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Strange Glue Showcase: Ports Of Call Interview and Music

11th February 2008 | by Gavin Riley

If you aren't familiar with Philadelphia shoegaze band Ports of Call just yet, the chances are that over the next twelve months or so - you will be.

Ports of Call are made up of five sprightly young things, all of whom have earned their stripes in a succession of bands that have unfortunately fallen victim to the regurgitating record industry that seemingly prefers style over substance.

However with Ports of Call, they may just have got the balance spot on as they seem to have just about every weapon in their arsenal. Perfect melodies, haunting harmonies, droning riffs, and the amazing ability to get the whole Strange Glue office humming their tunes for the past month. If the world fails to fall in love with Ports of Call this year, then it can't be argued for lack of quality.

With a debut album due for release imminently, Strange Glue limbered up with Tom, Thom, Carolynne, Stephanie and Daniel to discuss the trials and tribulations of getting a foothold in the music industry, why they leaked their own album onto bit-torrent sites and how they plan to imitate their shoegaze heroes.

Strange Glue: You all hail from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, home of Will Smith, Boys II Men, Pink, Eve and DJ Jazzy Jeff. How on earth does a shoegaze/psychedelic band make it in Philadelphia?

Tom: Actually, shoegaze and psychedelic rock has been a huge part of the Philadelphia music scene since the early 90s (check out The Lilys). We're very happy to contribute whatever we can. We all love this city very much. There is some great music being made here.

Thomas: Also we currently live in Philadelphia but we're from all other places. I'm from New York originally, Tom, Dan and Steph are from New Jersey and Carolynne is from Pittsburgh. Still, i think Philly is very conducive to the sound we have. The area Tom and I live in right now used to be an old industrial neighbourhood and there are still all these old factories and warehouses and I feel like that atmosphere was fairly influential in the song writing. And don't front on Boys II Men...

Tom: ...Or Hall & Oates.

S.G: As of now, you're currently unsigned, and have released the record by yourselves. Is that a purposeful decision (i.e. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah), or is it a sign of the increasingly difficult times, getting a record deal in the industry right now?

Tom: Being unsigned certainly has its disadvantages. The traditional band life cycle has really changed in recent years. It used to be play some shows - get “discovered” - get signed - release a record... However, with the music blog phenomenon, indie labels are now almost mainstream in a way, just because they are constantly being inundated with more and more new bands and more and more new hype. But this new model of course has great benefits too! So many bands that would never have been heard are now heard by thousands of people. There will be many fewer bands like The Monks, in that regard, going forward. But to get back to your actual question... it is a purposeful decision. We believe that our music speaks for itself, and that people will be drawn to it whether or not we are signed. The most important thing to us is to get this music out, and if we have to do that without a label, so be it, we are happy to.

Thomas: Yeah I mean we aren't anti-label or anything and if anyone would like to pick us up for our next release that would be great as self-releasing is pretty hard, however, with this record i think we just wanted to get it out there. Tom and I have been playing together for a few years now and we finally pulled the right group together to get what we wanted out and as soon as we started writing these songs I just knew support or not we need to just get this out. So in the sense that we knew we were putting this record out regardless it was purposeful, but if someone had stepped in and said we would love to put that out for you we probably would have said great, thanks for the help as long as we keep the control.

Photo by Ken Hinchey

S.G: You're creating quite a buzz around the internet right now, with several bloggers defining your influences and comparing you to likes of Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine etc. Let's hear it from the horse's mouth, who were/are your influences for Ports Of Call?

Tom: That's always such a tough question, since all of us have listened to so much music in our lives, what doesn't influence us? But most of the influences people have cited are fairly accurate. We are all huge fans of My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Ride... but that is really just a small part of what's brought us where we all are now. I know that during the recording of the album i was pretty much exclusively listening to Velvet Underground's first two records, Lou Reed's “The Blue Mask” and The Who's “My Generation” LP... but I'm not sure how much of that leaked into the recording process.

Thomas: I can only really speak for myself and my influences have been pretty all over the place, like New Order was my favourite band since I was a little kid and I fell pretty hard for the Valentines at first listen, but I also love like old Sarah records bands, and Pale Saints were probably my favourite band after MBV of that time. But yeah i agree with Tom in that our influences have been hit pretty well by the reviewers but that is only a small portion of what we pull from.

Daniel: I've actually been influenced by the shoegaze sound pretty much since its inception. Being a fan of bands such as Depeche Mode, The Cure, New Order, The Smiths, etc. at an early age, it was only natural that I later fell in love with the dreamy/ethereal pop sounds of bands like Ride, Slowdive, Lush, My Bloody Valentine. The list is endless. But yes, we as a band pretty much all have similar yet different influences. But it's not as if we go to practice telling ourselves, “this is the sound we're going for tonight” when writing new material.

Carolynne: Let's not forget Yo La Tengo and Galaxie 500... Beta band, Rollerskate Skinny..... i agree with the other guys though that sometimes it's just hard to pinpoint. personally, my influences come from so many different genres and time periods. When you're exposed to so many different types of things and sounds and concepts, it's hard to say 'this is exactly where i got the idea for this song/this riff' all of the time. They just sort of filter in and out of our heads I think, and this (Ports of Call) is just the result of all that.

Photo by Ken Hinchey

S.G: You commented on your MySpace about some leaks off your record, is this something that bothers you? Or something that you see as inevitable and will more likely see the band's popularity and profile rise?

Tom: It doesn't really bother us. If everyone downloads the record for free and then does not buy it or come out to a show, then it must not have really been for them in the first place. As someone who believes strongly in this model (as I follow it) if something strikes my fancy, I will pay for it. There is a lot of commitment in purchasing a record that you may not know much about, it may seem silly but i think that can be asking a lot if you are a pretty unknown band (like we are). Online file sharing—I understand why record labels and the industry are troubled by it... I mean, the mainstream record industry is in shambles—but file sharing has really opened the door to very quickly spread your music around via word of mouth in a way that has never been possible before.

Thomas: On top of that I'm the one who put it up on the first torrent site. I uploaded it and told people “steal our record....please” and I was amazed by the response. Everyone gave us feedback and a lot of people said they wanted to buy the CD once we got them pressed. Since I first posted it, it has migrated to a few other places and my feelings have teetered here and there but ultimately I see it for what it is: excellent publicity and a great way for us to get heard by people who would otherwise have no reason to check it out. I worked at a record shop for years and I always loved getting people into new music, but I feel like today that happens less and less, commercial radio is pretty much owned by Clear Channel, MTV is pretty much all reality shows and independent record shops are failing left and right, but the newly born internet community is great. People tell each other about new music and it has allowed for a lot of bands to get noticed.

S.G: Andrew Grossman, who played bass for PoC, departed after the album was completed, to be replaced by Stephanie Hesser. Was the split amicable? Or will you be having Morrissey-style high court hearings in the future over royalty payments? And who's better.....Andrew or Stephanie?

Tom: Wow, that's a loaded question! The split was very amicable. Andrew had a lot going on in his life and he lived outside the city. He is a teacher and a soccer coach and felt he didn't have the time necessary for us to move forward as we should. Andrew is a great guy, no hard feelings at all. As far as credit goes our liner notes give credit where credit is due. I'm not going to compare them, but Stephanie is wonderful, we are so happy to have her join us. She is really shaping up to be the rock of the band, she keeps us in line. Not to mention her bass prowess. It was kind of an incredible fit actually. Thomas went to Ireland for several months right after Andrew left, and while he was away one of our goals was to find a new bass player. Stephanie was the first person we played with and we knew right away that she was the one. Love at first sight. When he got back from Ireland he was thrilled.

Carolynne: Andrew was great, and i think he added a lot to the band. it's a shame he wasn't able to stick around longer, but these kinds of things always happen. Stephanie is a wonderful fit - we couldn't have been luckier that the transition worked out so smoothly.

Stephanie: When I first heard that Ports of Call were looking for a bass player, I contacted them right away. Tom sent me a copy of the record to check out and I instantly loved it. I was so excited about it that I spent the entire week before meeting with them learning every song on the album. Andrew laid down great bass tracks and I'm making it a point to play them just as they are with a little hint of me sprinkled in there. At that first practice we just ran through the record and had a lot of fun. Thankfully, it wasn't a one night stand and the love goes on.

Photo by Ken Hinchey

S.G: How did the name 'Ports of Call' come about? Are you frequent travellers or big Jack Vance fans?

Tom: Actually, we all met last year when we were working on a cruise line on a 3 week voyage from Miami to Capetown. It was incredible... Well, except for the pirates.... Not really. It's pretty simple really, Daniel suggested it one day while we were trying to think of a name and we all loved it. That's it... feel free to infer any double entendres...

Daniel: Actually i did go on a Caribbean cruise last year with my wife. The cruise director kept saying “ports of call” during his announcements... at first we were poking fun, but the more I thought about it, i realised hey, that sounds like a good name.

Tom: Heh, that's the way I hope people react to our record... at first they'll poke fun, but then they'll have an epiphany.

S.G: One blogger, My Opinion, says in a posting about your track 'Honey': "The main riff ... has been stolen straight from 'Bring It On Down' by Oasis surely ...". Listening to it, we think it has subtle differences, so what do you have to say for yourselves, Ports of Call?

Tom: Ah yes. We were told about this last week. Our initial reaction was “What song?” I loved Definitely Maybe, and it turns out that song was on that record... but I hadn't listened to it in so long... and had no idea what song he was talking about. Did it have any influence on Honey? No. Did we “steal” the riff? Absolutely not. Are we a bit sour about the review? Of course not! He was actually quite nice to us throughout the rest of the review. We always looked at Honey as kind of a drugged-out, last call at a bar kind of rock song. That's actually one of my favourites. When you're writing songs, there are bound to be riffs or arpeggios that end up reminding someone of something else. I think there was a part of the song that had a chord change from A to B? Honey also has a chord change from A to B. I hope it's that simple.

Thomas: I'll be honest - not only did I have no idea what song it was, I literally hated Oasis until a couple years ago. And even then, I rarely listen to them, and when I do, it's the new record since they let Andy Bell write some songs, so I thought that was pretty funny.

Photo by Ken Hinchey

S.G: Tell us where you see Ports of Call being in five years time.

Tom: I think our goal with all of this is to have fun and share that with others. Personally, my dream would be to be in a place like Yo La Tengo, mildly successful but universally acclaimed and appreciated. But I don't think that saying we would be there in 5 years is realistic. I guess... on the way to that would be my answer. I'm really looking forward to what we do next. I know everyone says this, but to us it is only about the music.

Thomas: I just hope in 5 years we are still playing and keep progressing with stuff, the songs we've been working on since the record are really rad and I look forward to where we take things even beyond there. Personally I would love to within 5 years have an easy way to tour and such, and I'd love to make it back across the pond by you all, as I love it over there.

Carolynne: Five years? I just hope to be able to keep doing the stuff I love and still having time to do it. It would definitely be nice to at least partially support ourselves doing what we do. Hopefully we'll still be around!

Photo by Ken Hinchey

S.G: Why should Strange Glue readers check you out? What sets you apart from the rest of the music scene?

Tom: We are extremely proud of what we do, and we plan on continuing to do it for as long as we can. The more people get to hear this, the more we can get feedback and continue to do what we love. I think what sets us apart is that we are dedicated to having the best output that we can. We aren't going to play a song for you if we think it isn't any good. I hope that does not sound arrogant, that is the opposite of my intention. We don't think anyone else out there right now sounds just like us, and that's enough to set us apart.

Thomas: You should listen because if you don't I will be forced to put Tom back in the institution; also I'll bake you some cookies.

Tom: You never bake ME cookies!

So with that, we went our separate ways, snapping up a few boxes of Maryland cookies, safe in the knowledge that any time we need a favour from Ports of Call, cookies are the way to their collective hearts.

As usual with the Strange Glue Showcase, we have a couple of tracks for your aural pleasure. The band have chosen 'Honey' as the first track. Tom informed us that he wanted this one on to show that the band are “fearless”. And finally, what is shaping up to be one of our favourite tracks of the year - 'Here We Are'. Enjoy....

Ports of Call: 'Honey'

Ports of Call: 'Here We Are'

Ports of Call Links: Myspace / YouTube

Comments

foley

commented 6 months ago

I really really like there tunes. I checked out their MySpace, overall - very much like MBV, altho honey does sound like Oasis - sorry, Lolz.

Dave

commented 6 months ago

Me too, here we are reminds me of classic valentines. Good stuff

Yaroooo

commented 6 months ago

I'm supa imprresd, shoegaze is so gonna be 2008. Brilliant. When's album out - cant see it newhere

Aidan Williamson

commented 6 months ago

Their album "Like Thieves..." is due out on February 26th.

You're probably best off ordering it directly from the band. There's further info on their MySpace page.

Lammy

commented 6 months ago

Good stuff, this is your best showcase so far, a good advert for all the good psychadelic stuff that's coming out from America. I'm new to the genre, but what with Black Mountain, a new MBV album, the future looks rosy!!!