Lobsterfest 2014: Gazer
By Abbie Doyle, Copy Editor
Gazer is a “noisepunk spittersputter” three-piece from Cincinnati. Fans of easygoing pop or soft-rock beware. Bassist/vocalist Erik Ziedses des Plantes and guitarist/vocalist Michael Squeri donated some time to ACRN to answer a few questions about their recent release, their past with Athens and chili preferences.
Gazer has been preparing to release new material lately; how has that process been?
Erik Ziedses des Plantes: While I wish we had a full album together already, the 12” we will be releasing this summer is just a double EP. On the A-side is our new EP Fake Bulbs, and on the B-side is our old EP Phone Commercial, which originally came out as a CD-R last October. I’ve never had the opportunity to put out a 12” before, so this is all very exciting, even if it isn’t for a real “album,” so to speak.
As for our first album, we’re writing for it now. I don’t know when it’ll be done, but I’m at a point right now where I’m vomiting content left and right and I’ll need BJ [Marsee, drums] and Michael [Squeri] to reign it all in later on and pick out the worthwhile bits. Like, a complete song here, a set of lyrics without music there, a tiny riff up somewhere else. It’s kind of a mess right now, but fun.
Michael Squeri: The process was pretty foolish! We basically locked ourselves in our engineer’s basement in Louisville and didn’t let ourselves leave until we had finished recording the entire thing. We ate some pizza and then mixed it. The whole thing took about one day with some extra cleanup stuff done a week later. Even though we’re exceptionally pleased with the results and Will Allard, the engineer, did an incredible job, I still do not recommend this as it was one of the most draining experiences of my life. We celebrated with apple juice.
Would you be touring if you hadn’t just released something?
MS: Hells yeah we’d still be touring. I always thought that was a weird concept, the record-promote-release-tour cycle. It can make shows feel like ads, like maybe you wouldn’t be seeing this band if they didn’t have something new to sell you.
Since we all work, we basically jump at any and all open weekends we have for the opportunity to play out of town, regardless of what our release situation might be. I suppose our primary purpose is to play shows, and while we’re always excited to record and put releases together, I can’t imagine we’d ever let our playing habits be dictated by release schedules.
EZDP: “Touring” has always had kind of a loose definition for us anyway, mainly because of our job situations. I wouldn’t call what we do “touring” as much as it is rapidly ripping ourselves out of our normal routines for two to three days and then slamming ourselves back into them just as quickly. Like, after Lobsterfest is over, we have to rush home the next morning so I can get to work on time that evening. It can be jarring, but we enjoy it enough that it’s something we’re constantly trying to do.
Gazer played in Athens at the Smiling Skull this past September; how was the show?
MS: That show was boss. Sign-Off is my favorite live band, period, so any opportunity to see or play with them is a blessing. The Smiling Skull was a neat place and reminded us of some similarly cozy bars we frequent in Cincinnati, so I suppose it felt natural. Plus, there was plenty of Marilyn Manson to be found on the jukebox.
EZDP: That show at the Skull was our first out-of-town show ever, and happened at a time where I was having a lot of personal frustrations about whether anyone cared about this band or what we were trying to do at all. We played a couple of shows last summer that were kind of dire. Not from the perspective of us not enjoying playing together, but because I had thrown a bunch of time and effort into booking shows for touring bands that I liked and thought brought diversity to Cincinnati, with little to no turnout. It’s not fun only being able to hand over $17 to a touring band from Texas, who is then driving all the way to who-knows-where the next day.
So, the show at the Skull couldn’t have been a better, more relieving experience for me. It amplified my desire to play out of town more often, and allowed me to shed a lot of dumb personal nonsense.
I’d also like to re-iterate Michael’s point about the Manson selection, and underline my satisfaction that several tracks from the album Mechanical Animals were available.
Music aside, what are the band members’ opinions’ on Athens? Lovely scenery? Overrated drinking culture? Best place on earth?
MS: Athens reminds me a lot of Bloomington, Ind., another middle-of-nowhere college town with a lot of tightly-packed downtown culture where I lived for five years. I regret only having the opportunity to properly explore Athens at night, usually while driving and finding super wasted pedestrians to be a unique challenge.
EZDP: I almost went to Ohio University, actually. Instead, I did the “big city” thing and lived/went to school in Boston for four years. I sometimes wonder how my perspectives/experiences in life would differ had I gone to OU or lived out in Athens like several of my friends did. I find myself drawn to quieter places these days, away from city bustle, so I really enjoy any opportunity I have to go to a place away from city life that still has thriving artistic or musical cultures, like Athens. I know you said "music aside," but it always ends up coming back to that for me, somehow.
What are the connotations, if any, that accompany playing a college music fest called “Lobsterfest?”
EZDP: It makes me think of an event that I wish existed when I lived in Boston, where I could go and consume dangerous amounts of shellfish and publically shame myself. The kind of thing that would happen in some big, open room or convention center, with long wood tables soaked in butter and lemon juice. Lots of people wearing bibs. The constant sound of hundreds of crustacean shells being cracked. It’d make for a good field recording.
I actually just Googled “Boston Lobsterfest” to see if that was a thing, but I was only able to find a restaurant called “Boston Lobster Feast” in Orlando, Fla.
MS: In high school I had a friend who constantly insisted I play “Rock Lobster,” whether I was near an instrument or not. Don’t tell him, but I never actually learned that song. He still asks me to play it occasionally.
What musicians influence Gazer?
MS: Honestly, our only influence is Sign-Off. And the Barenaked Ladies, probably, because they’re pretty much hard-wired into my brain, having spent my crucial developmental childhood years listening to nothing but every one of their albums.
EZDP: Recently, I’ve been influenced more by things that provoke intense personal reactions rather than specific bands or musicians. Especially if said personal reactions aren’t the most flattering. If it’s something that makes me angry or scares me, like dementia, medical procedures, what I perceive to be the decline of public attention and value given to literary culture or intellect, whatever: I find myself more drawn to wanting to write songs about it. Even more so seeing as how this is pretty much the first band I’ve been in where the music would fit that sort of darker subject matter. I basically have a backlog of bummer subjects to work my way through.
How would you describe Gazer’s sound to someone who’d never heard it before?
MS: I literally say these exact words, “Well, I guess we’re loud, and we play sort of, I dunno, weird rock...stuff. I dunno, you probably should find something else to do that night.”
EZDP: Loud, noisy, abrasive, a whole bunch of shouting. For people who aren’t already into punk, noise rock or weird stuff in general, I sometimes feel like I’m warning them rather than simply describing it.
How does the Cincinnati scene respond to “noisepunk spittersputter?”
MS: Luckily, Cincinnati is pretty in tune with the absurdity and pointlessness of existence, so we do pretty well there.
EZDP: I think people in Cincinnati have been coming around to it more these days, and have been more responsive to our efforts to build bridges between bands/artists of varying genre in the shows we book. At the same time, as we’ve become more comfortable and tight as a unit, my interest in whether or not people like what we do has decreased. If people like it? Cool, awesome, let's be friends, let's do shows together. If not? Oh well.
Skyline or Gold Star?
MS: My current apartment is a two-minute walk from a Skyline, so that decision usually gets made for me.
EZDP: Skyline, definitely. If you told me that Skyline had been introduced to me intravenously while I was a baby in the hospital, I would totally believe you. If I am given the choice, I will always go Skyline. A lot of Cincinnatians will draw battle lines over the issue, and treat one or the other like it’s straight up dirt in a bowl, but I’m not, like, offended by Gold Star. Gold Star will do in a pinch, like when I used to work at the mall and go to the food court. I’m probably the wrong person to ask about most food stuff, though, as my standards are pretty low. It’s more a matter of what I won’t consume if given the opportunity.
I think the better question comes when you introduce Cincinnati chili to people not from Cincinnati, and trying to determine whether or not they like it. I’ve found that the reactions are a bit more extreme and entertaining.
