What kind of music is this?

by James Bridges

Out of the pages of a story only written up in whimsical foreshadowing moments of films that tell of times when rock gods once met to begin their journey into the abyss which is….in most cases…a crappy life as a band.  Though for Rousey…life is good.

It’s 3AM on a dock.  Yes, a dock.  On a body of water, dock.  Nicolai, bass player,…beaten…and Garrett, Sax wizard,….smashed.  Both fresh off a music festival stage repping different bands.  What better to do? JAM…

Harrison, who is the vocalist for Rousey recalled that night as an “innocent” bystander. “I remember the jam.  I was a hundred yards away. I was trying to “pass out”  the entire night in my tent.  That just was not going to happen.  I stayed up the entire night listening to this jam that I eventually fell in love with.”

“A few months later that band I was in broke up,” Nicolai explained. “Garrett gives me a call and says hey, you wanna play bass for Rousey? Need I say more…  Then we brought Tommy and ol’ boy Austin in and that’s where it all started.

Guitar mesmerizer, Tommy, the “kid” of the band, has been somewhat of a “barhop” since an early age.

“We had no idea that Tommy was only 19.  I mean…I was letting him into the bars I worked for during open mics.  We found out his age after he was in the band for almost 3 months.  We all thought…oh damn, that’s gonna be a problem!” Nicolai laughed.  “But it never was.”

One of the things that caught my attention to Rousey was of course their single, “DABs In the Kitchen.”  So I had to ask the guys, what’s up?

Dabs in the kitchen is something we have been saying and doing for a long time.  Harrison got into detail as this next bit of information is quite important. “It’s something we would always do at practice over at Garrett’s house.  Garrett always had the dab rig but he didn’t have a torch.  Sonthe electric stove…banger…get it? So now when someone yells “dabs in the kitchen, we know the heat is on and ready.”

We suddenly hear audio from the blank video screen of Garrett….”what do you guys think I’m doing now?” Laughter…

I soon realized that the song was merely a cover to this book.  This was a collection of individuals who all brought something to the table.  It’s hard for me to find something with textured layers that are somewhat different from one another, yet slightly similar when it matters.  Music is definitely a candy store for those with that mindset.  I dove into Rousey’s music and realized much more.

“Our music is spread across so many different genres.  When you get into the “soul” of our music, it comes very collectively.”  Nicolai says he feels “the process works best when we all take a look at an idea.  “We bring our own influences and creativity to the mix.”

Jazz, rock, blues, reggae, you name it…  There’s a little in there.  It’s good soup too.

Tossing his smoke, Nicolai says, “If you listen to our album there’s a lot of different genres, so it’s impossible for me to sit here and say that I’m influenced by one particular person.  We spread across so many different genres and we’re always trying to push the limits of our music and creative process because there’s no reason to sit around and do what’s been done. You know… even though everything’s been done technically… I guess, but try to put a new spin on it.  In order to do that we have to access certain influences and inspirations in our minds, as children and on up you know? There’s certain emotions that we get stuck in and we end up shaping the way that we want to make other people feel. I take it as we “have” felt that emotion. I want to do that for other people. In order to do that we got work to do you know what I mean?”

Garrett wanted to chime in here, “If you only like artists that you listen to you you’re going to be very limited. I remember a professor from college when I was around 19-years-old.  He said to me that real artists don’t create, they steal.” They all laughed. “ Now I get it and it makes sense.  Every artist just needs to be a sponge. If they’re not out listening to other artists that are doing and trying new things then they themselves aren’t really trying to come up with and make something of their own. It’s really all about going to an unfamiliar show, maybe with your friend. In those instances you can either find out what you did not like and learn from it or ignore it. Is this what makes you feel turned off?  What worked?  Can I gain from this? Music essence is when you remember that thing that you like… the space whenever you go to a show… the people.  You see this face?” He made a facial expression that communicated stimulation. “ This face is the one you want to have or see when you are experiencing something on stage that is primal and guttural to say the least.”

The guys and I were on a video conference call because of, well…. Nicolai was actually in isolation.  But for them it wasn’t such a bad thing. They all seemed to be able to step back a bit, as most of society, and reflect on things that matter most to themselves.  They wanted to use this time wisely to hone their craft and creativity rather than create a larger dent in their couch.  I get it.  Entrepreneurialism is a curse of which that can consume the brightest of beings.  A tough blessing no doubt.  Yet, one must make hay while the sun…

Harrison personally very much enjoyed the break from shows, “If you’re trying to start out in a band and make an actual business you know, it could probably make your life very very stressful.  Especially if you work at a job outside of being in the band. You’ve got to be able to still get your hours, pay your rent… A lot of the times the money you make can go back to you, but to build your business it needs to go back into paying for everything just to get back to that point.  So it’s extremely important to stay balanced. I think what I enjoyed in this time of no live shows is getting to reflect and really re-balance.  I’m really excited to get back into practices and shows right now. I’m very confident that all of us have been doing things and writing in our own time. We have notebooks full of material ready to go when we get back to normal.”

It’s not necessarily just sitting around writing songs either, Nicolai added. “Just you know, I’m not much of a songwriter as I am a bass player, but I can tell you that in this time I’ve definitely had the opportunity to practice and advance certain techniques. In the past we were digging super hard. For the past few years, you know, it’s Monday night practices then a show on Thursday.  Again on Friday and Saturday and then we got another Monday night practice. I’m just spending Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday just trying to pay bills and let my balls rest for a second. So now I’ve got some free time. I don’t like to sit around with some free time on my hands.  I’ve actually been able to finally go in and work on little nuances and things. I just haven’t been able to really sit down and take the time to crank out certain finger exercises that I need to be able to perform certain techniques that I want to do live. I’ve definitely advanced instead of sitting around with nothing to do but look at my four strings.”

Garrett says he has been picking up flute. “It’s very hard, very very hard, but I was doing like a jam the other day and I was recording and I was like, shit, let’s just drop some flute on this. It sounds really good.”

They all chimed in with a giggle and a, hell yeah let’s get some flute action going!

Tommy continues to mesmerize and hone down his guitar skills.  He can be found sneaking into an occasional bar, but this time it’s legal.

I had an inspirational moment from the group as they were able to take their musical process and have it applicable to almost any walk of life.  Have an idea.  A group of talented people manipulate that idea into their own greatness.  They collect all of the greatness.  Boom-bam-you get good stuff.