Page 32 - the Noise April 2017

ST. CINDER
BY BEVERLEY NAPALM
FROM LEFT: Zac Denton, Mark Rogers, Curtis Wakeling, Jordan Thompson, Liam Halliwell, Lachlan Denton PHOTO BY MATT CRIBB
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GIG PREVIEW / INTERVIEW
Originating from Ashland Oregon, St. Cinder are a rag-tag collective of six musicians en- gaging the noble pursuit of keeping Americana music and traditions alive. Their foot- stomping forays touch upon folk, jazz, blues and jug-music though a celebratory approach and acclaimed upbeat live performances, with period appropriate acoustic instruments.
St. Cinder play Flagstaff Firecreek Coffee on April 22nd in what promises to be a fantastic night of old-time and bluegrass wonderment. The author posed the following questions to the band, who for their responses, asked to be presented as a collective rather than singled out as individual members.
I have seen your music described as “Vagabond Swing,” which as a genre I am unfamiliar with, but is a very fitting description for your music. Do you consider yourself revivalists or a continuation of American folk music?
Well, we’re both really. We work hard to keep alive the music we love that spans tons of early genres. The fact that we’re folks, we’re American and we make music means that we are a continuation of that tradition, especially since we met as hobos, which seems a thing etched into the archetype of the American folk musician. But we don’t come from any specific lineage. We just love the music and we play it to keep it alive and make people happy — and to keep ourselves alive and happy. And we want land.
I am curious how you arrived at your sound. It has a very uplifting and positive vibe. What influences, musical or otherwise, have flavored your approach?
We draw influences from all aspects of our lives: riding bikes, traveling, gardening, our dogs, eating out of dumpsters, love, mountains, hitchhiking, driving our school bus around the country, living in our school bus, starving, shivering, dealing with cops because our lives are intrinsically illegal, making people smile, making babies dance ... You know, band stuff.
I read that you started out busking, which I imagine must have encouraged your performance in terms of connecting with an audience on an organic level?
Even though we are slotted for some major festivals this year and we play all ranges of venues, we still busk all the time. We’re full time musicians and addicted to music, and there is not always a stage handy — nor is that always the most profitable way to play. As far as connecting with the audience, when busking you have a short window to make a connection to the people passing by. The more you can make music an honest reflection of yourself the more it will resonate with others. We have a lot of time dedicated to making that connection. Playing the right songs for the right people is a hard-learned skill, and at
times to be successful busking, you almost have to translate the music of the air itself.
The instrumentation of St. Cinder is clearly carefully chosen, and key to your sound. Have you ever considered deviating from acoustic instruments?
In all actuality there was absolutely no planning to our instrumentation, and in fact it’s haphazard at best, and fluctuates often. But regardless of who’s playing what instrument or how many of them are playing at the same time, the goal is fun, and we carefully arrange each song to best suit the instruments we have and the mood we are trying to convey. We enjoy the tonal quality and versatility of acoustic instruments. You can’t plug a guitar into a campfire or a fire hydrant or a tree by the creek, or a plug that survived the impending collapse of civilization as we know it. And here at St. Cinder we value sustainability.
Most Americans would consider Hobo to be a romantic lifestyle of hopping trains in a bygone era. Of course, I imagine that’s not the case. But it’s clear the Hobo lifestyle feeds into your band approach and ethics. To those who remain quizzical of a 21st century band defining themselves as hobos, would you mind expanding a little more how that defines your day-to-day? For example, I assume you have access to the Internet. So are you at odds with the lifestyle you aspire to, and the times we are living through? How do you balance the two?
We describe ourselves as hobos, but more accurately we’re buskers. A hobo is someone who works while they travel, which is a description that fits us all independently and collectively, as opposed to say a bum who never works, or a tramp who only works when forced to. A busker specifically provides entertainment, on the street, at markets, in bars, or anywhere, and that’s our bread and butter. We’re not hopping trains to catch the apple harvest like bygone hobos, but we live similar lives for similar reasons.
None of us are huge fans of modernity or technology I think, but we’re also trying to get somewhere with our music and make our lives sustainable, so of course we use the Internet and cars. We’re not Amish just because we like old music. And we’re also not calling the shots on how this world’s shaping up, and blaming the bird for its cage is kind of a fallacy. But we would love to be on a piece of land gardening and retaining all kinds of heritage skills, if we can ever manage it. Why, got some land?
St. Cinder play Firecreek April 22nd with Prescott local Parker Smith. Show starts 8PM.
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