Sugar and Spice and Everything Twice: Centro-matic Vs. South San Gabriel

Disagreements in bands occur oftenthis is undeniable. Some disagreementsend with the band splitting up. But in the case of Centro-Matic, a commonargument about the direction they were going spawned an additional projectcalled South San Gabriel. Will Johnsonsinger/songwriter of both bands,gave me the insight as to how and why it works for these Texas Natives.

The core members of Centro-Matic include Johnson, Matt Pence, MarkHedman and Scott Danbom-they have been together for over a decade.Eight years ago the band started playing tug o' war with different musical styles.Some members, such as Pence, were pulling for the rock n' roll sets, whileJohnson wanted a more spacious and subdued sound. The decision didn't endwith black eyes and broken guitars though, as Centro-Matic rounded up a fewmore members to create the laid back, mellow sound of South San Gabriel. SSGbecame the separate, collective band with a revolving door membership in place.

These days, SSG includes the four core members of Centro-Matic with theaddition of Matt Stoessel, Bryan VanDivier, Jeffrey Barnes, Robert Gomez,Buffi Jacobs, Tamara Cauble, David Pierce and James Driscoll. It variesfrom three members to sometimes nine, depending on who is around at the time.

"It takes a lot less people to make a lot more noise," Johnson says whencomparing the two. The four members of Centro-Matic create a sound that getspeople energized. It's got faster drumbeats and louder guitar made specifically toget the crowd dancing and clapping along. But that all changes when they are inSSG mode. The larger posse attracts attention equally, but with a subtle, hypnoticmethod. Johnson's simple, lyrically focused melodies come out more fluently inSS G, accompanied by a variety of instruments such as clarinet, saxophone, flute,cello, violin and trombone.

Fitting all of SS G and their instruments on a big stage would be difficult, fittingthem on a small stage would be almost impossible...almost. At one pointduring a SSG set at SXSW, the stage wasn't big enough for all the membersto fit. Johnson had a friend from Brooklyn playing that night and a friend fromDenton. "Neither of them had met each other. They looked up half way throughthe set and didn't even realize they were in the band together. It's that kind ofspontaneous risk that keeps things interesting," Johnson says.

The risk taking ideology comes from their roots in Texas. Johnson gets hisinspiration from the diverse geography and culture of what the locals call TheGolden Triangle, the area in between Denton, Dallas and Fort Worth. Theregion is a cool college town that is independent business friendly with a strongmusic community. The bands there are unpretentious instead of competitive.They all work together and learn from each other by collaboration and support.Risk in The Golden Triangle is encouraged and celebrated.

Inspiration for creating music also comes from traveling. Johnson refers to thisas "soaking up the life juice and refueling." Whether it's the small, solitary tripshe takes where he writes for four days straight, or on tour with the band, he findsideas for his two bands in other cities, and other cultures. When not on tour, themembers reside all over the statesome live in Denton, some in Dallas andothers in Austin. Johnson believes the distance between the members has a lotto do with their ability to work as a team. Without the pressure of constantly beingtogether, practicing and recording, there are less disagreements that could sparkanother project or end the current two. "When we're on, we're truly on. Whenwe're off, everyone kind of scatters...it keeps it good, it seems to streamline theefficiency," he says.

Page:  [1]  2  Next >>

 

Comments on this article

Be the first to comment!

 

Add a comment

Please keep your comments on the subject of the article.
We will delete your comment if it is racist, misogynistic, sexist, bigoted or just plain lame.
No HTML allowed!

Your name
Your email	(Your email address will not be displayed)
Comments

Enter the text shown in the box below (not case sensitive):