Greenville Scene

by: Michelle Hannon

GS: Were any of you guys in bands before The Gentle Suit?

KM: I was in a band called Free of Stars with Marcie West (Pregnant Preachers) and Sean Neuse (Culture Prophet, Backseat Dreamer). Erler was in a band called Gretchen Ross. Jacob was in The Shine. Chris was in a band called Kaptain America. They did some touring out of the area. The Gentle Suit is pretty much the only band we’ve all been in that’s lasted long enough to have a goal after recording.

GS: You just added Jacob right? You used to be a three-piece?

KM: Yes, he came in September or October 2006.

GS: Some bands set out to conquer the world, and others are content with being able to play locally. Does The Gentle Suit have any such philosophy?

KM: We’d like to have our recordings known in other places of course. We’d like to definitely get on a label even if it’s a small label. A label with some money for distribution and touring. We’re taking it a little at a time. We all have day jobs so that kind of conflicts with our recording and practicing time. But we’re not opposed to doing this full time.

GS: You’ve got an EP recorded?

KM: Actually, it’s a full length album. We recorded nine songs at the end of August. We were going to get it pressed right away but we had an error come up in the manufacturing process. Jacob came along at the same time so we decided to re-record half the songs with keyboards. We did that in December. We decided to do a CD-R release because it’s something we can control. We knew we didn’t need to do anything fancy like Discmakers since we are really just trying to get the music out there. It’s not unheard of for bands with larger audiences to do CDR only releases.

GS: Are you planning to shop it at all?

KM: We’re going to sell the full length and select songs for a demo to send to clubs and labels.

GS: When is it coming out?

KM: It will be available to the public in April 2007. Eventually we’ll sell it online. We’ll be doing some new recordings then too. That might be a smaller release like an EP. We’ll keep putting these out in CDR format ourselves until something else happens. The songs on the album are basically the songs we’ve been playing in our live sets. We’d like to start playing some different stuff for local shows though.

GS: How do you go about writing? What are your musical influences?

KM: The music writing process is pretty democratic. We have a warehouse practice space and we just play. Ideas will just come up. There’s no set plan. Sometimes someone has an idea and we build off of it. It’s democratic. Anyone can do whatever - no one says “you can’t do that.” The lyrics are all written by Erler. He builds them around the song as another instrument. None of us want anymore attention than another.

GS: That’s a pretty nice setup.

KM: In general we listen to all kinds of stuff. There is no exact influence for the sound. We all, at one point in our lives, were big Joy Division fans. We weren’t necessarily trying to go for that sound but all four of us like them. We were into them in the sense that their music is coming “straight from the gut” and not in the post-punk reunion thing from a few years ago or whatever. At alot of our first shows we would get that comparison which is fine but it’s not really what we had planned. We all really seem to like free jazz, punk and heavy psych(edelic) music. If you looked at our record collection you could find anything from Desmond Dekker to Wolf Eyes. I think in general though our music would probably appeal to people who like stuff that really don’t think about labels.

GS: What is your opinion of the GSP scene? How has being from this area affected your musical pursuits?

KM: We’re all from this area or have lived here since middle school or high school. I think that there is kind of an isolated feeling here. It makes you appreciate the friends you find with similar interests. As far as being in a scene, I’ve never felt like that but I don’t really know what that is supposed to be like. There are alot of great musicians and bands in the area so I think there are enough groups to have one. The downtown area in Greenville has a really safe, clean vibe since it really is just a planned area for people to shop in and then go home at 10 o’clock. It’s a little hard for rock music to take place when a bar or club is going to get a fine for noise. Ground Zero in Spartanburg and Gypsy G’s are really the only places that local rock acts can get booked and do what they want to do. We have really appreciated them letting us play there and develop our live sound. It would be nice if more touring bands were coming through here instead of just hitting up Athens, Asheville and Atlanta. Not to knock the area though. We all live here and have good friends here. I think it’s really up to people to do what they want to do to make things happen whether they are here or anywhere.

The Gentle Suit
Erler Meyer - Vocals, Guitar
Chris Howard - Bass
Kevin Miller - Drums
Jacob Cook - Keyboard