A Few Pints is a segment where we meet up with our favorite bands at a local bar, buy them a few beers, and hope they reveal the keys to longevity, wealth, fame, and the secrets of the universe…or we just bullshit with them for a while about their band, what they love, and what they are currently up to. Good times and free beer for them.

Big Hurry is a local Pittsburgh band that’s been described as “the Smiths having a street fight with Pat Benatar in the year 4000.” Now I know a thing or three about street fights and Pat Benetar, but the year 4000 sounds crazy to me and I couldn’t rightfully say what it’s going to be like. Probably filled with zombies. Big Hurry could totally fend of zombies. Anyway they’ve released a solid debut EP called Silver Screens and are preparing for their debut full length released sometime this winter. They’re veterans of the Pittsburgh scene, put on a great live show, have held their own on the East Coast, and even have two amazing music videos to their name. These guys are the real deal and a lot of fun to hang out with. Last Sunday, they were gracious enough to sit down with us at Silky’s in Bloomfield for some early evening pitchers and chicken fingers. Draw Us Lines was lucky enough to snag 75 % of the band that night and here’s what Dani, Kelly, and Lenny had to say:

…And we’re live. Here we go.

All : Ohhh nooooo. Shit. Queesstionnnsss!

We’re going to start off with the basics here. Tell us about the history of the band, where did you guys come from, how did you guys get together

Dani Buncher – Hi I’m Dani. I play drums. This is basically how Big Hurry started, from my perspective. I moved to Pittsburgh from New York and was looking for some new band mates to start a project with. I went on craigslist and posted myself as a sexy, young…I mean as a single female… drummer…Again, I mean I posted a few entries as a drummer looking for some band mates. In that time, Andy, our current guitar player found my ads and wrote me and that’s how we connected. What’s really funny is that I posted several adds – some that said I was female, other’s I tried to talk like a dude would talk, and posted a bunch of others. Andy ended up writing to two or three of my ads. We connected and it ended up he lived like right behind me in Southside. Then Andy and Lenny found each other…

Lenny Flatley – Actually I also posted three adds on Craigslist and within a month, Andy answered all three of them. No really, I met Andy, and we hung out and he said, “Do you want to play guitar or bass”, and I said “Well since I play guitar I guess I’ll play bass” and he said “Since I play bass, I guess I’ll play guitar”

DB – That was an interesting coincidence since they also met on Craigslist but they ended up being from the same small town outside Erie and even went to the same high school.

That’s really weird.

LF – So we ended up playing together for like a year and ended up getting real tight together…

DB – And had a really hard time finding a singer. We auditioned a bunch of singers, had some friends come in, and Lenny actually worked with Kelly…at the museums.

Kelly Tobias – And I had just finished up playing with a band, like drunken house shows…like Motown…

At Pitt?

KT – Yes, at Pitt. Katie Geise and the Polygons. I think the MySpace is still active. And Lenny, didn’t even know that I sang and came up to me and said “Hey you sing? You don’t sound like Mariah Carey do you?” and I thought, “Who is this asshole?” and decided to try out ‘cause he pissed me off. I came to the first practice…

DB – And she was awesome. And she didn’t sound anything like Mariah Carey

LF – Or she sounded exactly like Mariah Carey. Once she hit the fifth octave over middle C she was in.

KT – Yeah, once I shattered glass.

DB – Once Kelly came in …it just felt right. At that point, we finally had what we needed. We ended up working really well together. We’re all super neurotic…

KT – Says you!

DB – Yeah, she’s right. I am the neurotic one in the band. But yeah, that’s basically the story of Big Hurry. Roughly. Insert whatever cool funny parts you can in there.

And what was the year? 2008 or 2009…?

DB – Yes. 2008.

LF – Yeah, our first show was a democratic fundraising thing for Obama.

KT – …An Obam-a-thon.

And you were Big Hurry then?

DB – Yeah, basically. We had a few other names that we won’t mention here. We actually wanted to go by Wilkosz, since that’s Andy’s last name, but then we found out there’s already a band called Wilco, so that one was out…

Since we covered how you guys formed, can you tell us a little bit about what you all do during the day? Do you have day jobs? How does that work?

KT – Well, I work for a non-profit in the Southside. It’s a development and civic leadership organization.

LF – I already answered this before. Do I have to do it again?

Yes. Yes you do. Now.

LF – Ok. I’m a professional writer. You may have heard of Engadget.com – I’m a contributing editor. I also run a small publishing house called Barbary Shore . It’s mostly erotic fiction and Star Trek fan fiction. Erotic in nature [laughs]… No not really. Short novels and poetry from local writers.

DB – I spent the past several years working in the music industry. I was in New York working for a few labels out there and came back to Pittsburgh and started working with Rostrum Records, label of Wiz Khalifa and Donora, and I ended up working there for about 2 years. Recently I made the decision to pursue music as a full time job, which is super exciting but also challenging. So I spend my daytime teaching drum lessons, I also work as a dog handler, which is super fulfilling in a weird way, but also working in as many side projects as I can. And Andy, since he’s not here, is actually a chemical engineer with U.S. Steel.

Ha. So are we. Chemical engineers, that is…

DB – Woah. Well you guys should all, like, hangout and do engineering things.

That’s a horrible idea.

DB – But, Andy is also really good and explaining things to us. Not like complicated things, but more like, how things work.

KT – Like…how lightning works. He also installed a chandelier at my apartment this morning.

I wish Andy were here right now.

DB – He’s the smartest one in the band, for sure.

And that’s exactly why he’s not here right now. .. So, we think you guys have a pretty recognizable sound. Are there inspirations you’re pulling from? Did you sit down and say, “Hey, this is what we want to sound like.”

LF – No, not at all. I think it’s just really an accident on how our styles interact with each other. There’s absolutely no common thread on what we like or listen to. Every time we try to premeditate a song, it usually ends in disaster. I think we are all very confident with our instruments and we write songs very democratically.

What do you mean by “democratically”?

LF – Very rarely does someone present a completed song. Maybe we did before and it turned out like shit.

DB – Usually it works like Andy will come to us with some guitar riff that he’s been messing around with and we’ll jam on it for a while. I’ll come in with a drumbeat, and Lenny will have a bass line. A lot of times the three of them, Lenny, Kelly, and Andy, will work on an idea for a while, but then that idea usually changes dramatically and quickly. We all help each other write, for sure.

KT – It’s actually like nothing I’ve ever been a part of. It’s so collaborative that there’s no way it should work.

DB – Yeah. it’s awesome.

There isn’t one songwriter then?

DB – No. We’re all equal songwriters. Kelly always writes the melodies and lyrics, but she’s a big part of the structure and changes. We stay within our instruments, but we all work on song structure together.

KT – But, I just got a xylophone, so I think everything is going to change…

DB – Yeah, Kelly’s a bit of a bitch [laughs].

So you didn’t actually answer the question, but that’s ok. That was a lot of good stuff.

LF – Oh shit. Well…

What made you play guitar? What did you want to sound like?

LF – The Clash. Yep. That’s my band. And I do feel like…I mean there are definitely antecedents, I think there are things that we sound like, but they came after the fact. We haven’t tried to sound like anybody in particular.

KT – We all have such varying musical tastes…

DB – My style of playing is, well….I try to play the drums very musically. I pull a lot of stuff from my experience in marching in drum lines. Listening to all the different bass drums and all the different snare drums and how they fit together… Like musical sections. I take a lot from that. And when we’re on stage, we march a lot.

Kelly, what about your vocals?

KT – I traditionally listen to a lot of classic rock, some Ethel Merman [laughs]…No…any kind of singer songwriter type things. I’m a big Aimee Mann fan. I’m a big folk fan… Aad then like angry 90’s boy music.

LF – Well you guys are the bloggers, who do you think we sound like?

…that’s not part of the interview. No really, we think you guys have a very unique sound especially for the Pittsburgh scene. Blake thinks you guy should be the background music to intense movie chase scenes.

DB – Well if you guys know anyone, we’re there. Done.

So we’re going to switch gears now and talk about the Silver Screen EP. That was your first official release?

LF – Prior to releasing the EP, we recorded three songs as, like, demos. And it was really the greatest thing. I don’t know if you’ve ever come home drunk and watched televangelist on cable access like I have, but you know how they have the Altar call. You know, like “Come up to the altar to be saved!” Well Kelly would be like, “Come up to the stage if you want a free CD!” Everybody would start running up. I’ve never seen anything like that. Well that became the basis of our EP and then we recorded three more songs to put on there.

DB – And we released that October 17, 2009.

So your first show was in September of 2008. Was that all recording and songwriting time in between?

DB – Pretty soon after we got Kelly in the band, we jumped right into shows. We all think that you don’t know how the band is going to work until you start playing out. Our third show ever was at Mr. Smalls and we were totally not prepared for that. We were definitely in over our heads for that one. We played for a ton of people and learned a ton …like getting our merch ready, and having enough songs, and where the fuck MIllvale is. We didn’t really have plans to record the EP until…when…

LF – Well I think it was Scott Simons,who was a local singer songwriter and friend of ours, he recorded our first three songs for us. He really pushed us to record more and have stuff ready for him.

DB – We actually had a fifth member for a while that was just synths and he was a totally amazing player but then left the band on very mutual friendly terms and we decided to stick as a 4 piece. So around that time, we started writing a bit differently. Then we decided to stick with it and record more songs and “Ok, lets do this EP”…And we were tired of playing shows with nothing to sell. That’s pretty awful.

Was it a pretty quick time from recording to putting the album out?

DB – Our first one was pretty quick. We did that in Andy’s attic and they are all pretty much demos. We recorded half of the songs at ID Labs and Scott was a big part of that. Andy’s attic is our rehearsal space, we recorded it, and then we had it professional mixed. We laugh because we are currently recording and it’s taking a lot longer.

And what about the remix album? What was the motivation behind that?

LF – That was all me. Well Dani left town for 2 months to play drums for Jenny Owens Young so we were kind of at a standstill.

DB – I went out with her for a few weeks on tour and during that time Lenny created the album of remixes.

KT – And I made a life-size sculpture out of chewing gum!

So it was just your own motivation.

LF – Well that’s what I do all day. Play with music and remix stuff and I thought the songs lent themselves to reinterpretation. I like doing that kind of thing. I had been playing around with stuff as soon as we had started tracking it, so putting it all together didn’t take too long at all. I had several mixes for each and picked the ones that I thought were faithful to the actual recordings.

So, we’re pretty new to the Pittsburgh music scene. We were a bit oblivious to it when we were in Oakland. I personally lived in the library for four years. So we are now getting into the scene and it’s very evident that there’s a support structure in place. Bands see each other’s shows, help each other out, play in other projects together. What are your feelings on that? Are we on the mark? Are we way off?

DB – No. There are definitely a lot of bands that are tight knit and you always see the same groups of people at shows and they are there because they genuinely enjoy the music. As a general rule, the scene is very welcoming to new bands. I mean we didn’t know anyone, but we didn’t have to book any shows really. Bands were coming to us and helping us get shows and putting us on bills. Nik Westman, probably one of the most welcoming musicians in the scene. We played a lot of shows with him and when we first started and he would always ask us to play and put us in a good slot so we could get in front of people. And yeah, we’ve tried to do the same. There’s lot of cool stuff happening here music-wise.

KT – Dani moonlights playing drums for The Justin Andrew Band.

DB – That’s right. We met him through his sound work at Brillobox. Awesome guy.

LF – Yeah. Awesome dude.

KT – And he does a very special cover of “Save Your Breath”…

How flattering is that?

DB – I think it would be more flattering if I weren’t in his band….

[laughs] So the music videos you guys have online. They’re unbelievably professional. They’re head and shoulders above other local indie band videos (no offense to other local indie bands). Where did those come from?

DB – My brother is a professional filmmaker [Ed.Adam Buncher]. He does music videos, makes commercials, edits, does sound…that’s his job. He did a lot of stuff for Rostrum Records, but obviously having him in the family is very beneficial. We can be like “Hey Adam…can we do this, we can’t pay you much, but would you mind coming down?” He always has great ideas and it’s fun. It’s not everyday that I get to work with my brother. He directs them and he also edits them. We’re very lucky that he’s so talented and can get a professional looking product. They’ve served us well. The first video we shot…we shot it when we shouldn’t have been shooting a video.

KT – We didn’t even have a CD out yet.

You’re talking about the “Save Your Breath” video? That’s our favorite of the two.

DB – It was interesting because my brother had a cool idea that he wanted to try and he needed bands to experiment with, so that’s where we came in. We shot the whole thing in front of a green screen and the thing that was kind of cool was that my brother did all the editing and really wanted to give it a live feel, but every shot was a solo shot. Like there weren’t any shots of the whole band. Just cuts of individuals…it wasn’t a big room. But he made it look live when really Andy was standing there playing guitar by himself for three hours.

Was there a big difference in that experience compared to the Silver Screens video? Was that also your brother’s idea? Did you guys go to him and say “Hey, this is what we want to do”.

DB – With my brother, it’s nice because we can collaborate with him. He’s doing this for us, so he wants us to be happy with the end product. We’re usually all on the same page. With “Silver Screens”, we knew what we didn’t want to do because we wanted to be different than” Save Your Breath”. Whole band shots and use it as a tool for us. We can get a lot more use out of the second one because of the ground we gained from the first video. Kelly had a lot to do with the design ideas. Kelly and I…well, Kelly designed the whole set for the most part.

KT – It was basically all the junk and weird shit I had in my apartment

LF – [laughs]Ever see Sanford and Son? It was based on that…actually the idea was that we wanted the song to be sort of haunted. Not a narrative video about ghosts…not Casper…

DB – We shot the whole thing in an empty warehouse and Kelly is actually an amazing artist, so a lot of her artwork is actually in the video. She actually did the artwork for out EP and silkscreened everything at AIR…

Something that’s really easy to see in both of the videos are the Pittsburgh references, specifically the plugs for Iron City.

LF – We’re actually waiting for them to call us [laughs]…it’s just a very iconic thing and we had some beer lying around.

We also noticed the Three Rivers Regatta T-Shirt that Andy is wearing…

DB – There’s actually a third reference in that video. The bass drum has a silkscreened print of the incline on it that Kelly did.

So that’s part of the band mentality.? Your Pittsburgh pride?

LF – I tell everyone that we are from Montreal…

DB – [laughs]I think it’s very important for us to be Pittsburgh –centric.

KT – Yeah. The scene here is super encouraging and very special…music and art. It’s not the New York scene or maybe it’s not totally cutting edge but it’s really special and interesting and one-of-a-kind. I love seeing art openings here. Pittsburgh may be the most livable city, but just because you live somewhere nice doesn’t mean it has art and music and culture. Luckily, that’s a huge part of what Pittsburgh is and we love it. If you want to be serious artist, it’s really hard to live in New York or LA if you don’t have a trust fund. It’s so hard.

DB – Totally. Pittsburgh is a great place to live if you want to be in a band and be part of a music scene. But, there’s still something about Pittsburgh….I don’t know…that some people think there isn’t anything happening in Pittsburgh. Like they grew up here and they are anti-culture or they just don’t know where it is. When I came back it took me little while to find the scene and play out and meet people, but then I realized it’s a very live scene here and people just need to find out where it is.

And that’s why we’re here.

KT – Yaayyy!

What’s the touring been like this summer? Have you played a lot of shows and traveled a lot?

DB – We took a lot of time off during May and June. Our guitar player, Andy, got married.

Congrats Andy.

DB – Typically we try to do a few runs a month, like extended weekends every month. We’ve played Boston, Providence, Philly, New York, West Virginia…right now we are in a really cool place demographically. We’re within 7 hours of every major city on the East Coast, which is really convenient.

What are the logistics behind the touring? You guys take some time off and cram into a van?

DB – We all have pretty flexible jobs…

KT – Usually it’s like a Friday or Saturday thing. Weekends. It’s not impossible to take a half-day and pile into the fan.

DB – We’re obviously self-managed, self-booking, everything. We do it all ourselves. I do a lot of the booking. Lenny does too. Lenny is actually the mascot of the band. He brings us up when we’re down. Like “This song sucks, but the others are awesome”, or, “You totally look awesome in that shirt”. Lenny is the pep talk man…but, I think we offended him…

LF – I’m just not neurotic like Dani is. What’s Andy good at?

Being awesome.

DB – Yeah. Seriously.

LF – This interview is totally going to be like “Andy Wilkosz and some other guys”.

So what’s the deal with the upcoming show at Howler’s on the 13th? Give us the details.

DB – Ok, so there’s been a small change. It was supposed to be with Small Cities and Triggers, but Small Cities had to back out. Right now it’s just us and Triggers but we’ll announce a third band soon. [Ed. At the time of publishing, Pet Clinic has been announced as the third band on August 13 @ Howlers.]

KT – If there isn’t a third band, then I’m going to tap dance…naked? No. I’m just going to tap dance.

DB – And I’ll beat box. We basically have an awesome live show that you have to see.

LF – And we’re going to have some new songs to play.

Let’s talk about that new material for a second. How long have you guys been recording for?

DB – We’ve been recording for a while. Before I left to go on tour with Jenny Owens Young, I recorded a bunch of drum tracks. The intent was that they would work on some songs while I was away. That was almost a year ago now. When I came back and we went through some of the songs…

LF – It was kind of like a self imposed period of writing for us. Writing, recording and evaluating. Some of the songs we recorded weren’t representative of us. We dropped a few and then we recently wrote a few more that will make the cut. We have this luxury of time that some bands can’t afford. Really just spending time on them.

DB – Basically we are incredibly wealthy. [laughs]

LF – We have a seven song album on the way.

Seven new songs…and what’s the timeline on that release?

LF – Right now, November. So we’ve been basically recording for a year. We recorded some songs, dropped some songs, and recorded some more. And we’re playing pretty much all the songs live. We’ve just been living with the songs for a while now.

DB – The tentative release is November…late fall, early winter. Something like that.

Do you find yourself in a different place now then when you recorded Silver Screens?

LF – I think we are still definitely honing our sound. Like we really throw everything against the wall and see what sticks. Finding what we are comfortable with and cutting off the chaff…can I mix any more metaphors? No, I think…there are some things now that we would never play that were in our set list for over a year. We’re really good at knowing what makes us unique. We don’t want to buttonhole ourselves.

DB – Keep in mind that our first EP, three of those songs were made very quickly. Our sound has changed a lot. If you listen to the EP you can even tell which songs sound different form the others. We are still trying to establish our sound, but I think we have a better understanding musically of what works and what makes us unique. That’s another reason why the earlier songs we tracked for this new release we’ve thrown out…we played them out live and realized they didn’t’ work.

What can we expect from Big Hurry in the fall and winter? More shows?

DB – Definitely want to tour more and play more shows. I don’t think anything’s going to change structurally within the band and we’re going to go about shows the same way. Hopefully we can meet some more people and help some bands along the way and find more bands we like to play with. …And we’re going to come out with our own TAG body spray. It’ll smell like our van…

Mmmmmm

LF- Lindsay Lohan has her own scent. Why don’t we have our own scent?

KT – I think ours would smell like Iron City…

DB – ..Mixed with “van”.

KT – Yeah. Iron City mixed with “van”

And Andy…just distill Andy.

KT – Andy smells great. He actually smells a lot like metal.

Like “hardcore” metal or smelting metal? Like he’s a welder?

LF – He’s a space age polymer. Andy is what they put on the space shuttle so the sun doesn’t burn it up.

Andy actually IS the space shuttle.

DB – Andy is what they make the black boxes out of on airplanes. He’s indestructible.

– –

Thanks again to the Big Hurry gang for having a blast with us. We’re still sorry Andy the Black Box couldn’t make it out. Check out their blog, myspace, and definitely hit up the August 13th Show @ Howlers in Bloomfield. DUL will definitely be there. Woo

Filed under: Homegrown Goodness, Interviews