Houstonist was fortunate enough to be invited over to KTRU to listen in and snap a few photos whilst local glam-revivalists Roky Moon & Bolt played on the air. Afterwards we walked down to Valhalla, grabbed a few beers, and had a chat with the band. Many thanks to Ian Wells for having us over to the studio, and to the band for letting us share two of the songs from their set. The full interview can be listened to here: [part one] [part two]. As well as the tracks Go Wake Up Avery and Monster Came Out Of The Woods from their KTRU set.
H-Town Rock: Alright, I'm here with Roky Moon & Bolt, outside Valhalla... You want to go around and say your names and what you do?
Mike: I'm Roky Moon. I sing.
Cassie: I'm Cassie, I play the accordion and piano. Or piano and accordion.
Jeoaf: I'm Jeoaf, I play drums.
Chad: I'm Chad, I play bass.
Aaron: Aaron, I play a, uh, f*cking '78 Les Paul Custom.
HTR: You guys are one of the younger bands in town - not age-wise but in terms of how long you've been around, and you're pretty stellar. When - wait, I know this one, because I came to your first show, which was March of last year, right?
Jeoaf: Yeah, actually the anniversary, the one year, is the first night we're on tour. Like how I planned that?
HTR: Cool. So speaking of tour, you guys are about to embark on tour, and you're launching that with a kickoff show at The Mink, right? Tell me more about it.
Jeoaf: March 5th, it's Friday at The Mink. With Grandfather Child and Weird Party. We're gonna have four or five different light setups, pretty much one for each song...
HTR: Light setups... I remember looking at your page, probably a couple days after that first show, and there was a lighting diagram.
Jeaof & Mike: Oh yeah...
Aaron: That thing kind of fell off the map.
Jeoaf: It's been in hibernation - the Bolt sign.
Mike: I have this really big obsession with wanting to do a show in an old theater. You remember you'd see shows, and it'd be in those lightbulbs, "TONIGHT! So and so..." I think that's really amazing, and we were thinking of making a sign that we would actually have at shows, so that whenever everything kicked in the light would come on. Aaron drew it up and figured out how many bulbs we would need, and how many volts.
Jeoaf: It'd cost like $800.
HTR: It didn't look like a cheap endeavor.
Aaron: Not at all, and we didn't really realize that. We just conceptualized it, drew it all out. The picture itself has exactly how many bulbs. Then I calculated the wattage it would take, and how much it would cost for all the bulbs, and the cost of the electricity - it just became this thing that we were like, "oh my god it's huge."
HTR: I know originally the band was just called Bolt. It seemed like you came back from SXSW and tacked the Roky Moon onto it.
Jeaof: We saw King Khan & The Shrines...
Mike: Right. It was King Khan & The Shrines, and I was like "God, that is so cool." Something & the Somethings is just more rock n' roll, you know? I think that's an amazing idea. It's actually Joe Weber [he played in News on the March] - he was showing us that he found one of those name simulators. You put in your name and it picks out a name for you. One of the names that came up for me was something Moon, and then the Roky part sounded cool. I spell it Roky as an homage to Roky Erickson, he's one of my favorites of all time.
Aaron: It seemed like a really cool way to set the frontman apart as the singer and the songwriter. He really is the mastermind behind it, but it's not the same without the tight-knit backing band. It makes us Bolt, and we work for Roky Moon.
Mike: It obviously wouldn't be what it is without Bolt, either.
HTR: You guys are really f*cking solid... Again, I had the privilege of hearing you talk with Ian [Wells] on the radio earlier tonight. How did you pick everyone out for the band?
Mike: Oh, right. Well I started writing these songs in the summer of 2008. I was writing these songs, and I'd been friends with Jeaof, but we'd never played music together, and I think he's a solid guy. I asked him if he wanted to play, and he said yes, which was badass. Plus, I think he's got a good mind for being able to be a leader and help make things happen on that level, other than just music. Aaron and I had our first band together...
HTR: What was that? Do you mind saying?
Mike: Called The Professionals... it was the first band name we had. But our first real band was Where's Travis? We went to high school together.
Aaron: Where's Travis was the first serious project we ever had, but the first one that really felt right was Pirate Bones.
Jeoaf: You guys remember that show we played together, right? My old band [O Pioneers!!!] played with these guys.
Mike: I knew that in this band I wanted there to be one guitar player, not this section of guitars, and I knew that I wanted it to be someone who was good, who could wail. But also, more than just the music, actually be able to do it on stage, put on a stage show. I was really obsessed with watching the Ziggy Stardust movie, and Mick Ronson... he really gets into it. He acts it out, and you feel him, every guitar move. That's what I thought of Aaron. I actually had somebody come up to me, and say, "Man, he reminds me of Mick Ronson."
HTR: Yeah, watching Aaron is a real treat.
Aaron: I gotta admit, I'm totally inspired by those relationships, you know? Jimmy Page, Brian May, Mick Ronson... they had something special. It was really tangible onstage.
Mike: Wanting Chad to be in the band was like every baseball team has that really good utility player, they can do everything. That's what he was, this magnificent musician that, as a bonus, we also ended up getting a really good mechanic. This guy is constantly tinkering with stuff; he can fix amps; he keeps bringing all these pedals. He started making pedals, and bringing them to practice.
Aaron: I actually now play live with custom pedals that Chad's built.
Chad: You're completely revealing my nerd side.
HTR: That's like the coolest nerd-dom ever.
Mike: Chad's contribution to the band is absolutely priceless. And, as a bass player he plays the exact basslines that I would want. I don't have to tell any of these guys what to do. I know that they're going to write something that's good.
So anyway, the whole time I wanted a piano player. [Cassie] just happened to be at a show we played, and she liked it, and she asked to join the band.
Cassie: Yeah, I just saw them play, and I could hear it in my head, what needed to be there I guess. Drunkenly after the show I walked up to them and asked, "Can I try out? Can I come to y'all's practice?" And it worked out.
HTR: You guys have several sets of demo tracks floating around. I know you tossed some out at the last Block Party, there was a two song/three song joint that you had at the first show... Have you guys gone into the studio, are you recording it yourself? Is there going to be an album? I know that the rock opera exists, so how does it all come about?
Mike: Our recording state right now is just in complete disarray. It's almost like we don't even really have a full album worth of material - I mean we do, but we don't. And then on top of that, it's like "Where do we record it?" We don't have money to record. It sucks, because we're all pretty freakin' poor. There's a lot of bands that either have a lot of money, or they get money from their parents and shit.
Aaron: Or they inspire someone, and that person ends up cutting a record for them. I guess that's kind of what we're shooting for... we're tossing everything out there that we have.
Jeaof: We're hoping for that free ride [laughs]
HTR: Well you guys are certainly good enough for someone to come along and swipe you up and agree to front your album.
Mike: Also, as far as us being poor - everybody's gotta work. You can't miss nights because you're missing vital money towards your rent and things like that. So what happens is we have one night that we practice, and that's pretty much the only one we have that everyone can be free. We end up getting stuck in this rut, where it's "We could spend that whole night recording, or we could practice because we have a show coming up." You weight it out and we need to practice, and we don't ever end up getting the recording done.
Aaron: I think our main priority is putting on a good show. We want to sound good live; we want to look good live, and I think that really takes precedent. Especially because we want to be a band that always has something new to show. We're adding more material to the live set as often as possible.
Mike: There's a huge chunk of songs that are for the rock opera that we don't play.
HTR: I know several of you were involved in the Daniel Johnston play, Life is Happy & Sad. If you had the opportunity to do that, where you could perform it for - like a week at Diverseworks or something...
Jeoaf: Get ready for a scoop here buddy.
Mike: [Excitedly] I wanted to talk about this on the air! I was trying to tell Ian, "hey I want to get into the rock opera." The rock opera is not just music, it's a play, too - with a script and everything.
HTR: Oh?
Mike: The script is still a work in progress. The music is basically all done. Bootown was going to put it on, I'd been working with them. That was supposed to happen in August. But I went to go meet with Jason Nodler, who put on Life is Happy & Sad, just to see if he could get me [the space at] Diverseworks, for free. When I went to go speak with him he asked me how much I wanted him to be involved. I told him "involved as much as you want." So Jason's going to direct it and Catastrophic [Theater] is going to put it on, and now it's been pushed back to 2011 because he's going to take the script and work on it.
[Here we talked about Life... a bit more]
Mike: I told Jason - and it's very true - working on that play completely changed my perspective. It's what turned the rock opera from music into an actual play. During that whole period, doing that play, I was binging on things. I'd be up until 11 in the morning - I built this cave, blocked out all the sunlight in this room, and I'd just be up writing music and just write all this stuff. I was learning so much working with Jason, and it was such a weird period of time. When I came out of it all I was like, "Whoa!" Since then I've just felt so good and refreshed, and I really can visualize what I want to do and I can make it happen.
HTR: How many songs does the rock opera have?
Mike: It's gonna end up having - eight? But I'm thinking I'm gonna add two more. The last song we played before our break, at the very end it kinda stops and it goes "the monster was - me." And then it goes "ba na na na, and then it goes into this big part that's like "ba na dum, da da dum..." That's from the rock opera and what that is is basically the theme.
Aaron: And the way he described that is exactly what it's like writing music with Mike. [Skip to the 23:40 in the interview to really hear what they're talking about.]
HTR: So how many songs did you play from the rock opera tonight?
Mike: Three.
HTR: So you've got a 40 minute set with those three songs, and then you have five other songs.
Mike: And there's more songs that are waiting in the wings, that aren't part of the rock opera.
HTR: I know you said [on KTRU] that you've been writing even more material, at the piano.
Mike: Yeah.
Aaron: I kinda just can't wait to get back from tour so we can get to the new material.
Mike: I want to write a really badass set for Summerfest. I want it to be even more insane.
HTR: You've got one of the best live shows in town right now.
Mike: I want to boost it even more. On some of the new tracks we've done, we've recorded saxophone. I want there to be saxophone on all the songs, but that's kinda hard to do - these guys want to get paid, you know?
HTR: Who's throwing those parts in for you?
Aaron: It's the guys that play with Little Joe [Washington] every Tuesday night at Boondocks.
Mike: There's a new version of Five Dollar Fame that has this crazy saxophone solo at the end.
Jeoaf: It sounds like Bleeding Gums Murphy from the Simpsons.
Mike: I would love to have them play live, but they want to get paid. I'm like, "I don't even get paid, man!"
HTR: Let's turn it more Houston-focused. Is there anybody in town that you're really excited about?
Mike: Well, everybody knows Robert Ellis, and he rules. I really like Chase Hamblin, Ben Wesley.... The Tontons
Aaron: Expecting Weird Party to be really good.
HTR: Do you guys have a favorite moment from the Houston scene?
Aaron: Oh my god, Summerfest One, man. Summerfest was a dream.
Jeoaf: Yeah, that was really cool. Watching Wild Moccasins from the top of the hill, with about four million f*cking people, watching them just own it - it was great. It was like, "Holy shit, this is amazing." It was huge for Houston and huge for them, it was huge for everyone.
Aaron: And to be there, in the moment, having such a great time and then looking up to see the Houston skyline.
Mike: Last Block Party was pretty cool, too. We played on [Ian's] stage, and we rolled up and I was like, "WHOA!" And then I saw [Ian] in the back of the El Camino, running sound. Before we went on - Chad brought these lights - and Ian was like "don't plug those lights in because it might mess the power up." But Chad said "plug 'em in, plug 'em in." And we plugged them in, and halfway through the set, the power goes out.
Jeoaf: Sorry Ian.
Ian: It was an absolute blast.
Aaron: I think that's the size crowd and the size stage where we really hit our stride.
[The recorder dies, so we switch to our trusty phone to finish the job]
HTR: What's one thing you want people to know about Roky Moon & Bolt? The one thing you want people to take from this?
Aaron: First of all, I think that Benjamin Wesley is one of the hardest working musicians in this town.
Mike: I expect my boy Yates to be getting some love soon. He's playing in that country band with Mike T., Rake. Something that people might not know about us, but I hope that they do, is that we're really genuine. I don't want people to think that we take ourselves to seriously, or that we think we're so cool. I never want anyone to think that any of us are cocky. I'm really happy, and I take music seriously - I want to play music. But I'm not an ass.
Aaron: There's certainly no elitist feelings that ever go into what we do.
Mike: I say that because I've heard things like that said before.
Jeoaf: What, that you're cocky? I think you're a nice guy.
Aaron: I always have to apologize for the self-promotion.
Jeoaf: I think that's almost a Houston thing - everybody's really self-conscious and embarrassed about promoting themselves and drawing attention to themselves. It is what it is. I think that if you're playing music, it should be because it's fun and because you love it. But at the same time, if you're kinda okay at it, why let people know about it? [So that] you can not have to empty the trash at the end of the day.
Mike: If you've gotta have a job where at the end of the day you have to take out the trash, it's always the worst.
Jeoaf: I don't think there's anything wrong with making money making music. As long as it's coming from a pure place, then it's alright.
HTR: Cassie, what's one thing you want everyone to know?
Cassie: That it's my birthday!
Chad: I kind of agree with Aaron - in regards to Benjamin Wesley, I think we work pretty hard, too. We fart around in practice, but I think we work pretty hard as a band.
Aaron: We only get like three hours a week to work.
HTR: You guys are really good for three hours a week! Well thanks for talking with us.
Roky Moon & Bolt: Thanks.
Roky Moon & Bolt kicks off their tour with a show tonight at The Mink, with Grandfather Child, brand new band Weird Party, and Future Feature. It'll run you a smoking hot $7, unless you happen to be under 21 - then it'll cost you $10.
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit