Jeremy sings andplays guitar. Juliet plays violin. Larry plays bass and sings. I (Nick) play trumpet. Tic plays drums. Shawn plays the Farfisa organ. On recordings we all do other stuff, but those are mainly what we do in the band. This hasn't always been the line up, but it has been for the past couple of years. We started when Jer asked Larry, Juliet and I if we wanted to take songs that he had been writing and play them as a band. We had our friend Dave play drums for us for a bit when we started, then he had to stop and then Tic started to play drums. Shawn joined cause one time we were going to go on tour and Juliet was in China. We had just bought a Farfisa and wanted someone to play it, we asked Shawn and he said yes. We thought that the organ would help fill up the sound a bit live when Juliet was gone and then really make it nice and thick when she returned.
What where the original goals for the band? Have they been accomplished and if so, how did you go about meeting them? What are the current goals of the band and how are you trying to accomplish them?
I think that the goals of the band were to make some songs together and have a good time. I know that all of us have always thought it would have been fun to be in a band that put out 7"s and CDs and stuff. I would say we accomplished any original goals we had for the band, we are having a ton of fun with it and we got to put out some records and CDs. As far as current goals, I don't know. I think that we would like to record some more and keep having fun. Those will be accomplished too, I'm sure. We are going to work on a new 7" in the next few weeks and we have been working on songs for a new album too.
What do you think sets your band apart from others? What politics and/or ethics, if any, take part in the band's writing and business choices?
I don't know what may set us apart from other bands. There are a lot of really great bands out there right now, I really don't know what, if anything, set us apart from any of them. As far as politics and/or ethics taking part in the band, hmm, I'm sure that there are, but it isn't anything that is thought about a lot of anything. We don't really have a band mission statement or anything like that. I guess basically though we do what we feel comfortable with and what we think will be fun and stuff.
Who do you consider your current contemporaries?
I don't know. Hmm, I don't know how to answer this one really. I don't think of stuff like that really so I don't really know how to answer it.
Approximately how many side projects do the members of The Plastic Mastery have/take part in? It seems like a lot. Does it ever cause conflict with scheduling or putting too much into another project and not having enough to add to Plastic Mastery? What are the main side projects?
We are involved in a lot of stuff, its fun. I would say that we do stuff on a regular basis in about 9 or so other things. Jeremy has been working on his new thing called the Museum Exhibit a lot, its really awesome. Larry has his solo thing and has been working on that a lot lately too; it's called Blue Period and sometimes called Heavenly Fire. I have been doing stuff with the Golden Synthetic Songbook thing (I think I'm going to change the name soon) and my girlfriend Annie and I have been working on some songs that we wrote together.I think we are going to call the band the Kitchen Cycle. Oh yeah, I have also been playing drums in this tally pop band called Isabella Parole. Tic has been playing in a band recently called Baby Dracula. Shawn has insane records, which keeps him busy a lot. He has the Jokes and Sweet Pickles right now, those seem to be the main things he has been working on, but you can never tell with Shawn. He isamazing. Out of nowhere he comes up with the best ideas for fun awesome bands. None of this stuff really conflicts in any way with PM though. I think that we all have different mindsets for each thing, so creatively there is never a conflict and scheduling wise it has never been a problem either.
It seems as if you guys are the Florida indie pop ambassadors...I know that sounds odd, but when 555 bands or Elephant 6 bands come down you guys know them, play with them, and show them a good time, sometimes even playing all or most of their Florida dates. How did you forge such relationships with bands from out of the area and what do you think about being quite possibly the most well known band of your type in Florida?
You know its weird; I don't know how we got any relationship with any of those bands. Maybe its cause we are all dorks and we kinda knew some of those people from a while back and then when we formed a band it went from hanging out together to playing together, maybe that's it,who knows. As for the 555 bands, Idon't know. We made pals with Stewart Anderson a few years back and have remained buddy buddy. I guess it's the same thing. We like to hangout with each other and have fun. Plus we love Boyracer so any excuse to see them play many nights in a row is awesome with us. As far as being the most well known band of our type in Florida, hmm, I don't know what to say to that, it is neat I guess.
What is your favorite dance party song?
Mine is "World Cup Fever" by Air Miami. Jeremy says that his is "I LoveYou Like The Way That I Used To Do" by Rocketship and our roommate Tim says that his is "Hey Hey Girl" by Rocketship
If you could add any rockstar (living or dead) to the lineup, who would it be and why?
I would love to have Lee Morgan in the band, that would be awesome. He is my favorite trumpet player ever and Ithink that he is tops. I think it would cool to have him in the band basically so I would have the chance to meet him and hang out with him. Also it would be cool cause that would mean that there would be a trumpet player in the band who knew how to play trumpet and was good at it.
Any final words?
Nah, I'm cool.
How can you be contacted?
[email protected] and www.plasticmastery.com
