Just skip to the 3rd song “Hold It’ and after your done jamming to the Crazy Horse guitar work go back to the beginning of the album and listen to the whole thing. Sunday is always an excellent day to play good old rock songs. Nothing fancy , just good tunes mixed with honest lyrics and guys who know how to play together. So go get that cup of coffee, sit down, it’s still cold outside the yard work can wait, while you give a listen to , The Longwalls.
Hi our name is….
The Longwalls (And this is Alan)
People say we sound like…..
Oof. tough one. A little Uncle Tupelo? A little GBV? Three fingers of bourbon on at the end of the day? We hope so, anyway.
We are…
Alan Wuorinen
Brandon Comstock
Dan London
Kurt Von Stetten
We are from…….
The short answer is from Boston (by way of New England / Northeast)
Who are some artists that have an influence on you
Robert Pollard for sure. New wave. David Bowie. Punk. It’s kinda bigger than any one artist though. There are 4 songwriters in the band, so you kinda get the entire cannon of rock from us. I think we pull ideas/sounds from all sorts of traditional American music too (Maybe you can’t hear Charles Mingus or Copeland, but they are in there)…
How old were all of you when you started to play and who plays what in the band
My parents had me playing violin and piano at 5/6, and I started playing sax when I was 10. It all never really stuck until when I was 11 and was given my grandfather’s old ’31 gibson and started learning beatles and beach boys on it…the earlier instruments got me used to rhythm and playing in a group, though. You can’t discount any early attempts – even failures. My first band was at 13(?) playing Mistfits and Ramones. I’m sure it sounded terrible.
Alan sings, plays guitar and pedal steel, and occasionally keyboards.
Brandon sings, plays guitar, banjo
Dan sings, plays bass, mandolin, and guitar
Kurt plays drums, keyboards
Can you tell us about the process you use, from writing the songs all the way through getting the songs out
With 4 songwriters contributing I think its hard to pin down. We write alone sometimes, bringing a nearly finished recorded demo that could pass as a final product to the band, like Brandon’s track, “too many prayers”. Sometimes we just play in our rehearsal space and write on the fly, which is what happened with the title track “gold standard”. Sometimes I get to our practice space early and write a whole tune right before rehearsal starts, like a kid trying to do a book report on the bus to school, “hold it!”. I had the idea for “rukia” for a while, but didn’t really develop it until we were in the studio recording it, which was something new for us.
what are some of the challenges you face as musicians and how have you overcome those challenges
time. we all have a lot of commitments on our plates, and getting the most out of the time that we have is the hardest thing. We’re pretty good at it, but the clock is always running faster than you can, ya know?
If you could pick any time to travel back to for music, where would you go and what year would it ….
mid 70s to see the talking heads in a club before they blew up.
Who are all of you currently listening to ….
Justin townes earl, guided by voices, the shins, misfits.
If you could open for any Band right now who would that be and why?
I’d open for Robert Pollard, but worry I’d never be able to keep up with his onstage energy and stamina. I’d give it a shot though.
That or the father/son Jeff Tweedy thing that’s going on, I’d like to see them playing together up close…gives me hope for me and my kids when they get a little older.
My youngest son is 13 and in a Band, what advice would you offer him…
just have fun. don’t stress about whether you look cool or not. the best music that you can write and play is when you are comfortable with yourself and your band mates. man that sounds like old music dork advice. It’s true though.
your thoughts on the state of rock ‘n’ roll in 2015…..
its a crazy time, but a great time to be playing. There is a great chance to get out there with what you do, but its a challenge since there is *so much*.
Our plans for 2015…..
play live, make a couple more videos, make our friends smile.
listen to this cool album…
and you can keep up/follow The Longwalls
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