Q&A with John Clardy from Tera Melos

Tera Melos might be based in Sacramento, but their drummer lives in North Texas. Since the band is coming to Club Dada this Friday, I wanted to ask John Clardy about his early experiences in the area and how he wound up in this buzzed-about act. I figured I'd get some good stories and an explanation on he makes it work living in another state from his band members.

Do you currently live in North Texas?

I do, actually. I live in Fort Worth when the band is inactive. I’ve been home a lot since I got back from Europe. When the band is inactive, I’m usually for here for about six months.

How long have you lived in the area?

I was born and raised in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I grew up in Colleyville, but not the real swanky part. There’s one section that’s on the edge of Bedford. It was country land, then all those fancy mansions got built up just north of that area. I grew up in the Mid Cities and started going to shows in Deep Ellum when I turned 15. When I turned 16, I didn’t have to bug my dad to drive me to Deep Ellum Live.

Any shows in particular that stick out from this particular time?

I got to see Hagfish at Trees when I was 15. I was underage for Trees’ standards, but my mom convinced the doorman, “Oh, he’s 17. He forgot his ID. I’m his mother. It’s totally fine.” That was a really, really cool one. Tony Barsotti is my favorite drummer from the Dallas area. He’s been one of my favorites for a long time now. Let’s see . . . I got to see Weezer right before The Green Album came out at Deep Ellum. That was pretty insane.

I remember that time so distinctly because Casey Di Iorio of Valve mentioned getting Weezer tickets when I saw Valve play the Aardvark. The kind of excitement for that show, you would not see it now because of all the records Weezer has put out since then.

[laughs] Exactly! That was the time when Pinkerton had been out for a few years and they weren’t doing shit, so it was this long-lost hope to see Weezer again. Yeah, they did not sully their good name. They put two perfect records at that point. That was a cool time. I definitely have fond memories of that time. I used to go see bands at LazerTracks in Arlington.

Would you see bands like My Spacecoaster?

You know, I never really got into the Club 412 scene. Some of my friends were and I never had anything against it; I didn’t end up getting a ride out to any show, so I only heard about those shows. It was more LazerTracks, Deep Ellum, and once I got a little older, Trees and Galaxy Club.

So, how in the world did you jump from living in this area to playing in a band that based out of Sacramento?

It’s kind of a funny story. Prior to Tera Melos, I was in Fishboy for about three years. The label that Fishboy is on is based in Athens, Georgia. Back in ’06/’07, the guy that runs the label put on Athens Pop Fest. He’d get the bands on his roster to play, and that was a staple through those years. We’d go out to Athens in August, usually. We were out there in 2006 and they were having an unofficial “noise night.” Deerhoof was the headliner, so I had to catch that show. One of the opening bands called Bit Brigade who take an old NES game, like Mega Man or Castlevania, and they would have this guy play the game on the NES, it was projected onto a screen, and the band would play the soundtrack to it in real time. I saw that and was like, “Holy shit! So rad!” I talked with one of the guys in the band. It was about a year later, Fishboy was playing Athens again at a venue that Brian from Bit Brigade owns. He saw me play and he came up to me. We became buddies while we were in town. He mentioned he was really into this band. Tera Melos. My brother had seen them in Denton a few years ago, but I hadn’t listened to them. Fast forward to summer of 2008, I was on tour with another band and we were playing Athens. I called Brian to invite to the show. He couldn’t come, but he told me Tera Melos was looking for a new drummer and I should try out. I looked at their MySpace page and I read what they were looking for in a drummer. I basically fit everything except for living on the West Coast part. I sent them an e-mail that I was interested. They called me two days later. They came to meet me at the San Francisco show on the tour I was on. When that was over, I flew up to Sacramento about two weeks after that. Tried out and got it, and here we are today.

Do you hope to stay in the area or relocate to Sacramento?

It’s a tricky thing. I think me relocating makes sense as far as the band. We’ve been able to make things work for the past few years. Whenever it’s time to record, tour, or write, I’ll fly out to Sacramento and stay on friends’ couches. Up ’til now, it’s not been that big of a deal. At some point I think I do need to get out there. I really enjoy the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I have a lot of close friends. A lot of great bands come through. I’m a big ice hockey fan, so I like going to Stars games every now and then.

Naming names

While it's been pretty easy to come up with new songs, one thing that's been very difficult: coming up with a name for this one-man band that I have. Theme Park Experience was a name I suggested to one of the bands I played with in college, but when that was shot down, I kept it for later. When the time came to name this blog, I found the name to be fitting.

Now I'm faced with the dreaded "untitled Eric Grubbs solo project" title. That name is not gonna cut it.

I like it when an answer comes to me. Coming up with the titles for all three of my books came naturally. I didn't force it or stress about it. I simply thought about a few names over a short amount of time and bam, there was the answer. Post came to me when I was in the bathroom of my old apartment in north Dallas, the same apartment complex where a pile of shingles fell onto my head and I got the idea to write the book. When We Were the Kids was a no-brainer, but I can't seem to remember exactly when or where I chose the title. And Forever Got Shorter came while I drove to Jenny's place one night.

Answers come to me when something is on my mind, but I have other things on my mind. The cliche of coming up with the best ideas while on the toilet is absolutely true. When you're on the can, your priority is not music, lyrics, or character motivations. The focus is getting your bathroom business done. The same is true with walking a dog after writing and editing and slaving away at something for hours.

I've tried to come up with creative names for my new "band," like looking at a list of Robert Pollard releases and mixing names up. When I thought I had a good name, turns out, there was already a band with that name.

With almost all of the bands I've been in, the naming process was a non-event. My favorite band name was the 11:30s. One of the guitarists wrote out a long list of names on a yellow legal pad. "Eleven Thirties" stuck out to me. He came up with the name due to the time of night he wrote this list. I thought it was a great name, as did the other band members.

Keeping in this tradition, I'm not going to force things out. I've been down that road before, and the results are seldom satisfactory in the long run. Since I want to keep doing this for a long time, I best let the answer flow out of me naturally.

Nothin' But a Good Time

When Rock of Ages was a Broadway hit, I rolled my eyes. Hair metal turned into a Broadway smash? Kill me, said my punk rock purist attitude.

When Rock of Ages was made into a movie, I anticipated Razzie nominations and mocking upon its release. This isn't a movie I should ever consider seeing, said my far-flung movie tastes. And this was coming from somebody who loves the movie version of Mamma Mia!

I don't necessarily know what compelled me to rent Rock of Ages from Netflix, other than the fact that I tend to have dry spells. As in, I want to watch something I've never seen before, and I'm usually up for something different . . . even if it's something I initially found forgettable. No matter how many hair metal songs were in it.

I embrace the fact that hair metal was a crucial element in me appreciating modern rock music when I was a kid. Songs like "Wait," "Here I Go Again," and "Carrie" might have been made into cheesy videos for MTV, but the melodies, polished sound, and somewhat aggressive style certainly helped bridge a gap between James Taylor and Nirvana. I couldn't have understood the importance of Nirvana had it not been for Steelheart, Trixter, and Slaughter.

Rock of Ages is filled with songs that I remembered hearing all the time before I became a teenager. Hair metal was awesome when I was in elementary school, and it was a point of constant mockery in middle school and high school. Now I'm at an age and a truly comfortable place in my life where I openly acknowledge myself as a music enthusiast. Melody and perceived passion weigh heavily into what I react to. Doesn't matter if it's a Jay-Z song, an ABBA song, or a Dillinger Escape Plan song, my tastes are all over the place and unpredictable. So it's not too far-fetched to say that I can enjoy "We Built This City" and "I Wanna Rock" without irony or cringing.

Am I biased in finding enjoyment in songs I loved before puberty struck me? Of course. Did this weigh heavily with finding value in this movie? Absolutely.

With the Rock of Ages movie, I knew there would be lots of sexual innuendo and one-liners, just like all the songs that are featured. A number of the jokes felt flat to me, but that didn't deter me from enjoying the movie. It's probably the best adaptation one could expect from the source material. Really good actors who can sing to various degrees of success, mixed with faithful modern recreations of 80s hits. And given the satire of the PMRC and kid-friendly hip-hop, I couldn't help be pulled in. 

I have no illusions how my assessment would fall on deaf ears. This movie isn't Ikiru, nor is it Baby Geniuses. It's entertainment, folks. We have our Nick Drakes and we have our Taylor Swifts. You get to choose what you want to hear and see. Having the choice is better than no choice at all.

RSD

For the past two years, I have resisted the urge to seek out the exclusive pieces of vinyl released on Record Store Day. I didn't think the time and effort would be worth much: standing in a line for hours, hoping to find something that I wanted. Plus, there haven't been many items that I really wanted. Matter of fact, the only RSD exclusive that I wanted was that Foo Fighters 12-inch featuring cover songs they had done over their entire career. When I saw the line to get into the record store closest to me wrap around the block, I turned my car around and went home.

This year, there were a handful of records that I wanted to get. A couple of them were modern classics that I wouldn't mind owning on vinyl, even though I already owned them on CD. I still try to stick to a relatively strict code of vinyl purchases (as in, I try not to own something on vinyl and CD), but there are times when I cannot resist. This happened with Bruce Springsteen's catalog between his debut album and Tunnel of Love. Having iconic works like Born to Run and Nebraska are worth the double-dip, in my opinion.

Going into yesterday's event, I had At the Drive-In's Relationship of Command, Braid's Frame & Canvas, and Cave In's Until Your Heart Stops on my list of wants. I also wanted to pick up the debut EP by Their/They're/There, a new group featuring members of Cap'n Jazz and Into It. Over It. I had received some great intel from a record hound friend of mine that a couple of stores in my area usually had smaller crowds and better quantities than other stores. I had to give this a shot.

I woke up at 6am yesterday and got out the door a little after 7. While the first store that I went to had plenty of stock, there wasn't much room to move around. Fifteen to twenty anxious audiophiles were stuffed into an area that was maybe six feet wide. To get your hands on a record, you had to be comfortable with leaving your comfort zone and (somewhat) grope the people around you. I smelled plenty of coffee breath as well as sweat, but if this was my only chance to get these records, I told myself that I could always shower later.

I grabbed the sole copies of Frame & Canvas and Until Your Heart Stops and one of the many copies of Relationship of Command. As I tried to make my way to the T section, I saw my friend Brian holding what turned out to be the only copy of the Their/They're/There EP. Brian is a great guy who loves the kind of music that I love, so seeing him hold this sole copy was fine by me. Better him than some person who is going to sell it unopened for triple the price on eBay.

After talking with a few more friends who came out, I decided it was time to plunk down my cash and get the hell out of there. My grand total was a whopping 90 dollars. Since two of the records were double-LPs, that made the price much more than I usually spend on vinyl. (Usually, I spend about 25 dollars a month on books and vinyl because I like to eat food on a daily basis and have a roof over my head.) Given that I received some wonderful news on Friday about something I can't quite address publicly yet (it involves me working a regular schedule for the first time in sixteen months), I figured, why the hell not?

I came home happy, but I couldn't stop thinking about another store in town that also participates in RSD. When they opened their doors a few hours after most of the other stores opened, I dropped in to see what was available. At a few minutes after they unlocked their doors, the scene was like throwing scraps to a kennel filled with hungry dogs. This place had much less stock and none of the other releases I wanted to check out.

Getting back home, I marveled at the vinyl I got. The Braid 12-inch was on clear vinyl while the other two were on brown marble swirl. I'd say this was worth doing, but I am OK with not stepping into a record store again for a few days. To help fight the temptation, I spent the rest of the day on a golf course. Surrounded by great company and playing in gorgeous weather, I had a wonderful 4/20.

As for next year's Record Store Day, all bets are off, but if they have a few things I'd really like, I'm willing to do this all over again.

For You

Last year, while I watched the Revival Tour for the first time, I noticed the guy playing the first solo set of the night. I didn't know if he was local or not, but I certainly remembered his curly hair. A week later, I saw him at LaGrange and introduced myself. The guy's name was Corey Howe. Not much later, I interviewed the band for My First Show.

Now with their debut record coming out this week, I wrote a story on the path they've taken to get there. Definitely was a fun one to write. I hope it's a fun one to read.

Don't Talk to Strangers

My introduction to Rick Springfield was not through General Hospital or hearing "Jessie's Girl" on the radio. It was Chipmunk Rock, an album mostly made of of cover songs with Alvin and the Chipmunks. While I can't really stomach Alvin, Simon, and Theodore's version of "Jessie's Girl" these days, there were roots laid in my mind. The same went with many of the other songs on the album, like "Take a Chance on Me," "Whip It," "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," and "Leader of the Pack." That's the kind of stuff I went on since we didn't have MTV in our household until 1987.

I've heard the original "Jessie's Girl" many, many times in my lifetime and I still enjoy it. Yet thinking there was anything more to Rick Springfield was not really on my mind until recently.

I had seen the Behind the Music episode on Rick a few times and I knew he had a very frank memoir out on in bookstores called Late, Late At Night. I thought of him as a pop star trying to retain his rocker image. This desire was not too far off from Rod Stewart, believe it or not. A song like "Don't Talk to Strangers" doesn't really rock, but I still like the chorus.

Leave it to Dave Grohl with showing me how much more Rick Springfield is as an artist. Yes, an artist.

In Grohl's documentary, Sound City, a number of other hits besides "Jessie's Girl" are featured. "I Get Excited," "I've Done Everything for You," and "Love is Alright Tonite" came to my attention, making me way more interested in Rick, beyond what I had heard before.

Giving a listen to the Essential Rick Springfield, I can't tell if Rick wants to be Sammy Hagar or David Cassidy. Maybe that's the thing that's plagued him for his entire career. When you're too good-looking to be a rocker but too rocking for a pop crowd, one end of the spectrum is gonna win over the other one, depending on the song.

I recently read Late, Late At Night and found it pretty open and honest. He makes no bones about his life-long battle with depression and sex addiction. Not exactly dinner-table conversation, but his songs make more sense to me after reading the book. Not many memoirs are this blunt.

I've already begun my hunt for my favorite LPs at the local record stores. I found Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet and I hope to see Working Class Dog soon. Those are two that I consider "essential" and his other records are not too tempting for me. Something clicked perfectly on those two records and I'd like to dig into the other non-single tracks.

Funny how this journey started with an Alvin and the Chipmunks cover. I hope to meet somebody someday who got into Modest Mouse because of Kidz Bop.

Take the Long Way Home

When I first heard a Supertramp song, I thought there was irony in where I heard it. Featured on the thirteen-song Magnolia soundtrack, "Goodbye Stranger" and "The Logical Song" seemed out of place between the low key pop songs by Aimee Mann. It was like a couple of Bat Out of Hell songs from Meat Loaf were featured on a compilation dominated by Clouds-era Joni Mitchell. As in, bombastic, multi-layered songs tacked on a collection of moody, Sunday morning songs.

Plus the band had a silly name. Supertramp? Really?

With the insanely-high vocals and jazzy beats of "Goodbye Stranger," I passed off the song as a product of excessive late 70s/early 80s production aiming for the same audience that made Styx and REO Speedwagon household names.

Well, I still feel that way about the band, but after hearing "Take the Long Way Home" a few times, I've decided I need to invest a lot more time into this band's catalog. Given how much I love Ben Folds' sense of pop melody and songwriting, Supertramp sounds like the bridge between Elton John and Ben Folds. And Steely Dan. And Todd Rundgren. And, to a small degree, Air Supply. All artists I un-ironically love. Yes, I love Air Supply.

In other words, I have a lot of Supertramp music I need to listen to.

Just this morning, I took a listen again to "Take the Long Way Home" as one of Jenny's favorite iTunes playlists was on shuffle. The song's pre-chorus really grabbed me and I wanted to hear it again and again. So I later took a listen to Matt's copy of  Breakfast in America on vinyl. Already I'm in love with the aforementioned "Take the Long Way Home," but also "Just Another Nervous Wreck." It's like Burt Bacharach interpreted for a Broadway musical. And that's something I can dive head-first into.

Still, with a silly name like Supertramp, I should put the music on and not care about the band's image or album covers. I should just enjoy the tunes.