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July 2011 Magazine33 Virginia, Reggae/Ska, Hampton Roads, The Well
East Coast Surf Advisory: Tsunami Rising!
The Wolfe grabs some water wings and wades into the turbulent tide of H2O for a chat with the boys from Jersey. Little did he know it wasn't water that would be filling his lungs ...
Dave Bakey: My name is Dave Bakey, I play guitar.
Tom McAteer: My name is Tom McAteer, and I play drums.
Jeff Calhoun: My name is Jeff Calhoun. I play the bass, and I don't do ass-to-mouth.
TM: I totally do.
Drew Daniels: My name is Drew Daniels, and I sing.
33: So you guys are from New Jersey, right?
TM: Yep.
33: Is everyone from New Jersey originally or a transplant?
JC: I'm originally from Philadelphia, but we live right across the river there.
DD: [coughing] Yeah, we're pretty much Philadelphia and New Jersey area [more coughing]. We share that culture.
33: So I see you guys coming down this way [cough] or at least down Richmond way, playing Skalidays and all that. So how did you guys get started playing around this area, and Richmond and in Virginia?
DD: We originally linked up with Murphy's Kids, No Dreads, and uh, yeah ...
TM: Duburbia.
DD: Duburbia, yeah, we played with them, too. Those were our first times in Virginia for sure. We played at the Half Shell.
TM: First place we played in Virginia was Alley Katz, wasn't it?
DD: Alley Katz, and then we played the Half Shell. I'm glad that Alley Katz is back.
TM: That was a sweet spot.
33: How'd you guys come together? Are you all original members?
JC: Me and him are the original members [gesturing towards Tom]. We started in 2003. And then Drew came in 2005. And this is the new guy, our guitar player, and he came in 2009.
33: So what are you guys' major influences? Individually and all together ...
DB: Two of my major influences are Kid Napkins, a band from Boston, and the Sound of Animals Fighting.
TM: I spent a lot of time listening to music. My family was really big into it, so I started on some of the older stuff like the Police, Led Zeppelin, the Who, Black Sabbath, stuff like that. But the Police and Led Zeppelin are definitely my two biggest influences.
JC: My first serious musical influence was Bob Marley and punk rock. I love punk rock. I love it all. I love hip-hop ...
TM: Dude, we all grew up on punk rock.
JC: But I'm talkin' about the mid-90s punk rock. NOFX ...
33: No Use for a Name ...
JC: Strung Out ...
DB: Wilhelm Scream for sure.
DD: Those dudes are awesome.
TM: Ah, Propaghandi is probably one of the most important bands ...
DD: Propaghandi, the Roots, uh ... fuck ... Dead Prez ...
TM: Immortal Technique.
33: Jedi Mind Tricks?
DD: I like Jedi Mind Tricks, their beats are the shit.
JC: And the fact that their DJ does all that shit live ...
DD: Rancid, NOFX, that kind of shit was always awesome.
33: So you guys got an album out?
TM: We have two albums out - one that we did a couple years ago when our old guitarist was doing guitar and vocals, and Drew had just joined, so the album was split between the two of them singing, and then we have The Exploration for an Explanation ... that's the general lineup that you see now ... we're currently working on one now with young Dave, this beautiful bastard ...
DB: It's definitely different from all the previous albums, totally different, it's kind of like anything you knew about Tsunami Rising ... don't expect the same thing.
JC: We kinda lost some of the reggae, but we still got the groove goin'.
33: What would you say are some of the major differences between before Drew joined the band and now?
TM: Before Drew joined the band? It was pretty much our old guitarist doing everything. He would come to us with a song idea, and we would write parts based around that idea. Occasionally we would give him suggestions, work shit out ... Jeff would come up with a lot of bass lines. It's really hard to write from the perspective of drums ... I just kind of wait for them to write ...
JC: That's not true ... he actually wrote a couple of parts of songs ...
TM: Yeah, but that's all parts ... I can put a drum part over what you guys wrote.
DD: Since Dave joined the band things have changed tragically ...
TM: Not tragically, fantastically!
DD: Fantastically, sorry. For the best.
TM: Absolutely. I feel like it's a lot more equal.
JC: It's a lot more of the progression we were trying to capture. I think part of the thing with our old guitar player was he was a little more poppy.
33: From my observation there seems to be a high level of musicianship ...
TM: That's all Dave.
33: That's everybody.
JC: Drew's got some pipes, too.
TM: It's really these two. Me and him are just good at faking it. Me and Jeff, we've been doing this thing enough that we just know how to look like we know what we are doing.
33: So you guys are touring? Just doing a couple shows and going back?
DD: Right now we're playing a ton of shows. We're going to Ireland March 30. We're playing for like five weeks in Ireland.
TM: Coming back May 5. Cinco de Mustache weekend at the Alamo. March 30 to May 5, touring Ireland with Keith Harkin of Celtic Thunder and PBS fame. Soccer moms love that dude.
JC: [deep inhale] He wishes he had soccer moms [exhale].
33: Any upcoming album plans?
[Notes from the Wolfe: If any of this seems repetitious with the questions and answers, please remember to note the inhales, exhales, and coughing. Draw your own conclusions ... I'm just sayin' ...]
TM: We got three songs recorded, two songs pretty much ready to record, one song we gotta work out drum and bass parts for.
DD: I got a whole bunch of ideas...
DB: A billion ideas.
DD: Ten songs. Our songs have been averaging about five minutes. Dave loves getting high, like, third party high.
33: There's no way to get away from a contact high.
TM: Right now there is no chance.
33: Any idea what the album is going to be called?
DD: The Silence Before the Storm.
33: What's the significance of the title?
DD: The current state of humanity. The way that we are living and how everyone thinks that everything is okay, but things are on the verge of ... what were we calling it? The Silence Before the Storm?
TM: The Calm Before the Storm. Everyone is aware that so much of our lives is just a sham. And they just ignore the fact rather than look into it and realize that working nine to five, Monday through Friday with 2.5 kids and a minivan and a mortgage, it's a goddamn joke. No one does what they want to do anymore. Everyone makes that statement, “It's not the job that makes the man, it's the man that makes the job.” But you can only take so much pride in your work.
Unless that work is providing masterful music with thought provoking lyrics. So all you hep cats, don't delay! Tsunami Rising will be back this way supporting a new album called, uh, damn, I forgot ... whatever. I'm going out for some Taco Bell. Anyone else got the munchies?
The Wolfe was born to a small litter in the mountains of West Virginia and transplanted to suburban Virginia Beach in the iconic year of 1984. Left to the public school system, he soon became immersed in the varied subcultures of suburbia. Quickly he became a connoisseur of the rich substrata of disaffected youth in post-Reagan America. Having to leave corporate tool-hood behind, the Wolfe prowls the silent alleyways in search of the next great spark of local music - the incendiary device that will reignite creativity in a music world gone wrong (apparently in the throes of Bieber Fever).
And other fun facts ...
Age: 33
Place of Birth: Parkersburg, West Virginia
Gender: Raoul Duke
Religion: Gonzo
Likes: Good music. Drinking. Smoking.
Dislikes: Ignorance. People who take themselves too seriously. People who say "I just wanted to touch bases with you." It's "base" asshole, not a baseball reference.
