Yale bands: rocking in the real world?

By Jim Laakso

"No one cares that you come from Yale." Jon Tiven, BK '77, has no illusions about what kind of weight his alma mater's name carries in the music business. "I've never had the opportunity to raise the Yale flag, and even if I did, I don't see it as something that would help."

Tiven has had many years to search for such an opportunity. He has been a successful musician for over two decades, doing studio and instrumental work with artists as diverse as Frank Black, B.B. King, Robert Plant, and Delbert McClinton. His career has carried him from hanging around WYBC as a teenager, to working with Alex Chilton in Memphis, to playing in the New York punk scene, to writing and producing Wilson Pickett's comeback album.

ERIN I. LEWIS, EUGENE WONG/YH

Able to earn a living through music, Tiven is the exception to the rule. He is just one of many Yale students who has pursued a career in rock after receiving a degree that might guarantee an interview at New York's biggest investment banks, but won't even get you arrested on the club scene.

"No one cares that you come from Yale," Tiven says again.Welcome to the vicious world of rock 'n roll, kids.

ON FRI., APR. 13, Cabeza de Vaca Latin Revue will play its final show as an undergraduate band, bowing out with its first-ever headlining slot at Toad's Place. Joe Grimm, JE '01, and Matt Dunkel, JE '01, who play alongside New Haven native Matt Quinn, are ready to graduate and take advantage of the opportunities on the horizon. "I've been a part-time student/part-time musician for too long," Dunkel said. "I'm excited to really invest myself full-time in music." After graduation, the band will move into a loft in New York City, where two of their musical cohorts are already living. There, they'll try to build up a following through live shows and word-of-mouth. Dunkel claims that Cabeza de Vaca has already laid the foundations for an audience in the city, thanks to a handful of well-received concert appearances over the past several years.

Ravenna Michalsen, TC '01, Margaret Miller, BR '01, and David Slade, TC '01, are also planning to make the pilgrimage to New York City. Collectively known as Uno Dos Vamonos, the trio is headed away from Yale having played just two dates outside of the area—one in Boston and one in New York.

Still, the band is not intimidated by the prospect of facing new audiences. "In college scenes, groups tend to rest on their laurels and become complacent," Slade said. Uno Dos Vamonos has been ready for some time to push outside the Yale music circle. "Our shows in Boston and New York were very, very nice," he continued. "And there's no better high than going to a foreign place, rocking out, and having everyone like you." Despite New York's place at the center of the American cultural scene, it's no promised land, especially for twentysomethings just out of college.

COURTSY SMEGMA

Tiven would know. He launched his own band, the Yankees, in the Big Apple during the late '70s and saw first-hand the realities of the New York music scene. "There are just too many people trying to fill too few slots," he warned.

UNFORTUNATELY, MANY YALE musicians find that they never even get the opportunity to vie for those slots. "It's a shitty business," Jason Morphew, TC '95, said. "I know people say that all the time, but there are concrete reasons for it." Between sleazy managers and a film that didn't bother to credit—or pay—him for the use of his song "Sex," Morphew has seen just how "shitty" the music business can be. "Those are just the most recent occurrences of me getting f**ked," the San Francisco-based singer-songwriter said. "The whole thing's set up to be a rip-off show."

Famed critic, essayist, and lyricist Richard Meltzer, who was expelled from Yale in 1967 after briefly attending the Graduate School to study philosophy, agrees that artists entering the music industry face serious problems. Meltzer, who is the author of 13 books, one of the fathers of the rock press, and the vocalist for the Portland band Smegma, has witnessed similar pitfalls in the publishing and recording arenas. He cites a focus on instant sales rather than an interest in the development of bands and writers as a key problem today.

COURTESY JASONMORPHEW.COM

But the music world has never been known for taking care of its own. Recent mega-mergers, such as the 1998 deal that created the mammoth Universal Music Group, have left hundreds of bands and label employees out on the street. Forty years after The Beatles were unwittingly roped into a contract that gave their manager 25 percent of their income, bands still find themselves saddled with unfair contracts that leave them deep in debt should their first album fail. Even groups who achieve chart success are not guaranteed financial rewards.

Not many bands make it far enough to worry about that, though. Joe Levy, BK '86, music editor at Rolling Stone, points to a key juncture in the development of a young band—a moment that can make or break a group. "The rude awakening comes the first time they drive out of town and play to a room full of people who don't know who the fuck they are and don't give a fuck who they are," he said. For Cabeza de Vaca and a clutch of other Yale musicians, the time has come to find out whether they can make the world give a fuck.

CHRIS COLTHART, BK '94, FOLLOWED A PATH similar to the one Cabeza de Vaca and Uno Dos Vamonos are planning—relocating to New York. It wasn't long before he realized that the pressures of his day job at Interview magazine would make it impossible for him to seriously pursue a career in music. After finding himself unable to devote enough time to his own art during his first year in the city, he watched a number of his friends give up music in favor of 9 to 5 jobs. Fed up with the scene, Colthart left for Somerville, Mass. to pursue a full-time music career.

There, Colthart found himself living with a group of like-minded musicians from the band Papas Fritas. He formed The Solar Saturday, a band that reflects his now-flexible attitude towards playing music. Colthart has accepted the fact that he needs to make compromises in order to remain in the music business. "The mythical rock 'n roll paradigm isn't true," he said. "If you get signed, you don't necessarily make it. The music world isn't a very healthy one."

A part-time job as an Internet consultant provides income, but music remains the main focus of Colthart's life. In addition to his work with The Solar Saturday, he tours with Papas Fritas and is currently finishing up an album for which he is seeking distribution.

COURTESY SOLARSATURDAY.COM

Working at a 9 to 5 job while trying to make it in the music business isn't uncommon, though. Tim Holahan, JE '92, found that his work priorities have relegated rocking to the weekends. With his band Monobrou, Holahan also sought his musical fortune in Somerville after graduation. After two years and a number of gigs in the Boston area, three-fourths of the band moved to New York, where they all found full-time employment. Holahan, for one, became a project manager at a lab. Despite evolving music, personnel, and priorities, Monobrou still plays after the work week and hopes to record its first CD this year.

So what about those current Yale musicians trying to make it in the real world? Dunkel, Slade, Michalsen, and Daniel Silk, SY '01, say they have no illusions about the need to find part-time jobs once they arrive in New York. The question is, where will their music fit into their work schedules? Michalsen admits that she can foresee herself being too worn out after a day's work to want to go out and rehearse on a weeknight or play a show on Friday night. Faced with the choice between a job that provides a living and a hobby that provides pleasure, music may have to fight a losing battle.

INDEED, DUE TO THE WAY THAT THE MUSIC business is set up, money spent by the consumer has to pass through the hands of labels, producers, mixers, engineers, publicity companies, art designers, lawyers, and others before it finally reaches the artist. There is certainly no guarantee that an artist will make any money, and so comes the need for part-time and 9 to 5 jobs. In demonstrating the effects of the system, Colthart speaks of a friend whose band has hit No. 1 in Japan, one of the largest music markets in the world. Despite significant commercial success, his lifestyle—and income—remain modest. "There's absolutely no money in music," Colthart shrugged. "Don't ever expect to make anything."

COURTESY JON TIVEN

Morphew, speaking from his own experiences dealing with the industry, is also cautionary. "You think you're so smart, you've read all the Beatles' books, you've watched Behind The Music, and you say, `This shit's not gonna happen to me.' But there's always a potential opportunity that it will."

Uno Dos Vamonos, though, feels fortunate in having been able to circumvent corporate music vultures. Their forthcoming debut album will be released on Garbage Czar Records, a label founded by Slade. Started as an outlet for Connecticut bands that Slade felt were deserving of support, he has tried to use the label both as a learning experience and a springboard for area bands. "It gives them an excuse to tour, an excuse to get music out there, and I get to pick up on how all this stuff goes down," he said. Slade explained his drive not in terms of profit or networking, but in what he calls a "need" to push forward in music, both with the band and the label.

New Yorkers Alec Bemis, BK '98, and Bryce Dessner, CC '98, SOM '99, have also translated their passion for rock into the creation of a record label, Brassland. Bemis, a writer whose work appears in L.A. Weekly and the Village Voice, takes a dim view of the corporate recording industry. Following his flirtations with the mainstream media while in Los Angeles, an experience that turned him off to the "mindlessness" of mass-marketed culture, Bemis realized that he was "not interested in being an investment banker in the entertainment industry."

Meltzer leveled similar criticisms against the industries that surround rock music. Disillusioned by what he saw as a culture of trade papers and media whores, he abandoned the form he had helped to create. The situation has worsened since then, he said. "Nowadays, it's a foregone conclusion that if you write about rock 'n roll, you're a shill."

THINKING BACK ON THE INSULATED MUSIC SCENE from his days at Yale, Morphew recalls many occasions when his band bought a keg, packed a concert venue, and played for hours to an enthusiastic crowd. This may be a supportive environment, but unfortunately, it can lead Yale bands to develop unrealistic expectations. "New Haven set us up for expecting to stride into the world and take it by storm, but that just ain't going to happen," he said. "The world isn't one big college campus." Dessner agrees that the level of attention one can receive at Yale can be damaging. "You gain a false sense of confidence. Yale puts you in a bubble, and there is always a danger of it popping."

Yale rock star hopefuls: bassist Daniel Silk, SY '01, of Gooden; singer-songwriter and pianist Chuck Golman, TD '03; multi-instrumentalist Joe Grimm, JE '01, of Cabeza de Vaca; and guitarist Sam Grossman, DC '03, of Gooden. ERIN I. LEWIS/YH

Making the jump from an audience of friends at the Calhoun Cabaret to a cynical, uncaring audience in a strange town can be more than difficult—it can be a shattering experience for those Yale musicians who don't realize that they are living in what Levy, the Rolling Stone critic, referred to as "a long dream that unfolds in a youth ghetto."

Yale musicians who have ventured past the limits of New Haven have quickly found that the free publicity machines of friends and mass-emails don't work outside of a tight, local setting. In this new, less welcoming environment, the burden is on the artist to throw himself out to the public and the industry. Despite the tremendous amount of work involved in such a pursuit, these musicians continue to be driven by their passion for making music. It just so happens that what they love has been a struggle from the outset. As Morphew wryly pointed out, "Unlike investment banking, consulting firms, or the CIA, there are no recruiters or record company scouts that come to Yale searching for you." Front graphic by Erin I. Lewis and Eugene Wong.

From left to right, CD covers courtesy Smegma, jasonmorphew.com, solarsaturday.com, and Jon Tiven.

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