{"id":2289,"date":"2018-06-20T15:57:31","date_gmt":"2018-06-20T19:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=2289"},"modified":"2018-06-22T13:34:20","modified_gmt":"2018-06-22T17:34:20","slug":"interview-the-mighty-mighty-bosstones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2018\/06\/20\/interview-the-mighty-mighty-bosstones\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"WTBU
WTBU DJs Zoe Salvucci (left) and Danya Trommer (right) with Joe Gittleman of Boston ska band the Mighty Mighty Bosstones at Montebello Rockfest.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Boston-based ska icons the Mighty Mighty Bosstones played Montebello Rockfest this past weekend. WTBU DJ Danya Trommer, who hosts ska-centric show Dat Brass, chatted with Joe Gittleman about the band\u2019s career, inspirations, and their own curated festival.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Danya Trommer: So you guys have been around since 1983 but you\u2019ve been in the band since\u2013<\/b><\/p>\n

Joe Gittleman: I\u2019ve been in the whole time; I started the band. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DT: Oh, you started the band!<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: Well me and Dicky [Barrett]. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DT: Gotcha, so can you tell me a little bit about the starting of the band?<\/b>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

JG: I was just a high school kid. I was a fan of Dicky\u2019s band the Cheapskates. \u00a0Now you\u2019d have to dig really deep to find any music of the Cheapskates, but they were also ska, kind of fun\u2013they were drunks is what they were. They were heavy drinkers, hard partying band, and Dicky was in that band, and I loved going to see them\u2013me and our guitar player at the time, Nate. We just wanted to kind of figure out a way to start a band like that. And for some reason, Dicky was kind enough to humor our request, and we started writing songs together soon after.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DT: I noticed that you guys opened with a song by Blood, Sweat, and Tears. I was wondering if you take a lot of inspiration from those \u201860s and \u201870s brass heavy bands like Blood, Sweat, and Tears and Chicago, bands like that, because I know you take a lot of inspiration from punk bands like Social Distortion.<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: I think the Temptations too is another big one for us. \u00a0And certainly, [Sax Player Leon Silva walks by] Leon, what do you think about the Temptations and soul and all that kind of stuff?<\/span><\/p>\n

Leon Silva: I love that old, kind of organic sound that they always had, because they would just be huddled around one or two mics back in the day in the studio, just super live and super soulful.<\/span><\/p>\n

JG: And really great songwriting. So, our little intro music is really intended to be something that gets us in the mood, and those songs kind of do that. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DT: Would you guys say you use a lot of older songs for that?<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: \u201cBall of Confusion\u201d is one we\u2019ve used for years, \u201cWar,\u201d you know things like that. \u201cBackstabbers\u201d is another one. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DT: Now I know that you take some inspiration from soul, but I know that you guys also take a lot of inspiration from the UK second wave ska scene, and I was wondering what your bigger inspirations out of that scene are. \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: Definitely the Specials. Me and Dicky both shared an experience of seeing the English Beat really young. I saw the English Beat in, I want to say, \u201880 or \u201881 or \u201882; REM was opening up for them. I was actually at Walter Brown arena, isn\u2019t that part of Boston University?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DT: Now it\u2019s Agganis. \u00a0[Correction: Walter Brown Arena still exists and hosts the women\u2019s ice hockey games.]<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: I saw the English Beat there when I was pre-high school. It was hugely influential for me, and Dicky had a similar experience seeing the Beat. He saw the Beat playing with the Pretenders, so that was probably even before then. It was an amazing experience, definitely an inspiration. The Specials would definitely be right up there [as an influence], Bad Manners would be another one that we\u2019ve always loved; those would probably be the big three for me. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DT: What about bands like Operation Ivy?<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: I remember on our first tour we met Tim Armstrong in Berkeley, California\u2013this would\u2019ve been after Operation Ivy was done, because they started in 87 and ended in 89\u2013and I remember meeting Lars [Frederikson of Rancid, Tim Armstrong\u2019s current band] pretty early on too. I actually became an Operation Ivy fan long after the fact. I wasn\u2019t plugged in at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DT: So not exactly an inspiration?<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: Well, no, but I love that music now, and I think retroactively you could say it\u2019s an inspiration. \u00a0And moving ahead a little bit, <\/span>Out Come The Wolves<\/span><\/i> [Rancid\u2019s album]<\/span> was a big inspiration for me, because I was so incredibly impressed with the songwriting on the record, and it really kind of inspired me and challenged me to dig and write our next record which was <\/span>Let\u2019s Face It<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DT: Are you the main songwriter?<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: Yeah, me and Dicky been writing a lot of the songs together for a long time, so you can say I\u2019m the main songwriter, but everyone contributes. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DT: So you\u2019ve been playing bass the entire time?<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: I have, yeah.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DT: \u00a0Gotcha. \u00a0What would you say is the biggest difference in the creative process between <\/b>Devil\u2019s Night Out<\/i><\/b> [debut album] and <\/b>While We\u2019re At It<\/i><\/b> [newest album]?<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: We have more time to work on songs. I would say the writing process itself is extended over a period of time. Dicky lives in LA, I live on the East coast, we correspond, we send files and lyrics back and forth, and it\u2019s sort of like a lot of virtual collaboration. I think <\/span>Devil\u2019s Night Out<\/span><\/i> was recorded in 24 hours.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DT: I know you guys host Hometown Throwdown; what would you say is the biggest difference between hosting and playing a festival?<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: Anxiety [laughs]. When you\u2019re hosting the festival, you\u2019re worried about are the support bands being taken care of, are the tickets selling, how is the stage gonna look. And we put a lot of effort into the throwdown; it\u2019s really like a year-long planning process. \u00a0Shortly after the throwdown is over, we start thinking about what we\u2019re going to do next year. Sometimes there\u2019s a theme; we\u2019ve had international bands, we\u2019ve had local bands highlighting the old school Boston music scene, and the stage is always something. I would say hosting that comes with added responsibility, which is fun\u2013I really like imagining that kind of stuff, whether it be the wall of Santa\u2019s or stuff like that, all the bells and whistles and nonsense that we throw together. That\u2019s the difference: you\u2019re thinking about the entire event. Like today, we didn\u2019t even walk to the event until like ten minutes before we went on and we\u2019re leaving now, so it\u2019s a much different experience. Somewhere someone is on this festival grounds worrying the way we worry, but about this festival. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DT: I know that your last three albums, all the stuff after the hiatus, is considered kind of part of a trio. What do you think is the uniting factor between those albums?<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: The primary uniting factor is that Dicky always thought of them together in his own head\u2013I think a lot of the storytelling and characters. Certainly there are some themes in there that I\u2019m still picking up on myself. It\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve gone back and listened to those other records, but I remember when we started working on <\/span>Pin Points and Gin Joints<\/span><\/i>, that Dicky was talking about the next few albums sort of living together. It pushed his songwriting, and to some extent, the things that he wanted to talk about from one album to the next to the next\u2013that kind of thing. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DT: So would you consider them concept albums?<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: I really would not, personally. I just think Dicky is very thoughtful; he pays a lot of attention to detail. If you look at the artwork on those three records, he himself has spent hundreds hundreds of hours on each one working with both illustrators and the person that does the layout and that kind of stuff. Like those were all his specific vision, not just the cover, but every little piece of it that you see he imagined, he considered, and came up with himself. How it relates to the music on those records is a little bit of a mystery to me; I kind of just stand back and watch him do that, and I\u2019m impressed with that. Again, I think the biggest uniting factor is that he imagined it that way, and that it informed the creative process and what he wanted to talk about from record to record. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DT: \u00a0Did you guys do anything special for the album release?<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: We\u2019re here. It came out yesterday [June 15]. We didn\u2019t do much to be honest with you. We\u2019re starting a two week tour in Portland, Oregon in about a week. We\u2019re going down the West Coast, then we\u2019re doing a tour starting in Buffalo or Toronto that\u2019ll end up in Worcester, where we\u2019re doing our own festival\u2013Cranking and Skanking Fest we\u2019re calling it\u2013at the Palladium. You guys have to be there. Big D and the Kids Table, Fishbone, the Pietasters\u2013<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DT: This is a great lineup. \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: Planet Smashers, from Canada. \u00a0The Bouncing Souls, Toots and the Maytals. You guys have to come. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DT: I\u2019m pretty sure I responded \u201cGoing\u201d to this on Facebook. \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Want tickets to Cranking and Skanking fest? \u00a0Get them <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>! <\/span>
\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boston-based ska icons the Mighty Mighty Bosstones played Montebello Rockfest this past weekend. WTBU DJ Danya Trommer, who hosts ska-centric show Dat Brass, chatted with Joe Gittleman about the band\u2019s career, inspirations, and their own curated festival.   Danya Trommer: So you guys have been around since 1983 but you\u2019ve been in the band since\u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[33,26,422,29,419,416,418,421,420,25],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2289"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2317,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2289\/revisions\/2317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}