An interview with Tim of Longislandmusicscene.com

LIMS: Hi Rob!

Rob G: Well hello there, Tim. How the hell are ya?

LIMS: Doing great, man! Please tell our readers about some of your early influences, and who are some contemporary performers that you admire?

Rob G: Hmmm... I guess I started out being influenced by all the great music that started blowing up back in the early 90's. Bands like 'Nirvana', 'Soundgarden', and 'Alice In Chains'. By getting into those bands, it opened us up to the bands that influenced them. I remember discovering 'The Wipers', 'Iggy Pop and The Stooges', 'Sonic Youth' and just getting so excited about what all these people were doing musically and artistically. As of recently, I’m really digging the new 'Chevelle' record, and this new band called 'My Vitriol'. They've got a great video for a song called 'Grounded' with Vincent Gallo in it whom also directed the clip, and I love the story the video tells. 'Tool' and 'Sunny Day Real Estate' are always strong influences.

LIMS: How would you describe the sound/style of Pretty Polly’s music?

Rob G: It's a perfect blend between all the things we love about music. It’s emotional, melodic, artistic, mournful, groovin', and heavy as hell! It's funny. Steve wrote something up for a web-site that I liked a lot. It was something like “Imagine if 'Far', 'Hum', 'Smashing Pumpkins', 'Sunny Day' and 'Tool' tried to have dinner together and instead got in a brawl, only to calm down a few minutes later and finish their meal, then that’s what Pretty Polly sounds like."

LIMS: Classic! Tell us about how the name of the band (Pretty Polly) came to be.

Rob G: I've actually heard a bunch of really great theories from people on how they think we got the name, but the honest truth is we booked our first ever gig at some little Long Island venue, and the promoter called us back to find out our name because we were going through a bunch of names, none of which we liked and still didn't have one when we booked it. We told him we'd get back to him later in the day. At the time, Steve's brother Gary was playing bass for us, and I was showing those guys 'A Clockwork Orange' after a band practice because they'd never seen it up until then. At one point in the movie, Alex uses the term 'pretty polly', and Steve jumped up and said “that’s our name!” He just liked the sound of it, so we called back the club and told them we finally decided on a name and it was Pretty Polly.

LIMS: What gear do you like to perform with? Is it any different from the gear you record with?

Rob G: Ha! It's all Steve's gear. I really don't know the first thing about decent equipment and gear. I'm more into the songwriting process, so as long as it sounds good I couldn’t care less what it is we're using. I lost most of my equipment in a fire, so I've been sharing gear with Steve. We used all the same stuff when we recorded the album.

LIMS: Tell us about your latest cd?

Rob G: The latest cd came together quite unexpectedly. Steve and I had broken up Pretty Polly back in ‘99 but we still shared a rehearsal space with the bands we were playing in at that time. We were out for coffee one night and were talking about a few songs we never got the chance to record from right before when we broke up. So, we went to our studio and once we started playing those songs again, a whole bunch of new songs just started flowing out. In a short period of time we had a good album’s worth of material that we were very proud of. So we decided to get back together and put out a cd.

LIMS: What is different about this cd, from what is currently being played on the radio?

Rob G: Everything! I don't know about Steve, but when it came time to do these songs, I'd been out of the loop for a while. We just did what we thought sounded cool to us. It was a lot more of a collaborative effort then the way it used to be. We were younger when we first were in this band together and maybe not too open-minded to constructive criticism. But it's completely different now. We're mature and doing what we want to do, and kinda purposely making sure it doesn't sound like anything else…especially what’s on the radio!

LIMS: Tell us about your Long Island music scene. What do you like the most about it? Who are some of the better bands in your area, and please tell us a little about them.

Rob G: Well, it seems a lot of bands around here are doing very well for themselves lately, so I guess that’s encouraging. Like I said before, I'm personally out of the loop, but I've seen some really good bands that we've shared a bill with. 'The Pistol Wips', 'With Every Idle Hour', 'Yes Sensei', 'Jones Crusher', 'Reach', 'Two Man Advantage'. All those bands are completely different from each other but I like them because they are doing such different stuff. I really miss 'Pacifier' and 'The Last Crime'. They were two of my favorite Long Island bands. The only problem here is that it's getting harder and harder to find venues to do shows. Especially to do shows that will be “all ages”. Because I feel like kids are the strongest support behind any scene, and what good is a show if it's at a bar that won't let kids in to see a band they want to check out?

LIMS: You really looked and sounded great at the last Union Square Lounge show. Was that fun or what?

Rob G: Yeah, the Union Square Lounge shows have all been fun. For the first time, I'm very comfortable with the band as a live band and it's made the gigs more enjoyable. All three of us are really proud of what we're doing and look forward to how the band can progress from here. We take playing live very seriously, weather it's playing for four people or a hundred. But not too seriously of course. We're having a good time.

LIMS: Tell us about some of your Spinal Tap moments.

Rob G: We did a couple of shows with our friends in 'Two Man Advantage', back when they were starting out, and those were always wild shows. I used to do Mark (the bassist's) makeup for those early gigs, so I remember being cramped into a little tiny bathroom, putting white make-up on a grown man's face, while Harry (the drummer) was trying to take a piss and Spag (the singer) was stripping down and changing into his stage get-up (which if you haven't seen... Well... it's quite something). I think some guy who was drinking at the bar tried to get into the bathroom, took one look at all of us and turned right back around! That same night we went on after 'Endangered Feces' and there was toilet paper all over the stage and all over the bar; a very bizarre show to have to play.

LIMS: Give us a funny Stevie D story.

Rob G: Ha ha, pick a day! That guy always has funny moments. Well, I remember once we were coming out of Tower Records in Carle Place with a bunch of friends and he had to urinate out back. He thought he'd be funny and jump head first into a bush. Little did he realize that there was a dumpster behind this particularly large bush. I'll never forget seeing him fly head first into this bush and just hearing the loudest 'cling!' followed by a slow and agonizing owwww!

LIMS: Where will Pretty Polly be in 2003?

Rob G: If it was up to me, I'd like Pretty Polly to be on the road or working on a new record. All these other Long Island bands are getting signed left and right, so we're hoping that someone will take notice of us and realize we're trying to do new and different things! After all, we've been doing it for quite some time now, so I just hope to get more people's attention within the next year.

LIMS: Tell us about some of your original songs.

Rob G:'Embracing Turns In Teal' - This was actually the first new song Steve and I wrote when we got back together to do this album. It's pretty much about the parts of the local scene that maybe we don't like so much; the things that not everyone sees happening. Back when we started out, everything here was about hardcore and we were heavy but not hardcore heavy, so we found it funny that as soon as we broke up, people started going toward the “emo” direction, and that’s kinda what we were trying to do from the get-go after we saw 'Sunny Day Real Estate' live for the first time back in ‘94. So, it's pretty much about being ignored for doing what everyone else is doing now, and waiting in line for our turn. The whole “teal” thing is just a metaphor for a different kind of blue, as in sad.

'A Joke From Above (Experimental Mental)' - This was musically inspired by a local band called 'The Last Crime'. A couple of the riffs in there were things Steve and I had worked on years ago when we first played with those guys. It's funny because that one kinda came out of nowhere and turned out to say quite a lot. It's about loss of faith, and mostly loss of faith in some of God's creations that we are forced to deal with on a daily basis (creation can mean anything the listener wants it to mean). At the same time, by talking to God, it's acknowledging his/her/it's existence. The band has strong feelings about what it is we believe in after all the things we've been through. The 'Experimental Mental' part was the original title meaning that we could be nothing more then a mental experiment for some higher power. Something is testing what happens to us mentally when we're put into certain situations.

'Some Real Life Poetry' - That's a straightforward love song that I wrote for someone who I unfortunately don't talk to anymore. Well, more of a mixed up love song.

'There's Just Something About You That Hurts Me' and 'One More Chance' - These songs sound like they flow into each other. Was that planned? Yes. Those two tracks are kinda always meant to be together. That’s also the way we play them live a lot; as one long song. Those were actually the last songs we wrote together back in 99 before our initial break-up. Those are the darkest and most miserable things that we've ever committed to tape. We were all individually in a strange place when those songs were being written and I think it shows. I don't think any of our other songs share the gloominess of those two.

LIMS: Can you give us some advice for musical performers that are new to the game?

Rob G: Advice? I guess do what you want to do, despite what's going on around you musically. Be true to yourself and what you want to express.

LIMS: What is the wildest and most unexpected thing that has ever happened at one of your performances?

Rob G: Actually, we did a gig at CBGB's way back in the day and I remember some A&R guy coming up to us mid-set and handing us his card. I don't know what ever came of that? I think our bassist at the time lost his card, which just freakin' figures.

LIMS: If someone locked you in a time machine, held a pistol to your head, and made you choose between going back to see a live performance by Pink Floyd (circa 1980)...or...Black Sabbath (circa 1970)..., which would you select, and why?

Rob G: Hmmm... it'd be Black Sabbath, man. It's funny, a lot of people see a Floyd influence in some of our songs, and definitely in most of our imagery, but I only recently got into them. I did a lot of that artwork and photography, before I was shown all the Pink Floyd work. But I definitely like them now. I grew up as a metalhead though, so I have my devotion to Sabbath. I'd go back in time to see them.

LIMS: Tell us about some of your guilty pleasures.

Rob G: Hmm...anything 80's, I guess. But nowadays every band is covering all these supposed “guilty pleasures” and making them “hip”. I like Prince a lot too. That Batman soundtrack rules!

LIMS: What is your favorite way to unwind after a rocking show?

Rob G: I wish we had time to unwind. Usually we're struggling to get our amps out of the way for the next band, and trying to figure out how we're going to get everything back to our rehearsal space. If we have the time, I just enjoy being in the company of my friends after a show and maybe having a drink and a smoke with them; the friends that I have I grown up with make me feel very complete, especially after a performance.

LIMS: What are some of your favorite movie soundtracks of all-time?

Rob G: Good question! There's a lot of good ones. 'The Crow' is probably my all-time fave, 'Singles', 'The Beach' soundtrack I listened to for most of the year that that movie came out. The Prince 'Batman' soundtrack. I also had a special place in my heart for the 'Big Daddy' soundtrack (the flick with Adam Sandler). There was a lot going on in my life around the time that movie came out, so I dig it for that. And ahhh...a guilty pleasure, the 'Spider-Man' soundtrack. Not too many artists I like on there, but it's Spider-Man and mostly about Spider-Man, so I, of course, love it.

LIMS: What are your "words to live by"?

Rob G: Keep the faith. And just be.