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An Interview with Westfold
By H-Dawg | May 5, 2010
“Conceived in the fires of social injustice, Westfold was born as baby trees that swore revenge on their creator. As they grow their branches, stories and melodies can be heard rustling through the leaves.”
Mark - vocals/guitar
Simon - vocals/guitar
Tony - vocals/bass
Nick - drums
Heather: How did Westfold come together?
Simon: Mark is my manager at work and was in a band called Jacobin at the time and he asked me if I wanted to play and we wanted to do an acoustic thing so we decided that we might as well start writing some songs. That was the purpose, the focus was on creating kind of a folk band that disintegrated real quickly–’cause the rock always trumps.
So is that when you got these other two guys?
Mark: It kinda just happened Tony and I played in multiple bands since we were teenagers so when Tony moved to town naturally, we played together and it fit right away and then we started playing with Nick last year. We got Nick from Craigslist and the Ouiji board about a year ago.
Do you have a full length recording out?
No Frills Catalyst EP.
What local musical artists do you enjoy?
Mark: Themes, Carcrashlander and the Tax Payers. Cory from Carcrashlander has been engineering some recordings and it was like we’d never heard before…it knocked my socks off. You’ll dig their stuff. Themes is Jacy and Kelsey.
Simon: J Sauce. I really like Aristeia.
Mark: He plays piano guitar and vocals but on his recent recordings they went all out and had everybody play back up. Simon played on a few tracks too. Themes and Westfold are thinking about a tour but dates are not decided.
Is there a lot of pressure living up to the rock star stereotype?
Simon: We’re rock stars?
Mark: It takes the edge off not being rock stars, hardcore going to work and stuff, being normal and paying the bills. We all work shitty jobs and are wage slaves. We love playing music and we have a lot of energy in it. We’re constantly writing and wrote a ton this winter, a writing spree of sorts. We have enough for a future album probably.
Who does the writing?
Mark: We all do it. It’s the most fun when we are all doing it together, you get a certain tamber in the room and that’s its own force. It really doesn’t really become what it does until we all mess around with it.
The approach to every song is diverse and different and it just happens as we are playing it we’ve been constantly been working on new stuff. We’ve been sort of reinventing ourselves, not consciously or anything but we sound a lot different than we ever have before. We feel like we are finally at a point where we can be honest and play the kind of music that we all enjoy.
Tony: Nick has a lot to do with that too, because we can relax now about the structure and let it happen not thinking about it as much as just allow–you know, those little parts that happen between guitars sort of this weird back drop to give it a bigger feel. It’s really cool, speaking as a bass player it just it more enjoyable.
How often do you get together and practice?
Mark: Twice a week.
Simon: Mark and I sometimes get together and we’ll write on weekends and throw some ideas back and fourth, Then we’ ll watch a movie and play acoustic guitar.
What does a typical Sunday afternoon look like for you guys?
Nick: World of Warcraft.
Tony: Laundry.
Mark: I hang out with my special lady friend.
Tony: Have you seen HBO on Sundays? Fantastic!
Nick: No its spectacular (asks if his wet stains on shirt are from body odor).
Simon: It’s from football.
What’s your favorite team?
Simon: Seattle Sea Hawks.
What is the Sunday HBO line up?
Tony: I really hate HBO, they play the same thing all the time.
How did you first learn to play music?
Mark: I felt like I was late, not ’till after High School. I Played drums earlier.
Simon: I didn’t start till I was twenty when I played in Kid Dynamo.
Did you teach yourselves or play in the school band?
Simon: Self taught, I listened to Pavement and Modest Mouse and thought if they could do it I could too.
Mark: I took drum lessons from this old jazz musician named Bud Crumley. Tony worked at the guitar shop where I took the lessons. I would spend two thirds of the lesson listening to him talk. He left home when he was thirteen to play drums with Buddy Rich and he’s been on the road ever since then. His stories were amazing and I learned mostly while listening to them.
What is the coolest thing you have ever invented?
Mark: Me and my friend Keith invented a card game called Mortars, that involved motion, was a really fun game. Oh, and some of us invented a new school rummy game that is much quicker and tons of shit talking is extremely encouraged.
Tony: Knives were pulled out.
Mark: one time when I was playing with tony he took the cards and just messed them all up and was like,“is this okay?”
Simon: I can talk to cats. I am a cat talker….whisperer. I invented it, I bring that to the table–who’s gonna challenge me?
How did you come up with the name Westfold?
Mark: Simon told me that it was a Latino gang name and I believed him.
Simon: I was going to go for the “Latin Kings”.
Simon: So what it was is I lied to them and told them it was something completely different than what it is. It was taken from the Lord Of The Rings, the two towers, read it, it is also an actual place in Norway.
Westfold proceeds to argue about who was the biggest bad ass Frodo, Gandolph or Gollum. I whisper into mic “this band is a hippy band.” Westfold laughs.
What is your favorite thing about Portland?
Simon : My cat.
Tony: All the pretentious douche bags.
Nick: The coffee.
Simon: My cat.
Mark: I get a kick out of how how this place has become a mecca which has to be a trip for Nick who has always been here to wonder why all these people came here. I can’t explain but I really appreciate this place (pauses) the record just scratched ha ha….how people who don’t want to live in other places just wind up here to sort of start all over like a new found energy and it also gives them a spring board to create the life they want to live. A lot of other places you feel sheltered and I mean nobody cares about your music but, everybody’s doing it, you know living their dream– I mean holy shit, all these people just doing what they want to be doing.
Simon: It’s a very creative place.
Nick: Cheap Rent.
On that note what do you find are some of your least favorite things about living here?
Mark: No rent control.
Tony: All the pretentious evil Nazi terrorist assholes. Yes, we’re all adults. I really don’t understand where making me feel like I’m a shitty person because I am smoking a cigarette while walking on the side walk is going to help their cause.
Nick: Um, couples getting divorced because they are fighting over which one of them is the most Eco-conscious, and fight about recycling.
Tony: We know what’s happening. We live in the world. I am not here to destroy it ’cause I am smoking a cigarette while walking down the street. If there is a piece of trash or cardboard that I am recycling, I’m sorry, I am trying to do it. You should see how it is in other places, it’s horrible. We live in a wonderful place as far as that is concerned.
What do you see happening in the next five years?
Tony: I just want to play shows more, get signed and record a full-length album through a local record company.
Simon: I share that dream too.
Nick: Especially for a band like us who are hard workers who are willing to put in the time and effort to do those things. A lot of bands are lazy and don’t even show up for their own shows.
Simon: I want to play the Roseland again….and their gonna open their arms and welcome us. what I understand is we are not welcome to play there again.
Why…explain?
Simon: We played a show there and one of their guys there said that we will never play this town again!
Tony: I was climbing over the fence when they said it too.
Simon: It was weird like we were playing at a nice friends house the other night….so I think we’re playing this town. Annie and Charlie rule, you guys are amazing. That was a lot of fun…you guys are good peeps.
Mark: we were treated better there than at the Roseland.
Simon: Let that be noted.
Westfold Links:
myspace
facebook
Top photo by Erik Hansen, below picture by Alanna Hylton.
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Topics: Interviews, Music News, PORTLAND |
July 31st, 2010 at 10:15 pm
I was there, I saw it happen, It’s really true!!!