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An
interview with Walter
Craven, singer/guitarist of Portland,
Maine's 6gig.
BN: Who inspired you
to pick up the guitar and sing?
Walter: I'd have to say I'd be playing guitar a
lot longer than I've been singing. There's a lot
of different answers that have turned into one thing.
Initially when I first started playing guitar, Van
Halen and Jimmy Page were pretty big influences.
The more I got into music, I went from Van Halen
to Guns 'N Roses to Alice and Chains, Rage Against
The Machine. I think Rage Against The Machine was
a big guitar influence. Led Zepplin and Soundgarden
were all big, Soundgarden was a big influence on
me playing guitar and singing at the same time too.
This band Failure, sorta the same thing. I've been
playing guitar for years before I ever thought about
singing but when my last band broke up I decided
that I should try singing as well.
BN:
How was growing up in Maine?
Walter: It was cool, there's always something to
do. I had lots of friends, played sports, street
hockey, skateboarding, BMX and motocross.
BN:
What other bands were you in before 6gig?
Walter: I was in a band called Gouds Thumb. We did
a reunion show last week, but I don't play with
them anymore.
BN:
Were they your first band or were you in a lot of
other bands?
Walter: I was in a lot of other bands, local bands.
I played in a band called Bruised Violet, kind of
a Korn thing.
BN:
Did you always sing in your other bands?
Walter: I've never sang in a band before. I used
to sing backup vocals and harmonies, but this is
the first band I've ever sang in.
BN:
How'd you meet the other guys in 6gig?
Walter: I was friends with Steve, the other guitar
player, for years. I'd actually played with him
in a band for a little while. Portland's not very
big, probably 70-80,000 people that live here and
the music scene's not that big. Everyone knows everybody.
I knew the other 3 guys, they were practicing next
door to where I was at the time. I heard some of
the stuff that they were doing, and my band broke
up. So I just went over there and started jamming
with them.
BN:
Why the name 6gig?
Walter: No story to it really, I do a lot of graphic
design and I heard the phrase "6gig" a
lot in reference to computers. It just popped in
my head one day and I thought "That sounds
cool".
BN:
How was your first show with 6gig?
Walter: First show was awesome, we played here at
home. Since we had all been in bands that had done
well up here, we weren't a band that had to build
an audience. The first show we played was packed,
which was a pretty cool feeling. Everyone had been
real supportive of us. I was real nervous cuz I
had never sang before.
BN:
What would you say is your best show ever?
Walter: I don't know, that's a hard question, we
play a lot of shows. The good shows stick out more
than the bad shows. One of my most memorable shows
was when we played out here in the Civic Center
opening for Disturbed and Orgy for one of the Christmas
Radio Shows. It's the biggest place to play in maine,
7000 people, it was sold out. It was cool cuz it
was playing in front of a huge audience in our home
crowd. We opened for the Foo Fighers in Florida,
that was really awesome. Did some touring with Staind
in Canda, those shows were awesome too.
BN:
Were there any demos, or was Tincan Experiment your
first recording?
Walter: We made demos, we had recorded 6 songs initially
before we played a gig with the intent of putting
out our own record. We recorded 4 more for demos
sent to record companies. The record company that
we eventually signed with liked the demos so much
that we just remixed 'em. So actually all the songs
in Tincan Experiment are the demos, just remixed,
pumped up a little bit. We did it ourselves.
BN:
What does the name Tincan Experiment mean?
Walter: There's a song on the album called Tincan
Experiment. That song is about dealing with loss,
everything that comes with life. Be a person that
understands what happens, being able to deal with
it.
BN:
How is designing the webpage and the artwork for
the album?
Walter: It's a lot of fun for me, I've always been
into art and photography for fun and then when it
came time to have artwork done for our record. I
went to the Maine College Of Art for a year before
this band took off. The guy at the label had asked
if we had any specific designers, and I said I wouldn't
mind doing it and it just took off from there. I've
been doing it every since. I enjoy doing it. It
helps to be in the band, and to tie in the visual
with the music.
BN:
How do you normally write songs?
Walter: It's different all the time. The way we're
writing now is that we'll just go in and someone
might come in with a idea that's more complete.
A verse section and a chorus, maybe a middle section
and then we all just jam it and see how it feels.
See what needs to be tweeked. Other times someone
comes in with just one groove, one idea, and we
just sort of throw it out, play it, record it. We
record all our ideas on a 16 track, and then I go
and do vocals on it after it's already laid down.
BN:
You usually don't write lyrics before the song?
Walter: Nah. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I'll just
sit around with a book and I'll just write words
that I like, or I'll hear a phrase that sounds cool.
I write a lot of stuff down, but I don't really
sit down and write lyrics for a whole song until
there's some music cuz I just don't get inspired
like that. I get more inspired to listening to the
groove, see if it's agressive or mellow. I can take
some of the stuff I've written and work off that.
BN:
What equipment do you use in the studio and is it
the same equipment you use live?
Walter: Up until now we've been using the same stuff
in the studio that we use live just because we recorded
most of that first record ourselves. This next record
we've hired a producer, we're going to stretch out
a little bit. We have 2 months to record so we're
going to do some stuff that we normally wouldn't
do live, some acoustic stuff.
BN:
As a guitar player, what do you use?
Walter: I have 2 Les Paul guitars that I switch
back and forth with. I use Mesa Boogie Amps, I have
a Dual Rectifier and a Triple Rectifier. The other
guitar player uses a Les Paul Junior, he also uses
Mesa Boogie Amps, something like a Mark 5.
BN:
How do you guys tune, guitar wise?
Walter: On the first album, it's all the same tuning.
It's actually C# with a Drop B (B Gb B E Ab Db).
On this new record, we started using a new tuning.
You can play all the strings at once and its a chord.
One of my favorite bands is Soundgarden, Led Zepplin
too, did a lot of stuff with guitar tunings. Even
if you take one string and change it, it makes a
different sound.
BN:
What does the song "5" mean? There's some
confusing lyrics in that song, such as "Quick
blink, turn yellow into red, 5 placed on black square"?
Walter: The overall idea of that song is not letting
stuff pass you by cuz you'll regret stuff later
in life. That particular line you're talking about,
I was driving down the road thinking about a bunch
of stuff. I was late for class so I was in a bad
mood. The actual line comes from me driving through
a stoplight, quick blink, I looked at the light,
yellow, then I looked away and it was red. The other
part of it, right after the light there's a huge
banner thing that tells the time, and it was just
the number 5 on this lighted billboard. I just wrote
that down cuz I thought it sounded cool.
BN:
What are you trying to say in Hit The Ground?
Walter: Same sort of thing, about knowing yourself
and knowing what you have to do to achieve whatever
you want. Taking responsibility for yourself, not
complaining about "my life sucks". It's
really about taking action and doing what you want
to do and being happy doing it. If you're doing
something you don't wanna do, don't do it. Basically
keeping your eye on the prize and knowing how to
get there.
BN:
How do you like the Portland/Maine scene?
Walter: It's awesome, everyone up here is really
supportive. All the bands are really cool, the radio
and the local press are really supportive. We're
a wierd state of affairs right now. The club scene
goes through phases where there's a lot of places
then there's no place to play. For a while there
was no place to play, but now it's starting to get
better again. Everyone's supportive up here, of
bands, not even necessarily other bands. People
like to come out and see music. Portland's real
art orientated, they have a nice art district, a
big art college, around the ocean is really cool.
BN:
The band Jeremiah Freed just signed with Universal.
Do you feel you're opening the doors for Maine with
you getting signed to a big label?
Walter: I dunno, we're defently not responsible
for it. I think we defently help, anyone touring
the country and putting out records. Everyplace
we go we're saying "We're from Portland, Maine",
it defently helps. It's not going to get a band
signed just cuz they're from Maine and we're from
Maine. I think we sort of helped other bands realize
it was possible. 10 years ago you wouldn't be able
to be up here in Maine and have a successful music
career. All the stuff that is happening is in New
York or LA. Now with the advent of the internet,
Fed Ex and this other stuff, it's entirely possible
to have a band, record and do all your stuff up
here and get major attention from a label from LA.
I think it's a good thing, if we have a little bit
of a influence on that, that's cool. I wouldn't
say we're the only bands up here. There are a couple
of other bands up, Rustic Overtones is signed to
Tommy Boy, they've been touring the country. Slowly,
one band at a time, spreads the word.
BN:
How's the new album going?
Walter: So far it's going great, I'm pretty psyched
about it. We're still in the writing/demo phase.
We won't start recording until January. It gives
a month to finish writing. The stuff on the first
record is cool but we wrote all that about 6 months
after we got together. We had just really started
to get to know each other. Now we've been playing
together for 3 years, toured the country. We all
know each other a lot better and I think the music
is reflective of that. It's a lot more dynamic than
the first record. The first record was a lot of
the same heavyness all the way through. This new
one, we have a couple tunes that are faster, some
that have acoustic, some that are a little more
groovy. We're not really trying to be anything,
we're just writing songs. I've heard from friends
that it sounds more mature, I don't know if mature
is the right word. It just sounds like we're a better
band.
BN:
Are you going to be doing the artwork for the new
album?
Walter: I think so.
BN:
Are you going to be going on any bigger tours? Maybe
Ozzfest?
Walter: I hope so. I would definitely be into Ozzfest.
It's hard to say, I don't really know what our situation
is going to be. There's so much stuff that's depending
on Ozzfest or any bigger tour. It's very political
now a days. From touring this last time, we've made
friends with other bands. Ozzfest would be cool,
Warped Tour might be pretty cool for us. Or just
opening for other bands like Stone Temple Pilots,
Foo Fighters, I think we're better off with those
kind of bands. We don't sound like Incubus or Foo
Fighters but I think we're more in that vein than
Primer 55 and those type of bands that are on Ozzfest.
We could play on Ozzfest cuz some of our stuff is
heavy. I'd love to do Ozzfest, believe me, that'd
be so cool. A lot of it depends on management. We're
looking for a new manager at this moment, and good
managers can hook up better tours. We're hoping
for a much bigger tour this time around, for sure.
BN:
What advise would you give to a new band that's
up and coming and there's not a big scene?
Walter: I would say do lots of demos, write and
record as much as you can. Then get your music out
to as many people as you can. If you're in a remote
area like where we are, really far away from LA,
get a good manager or know the music buisness. There's
a lot more to it than just being able to play your
instrument and having a good band. That can only
take you so far. You need to have a certain amount
of business 'know-how'. Basically you just want
to write and record as much as you can. Make as
many friends as you can. Get your music out to as
many people as you can. Get it to the right people.
Management also helps. Make sure you're working
with people that really love your music. That love
you for your music, and not for the potential of
making money. People just work for money, then the
money's not there, and they lose interest in what
the music's about. That's what I would say, write
and record, make smart business decisions, and only
work with people that really like your music.
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