Playing for the third time in Blacksburg this year, the instrumental band Basshound will perform at the Lantern tonight with opening act Boogieburg. The group will hit Blacksburg in the midst of a 10-day tour. Somewhere in between Charlotte and Wilmington, N.C., guitarist Greg Maly took some time to speak over the phone with the CT earlier this Sunday.
Q: You guys seem to be on the cusp of playing big gigs like festivals versus clubs; how has your schedule been changing recently?
A: The primary thing is that we're breaking into different markets. Working our way into different states, different cities and just having the regional influences of the festivals we've been playing has allowed us to really break out and drive many, many miles farther.
Q: The band has played in Blacksburg before; how has the response been?
A: Awesome. We expect a really good show this coming week. The first time we came through was in August, and school wasn't even in session and we came through on Tuesday, and it was very well attended. We came through the third week, Sept. 12. It was a really good turnout, probably three-quarters full. I anticipate a full house on Wednesday, but we'll find out.
Q: How was the Lantern?
A: It's a really great club. We were very impressed. They got in touch with us probably early summer letting us know that they were opening up and they wanted to start getting bands in there. So we just took them up on it. We played at Virginia Tech two-plus years ago at Cabo Fish Taco, and it was cool because we had friends down in the area; we were in college then, so we had college friends there. But this time we've been coming through, and this is definitely a much different atmosphere.
Q: I read that you lost your front man last year; did that change the dynamic at all?
A: It actually changed it a lot. He was one of our driving forces in more of our song-based material, more of our kind of folk rock. He was more of that in our sound. So when he left, a big piece of that left as well. I guess you could say that we have evolved into something a little more specific as of late because the rest of us listen to more progressive, instrumental-based music. Our shows are much more reliant on the improvised sessions of the shows and the energy of the instruments as opposed to the vocal lines, so it definitely did change things.
Q: When did you guys just decide to go for it?
A: Probably about the time that our singer quit. Part of the reason he left was that he couldn't really keep up with the schedule; it's a big commitment of time and energy. I think about a year ago when he left, the rest of us kind of made a decision. There's a certain commitment that you have to make to your life to do this.
Q: Unknowingly, was the band moving in a serious direction anyway?
A: We were just playing as much as we could at that point because it was obviously fun and is something that we all wanted to do. But you can't really make the commitment to do it until you see the tangible results that said, "OK, this could actually work." So I'd say that over the past two years, we've been learning to actually to make it work and what it takes. How many shows you have to play a month and what it takes to get crowds out. Once we all realized what it took and said, "OK, this is actually a viable option," that's when the decision was made.
Q: What's something about the music industry that you did not expect to learn coming into it?
A: We've been pushing hard as a band for so long that if I could come up with all the lessons learned it would be kind of funny. Things you didn't expect -- some towns have incredibly nice club owners that take care of you from top to bottom and just want to make sure the musicians are happy, and some don't give a shit about musicians and just have a club and are trying to make cash. It's a big lesson in learning how to work with people. It's just a business like anything else. Music, when it comes down to it, you have to really be conscious of it working as a business as well, and that's something that we're learning a lot about. You have to run on a budget, and you have to do things like pay for gas and insurance, and so it becomes a small business. You're not just playing music anymore; it becomes your employment. You're always learning and you're always trying to figure out how to maintain what you're trying to accomplish.
Q: Where did the learning process through the industry start?
A: Blake (who plays the keyboard), he actually worked in and around the music business for a few years, so he got a very good inside view of what the inside of music industry looks like. And when you meet with club owners all the time and you book shows all the time, you learn a whole lot about what makes the music industry turn. It's just like anything -- you don't necessarily go to class for it, but you learn just by doing, so we've just been pressing really hard on booking and writing and promotion for years now, and it becomes something you adapt to and you learn how to make it work. It's a lot of trial and error.
Q: So what's next for Basshound?
A: What's next? Well, tonight's Wilmington. We're working on a CD, actually. We're going to come out with an album hopefully toward the beginning of the New Year, within the first couple of months. So when that album comes out, that's going to be good for us on many levels, and we've been in the studio working on that since late August. I think we're going to go on tour out West in January and February, and then when we get back we'll do our circuits in the area, and then we're hoping to really play nonstop for most of the summer and try to hit as many festivals and cities as we can.
Q: What should Virginia Tech students expect from Basshound on Wednesday?
A: We have a current challenge to Virginia Tech students to try and have a better time then we're going to have on Wednesday night, because we all try and get on stage and have a good time no matter what's going on in the room. One of the things that we're definitely going to be able to do is it's going to be a different show than the last two times we were down there because we do our best not to ever repeat shows in front the same crowds. So it'll be a different show, and it's going to be a really good crowd on Wednesday. So I think people should come out and expect some really high-energy music.