Interview: All The Way Rider
All The Way Rider “Fish Wrap Factory”
by Bushman
Write, record and rock. That’s the goal of All The Way Rider. Noting Quicksand and Hum as some of their main influences is a nod to the quality guitar hook based indie rock this Minneapolis foursome churns out. Songs on their Blue Worm Records release “Lahuna” have a sincere strained intensity that showcase a Midwestern song writing sensibility. It’s tough to capture with words, but it tends to revolve around guitars that rock hard, but know the value of a good melody wrapped around some kind of vocal catch. Think early Smashing Pumpkins. It’s within this arena that big warm distorted guitars like to play with volume and intensity to push the range of emotion throughout the songs.
Any advantages from being stationed in Minneapolis?
Jeremy: It’s nice to be in a “big” city. There are so many great bands to befriend here and you can kind of live in your own myopic world of buying records and listening to music without paying much attention to the mainstream, even though, invariably, you do. Minneapolis has always been a great music town.
Bill: We’re only four to eight hours from Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, Kansas City, and St. Louis. Not to mention all the college towns in between. Being centrally located is an advantage for sure
Rocky: It’s a great place to be. There are tons of excellent bands, lots of legendary venues and a lot of people that appreciate good rock music.
Disadvantages?
Jeremy: We’re a long way from the “music world” in a business sense. Whenever the band I’m in at the time has toured through LA or NYC, it’s been really easy to feel like an outcast. Even at the simplest level of a dirty rock ‘n roll bar, the music culture in those cities just feels so much different than it does here.
Bill: It takes a lot to impress a Minneapolis music fan. We’re notorious for watching shows with our arms crossed, waiting to be impressed. Everyone and their mother plays in a band here.
Rocky: The disadvantages are the same as a lot of the advantages. There are lots of great rock bands and venues. That means lots of competition and listeners that can be fickle because they’re so used to great music.
Name some hometown heroes that provided inspiration to form All The Way Rider.
Jeremy: I liked Houston. They were my favorite Minneapolis band of all time. Growing up I was into Libido Boyz, Soul Asylum, Threadbare and Disembodied to name a few.
Bill: We’re all big fans of a band called Houston, who sadly, disbanded a few years ago. I also respect Atmosphere for how hard they’ve worked, and toured for years.
How is playing gigs in the winter? Which is what, like nine months a year there?
Jeremy: I love winter shows. Sure, loading in and out sucks, but you wear a hat and gloves and deal with it. The rock warms you up.
Bill: Loading gear when it’s 20 below zero really sucks, but you get used to it. Just keep the van warm and wear gloves. You try to keep the instruments warm, or you’ll end up with broken things. Our drummer, Rocky, has blown right through heads because it was too cold in the back of the venue. They harden up and shatter like a sheet of ice if you don’t give them time to warm up, or if you leave them in a cold van for too long. Also, anything made out of metal can get REALLY cold REALLY fast. Whatever you do, don’t put your tongue on it!
I notice Taco Johns made your ‘thank you’ list. They kick the shit outtta Taco Bell huh?
Jeremy: Yeah, it’s really not close. Super Burrito, Super Nachos, Taco Tuesday….what’s not to love?
Bill: You got that right! Potato Oles are a staple of the ATWR road diet.
Rocky: Taco John’s is our culinary god and savior. If you look at your web site, you’ll see that we actually wrote them looking for a sponsorship. They denied us, of course, but we got a message on their letterhead out of it. That alone is pretty cool.
Does All The Way Rider have a ‘rider’ when they play? (y’know, a list of ‘demands’ of food, drink, naked women, etc. to keep the band happy?)
Jeremy: If we had that kind of carte blanche, I can imagine it would probably involve Summit Extra Pale Ale, Stella Artois, and Jameson Irish Whisky.
Rocky: We’re just some good old Midwestern boys. There’s a venue in Appleton, WI that pretty much gives us all we can drink of anything we want.
You tour in Wisconsin. Tell the people how yummy cheese curds are!
Jeremy: Cheese curds are good, but Wisconsin is home to Rocky Rococo Pizzerias… which is why I love it.
Bill: Cheese curds are tasty, especially the Squeaky Curds made in Ellsworth, WI.
Rocky: Now that you mention it, I can’t think of a time that we’ve partaken in cheese curds while we’ve been there. But they are a staple up here in Minnesota, too. The cheese curd is basically a piece of deep-fried, battered cheese. Any sane human being should be salivating at the sound of that. Cheese curds rule!
What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received about your music?
Jeremy: One person said the first thing he thought of when hearing us was Quicksand, which is my favorite band ever… so that was very nice.
Rocky: The first time we played Joliet, a guy was in the crowd that had driven down from Chicago to see us. He was from California, and he’d actually changed his plane ticket so he could come down and see us. If that wasn’t compliment enough, he said that we were the best rock band he’d ever seen. Can you beat that?
What’s the worst thing anyone has said about your music?
Jeremy: A girl who reviewed us said my vocals were shrieky and my lyrics were adolescent or something. But then I listened to a band that she gave a raving review to, and felt better about myself, or maybe it was the burrito I had for lunch that day.
Rocky: We’ve got a few sour reviews floating around the internet. One of them called us boring and predictable. What does that person listen to, Coltrane?
When you listen to ‘Lahuna’ by yourself, what goes through your head?
Jeremy: I thought of about 5 guitar parts that I play live now, about a month after I recorded guitar for the record. “Oh well.”
Bill: I recorded and mixed the record, so I hear things that only engineers hear.
Rocky: “Why am I listening to myself play music?”
Messages to the masses?
Jeremy: Turn off your radio.
Rocky: We came to rock.
