[sound bites]

Milling About Town:
Charleston band ‘taps’ into downtown music scene

By: Shea Carver

As bands today hit the touring route, they’re taking over stages with a whole slew of instruments at the helm to tout their musicality. Cellos and violins are turning electric, hailing an edge that not only adds classic beauty to rock but gives it depth that otherwise may be lost among the norm trifecta: guitars, drums, keys.

Milhouse, a band from the marshes of Charleston, South Carolina, suspiciously sounds like a millennium version of Ben Folds Five-meets-Duncan Shiek. They may only be a quartet, but they take up many other musical seats in the recording studio. Playing everything from vox to electric mandolin, congas to cello, bandmates Matthew Herring, Cory Jarrett, Lonnie “Dodd” Root and Dusty Painter made their way from the sandy coast to the snow-laden mountains of Asheville back in January. At Echo Mountain Studios they joined hands with producer Danny Kadar (My Morning Jacket, Iggy Pop, Avett Brothers) to create the six-track A Collection of Rare Birds. Their intent was to capture the essence of playing live as organically as possible. The outcome is a jaunty mix of calypso beats and acoustic balladry, among the backdrop of moody sensations and soft dance rhythms.

Having corresponded with drummer Dusty Painter and lead singer/guitarist Matthew Herring via e-mail last week, the two revealed a bit of their music philosophies: “Emotional and spiritual stability is abnormal, and anyone who tells you different has something to sell,” Painter states, while Herring says, “Play what you love, so you love what you play. It shows.” They also dished the inside scoop on their blend of sound and its effect on their lives.

e: There’s a mishmash of sounds that vary across all genres on many of your songs. How do you guys come together to make it work, and what does each bring to the table, physically, mentally and emotionally?
Dusty Painter (DP): This band reminds me of a book I used to read as a kid called Stone Soup. In the book the townspeople lack food.

Although each house has something to offer, it isn’t enough to satisfy their own household. Everyone decides to contribute what they do have so that in the end they have prepared a wonderful pot of stew.

Milhouse is made very similarly to that pot of stew. Matt brings the emotional singer/songwriter to the stew. Lonnie offers the fine-tuned, classically trained musician . . . his addition to this band has changed our sound and commitment 100 percent . . . [H]is music theory is starting to rub off on all of us, [and he] has really raised the bar in a band that is relatively new to him. Cory is a student of music leaning heavily to the jamband/improvisational side. I offer the back beat and energy or, for the analogies sake, I’m the habanero, cayenne spice combo in the gumbo. Ha!

e: In the making of A Collection of Rare Birds, what was the hardest obstacle to overcome?
Matthew Herring (MH): The hours put in got tough after a few days. We were banging it out as quickly as possible, 12-hour days. By the end we weren’t sure what we had just done. That’s one reason I love it so much; it turned out better than I thought it would at the time. I knew the work we put in, and I came out the other end like a proud papa. Proud of his six-song freak baby EP.

e: What flowed most freely and organically to add to its overall listenability?
DP: Our relationship with each other and our individual personalities come out in each of our instruments, which is what has always made our sound unique. We are brothers in life and in music, and I feel like people can hear that in the record and see that on the stage.

MH: We come together with an idea, and each person puts their own twist on it. That’s as free as you can get as a musician. Danny Kadar helped capture the organic sound, something we have had trouble with in the past.

e: Why use electric strings rather than the sound in its unplugged version?

DP: What has driven our music is the usage of atypical instruments, and the electric mandolin and cello add layers and familiarity to our audience. What at times may sound like an electric guitar and bass can in the next moment reveal themselves as a cello and mandolin. Not everyone is hip to the stringed-instrument sound, but if you introduce it to them as something else and ease them into the idea, it seems to take easier—like Mary Poppins’ medicine.

MH: We used to fight the idea and just want an acoustic sound. But the electric mandolin adds an entire new dimension on what we do, and in a lot of ways, it defines our sound.

e: If you could either play live shows forever or spend your days in a studio recording, which would you prefer?

DP: Live shows, without a doubt. The energy and bond that the performer and audience share is irreplaceable, unexplainable and, outside of the stage, unobtainable. There is no other feeling in the world quite like that feeling when band and audience are moving to the same rhythm. Some nights that doesn’t happen, some nights it happens a few times, and on the special nights that bond is there from the moment the lights go down until they come back on, and the people wander aimlessly toward the door. On those nights, no matter which side of the grass you are standing, you know something special happened in that venue.

The studio is where all of that energy and excitement is used as a mere memory to inspire. Mistakes are counted and fingers are pointed. I’m not looking to be perfect; I just want to be effective.

MH: Man that’s a good question. I love to record. The feeling when a song comes out better than you’d hoped for is only second to playing a song live, and having it come out better than you’d hoped for. Live, you get instant gratification.

e: Fill in the blank: Between life and music lies....
DP: All the experiences life offers to inspire all people to hum, whistle, sing and dance. Without life there is no music. Some people lock themselves in their rooms and wait on the inspiration of life to come over them like a dream, whereas I would rather run around the world and find it for myself.

MH: An unbreakable chain.