Playful, fun, and free: this is how Rubblebucket wants to make you feel with their bursting horns and hopping beats. Lead vocalist Anna Kalmia Traver, Kal for short, can attest to that and tells us about how the eight-piece ensemble came together, their adventures in New York City, and some of her favorites things to do during the liberating summer months.
melophobe: To start off with, I was wondering how all eight of you in the band ended up together?
Anna Kalmia Traver: It’s been a pretty long process over the course of a few years to where we are now with this personnel. It all started with Alex and I. We had just graduated from the University of Vermont, and we were living in Boston and working with this internationally-touring reggae band. We were their horn section, but there were a lot of breaks, so we wanted to start a group that could fill in those gaps and would be really danceable and fun but still satisfied our musical cravings. That basically was the vision, and from there we started calling people while we were in Boston. That’s a really great town for young musicians, because there are so many music schools. We met people around town and had a bunch of different sessions where we just played the music, and then a group formed from there that was ten people. So that worked down to eight over the course of three or so years. We also met Craig Meyers--he was up in Burlington--and he’s a percussionist. So we had a lot of back and forth between Burlington and Boston, and then finally we ended up coming down here to New York.
melophobe: So you started out with ten people?
KT: Yes, we had two percussionists and a four-piece horn section. Now we’re down to one percussionist and a three-piece horn section.
melophobe: What instruments are involved now?
KT: We have the three horns, and I also sing. Then we have keys, drum set, bass, guitar and percussion.
melophobe: It must be difficult to find time to practice with eight different schedules to work through.
KT: Yeah! [laughs] It’s a difficult business, in general, but it’s also very chaotic and involves tons of email chains, really long ones, and lots of changings of dates here and there. I think we’ve found a rhythm at this point. We know what works.
melophobe: That’s great. Have you guys developed your own musical philosophy?
KT: That’s funny. That’s a funny way of putting it. I haven’t really heard the word "philosophy" used that way before. I guess I would consider that as our own sound or something that we’re striving for, and I think, in general, everyone is. I think it comes from a musical place. Everything about this band really starts with what we want to hear is what we want to play, and what excites us, and that doesn’t have strict musical limits. What comes out is our own sound. Sorry, there are so many words to describe sound. I guess number one is make people dance and happy and have a positive attitude while still expressing how we feel. Keeping it fun for us. Doing things that challenge us. Keep us being creative.
melophobe: Your latest album is very upbeat.
KT: Yeah! [laughs] Definitely.
melophobe: How is it different from your first album?
KT: We actually have two albums before this one, but the second one was released under our name Rubblebucket and the first one was released as Rubblebucket Orchestra, and that first one was really rushed. We just did it over the course of a couple weeks, and it was right towards the beginning of us even being a band. The progression: we’ve had quite a transformation from that first, but I think both of the first two were just less striving for any kind of pop sensibility and more direct afro-beat influence. The songs were a little bit broader and longer, and the arrangements weren’t as tight. We think we’ve always had a happy feeling to our music, but for the first time with this album, Omega La La, we’re going for more song forms. It’s funny, because the name came from that sensibility. The name "Omega La La"--I sort of translate that in my mind as "omega," which means "the ultimate," and "la la" is "songs," so it’s the "ultimate song." That’s because this album is a lot more song-oriented.
melophobe: What excites you most about the new record?
KT: That’s a great question. I just felt really great to get those songs out into the world, because a lot of them we had been playing live for more than a year; so we were all slightly apprehensive about how they were going to translate. A few in particular, like the song “L’Homme,” that one had been bumping around in our heads for so long and I’m so pleased with how that one came out. The drums sound really wild, just how I would’ve always wanted them, and at the end we were messing around with this delay machine--this really cool vintage delay pedal--and we got some really crazy almost slightly disturbing sounds with the voice at the end. It’s like “whuuua!” going up and down, and I’m really pleased with how that came out. Also, working with producer Eric Broucek, he really brought this punchiness to the music. In every single song I think you can hear it, and it ties through the record.
melophobe: It’s funny you mention “L’Homme,” because I was hoping to ask you about that. It definitely stands out from pretty much all the other tracks on the album.
KT: Yeah! It's in French!
melophobe: My minor in college was French, but it’s been two years since I’ve really read anything or listened to anything, so when I listen to it, I'm straining, thinking, "Okay, I hear ‘nuit,’ I know that means night!”
KT: I lived in France for ten months and learned how to speak it pretty fluently, but I’m not a very grammatically correct Frenchwoman. I’ve had a couple French friends read it and say, “You know, this doesn’t make total sense, but I get what you’re trying to say!” But I don’t really mind.
melophobe: Aren’t songs the perfect venue for that, though? You don’t really need to make sense.
KT: Yeah! It’s like with poetry. As long as some sort of meaning comes through, it’s almost like the more abstract, the more opportunities there are for different people to connect with it in different ways.
melophobe: Since it is in French, what kind of meaning would you want English speakers to get out of it?
KT: I guess that would be hard for them to pick something lyrically out of it if they don’t speak the language, but the overall message of the song is basically about an old statesman who has done a lot of bad things in his life and isn’t really planning on changing his ways. He can sort of look into his own heart and see that, but he’s sealed off from the world. The final verses offer a more Utopian vision of people gathering together and singing and dancing together and keeping life going in this beautiful way. I think that little glimmer of hope at the end, I think you can hear that throughout the whole song. In that sense, I hope people would get something from it.
melophobe: What do you and your band mates find yourself listening to the most when not working on your own music?
KT: We listen to all kinds of stuff. We’re all really across the board. I’ve been getting more into hip-hop in my life than ever before.
melophobe: Me, too.
KT: Really? I’ve really been checking out Lil Wayne. I think somehow when Jay-Z released his autobiography, Decoded, that did something. I’m not quite sure exactly what, but I think that really impacted culture in a way that hasn’t happened before. And I actually live right in the neighborhood he grew up in, so ever since I moved here--I’m looking right out at the projects right now--I feel like wherever I live, I want to learn more about it. That’s been a way I’ve learned a lot, just by reading that book and being like, “Whoa! All this happened right here, where I am.” Also, our guitar player is obsessed with Lil Wayne, so he has all of his mixtapes and is always playing it in the van. So we’re always enjoying that. Now he’s on to Nicki Minaj, and I really enjoy her style. And M.I.A.. We’ve been talking a lot about that stuff.
But also we’re all super big jazz-heads. I feel like we’re sort of past that wave a little bit. I’m never going to be totally past it, but every once in a while, we’ll go back and blast some amazing old jazz in the van, and we can all totally enjoy it. We were listening to this Jaki Byard album, Blues for Smoke, when we were driving through Utah up in these mountains that looked out over canyons, and it was once of the most deep group musical listening experiences we’ve ever had as a band.
melophobe: Music has that magical way of bringing people together.
KT: Yup! [laughs]
melophobe: I noticed on your Facebook page that the band is categorized with the word "visual." How do you think that applies to the band in a musical sense?
KT: Alex and I have always been so enthralled with the idea of synesthesia, and it’s so inescapable for me. I experience different senses together all the time, and especially with our music. But I feel like with ours, somehow it’s got a lot of patterns in it and rhythms, and those lock into me visually. I do a lot of visual art, too, and I remember I was going through a time when I was doing a lot of beading, and I could see all these triangles and diagonal flashes. It just fit so well with the music. It’s been really, really fun for me to have that be part of my task in this band: melding the two, bringing out the visual and auditory. Since we do so much work touring and putting on live shows, it’s something that we’ve strived for--to be a band that can be called visual. I think at this point, we’re really starting to embody that. We’ve been working a lot on videos and bringing artistic elements to that. Also we’ve been working on building our stage, and we have some costumes we wear sometimes and banners and streamers, and I want to keep that going as much as possible. I think it’s really cool.
melophobe: I totally understand. You hear something and you can’t help but start visualizing something like a music video in your head. I’ve been doing a lot of ballroom dancers in my head when I listen to things.
KT: Oh wow, interesting. That’s really cool! That’s funny that you say that because last week we had a show here in New York for the Bike Film Festival in New York City, and we had some dancers for our upcoming video. They haven’t filmed their part yet, but they choreographed everything and wanted to come to a show. After the show, I got to meet them and they were dancing so much to the DJ who was playing after, and we had this crazy spontaneous dance party. It was so amazing! I think that’s a whole other sense that comes so much when I’m playing this music--the rhythm and how it moves my body. And that’s also a visual thing!
melophobe: That sounds like it was a blast! If this record blows up, what’s one thing you’d like to do on the back of all that attention?
KT: Oh, oh ho! Hmm. I think it’s always been Alex's and my dream to survive on music, and at this point, we’re scraping by, and it’s really fun. But it would be nice to see a wave start to happen where we could ride not just on the back of one album but have it be a sustainable thing where I could make a life out of making music. So I think that would probably be the first one, but I’ve got a lot of causes that peek through behind the lyrics, but I don’t know. There’s so much going on in the world right now that’s deplorable. I think if I ever got to a point where I could be giving more than just thoughts and words to these movements--like humanitarian and environmental protection efforts--I would love to be able to do that at some point later in my life.
I already feel like we are contributing, and I feel this momentum right now that everyone’s talking about eating locally and supporting your local economic systems, and I think that’s totally the first step. In a way, I think there’s a lot we could be doing without tons of money. But it would be awesome to keep doing that on a bigger scale.
melophobe: What’s the worst live experience you’ve ever seen, either your own or another's?
KT: Oh, man! Like really bad? I can think of some that were bad, but then they were funny afterwards, but I don’t want to sound like a complainer. [laughs]
melophobe: You don’t have to name names. You can just set up like a “Band X!”
KT: If the musicians are frequently having a hard time or arguing with each other during a song or between songs or shouting at each other, especially when I’m one of them, I feel really bad. I think that’s something that we struggle with a little bit here and there, but we always talk about it afterwards. We grow a lot through that. I wouldn’t want to go to a show to see people just sulking. I’m sure there’s a time and place for that, and people who enjoy it more than me, but especially since our music calls for it, I try to go for a happy vibe on stage. That’s not a fun anecdote, but an honest answer.
melophobe: Honesty is awesome, because people want to know more about you guys! But yes, unfortunately sometimes the worst live shows are the ones that stand out in your mind, because they were bad. For example, I went to a show three years ago, and the entire time you could tell the whole band hated each other! They kept trying to bump up each other’s monitors and yelling at the tech guy.
KT: That’s mortally embarrassing for me. There have been moments where people are getting into mild versions of that, and I’m just like, “Guys!” If my monitor’s not perfect four songs in, then I don’t care. [laughs]
melophobe: What’s your favorite summer activity?
KT: That’s easy. The one thing I’ve been thinking about for the past month is just sitting in rivers. That’s my absolute favorite summer activity. Not oceans. I love oceans, too; I love swimming in general, but swimming in rivers is my favorite summer activity. Oh! Actually there are so many of them! I love berry-picking, too. Those are two things I’ve grown up with my whole life, and they define summer. I actually don’t even like to eat berries if it’s not summer. You’ll never see me buying a box of strawberries any other time than in June and July. Same goes for blueberries. It’s just this weird thing about me. This is the time of year where I’m just like, “BERRIES!” I eat them all day, every day.
melophobe: [laughs] Where do you go to pick berries?
KT: Actually, there is some crazy-good mulberry picking in the city. I haven’t picked them yet in New York, but when I lived in Boston, I did so in a beautiful arboretum. We would go in the summertime and pick huge containers-full off the trees and then make things out of them. I didn’t grow up with mulberries, so it’s a new thing for me, but it’ll do. It gets my fingers doing their favorite activity!
melophobe: Is there anything else that you would want the readers to know?
KT: We do have some fun festivals coming up, and the videos will be coming out, but I think those will all happen in time. Thanks so much for taking the time to write about us.
melophobe: Our pleasure.