 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| ::Interviews:: |
 |
|
| review & interview content, as well as web site graphics & design, copywrite 2003-2004 Euphonia Online. use of materials granted only with reasonable purposes. |
 |
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
| interviewed by robby sumner |
|
 |
|
Jon Cattivera - Vocals, Guitar Derek Pabich - Guitar Kem Gallione - Drums, Piano |
| Interview with Jon December 30th, 2003 |
| E: Jon, you've been involved full-time in music for a number of years now. When do you think you first decided that it was something you wanted to do? Jon: Well, I received a guitar for Christmas when I was 15--I never even asked for one, my parents just got it for me. Slowly, I started learning how to play, etc. Pretty much, when I wrote my first song and played it with a band, it totally just hit me. I mean, who wouldn't want to be involved with music in that way? It's like, "Hey, I can do that." E: What kind of music did you start off wanting to play? Jon: Punk rock. I was really into Social Distortion, Bad Religion, Descendents, Green Day... that sort of stuff. E: Do you remember the first song you learned on the guitar? Jon: First song I learned... either Bad Religion's "Sanity" or "Come As You Are" by Nirvana. Actually, our guitar player Derek showed me both... E: How did you end up getting involved with Derek, Todd and Kem---Time Spent Driving's founding members? Jon: I've been friends with Derek since I started playing guitar and playing in bands. I had actually gone to school with him since the 5th grade. Basically, we both just started playing, had mutual friends, and were interested in playing the same sort of stuff. Todd went to our high school, was a good friend of ours, he played bass, and was into the same kind of stuff as well. Kem was a whole other story--we had gone through jamming with a few other drummers, but nothing worked out. Kem worked at a surf shop across the street from where I worked, and a friend that also worked there told me about him and he ended up being good and started playing with us. We didn't name the band or play shows until Kem was in it. E: What would you say was the first thing you did that ultimately established the band's entirety as a fully functional, professional band? Jon: We recorded a three-song demo with Bart Thurber at House of Faith in Oakland--we named the band shortly before going in to record. Then we played our first show at the Drop In Center in Santa Cruz after we made some demo CDs. E: How long did the songs take to record in the studio? Jon: For which record? E: Let's start with the three-song demo. Jon: I think we did the three songs in two days, including mixing. E: Had you already written a good deal of songs? Jon: We had a few others at the time... "Silhouettes and Pictures," a song we never recorded called "Last November," and probably "Glass Rose"--but we picked the three that were the most ready, I believe. That was like five years ago, so it's hard to remember! E: Do you think your songwriting techniques have evolved over the years you've been playing? Jon: Definitely... but at the same time, they've stayed the same. I've always relied on some sort of recorder to lay down ideas. I used to have the clock radio tape recorder that I'd record one guitar part onto... then I'd make up the other guitar part, bass, etc--while playing it back. I've done the same thing for the past several years, but with a digital 8-track recorder. E: Do you sit down with the specific intention of writing a song, or do you just wait until inspiration hits? Jon: I usually wait until inspiration hits. I can't write a song uninspired... I mean, I've tried, and it just doesn't work. We were never a band to have a ton of songs; they came in spurts over stretches of time. Some bands get like twenty-five songs together before they go into the studio... and I'm like, "What's the point? Why not just make ten songs really good--how can those extra fifteen songs be worth anything?" E: Is there a regimen you tend to follow in the writing of a song? Do you consider it necessary to have an isolatable intro, verse, chorus, breakdown, and outro? Or any other such pattern? Jon: Not at all. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like to have a somewhat "pop" format, but I've never felt bound to that. My whole thing is just to have a song sound good. It could just have one basic part the whole time, and that may be all a song needs to sound good. Others need different sequences of parts, etc. I must say that I do usually tend to include some sort of part that is only in there once, a "breakdown" if you will... that's usually commonplace. E: How do you like your lyrics? Are you a storyteller, or a ballad writer? Or do you focus more on the euphonic appeal of the words you write? Jon: Whew... what a question. Um, I'm not sure. A little of all three, maybe? I feel like I write poetry that is applied to songs--although I usually write them simultaneously, so there is definitely a focus on the sound of the words or lines. I don't think I'm much of a storyteller or ballad writer, though--heck, I don't know. E: How do you think being a lyricist parallels the other forms of writing? What is the correlation or differentiation between the poet and the songwriter? Jon: I like writing lyrics the best, and I guess that is the primary style of writing I do. I like it because the weight isn't completely on the words. There's a song behind it as well--and the words have a co-dependent relationship with the music. If you write poetry alone, all people have is the words, and they have to stand alone. And writing a story or novel or something, the words have to go somewhere and resolve. A song can be really open-ended and different. It doesn't always have to make sense if read alone. E: Just how literal are you when you write a song? How true are the lines of the songs... how much of your life goes into their content? Jon: A hundred percent. At this point, at least. I've been thinking on writing more fictional-type songs lately. All of the Time Spent Driving songs I can think of are all based on an actual feeling or instance. E: From the song "Glass Rose"... "I know I'll never forget her, She'll be my glass rose until I say." Is there a real girl you were writing about? Jon: Oh yeah. *Laughs* E: Does she know? Jon: It's a long story, but yeah, it's a real girl. Some girl I had this huge crush on. She knows now, yeah. I gave her the CD and stuff. *Laughs* E: I can't imagine a more true form of flattery than telling a girl you recorded a full studio song about her with your band. Jon: Yeah! Might be nice, eh? All the stuff in that song is super literal. E: What do you think being involved in music gives you that no other lifestyle can offer? Jon: You have real good memories. Most people don't drive around the U.S. and other countries in a van with four other guys and meet a whole bunch of new people every night. There are a lot of stories and friends created through that stuff. E: What is one of your favorite memories of playing music? Jon: Too hard to pick just one, really. It's more of just the memory encompassing the whole thing. E: Do you see yourself making music well into the latter part of your life? Jon: I'd like to--but it's not as easy as it used to be. More bills, more responsibilities, etc. I'd like to think that music will always be a part, though. E: How do you balance being a musician with the rest of the aspects of your life? How do you intertwine the two lifestyles? Jon: Well, lately I haven't been doing much with music--so it's easy! It's really a matter of sacrificing a lot of time for something you love. You make time for it. E: What does your family think of you being a musician? Is Mom proud? Jon: She is! She gets all excited and stuff--she cares more than me! Like, for example, when our stuff was getting played in the background of shows on MTV, she was all excited when it was on and calling me up and stuff. My family is overall supportive. E: Do you ever sit around and really contemplate the idea that there are dozens of kids out there who know and love your music? Kids you'll never meet? That at this precise moment, some girl in Cleveland may be listening to "Rain On Sundays" and associating it with her own life? Jon: Gee, dozens? We're that huge? *Laughs* I have thought about that, actually... but more recently, when I am listening to a band and I'm like, "Hmm, it's weird... I'm listening to this band right now, and the guy singing it is just sitting in his house in NY or something." It's actually a weird phenomenon if you think about it. E: With the unfortunate departure of your bandmates, the future of Time Spent Driving in its current form is rather uncertain. Could you shed some more light on this? And possibly alert us of possible plans? Jon: Yeah... well, never say never, but Time Spent Driving is pretty much a thing of the past. After our bass player Todd left, we went through several different bass players, and things were always a little shaky in that department. Then after we recorded Just Enough Bright, we got this guy named Michael to play bass. It worked out well, but he had to commute for practice, so that only lasted about 6 months or so. Then we had a fill-in for a while, but all the downtime just got the band, overall. Mike does a solo thing now... Kem does a solo thing... and Derek doesn't really do anything! I'm planning on starting a new band, but it doesn't have a name yet, and it doesn't have any members but me. E: What do you think the band will be like in comparison to TSD? Jon: Well, it's hard to say. Basically it will probably start out being pretty similar--I already have a bunch of songs and they're in the same vein. But I'd like to see it evolve into something different. E: I think you should incorporate a harmonica player. Jon: I have a harmonica! My uncle gave me one. I'll let you know how it goes. E: Sounds golden... so tell me--what are the things that matter the most to you in your life right now? Jon: My daughter, my dog, music, family, friends, food. *Laughs* Something like that. E: I hadn't realized you have a daughter. What's her name? Jon: Sonnette. She's five. E: Think she'll ever be in a band? Jon: Hopefully! I gave her a little acoustic for her fifth birthday. E: Well, you gotta start 'em young, right? Jon: I'm gonna try. E: Well, this has been a great time, and I've really enjoyed talking to you and hearing all the great things you have to say. Thanks a lot. Jon: No prob. Thanks for asking. E: I look forward to hearing many more great things about you in the future. |