When I heard earlier this year that The Ramblers had self combusted, I thought it was a great shame as they were a band that I felt had really gotten into a stride, with a superb debut album and an increasingly killer live show. Fortunately, the news was a bit off ...
Photo by Lauren Jonik
Indie Sounds: So the Ramblers broke up. But live on. What gives?
Jeremiah Birnbaum: It was just time to change stuff up a bit. In the early spring,
John Embree and Kaz Ishijima had decided to pursue other projects. Kaz
has been the lead guitarist in a great Japanese reggae band, Brown
Rice, for as long as he'd been our bassist, and their schedule had
started to conflict with ours. In a very emotional moment, he told us
he didn't want to make a choice, but that he had to. We understood
completely - his band is great and they are doing really well.
John and I had been working together professionally for almost five
years, and while we loved what we did together, we'd begun growing in
different directions musically. He's now leading his own rock-n-roll
band alongside Jackson Kincheloe on harp, with whom he's been writing.
We're excited for our friends and wish them luck.
We had one last blowout with the original lineup at Public Assembly
in April, then Scott Stein and I took a couple of months to work on new
material and go on tour as a duo, and figure out what we wanted to do with
the band.
IS: Who is in the band today?
Jeremiah: In June we got a ton of bookings and started rehearsals with
our new
players, and have just been having a blast. While faces have
changed, the essence is the same. The new rhythm section is Shawn
Setaro - fellow Jersey boy and Berklee alum - on Fender bass, whom we met
back at the Late Night Rockwood days, along with Steve Purcell, who's
an old pal of Scott's from Ohio, on drums. Steve just moved here last
year; I'd coincidentally met him while jamming randomly at Banjo Jim's
with Emilie Cardinaux, and it turned out that he and Scott knew each
other for years. We've also had our friend Dan Barman, from Food Will
Win The War, sit in on drums and he may do so again in the future.
IS: How is the music evolving?
Jeremiah: Scott is playing more organ and electric piano, and I'm playing
a lot
more slide guitar and have started bringing mandolin, my new musical
obsession, into the mix. Scott's also playing electric guitar some.
Overall, it's a more straight up rock-n-roll vibe while keeping our
alt-country/Americana roots intact. It helps that Shawn can do all
that James Jamerson shit, and that Steve can drum like Charlie Watts.
We're keeping it a tight quartet for now - it's a nice change and has
allowed us to really hone in on our harmonies and our grooves. Plus
everybody gets a chance to shine, and we can really play with space. I
remember once hearing SRV talk about how a big band was like playing on
a sofa, while being in a small ensemble was like playing on
toothpicks. I kinda like playing on toothpicks.
IS: What about another album? I mean, the debut was amazing!
Jeremiah: We're writing a lot of new stuff and it'll happen when the time is
right, but right now our focus is on picking up where we left off in
terms of writing and gigging.
IS: And what's next for live show?
Jeremiah: Our next show is this Thursday, July 16th, 11 pm at The Living Room. We
love playing there, especially because Scott gets to rock the real-live
Hammond B3 and Leslie! That's a pretty big one for us. After that,
we're playing with Shanna Zell at Rockwood Music Hall on July 26th - she's
on at 10pm and we're right after her.
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