you know they had such a reach and there were
so many other hip hop artists that were involved with
the Roots or their management or just Questlove and so
(27:57):
it was really through the Roots that I met his
production team, Drey and Vidal, Vidale, Davis, Andre Harris.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
And there was a time when.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
I would just send like within a couple of months,
I think I sent those guys like eighty different guitar
loops and I would just record at home and sometimes
they would use them.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
And then.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Vidal called one day he's like, hey man, we got
that Usher joint. I had no idea what he was
talking about at all, and then he sent me the
track and I recorded this four bar guitar loop and
then he orchestrated with strings, gave it to Usher and
it became this song called Hush, which was used for
the two thousand and eight Obama campaign. So that's how that happened.
(28:39):
The jay Z stuff. I got to play the Fade
to Black concert at Madison Square Garden. That was you know,
Questlove was the MD for that, he was the musical
director and so it was basically born of the roots.
But that band was called the Illa Deelphonics, and then
that same band was hired to play Dave Chappelle's Black
(28:59):
Part the next year. So it's just the timing of it,
Like I just got into that. I got into the
roots organization at the perfect time for me. So anything
like R and B hip hop that I've done is
because of the roots.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yeah, quest Love seems to be connected to so much.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
I think Quest Love has now surpassed the Kevin Bacon
six Degrees of Separation because he knows I mean everybody, actors, writers, politicians, artists,
of all stripes, and it makes sense.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
I mean I can say that Quest is.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Definitely, without question the hardest working managed show business and
just an unquenchable thirst for creating and you know, very
curious mind, consummate professional, and so yeah, he's kind of
a Quest of the King.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Yeah, and being in Madison Square, that's gotta be an
experience to always remember. It's just such a legendary venue
and you could really feel that the floor just shakes.
It's that there's nothing like it from what I.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Hear, especially that concert, because like I think that concert
sold out in like two hours or something, and there
was so much. We did two warm up shows. One
was in Connecticut and the other was in somewhere in Jersey,
I think because it was a huge production, like the
sound and the lights of stage, the video thing. But
when we got to Madison Square Garden, I mean even
(30:38):
in the green room or in the basement of Madison Square,
like you could feel the energy. And when we were
backstage it was waiting to go on, it was like
just the air was vibrating, and then when we took
the stage it came out. It was it was just
it was an explosion of energy. And in the first track,
(31:03):
jay Z's wrapping and then the band just cuts and
he let Madison Square Garden audience. So there's thirty five
thousand people wrapping together and the chills thinking about it.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
It was great.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
In the first track, Eah to the Izzo, there's a
slide guitar part and there's not a whole else a
lot else going on, so I could hear my guitar
coming through the mains at Madison Square Garden and I
just thought like, you should cherish this moment because you'll
never experience anything this cool again.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
So that was definitely a career highlight.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Yeah, just drink it in my gosh. Yeah, there's nothing
like that. It's just one of the most unique venues
on the planet. So yeah, that's another feather in the
cap as you go along. So are you guys continuing
to tour through the rest of this year in support
of the Sea? Is how long is that going to
(32:01):
go on? And are you just like always constantly recording,
have new ideas? Is here on the road?
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Yeah, I mean we're not really touring. Touring like we'll
do it. We'll definitely travel. I mean our main interest
now is just to keep releasing music, stay in touch
with our fan base, keep it fresh, and you know,
like the appeal of doing festival concerts right now is
a huge goal of mine, both here and overseas, like
(32:29):
love to play montro or north Sea Festival. So it's
you know, it's about keeping it alive. It's it's fun
for me. The songwriting challenge or songwriting addiction is something
that keeps me going and it's just fun for the band.
I think, you know, all four of us play with
(32:52):
so many bands and so many different types of gigs,
whether it's you know, a jazz gig or a you know,
a chamber orchestra gigs. So the fractals for us is
something that this is our own thing. We own this,
uh and so a band. When you when you have
a band with all this creative energy flowing in one direction,
(33:15):
you have this ownership in it and it becomes something
that is like your identity is attached to it, which
is a really great feeling.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Yeah. So are you considered a multi instrumentalist? So you
got the keyboard there.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
I mean I use this to write.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
I wouldn't call myself a pianist, but I can play.
I played guitar bass keys, a little bit of drums,
so I can demo stuff out. You know, most stringed
instruments I can pick up and get away with playing
a banjo or a mandolin.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
But guitar is my I'm known as a guitar player.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Did you have formal lessons?
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Not really.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
I mean I took lessons for a year with this
guy in my hometown who was a brilliant guitar player,
and and then I was just really into it, and
I played all through high school and I practiced a lot.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
I had a scene.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
This is kind of funny to think about now, but
in Spokane, Washington, we had this community college, Spokane False
Community College, with these incredible musicians, like really dedicated scholars
of jazz, and I was just kind of thrust in
the scene. And I was kind of like peer pressured
into listening to Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Thank god I was, you know.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
And so that's kind of how that started for me,
you know, in terms of being exposed to other music.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Oh yeah, the jazz grades are are just something to
really be inspired by, I'm sure. And then Steely Dan
later on probably seemed to have a good impact there too.
What perfectionists. Those guys are.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Yeah, and we were.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
I mean we got Asia when I was probably I
think that came out. Let's yeah, like five, but we
listened to that record so much and those you know,
it just kind of it seeps in. I didn't play
music back then, but now, like going back and having
recorded and written a lot of music, you think, like, man,
(35:14):
like these arrangements and orchestrations are incredible.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Yeah. It always goes back to that yacht rock documentary
that just saw recently.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
That's just you ever see the original the guy's Hollywood
Steve that made the videos in the nineties.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
A little bit bits and pieces as they showed in
the documentary. Yeah, I have said, that's how you coined that.
That's just that's hysterical.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
That's so funny.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Yeah. I never thought somebody can like coin that because
it is a genre, but like to call it that
is is is just so funny. And then there's a
yacht rock review band that comes around here. I noticed
the Bid and they do very well. I saw them
at stadium once. I'm like, what's this all about? And
then seeing the documentary these many years later and seeing
(36:04):
how it was so defined. But I don't think Donald
Fagan was too jazzed about that.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
No, he had a three word response when they had
wanted to comment on it.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Some of them take themselves a little too seriously, the
first word.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Being go and the last yourself.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
But when it started, it was like I thought it
was so funny because it was this guy, this long
haired young guy, making these documentaries and hired fake actors,
you know, to play Don Henley and Michael McDonald and
Van Halen and they just nailed it. And it was
before like now yacht rock is like a programmable term
(36:43):
and it's like a lot of people are offended by it.
But the origins of yacht rock is just it's hilarious
and it's a look at that, you know, early eighties,
like rich guys on yachts with tons of cocaine and
slick production.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
It's like it's.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Pretty validly.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
It is. It's part of our our generations. We're thinking
we can at least spawn on that. It's like, you know,
it's like comfort food. You know, it's like it was
such a soundtrack to your life. It's a very coin
term there, but it really does it really you relate
to that. You remember that as part of your past
and you get so many memories. Yeah, yeah, definitely, especially
(37:26):
all that Steely Dan material. Like it's just so recall
where I was when I first heard you know, you
heard Josie or something like that. It's just you. You
totally are inspired. So that's you know, it's it's the
base for what you're doing these days up to this day.
So really great new EP. I like that song Bullseye,
(37:47):
and I love the video. It seems like, you know,
you're giving off that impression that you're real bar band.
That's you know, you really capture that there.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
That was recorded at this place in Swaltimore called the
Warehouse three, and the owner of that places, Rob's such
a cool guy. That's where we shot and it's got
all the curiosity stuff like vintage bicycles. It's like an
anti store and music venue. In fact, that's where I
bought this shirt. Yeah, so yeah, that was a fun
(38:16):
video for sure.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
Yeah, that's a big thing people like getting shirts like
that and having somebody else's name on it. That was
like really huge. Yeah, it's just very very good. Chick
Bullseye is just about the yearnings of unrequited love. I
like that that description of the song you in the video,
(38:41):
there's an actress in there. Is that somebody you all know.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Is Yeah, that is our dear friend Valentina Raphaeli, who's
also a wonderful singer and songwriter in town. And when
we that Bullseye was the name of the Kevin Hanson
trio album. So that's another song that we we wanted
a second shot at production wise, and in the original
(39:05):
version of that song, the spoken words section was originally
in Russian by a friend of ours from Russia that
we knew, and then to update it for this recording,
Valentina came in and did the Italian spoken words section
on that It appears a couple of times in the
song and then I just asked her, hey, you should
be in the video. So that's her as a bartender
(39:27):
and fractals enthusiast.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
And the song features an electronic valve instrument to the
e V I. John Swanna is, how did that all
come about as far as putting that into the into
the track and recording, Well.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
John is a is a close friend of all of
ours and musical partner. And when when we were like
in the early nineties when the Jim and Eric and
I were getting together. We had these weekly jam sessions
in an airplane hangar down at the Philly l Airport's funny.
So we had this room and we would just get
(40:04):
together a week. And John was, you know, originally a
trumpet player, and then he picked up the evy and
kind of became like the best in the world that's
ever existed. And he's just such a he's such a brilliant,
incredible musician and improviser.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
And he came up with that part the Austin.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
And then the solo at the end. So John has
played on several of our songs and hopefully we'll continue
to do so. But it's basically, you know, it's uh,
it's about this long. It kind of looks like a
like a black soprano sax, but it's all digital and
it's got a disc on the bottom of it that
(40:47):
you roll to change octave, so it's got a full
eight octave range like a piano. And you can, you know,
because it's the synthesize, like you could use any synthesizer
with it, so you can make that thing sound like anything.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Oh that's interesting. Yeah, I've never heard of anything like that.
Makes it very unique Bull's Eyes one of the tracks
and as part of the EP, you have a slower,
more mesmerizing track It's dark and stormy. Yeah, that's yeah,
it's got some really interesting feel to it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
That one's kind of like a Boston Nova ballad with
kind of like a like a jazz approach the way
that Mike Mike Frank currently in the Frackles, played that
song for us before he was even in the band.
Uh So that one, Yeah, we wanted to put that
on the EP to balance out because Christopher Walken is
(41:41):
more of a rocker and Bull's Eye is more of
like almost like a disco dance track. So we thought
of balance it out nicely with having this kind of
like lush ballad.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Yeah, and he's the guest artist on your debut with
in Her scope. That's so you must go back quite
a way.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Yes, Yeah, Mike has been I think he Mike arrived
in Philly in the late eighties early nineties. And you
know Mike is he can play anything. I mean, he's
a brilliant jazz piano player. He can play any song
from the Beatles or from the nineteen seventies. And so
having Mike as a permanent band member really elevates our
(42:24):
possibilities even as a songwriter, because it doesn't matter what
I write, like I know, when Mike puts his hands
on it, it's just going to elevate it. And his
depth of understanding of you know, melodies and harmony allows
allows me the freedom as a writer to really stretch
out and explore new territory, you know, in songwriting.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
And where do you do most recording? Are you going
into traditional studios? You have your own setups where you
all meet.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Yeah, For the past several years, we've been at Gradwell
House in Heights, New Jersey, beautiful studio, and we've been
working with her with her a long time collaborator, John Anthony,
who's a wonderful engineer. So we found a home there
and that's where we've done. I think we started recording
there like three or four years ago.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Yeah. Yeah, professional sounding, good engineering as well, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
Yeah, There's just certain things you get from a real
recording studio that are so hard to emulate. If you're
making like you know, if you're making music with real instruments,
like in the digital domain, you can you can write
an album on a laptop, you know, because all.
Speaker 4 (43:37):
The tools are there, but to get like really great
drum sounds, you know, you want to have some space,
so you can put a microphone twenty feet that way,
and you know, plus they'll have like, you know, a
bevy of amplifiers that are like you know that when you.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Plug into this thing, it's going to sound huge, and
then John knows exactly how to place the microphones to
make everything really sound authentic.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
You know. Yeah, and being in the music it is
a business. You guys probably get more revenue out maybe
more so out of touring and merch. Merch is a
big deal too. You got it on your website, the
Fractals band dot com.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Uh yeah, hopefully you know, we're gonna bolster our inventory
of merch, new shirts, new CDs that come out and stuff.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
So yeah, I mean it's it's tough to make great.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
Money from performing live on a local level, so you know,
you work every angle.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
You can't, right, right, it's just a little bit from that,
and then very very little from streaming, although there's a
presence there and a little bit from YouTube. If you
get anything out of that, it's just uh, people just
hopefully stumble on you and you get the subscribers on
your YouTube channel and Spotify and all that. So you
(44:57):
hope that it's it's going to go somewhere and and
promote you as well. So, but the merch is really Yeah,
people talk about that and how you know that really
does get the money in the pocket.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
Yeah, I mean, especially for bands, you know, if you're
heard some crazy story like you know, I think it
was no doubt at one point when they were touring
they were making it clearing a million dollars in profit
from their mercha.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
It's like tortures now like fifty bucks.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
So exactly. Yeah, you got to mark them up. That's
you got to make the profit that way. Sure. Gosh yeah.
Out of Philadelphia, Wow, you got so many great people.
And were you familiar with Tom Bell who had passed
away the last couple of years. Now, Tom Bell was
very big there. And I know Elton John and that's
how I know about Tom Bell because Elton John worked
(45:49):
with him.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Oh yeah, I mean I never met Tom Bell, but
you know, through the legacy of you know, Philadelphia pr
I and all the you know, all of the vintage
records that came out of Philly. You know, he was
an incredible songwriter. I wish I hadn't met him.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
Yeah, Yeah, it seemed like a total genius. It just
came out of nowhere. I was like, yeah, I was
thinking about him the other day and then it passed away.
It's just, yeah, so much going on there, and it's
just great that you're you're doing so well. And it's
just I love the the fonts you guys use on
your web page. Here, do you have an artist who
(46:29):
did this? How your band name is in this particular font,
and how it's kind of packaged with Rescue as well
with the ap.
Speaker 2 (46:39):
We don't use an artist.
Speaker 3 (46:40):
I mean I drew that on the back of a napkin.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Oh, there you go. It's like there was some thought there.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
The video and then it was kind of refined. Jim
and I worked on a little bit. So yeah, that's
like everything right now mostly, you know, visually is just homegrown.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
Now, the video for for Rescue or Eric Horriz the video,
and so I was at his house while we were
working on the video where that logo came up, and
then just decided to use it for the album cover
and the image of the CD cover for Rescue comes
from the video.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Yeah, and the video is is interesting. How did you
guys create that?
Speaker 3 (47:23):
Well, that's all Eric Krowitz.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
Eric Korriz is our longtime friend and he actually produced
the very first I mean not the very first, but
the major label record that Huffamus did. He engineered it
in ard More and we became close friends. And then
he learned how to do animation on Flash, the program Flash,
and he's got his you know, uniquely owned style and
(47:47):
he's done a few videos for us now. So he
had some stock images of our caricatures of us.
Speaker 3 (47:54):
Like dancing around and stuff.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
But the videos that he make sure I love him
so much. There's so fun and playful and soulful. So
I really want more people to see the rescue animated video.
Speaker 1 (48:09):
Yeah, love it, love it. It's on your YouTube channel
as well, so check that out the Fractals band dot com.
And then yeah, great video. I you know, somebody really
was like somebody's a real genius is behind this. So
he learned Flash. That explained a lot of that. That's yeah,
very well done. H Yeah, he's great, excellent. Well thanks
(48:29):
for stopping by. It's been a pleasure and.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
You so much. Yeah, wonderful talking to.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
Yeah, and best wishes, best luck on the road and
with more singles coming out. EPs. The Fractals band dot
com a great website there tells the whole story about
the band and your long history.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
Yeah we've been around a little bit.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
Yeah yeah, Well hope to see you live too one day.
That would be great. I got to try able to Philly.
That would be the most likely thing to do.
Speaker 3 (49:03):
That'd be wonderful.
Speaker 1 (49:04):
We appreciate it, excellent, Take care, have a good one. Wow,
a lot of fun and I am just amazed that
Kevin is so close with Questlove. Well I'm not like
Buddy Buddy or whatever you know, but quest Love is
He's friends with zillions of people. So check it out,
check out that wonderful new EP. Stay cool this summer,
(49:29):
and we'll have another episode out pretty soon. Have a
good one.
Hey, welcome back to my little show here, my little
corner of the world. Thank you so much for joining me.
Today we have another music episode. I speak with Kevin Hansen.
He is from the band called the Fractals. But before
the Fractals, he was at a band called Huffa Moose,
which was pretty big in the nineties. Yes, they were big.
(00:23):
They were part of all those huge bands going way
back to those grunge days. We talk a little bit
about that and an appearance on the main stage at
Woodstock nineteen ninety four. Woodstock ninety four was huge. Now
that wasn't the one where there were all the fires
and all of that. That was ninety nine Woodstock ninety four.
(00:44):
I believe Todd Rundgren was there. I remember some people
covering Woodstock ninety four. Here we are, now well over
three decades later, talking and reminiscing a little bit and
talking about this wonderful new EP that the Fractals have
now check it out the fractalsband dot com. It is
a wonderful set of four songs. Their EP is wonderful.
(01:08):
It's called Rescue. Check it out. But Kevin goes way back.
Musical life for sure started out actually in the Washington
State area, as we talk about in our discussion. Then
he winds up in Philadelphia, just immerse in the music scene.
(01:28):
It is a blast to talk with Kevin in this episode.
I really do hope you enjoy this. Hope your summer
is going along quite well as these podcasts keep churning
out and stay cool. This summer another scorcher, but actually
it's been quite a bit wetter this summer so far.
(01:51):
So far, very very wet spring, stormy spring is a
lot of people have been experiencing throughout the Fruited Plane
here in twenty twenty five. Hopefully you'll be listening to
this well into the future. I don't want to date
myself to here, but this is being released in June
of twenty twenty five. June sixteenth, we're halfway through this
(02:13):
lovely month, heading towards the fourth of July, which is
always a lot of fun around here in the Southeastern
United States. So I will talk with y'all on the
other side of this discussion. I hope you enjoy my
talk with the Kevin Hanson from the band called the Fractals.
(02:35):
They are all over the place. Check out that YouTube page.
They have a wonderful video for the title track of
called Rescue. Check it out. Talk with y'all on the
other side. Hey, Kevin, how's it going this morning?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Good?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
How are you good? Good? I always ask where are
you broadcasting from this morning? I take it maybe Philadelphia
or you're somewhere.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Else Philadelphia at home in my studio.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Philly, PA, the home of Questlove. Who's been in the
news a little bit in the wake of sly Stone's passing.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yes, yes, yeah, rest easy sly Stone.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah wow, what a pioneer.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Just unbelievable, incredible, incredible musician and songwriter everything.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, well, you're one of many. I have to say that.
There's a lot of talent that comes out of Philly
and a very storied history there, so congratulations on that.
And somebody like yourself who played Woodstock ninety four, which
you can't believe how these years have passed.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I know, it's crazy. It's crazy that that was so
long ago.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Three good lord, it really is. So what was life
like back then? I think we're probably in the same
generation here, so we're speaking about the gen xers out
there who've just got to see what was going on
in the nineties with the rise of Pearl Jam, Nirvana,
and just so many of these bands. There was something
I really really enjoyed about that time, just like it
(04:15):
got real. It was just like after the big hair
band craze, I really did. I really got attracted to
that when all that started happening.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah, the early nineties.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
I've been talking about this a lot this past week
with friends from Philly who were who were in that scene,
and a lot of it had to do with the
fall of hair metal bands, in the fall of Paula Abdul. Yeah,
that was so huge in the in the late eighties,
and I mean that shift really just changed the pop
(04:51):
music business in the rock scene profoundly and in a
very short period of time, and a lot of you know,
it provided a lot of opportunity for bands that were
more you know, indy, but indye became just like a
marketing term.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Like within minutes. Yeah, yeah, but it did.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
You know, it kind of had like this kind of
like a punk rock ethos in that you could wear
flannel shirts and jeans. It's just that it was it
was commoditized so swiftly.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
And so completely. But it shifted the music.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
You know, I remember, like so many bands, so many
record labels signing bands that if your singers sounded remotely
like Eddy Vedder, you were you, you know, I happen
to like Pearl Jam. It's just like that shift was
was so it was just such a profound shake up
in the industry back then. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, and in the stations across the country. We had
one here in Atlanta and just was really glued to it,
and there was just something profound and it just felt
like you had a real connection to it rather than
what was going on before that in the late eighties.
It just felt like, wow, this is just like things
are getting real and people are really growing and progressing.
(06:17):
It felt like that it was like for a hot moment,
you know, it went so fast and you saw a
lot of that, and then some things had translated to
a lot of angst, which was in Woodstock ninety nine. Right.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I watched that documentary within the last year.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I hadn't seen it yet, and man, wow was that scary.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah, I mean talk about a promoter's nightmare.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Completely, yea completely, But life in Philly back then in
the early nineties, that's when Huffamu's, the band that I
was with back then was really, you know, we signed
a record deal, were playing all the time, and in
Philly it was I thought the scene was was great,
(07:07):
even though there was always I think in any scene
there's a little bit of hate thrown around.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
But was just talking to a good friend.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
We were on a game the other day and on
Second Street in Philly, within like just a couple of
block radius, there were you know, five or six venues
where bands were playing every night and you would be
loading out your gear and see your buddies in another band, and.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
It was there was a lot going on.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, in Philly too, with the rise of the roots
getting popular, the hip hop scene took off like crazy
as well, you know, and the Golden Age of hip
hop that ensued after that. So there was there was
a lot going on in the nineties that I didn't
really realize until much much later. You know, hindsight shed
(07:56):
shed some light on what how much positive stuff there
was going on back then. Yeah, that's a community and
it was, you know, a profound shift before Spotify took over,
where you know, you stood to actually be paige.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
That you created.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
It's unbelievable. Yeah, with Spotify and these things, it's like
when you get point oh three cents of play. It's
just like, wow, depressing.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
That is It's yeah, it's pretty criminal.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah yeah. But you know, in moving forward to today,
you have a great new EP out with your band,
the Fractals. It's just a really great collection of these
four songs and you have some really unique videos along
with that as well. What why an EP at this
point and not like a full LP or just doing
a single at this moment.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Well, we had this plan the last few years where
we were just releasing singles just because for a lot
of reasons. I mean, with the shift to digital streaming,
releasing in a full length album, you know, the chances
of somebody that you didn't know that wasn't a friend
(09:13):
of the band or an already fan listening to the
entire album there was a slim chance of that, and
so you just got much more traction releasing singles. And
with this latest EP, Rescue, our intention at first was
just to release the single Rescue, and then it was
actually our friend Maggie Pulos who suggested, why don't you
(09:35):
guys release an EP? So so that's kind of become
our new strategy. And on on this EP, we had
some songs that were released as singles and one from
a previous album, just to make a kind of a
nicer collection of songs and moving forward, our goal is
to continue releasing EPs with all new material. We've got
(09:57):
a couple EPs worth of songs that are in various
states and completion right now, and you know, we're I'm
writing new songs all the time, and so it's we've
definitely got got the material to keep pushing forward with
with new songs.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, how do you is? How's the process for you?
Are you the lyric writer and the band helps you
with melodies? How do how does that come together? When
you're you're you're sitting down with a song.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
The way that we do it now, it's the way
that Huffamus did it, where Craig Elkins, the lead singer,
room myself would bring in a new song that was
basically finished so that you know, everything was done in
terms of having a song like you could play it
on an acoustic guitar from beginning to end, and then
the band would play through it a few times and
everybody would kind of put their, you know, their own
(10:47):
input in there in terms of arrangement or rhythmic cues
and that's where the fun really begins. And so that's
our that's our that's kind of our model these days
as well, like all finish a song it in and
then we you know, turn it into a to a
band performance.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Yeah, rescue your title track is very unique with sound
effects and things like that and a very poppy rhythm
to it, very very it feels like it could feel
like Top forty. So it's really and very interesting lyrics
as well. So how long did it take to get
that one together?
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Well, that song this, this is kind of a funny thing.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
We've been playing that song for years and years, we
just never recorded it. And then Eric Johnson, our drummer,
said we have to record this song and it was
it was similar to how we've been playing it with
the skaby.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
With electric guitars.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
And then in this the current recording of it, like
you mentioned, we put in morse code and some leaves
and bloops and some sound effects that accompany the lyrics
like with the wuah won Co reference with the human
drumming in it. So that song was I rewrote the
verse lyrics and we kept the we kept the chorus
(12:07):
intact basically, So I'm glad to hear your assessment that
it could be considered a top forty song, and wouldn't
that be fun?
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yeah? Yeah, And it's so hard to do these days too,
because terrestrial radio is just incredibly limited. I mean, you
only have like you know, your Taylor's Swift's dominating this,
and it's it's hard to break. And even your legacy
artists are they're adult contemporary. It's not you know, the
Top forty is not like what it once was, so unified.
(12:39):
It's just to me, I think things have gotten very segmented,
just the way the entire businesses. And then you get
into streaming, so that's really you. I mean, the great
thing is everybody could do it, and the bad thing
is everybody can do it because you know, you can
record at home. Now it's it's amazing exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I mean radio pop, radio programming or you know the
conglomerates that you know, their their computer generated playlists and
DJs don't really have to say.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
We've been lucky in Philly to.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Have a radio station w XPN where DJs can actually
take a record off shelf and play, which is really
you know, a dying art form. And so we're We're
lucky to have that, and because like our music, even
though Rescue might have some pop appeal, and they they've
(13:34):
gave given that song. Some Spins are our last single
that we released, Christopher Walking, this radio station really embraced,
which is a very unlikely I thought, a very unlikely
song to appear on the radio. So we've been very
fortunate in that respect to have some some hometown love on.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
The Yeah, was there a particular DJ who just fell
in love with that track and just it's got a
great backstory, it's it's it's really hilarious. And also for
those who don't know, there's a great video out there
too where you guys have a little animated Christopher walking
in it. It's I love it. It's it's great with
bands can get cheeky like that.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah, well, we generally find ourselves working with people that
have a similar sensibility and sense of humor. And so
with that video that was done by our friend Christma
Jared's who's an incredible director and videographer, and so the
the animated Christopher walkin all him and his kids that
(14:39):
helped out with that.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yeah, Oh it's great, it's great, and it is the
actual actor aware of this, as somebody in his camp
might might be aware of this the song named after him,
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I mean that would be great.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
I'm sure that Christopher Walkin is completely had it with.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
All of the impersonations, But there was I was doing
a gig at a synagogue last spring and Kevin Pollock
was performing in the next room, and I thought, I've
got to get this song to him.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yeah, because his Christopher Walking, I think is maybe at
the top of the heap.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
But the song was written based on.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Real events and real people in my life, of people
that thought that they did a great Christopher Walking impersonation,
who in fact did not, So that whole song is
about like a few of these people in my life
that really did a horrible Christphal Walk.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
It's like the Yeah, it's the first song I could
really think of where somebody is like written about like, yeah,
your impression of this person sucks. It's it's unique, it's
never been done before, so there's a first thank you.
W XPN must be kind of like the old WMMR,
which I know has broken many acts, including Billy Joel
(16:02):
and people like that. So yeah, it's nice to know
that there's a radio station out there, at least terrestrial,
that could at least still have fun and not go
buy a huge corporation that's dictating a playlist, right.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
I mean, the station is great, and they've got these
featured shows like Nightly Dan Reid has a show called
Highs in the Seventies and it's an entire hour of
music from the seventies. So, you know, for music heads
and songwriters, it's like, I'm constantly hearing music that I've
never heard before.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
You know. So that's the station. It's very unique.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Yeah, it's really important to break out of the playlist
because even the streamers do that to you, Like I
have Amazon Music or Spotify. They're like, if they give
me a mix, it's staying within the genre of my
past play So it keeps you in that narrow scope,
so you don't discover new things. You have to go
out of your way to do that.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah, exactly right, And so in that respect, like WXPN
is you know, kind of takes the takes on the
role of podcast or you know, a separate playlist of
someone that you really love, you know that streams music
that is new, you know, and they give artists exposure
(17:24):
that otherwise would never get.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Yeah, true, true. So you grew up in Phillies going
way back, and when was your interest in music? When
did that start developing?
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Well, I grew up in Spokane, Washington, and.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
I started playing trumpet in the fifth grade and then
I got a guitar layer that year, and for me,
it was I just was obsessed from the word go,
and I played guitar.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
All the time.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
And in my house, like my parents had really great music,
you know, they were kind of they graduated high school
in sixty nine, and so we were little kids. There
was a party going on all the time with you know,
really loving, soulful people with music blasting and so you know,
we heard a lot of Stevie Wonder and Joni Mitchell,
(18:18):
a lot of Stee Dan was played, and these artists
all wrote songs that had you know, interesting rhythms and
interesting chord progressions, and so that just kind of like
seeped into our dna. My brother and my sister, who
were also musicians, were surrounded by great music and that
was music that I wanted to play. And so at
(18:38):
a very young age, I was I was playing music
that was a little bit more adventurous. It wasn't like
I didn't really learn like three chord rock before I
was playing, you know, like a Stevie Wonder song or
figuring out a Stee Dan song. So my development happened
pretty young. I moved to Philly in the summer of
(18:58):
ninety two with my teacher mentor Chuck Israels, who's a
jazz bass player who took a job at Temple University
for a year. And then the following year I met
the guys. I had been playing in a jazz trio
with Eric Johnson, the drummer and Jim Staker, the bassist,
and at the same time I was doing duo gigs
(19:21):
with Craig Elkins, who was the main songwriter and the
singer of Puffem's. And then after a few gigs with
both of these guys, were like, Hey, why don't we
bring these two things together? And I think we did
two gigs at Cosa Mexicana in Many Young, this Mexican
restaurant upstairs that actually had a really cool music scene,
and our first manager was there one night, and you know,
(19:43):
he had visions of Grand Jew or you guys are.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Going to be the biggest band suit.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Gosh.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
So I got in the studio like literally, I had
like two months later and released release an album and
it took off, and in no small part because XPN
kept playing this song James that was turning a lot
of people's heads. It didn't sound like anything else that
(20:10):
was out there. It certainly didn't sound like Nirvana. It
was kind of like this, you know, these R and
B jazz musicians teaming up with this great singer songwriter
who had a delivery that was, you know, more like
Michael Franks than Eddie Vedder. So it was a really
(20:31):
unique sound and that's how it started. It was just
like bang go. And then a year later we got
to play at Woodstock, and playing at Woodstock, obviously the
exposure was insane. The gig itself was completely bananas and incredible,
and then that started some interest from record labels, and
(20:52):
so we signed a deal with Interscope Records in ninety
four and the album came out in ninety seven.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yeah, touredict you got to really see the country made
of the world, and our.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Touring was mostly in the US, but we hammered it
like we were basically out for two years supporting that album.
Things were going great until Secrems bought the music industry.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah, and also an appearance on Conan O'Brien's late night show.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
That was another highlight of that time. That whole experience
for us was fantastic and they were so cool and
laying back about the whole thing, and so yeah, things
were really moving for the band. It was a really
fun time. I mean, touring is hard, but for me,
I was in my early twenties when we started touring,
and I had you know, I had just moved from
(21:46):
three thousand miles away a couple of years before, so
my wanderlust was still very much intact. I loved going
to a new city and meeting new people and then
walking you know, to a coffee shop in the morning.
Like for me, it was it was great. I didn't
have many attachments, so I didn't have many responsibilities, so
it was like the ideal time to go out and
(22:08):
and be.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
On stage in a new city every night. It was great.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Yeah, isn't it. It's a it's a huge difference over
all these decades, how much things change. I mean, you
have the energy, but like, yeah, now that age gets
on you. It's like your body saying a whole different thing.
It's like, yeah, not in the twenties anymore. This is
this is really tough.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
It's when you're when you're twenty five, it's it's it's easy.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
To drive for eight hours, but when you're in your fifties.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Driving two hours is painful.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Yeah, it's true. It's happens all across the spectrum. It's like,
oh my gosh, driving again. You just get tired of
You've done it so many years and it's just like,
oh gosh, not again. Traveling it's just like you know,
taking the gear and doing the setup, the breakdown. I'm
sure that's you know that that can get pretty tiring
(23:01):
after so many years.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yeah, absolutely it does. But i mean there's still you know,
the allure of touring is still. I mean, I've been
fortunate enough to be on tours where okay, now there's
a tour bus or we're flying somewhere, you know, yeah,
which makes it a little easier.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah. And then you know, it's the audiences too. I mean,
you know, to get the feedback and being on the stage.
There's nothing like that. I'm sure it's just probably just
an amazing feeling and you're like, oh yeah, this is
all worth it, and you have the passion for music
and to perform and to write and record.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Yeah, absolutely, And we were you know, I didn't realize
any of this when we were actually doing it, but
you know, we were so lucky that we did have
the support of a record label, so that our first
year of touring, we had a tour budget. And you know,
we were in a vand with a trailer, but we
got to you know, a Super eight or a red
(24:03):
roof in every night, you know what I mean, despite
the driving. And I know a lot of artists now
that you know, you don't get that love, you don't
get that support, and so it's a couch tour. You're
calling people like, hey, do you know anybody in East
Lansing where we get crashed tonight.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
It's a totally different scene.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
And because of the radio support, you know it used
to be back then, like the radios, Like the music
industry is so different because radio is still kind of
reigns supreme.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
And you know, a.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Nightclub would advertise on the radio and then the radio
would pitch the club and push your band. And so,
like you said, you were playing to people that already
knew your band, and if they loved a song, I
mean that's a whole that's a whole different thing seeing
people react to something you've created, something that has touched them.
(24:52):
Is you know, that's a pretty it's a pretty incredible feeling.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
And you've worked with and recorded with so many are
but the one that's really stand out and is the
head scratcher is Rosemary Clooney. So there must be a
story behind that.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
That's her basis. Jim Stigger, Jim has played as a lot.
I mean everybody in the band has played with so
many different people, and Rosemary Clooney was was somebody that
Jim performed with I think in the early nineties.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yeah, I think our generation doesn't really remember her so
much for her performing so much as that she was
she was in a commercial. Now I'm forgetting what that was,
but she was definitely I don't know what she was
selling back in the seventies and eighties, but that's what
we knew here were from. But yeah, and related to
George Clooney as wealthy, celebrated actor, that's that's you know,
(25:44):
it's a small world for sure.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Yeah, Yeah, that would do it.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
If you're George Clooney's parent, you're going to get a
little attention.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
So how did the Fractals come together after when Huffamu's
had you know, was done? How did the practical the
Fractals and how does that name come about for this band?
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Well, it started as like right, the hubbum was released.
There the last well not the last record, because we
did a reunion record in twenty eighteen, but this was
the last record in the in the timeframe where the
band was really active in two thousand.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
I think that came out.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
The albums called I Want to Be Your Pants, and
I think it was released in two thousand and then
I had a bunch of songs ready to go. Craig,
our singer, had moved back to la and so we
just went into the studio and recorded like a dozen songs.
And at that time we were called the Kevin Hanson Trio,
and that eventually evolved into being called the Fractals and
(26:45):
that band. We kind of changed the name because I
was I was using my name for so many different
things and playing jazz gigs, and then I lucked out
and became, you know, a sideman for the Roots, and
so we just I kind of wanted to keep those
those two entities separate and so calling it the Fractals,
(27:07):
it was a name that one of us had pitched
in the early before Huffamus was the name, and some
people like, you're the worst band names I've ever heard,
but the Fractals was officially called the Fractals in two
thousand and six when released an EP.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Yeah, and you've recorded with a lot of interesting folks
like usher In jay Z. How did that all come
about with getting connected with them?
Speaker 2 (27:34):
For me, it would be through connection with the Roots.
I met the Roots manager, Richard Nichols, who was kind
of like the center of the hip hop R and
B universe. I mean, the Roots were in Philly, but
you know they had such a reach and there were
so many other hip hop artists that were involved with
the Roots or their management or just Questlove and so
(27:57):
it was really through the Roots that I met his
production team, Drey and Vidal, Vidale, Davis, Andre Harris.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
And there was a time when.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
I would just send like within a couple of months,
I think I sent those guys like eighty different guitar
loops and I would just record at home and sometimes
they would use them.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
And then.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Vidal called one day he's like, hey man, we got
that Usher joint. I had no idea what he was
talking about at all, and then he sent me the
track and I recorded this four bar guitar loop and
then he orchestrated with strings, gave it to Usher and
it became this song called Hush, which was used for
the two thousand and eight Obama campaign. So that's how that happened.
(28:39):
The jay Z stuff. I got to play the Fade
to Black concert at Madison Square Garden. That was you know,
Questlove was the MD for that, he was the musical
director and so it was basically born of the roots.
But that band was called the Illa Deelphonics, and then
that same band was hired to play Dave Chappelle's Black
(28:59):
Part the next year. So it's just the timing of it,
Like I just got into that. I got into the
roots organization at the perfect time for me. So anything
like R and B hip hop that I've done is
because of the roots.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yeah, quest Love seems to be connected to so much.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
I think Quest Love has now surpassed the Kevin Bacon
six Degrees of Separation because he knows I mean everybody, actors, writers, politicians, artists,
of all stripes, and it makes sense.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
I mean I can say that Quest is.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Definitely, without question the hardest working managed show business and
just an unquenchable thirst for creating and you know, very
curious mind, consummate professional, and so yeah, he's kind of
a Quest of the King.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Yeah, and being in Madison Square, that's gotta be an
experience to always remember. It's just such a legendary venue
and you could really feel that the floor just shakes.
It's that there's nothing like it from what I.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Hear, especially that concert, because like I think that concert
sold out in like two hours or something, and there
was so much. We did two warm up shows. One
was in Connecticut and the other was in somewhere in Jersey,
I think because it was a huge production, like the
sound and the lights of stage, the video thing. But
when we got to Madison Square Garden, I mean even
(30:38):
in the green room or in the basement of Madison Square,
like you could feel the energy. And when we were
backstage it was waiting to go on, it was like
just the air was vibrating, and then when we took
the stage it came out. It was it was just
it was an explosion of energy. And in the first track,
(31:03):
jay Z's wrapping and then the band just cuts and
he let Madison Square Garden audience. So there's thirty five
thousand people wrapping together and the chills thinking about it.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
It was great.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
In the first track, Eah to the Izzo, there's a
slide guitar part and there's not a whole else a
lot else going on, so I could hear my guitar
coming through the mains at Madison Square Garden and I
just thought like, you should cherish this moment because you'll
never experience anything this cool again.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
So that was definitely a career highlight.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Yeah, just drink it in my gosh. Yeah, there's nothing
like that. It's just one of the most unique venues
on the planet. So yeah, that's another feather in the
cap as you go along. So are you guys continuing
to tour through the rest of this year in support
of the Sea? Is how long is that going to
(32:01):
go on? And are you just like always constantly recording,
have new ideas? Is here on the road?
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Yeah, I mean we're not really touring. Touring like we'll
do it. We'll definitely travel. I mean our main interest
now is just to keep releasing music, stay in touch
with our fan base, keep it fresh, and you know,
like the appeal of doing festival concerts right now is
a huge goal of mine, both here and overseas, like
(32:29):
love to play montro or north Sea Festival. So it's
you know, it's about keeping it alive. It's it's fun
for me. The songwriting challenge or songwriting addiction is something
that keeps me going and it's just fun for the band.
I think, you know, all four of us play with
(32:52):
so many bands and so many different types of gigs,
whether it's you know, a jazz gig or a you know,
a chamber orchestra gigs. So the fractals for us is
something that this is our own thing. We own this,
uh and so a band. When you when you have
a band with all this creative energy flowing in one direction,
(33:15):
you have this ownership in it and it becomes something
that is like your identity is attached to it, which
is a really great feeling.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Yeah. So are you considered a multi instrumentalist? So you
got the keyboard there.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
I mean I use this to write.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
I wouldn't call myself a pianist, but I can play.
I played guitar bass keys, a little bit of drums,
so I can demo stuff out. You know, most stringed
instruments I can pick up and get away with playing
a banjo or a mandolin.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
But guitar is my I'm known as a guitar player.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Did you have formal lessons?
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Not really.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
I mean I took lessons for a year with this
guy in my hometown who was a brilliant guitar player,
and and then I was just really into it, and
I played all through high school and I practiced a lot.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
I had a scene.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
This is kind of funny to think about now, but
in Spokane, Washington, we had this community college, Spokane False
Community College, with these incredible musicians, like really dedicated scholars
of jazz, and I was just kind of thrust in
the scene. And I was kind of like peer pressured
into listening to Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Thank god I was, you know.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
And so that's kind of how that started for me,
you know, in terms of being exposed to other music.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Oh yeah, the jazz grades are are just something to
really be inspired by, I'm sure. And then Steely Dan
later on probably seemed to have a good impact there too.
What perfectionists. Those guys are.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Yeah, and we were.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
I mean we got Asia when I was probably I
think that came out. Let's yeah, like five, but we
listened to that record so much and those you know,
it just kind of it seeps in. I didn't play
music back then, but now, like going back and having
recorded and written a lot of music, you think, like, man,
(35:14):
like these arrangements and orchestrations are incredible.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Yeah. It always goes back to that yacht rock documentary
that just saw recently.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
That's just you ever see the original the guy's Hollywood
Steve that made the videos in the nineties.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
A little bit bits and pieces as they showed in
the documentary. Yeah, I have said, that's how you coined that.
That's just that's hysterical.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
That's so funny.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Yeah. I never thought somebody can like coin that because
it is a genre, but like to call it that
is is is just so funny. And then there's a
yacht rock review band that comes around here. I noticed
the Bid and they do very well. I saw them
at stadium once. I'm like, what's this all about? And
then seeing the documentary these many years later and seeing
(36:04):
how it was so defined. But I don't think Donald
Fagan was too jazzed about that.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
No, he had a three word response when they had
wanted to comment on it.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Some of them take themselves a little too seriously, the
first word.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Being go and the last yourself.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
But when it started, it was like I thought it
was so funny because it was this guy, this long
haired young guy, making these documentaries and hired fake actors,
you know, to play Don Henley and Michael McDonald and
Van Halen and they just nailed it. And it was
before like now yacht rock is like a programmable term
(36:43):
and it's like a lot of people are offended by it.
But the origins of yacht rock is just it's hilarious
and it's a look at that, you know, early eighties,
like rich guys on yachts with tons of cocaine and
slick production.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
It's like it's.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Pretty validly.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
It is. It's part of our our generations. We're thinking
we can at least spawn on that. It's like, you know,
it's like comfort food. You know, it's like it was
such a soundtrack to your life. It's a very coin
term there, but it really does it really you relate
to that. You remember that as part of your past
and you get so many memories. Yeah, yeah, definitely, especially
(37:26):
all that Steely Dan material. Like it's just so recall
where I was when I first heard you know, you
heard Josie or something like that. It's just you. You
totally are inspired. So that's you know, it's it's the
base for what you're doing these days up to this day.
So really great new EP. I like that song Bullseye,
(37:47):
and I love the video. It seems like, you know,
you're giving off that impression that you're real bar band.
That's you know, you really capture that there.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
That was recorded at this place in Swaltimore called the
Warehouse three, and the owner of that places, Rob's such
a cool guy. That's where we shot and it's got
all the curiosity stuff like vintage bicycles. It's like an
anti store and music venue. In fact, that's where I
bought this shirt. Yeah, so yeah, that was a fun
(38:16):
video for sure.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
Yeah, that's a big thing people like getting shirts like
that and having somebody else's name on it. That was
like really huge. Yeah, it's just very very good. Chick
Bullseye is just about the yearnings of unrequited love. I
like that that description of the song you in the video,
(38:41):
there's an actress in there. Is that somebody you all know.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Is Yeah, that is our dear friend Valentina Raphaeli, who's
also a wonderful singer and songwriter in town. And when
we that Bullseye was the name of the Kevin Hanson
trio album. So that's another song that we we wanted
a second shot at production wise, and in the original
(39:05):
version of that song, the spoken words section was originally
in Russian by a friend of ours from Russia that
we knew, and then to update it for this recording,
Valentina came in and did the Italian spoken words section
on that It appears a couple of times in the
song and then I just asked her, hey, you should
be in the video. So that's her as a bartender
(39:27):
and fractals enthusiast.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
And the song features an electronic valve instrument to the
e V I. John Swanna is, how did that all
come about as far as putting that into the into
the track and recording, Well.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
John is a is a close friend of all of
ours and musical partner. And when when we were like
in the early nineties when the Jim and Eric and
I were getting together. We had these weekly jam sessions
in an airplane hangar down at the Philly l Airport's funny.
So we had this room and we would just get
(40:04):
together a week. And John was, you know, originally a
trumpet player, and then he picked up the evy and
kind of became like the best in the world that's
ever existed. And he's just such a he's such a brilliant,
incredible musician and improviser.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
And he came up with that part the Austin.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
And then the solo at the end. So John has
played on several of our songs and hopefully we'll continue
to do so. But it's basically, you know, it's uh,
it's about this long. It kind of looks like a
like a black soprano sax, but it's all digital and
it's got a disc on the bottom of it that
(40:47):
you roll to change octave, so it's got a full
eight octave range like a piano. And you can, you know,
because it's the synthesize, like you could use any synthesizer
with it, so you can make that thing sound like anything.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Oh that's interesting. Yeah, I've never heard of anything like that.
Makes it very unique Bull's Eyes one of the tracks
and as part of the EP, you have a slower,
more mesmerizing track It's dark and stormy. Yeah, that's yeah,
it's got some really interesting feel to it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
That one's kind of like a Boston Nova ballad with
kind of like a like a jazz approach the way
that Mike Mike Frank currently in the Frackles, played that
song for us before he was even in the band.
Uh So that one, Yeah, we wanted to put that
on the EP to balance out because Christopher Walken is
(41:41):
more of a rocker and Bull's Eye is more of
like almost like a disco dance track. So we thought
of balance it out nicely with having this kind of
like lush ballad.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Yeah, and he's the guest artist on your debut with
in Her scope. That's so you must go back quite
a way.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Yes, Yeah, Mike has been I think he Mike arrived
in Philly in the late eighties early nineties. And you
know Mike is he can play anything. I mean, he's
a brilliant jazz piano player. He can play any song
from the Beatles or from the nineteen seventies. And so
having Mike as a permanent band member really elevates our
(42:24):
possibilities even as a songwriter, because it doesn't matter what
I write, like I know, when Mike puts his hands
on it, it's just going to elevate it. And his
depth of understanding of you know, melodies and harmony allows
allows me the freedom as a writer to really stretch
out and explore new territory, you know, in songwriting.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
And where do you do most recording? Are you going
into traditional studios? You have your own setups where you
all meet.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Yeah, For the past several years, we've been at Gradwell
House in Heights, New Jersey, beautiful studio, and we've been
working with her with her a long time collaborator, John Anthony,
who's a wonderful engineer. So we found a home there
and that's where we've done. I think we started recording
there like three or four years ago.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Yeah. Yeah, professional sounding, good engineering as well, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
Yeah, There's just certain things you get from a real
recording studio that are so hard to emulate. If you're
making like you know, if you're making music with real instruments,
like in the digital domain, you can you can write
an album on a laptop, you know, because all.
Speaker 4 (43:37):
The tools are there, but to get like really great
drum sounds, you know, you want to have some space,
so you can put a microphone twenty feet that way,
and you know, plus they'll have like, you know, a
bevy of amplifiers that are like you know that when you.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Plug into this thing, it's going to sound huge, and
then John knows exactly how to place the microphones to
make everything really sound authentic.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
You know. Yeah, and being in the music it is
a business. You guys probably get more revenue out maybe
more so out of touring and merch. Merch is a
big deal too. You got it on your website, the
Fractals band dot com.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Uh yeah, hopefully you know, we're gonna bolster our inventory
of merch, new shirts, new CDs that come out and stuff.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
So yeah, I mean it's it's tough to make great.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
Money from performing live on a local level, so you know,
you work every angle.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
You can't, right, right, it's just a little bit from that,
and then very very little from streaming, although there's a
presence there and a little bit from YouTube. If you
get anything out of that, it's just uh, people just
hopefully stumble on you and you get the subscribers on
your YouTube channel and Spotify and all that. So you
(44:57):
hope that it's it's going to go somewhere and and
promote you as well. So, but the merch is really Yeah,
people talk about that and how you know that really
does get the money in the pocket.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
Yeah, I mean, especially for bands, you know, if you're
heard some crazy story like you know, I think it
was no doubt at one point when they were touring
they were making it clearing a million dollars in profit
from their mercha.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
It's like tortures now like fifty bucks.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
So exactly. Yeah, you got to mark them up. That's
you got to make the profit that way. Sure. Gosh yeah.
Out of Philadelphia, Wow, you got so many great people.
And were you familiar with Tom Bell who had passed
away the last couple of years. Now, Tom Bell was
very big there. And I know Elton John and that's
how I know about Tom Bell because Elton John worked
(45:49):
with him.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Oh yeah, I mean I never met Tom Bell, but
you know, through the legacy of you know, Philadelphia pr
I and all the you know, all of the vintage
records that came out of Philly. You know, he was
an incredible songwriter. I wish I hadn't met him.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
Yeah, Yeah, it seemed like a total genius. It just
came out of nowhere. I was like, yeah, I was
thinking about him the other day and then it passed away.
It's just, yeah, so much going on there, and it's
just great that you're you're doing so well. And it's
just I love the the fonts you guys use on
your web page. Here, do you have an artist who
(46:29):
did this? How your band name is in this particular font,
and how it's kind of packaged with Rescue as well
with the ap.
Speaker 2 (46:39):
We don't use an artist.
Speaker 3 (46:40):
I mean I drew that on the back of a napkin.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Oh, there you go. It's like there was some thought there.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
The video and then it was kind of refined. Jim
and I worked on a little bit. So yeah, that's
like everything right now mostly, you know, visually is just homegrown.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
Now, the video for for Rescue or Eric Horriz the video,
and so I was at his house while we were
working on the video where that logo came up, and
then just decided to use it for the album cover
and the image of the CD cover for Rescue comes
from the video.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Yeah, and the video is is interesting. How did you
guys create that?
Speaker 3 (47:23):
Well, that's all Eric Krowitz.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
Eric Korriz is our longtime friend and he actually produced
the very first I mean not the very first, but
the major label record that Huffamus did. He engineered it
in ard More and we became close friends. And then
he learned how to do animation on Flash, the program Flash,
and he's got his you know, uniquely owned style and
(47:47):
he's done a few videos for us now. So he
had some stock images of our caricatures of us.
Speaker 3 (47:54):
Like dancing around and stuff.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
But the videos that he make sure I love him
so much. There's so fun and playful and soulful. So
I really want more people to see the rescue animated video.
Speaker 1 (48:09):
Yeah, love it, love it. It's on your YouTube channel
as well, so check that out the Fractals band dot com.
And then yeah, great video. I you know, somebody really
was like somebody's a real genius is behind this. So
he learned Flash. That explained a lot of that. That's yeah,
very well done. H Yeah, he's great, excellent. Well thanks
(48:29):
for stopping by. It's been a pleasure and.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
You so much. Yeah, wonderful talking to.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
Yeah, and best wishes, best luck on the road and
with more singles coming out. EPs. The Fractals band dot
com a great website there tells the whole story about
the band and your long history.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
Yeah we've been around a little bit.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
Yeah yeah, Well hope to see you live too one day.
That would be great. I got to try able to Philly.
That would be the most likely thing to do.
Speaker 3 (49:03):
That'd be wonderful.
Speaker 1 (49:04):
We appreciate it, excellent, Take care, have a good one. Wow,
a lot of fun and I am just amazed that
Kevin is so close with Questlove. Well I'm not like
Buddy Buddy or whatever you know, but quest Love is
He's friends with zillions of people. So check it out,
check out that wonderful new EP. Stay cool this summer,
(49:29):
and we'll have another episode out pretty soon. Have a
good one.
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