Following their excellent show show at the Crystal Ballroom, melophobe had a chance to speak with Floater frontman and all-around great guy, Rob Wynia. Amongst other things, we chatted about the recent Portland benefit show, how Floater has maintained freshness and chemistry through the years and the band's plans for the future.
melophobe: Let's talk about your last concert, which was a benefit for the Portland Charity, The Sunshine Division.
Rob Wynia: That was a really fun evening, I was so impressed with Sam [Sam Adams, Mayor of Portland] for coming out and giving his time. The Sunshine Division was so happy, I don't think anybody expected to raise as much food as we raised. They had brought in a huge container for the food to go in and by the time we got on stage it had been filled two or three times. It was a really, really productive night.
melophobe: When is the new album coming out?
(Rob) Oh man, not soon enough for me [laugh]. We've been recording on and off. Its really hard to find one solid window of time to get in the studio and get it done. So we have to go in a little bit here and there, for a day or so. We hopefully will be in the mixing stage pretty quick at the end of this month [January 2010]. We are anticipating spring. I don't have a date, but soon. We'd like the next show to be a CD Release show. We're working on it!
melophobe: I've seen you several times at the Crystal Ballroom, is that your main venue in Portland?
RW: The McMennamin’s people, every single element of that organization that we work with, you know, from the booking agents, hospitality, bartenders, it's just such a great place to work. It's always a great time, everybody is there to put on a great show, it's just a really cool vibe, we love going to the Crystal.
melophobe: Floater has been together since around 93', what are you doing to keep the music fresh and new?
RW: I don't know honestly, the three of us are more amazed by it than anyone, its really hard to describe, the quickest single phrase that I can come up with for it is, that for some reason, we three can't seem to be in the same for more than five minutes without a song happening. I don't know, it's kind of like, why do you fall in love with who you fall in love with? It's really hard to explain, I guess our creative juices, they really are just the right thing. We all really like the way that the rest of the band plays, we've just never had a lineup change because everybody just loves it the way it is. I think if we did have a lineup change it would be more out of necessity, or something, like Led Zeppelin, God forbid. There’s just some kind of chemistry there, it's great.
melophobe: You definitely have the chemistry going for you. Just seeing your show and seeing the crowd that you do draw, it seems like for a local band that is a big as you are, you seem to draw the most excited, happy, "most into your music" crowd that I have ever seen at a show.
RW: It's funny, there’s a "cool" factor, that I think a lot of music critics really like and lavish praise upon bands that play for small crowds of really unenthusiastic people. And we as a band and our fans are seen by the hip crowds as being a bunch of crazy, out of control weirdoes. The great thing is, that's really what the band and most of the audience really loves about it. That the shows are the place to go if you've had a really rough week and you've been stuck in a cubicle or dealing with horrendous customers or whatever, there’s just nothing better than being able to go somewhere and completely freak out. it's great.
melophobe: What do you love about Portland?
RW: Oh man! that’s a tough one. There's a lot to love about this town, it probably grosses people out but, I'm kind of one of those crazy flag waving patriots, but instead of about America, it's about Portland. I love the theater pubs, I love them to bits, I actually love the libraries. For a city that's not that big of a city, we're not San Francisco or L.A., we have an incredible art scene, galleries everywhere. It's like a renaissance of independent filmmakers, sculptors, painters, bands. And there's an avenue for all of it, if you make music in Portland, there’s not "a" place to book a show, there are 30! It's an amazing town certainly creatively and artistically. It's also very bike friendly and green. I'm a flag waiver, I love Portland.
