SLACKSTRING INTERVIEW
Slackstring’s MySpace page proudly declares, 'if music is clothing, Slackstring is flip-flops.’ It’s simple, but an accurate description of the beach ’ n’ coast lifestyle the band strongly endorses. Surfacing from Manhattan Beach, CA, Slackstring has been building a dedicated following through its instantly likable campfire acoustic grooves and appearances in extreme sports movies such as The Collective. The band has just recently completed its latest release, Lay Back, so Slackstring singer/guitarist Eric Lyman took some time out of his busy music and beach going schedule to speak with The Pier.
The Pier: So tell us how did Slackstring originally get together? Were you guy’s friends at school?
Eric Lyman: We all grew up in the same home town. I have known Matt Muir the drummer since about kindergarten or so. Matt and I started playing together in high school. Us and Gavin (Heaney) were in a punk band called AWOL. We played with a bunch of bands, including Sublime, Pennywise, Strung Out and Agent Orange.
We were lucky we got to have a couple of gigs with Sublime, as obviously they weren’t around too long and they have been really influential not only for punk bands like we were at the time, but for this new generation of acoustic/reggae hybrid type bands that are really popular today like Slightly Stoopid and Jack Johnson. Our music currently is just a reflection of the music we have come to love and appreciate, like The Beatles, Bob Marley and The Rolling Stones, but we still listen to a lot those early punk bands too.
The Pier: Slackstring is just about to release its sophomore album. How was the recording process for Lay Back? Did you set out to do anything differently than when you recorded the debut?
Eric: The first album was sort of done by trial and error. All of our stuff is DIY and the first album was done somewhat archaically, as we were learning the process. For this second album, Brett Thomas (our bass player who was new for the second album) really helped, as he has much more experience in audio engineering. So from a technical standpoint it is much more refined and much more polished.
To record the whole album it took about 22 months, yeah almost 2 years to make the album. It took a little longer for us to get everything out that we were hearing in our heads at the time.
The Pier: You re-recorded one of the band’s most popular songs, Sunday Jen, for Lay Back? Why was that?
Eric: The original song was just a demo and it did really well for us, so we wanted Sunday Jen on there because it had such a good response. The only file we could obtain of the song was an MP3, so from a quality standpoint and because we had recorded the song for a third party there was questions about whether we could legally put it on our album. It just became easier for us to re-record the song and we made a very conscious effort to keep it as close to the original as we could. I think we did that really well, but some notable differences include we have some real strings on there now instead of the virtual strings.
The Pier: Everyone I know that has heard that song - loves it. What is it about that song in particular do you think that has made it so popular?
Eric: I am not sure. When I sat and wrote that song I kind of felt the previous few songs I had written had similar melody structures and so my goal for Sunday Jen was to pull out some chords that seemingly had nothing to do with each other and almost like a bingo wheel if you will, I would throw a chord out there and another random chord and put them together. The melody just wrote itself over the chords.
It is clearly one of our most liked songs. I think it has a nice flow to it and a nice pace. Certainly the placement of the song in The Collective, the first mountain bike movie we were in, was in a scene that has some riders that were in Hawaii that were just having a good time and enjoying the tropical setting. I think a lot of our fans have become familiar with the band through that film and I believe they think back to the clip and instead are thinking of hanging out in Hawaii with a bunch of their friends. The song has become the soundtrack to that emotion of feeling warm and fuzzy.
Check out the video from The CollectiveThe Pier: Your band has been featured in a few extreme sports videos, like The Collective. Are you guys into those sports? Is that how that you got involved with them?
Eric: We all grew up within earshot of the ocean and so surfing is a big activity for us. Matt our drummer even competed a little bit back in high school and he achieved some notoriety in the surfing world. I have gone down a few mountains and strapped on one of those snowboard things in my time though. We are not too into extreme sports, but we do surf.
The Pier: Last time you played in Seattle a couple of months ago, was the first time I caught you guys live. I was kind of surprised how much you jammed on some of the songs. You like to keep things interesting on stage for the crowd?
Eric: It keeps us interested too, to have it be a little bit different. We have live recordings where some of the songs are 12 minutes long, as they take little different twists and turns. It’s enjoyable to make it different so when you get up there, there is the anticipation on how you are going to jam out a song.
Both our albums are great, but the ‘Van’ album is a bit slower paced for some of the songs, so when we play live people want to dance and people want to drink and have a good time so we definitely want to feed off that energy of the crowd. So we pick up the energy in those songs and play to that level. It’s like surfing; the music picks up into a wave and takes you with it and you go where it leads you. That’s sort of the philosophy for the music when we play live too.
The Pier: What was it like supporting the legendary Wailers recently? That must have been quite an experience?
Eric: Yeah what a great band to tour with and getting to see those guys play every night was awesome. The fan-base they attract to their shows are by-and-large music lovers, it’s not just die-hard reggae people. So it was nice to be featured in front of those people and play in front of 7,000 people in one of those shows.
The Wailers seemed stoked too that we weren't necessarily just another reggae band supporting. We were a band that had some energy, that could get the crowd warmed up and dancing.
The Pier: You have a solo project and an album out too. How do you work out what songs will be for Slackstring or for your solo stuff?
Eric: Some of it is as simple as the other guys don’t want that song in the band. If I bring a song and they are just not feeling it, then that makes it easier to deal with. It might hurt my ego a bit, no big deal. Other songs have more of that acoustic singer/songwriter vibe, so it is more appropriate to just a guy with a guitar then they are in a full band. Some songs are also really personal songs and I had a vision in my head how they would sound and I just wanted to attach only my name to it.
The Pier: It sounds like you really know your beaches. So what is your favorite place to hang out in the summer?
Eric: That is an extremely easy answer for me, Manhattan Beach. I have a spent a good percentage of my life down there. I love being there even when it’s not summer time. As a kid I was there every day of the summer and even now I try to get down there as much as possible. However, it is not as much fun as it use to be because on a Tuesday afternoon all my friends are working and can’t come down there with me.
In LA, in the South Bay area it is really the only place you can be in nature I guess. For us going down to the ocean is a way we can reconnect with nature. I also know when I go down there I will always see someone I know cruising by on a bike or coming down for a surf or to play volleyball. How else would you want to spend your time?
Thanks to Eric for this interview and The Pier wishes Slackstring all the best with the new album, Lay Back. You can now purchase the songs online, so check them out on the band's MySpace page. Also be on the lookout for the album to be reviewed here on The Pier sometime soon.
To find out more about Slackstring and Eric's solo efforts check out: