Virginia Beach - It's one thing to hear an album and take away what you will from the music and the lyrics who you think that band is about.  It's another entirely to actually meet them face to face.  While I stood watching the kids skateboard on the indoor ramps of Skate High I had time to reflect on what had brought me here.  Asked to get an interview with Murphy's Kids, I started in on my contacts, feeling out the best way to get in touch with them and who to get in touch with.  As I talked to people I began to discover in what high regards they were held not only as musicians, but as just good down-to-earth people as well.

I'd gotten in touch with Reid Attaway, and he let me know they would be there shortly.  As soon as I ended the call I realized I hadn't gotten a good description of him or given one of myself so I called my friend Elaine and asked her what he looked like.  "Oh, you'll know him.  He's tall."

Now people are often described as tall who turn out to be pretty average in height to my perception so I thanked for her time and privately for the lack of good information...and then walked in Goliath.

I'd say Reid is an imposing figure except that everything in his demeanor exudes a kind-hearted and easy-going vibe.  He may be big, but it's obviously just to house a whole lot of heart.

It wasn't long before I was introduced to John Charlet, the band mother, and Randy Bradley, the man behind the beat.  Nate Koch (sax), Adam Bonini (bass) and Reggie Chapman (trombone) would not be there until much later so it was off to the back of the van for some hot Chicho's Pizza and a little thing I like to call...

The Interview!

Ska and the Kids:

33: Why don't we start everything off with a little introduction, everybody say a little something about themselves, what part they play in the band and such...

Reid Attaway: My name is Reid.  I play guitar and sing back-up vocals for Murphy's Kids.
John Charlet: Yeah, my name is John, and I sing, and I play the trumpet.
Randy Bradley: My name is Randy, I'm chewing pizza right now, but usually I just play drum set and move all the heavy stuff...

33: When you all were young I'm sure you remember hearing the radio-friendly second wave of ska when it came out, like Madness and the English Beat, and stuff like that...the Specials.  When it first really hit.  But what was the first time you heard something and you really recognized it and said, "That is ska."
JC: I guess when we got a hold of it, or when me and Reid got a hold of it, I guess probably third-wave style kind of stuff when it was coming out like mid-90s.  Goldfinger, Reel Big Fish...the way a lot of kids got into it.
RA: American kids anyway.
JC: Yeah, and that kind of became the drum that we followed more or less.  That was the jam, and it still is in a lot of ways.  It's like we still take a lot away from the punk and ska aesthetic and integrate that in.  Randy's kind of new to it.
RB: Uh, yeah a little bit.  Like, I grew up definitely listening to like reggae and maybe a little more traditional ska.  I didn't realize that's what it was at the time probably, but yeah, definitely new to the third wave and the new age stuff, but you can definitely hear the similarities and how it has evolved and how they're connected.

33: Do any of you have a particular favorite ska band?
RA: Gosh...
JC: Yeah, that's a big question.  Uh, yeah I guess I like second wave stuff the best.  Like you were saying, the Specials were doing stuff like harder-edged than any other ska band was at the time which is pretty awesome you know.  It's like a lot of times you'll find punk bands that have kind of a ska edge, but it's really tough to find the ska bands that are really pulling off that punk edge, and I think the Specials probably did that better than anybody.
RA: You mean, like, are you asking specifically second wave?

33: Not specifically second wave, but any second wave, third wave...you can even go back to Desmond Dekker if you want...
RA: Okay, if you're talking about straight up ska, either Eastern Standard Time or the Slackers.
JC: Took the words right out of my mouth.

33: What's the ska band that influenced your sound the most?
RA: We've been a band for almost eleven years now, so that kind of changes particularly with different personnel.  I'd say starting off Reel Big Fish and Goldfinger for sure.  That was the big thing we were going for before, and since then we've kinda moved more into the Slackers kind of stuff with reggae and more traditional feels.
JC: Yeah, at this point it's more important for us to have one foot in like really old history and dig on roots kind of stuff a lot like the Slackers are or Eastern Standard Time is.  Where it's super old school...that shit from the 50s and 60s coming out of Jamaica.  Making that come alive again which is cool, but regardless we've got one foot in the brand new.  We're trying to make super freaky and experimental, maybe even a little avant guarde and just out there a little bit.  So Murphy's Kids definitely is not what it once was.  It's definitely a brand new animal, you know?  With all those kinds of elements tied in.  It's like what we used to do and also what we're doing now which is influenced by stuff that is well outside the ska genre like At the Drive-In and Coheed and Cambria and stuff like that...
RA: Like progressive rock and stuff...
JC: The Mars Volta...
RB: Yeah, the playlist in the van is always real eclectic.  It goes from the Slackers to the Mars Volta, jazz...it's a pretty crazy mix of stuff.

33: It seems a lot of bands, especially around this area, latched on to the whole idea of Sublime as ska.  I dig Sublime, I'm good with it, but it doesn't quite fall into the genre for me.  There's this whole kind of sound that everybody's got now...this kind of "Long Beach dub" sound.  What are your feelings on that?
JC: I mean that's one of the bands we grew up with.  40oz. to Freedom was one of my favorite records for years and years, and it's a big part of that.  People want and we want to make music that ties people's feelings to sunshine.  To being at the beach to being laid back, to finding the lighter side of life.  Where kind of traditional first, second, and third wave ska does a good job of that.  Especially the first wave stuff, seeing guys who basically did all the styles of music that I was into as a kid - punk rock and reggae and ska and the little bit of hip-hop that was well in the canon for people that we would not mind sounding like.

33: I can hear that...
JC: I guess I feel ya.  There's more or less a sound that's definitely been co-opted by "Frat Boy, Inc."  You know what I'm sayin'?
RA: [laughs]
JC: It's become so ubiquitous as to be kind of innocuous.  It's so everywhere, and it's become so accessible...It's like are you really taking a risk by sounding like this?

33: And that leads perfectly into my next question.  Ska has come and gone with the second wave, the two tone, in England and here and then the third wave of ska hit in the mid 90s with the more punk-influenced sound.  Do you think there's going to be a fourth wave of ska, another coming back and reinvention of itself and do you think that your sound might be a part of that?
JC: I hope we are continuing to pay deep respects to roots music and stuff that influences kids, but I'm hoping too that the future of music is a little less genre-oriented and a little more open.  If we are the very founders of fourth wave ska that's fine, but at the same time I'm fine at being known as a kick-ass rock band.
RB: I feel like any time there's a genre of music, even if it leaves the public eye, it's not really gone.  It left its footprint for sure.  Those influences are gonna stay in other styles of music.  You can hear ska in a lot of different kinds of music.  It's not ska, but you can hear it in there for sure.  They may not know they're playing ska, but they are.

On Giving Back:

"Is there enough inside me, to fill their hearts and bellies?  Could I bare if their ribs began to show?" - "Give It All" (Murphy's Kids)

33: So, I see that you're involved with some benefit shows.  What's this Happy Skalidays?
JC: Yeah, check it.  This coming December, hopefully, God willing, we'll put on our 11th Happy Skalidays.  We try to get all the ska bands in town or bands from out of town - Jackmove's done the show before.  It's over a decade of partnering with charities that are local and ones that are close to our hearts...

33: Like Food Not Bombs?
JC: Yeah, we bring Food Not Bombs on every year.  If they're not the monetary beneficiary then we do a can food drive concurrently.  So they get all the canned goods every year.  We've done the Richmond Peace Education Center.  We've done the Richmond Organization for Sexual Minority Youth.  We've done Queerspace.  We've done Emergency Shelters, Inc.  This year...what was it this year?
RB: Richmond House.
RA: No, it was the James House.  It is a center that provides all kinds of resources for victims of domestic violence from counseling and job training to even some housing stuff.  They'll take people in if they're in a real rough situation.
JC: But we're super stoked to be able to give back a little bit to the community that's given us so much.  Probably over the years we've been able to raise thousands of dollars to put into these organizations.  For a lot of organizations, if you were to approach, say, the United Way or the American Cancer Society - not that they're not completely worthy charities - with a thousand dollars here, fifteen hundred there, it's not a lot of money to them.  But when you approach organizations like the James House, the Richmond Peace Education Center or Queerspace...that's gonna keep the space open.  Not indefinitely but...
RA: Their entire budget for a month - they have all the stuff up on their website where you can like pull it up if you want - and their entire budget for a month is seventeen thousand dollars or something like that.  I mean around the holidays, hitting them with fifteen hundred bucks really means a lot.

[Note from the Wolfe: - I have to interject here to say that nothing quite touches the passion these guys obviously share for their community and their fans.  They don't just talk about giving back and pay lip service to the whole community love deal, they really believe in it.  Just as passionately as they play and embrace the music, from John's animated convictions about the importance of giving to smaller local organizations to Reid and Randy's thoughtful affirmations, they truly embrace their community and are thankful for all it's given to them.]

33: How much time do you guys spend on the road?
RA: Two or three times a year we'll go out for a week straight, but most of the time we just stick to two or three weekends a month of being out.  In the last four years we've done between 60 and 80 shows.

33: Any favorite bands you play out with?
JC: Jackmove...
RA: Yeah.  Jackmove and Tsunami Rising.  Among Criminals...
JC: Eastern Standard Time...
RA: Yeah, there's this band called born empty from Nashville we play with that's super awesome.  Parachute Musical, also from Nashville.  Really, really killer band.  What are some other really good ones we played with?  Patent Pending's a good band.  They're some buddies of ours from Long Island.  They're a super fun band.  I don't know if you're familiar with them.  It's like pop-punk stuff.  We've known them forever.
JC: Yeah, we're real lucky to not only have known the six guys in the group that help make the scene work and help push the music situation.  We've also got all these cohorts and comrades all throughout the east...
RB: Kind of like a little patchwork of guys.
JC: Yeah, yeah.  And we're really lucky to not only have these people be our really good friends but they also happen to be...
RA: Really great musicians.
JC: Fuckin' sick bands...

The Kids on the 757:

33: Any favorite venues to play around here?
JC: Well, we like the Jew Mom...

33: Oh really?
JC: Yeah we got kicked out...

33: I hear you like Sparks, too...

JC and RA: [laughing]

[Note from the Wolfe: Murphy's Kids were supposed to play a show at the Jewish Mother with Jackmove and Superock.  They were kicked out after one of the members of the band snuck a can of Sparks into the venue and was discovered by one of the waitstaff.]

JC: Yeah, that was stupid...hopefully they'll have us back in there eventually.  Jew Mom, if your reading this please let us back in your venue! We like everywhere.  We like the Taphouse.
RB: Hot Tuna's kinda fun...
JC: Yeah, Hot Tuna's okay.  We were at Hell's Kitchen I guess a couple weeks ago, and that was pretty cool, too.

Departures Up Ahead!:

33: Speaking of success and stuff like that, maybe being allowed back in the Jew Mom, how's it feel to have a Wikipedia page?  That's gotta be surreal...
RA: [laughing] It feels good to have nerdy friends with not very much to do, ya know?  I got money that says Jason Garber's the guy.  He is one of the steadiest and I guess most important supporters of this band.  Very few people who are very good friends of ours and people who are associated with the band really know Jason because he doesn't really hang out so much, but he's really been able to free us to do stuff.  Between doing our first recordings when we were kids, financing our last record, or just given us a loan to get that kind of thing done...I guess I kinda digressed from your question...

33: That's OK...
RA: But I guess I'm just sitting here thinking that this guy needs shoutouts.  So if you could put his name in this...he really means a lot to us.

33: People who support local music - I'm all about supporting them as well.
RA: Yeah, he's an unbelievable guy.  You know, he doesn't go out on tour really or go out to shows.  He doesn't travel real far to see these shows and whatnot, but it's just nice having a friend like that in your corner, ya know?

33: Especially one that's good at the interwebs.  Speaking of the internet, how's iTunes treating you?
RA: Yeah, iTunes is great.

33: You got my ten bucks.
JC: [laughing]
RA: Yeah, thanks a lot.  It's cool now, with almost every other aspect of the internet and how it affects the way that I do what I do or how we do what we do.  The internet its really putting the power in the hands of the band.  Now you don't have to get a distribution deal because everyone is on iTunes.  You put your album up on iTunes, and you can send it to people.  You get a direct connection to those people.
JC: Sure, it's like everyone's record store is in the living room or in their bedroom or wherever their computer is now.

33: On to Departures.  I was listening to the album and I was digging it, and I noticed there was something weird, and I really wanted to ask this question.  When I was listening to the first four tracks, they were more third-wave ska - kind of LTJ-ish.  Even in the lyrical content.  Then  the fifth song "A Story" comes on, and it starts to veer off into more of a like bass-groove oriented kind of reggae sound and i was wondering, was it written all at one time or were some of the songs leftover stuff that you just hadn't put on an EP?
JC: Geez.  Yeah it took us almost three years to write that record so it definitely wasn't written at one time.
RA: The last four songs that we finished we did in the last four or five months maybe?
JC: Yeah I'd say that's right.
RA: It was like, "We're gonna do a record and this is the date," and we had like six or seven songs, and we ended up with eleven songs, and we kept ten of them for the record.
JC: But the one thing that ties them all together is its all stuff we haven't tried before.  It's like reggae styles that maybe are more traditional than what we're used to or a little bit weirder punk rock or more progressive.  Kind of "metal"-y sounding stuff.  So that's why we called it Departures.  It's like everything is kind of brand new to us.

33: Do you have a favorite track that you wrote, one that you kind of pulled out of the ether?  That kind of wrote itself?
JC: I like "I Still Miss You (Alex Levine)".  You got all like the tasty parts I like.  All the traditional ska and the horn solos, but also kind of the more straight ahead rock kind of stuff.  It also worked out great, too, because this woman, Alex Levine, we used to know.  She just kind of, like it says in the song, she just disappeared one day and so I was like, "Well, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna write a song, and put it on the record, and put it on the internet, and I'm gonna see if i can run this down one end and flush her out of the other."  And sure enough, as soon as we put the record out she's back on the scene.  We see her every once in a while.  It was really nice to throw up that flare and have her respond.

The Lightning Round!

33: We're coming to the close here but we're gonna go for one last thing: Let's play the lightning round!  [gameshow host voice] Alright, is everybody ready to play the fued?  In an all out brawl between Burt Reynolds mustache from Cannonball Run and Tom Selleck's mustache from Magnum P.I., who would win?
JC: Tom Selleck.
RA: Tom Selleck.
RB: Yeah, Tom Selleck, no brainer.

33: Reel Big Fish or Less Than Jake?
RA: LTJ.
RB: LTJ.

33: Star Wars or Star Trek?
RA/JC/RB: (simultaneously) Star Wars.

33: Paper or plastic?
RA: Paper.
JC: Paper.
RB: Paper.

33: Is it really ribbed for her pleasure?
JC: No.
RB: It's definitely not for his pleasure.
RA: I have no idea.
JC: That whole things a joke...probably?  I don't know.  I think you're probably asking the wrong person.

33: Y'all say "Jack", we say...
JC/RA/RB: (simultaneously) Move!

33: Of course.  Alright, one final question: 4Loco or Sparks?
RA: We're more of a Joose band than anything.
RB: We don't mess around with any of that weak sauce, there's a Joose sticker on our bass players case.
JC: He's really into it.  He's got the gear and stuff.
RB: I think he was trying to get the endorsement.

33: Joose it is.

A Parting Shot from the Wolfe:

On stage they proved every bit the multi-layered and infectious songsmiths they are on the album; from Reid's catchy offbeat upstrokes to John's animated onstage antics and incessant mugging and posing.  The rhythm section was well anchored by the solid beat of Randy Bradley and the groovin' bass of Adam Bonini were accented beautifully by Nate Koch's soulful sax solos and Reggie Chapman's robust brass.  Not to mention John's unmistakable trumpet.  I got so lost in the show I forgot to write down the set list!   

So whether it's paying respect to roots music, giving back to the community they love, or just plain rockin' the stage, these Kids are alright with me.

For more Murphy's Kids don't forget to check out:

Murphy's Kids official website

Community Records

By Director, Genre Lead, and Editor: Andrew Wolfe

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.

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