I was born in New York City, my family lived around DC for a while, and
right around when I turned 4 we moved up to just outside of Burlington,
Vermont where we lived for the rest of my growing-up. Burlington is the
biggest city in Vermont, but that's not really saying much in terms of size.
It's a great place though -- a college town (with all the arts-friendly,
liberal-leaning vibe that implies) by a lake in a rural state.

2. WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST MUSICAL MEMORY?

My dad was always singing to my brother and I. Back in DC, when I was about
3 or so, we used to have a porch swing & my dad, my brother and I used to
sit out on the swing at night and my dad would sing to us and play this
tenor guitar.

3. WHAT WAS THE FIRST RECORD YOU OWNED?

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five -- "Greatest Message's" [sic]. My
friend David Fishell and I split the cost and sort of co-owned it, but it
stayed at my house. We were into breakdancing -- an entirely removed,
suburban fascination, culled from movies, magazines and books -- and I think
I had read about Grandmaster Flash somewhere.

Although I'd come up with old show tunes, folk songs, and Gilbert &
Sullivan, my first personal musical discovery was rap: I think RUN-DMC's
first album was my next purchase, soon followed by cassettes of Whodini,
Kurtis Blow, etc. Luckily we had WRUV, the local college radio station,
playing all that stuff.

I'm still amazed and fascinated by rap -- to have heard the development from
those first guys to the modern day shit just blows my mind.

4. WHEN AND WHERE WAS YOUR FIRST PERFORMANCE?

I never really think of any show as my first, per se. My brother and I used
to play music a lot as kids, right on up through doing school plays,
concerts, talent shows, etc. In terms of solo performances though, after
high school I started playing at open mics around town, and I suppose my
first proper show would have been at a collectively-run coffeehouse in
Burlington called the Last Elm Cafe (now long gone), probably around 1991 or
so.

5. WHO IS THE SINGLE BIGGEST MUSICAL INFLUENCE ON YOUR WORK?

I'm always aware at this point that I could claim a lot of cool influences,
but honestly, I'd have to say my older brother. He was much more musically
precocious than me, and continues to be a much more accomplished and
advanced musician, both technically and creatively. He started writing songs
at a very young age, right up through high school and college. He was my
first up-close exposure to someone writing great songs. These days he's much
more of a legit musician, teaching piano in schools, playing in jazz groups,
etc. but I guess I'm still trying to live up to what he was doing when he
was 16.

6. WHAT IS THE MOST MEMORABLE CONCERT YOU'VE ATTENDED?

That's hard to say. I can't really pin down one. To say it's the most
memorable wouldn't necessarily mean it was my favorite or the most
important. I think the most influential shows I saw were friends' bands in
Burlington. It's amazing to have your friends be your own personal rock
stars. It also makes it much easier to imagine yourself doing what they're
doing -- it's much more inspiring.

I've been to a couple memorable shows over the last few years though. A
friend of mine had an extra ticket to see one of the first concerts of the
music from O Brother Where Art Thou at Carnegie Hall. It was a big deal: The
Coen Brothers were there, a friend of mine spotted Lou Reed & Laurie
Anderson. It was my first time at Carnegie Hall, which is a fucking immense,
unreal place. We sat way up in the front of the highest balcony and
*everyone* from the soundtrack was there -- I'd expected maybe Gillian
Welch, but everyone from Emmylou to Ralph Stanley was there, except John
Hartford, who'd recently died. He had been scheduled to MC the thing, so
taking his place was Elvis Costello. The music was unbelievable. It took me
about 5 minutes after sitting down to start crying my eyes out and I didn't
stop til the thing was over. I think I probably freaked out the friend who
brought me.

The other most memorable concert I saw was The Fall, here in New York City,
apparently some famous show just before they broke up. I'd actually never
heard them before and some friends talked me into going. The place was
really cramped, I'd paid 15 bucks and was thinking shit, these jokers had
better be good. So the band comes out, Mark E. Smith doesn't, and they play
a couple songs without him before he stumbles out onstage. He takes one mic,
pushes another into the audience where it proceeds to surf around from hand
to hand, providing a running commentary from the crowd. He's totally
incomprehensible & belligerent, picking fights with his band members,
sitting down on the stage. Total chaos. I remember realizing "wow, I've
heard about shit like this before and I guess I'm sort of witnessing
something, but in reality it's not all that interesting and this band sucks.
I'd rather be hearing about this tomorrow and still have 15 bucks."

7. WHAT IS THE WORST JOB YOU'VE EVER HAD?

I'd have to say it's a toss-up between working all day in a dumpster in the
pouring rain and sealing bacon into plastic bags in a big refrigerated room.
I must admit though, I kinda got a strange kick out of both of those, seeing
as they were so abject as to be comical.

8. WHAT IS THE BEST JOB YOU'VE EVER HAD?

You know, I just went back to Burlington for awhile and worked my old
coffeeshop job & was reminded that it was the greatest job I ever had. Okay,
toss-up between that and my old record store job.

9. WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE ARTIST (ALL MEDIA)?

I'm not sure. This is kind of a ridiculous question. I always feel kind of
stupid when responding to these best-of questions because best-ofs aren't
the way people's lives work. It's not like "well, my Mom is #1, eating
peanut butter is #2, and "In My Life" by John Lennon is the greatest song of
the 20th century."

So let me take this space to say that I greatly admire the work of James
Kochalka. He's not only an amazingly prolific rockstar, but an
underground-comics svengali with daily strips posted at
http://www.americanelf.com

10. WHAT IS YOUR ALL-TIME FAVOURITE BOOK

The Bible, okay? Definately #1.

No, I don't know. I don't have favorites. I'm on a good reading jag these
days though. I recently read Joan Didion's The White Album, I'm mostly
through the Nick Tosches Reader, and I'm working my way through a big book
called "Folk Songs of England & Ireland".

11. WHICH IS YOUR FAVOURITE INSTRUMENT?

Right now it's the piano. I just figured out how to play "Nobody" off Tom
Waits' Nighthawks at the Diner album and I feel like a freaking genius.

12. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SONG YOU'VE WRITTEN?

Recently, it's a little ditty I made up to the tune of "Frere Jacques",
about George W Bush's press secretary, Ari Fleischer. It goes:

Ari Fleischer, Ari Fleischer
You're so smug, you're so smug
Fuck you Ari Fleischer, Fuck you Ari Fleischer
You're so smug, you're so smug

13. WHAT IS THE FAVOURITE SONG SOMEONE ELSE HAS WRITTEN?

Anything by James Kochalka and his band, James Kochalka Superstar.

14. HAVE YOU EVER COLLABORATED IN SONGWRITING?

Hardly at all. Recently though, I collaborated on a Christmas song with my
friend Brett Hughes, who sings with me in a duet project called The
Whateverly Brothers.

15. CAN SONGWRITING BE TAUGHT OR IS IT A GOD-GIVEN TALENT?

Jesus, any blowhard with enough self-delusion can squeeze out a song. I
mean, look at Rob Thomas. The guy is lousy with songs. I truly believe it
helps to be stupid. I mean, you can walk on burning coals if you're stupid
enough to try, right? So writing songs oughta be cake.

16. WHAT SINGLE THING HAS HELPED YOU MOST IN YOUR CAREER?

I wouldn't call it a career, but I'm starting to realize over time that
despite my laziness and lack of initiative, I've managed to continue forging
ahead with music for a pretty long time now. So I'd say a combination of
laziness coupled with a refusal to pursue any other career, fueled by
narcissism and maintained by a characteristic Taurean stubborness.

17. WHAT SINGLE THING HAS HINDERED YOUR CAREER?

I read it on the liner notes of a CD somewhere, something like: "Time was, a
band could walk into the offices of a record label with nothing but their
youth and maybe a few songs, and get an honest shot at being signed," or
something like that. I read all these music biographies about the 60's in
which some kids have a band and suddenly hey, in walks this guy who thinks
they're fab, next thing you know they've got a manager, a recording budget
and a string of dates opening up for Linda Ronstadt.

These days it seems like a musician is about the lowest thing you can be. I
was in a guitar store and struck up a conversation with a guy was interested
in hiring my cover band for a party or something. He asked me how much we
charged, so I started naming prices and the guy between the counter just
shook his head and said "Man, that's what I used to get for playing music 30
years ago."

I mean, these days the soundguy and the guy taking out the trash in the club
are doing better than you -- at least they're sure they're gonna get paid.
These days, it's like someone is doing you a favor to let you line up to
have a 40-minute spot at their shitty club and drink 1/2 price domestics.

So I don't know, whatever the thing is that makes things that way, that's
the thing that's most hindered my career.

18. WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE DRINK?

I'm usually partial to Sauza on the rocks with a touch of Rose's Lime Juice,
but these days I'm not drinking, so I'll have to say coffee.

19. WHO'S YOUR FAVOURITE POLITICIAN?

I'd have to say a toss-up between Michael Moore and Bill Hicks.

20.( THE ADVERT) IN LESS THAN 100 WORDS DESCRIBE YOUR LATEST DISC.

The best endorsement that I've gotten recently has been from a fellow
musician-type from my hometown, who told me about a day where he hung out at
a local bar I mention in a song, then later found himself at home watching
movies on TV, which is also mentioned in the same line of the same song and
he thought "D'oh! That bastard got my life, and in one line!"