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This past Monday, staff writer Will Hardt sat down with True Lust members Sanders McMillan ’17, Bobby Volpendesta ’17, Sìmon Gutkin ’18, and Dylan Payne ’16 for a “couch interview” in Sayles. In this relaxed environment, the Battle of the Bands winners showed they don’t need their instruments to be entertaining.
WH: How did you guys form your band?
SM: So it started before spring term – Bobby had talked to each of us individually, and we made a Facebook group. The first week we were here we just kicked things right off with practice and a lot of songwriting, just getting ready and getting some stuff down.
WH: Cool. Bobby, what gave you the inspiration to talk to the other people?
BV: Well they were the best musicians I knew. Two of them were two of my best friends; one of them was just a very smooth bass player. I wanted this to be a big project since so many of the other projects didn’t necessarily fail but didn’t live up to their potential. So I guess the goal here was to take it more seriously and shoot for the stars.
WH: Right. Do you know what you’re going to play at Spring Concert?
BV: That’s a toughie. We’re in the process of writing some new songs. We’re contemplating whether or not to do a classic cover. If we do, it would be in the spirit of Spring Concert – it wouldn’t be a cover in the traditional sense. It’s cool, it’s a female singer, from Germany. Those are the only clues I can really give you.
SM: And the rest of the set is five original songs.
BV: And then we were going to hopefully get two new ones. Well, we’re trying to figure it all out.
WH: Okay cool. So what was it like to win Battle of the Bands?
SM: It was pretty fun, I guess. [laughter]
SM: It was all right, you know.
DP: I thought it was fun.
SG: It was pretty fun.
BV: I think it was pretty cool.
WH: Did you guys have expectations going in? Was it a surprise?
BV: Umm, we just wanted to play a good show.
DP: Haha, this is going to be an exciting article. [laughter]
SG: Hey, while you’re doing this, you can write about our [inaudible] —
BV:No—
WH: Write about —?
SM: No, we’re going to stay on the interview.
WH: By the way, I’ve read some articles from the archives. They’re not that interesting either.
BV: Let’s try to make this one interesting.
DP: We never thought that we could beat Northern Riot.
SG: Yeah, that’s true.
DP: That’s the truth of it. We were the Dark Horse.
BV: Because the way it’s always worked is like if you have horns, you automatically win, and that doesn’t make them bad, but at the same time, I talked to an alum, Mary Begley, otherwise known as “The Queen of the Music Scene,” and she was just like, “Bobby, be ready, they just love horns,” and I’m like, “I know.” But the final round was really cool, everyone brought something different to the table; there was nothing that really sounded similar, so it was kind of cool.
WH: Sure. So what do you guys think of T-Pain?
BV: Oh, I think he’s great. His latest album Carter VI (sic) [laughter] was um a tour de force in my opinion. Carter VI by T-Pain was a tour de force; make sure to keep that part. [laughter]
SG: I really like him in The Lonely Island’s I’m on a Boat.
BV: He displays a smorgasbord of musical offerings, and if you look on the internet, you’ll see, there’s a vide of him singing “Buy You a Dwank” (sic) without auto tune. He has a very nice voice, actually.
DP [out of the blue]: …Just want to smoke a J with T-Pain.
BV: We really really want to smoke a J with T-Pain! [laughter]
SG:We want to smoke a J or two doobies.
SM: Once you add another one, the name changes to doobie. [agreement]
BV: That’s what most people don’t get about the distinction between doobies and Js – it can’t be a doobie unless there are two of them.
SG: One J, two doobies.
WH: Yeah, I didn’t get that – I’m glad you clarified.
DP: This probably should not be in the…
BV: I don’t mind you putting it in.
SG: I don’t care
SM: It’s up to you.
WH: I’ll just send it to my editors and I’m guessing that won’t make the cut. [laughter]
SG: Tell them I insist —
SM: No don’t tell them —
BV: Tell them we hope… no, tell them that we’re afraid… no because that sounds like we’re being racist… never mind, we’re not afraid.
SG: Just because we want to have two doobies with T-Pain does not mean we smoke weed.
BV: We don’t smoke weed, comma, but —
SG: Exactly
BV: — but if we saw T-Pain and we happened to have a doobie (sic) at hand for whatever reason, we would offer it to T-Pain.
SG: I would probably —
BV: Next question. [laughter]
WH: Uh that’s all I had – is there anything else you guys want your readers to know?
BV: Yeah um, we want them to know that uh, we love them.
WH: That’s important.
BV: Unless we don’t, in which case we don’t love them.
SG: They know who they are.
BV: Noo. [laughter]
DP: We’re going to make some recorded music.
SG: Yeah, tell ‘em we are gonna make recorded music. If they want merch, holla at us.
SM: I just want to say it’s been a really really fun time playing and —
BV: We appreciate the support.
SM: It’s been really good. We’re very, very lucky.