100 Musicians Answer the Same 10 Questions

Part Seventy-Seven: Tripp Cox of Schooner

instigated by dave heaton

The North Carolina band Schooner's 2004 album You Forget About Your Heart was a extraordinary collection of atmospheric rock songs -- melancholy and dreamy yet also raw and immediate -- and their recent contributions to the four-band split 3x4 were just as good. Both were released by Pox World Empire. Tripp Cox plays bass with the band. For more information, check out their website and MySpace.

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What aspect of making music excites you the most right now?

Well seeing that we haven't put out very much music since our 2004 debut, the simple fact that we are busily MAKING music and recording and putting out a new EP and record soon is what is most exciting to me right now.

What aspect of making music gets you the most discouraged?

Taking nearly two years to record new songs...day jobs, minivans instead of tour buses, leaving our dogs at home when we travel!...The game of trying to schedule time to write/rehearse/record around everyone's crazy schedules and the band's very busy (at times) tours/shows can be a real drag and we almost never find enough time for all 3. I wish there were more days in a week to get some quality band homework in!

What are you up to right now, music-wise? (Current or upcoming recordings, tours, extravaganzas, experiments, top-secret projects, etc).

Well like I said we have a big batch of recordings set to come out. Some of those were put onto a limited release 5-song Tour EP that we made specifically for our recent (as in October) tour up to Montreal and back and still some others will make their way onto the full length cd that will be out sometime in early 2007.

We also contributed a track to a Christmas CD recently that is gonna see the light of day very soon. Tracks by some great Raleigh bands. Rosebuds, Kenny Roby, Nathan Asher, Dan Bryk... We're even involved with this year's Christmas celebration at the State Capitol. Gotta get our funny christmas sweaters out and ready!

What's the most unusual place you've ever played a show or made a recording? How did the qualities of that place affect the show/recording?

For a recording? I'd say Clemson University's radio station. They did a live on-air broadcast/recording and man there were mics and cables everywhere. I think we did alright. Nearly killed us though...

As far as a show?

Maybe this tiny place in Brooklyn that shall go unnamed. We played during (not for) a girl's birthday party, and the place was packed. The girl (well woman, I think it was her 25th birthday) was so drunk that she kept stepping on all of our pedals and stealing the mic between songs to shout stuff at the crowd ( i.e. her friends so who could blame her?) It was great!! I had to beg the bartender for $15 so we could afford the tolls to get to our next show...since they forgot to "pass the hat" for us as pre-arranged.

In what ways does the place where you live (or places where you have lived), affect the music you create, or your taste in music?

Well for me this is simple. I get to live in the same town/area where all of my favorite bands live. I need no other music to survive but the great stuff that is coming out of Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill right now.

When was the last time you wrote a song? What can you tell us about it?

I write new songs about my dogs every morning. I just get up in the morning all grumpy and really not having any of it, and then these two little monsters come busting in, all happy and not caring about anything and I cheer up immediately. They are the cutest things in the world and each song is usually a 30 second ode to that very same cuteness.

As you create more music, do you find yourself getting more or less interested in seeking out and listening to new music made by other people...and why do you think that is?

Well all I can say is that I am interested in new music but just don't have the energy for searching it out. The "new" music I get into is usually the stuff that bands that we share shows with are passing on to us. Like we just played a show with Rochester band Hinkley and we were blown away by them. I would've never heard about them if we hadn't played up there with them. Plus I like supporting bands that way versus going on Pitchfork and just reading some review and then downloading their stuff off of itunes. (Oh but I did just get into the Feist record and had to go out and buy it--whew!)

Lately what musical periods or styles do you find yourself most drawn to as a listener? (Old or new music? Music like yours or different from yours?)

No particular period comes to mind.

Name a musician or band, past or present, who you flat-out LOVE and think more people should be listening to. What's one of your all-time favorite recordings by this musician/band?

Mmm tough... I can only think of The Bee Gees...because people only think of them as a Disco band, and while that stuff is KILLER...KILLER...they have done it all. Beatle-esque ballads to folk to what have you... Just check out "RARE PRECIOUS AND BEAUTIFUL" for some stuff that might make you think twice about them as a serious band.

What's the saddest song you've ever heard?

What's the one played by the tiniest violin in the world?

To check out the rest of the Q&As, click here.