By: Dr Matt Warnock
Salt Lake City is known for its Mormon heritage, the angelic voices of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and long, cold winters. While SLC will never lose these cultural calling cards, there is a movement going on within the city’s dark, smoke-filled clubs to bring more attention to SLC’s strong, and talented, live music scene. One of the bands that is leading this charge is the rock-pop quartet ¡Andale!.
Featuring a two guitar line up, band members Memorie Morrison, vocals-guitar, Josh Dickson, drums, Natasha Sebring, bass and Mike Sasich, lead guitar, are aiming to change the laid back, conservative image that SLC is known for with their original brand of rock-pop music. With their debut, self-titled, album released this past year, the band is setting their sites on the regional and national stage as they continue to write and record new material for their sophomore release.
¡Andale! guitarist Mike Sasich recently sat down with Guitar International Magazine to discuss the bands approach to songwriting, the multiply layers of his musical career and his love for everything guitar and gear related.
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Matt Warnock: Right now you’re based out of Salt Lake City, Utah, a city that is known for the Mormon Church and a fairly conservative lifestyle. What’s it like being a rock band in Salt Lake City these days?
Mike Sasich: Utah is definitely like that. If you go outside of the city you run into that repressive, oppressive stuff. But, Salt Lake City is fairly liberal, though there is a strong Mormon influence in the community, obviously. There is a strong music scene here with a lot of talented people out there making it happen.
Matt: Since most of Utah, outside of Salt Lake City, is pretty conservative, do you find that you have to travel out of state more for gigs than say if you were living in L.A. or New York?
Mike: Definitely. Salt Lake City is a small city, so we have to travel. The problem is that everything is at least six to eight hours away from us. Las Vegas is six hours, and then it’s even further to get to California. But, if we want to reach a bigger audience we have to get out on the road and put the time in behind the wheel.
Matt: As a guitarist you’re a very versatile player who plays in a number of touring bands, in different styles of music. Who were some of your early influences as a player?
Mike: I originally picked up the guitar because of Led Zeppelin, which I think was pretty common for someone my age. Laughs. Jimmy Page was a pretty cool player back then, still is. Later on I got into the Clash, which wasn’t really a guitar specific influence, but I really loved the simplicity in their playing. I’ve also spent time checking out Arto Lindsay, Nels Cline, Clarence White from the Byrds, a lot of different players over the years.
Matt: You’re also heavily involved in the songwriting process for the different bands that you’re in. How do you approach that process? Do you prefer to write the lyrics or musical idea first?
Mike: When I’m working on a new song I usually bring the music and a general idea, then work from there. But it happens both ways. If the other band members bring in a tune, it could be a cool lyric or a riff or chord progression, something that small, then we work it out from there and develop it into the song as a whole.
Matt: You’ve also done some scoring over the years, such as the HBO documentary Kicks Like a Girl. Do you find that you approach writing soundtrack music differently than you do for a band like ¡Andale!?
Mike: I’d say it’s like two sides of the same coin, but with scoring I have to be more aware about what the content is that I’m trying to compliment. I’m not writing a pop song for a documentary, unless that’s what they want. It all depends on the application. It has to be something that I enjoy, but more importantly it has to fit the scene that it’s being written for. It’s all about context when writing for soundtracks, which is a different approach from writing songs for a band.
Matt: How did the opportunity arise to work with HBO on the soundtrack to Kicks Like a Girl?
Mike: The opportunity came form a friend of mine who contacted me about doing the gig. He helped me with some of the scoring as well because we only had about two weeks to put the whole thing together. I guess the producer was working with another composer but they didn’t like what they’d written, so my friend passed on my name, and they were familiar with some of my previous work and I got the gig. It was kind of a case of being in the right place at the right time.
Matt: Are you looking to do more scoring work in the future, as well as touring and recording with the bands you play in?
Mike: Absolutely. I think music is a hard enough field to make a living in as it is, so the more fires I have stoked at one time, the easier it is to do the things I want to do.
Matt: You also work as an engineer and producer, and have for many years. How much time do you spend working in these areas of the music business?
Mike: A ton. I own the studio where my bands like ¡Andale! record, as well as other local, regional and national groups. I spend most of my time in the studio. In fact, I’m here right now taking a break between sessions.
Matt: Have you always been someone who likes to be busy, doing four or five things at once like you are these days?
Mike: I’ve always wanted to do four or five things at once, when I could. Laughs. I started out playing and recording a little, mostly just to amuse myself, but I found I really enjoyed it. I then did some live sound work, which I also really enjoyed. Over the years it’s all sort of snowballed into my career today, which I think is great. I really enjoy all of the different aspects of what I do, and I get to have music in my life everyday, nothing wrong with that.
Matt: Do you find that it’s hard to find a balance between all of the different things you do? Are there times when you’re out gigging a ton and you don’t have much time to do recording work, or vice-versa?
Mike: It does get thrown off kilter sometimes, and one thing takes precedent over the other, but I tend to keep things pretty much balanced. I have to make sure I keep a detailed schedule, and stick to it, or else things could get messy pretty quickly as far as my different commitments are concerned.
Matt: The lineup for your band ¡Andale! features to guys and two girls. Do you ever get compared to bands like Fleetwood Mac because of your lineup?
Mike: No, not really. There’s not enough drama going on between us, and far less drugs. Laughs. The drummer and the bass player in the band, they date, and we’re all good friends, but not as “good” friends as Fleetwood Mac were.
Matt: The band also has two guitarists in it. How do you guys divide up the guitar duties, is there a specific lead and rhythm role between the two of you?
Mike: I don’t know, we don’t really think about it too much. She has her style and I have mine, and we kind of meet in the middle. It’s more of an organic thing, rather than us sitting down with pen and paper working things out.
Matt: Besides doing the rock thing with groups like ¡Andale! you’re also involved in a blues-style band called Haint Flannery of a See Saw, which is one of the coolest band names I’ve ever heard. How did you get hooked up with this group?
Mike: Through a friend actually. Haint Flannery, she’s from Canada, Windsor I believe, and she put together the project. She came to my studio wanting to record an album and I ended up playing on it. I’ve played country guitar in a number of other groups, like The High Beams, that’s the Clarence White influence I guess. I just love a ton of different music and musical styles, so if it sounds like a fun project I’m all for it.
Matt: Being heavily involved in the Indie rock scene, how do you see things these days as far as the health of the rock scene in general? It seems like most pop-rock groups are put together in board rooms or on TV shows, since you’re trying to do things the old fashioned way, does that make things more difficult to survive as a band?
Mike: It’s hard, I mean we’re not on TV or on any phone commercials or anything, and people aren’t going out to hear live music in the clubs as much as they used to. It’s tough, but I’d rather earn a living out there on club stages, working hard every night, than put together an album in a board room where they put auto-tune on it. I don’t agree with that approach to making music at all.
Matt: Since you are doing the rock thing, and not the pop-influenced music that’s so popular these days, do you find that it’s sometimes easier to get your music out there, since you’re kind of going against the grain?
Mike: Sometimes, yeah. I think there are enough people out there like me, who like the music that I do, to support the groups I play in. I hate that watered down, teeny-pop stuff. It has to have some sort of grit, some sort of realness to it, or else it just doesn’t work for me. I think if we bring that realness to the music, than people will relate to it and we’ll be able to keep doing what we’re doing.
Matt: Since you play in a number of different bands, and in different styles, what kind of gear are you using these days?
Mike: I’m a gear whore. Laughs. I’ve got two Les Paul’s, a ‘58 and a ‘60 reissue, the ‘58 has the big fat neck which I like. I also have a ‘72 Tele Custom, with a humbucker in the neck, and an American one with the B-Bender on it. I also have a ‘65 Jaguar and a ‘66 Burns, which is a great sounding guitar. I have a bunch of guitar that I use for different situations. As far as amps are concerned I use a fifty watt Marshall Plexi. Lately that’s been my favorite, it’s really loud, and I can clean it up with the volume knob or just let it all out and get that great Marshall crunch.
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Links
Haint Flannery of a See Saw Homepage
Too Fat for Love by Thunderfist on Amazon
