By Rich Quinlan
Photos by Pierfrancesco and Brian Coppede
I was first introduced to the genius of
Thing-One several years ago when their innocuous
looking disc arrived in my mail for review.
I was astounded by what I heard; a wild combination
of hip-hop, soul, rock, and jazz played by live
musicians and honest, introspective lyrics.
From there, I have had the pleasure of hearing
Thing-One evolve into a brilliant combination
of eclectic groves and jazz, but still overflowing
with a panache that few bands possess. Leader
Joey Palestina was kind enough to humor me by
answering some inane questions via email. His
band is amazing and definitely worth seeing,
although you may need a change of pants!
Q: Please start with basic biographical info
about Thing-One in terms of origin, inspirations,
and early incarnation of the band, both uplifting
and funny in retrospect.
Thing-One was created by Spencer Miles and
Joey Palestina in the basement of Miles house
in Glen Ridge, NJ. 2003/04 was when we started
to musically dip and dab into ideas and try
certain styles out. I was listening to hip
hop on overload, Nas, Wu Tang Clan, Biggy,
GangStarr, Common, Naughty By Nature. My other
friends in Glen Ridge would have little circles
where we would blast a Wu tang song, and we
would all take turns freestyling, and this
is when I started to rap and write on a consistent
basis. As college came to a close for both
of us, and hip hop was pulsing our ears, Spen
was composing bits and pieces of various hip
hop driven songs. I would come over, and rap
a little, raid his parents fridge and leave,
and one day he called me and said "We
should start a band dude". So we did.
At the time, the albums that were inspiring
us were Illmatic by Nas, Liquid Swords by
GZA, Ready to Die by Biggy Smalls and the
strongest of all Breath From Another by an
artist named Esthero. The Esthero album had
an immense impact on our hearts, it was produced
by a cat named Doc Mckinney and it blended
elements of trip hop, rock, drum and bass
and jazz with vocals that were perfect for
the tracks. I suggest everyone find a copy
of it and listen to it.
At first, and for about two years we were
a hip hop band, with a female vocalist and
myself as the rapper, keys, bass, guitar and
drums. This is where we built our base as
band. We've completely changed since then
and I'd like to think our sound is constantly
maturing into something different, all the
time.
Q: Your lyrics are usually quite personal-do
you believe that artists can ever reveal too
much about themselves lyrically? And how do
you find that line?
I think it depends on the genre of music you're
working with. Rap lyrics are always very personal
and sometimes been of an overload for people.
Our lyrics when we were doing hip hop we're
very personal for both of us because of where
we were in our lives; the fear of post collegiate
life, finding a job, getting kicked out of
our parents house, getting dumped by numerous
girls, experimenting with drugs, death, adolescence,
all the typical doors that open and close
at such a conscience age, and a somewhat fearful
age for everyone. It came across strongly
on the first and second album and we wouldn't
take it back for the world. At the same time
I think most hip hop falls into a really watered
down repetitive style with artists that pigeon
hole themselves lyrically, which is why we
changed after our second album "GhettosklylineSuburbanFarmland",
which I think is a great blend of where we
were stylistically and where we were headed.
I hope that if we do become more well known,
that that album gets dug up and really discovered
because I think it's fantastic.
Q: Did you struggle early on to find like-minded
musicians who could grasp your vision and
make it a reality?
No. The only thing we ever struggled with
in regards to the numerous musicians that
were in and out of the band was trying to
put together a group of people that were as
dedicated as Spen and I; a real optimistic
core, with passion and drive, which is vital
for any bands success.
Q: How has non-traditional music outlets (social
networking sites, blogs, etc.) impacted your
band's notoriety and fan base?
We changed from hip hop to electro dance rock
around the time when blogs really started
to take off and luckily a lot of the local
music blogs had open ears to our new style
much more than our old style, which was good
timing on our part. It's amazing what it's
done for bands, Myspace, Pitchfork, Stereogum,
Facebook, all of these networking sites and
bloggers hold bands momentum in their hand
which is a good and bad quality. You're constantly
exposed, and like our drummer Tim always says,
blogs love finding a band and discovering
a band because they feel like it's their band,
that they found and no one else. We all used
to bombard The Village Voice or The Times
for a review, now you can get a review on
a blog that gets 15,000 views a day and you
become much more passive about the older zines
and publications because you know the popularity
of the blogs. They're good for bands. Without
a doubt and have been great for us.
Q: Your band borrows from hip-hop and jazz,
to name two genres: Do you consider yourself
part of these genres or something wholly outside
them? What has the reaction been from more
"traditional" hip-hop artists to
your work?
Well I'll preface this with saying we are
not a hip hop band anymore and haven't been
for quite some time. Spencer has really catapulted
us into a new genre and style over the last
two years, but even now the hip hop element
is still evident in our work and is a wonderful
challenge to sometimes keep it lingering classily
as we progress. The one thing I made a promise
to keep from our hip hop roots was the realism
in our lyrics, the wonderful thing about hip
hop is the personal connection that the artist
immediately exudes through his work, if done
tastefully; with our new style (electro pop
rock) we've managed to still write on that
personal almost MC feel with a lot of the
songs which I think winds up being more effective
because rock appeals to a wider audience and
is what we grew up on, rock and jazz.
Q: Jazz was initially viewed as dangerous,
rebellious music that would frighten parents
and disturb the youth of America. In a world
of such pre-packaged hype and gloss, is there
ever a chance the music will again capture
that element of danger and freedom?
Hmmm. Danger and freedom. I'm going to out
on a limb here and say everything and anything
that is groundbreaking or controversial about
music has already been done; the best is behind
us. We can only hope to try and be just as
effective in whatever we do, from pop, to
bluegrass to jazz to techno. The internet
has really brought music back on its feet
in regards to just constantly exposing it,
all the time, whether it's good music or bad.
I don't think kids these days for the most
part have the attention span, or mental capacity
to even feel a sense of danger or freedom
about the music they listen to; as long as
it's on their IPOD, they can shut themselves
off to the world and fall into that wonderful
unsociable hole they love to live in. That
sounds condescending, but, I hope there's
some kid out there doing that to Thing-One.
Q: Have labels struggled to grasp what the
band is doing?
I actually feel bad for labels. I think they've
struggled to grasp what they are capable of
doing. The internet does so much now, they
have been forced to really revamp their approach
to bands, whether it's a pop band or a more
experimental band like Thing-One because there's
a lot we can do on our own now, from building
a base to booking shows. I think it's a time
of chaos and transition and it's somewhat
nice to see them scrounging and trying to
reinvent themselves almost like the artists
they represent. We have had a hard time in
the past, but hopefully that will change.
Q: What has been your most memorable experience
thus far in the band?
Starting the band with my best friend Spen
Miles and Timmy Alworth is most memorable
for me. Years ago dreaming about playing Mercury
Lounge, dropping our first kit off there,
now we're playing CMJ there; dreaming about
playing Bowery Ballroom, and then we played
there last year, years ago talking about going
on the road with the boys, having fun, building
a base and getting some press, now it's all
happening. The journey itself has been the
most memorable and will continue to be; the
bad times and the good because you need both
in order to stay fresh.
Q: Discuss the song-writing process if you
could: Is it a democracy with various inputs
and opinions, or a more controlled structure?
Spen and I write everything together, Timmy
will come in and be a pretty big factor in
the beat, he loves to change things live and
in my opinion is the strongest musician in
our band, we throw a lot of electronic beats
and parts at him and he tops it with something
even more amazing. Overall Timmy, Spen and
I all decide on what sounds good or what needs
work.
Q: Discuss the immediate future plans for
Thing-One.
We would love to start tour with a bigger
band, get more press, play Brooklyn(Hipster
Heaven) on a consistent basis because there's
a lot of action in that area and keep building
a base in Jersey and Manhatten. Timmy would
also like us to be the house band for John
McCains election, but he swears he's not conservative,
he's just a fiscally concerned drummer guy
who doesn't want taxes raised. We hope to
see Tim leave the band in the near future
and get a job on the campaign trail perhaps
as an advisor for the McCain people on what
rest stops have the best combo of fast food
while on the road. He's going to kill me for
this, but he knows I'm joking. An additional
plan we have is to make sure our new guitarist
Adam Arcano doesn't lose his pedal board anymore.
Watch out for this kid, he's been known to
given women orgasms while playing live, he
gave Spen one at our last show.
Find out more about Thing-One at www.myspace.com/thingone
Thing-One will be appearing at the Mercury
Lounge in NYC on Dec. 5.
