Asheville-based punk-jazz-avant garde band, the Ahleuchatistas have re-released their 2004 recording, "The Same and the Other" on the Tzadik label. Take 5 correspondent Laura Blackley interviewed the band recently and an excerpt of the interview is included below.
Question: Who are Ahleuchatistas?
Answer: (In addition to Perlowin), Derek Poteat plays bass, and Sean Dail
plays drums.
Q: What are their individual backgrounds?
A: Sean started singing in punk bands when he was a teenager. Later, he moved
to guitar then drums. He says he’s always wanted to be a frontman, so he plays
the drums like he is. Derek has a background in rock and jazz, mostly
improvisation-based rock. I started out in rock, and later studied jazz
heavily.
Q: Tell me about the record.
A: It’s actually a re-issue of a recording we did in 2004 on a small
D.C.-area label ... it’s been remastered and we’ve added five bonus tracks. It’s
more improvisation-based music. It’s interesting because you can hear our
musical process on the recording and how we’ve developed (since we started doing
this). The new stuff really rounds out the record a lot. The tracks really work
well at the end of the record.
...........
Q: What inspired you to start a band?
A: We just wanted to make something that we thought was exciting and
interesting. We didn’t realize that people would enjoy it the way they did. We
had overwhelming support here in Asheville. Angora Sound put out our first
record, we got some good critical attention, and we started leaving town and
playing shows. (In the five years we’ve been together), we’ve gone overseas and
toured Europe — Germany, Italy, Austria and Amsterdam, which was great, and
we’ve toured the United States.
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