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Big Heavy Rock
An Interview with Jamie of Boulder
By Bob
Ignizio
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 For
over a decade now the same four guys (Jamie – bass & vocals, The Chan –
guitar, Mark – guitar, and Pat –drums) have been spreading the heavy metal
gospel throughout northeast Ohio under the collective moniker of Boulder.
Now, with two albums on the indie label Tee Pee under their belts (‘Ravage
and Savage’, 2000, and ‘Reaped in Half’, 2002) they’ve taken it nationwide.
As I spoke with Jamie, the band had just finished up a tour in support of
‘Reaped in Half’ and was taking a well deserved break before heading off to
New York for CMJ in November.
“It was the longest tour we’ve done,” says
Jamie. “We’ve done things before where we’d play ten shows or so, but this
was the first time we played all the way out to the west coast and back. It
was cool. The west coast and the south were good. We got a better response
than I thought, in San Francisco and LA especially. I didn’t think people
would even know who we were, so it was cool. Along the west coast we played
with High on Fire and Lost Goat, another band on Tee Pee. Coming through
the south we played a gig with Fu Manchu and Speed Dealer. Besides those,
though, we just played our own gigs.”
So who goes to a Boulder show? “It’s not
really the typical metal fan. The people that come to our shows are sort of
weirdoes,” jokes Jamie. “They’re not Helloween power metal people or Black
Flag punk people. They’re just people who are willing to hear genuine music
and have fun with it, not necessarily people who listen to only one type of
music.” Hardly surprising considering the way Boulder combine influences
form the entire history of hard rock into a unique sound all their own.
Everything from the proto punk of late sixties Detroit bands to the
bombastic sounds of eighties thrash and glam rock is grist for their mill.
“It comes from not trying to rip off any one person or band. We’ve all
been music fans since we were like ten years old, and there’s shit that’s
imbedded in us that comes out in how we play. Not what we play but how we
play it.”
At one time Boulder was infamous for
stunts like having Jamie ride a moped on stage for a rendition of Judas
Priest’s “Hellbent for Leather” or bringing roadkill to shows. Although the
band still maintains a healthy sense of humor, the stunts are history. “It
had just run its course. We kind of did what we wanted to do with that,”
explains Jamie. “Kiss took off the makeup, so we stopped bringing dead
animals to shows.”
To those who think hard rock has to be
serious, Jamie says, “Listen to The Stooges ‘Raw Power’ or The Dead Boys
‘Young Loud and Snotty’. Those albums are hilarious if you listen to the
lyrics but they’re never taken as novelty bands. Frank Zappa, he’s just
sarcastic as hell. Even bands like Judas Priest. You know Rob Halford was
writing stuff and thinking, that’s clever or that’s funny. You have to be
able to look around you and see how ridiculous other people are. I’m just
not the type of person to take anything too seriously. A lot of bands
nowadays are just like “it’s got to be death.” They can’t be clever or
witty in any way.”
While the band is now signed to well known
indie label Tee Pee records, they didn’t just sit around waiting for a
record deal to come along. “The first thing we put out was a 7” and that
came out in January of 1993, right before the first gig,” says Jamie. “It
was a two song single. Then we put out two demos, a 7” here and there, and
the 10” record. Chan and I are real into records and vinyl, so we just
wanted to put our music out on vinyl and do it ourselves. That was the only
way we knew. We were never into the whole, “dude, sign my band” type of
thing. Other bands have records, so we said let’s make our records. The
bands that we liked did the same thing. The first Iron Maiden single, the
first Def Leppard single, all that shit the bands put out themselves.”
On their most recent album Boulder show a
greater emphasis on songwriting and melody, especially in the vocal
department. “Every album the vocals have gotten more enunciated, to where
you can hear things more,” says Jamie. “In the past, I never practiced
singing. Every time we’d go to record it would be write the lyrics the day
before and then sing ‘em immediately in one take. That’s how it was done,
and you can probably tell that. For ‘Reaped in Half’ we took time to figure
out how to sing it, and what the words were. Stupid shit like that that
probably most bands do first and foremost. This time we practiced a little
bit, and did at least two takes.”
Boulder also recently released a single
under one of their pseudonyms, Sweet Roxx. “Sweet Roxx is normally just us
doing cover songs, but the tunes on the 7” are songs we made up right when
Boulder first started,” Jamie explains. “We wanted to write some songs that
sounded like they came from 1983 or ‘84. We used to play them at practice
just for our personal kicks. We finally recorded them at the same time as
the ‘Ravage and Savage’ sessions. So it’s another official band with all
the same members”
As for what the future holds for Boulder,
Jamie says, “We were thinking about doing a four song EP, we’ve never done
one of those. Me and the Chan always wanted to make a killer EP like
Hellhammer’s ‘Apocalyptic Raids’ or Slayer’s ‘Haunting the Chapel’.” As for
shows, Boulder’s northeast Ohio fans will have to wait for now. “The last
show we played in Cleveland was with Saxon, back in April or something,”
says Jamie. “We played in Akron a few months ago with Electric Wizard, but
that’s the last one around here I remember. Next month we’ll be playing CMJ
in New York, but that’s as far ahead as I know.” If the metal gods are
smiling, though, Boulder will be tearing it up close to home again soon.
Visit Boulder on the web at
http://www.bouldersragers.com
More Boulder on Utter Trash:
CD review: 'Reaped in
Half'
Concert review and
pictures:
With Destructor, Abdullah, and Kratos at Peabody's 01-03-03
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