From West Virginia Public Broadcasting and A Change of Tune, this is 30 Days of #WVmusic, the interview series celebrating the folks who make the West Virginia music scene wild and wonderful.
And today’s interview is with the Huntington drummer with the best seat in the house, keeping time for William Matheny and Tyler Childers. This… is Rod Elkins.
I’ve been into music pretty much my entire life. My dad has a band, The Elkins Brothers Band, and ever since I was a little kid, I’d go and watch him play. Mostly at the Milton Fire House or various VFWs, and I would just sit there, swinging my legs. It’s always been around, and I can never think of a time it wasn’t. I started playing drums in the 6th grade, enrolled in band at school and started playing in his band.
I always thought the drums were the coolest instrument on the planet. Every drummer my dad had, they were just cool dudes. I loved to be around them and loved watching them, and I thought it was the best instrument in the band. My dad’s a guitar player, kind of picked that up naturally. He would put one in my hand, teach me a few things, I would download songs off Napster when I came home from school and learn them.
He was really nurturing. I used to teach at Route 60 Music and people would tell me how they bought their kids electronic drum sets because they didn’t want to hear it. I always thought about how my mom and dad gave me a couple of hours to make as much noise as I wanted, but at like 8pm, if it wasn’t done… [laughing]!
On what he listened to growing up:
The classic country, outlaw stuff. My dad is a huge Waylon Jennings fan. I always thought he sounded like him when he sang.
I had a Fisher-Price record player, and I remember as a kid, I was just crawling across the floor, maybe 4- or 5-years-old, I took the Fisher-Price record off and waddled over to a stack of my dad’s records and pulled it out, and it was Creedence Clearwater Revival, one of the greatest hits records, “Down on the Corner,” was the first song. I was pretty hooked after that.
Credit Courtesy of the artist
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Rod Elkins as a Marshall University drummer.
On his jazz studies at Marshall University inform his Americana/rock drumming:
I always wanted to do music in college. I wanted to go to college because not many people in my family went to college. Me and my sisters did. My dad didn’t go; my mom went to beauty school. Staying in town just made sense.
I got really bored with just doing classical performance with symphonic band and percussion ensembles. Not that I don’t like the music or anything, but at the time, I was just really out of it and not really enjoying it. I think I was the only drum set major at the time in jazz studies. I took a little break and came back in 2012 and finished three years ago this December.
It helped playing with different groups, playing something you just got a week ago. Reading, making charts. Sometimes if we want to play a song now, the fastest way for me to learn it is if I jot it down on a piece of paper and chart it out. I got to see a lot of great drummers being in school. We had great faculty, and they would always bring great people in. It was really inspirational seeing them play.
On his favorite drummers:
Levon [Helm], for sure. I’ll never forget… me and Craig Burletic. I was in the music library, and I was supposed to be doing something but I wasn’t actively doing anything, and [Craig] comes in and says, “Dude, you got to stop what you’re doing and listen to this.” And I think it was the Rock of Ages video of The Band doing “Don’t Do It.” It was lifechanging, the way he played, the nuances and the sound he got out of the drums. That and Steve Gadd. I always wanted to play like Steve Gadd ‘cause that guy’s perfect.
Credit Melissa Stillwell
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Rod Elkins performing at The V-Club in Huntington, WV.
On what it means to be a drummer in the band:
Drummer is the bus, that’s what I always thought, and the bass player drives that bus. It’s a team effort, something to lean on. A good drummer doesn’t get in the way of the song. It’s a nice blanket for soloists or singers to lean on and to stay out of the way. That’s always a goal in my head when I play. I feel like I’m naturally strong, and I have to work hard at the drums to stay out of the way. I constantly worry that I’m too loud.
On his first bands playing in the #WVmusic scene:
I was playing in a VFW band called 60 East. I played guitar and sang. It was pretty good, right out of high school. James [Barker] and Craig Burletic had a rock band and a drummer who was moving away. I was late for a math class, and I didn’t go because I was late, I was getting coffee and [Craig] said, “You have to play in my band. I talked to James, and we don’t want anyone else. We want you.” I just wanted to do this original music. That was the first thing with Huntington music… Deadbeats & Barkers.
That transformed into like 68 consecutive Sundays at Shamrocks. [Shamrocks owner Ian Thornton] gave us a shot, and I think [Deadbeats & Barkers] already had the Sunday gig when they asked me to play. We dove right in, and it was great. That period… I understand why they call it the good old days. I met Bud Carroll for the first time, Doug Woodward, The Demon Beat. Anybody and everybody would come on Sundays. Sometimes it would be so special. We’d play a set, take a break and then anybody who’d want to jam could jam. I think I quit my job at Amazon because of Sundays because I had to be at work on 8 on Monday morning.
On joining up with Tyler Childers:
It was kind of a joke at first. Jack Browning, a good buddy of ours who lives in L.A. now, thought, “Y’all should play together and be the Food Stamps.” Tyler Childers opened for us at Shoops, and he sang and it was beautiful, everybody was shocked. I’ll never forget after the show I said, “Man, you’re great, you’ve got great songs. You want to party?” His response was, “Man, I’m 18 and 45 minutes from home, I think I need to go.”
We kept crossing paths, and then the joke came back around, and it was one of our friend’s birthday parties where we finally did it. A little bit later, we were goofing around playing covers, and I took the initiative to put our name in the hat for a music festival in Cincinnati. We went to Bud’s and cut some demos. We got in, and it was the first time we played Tyler’s songs, and we’ve been doing it ever since.
Credit Josh Saul
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Bud Carroll, Rod Elkins, William Matheny, Adam Meisterhans and Ian Thornton backstage before their June 2016 Mountain Stage.
Nothing short of magical. I love that guy to death. It’s kind of hard to place when I first met William because once I did, it’s like he’s been in my life forever, it’s like he’s always been there. He probably knows better than I do. I filled in for Bud [since] Bud was playing drums. I can’t remember why he couldn’t play, but I learned the songs, and after those strings of dates it was like, “Would you like to be in this band? We can put Bud back on guitar.” [Billy’s] songs are great, he’s a great person, a true bandleader. I’m fortunate enough to play with the two best songwriters in West Virginia. It’s been nothing short of great, I don’t know how I did it. I’ve been really fortunate to hang in there with some of the best.
Music featured in this #WVmusic chat:
Rod Elkins- “DonDon”
Tyler Childers and The Foodstamps- “Feathered Indians”
Rod Elkins- “PanGan-Anini”
William Matheny & the Strange Constellations- “Living Half to Death”
Support for 30 Days of #WVmusic is provided by Kin Ship Goods, proud supporter of DIY music and the arts. Locally shipped worldwide at kinshipgoods.com.
Sunday’s show at Charleston’s Culture Center Theater marks Mountain Stage’s 899th episode and features performances by Marcus King Band, Tyler Childers, Tristen, Kishi Bashi with strings and Caroline Spence.
This episode marks the return of special guest host (and West Virginia Public Broadcasting music producer) Joni Deutsch, becoming the first person to guest host a second time. Deutsch’s first opportunity came during last year’s FestivALL Charleston, when she guest-hosted with Lucius, Rachel Yamagata, Margaret Glaspy, William Matheny and Adia Victoria. Hear that episode in our archives.
Our radio listeners will hear this Sunday’s episode on over 200 NPR stations via NPR Music starting September 15.
For those of you watching along online, make sure to share your listening/watching experience with us! Use #MountainStage and #gotowv.
Since the show began almost two years ago, A Change of Tune has highlighted some of the best up-and-coming artists out of these West Virginia hills with podcast-y chats ranging from Tyler Childers to Coyotes in Boxes’ Sean Knisely, Twin Cousins Records to Qiet and beyond.
But those interviews have been a bit infrequent, and since West Virginia Day is coming up (not to mention A Change of Tune’s second birthday), we thought we’d do something special: 30 days, 30 brand new #WVmusic interviews that range from Morgantown alt-rockers and Parkersburg singer-songwriters to West Virginia music venues and regional artist management and beyond, all of which contribute to this state’s wild and wonderful music scene.
And today, we are chatting with 37-year-old Jimbo Valentine. He’s not exactly a singer or a songwriter. But even though you don’t hear his work, you’ve undoubtedly seen it around the West Virginia music scene. From concert posters in Morgantown and Huntington to album artwork for Charleston bands to listening party signage down in Fayetteville, Jimbo’s work makes West Virginia music just as eye-catching as it is ear-catching. Since he’s worked on over 1200 pieces for various artists over the years, we asked him about his creative process, his favorite pieces and how music plays a role in his artistic life.
Jimbo Valentine is a graphic designer with Brand Yourself, not to mention a freelance artist. Hear #WVmusic (some of which he’s created posters for) on A Change of Tune, airing Saturday nights at 10 on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. And for more #WVmusic chats, make sure to go to wvpublic.org/wvmusic and subscribe to our RSS / podcast feeds!
Credit Jimbo Valentine
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Jimbo Valentine regularly designs Huntington Music & Art Festival promotional material, including this poster from last year’s festival.
Interview Highlights
On the art he creates in and around West Virginia:
I do a lot of graphic design around the area and the state, making posters for The V Club and Black Sheep Burrito and Brews, as well as bands and events and festivals and really whoever needs whatever they need. I do a lot of album layouts and T-shirt designs and sticker designs. I also… oh man, I don’t know where to start [laughing]. Designing the cards for West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s #WhyListen: First Listen Music Party was a fun event to do.
A lot of people like to look down on West Virginia and don’t think we have much of anything to offer. But we actually have really good artist communities that have been building and building. I started working at The V Club in 2009, and I had been doing a little stuff before that, but that was when I really started getting more involved with everybody in the region. Ever since then, it’s been non-stop growing. Just all kinds of people you don’t expect who play music and make art and do all kinds of stuff. That’s really one of the best things we have to offer. But it’s getting people to recognize that.
On moving from Fairmont to Huntington:
I’m from Fairmont, from up in-between Morgantown and Parkersburg. Actually, this May marks my 14th anniversary of living down here in Huntington. I’ve almost lived here in Huntington as much as I’ve lived up in Fairmont. At this point of time, Huntington feels more like my home than Fairmont actually is.
Like most stories, it was a failed love story. I moved down here with a girl who was from Huntington and who graduated from West Virginia University. Give a year or so, she was out of the picture, and I was just left here. I started going to Marshall University for a little bit, and it didn’t work out too great. Now I’m here [laughing], trying to do something. I don’t know what, but…
On getting into art:
I had grown up doing art in high school, and I started taking art at Fairmont State for a year-and-a-half, but I dropped out of there. I didn’t do any art for a long time, but after I moved down here, I had a bunch of time on my hands and started learning how to use Photoshop. I bought some screen printing gear and taught myself how to screen print. I decided I’d try to make a go at this for a living, which I’m still working towards. So I tried learning how to do it around 2007, but 2009 is when I really kicked it off.
Credit Jimbo Valentine
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This 2006 Todd Burge / 63 Eyes / Tripleshot show marked Jimbo Valentine’s first as a #WVmusic graphic designer.
On his first gig poster:
It was for New Year’s Eve at a show at 123 Pleasant Street for 63 Eyes and Todd Burge. That was the first gig poster I had ever done. I got hooked up through the poster community because I would go to website called gigposters.com and post on their forums, and a guy on there from Saint Albans hooked me up with that gig.
I definitely listened to 63 Eyes and Todd Burge a bunch [prior to making that poster]. In high school and my formative years, that was my band. 63 Eyes were some of the earliest shows I had ever seen, back when 123 Pleasant Street was still The Nyabinghi. So it was really cool to make that my first poster because it was something I had grown up with. Todd is obviously one of the greatest West Virginia musicians we have, and I still have a big place in my heart for 63 Eyes.
On the number of artists he’s worked with in West Virginia:
Honestly, at this point of time, there’s not many bands in West Virginia or the region that I haven’t done something involving them. Which is pretty awesome. I’ve done over 1200 gig posters at this point of time, and some of them I have had the opportunity to do multiple things for. Working at The V Club has gotten me to be able to do posters for national acts and other regional acts. Like I just did a poster for The V Club for Kiefer Sutherland’s band, which is a weird thing to add to your list because I never in a million years would expect to be doing something like that. And that’s some of the cool stuff that I’ve gotten to do: the stuff I didn’t expect.
Credit Jimbo Valentine
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Jimbo Valentine designed the gig poster for actor-turned-musician Kiefer Sutherland’s recent concert at The V Club.
I’ve done posters for the legendary bands that I like, including Saint Vitus and The Obsessed, people who have been around for a long time. I’ve also gotten to do posters for really cool bands like Man Man and The Felice Brothers.
On listening to #WVmusic growing up:
There was a band from Morgantown called The Law Abiding Citizens, and I used to go see their shows. They were a punk hardcore band. Fast-forward after their break-up, they did a reunion show, and I got to do a poster for them. That was really cool.
There weren’t really any bands from Fairmont. I mean, there were bands up there, but it was weird at that point in time because some of them were basically bar bands, and I wasn’t old enough to see too many of them. But 123 Pleasant Street (back when it was The Nyabinghi), sometimes they would do early shows that were all-ages and then at night, they would do an 18+ show.
Karma to Burn was a band that I grew up listening to. They blew up, disappeared for a little while, then got back together, and I got to screen print posters for all four of their West Virginia reunion shows and a poster when they played in England. I’ve done stuff for their side projects and such, which is cool because I grew up listening to them. Now I work for them, and now they’re my friends. To me, sometimes it feels like completing a circle of your life.
That’s why I got into doing this: I love bands, and I love music. And I want to make T-shirts for bands, which is totally a 12-year-old goal that I was doing in my 20’s. But that’s really where that started from.
Credit Jimbo Valentine
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Were it not for Maryland rock band Clutch, Jimbo Valentine might not have gotten into #WVmusic graphic design work.
On his first gig poster for The V Club:
One of my all-time favorite bands is Clutch. They’re a Maryland / West Virginia-based band. I grew up loving them and going to their shows. I used to go onto their message board, and when I started getting into all this art, the guy who ran the message board hooked me up to make some screen printed posters for them. And then in 2009, the first time they played at The V Club, I had already contacted them and made a poster for them and showed up to the show with it. That’s when The V Club’s Patrick Guthrie saw it and found out that someone in town made it. That’s how I got hired at The V Club. That was all because of Clutch. That’s how all this happened.
On the process for making posters:
Once they have the opening acts and bands nailed down, I get to work. The next step depends on how familiar I am with the band. If it’s a band I already listen to, I might have an idea for the design. Sometimes I get an idea and then try to make that idea come to life. Other times I sit down and start trying to do things that might look cool. I’ll find old stock photos or a photo I’ve taken. Maybe I’ll get an idea from an illustration. Or a combination of all those things.
Credit Jimbo Valentine
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Yep. Jimbo did this Jason Isbell gig poster back in 2014.
Then I try to match it to the feeling that I get when I listen to that band. Even if it’s a band that I don’t know, if they have something online to check out, I’ll listen to it to see what kind of vibe I get from it. I’ll look at the things they’ve released and see what kind of vive they go for, so I can play off that. I always try to match it to the feeling of the band. I never try to shoehorn a band into a piece of work that I’ve made. To me, it’s all about representing what the band is about or what the band sounds like.
It also depends on the opening act. Sometimes you have a show where all the bands are similar. And sometimes you have a show that’s like a grab bag, where all the bands are different. Say you have an Americana show; it’s easier to tie it all together with that kind of imagery. But then sometimes you have a show that has an Americana band, an indie rock band and an acoustic something: that gives me the opportunity to do something a little weirder, a little broader. It really is a show-by-show basis.
On his favorite poster creations:
Some of my favorite posters are the ones where, when I did them, they were creative turning points for me.
Credit Jimbo Valentine
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It’s been a few years, but people still talk about this poster that Jimbo Valentine designed for Man Man’s 2014 show.
The Man Man poster that I did was one of my absolute favorite ones, because it was one of the first ones I did on a new tablet with a screen on it, so you could draw right in Photoshop. I loved how the poster turned out, and l lot of people have told me that’s their favorite poster that I’ve done.
I did one for the band called Universes. They broke up, and one of the guys moved away, but I did a poster for them a few years ago. It had a Native American in it, but the techniques I used in it? I had never done anything like that in Photoshop. It turned out so well, I ended up using it as a basis for painting a mural outside The V Club. So that’s one of my favorite ones.
I’ve done quite a few for Tyler Childers and Ona that turned out really well. I love working with those guys.
On the #WVmusic scene:
It’s really, really good now. I want to say that a few years back, we probably had more bands (at least in Huntington) and maybe a little more variety. At this point in time, there might be a little less bands, but all of them are top notch. So it’s a balance of quality over quantity.
Credit Jimbo Valentine
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Tyler Childers is but one of the many regional artists that Jimbo loves to work with, not to mention listen to.
One of my favorite things is stoner rock and doom music, and we had more of those bands here in Huntington a few years ago. But now we don’t really have those bands anymore.
On advice to folks wanting to get into gig posters:
If you know somebody in a band and they’re going to put on a house show or a show at a bar, see if you can do a poster for them. Do some work, show’em what you’ve got. And then if you have the opportunity, do your best. If it’s good enough, people will notice and people will start asking you to do it. You have to fight tooth and nail to get really, really big. It takes a tremendous amount of skill to get there, but sometimes it just takes being in the right place at the right time to get the right set of eyeballs on it.
Music featured in this #WVmusic chat:
Of the Dell- “Runnin’”
63 Eyes- “Who”
Big Rock and The Candy Ass Mountain Boys- “Good Ole Wagon”
Since the show began almost two years ago, A Change of Tune has highlighted some of the best up-and-coming artists out of these West Virginia hills with podcast-y chats ranging from Tyler Childers to Ona, Bud Carroll to Coyotes in Boxes and beyond.
But those interviews have been a bit infrequent, and since West Virginia Day is coming up (not to mention A Change of Tune’s second birthday), we thought we’d do something special: 30 days, 30 brand new #WVmusic interviews that range from Morgantown alt-rockers and Parkersburg singer-songwriters to West Virginia music venues and regional artist management and beyond, all of which contribute to this state’s wild and wonderful music scene.
And today, we are chatting with The Horse Traders, a four-piece Americana alt-rock band out of Huntington, West Virginia. While they may not be trading horses, the band is known for trading good times and great tunes, especially with their new four-song EP I Don’t Mind. We sat down with The Horse Traders in our Charleston studios to talk about their musical journey, their love of #WVmusic and, of course, ’90s Britpop.
Warning: This podcast-y chat does contain a few expletives. Listener discretion is advised.
The Horse Traders’ newest release is I Don’t Mind. Hear more #WVmusic on A Change of Tune, airing Saturday nights at 10 on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. And for more #WVmusic chats, make sure to go to wvpublic.org/wvmusic and subscribe to our RSS / podcast feeds!
Interview Highlights:
On The Horse Traders’ musical origins:
Patrick Stanley (guitar, vocals): I decided I wanted to be in Oasis when I was 12 or 13, so I learned four chords on a guitar I found in the basement of our house. Two or three chords’ worth of improvement, here I am in The Horse Traders.
Travis Egnor (guitar, steel guitar): I got my first guitar when I was 5. No one really understood why. We didn’t have any music in our family, other than we had a big console record player filled with records and 8-tracks. It was a little bit of everything. One of my favorite songs was called “Cherry Baby,” some disco song, but I liked it just because it was on orange vinyl. There was some cool stuff in there, like some Stevie Wonder, Hank Jr. and Alice Cooper. It was a mix of two uncles, my dad and my mom’s music. I ended up listening to a little bit of everything.
Jeremy “Wood” Roberts (drums): I grew up in a super Christian household with not a lot of cool music in it. But “Hee Haw,” “Austin City Limits” and, believe it or not, “The Lawrence Welk Show” was some of the first stuff I got into. The “Grand Ole Opry” too.
I started playing drums in school, but I thought it was kind of lame, so I played guitar. I found rock n’ roll and MTV, and it got a lot more fun.
Credit Anthony Michael Davis
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The Horse Traders’ name comes former member Frank Miller and refers to Travis Egnor & Jeremy “Wood” Roberts’ constant buying, selling, and trading of items.
Brandon Mooney (bass): My parents had really good tastes. My dad was really into Creedence Clearwater Revival, which oddly enough he played bass when he was younger. He played in a Jimi Hendrix cover band when he was in high school. My mom was real into Michael Jackson, Beach Boys, Prince, stuff like that.
When I was a little kid I use to do concerts for my mom and sister in our living room with a hair brush, white glove and a little leather jacket. I did Michael Jackson concerts; it was pretty weird. I was a weird kid. Weird adult, even weirder kid.
Going into high school, a buddy offered to sell me an acoustic guitar for $40, and I thought it’d help me get girls, and I was really into Dave Matthews. What I found out was you could play all the Dave Matthew you want in high school, but that doesn’t make you know how to speak to people without that guitar in your hands. I learned how to be a huge Dave Matthews fan and to play music that actually meant something for a change, like The Horse Traders’ stuff currently.
On the formation of The Horse Traders:
Travis: I always say it’s a continuation of another band that Wood and I were in, but it’s so completely different now that it’s even hard to say that. Wood and I were in another band called Dead Leaves with a couple of guys that lived in Nebraska, and that was really difficult to keep going. So when we decided that just wasn’t going to work out, we decided to start another band and got together with our good friend Frank Miller and started The Horse Traders. There’s a few of those songs that we touch on every now and then, but it’s mostly different now.
As The Horse Traders, we had decided that we wanted to back up some other songwriters, so that’s how we got to playing with Patrick. Frank had some health issues and wasn’t able to continue touring and playing on the regular, so we decided to get ahold of Patrick and see if he wanted to be a Horse Trader.
Patrick: I owned a very small amount of instruments and musical equipment before I met Travis and Wood, but to be a Horse Trader means that nothing that you own is as valuable as the thing you’re about to own, and you should trade things, even if you love them more than you’ll love anything else.
<a href=”http://thehorsetraders.bandcamp.com/album/take-it”>Take It by The Horse Traders</a>
On the differences between Huntington and Charleston’s music scenes:
Wood: I started playing in Huntington when I was 16 or 17, and we had played Charleston a bunch because it was closer. It was always a treat to come to Huntington because the venues were always nicer, the crowds were always better and there was better food to eat. There’s a larger concentration of artistic people in Huntington then there seems to be anywhere else in the state that’s close to our age range.
Travis: He’s right. It’s amazing how different Huntington and Charleston, being as close together as they are. But the two are not similar; they’re very different. I feel a lot more comradery and support in Huntington, even though I know several bands from Charleston that I like a lot and are friends with. It seems like there’s a certain line that doesn’t get crossed in Charleston versus Huntington. The other bands we play with in Huntington are literally some of our best friends.
Brandon: I agree. Charleston seems more detached in that sense. For the most part, they’re all just bands that know each other, not bands that hang out with each other.
Patrick: It’s less stratified in Huntington. Mountain Stage and a bunch of other awesome musical things in Charleston are more established, but Huntington’s still trying to shake around to find out what the scene’s going to look like, which makes everybody a player.
On the future of #WVmusic:
Travis: It’s going so well. Now if we’re talking about Huntington, I’d suggest more of the same. It’d probably help to bring in some bigger, similar artists. I thought it was great when Jason Isbell came last year and played the Paramount Arts Center in Ashland, but there wasn’t a local opener for it. That’s really important because when you put a local opener on a show like that, not only is that local opener going to get their music to a larger audience, but it’ll get to the bigger artist they’re opening for. Eventually people are going to say, “Holy crap, there’s some serious stuff going on in West Virginia.”
Credit Anthony Michael Davis
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The Horse Traders celebrated their first anniversary as a new line-up in the spring of 2016.
Patrick: A perfect example is Lucero and Tyler Childers. Ben Nichols has played with him multiple times. Last time at the V Club he said, “I hate having to come up here after Tyler Childers,” which is crazy for him to say. That’s great. That’s an unreal thing for us to have in this tiny little place, where someone one who means a lot to a lot of people comes in and says, “This local boy, it’s really hard to come in and play after this guy.”
Travis: When you’ve got bands like Ona and Tyler Childers and Tim Lancaster and just some really amazing artists, eventually if you put them in front of the right people, they’re going to take notice.
Patrick: That’s the thing with the musical secret of any place in the history of recorded music: it’s this amazing secret, then it gets exposed, it’s still cool for fifteen minutes and then it’s over. We’re lucky enough to be a part of the time when it’s getting cool, and hopefully we’re going to be around when it’s the really cool thing to be a part of and see some of the aftermath of that. A scene is great until it’s discovered, and then it exists in this moment. Then once everyone knows about it, it’s over. I guess we’re lucky to be around in a time when we’re struggling to make it known.
Travis: Most of the stuff I listen to anymore is the people that we know.
Patrick: On a daily basis, I still listen to one Tyler Childers song.
Brandon: Go listen to anything that John R. Miller touches. And Tim Lancaster is great. And I’m super excited for the new record from Brandon Mitchell and his group The Disappearing Man. We didn’t talk about how important Nathan Thomas is to all things Huntington music.
Patrick: Yeah, let’s talk about that. One of the best things about the Huntington scene is we have local radio enforcement to back it up. That’s easy to overlook sometimes, and it’s easy to be like, “I forgot to listen to WMUL today,” but the fact that we have somebody who is so passionate about bringing local music to college ears, and Huntington ears is unbelievably refreshing. It’s great to have that shoulder to lean on and that person and influence.
On advice to anyone wanting to get into music:
Wood: Go to college.
Credit Courtesy of The Horse Traders
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The Horse Traders latest release is a four-song EP titled I Don’t Mind.
Travis: Don’t have crazy, lofty expectations. Go into it with your whole head and your whole heart. Do it as good as you can, as often as you can. Play with everybody. Don’t just decide that you’re a punk musician and just do punk. Don’t just decide that you’re a country musician and just play country. Play everything with everybody. It will make you such a more well-rounded musician, and you’ll meet tons of people and have much more fun.
Patrick: Finish writing your songs even if they’re bad, because they’ll eventually be good.
Since the show began almost two years ago, A Change of Tune has highlighted some of the best up-and-coming artists out of these West Virginia hills with podcast-y chats ranging from Ona to Tyler Childers, Rozwell Kid to Qiet and beyond. But those interviews have been a bit infrequent, and since West Virginia Day is coming up (not to mention A Change of Tune’s second birthday), we thought we’d do something special: 30 days, 30 brand new #WVmusic interviews that range from Morgantown alt-rockers and Parkersburg singer-songwriters to West Virginia music venues and regional artist management and beyond, all of which contribute to this state’s wild and wonderful music scene.
Today, we’re chatting with Huntington’s own Ian Thornton, a 30-something who has become a sort of father figure to the West Virginia music scene, and no wonder: he’s played here, he’s booked shows here and he’s even put on a local music festival that’s grown exponentially over the last 7 years. But we’ll let him describe what he’s done and what he hopes to do for West Virginia music.
On his start in music and his father (the namesake for Whizzbang Booking and Management):
I guess it ultimately goes back to my dad. Huge music buff. Couldn’t snap his fingers in rhythm, but he could tell you everything about the Kinks or Dublin Bagpipes or folk music. The guy was incredibly intelligent on a lot of fronts. That’s where I got a love of music from the get-go, getting into the Beatles or the Stones or Buddy Holly.
Then I got my first instrument in high school [as a] freshmen, hanging out with friends and playing music. But I really started taking part in the music scene with The Love Coats, which was my first band that was really doing stuff in Huntington. With them we saw moderate regional success. We weren’t huge or anything, but we did well in our area.
I was in another really cool band called Desolation Row, [where] we were a little heavier. [Then] AC30 came from a band called Whirling Dervish, [which] lost a couple of members, added a couple of members and turned into AC30.
On wanting a career in music at a young age:
I knew I wanted a career in music since middle school, [but] I didn’t know how. Everyone wants to be in a famous band. Who doesn’t want to play Wembley or Madison Square Garden? Always carry day jobs, that’s the thing about music. You always need some other income. If you depend on music from the get-go, you’ll be in a lot of trouble, [and you’ll] be really hungry.
On opening a bar in Huntington:
We got ahold of Shamrocks, my brother and I, in ’08. The Love Coats had broken up already, and I was still in love with playing shows, meeting bands and that whole atmosphere. The Shamrocks venue was actually where I played my first rock’n’roll show, [which] was called Marley’s Doghouse at the time, and it came up for sale. None of us had ever been in the bar business or ran a bar, we kind of jumped in with two feet and I took over the entertainment and booking side.
That’s kind of where it all started with me learning how to book shows, talk to bands, and handle events of that nature. It was a long process, a lot of learning, but we caught our stride and were doing really well there for awhile.
It was a good venue, cool room. Dirty dive bar. Smelled terrible, concrete floors. That was the essence of it. I was going through Myspace, trying to find bands in the area. Most venues have to field so many emails about bands wanting to play, being picky-choosey. [But] at that time, I was like, “Please play this bar. We have to have music.”
I was putting really funny bills together. Which is something I’ve liked to do since then. I’d put a country act with a metal act, or a punk rock with a hip hop. At first it was out of desperation but I really like the eclectic style. I like more than one style of music; I think people like more than one style of music. If you limit yourself to only one, you’re doing yourself a disservice.
That first year was rough. It was slow going. But eventually we started catching some tread in the area. The thing about Huntington is there isn’t a lot of choices for live music. Today, we’re down to the V Club. There’s other places that will do music, but I wouldn’t call them venues. Like they’ll have music in their bar.
With Shamrocks, we were hitting a niche. We took the role of the dirty dive bar, and I like that. That’s what rock clubs are: musty and dark. That’s where the best things happen, I feel. We caught on with a lot of the scene, and people who couldn’t really get shows in Huntington. We were more open arms.
On the sustainability of #WVmusic:
If people aren’t getting behind it, and you aren’t having that thriving force behind it, it’s hard for people to sustain it. People get older too. That’s a thing with bands: it’s a lot of fun when you’re 22 or 23, but you get older and have to get more serious about your life, [so] bands take backseats. From our heyday, there’s only a few left [like] Sly Roosevelt and Deadbeats and Barkers. I think music scenes go in ebbs and flows, a lot of high points then it kind of drops off. Recently we’re on another upturn. People are getting inspired again, and you see bands popping up.
Credit Courtesy of Ian Thornton
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Ian Thornton began the Huntington Music & Arts Festival on a wing and a prayer. Now, it’s grown to a full week of music, arts and collaboration in Huntington.
There weren’t any festivals in town promoting our local scene other than two bars. And the problem with that is you’re cutting out 90 percent of your potential listeners. Not everyone wants to come to a bar and a show that starts at 10:30 at night. You’re limiting yourself to people listening to your music. I wanted to bring those bands out of the bars and to the forefront of Huntington. A daytime family-friendly event where they could enjoy some of these bands that I felt were doing really good and that I could get behind. You could have fun and still go home and get to bed at a decent hour if you needed to.
The first year… the event went well, but it was a hard thing to get together. I had never done it before, and I jumped into it. I’m a really particular person because “if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself,” and I’ve been burned in the past. I wanted to take it upon myself to have a successful event, [where] I have to do a majority of the work to pull it off. I’ve probably put more work on myself than I should at times, and I’m getting to a point where I can rely on people. I can finally delegate some stuff out. I’m learning… [laughing] I’m slowly giving up!
When it comes to picking bands out, I try to see as many shows as I can throughout the year. My main concern is if a band is active, they’re actually doing something. I want them to have something to promote. I guess it’s kind of like Mountain Stage: you’re not just picking people to pick people. You’re [looking for] a working band, aspiring to do something positive, promote your music and do things. [So] that’s what I like to look for: bands on the rise, or are actively doing it.
It gets a lot tougher because I have to separate friends [from work]. I have to treat the Huntington Music & Arts Festival with a level of responsibility and can’t let everyone on it.
Like Of the Dell, those boys are a perfect example. They were hounding me last year, [and I would tell them,] “You guys are great, and I love you, but you’re just not ready.” Now they’re more than ready for a spot this year. They’ve hit the game hard and have over 25 original tunes [now]; they’ve put the work in and you can see it.
Credit Kaci Tallman
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Ian Thornton (far left) enjoying a break from a festival with his #WVmusic friends (who happen to be members of Tyler Childers & the Foodstamps and Ona).
Essentially what I’m doing is selling a band. I’m trying to sell a band to a venue who’s never heard of this person, or me, so if you’re just doing to make a little dough, it’s a half-hearted attempt. I refuse to act in that manner. So when it came to picking the roster, those are all people I have a lot of faith in, and I really enjoy their music personally. I could listen to it, and I listen to it often. I think that makes my job easier because you’re more sincere about it. I think sincerity is a big proponent of this sort of thing because if you don’t believe in it, how can you get someone else.
I try to rely on my credibility, that I’m passionate about what I do.
Credit Courtesy of Ian Thornton
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Ian Thonrton began Whizzbang Booking and Management in the Spring of 2016.
On being friends with (and managing) Morgantown’s William Matheny:
I’m incredibly excited about William. He’s one of the first ones I’ve contacted back in the Shamrocks days, and to this day I’ll stand behind the Born of Frustration album. We hit it off early, and I’ve been a huge fan of his for so long. At Shamrocks, I would only let sound guys play local music in-between bands. I don’t know how many times I’d only play Billy’s record back there.
From a managing sense, Billy’s incredibly intelligent. He’s been in the scene for a long time. He knows what he wants. In terms of managing, I only truly manage Tyler, Ona and Of the Dell; the rest I help out [with], give ideas, talk back-and-forth. I primarily book those acts. [But] William is a force of his own. He teaches me things. He asked me to join his band, [which] I think he and Bud [Caroll] came to the conclusion because Adam Meisterhans plays bass on a majority of the record [and] he wouldn’t be able to make all the gigs. So they invited me to play, and I jumped on it to play with a guy I’ve been a huge fan of for years. It’s kind of fun to be that involved in something and separate yourself to pitch it too. We’re a nice couple; we make it work.
Bud and I really hit it off! I knew who he was early on, [but] we weren’t really friends in the early Shamrocks days. [But] The Love Coats opened up for American Minor, we started talking and we’ve been incredibly close ever since. He’s been integral to the early days of the Huntington Music & Arts Festival. [Our band] AC30 was a really fun run, and we never really broke up; we kind of just stopped playing. Hopefully we play again. We’ve got some songs recorded that I’d like to get out there.
On being called a “father figure” in the #WVmusic scene:
It’s been a main goal of mine to treat bands well from the get-go, and I think that stems from me having a musician background to begin with. And I think when you treat people well, you get it in return. Ultimately when it comes to taking on the roll I have, it wasn’t intended by any means. If you told me 8 or 9 years ago that this would be where I was, I don’t know if I’d believe you or not. It’s a matter of doing it, really. It just became a passion of mine that kept going. When it comes down to it, people can talk all day, but until you take the effort and step forward and take the responsibility on, nothing’s going to change, nothing’s going to happen with it. I didn’t really see that getting done at the time.
So I just felt it upon myself, I had a great opportunity with a rock venue. One thing just kept leading to another. I was earning the respect from a lot of bands with the venue treating them right when they weren’t being treated right at other places.
I do get joked about with that stuff every now and then. All the Ona boys call me dad, and in return the Foodstamps starting calling me mom. [Laughing] So I have the whole thing there.
It’s a matter of wanting to do it, and actually enjoying it. Nothing I’ve done is for recognition or anything. The main goal is promoting WV/Tri-State music. I would put our scene against the Seattle boom in the ’90s or the Austin boom. I think we’ve got, per capita, just as good of stuff as anywhere in the nation. If I have to be the one to push it, that’s what I’m going to do. Until I can’t do it anymore, or for some reason it gets pulled out from under me but so far so good!
Credit Max Nolte
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Ian Thornton on public transportation in D.C. as he accompanied Ona to their Sirius XM The Loft performance.
On the highlight of his #WVmusic journey:
Huntington Music & Arts Festival. If I had to be proud of something, it’d be that. It brings a lot of people together. That thing takes months and months of planning, phone calls, hitting the streets and getting sponsorships myself. But then it’s over in a flash. You get there at 8 in the morning and before you know it, the last band is hitting the last note. It kind of shoots by. I did all this stuff and now it’s over. But it’s such a thrill. It isn’t just a Huntington thing; it’s West Virginia-Kentucky-Ohio. Seeing these bands so happy and being together with other bands their friends with or love, and seeing them all onstage in one day, or it’s a whole week at this point. We’re growing this to something I think will be something Huntington pushes. I think it will be one of their attributes, and that’s my goal. People coming around to see it, filling up the hotels and businesses. Doing what we can to make Huntington a great city.
It’s obviously a grandeur idea, but like how SXSW is. All different art forms are expressed, people come from miles-and-miles, countries away. I mean, it’s Austin, TX. But I think we can do that on a small scale. And we’re finally getting noticed some of the people in Huntington…. We’re not just a bunch of rock n rollers renting out the amphitheater playing guitars loud. This is a serious thing; we all take it seriously. We’re here to promote it and show what your city has to offer you. All you have to do is buy a ticket.
On the future of the #WVmusic scene:
I think we’re on quite the rise, I think some great things are about to happen. I’m seeing new bands pop up; new bands I really dig. You know, I preach Tyler Childers and Ona heavier than anything. I’m closer to those guys. I believe in them more than anything. I’d risk life and limb for both of them. I think seeing them doing things that are quality and getting recognition across the country, literally. Even other countries at this point. I look at their sales and the attention they’re getting, and it’s inspiring. All it does is keep increasing passion. It’d be one thing to keep beating a dead horse, or run into a wall, but if you get behind something and it catches on, it does nothing but invigorate you, and make you want to push harder, get more acts doing things.
When I came into the scene, it was really funny. The Love Coats were the only pop-rock band around, so there was no one to play with. What we did was learn 3 hours’ worth of music, basically do our own shows because it was a really heavier scene.
The ’90s Huntington scene which was a little before my time was huge with bands like Chum doing huge things. We were a heavier scene, and it was starting to wain off when I started coming up to it. It’s transitioned now, I don’t think you put your finger on just one thing or another. We’re eclectic and I love it. Being eclectic will bring more music than being stifled. Seeing new bands pop up across genres is really inspiring, and I think we’re on a rise personally. There’s great things happening, past couple of years, and great things to come.
On advice to young West Virginians looking to get into music:
I would say just love what you do, and be passionate about it. And be ready to work hard, because that’s what it takes. And don’t put money as your ultimate goal, I know bands that do that and nothing good comes of it. If you love music, love music. If you love what you do, love what you do. Believe in what you do and push for it. You will reap benefits from hard work. Love what you do, practice, hone your craft and just believe in yourself. Network, meet other bands, become friends with other bands because nobody can do everything on their own. It takes that networking and comradery to make a music scene to help build everybody. It’s not a one-person thing; it’s a music scene for a reason. So you go watch other people’s bands so they’ll watch your band. You have to be a part of it. You can’t just jump in and expect anything. Work for it, earn it.
On his hopes for #WVmusic in the years to come:
I hope that we become a focus of the national music scene, and I hope we can set a bar because, I hate to be the guy to beat on West Virginia, but we have a stigma about us. [Laughing] Hell if they even know West Virginia is a state. It’s constantly a thing we have to battle. I’d like to have such an impact that people will be like, “We have to do what they’re doing in Huntington. A small city, but look at what they’re doing. Look at how active they are and in sync with each other.” I want to build a music scene that can be admired from the entire nation, not just West Virginia or the surrounding areas.
2015 was a big year for Mountain Stage. We began a beautiful friendship with public radio music discovery machine VuHaus. We created a new, bite-size podcast called Mountain Stage 2 Go.
And across nine venues in four states, we recorded over 100 live sets that showcased the best and brightest musicians in the world today. (Of course, none of this would have happened without your support!)
Before we embark on our 33rd musical year around the sun, Larry Groce and the Mountain Stage crew have picked out 27 performances that deserve another listen and another round of applause. From A to Z, these are our favorite Mountain Stage performances of 2015. (Hint: click the Episode # for their Mountain Stage podcast episode, where available.)
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Allen Toussaint (Keith-Albee Theater in Huntington, WV on February 15, 2015 – Episode #838)
