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I remember getting high and listening to Radiohead's The Bends. That was right before we developed into the three-piece, and at the time I thought it was the greatest music I'd heard to that point.... The Bends was just as important for us as Led Zeppelin II. -Jake Sproul |
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Photo by: Danny Rothenberg
Got Live If You Want It
The growing complexity of their studio material does pose a challenge for just three dudes in a van traveling around to clubs and theatres.
 Daniel Sproul by Lisa Siciliano |
"We were experimenting with other players. At one point we had our brother Ben out on the road with us, and it sounded really good but it needed more development than Ben was going to allow. He's real young and he's still trying to figure out who he is. Another player sounds really good but we'd have to play with them for a long time before we can get into the improvisation that happens when we play live, which I think is a really important part of live music - to not recreate a moment in time that is the record," says Sproul. "We just try to get the right tones. Live, it can be about tone and simplicity. Even though there's a lot of tracks on certain [studio recordings], it works live if you nail the right vibe. One of my favorite live performances on YouTube lately was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs performing 'Gold Lion' [see it here]. There's no bass but there's ways they compensate for that, and it inspired me to think about how you can compensate minimally instead of hiring a bunch of other musicians. With the songs we've created it would take away from that energy that happens when just the three of us come together and begin improvising."
In concert, Rose Hill Drive excels at using the space within a trio, pulling back and lying out consciously to accentuate elements or create suspense.
"It's not just sitting out, it's taking that step further, thinking about the interplay and then taking that a step further so the interplay is silent. But, it's never just not playing," observes Sproul. "I think that space is super powerful. We've been trying to gather more knowledge of what that space means. There's not too much space on our [new] record, in that we don't really allow it to breathe. It's pretty up-tempo and energetic the entire way through, which I think is pretty cool. We weren't trying to create Dark Side of the Moon [laughs]. We were trying to create a vibe that says, 'Let me out of here!'"
There's a definite Wild In The Streets vibe to Rose Hill. Rare is the time I've listened to them and not wanted to break a window or pants the clergy or engage in some other hooligan behavior. "Someone on MySpace posted, 'I just heard 'Trans Am' [off Moon] and it made me want to punch my mom in the face,'" relates Sproul. "That's so dark!"
Do You Wanna Get High?
While one may be tempted to take Moon's "Do You Wanna Get High?" literally, subtle lines imply something other than a freshly sparked joint is being suggested. Rose Hill is gently tilting at elevated consciousness but anchoring it to crushing boogie so it slips past our guardrails with ease. What we have is three white boys offering their version of Sly & The Family Stone's "I Want To Take You Higher."
 Rose Hill Drive by DR Meadows |
"That's kind of always our vibe, not just the music but also as people," says Sproul. "I love talking about what it means to break out of our skin and what chemistry really means. I didn't write that lyric, that was Daniel, and I think we both have different interpretations of what that song means. Being too literal about that lyric, in any sense, wrecks the edge of where it stands. People know how to get high. It just depends on what your vehicle is. I wouldn't want to say it's any one substance, but at the same time, I wouldn't want to put Hare Krishna things as an underlying tone [laughs]."
Rose Hill Drive's philosophizing is marbled into their musculature, another element that gives them strength. There's never the sense, like in say the Polyphonic Spree, that someone will put a burlap sack over your head and you'll wake up surrounded by robed devotees with hand bells spouting doctrine at you. With RHD, the deeper spiritual vibe seems connected to an irrepressible urge to punch through things, to know what's on the other side, to see what is hidden from normal sight.
"I do feel that way. I think you can make a direct tie to the shamanistic approach to music that Jim Morrison took. He read the book The Doors of Perception, which isn't really a spiritual book but it's about a logical journey into the occult. That has always fascinated Nate and Daniel and I in different ways, even if we all have different beliefs as to how to get high and find out what makes the undercurrent tick. There's certain things that happen that are just weird, regardless of who's God – and who am I to say that ALL gods aren't included – and you take solace from the feeling that two people, both of you, experienced this weird thing. There's something there the English language can't describe."
That said, Rose Hill Drive has made some of the greatest stripper music of all time. This band rarely forgets about life below the waist even as they ponder the imponderable. Thoughtful as they may be, there's always a huge set of balls swinging between their legs.
"It can get really intense and people can get self-righteous, which reveals itself immediately in music," says Sproul. "Music is always trying to be truth, and the human ego is always dissonant to that truth. But, rock 'n' roll has got to rock or it wouldn't be rock 'n' roll [laughs]."
Rose Hill Drive tour dates available here.
Rose Hill Drive - "Showdown" live at The Boulder Theater 12/31/06:
JamBase | Colorado
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