The Disgruntled Sherpa Interview
Q: Can you talk about the history of the band?
A: We started out in 2002 on South Street in Philadelphia, Walt Mamaluy, the bassist, and I. It's always been Walt and I. It was the two of us with me playing guitar and doing some singing. We had a great lead guitarist named Dan Perry who I have been friends with all my life and who actually introduced me to Walt originally. We had a legitimate, actual lead singer named Jason Jeffries and our drummer was this fantastic guy named Mike Davis who was from Texas and had a PhD in literature from Princeton. Very interesting dude and funny as hell. We did two albums together and then that band evolved into a lineup where Mike and Jeff left and we replaced them with a rhythm guitarist and vocalist named George Wright and a drummer named Wayne Lee. Wayne and George were the leaders of the first band I ever played in when I was 15 called Arsenix. They were older than me and that first summer in 1992 when I was in this band with them was one of the most amazing summers of my life. It was great to be playing with them again ten years later.
So, that lineup was intact for five years and we did three full-length albums and an EP in that time. Around 2008 Dan just kind of got tired of the grind and Wayne pretty much lost interest. We got this drummer named Nax Steel who played all over the world. He played with the Four Tops and who during a show in Wildwood, New Jersey during a jam literally played the entire bar. He got up from the kit and never breaking beat used his drumsticks and played all the tables, chairs, beer bottles, the bar, the wall, etc. as he walked around the entire venue and then sat back down at the drums to end the song. So, he was interesting. We did a really odd CD called Scrambled Eggs as a four-piece with Nax. And then he got another gig. I had been filling in as the lead guitarist, plus doing like 75% of the lead vocals so we recruited Reginald DeJesus, who was playing with a real great funky band called Radical Supernatural that we did a few shows with to come in as our lead guitarist and we found John Vasudevan through a Craig's List ad to become our drummer. The guy answered an ad, played two rehearsals with us and then hopped in a van with us, four complete strangers, to New York to do his first show with the band. We recorded a CD with that lineup called Ess Em 53. And then John left for California and we went through a weird period for about ten months where we had three guitarists, a bassist, a keyboardist, a conga player and a drummer named Steve Sydek who we all loved. But, it became too bloated and wasn't catching any traction...and it had been ten years at that point so we decided that was enough and dissolved the band.
John came back to Philadelphia in 2014 and we saw an opportunity to pick up where we left off. George had decided it was enough for him and he just hung up his guitar, so to round out the sound we brought a guy named Matt Jules Rhine--who was the keyboardist in a band Walt and I put together after the Sherpa thing ended--to join the reformed band on keys, piano, trumpet and horns and we've been together for the past five years. In that time we recorded three more albums including our newest High Tides and Muddy Waters.
Q: Your release High Tides and Muddy Waters is your eleventh album from what I’ve read. I have to ask do you have the same vigor on the eleventh as the first? Do you have to change things up?
A: Definitely. Mainly because we are a tremendously better band now than we were on our first. So, just from sheer playing and writing ability it gives you the energy and excitement to write songs and to hear how they sound when everyone comes together and adds their parts. I'm a much better writer now than I was in 2002. I'd hazard to say I can sing a bit better and that I'm a better guitar player. Also, I think the talent in this lineup is the best collection of talent we've ever had. So, even though it's eleven total it's only the fourth Walt, Reg, John and I have done together and only the third Walt, Reg, John, Matt and I have done together. As far as changing things up, any time we record we gear songs together in a way they'd fit together as an album (and I know no one cares about albums any more, especially albums by some independent band) but we're creating these things primarily for ourselves. So, we do change things up. It's all kind of based on the energy of where the writing is taking us I guess.
Q: What is the creative process like for the band?
A: Everyone is encouraged to write and bring stuff in and then we'll all just work on it together. Reg came in with a couple of songs awhile back that we recorded. Walt will come up with a song and album usually. Mainly though, I'll write something. I'll have the music, melody and the lyrics and then show it to the other guys and then from there whatever they feel they should bring to it we incorporate. So, it's collaborative that way. Like, I wouldn't dare write a bass part for Walt. I wouldn't know what to do. Also, what's the fun in that? If you want to do something where you have total creative control over things, the technology has been around since Les Paul that you can record on your own and do all the parts. But, what's the point of being in a band at that point? I don't care for dictatorships in any form really. The two things I loved most growing up was writing and sports and being in a band is sort of a combination of writing and being part of a team that has a shared goal. So, it's the best of both worlds for me.
Q: Can you talk about the history of the band?
A: We started out in 2002 on South Street in Philadelphia, Walt Mamaluy, the bassist, and I. It's always been Walt and I. It was the two of us with me playing guitar and doing some singing. We had a great lead guitarist named Dan Perry who I have been friends with all my life and who actually introduced me to Walt originally. We had a legitimate, actual lead singer named Jason Jeffries and our drummer was this fantastic guy named Mike Davis who was from Texas and had a PhD in literature from Princeton. Very interesting dude and funny as hell. We did two albums together and then that band evolved into a lineup where Mike and Jeff left and we replaced them with a rhythm guitarist and vocalist named George Wright and a drummer named Wayne Lee. Wayne and George were the leaders of the first band I ever played in when I was 15 called Arsenix. They were older than me and that first summer in 1992 when I was in this band with them was one of the most amazing summers of my life. It was great to be playing with them again ten years later.
So, that lineup was intact for five years and we did three full-length albums and an EP in that time. Around 2008 Dan just kind of got tired of the grind and Wayne pretty much lost interest. We got this drummer named Nax Steel who played all over the world. He played with the Four Tops and who during a show in Wildwood, New Jersey during a jam literally played the entire bar. He got up from the kit and never breaking beat used his drumsticks and played all the tables, chairs, beer bottles, the bar, the wall, etc. as he walked around the entire venue and then sat back down at the drums to end the song. So, he was interesting. We did a really odd CD called Scrambled Eggs as a four-piece with Nax. And then he got another gig. I had been filling in as the lead guitarist, plus doing like 75% of the lead vocals so we recruited Reginald DeJesus, who was playing with a real great funky band called Radical Supernatural that we did a few shows with to come in as our lead guitarist and we found John Vasudevan through a Craig's List ad to become our drummer. The guy answered an ad, played two rehearsals with us and then hopped in a van with us, four complete strangers, to New York to do his first show with the band. We recorded a CD with that lineup called Ess Em 53. And then John left for California and we went through a weird period for about ten months where we had three guitarists, a bassist, a keyboardist, a conga player and a drummer named Steve Sydek who we all loved. But, it became too bloated and wasn't catching any traction...and it had been ten years at that point so we decided that was enough and dissolved the band.
John came back to Philadelphia in 2014 and we saw an opportunity to pick up where we left off. George had decided it was enough for him and he just hung up his guitar, so to round out the sound we brought a guy named Matt Jules Rhine--who was the keyboardist in a band Walt and I put together after the Sherpa thing ended--to join the reformed band on keys, piano, trumpet and horns and we've been together for the past five years. In that time we recorded three more albums including our newest High Tides and Muddy Waters.
Q: Your release High Tides and Muddy Waters is your eleventh album from what I’ve read. I have to ask do you have the same vigor on the eleventh as the first? Do you have to change things up?
A: Definitely. Mainly because we are a tremendously better band now than we were on our first. So, just from sheer playing and writing ability it gives you the energy and excitement to write songs and to hear how they sound when everyone comes together and adds their parts. I'm a much better writer now than I was in 2002. I'd hazard to say I can sing a bit better and that I'm a better guitar player. Also, I think the talent in this lineup is the best collection of talent we've ever had. So, even though it's eleven total it's only the fourth Walt, Reg, John and I have done together and only the third Walt, Reg, John, Matt and I have done together. As far as changing things up, any time we record we gear songs together in a way they'd fit together as an album (and I know no one cares about albums any more, especially albums by some independent band) but we're creating these things primarily for ourselves. So, we do change things up. It's all kind of based on the energy of where the writing is taking us I guess.
Q: What is the creative process like for the band?
A: Everyone is encouraged to write and bring stuff in and then we'll all just work on it together. Reg came in with a couple of songs awhile back that we recorded. Walt will come up with a song and album usually. Mainly though, I'll write something. I'll have the music, melody and the lyrics and then show it to the other guys and then from there whatever they feel they should bring to it we incorporate. So, it's collaborative that way. Like, I wouldn't dare write a bass part for Walt. I wouldn't know what to do. Also, what's the fun in that? If you want to do something where you have total creative control over things, the technology has been around since Les Paul that you can record on your own and do all the parts. But, what's the point of being in a band at that point? I don't care for dictatorships in any form really. The two things I loved most growing up was writing and sports and being in a band is sort of a combination of writing and being part of a team that has a shared goal. So, it's the best of both worlds for me.
Q: What is the creative process like for the band?
A: Everyone is encouraged to write and bring stuff in and then we'll all just work on it together. Reg came in with a couple of songs awhile back that we recorded. Walt will come up with a song and album usually. Mainly though, I'll write something. I'll have the music, melody and the lyrics and then show it to the other guys and then from there whatever they feel they should bring to it we incorporate. So, it's collaborative that way. Like, I wouldn't dare write a bass part for Walt. I wouldn't know what to do. Also, what's the fun in that? If you want to do something where you have total creative control over things, the technology has been around since Les Paul that you can record on your own and do all the parts. But, what's the point of being in a band at that point? I don't care for dictatorships in any form really. The two things I loved most growing up was writing and sports and being in a band is sort of a combination of writing and being part of a team that has a shared goal. So, it's the best of both worlds for me.
Q: What are some of the themes that run through High Tides and Muddy Waters?
A: A few people who have heard it and written about it or given feedback said it captures what it’s like to be alive in 2018/2019. I don't know about that. "Your Heroes Are All Dead and We're the Ones Who Killed Them" definitely was a response to that election we had in 2016. However, it's not political. I don't ever want to be political with these things because I find that boring. But that definitely was a reaction kinda of saying "the status quo is over.” And you could take that as good or bad. Is the guy gloating or is he bemoaning what happened? Things were definitely rocked. The old guard, on both sides was gone. A stick of dynamite was rolled in and blew everything up, in some ways for the better, in some ways for the worse. Our previous album Catastrophe we literally finished mastering on election night 2016 at 1AM and we were walking out of the studio not exactly knowing that this big upset from what everyone was predicting happened. So, that was a weird night. But, it was just a moment and in the next two weeks I wrote a song loosely around it that the other guys liked and we worked on and two years later we recorded it. Talking about that election, or even politics in general is one of the things I have little time for. If you want to talk elections I'd rather talk about the 1860 presidential election than any modern one. That sentence definitely comes off as pretentious. I apologize.
Other than that though, I think there's a main feeling of bonding together through hard times. Which is universal. 2018 or 2019 definitely does not have exclusivity rights to that notion. When you're going through rough times in your life hopefully you have things you can rely on. Mainly it's family, or, for some people, faith. Friends, art, music, booze, TV, movies, whatever it is. There's some heavy stuff on there I guess. "Everybody Leaves" in title alone is a downer. It can't be any more of a downer. It's literally stating the obvious that eventually everyone will leave you and you in turn eventually leave everyone else. But "All is Happiness" which closes the album is not ironic at all. Someone who heard it as we were writing it said they liked the irony. They thought we were being sarcastic. It's probably one of the more sincere things we've done. Yeah, things can be shitty, but if you make your own happiness you can push through it. Find your happiness, find the people that get you through horrible times and people you can celebrate the great times with. Hold on to those people and try to focus on the latter. Yes, everybody leaves and it sucks. At least they were here to begin with. So, I think ultimately it's joyful. The human experience should be a joyful one. It beats the alternative. We should be thankful.
Q: You mention the album was recorded in one ten-hour session. Can you talk about that experience?
A: Well, we went to Red Planet Studios in Clifton Heights, PA with Joe Smiley engineering and recording us. We set up in a room and we just went through eight songs. We had rehearsed them for months leading up to it and I think we had tried them all out live at some point in the preceding months. We set up live in this big room at Red Planet and recorded the basic tracks together as one performance. We had a lot of beer, Walt made a lot of food he brought in and we just did it and hung out for the day together.
Reg overdubbed his solos--almost all of them--that day and then we did overdub other things in later sessions. Mainly vocals, some percussion here and there, banjo parts or the organ. Stuff we couldn't do live because there's only five of us, six if you count Zoey Zido who did a great job on backing vocals on some of the tracks.
The music and the vibe on the disc is the music and vibe that was captured that day. I'd say for the most part it's the second or third take of any song that is on the album. "Old Time Religion" we did at the end of that day. It was literally the second time we ever played it and the lead vocal was live. You can hear me coaching the band through the song because we had only just rehearsed it for the first time two nights before.
One night in the fall during mixing, I was there with Joe Smiley and we recorded "Mudhook." Just me on vocals and acoustic guitar. So, that's the only song that wasn't done during those ten hours. I took that out to York, PA where my in-laws live and added stuff to it, brought that back to the studio and Walt, Reg and John came in and put their parts on top of it. So, that's the only song not recorded "live" as a full band that first day.
Q: What else should we know about The Disgruntled Sherpa Project?
A: Our original drummer, Mike Davis, once played a game of racquetball against David Koresh in Denton, Texas and Koresh mopped the floor with him. Our current drummer, John Vasudevan, was once on The Daily Show fighting for the rights of beer drinkers at the University of Wisconsin. I defy you to find a band anywhere on God's green earth that can make either of those claims.
A: Everyone is encouraged to write and bring stuff in and then we'll all just work on it together. Reg came in with a couple of songs awhile back that we recorded. Walt will come up with a song and album usually. Mainly though, I'll write something. I'll have the music, melody and the lyrics and then show it to the other guys and then from there whatever they feel they should bring to it we incorporate. So, it's collaborative that way. Like, I wouldn't dare write a bass part for Walt. I wouldn't know what to do. Also, what's the fun in that? If you want to do something where you have total creative control over things, the technology has been around since Les Paul that you can record on your own and do all the parts. But, what's the point of being in a band at that point? I don't care for dictatorships in any form really. The two things I loved most growing up was writing and sports and being in a band is sort of a combination of writing and being part of a team that has a shared goal. So, it's the best of both worlds for me.
Q: What are some of the themes that run through High Tides and Muddy Waters?
A: A few people who have heard it and written about it or given feedback said it captures what it’s like to be alive in 2018/2019. I don't know about that. "Your Heroes Are All Dead and We're the Ones Who Killed Them" definitely was a response to that election we had in 2016. However, it's not political. I don't ever want to be political with these things because I find that boring. But that definitely was a reaction kinda of saying "the status quo is over.” And you could take that as good or bad. Is the guy gloating or is he bemoaning what happened? Things were definitely rocked. The old guard, on both sides was gone. A stick of dynamite was rolled in and blew everything up, in some ways for the better, in some ways for the worse. Our previous album Catastrophe we literally finished mastering on election night 2016 at 1AM and we were walking out of the studio not exactly knowing that this big upset from what everyone was predicting happened. So, that was a weird night. But, it was just a moment and in the next two weeks I wrote a song loosely around it that the other guys liked and we worked on and two years later we recorded it. Talking about that election, or even politics in general is one of the things I have little time for. If you want to talk elections I'd rather talk about the 1860 presidential election than any modern one. That sentence definitely comes off as pretentious. I apologize.
Other than that though, I think there's a main feeling of bonding together through hard times. Which is universal. 2018 or 2019 definitely does not have exclusivity rights to that notion. When you're going through rough times in your life hopefully you have things you can rely on. Mainly it's family, or, for some people, faith. Friends, art, music, booze, TV, movies, whatever it is. There's some heavy stuff on there I guess. "Everybody Leaves" in title alone is a downer. It can't be any more of a downer. It's literally stating the obvious that eventually everyone will leave you and you in turn eventually leave everyone else. But "All is Happiness" which closes the album is not ironic at all. Someone who heard it as we were writing it said they liked the irony. They thought we were being sarcastic. It's probably one of the more sincere things we've done. Yeah, things can be shitty, but if you make your own happiness you can push through it. Find your happiness, find the people that get you through horrible times and people you can celebrate the great times with. Hold on to those people and try to focus on the latter. Yes, everybody leaves and it sucks. At least they were here to begin with. So, I think ultimately it's joyful. The human experience should be a joyful one. It beats the alternative. We should be thankful.
Q: You mention the album was recorded in one ten-hour session. Can you talk about that experience?
A: Well, we went to Red Planet Studios in Clifton Heights, PA with Joe Smiley engineering and recording us. We set up in a room and we just went through eight songs. We had rehearsed them for months leading up to it and I think we had tried them all out live at some point in the preceding months. We set up live in this big room at Red Planet and recorded the basic tracks together as one performance. We had a lot of beer, Walt made a lot of food he brought in and we just did it and hung out for the day together.
Reg overdubbed his solos--almost all of them--that day and then we did overdub other things in later sessions. Mainly vocals, some percussion here and there, banjo parts or the organ. Stuff we couldn't do live because there's only five of us, six if you count Zoey Zido who did a great job on backing vocals on some of the tracks.
The music and the vibe on the disc is the music and vibe that was captured that day. I'd say for the most part it's the second or third take of any song that is on the album. "Old Time Religion" we did at the end of that day. It was literally the second time we ever played it and the lead vocal was live. You can hear me coaching the band through the song because we had only just rehearsed it for the first time two nights before.
One night in the fall during mixing, I was there with Joe Smiley and we recorded "Mudhook." Just me on vocals and acoustic guitar. So, that's the only song that wasn't done during those ten hours. I took that out to York, PA where my in-laws live and added stuff to it, brought that back to the studio and Walt, Reg and John came in and put their parts on top of it. So, that's the only song not recorded "live" as a full band that first day.
Q: What else should we know about The Disgruntled Sherpa Project?
A: Our original drummer, Mike Davis, once played a game of racquetball against David Koresh in Denton, Texas and Koresh mopped the floor with him. Our current drummer, John Vasudevan, was once on The Daily Show fighting for the rights of beer drinkers at the University of Wisconsin. I defy you to find a band anywhere on God's green earth that can make either of those claims.