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(Spring 2004) by George Dionne
It didn’t take long for the Massachusettes based band Waltham to dominate
the local music scene with their modern take on eighties rock music. The
band not only knows how to get the crowd going with their high-energy rhythm
section, but their not afraid to share their feelings about love and relationships,
love, and former flames in their lyrics. I’m sure that doesn’t
hurt with the ladies either. Now that the local scene is conquered, Waltham
is slowly making wave thoughout the U.S. thanks in part to their debut CD
Permission to Build. (read
CD review)
RIL: How long has Waltham been together?
FP: It's been together since 1999
RIL: Before that, weren't you known as Dirty Larry?
FP: Members of Waltham made up Dirty Larry, we just
changed over one time. There was one gig where we said we were going to try
something new. We
always pulled a lot of gags on our audience, and after a while it came
to bite us in the ass. So in the middle of one of our sets we decided to
play a 'Waltham' song; something we had been working on. We just wanted
to see how they would react ot one of the bits we were working on. We played "Maria" and
the audience just changed, it smelled a little different, you know? We
thought, 'hey, this is working'. So that was that.
RIL: Why the name Waltham?
FP: It was between two names actually. My brother and I tossed the idea around
a bit and thought, why should we come up with a name that represented the
sound or something like that. With Waltham, there's no pretense to it.
It doesn't mean anything, other than people that are from Massachusetts
or New England. If someone says, 'why did you name you're band Waltham,
that sucks', I say look, we take words for granted. I'm sure that for someone
in Texas the word Braintree seems like a weird sounding name, but to us
it's no biggie. When people hear the name of tha band outside of the area,
they relate it to a certain sound. Everytime someone hears the name Waltham
that's familiar with us, they relate it to this big, over-the-top show
given to them by five guys who have no problem admitting that their huge
Rick Springfield fans. I mean, Tool would be a really stupid name if they
sucked.
RIL: Is anyone actually from Waltham?
FP: Yes. Everybody in the band has to have something to do with Waltham or
they can't be in it. We'd be phonies. Three of us were born and raised
in Waltham, and then there are two members that are in tight with people
that grew up in Waltham.
RIL: For the most part, Waltham is a popular local band here in the Boston
area and you have a CD on a small indie label, yet the band has been featured
on MTV's You Heard it First, your songs have appeared on Fox Sports, and
your soon to be appearing in an upcoming Disney movie entitled, America's
Heart and Soul. Did you ever think that Waltham would get to this level of
success?
FP: Yes. Absolutely. Our goals were so high that I thought wherever we end
up, it would be a hell of a lot further than if we set small goals. It sounds
kind of lame, but I want to own Waltham the town. I want to be the Mayor.
My brother used to joke around that we needed to get so big that we can put
a great wall around Waltham. The Great Wall-tham. Then we could build a moat
so no one could get in unless we wanted them to. It's a passion of ours to
bust our balls to get what we want. The one thing that's nice is all the
attention we recieved, they came to us. We didn't set anything up. Anything
that happened wasbecause they called us.
RIL: I first heard about you on the MTV special. Later I saw a positive
review for Permission to Build, so I went to your website and listened to
your Mp3s. I have to tell you though; the Mp3s really don't do your album
justice. When I finally got the CD, it was so much better than the versions
on your site.
FP: I don't know why they did that. I thought that they were going to put
up some better quality stuff. On the Tracktor 7 site (record label) I think
that there are full, high quality Mp3s. I'm with ya, I've heard that a couple
of times. We do everything in-house around here, so someone's going to get
a swift kick in the nuts (laughs).
RIL: In most popualr rock music today there's a lot of anger, doom and gloom,
and raging against the system, however on your CD Permission to Build the
songs still rock, but they're more about emotions and relationships. Do you
think that's what's missing in today's rock music or is that what's important
to you?
FP: I think that most rock music today conveys the same stuff we do. I think
that we're saying it the way that everybody wants to say it, but just doesn't
have the sack to say it that way. We out ourselves on the line. There's stuff
I say lyrically that I think people may lay into me about. That's the stuff
that sticks though. There's probably a bunch of people in the audience that
are thinking the sme thing and I make it okay for them to say it. We're not
really doing anything different than other bands; it's just easier to put
on a macho facade. It's not easy to say that you're bummed out, you feel
like an idiot, you can't believe that you let her go, now your miserable
without her and want her back. It's easier to say fuck her, she's a bitch,
and I hope she dies. that's not going to get you anywhere. If you want to
sit there and complain, that's being a lot more of a sissy than what we do.
Unfortunatley our genre has been tainted with lots of criticisms that are
actually exact opposites. Of course using a genre that's of a different time
period, but I think that it's the only way that it can be delivered. It's
kind of funny to admitt when you're wrong. You don't have to sit there in
agony, you can just say you screwed up. People have said that we're tounge
and cheek, but it more of the fact that we don't take ourselves seriously.
That allows us to say more serious stuff and not feel stupid.
RIL: You have four songs on the CD named after women ("Cheryl", "Maria", "Nichole",
and “Laura"), are these current or ex-girlfriends?
FP: Those are former flames. All the songs are pretty
much about girls we know. Sometimes it gets us in trouble. We put everthing
down on paper and
record about what's going down, so sometimes the girls say, 'So, that's what
you meant by that comment; thanks alot you bastard!' All that stuff is real.
We don't write about anything or anyone we don't know. Those particular names
that you’re referring to, those were past flames.
RIL: Do people confuse Permission to Build with
The Darkness' Permission
to Land?
FP: I actually think that people confuse The Darkness, Permission
to Landwith Permission to Build. When we had come out, we had recieved so many e-mails
and phone calls saying 'can you believe that?' We said it was all good and
all. It's flattering for us, but no one regionally has said anything to us.
All of the records that were sold Internationally, we've seen comments about
the title. I had Permission to Build before they had Permission
to Land,
but to me it's just a crazy coincidence. I love that band. I think that they're
totally cool, and to have such parrallels with them, I can just say you can't
have Permission to Land unless you have Permission to Build.
RIL: Permission to Build is actually Waltham's second album, there was an
earlier one called The First Album, but there was a little controversy with
that one. What's the story?
FP: The controversy there, without management giving me a whole buch of shit,
was that when we first came out, there was such a buzz and everybody was
going nuts about us. We weren't used to that. The shows with Dirty Larry
didn't draw as much as the Waltham shows did. All these major record labels
where calling us and we were like 'holy shit'. They sent out producers to
try and change us around. At that point, Fred Durst was still relevant. People
didn't know he was a jackass yet. Some of us did, but not everybody. Our
music either had to go full pop boy band or it had to get a little harder.
At that point we decieded to do it ourselves. So we did everything in our
studio at home, and we used soundbites, which we thought were a great idea.
One of the particular soundbites that was at the end of The First Album,
we used a little more of it than we were allowed to. The press house called
us up and asked what the deal was. We said that it's kind of how we wanted
it. They said it was fine, but there might be legal ramifications. Then my
manager called me and said not to sell the CD anymore. So then we went to
re-record it, and that's why the current record is called Permission to Build.
There are four tracks on the first album that didn't make it to this one.
RIL: You've cited Rick Springfield as a major influence and it's reflected
in a lot of your songs. Are there any other groups that influenced you?
FP: As far as the band's sound, Rick Springfield is
the major influence. We were all bringing in little things here and there,
but as the sound evolved
it was more like eighties movie soundtracks. We did know who the artists
were that we heard, but we started digging them. I think it was guys like
John Farnum, Bill Contie,or Howard Jones, who scored the stuff from Better
Off Dead that really got us going. Other than that, just stuff that everybody
else likes that made up a good show; like Van Halen when Roth was in the
group, Cheap Trick, Kiss. You know, stuff that kind of made your jaw drop.
It like the feeling you might have if you could watch fireworks at a circus.
That's how I felt everytime I left a concert. Not to mention all the chicks
that I would see at these shows. We're huge music fans, but we're also huge
band fans. You know, like knowing each member’s name, each one has
their own personallity and characteristics that make up who they are. You
want to be that particular member.
RIL: Have you got to meet Rick Springfield?
FP: No, but recieved a lot of e-mails from Rick Springfield fans after they
saw the MTV thing. Somebody from his fan club sent out e-mails about us
which returned a whole bunch of hits [on our website]. People started buying
the record up and this and that. I think we made one attempt to contact
Rick Springfield because he's coming around on tour close by. It would
obvioulsy be glorious to play with him. I'd love tomeet him. We're still
trying to get a hold of him. I think he would be a cool guy. I'm sure he's
heard of us because he's pretty close to his fan base. It's not so much
Rick Springfield as it is the way he said stuff. The way he delivered stuff
was great. When it started to work on girls I thought, it's gotta be cool.
How many girls could be this wrong. We'll get a hold of that guy sooner
or later.
RIL: Have you covered any Rick Springfield tunes live?
FP: Oh yeah, "Love is Alright". Actually, we're thinking about
putting a cover version of that song on the next record. We've joked around
with "Jessie's Girl" way back when we didn't have many songs. People
would be like, 'okay, you guys listen to Rick Springfield much?'
RIL: Waltham just released a DVD entitled Permission to Film, what's featured
on it?
FP: It's a lot of stuff that I think people would get a chuckle out of, as
far as behind the scenes stuff; recording and filming videos. There's stuff
with us hanging out and partying. Nothing like, welcome to Waltham or that
sort of shit. It's like a scrapbook type of thing. A lot of people have a
misconception of the members of the band based on what they hear in the music.
It was nice to have the chance to make a DVD to show people who we are and
what we look like. We didn't want to do a DVD of interviews. It you don't
get it when you see it, and you don't get it when you hear it, then you're
not going to get it. We tried to make the most fun DVD that we could. It's
like the best crank call tape you can pass around to your friends.
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FRANK
PINO JR.
