Lotus: Word is you and �lead� bassist Carson Binks are from Toronto. Can you confirm or deny this?
Allison: Parchman Farm is actually a Californian interpretation of the "Toronto Sound.� Which is sort of the sound of unoriginality mixed with two guys from California = Parchman Farm? Hmm... Carson and I are from Toronto and the Chris (drums) and Eric (singer) are from California and we all just kinda like the same bands.
Lotus: So do you or Carson know Geddy Lee?
Allison: No, but my dad`s friend Sid Ackerman once saw him at his kid`s baseball game. And one time I saw him drinking brew at a bar. I also used to hang out with this chick that was best friends with Neil Peart`s daughter and she used to go play at their mansion when she was young. No Alex Lifeson connections though.
Lotus: Sorry, I have to ask every Canadian band that.
Allison: It`s ok.
Lotus: Did you can Carson play together in Toronto? How`d you meet Eric and Chris?
Allison: Carson and I played together is some high school garage bands in my parent�s basement, but nothing that ever even made it on to an actual stage. It wasn`t until Carson moved out here that we really started working in an actual functioning band together. He and I always had this really good connection as far as two musicians playing together.
I met Eric through a mutual friend when I first moved to SF and when the band was coming together I called him to see if he knew any singer, cause he was in his own band at the time, but it turned out they had just broken up. And then Chris and I wound up jamming together by accident one night when we were hanging out at our friends� house having this round robin jam and Chris and I were like the last men standing and when it was over I was like, "We gotta do this again."
Lotus: The Parchman Farm CD was a strong introduction that made quite a few fans. Talk about the EP.
Allison: This was the first batch of songs we ever wrote, so we kinda knew that we were gonna evolve a little bit from there, but we didn`t care cause we wanted to release those songs now instead of down the road doing one of those Parchman Farm: The Early Years record that sounds nothing like what people already know of us.
Recording it was great because we did it with Davy Vain who used to be the lead singer in that �80`s hair metal band Vain and he would just sit around and tell us the funniest stories of Steve Adler from G �n` R all day long. Also Davy had this sick collection of Marshall Plexis. It was nuts. They were stashed all over the studio. He has such good gear. That was really fun just to get to check out all his cool shit.
Lotus: You all get pretty funky on "Say Yeah" for some white people. Explain.
Allison: Well I`m white, Jewish, and Canadian. Eric is a skater and Chris is into baseball. So that`s probably why.
Lotus: The kicked-back vocal harmonies between you and Eric on �Mirror Spirit� are another highlight. Is that something you�ll continue developing?
Allison: At this point the harmonies have gotten totally out of control. They`re in almost every new song. It�s getting kinda unavoidable cause they just keep making their way into songs uninvited. But the harmonies are different than in �Mirror Spirit,� now its more sort of loud belted harmonies.
Lotus: How was your U.S. tour with the Fucking Champs? What areas did you hit?
Allison: It went really well. I didn`t think the Champs� fans would be too into us, but they were. It was great. We went west to east through the south in the spring. New York was the best though. People were so into it.
Lotus: What got the most play on the van stereo?
Allison: It kinda depended on who was driving, but the top four was Six Organs of Admittance, World Psychedelic Classics 3, Thin Lizzy, and the new Snoop Dogg.
Lotus: Are there plans for a full-length CD soon?
Allison: Hopefully! We`re writing for a full-length record, which we`re sorta getting close to done. We�re trying to wrap that up as soon as possible. Haven`t started recording yet, but soon...
Lotus: Shout-outs. Go!
Allison: Aesop Rock (yeah!), EL-P, Murs, Blockhead (yo what up!), DJ A Trak, Mr. Lif, MF Doom, Precious Roy, Fucking Champs, Ghengis Khan, Western Dark, and the greatest comedian ever, Nick Flanagan (keep it real b). Peace I`m out. |
