Five Questions with A Rooster for the Masses

Headwaters

You probably think you know A Rooster for the Masses. They've been Raleigh favorites for years, making politically progressive, agitpop that made you think while dancing your ass off. A series of line-up changes has left the band with two original members, and a sound that has evolved along with the revolving door of band members. So, if you haven't seen them lately, you need to check them out this Friday, Oct. 23, at the New Raleigh showcase for the Cherry Bounce Festival at Berkeley Cafe. Adam Eckhardt answered Five Questions for us in the meantime. You can also catch Five questions with the T's and Five questions with Colussus who will also be playing the show.

1. Rooster has gone through some line-up changes in the past couple of years. Who is currently in the band, and how has the band's sound evolved with the change in membership?

Our current line up is Todd Robert-guitar, Scott Rooker-bass,Wes Gillespie-guitar/vox, Matt Vooris-drums, and Adam Eckhardt-vox. We definitely have had some line up changes in our 5 years and this really has affected our sound. Rooster had started originally as a musical collective. Early on we had two drummers. Greg Joyner and Jubal Creech, Jubal left for personal reasons. Greg was our drummer for about a year and then he left too. Rob Lackey then joined to take care of the drumming.

As many may know we had two singers for awhile, Bart Tomilin and myself. You can hear Bart on our debut EP "Gallo Rojo" Bart left in 2006 so we needed a keyboard player. Dave Thoms joined to fill in on keys.

The biggest line up change was when David Patterson and Alex Cox moved to NYC in 2007 and we (Wes and I) started to think about whether or not to start a new band. Ultimately we realized we had worked too hard for 2 years to just start over. We had a back log of demos that hadn't been worked on so we started looking around for new members. We found Scott through Myspace as he was familar with the band and it's music cause he had been to a few shows. We found Jesper Grud thru an add in the Independent Weekly. We had no idea about this guy he said he was really into surf music, the Dead Kennedies and the Pixies. After practicing all summer on some of the old songs and working on the demos it was becoming clear that our sound was changing. Jesper brought a definite surf twang with a punk edge and Scott is very versatile in styles but has a very strong funk root. We practiced with Rob Lackey for a few session and then he decided his heart wasn't in it and we understood. Love the guy he is a fantastic drummer and individual. But when the thrill is gone the thrill is gone. We auditioned tons of drummers and eventually our friend Matt Vooris joined the band. Matt has just recently called it quits with the band he played with for 10 years SNMNMNM. Matt is very versatile on the drums which lead to new ideas.

The new line up was really fun. The old songs sounded different but familiar. We still had part of the old feel but there was definitely more rock attitude in band. We played a bunch of shows, wrote new songs, and recorded "Broken Era". We soon got the sad news that our dear friend Jesper was moving back to Denmark.

We put out our feelers for new guitarist and auditioned Todd Robert. Todd was the guitar player for Sleepsound. He was the one and only person to audition. He blew us away. He has this awesome sort of shoe-gaze sort of rock sound. So yet again our sound is evolving. Todd has written the base for a lot of the new songs you will hear today if you catch us live.

2. Why are all the band members named Hank (per the Myspace page)?

When we first got started we didn't want anyone to know who was in the band. I guess we just wanted to be mysterious. We had a Myspace page, we posted a few demos,and our we had profile pictures of roosters that we would change everyday. We were using "Hank" around the practice space like anyone else would use the word "dude". "Hey, dude would you pass me that patch cord?" became "Hey, Hank...". It stuck so everyone adopted it. It became a source of unity, and anonymity.

3. Your song on the upcoming "Have a Holly Raleigh Kidsmas" is called "Snow-bama." Given the political nature of the band, I think it's safe to assume this is a political song. Am I right? And if so, is it appropriate to mix politics and holiday songs?

HAH! Have you been talking to Jeff Carroll (love you man!)? Sort of, the original idea was inspired by Inauguration Day 2009. We got a bunch of snow and everything shut down. Folks around Raleigh were really excited cause they got a "Holiday" to celebrate Obama. People were making snow men and calling them "Snobama". So the song is about the joy of an expected day off from school and work. Nothing political in the song, it was just inspired by politics.

4. Speaking of holidays, have you ever eaten tofurkey?

Not yet...is it any good? I have had Turducken though! DELICIOUS!!! You are making me hungry!

5. Isn't it time for a new Rooster CD?

Yes! Yes, it is. We will take some time off from playing out for a while to give my wife and I some time to settle in with our new baby girl we are expecting in December. While that is going on we will get in the studio and record. We hope to have at least an EP by March.

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Music , Other posts by Karen.