Thursday, December 28, 2006

New Interview: Eric from Red Monroe

By Erin Rice

Red Monroe singer and guitarist, Eric Steele (great stage name, and real name), took some time to give us a call and let us know what the band's been up to in the past few months. October and November in particular were good months for Red Monroe. They were given a Grammy nod and put in the group of 48 other artists from which a final five was selected for Best Alternative Album of the year. From this came a rush of attention from the local press and music bloggers alike, when much of the attention for the band came previously from outside Texas.

There has been a great attempt by the music community to classify who or what Red Monroe sounds like, something you can get a taste of when I go through the abbreviated list in the interview. The short of it: they don't sound like any one of the bands they're compared to, but you can clearly hear the influences in their songs. A review of their latest self titled CD written by Anthony Mariani at the Fort Worth Weekly gets it exactly right when he suggests the following as a lesson to other bands: "You get to the heart of the stuff you’re trying to reanimate not by describing it inch by inch but by suggesting it in broad strokes." This is exactly what Red Monroe does and the outcome is an artistic venture in eclecticism.

Some of the things you'll hear in the interview:

• How the Red Monroe self titled CD has been received to date
• Some background information including how the band came together
• Me dissing Oklahoma and then immediately feeling bad for it
• The great "Red Monroe sounds like..." list and what Steele makes of all of it
• Preview of what the band has coming up
• The joys of Christmas and intra-band hugging

If you listen to the interview, as well you should, you will notice that it's a recording of the actual phone call, with Steele on the speakerphone. Feel free to insert your voice for mine to get that feeling of yourself having an intimate phone conversation with the lead singer.

Catch Red Monroe at the Granada Theater tonight, Thursday, December 28, with Pilotdrift, St. Vincent, and The Push.

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• Arts > Popular Music > Alternative / Indie
• Arts > Popular Music > Rock