Sam Rives Interview

Sam Rives plays the trumpet in Sweet Spirit's horn section.

What's one song you know by heart and will never forget?

My best friend growing up was Jewish--his family wasn't hugely devout, maybe, but I think they did subscribe to a magazine called "Reform Judaism."  My family didn't really have much religion at all (our halfhearted yearlong attempt to "go Catholic" notwithstanding), so I kind of envied the fact that he had a whole spiritual/cultural community/past to tap into.  Anyway, I guess he went away to camp one summer and came back making fun of this song he'd learned.  I memorized the words to be in on the joke.  And to feel like less of a wandering heathen.  Favorite bit is probably "when you're not home, and you're somewhere kind of... new-ish."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHu87vWimTg

 

If you were to create a super-band who would be in it...dead or alive?

They are mostly dead.  Maybe I can hold a seance...

Drums: Al Jackson, Jr., of the MG's and the Stax and Hi house bands.  That would be enough.  I would need no one else.  There is no one I want more.  Alt.: Kenny Buttrey.

Guitar: Steve Cropper, also of the MG's.  I think I'm just naming the MG's now.  But his combination of lead and rhythm is flawless.

Bass: Aston "Family Man" Barrett.  I've never been a big reggae-head, but this man's solid, tactful, exuberant, melodic playing is one of the great gifts to recorded sound.  I would also welcome Donald "Duck" Dunn since his MG's bros would already be hanging out.

Winds: Johnny Hodges, alto.  Coleman Hawkins, tenor.  Gerry Mulligan, baritone.  Bix Beiderbecke, trumpet, in spite of his alcoholism.  All of these guys would be slumming it a bit in an R&B/soul/blues environment, and they might sound a bit old-fashioned.  But the music would swing hard as fuck.

Piano: Paul Griffin, from those beautiful, massive, swelling choruses on "One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)." Also, he was on "Like a Rolling Stone" and lots of other Dylan. 

Organ: Garth Hudson of the Band, swapping out with Cory Henry, a new jazz player who's probably one of the few real young geniuses alive today.

Vocals: I get to sing, since the whole point of forming a hodgepodge dream band is subjecting all these hotshots to my will and forcing them to play my songs.  I may be wrong, but it's probably too late for me to learn that lesson now.

What do you do and how did you get started?

For work, I teach children to read.  Musically, I sing and write songs for my band (the ole Willy Chapel--https://soundcloud.com/willychapel), toot a horn for Sweet Spirit, and play occasional country gigs and such around town.  In high school I decided to start writing songs, so I went into my neighborhood pawn shop and spent $50 on a crappy busted Casio keyboard.  I wrote a song about my friend's dog.  Then I wrote a song called "Nothing At All" which, unsurprisingly, was about just that. Nothing at all, that is.  But I kept going because I liked doing it, and now I think I'm better at it than I've ever been.  Which is a relief.

 

"I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger"...go

I wish I had just eaten the damn sweet potatoes.  I missed many Thanksgivings-full of those, all because they were unappetizingly orange.

Tell us about your best friend.

She is named Jessica, and she is my wife.  BARRFFFFFF... But freal, friends.  I'm not ashamed to tell you.  We've been together since we were fifteen.  We started our adulthood together.  She plays music with me.  She has her shit together.  She is the bread-winner.  She tried to grow tomatoes once, but only one came out.  She loves cats, so we have two.  She was a gymnast, so that was her childhood.  She loves me back.

What's something that you were afraid of but did anyway?

I can't swim.  When I was a kid, my family would go down to Nags Head, and someone would invariably goad me into the water.  I was afraid of drowning, I guess. But I went in! Like, a few times!  I don't go to the beach much anymore, since that's the easiest way of avoiding the problem.  But my friend's mom once said, "learn to swim or you'll drown in a vat someday."  I don't know why she said "vat" and not "river" or "bathtub."  But I still believe there's a huge, cartoonish water barrel waiting for me somewhere in a roadrunner-vs-the-coyote-style trap.  I tread lightly.

 

Leslie Matthews Interview

Leslie plays the Saxophone in Sweet Spirit. 

What's your zodiac sign and do you buy into that kinda thing? 

I'm a Leo. I have found that hokey magazine summaries of my love life are way off base, 100% of the time, However, the more personality-based, here's-your-life-calling zodiac stuff is scary on point at times. For example, I'll read "you're into music" or "you're being a crazy woman right now" and I'm like, oh snap.

What's your spirit animal?

I like to think my spirit animal is an elephant, for whatever that's worth. I'm lumbering, compassionate... clumsy but all-around pretty lovable.

Where did you grow up?

I grew up on a semi-remote intensely wooded plateau 20 minutes north of Nashville, Tennessee. It looks like the Smoky Mountains, and I grew up tromping around on our land and just being a crazy, adventurous kid. And animals. I grew up with shit loads of animals.

What's the most memorable or interesting encounter you've had with a complete stranger?

I was at a campfire one night ages ago, and across from me in the flickering light was this dude with a full-on Canadian tuxedo. Worn cowboy hat, boots with spurs, and the multi-hue jean covering his every inch was torn up and old and sooo legit. I went and struck up a conversation with him about his incredible swagger... and he was literally the Marlboro man's brother. Well, one of the models was his brother, but still. He was the same rugged and handsome archetype, and we frowned together about lung cancer (the ironic cause of his brother's death) then he kinda strolled off into the shadows. It was surreal in a lot of ways and I'll certainly never forget it.

What would you be doing if you weren't doing this?

Maybe taking a pottery class. Or a crazy dance class. Before I started my current Batman-esque status as a paralegal by day, sax player by night, I frequently thought about trying out for some community theatre. I still think that would be fun as hell.

Was there a moment when you decided to dedicate yourself to music or did you always just know?

I have absolutely always known. I heard my first music in the womb knowing my parents, so music feels innate and part of my every being. No matter what I do in life as a job or a hobby or whatever, I will always have music. It's not that I'm dedicated, it's that music is completely inescapable. 

Cara Tillman Interview

Cara sings back-up vocals in Sweet Spirit

What's your pet peeve?
I find it really irritating when people pretend to know a lot about a topic they actually know very little about for the sake of argument or to appear smarter/better/more attractive than everyone else at the table. It's also important to remind myself that when things annoy me about other people, it might be because I possess a little more of that particular irritating quality than I care to admit.

I don't know if that even counts as a pet peeve, so here goes: the overuse of commas really chaps my ass, guys.

What's the one place you wanna see before you die? Why?
Right now I'd really like to go to Joshua Tree. A road trip there would be swell. Seems like a totally attainable goal before I shuffle off this mortal coil, yeah?

What's the worst/hardest job you've ever had?
One summer during college I waited tables at Rod's Pizza Cellar in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The owner--before he joined the great pepperoni party in the sky--was largely immobile, and he sat in his office all day watching the cameras trained on the server station. He called me to his office once to yell at me for letting too much foam spill over the side of a glass while pouring a beer. Once while taking an order at a large table of patrons I watched through the window as the kitchen manager kicked the living shit out of a man in the parking lot who returned to the restaurant to complain about an incorrect delivery order. I stayed until the end of the summer because I needed to pay rent and I had walked out on one pizza-slinging gig already, and when I finally did call it quits, I took the cash in my apron and ran out the front door an hour into my shift, cowardly but sweetly victorious.

To whom do you owe a huge thank you and why?
I suppose for obvious reasons I must thank my parents for being good at listening and quick to laugh, for giving me piano lessons and for dragging me to church three times a week for the entirety of my childhood. It was there that I learned to harmonize and, perhaps ironically, to think for myself.

If you had only 24 hours left, what would you eat?
I'd empty my bank account on oysters and smelly cheeses and pink champagne.

Is there one piece of advice or wisdom that was given to you that just stuck? If so, what was it?
I'm not sure it's advice so much as an admonition, but my grandmother used to sign off our visits with "be good," which I'm sure meant something along the lines of "behave yourself so that you may find a suitable husband and procreate," but I've come to interpret it more broadly, even if it means misbehaving.