Local Flight Interview

Joel Arquillos is a humble man but don't let him fool you. He's a very intelligent, creative and productive human being. Joel has a musician for many years; first fronting the Sonoma county-based band Patch in the mid 1990's. Then, he moved onto solo work, doing several albums under the moniker Jorrell. He's also collaborated with folks on other musical endeavors. If that is not enough, he spends his days as the Executive Director of 826LA; a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students with their creative and expository writing skills. 

1. How did this new project Local Flight come to life?

Glen Murrell, longtime friend, collaborator, bandmate, emailed me out of the blue asking if I'd be interested in adding vocals and instruments to some tracks he developed. I had done something like this with another friend and liked the freedom of being able to come up with something that mixed with what I was given. And since I'm a full timer and a dad, this way of making music is most convenient for me. So I just wrote lyrics and added vocals. I trust Glen and since we made music like this years ago in bands and project we did together, I knew he would give me good feedback and we'd make something interesting together. 

2. As a lyricist, what kinds of things do you delve into with your lyrics? Themes?

It's funny, but I'm more moved by the sound and melody first. I need to feel a melody and from that words just start to appear. I don't always have a theme in mind. It's more of a subconscious thing. And once I'm done with a song I go back and try to analyze what I've come up with and realize it's a snapshot of something I've dealt with in my life or recently. The themes are very universal and hopefully tap into something others may also experience or feel. But they don't really have a point or purpose. They just capture a mental moment.

3. Do you get into a certain mindset to create?

For this project I did. Luckily, my family was out on Saturdays doing other projects so I had the place to myself. I really need to be alone and allowed to just go nuts. I did many takes for this project which eventually led to a sound I wanted. I couldn't imagine people in the house listening in. It can be a cathartic process and one that probably makes me sound like a maniac at times. But in the end, I feel really good. Like therapy.

4. What types of things inspire your music?

Hope this doesn't come across as egotistical, but I try to rise to some authentic place. I don't want to sound like anyone else but acknowledge it's impossible to be purely authentic since we've been influenced by so many people. But I want to find a sound that comes from somewhere in or outside of myself. I don't mean to sound ethereal but with this project in particular, i was given a chance to dig deeper to align my voice with Glen's compositions. I wanted to give back something that worked well with his sound and that made me feel like my genuine voice was coming through. 

5. You played in other bands with Greno, what it is like to creatively reunite after all these years?

I've always enjoyed collaborating with Greno. He's easy to work with and is really supportive. We made great albums together under the Jorrell moniker and his drumming and encouragement always made the process smooth. So getting back together--even if we're not in the same room--has been fun and easy. Greno's a natural producer. He really encourages you and keeps you moving. Love that.

6. What kinds of bands/artists do you listen to nowadays?

I'm all over the map lately. From jazz to classical to new age to experimental. Still tend to go for the singer/songwriter stuff but am loving the more nonlinear music lately. Have enjoyed stuff from Light in the Attic Records a lot, especially the Japanese soundscape stuff from folks like Hiroshi Yoshimura and music by Haruomi Hosono. 

7. How do you like living in Los Angeles, having lived near NYC for a large portion of your life? Similarities? Differences?

Los Angeles is a city and suburb all rolled up into one big metropolis. There are so many neighborhoods and so much segregation that people tend to stay in their "hoods". You're either a west-sider, east-sider, south-sider, or from the Valley region. But inside of all of that are pretty incredible communities, museums, venues, restaurants, and all kinds of diversion. It's mind boggling. I work all over the city so I spend a lot of time in my car watching the city through my windshield.

What I miss about NYC is walking for long distances or taking the subway and being wherever I needed to be within that 5 mile city in a matter of minutes. So much life everywhere and stories on every stoop. And I'm not talking about Brooklyn which is a whole other world. The NYC I knew from the 80s and 90s, no one cared where you came from, it was how you showed up.

I dig LA and it's where my family is settled. We have access to every distraction we need here. 

8. Do you plan to play any instruments on upcoming LF releases?

I'd like to. I've been messing around with the electric keyboard/synth more and piano. I have the guitar and sax always ready if needed.

9. Favorite venues (could be to play at or see shows at or both)

There are so many great ones. I always prefer the smaller rooms though. The Zebulon is great. Saw a noise show with Kim Gordon that blew me away. The Teregram, Largo, and Bootleg are great but my favorite venue by far is my friend Reuben Cox's guitar shop called Old Style. I've seen intimate shows with Andrew Bird, The National, Mike Viola, Jim James, and tons of incredible artists. The shop is also the best guitar shop in LA. Reuben designs guitars for folks like Jackson Browne (who also played a show in the shop) and Carrie Brownstein among many others.

10. Best Mexican food in Los Angeles?

Damn, this is going to get me in trouble. But I love Señor Fish and CaCao Mexicatesan in Eagle Rock where I live. Great margaritas at La Fuente, too. But the best tacos are from trucks in Echo Park. Really cheap too.

11. Are you a Dodger fan now? God,I hope not as you were a NYY Fan before, then an A's fan, shame on you bandwagoner - .ed (Kidding!!!)

Man, I've jumped around too much. I don't know anymore. I go to Dodgers games and route for them. They're fun and the stadium is great. Let's just say I'm a fan of baseball. 

12. What's next for Local Flight? Video plans?

Not sure. Working on a few tracks Greno sent me. Let's see what we can do. 

13. Anything you would like to add or say sir?

Thanks for the questions and for all the great music you're making. So cool to be a part of this community.


LISTEN/BUY Local Flight music
www.localflight.bandcamp.com

Dangerous Days Interview

I met Dangerous Days a few years back when my band Menagerie played some shows with them. I was always impressed by their songs and overall consistent vibe. They were loud yet melodic. The band had hooks but also a blues edge. Plus, they are a great bunch of guys! Brock is also a prominent graphic artist in the scene, he does all their artwork, flyers, etc. Recently, I interviewed Brock (bass,guitar,vocals) and Tyson (drums). They are celebrating the release of their new live album LIVE AT THE BLACK SHEEP on Colorado Springs based label Anonymous Collective.

1. When did the band start?

B: Tyson and I started the band in October of 2016. My wife’s coworker heard Tyson asking the teacher at his kids school if she knew anybody that played music and Crystal knew that I was looking too and I texted Tyson that night and we struck up a conversation.

T: The band started in late 2016. Around September, I started itching to play my drums with other people pretty bad, so I put an ad out on craigslist. I am pretty shy and did not know what would come of it. Around this same time I was at my sons preschool talking about music and a friend of Brock’s wife overheard me and offered to pass along my information to Brock. Again I honestly did not think much of it really. By October Brock and I met at the comic book store downtown, Escape Velocity, after exchanging emails. We discussed art, comics, movies and music. After we figured each other for the appropriate amount of weirdness we went to jam that day in my garage. Then, I cant remember if it was actually that same day or a day or two later but Palmer responded to my craigslist ad and so Brock and I met him at a coffee shop in Old Colorado City. We chit chatted over again with Palmer then Brock and I invited Plamer back to where the drums and guitar was already set up and we started jamming. After that we all pretty much made an agreement to get together whenever we could and make music together. It was fun and weird to hit it off right away.

2. Were you guys always a trio?

B: Kinda, within like maybe a week of playing with Tyson he set up a meeting with Palmer at Mother Muffs and we went and met and talked then right after Palmer came over and we started jamming that day.

T: We were always a trio, though I believe we did originally want a fourth member but it just never panned out or rather we stopped looking.

3. Do you guys write as a band or individually or both?

B: Palmer had some songs he brought, I had some songs at the beginning but as we started rolling and playing more the music just came out. Tyson would sometimes throw me a drum beat that he was doing in his garage and send it to me, but most of the time we would spend most of the first part of practice just playing until something good started happening. Palmer already had Mismanaged Delta Blues 100% and we just came along for the ride. I had songs from all over the place and the one that stuck was Six Shooter 2. Palmer was the main lyricist in the band and always have so many ideas for lyrics it seemed like it was easy for him. I would always say things like “it has to say something like.....” and I could see that Palmer would kinda laugh and be like “Okay Brock....” hahahahaha! Tyson would always throw out this set of lyrics “Come with me and you’ll see” every time it seemed like for a song. It became a funny little thing because we would always laugh about it when he did it. Nothing was out of bounds when it came to writing the music so any one of us could do what we wanted, I felt like we could have all exchange instruments very easily all the time if we wanted to. Tyson had this innate ability to just play his drums in a way that it fit perfectly, it was precise and not overstated, right where you needed it. Palmer is and incredible musician and he can play anything he touches and his guitar playing was just phenomenal to me because he could come up with these leads and phrases that complimented anything that we did. And then you got me just trying to keep up.

T: We all came up with music together and worked on the lyrics together except for what Palmer brought us (Mismanaged Delta Blues, lyrics, poems) those we just polished up or made them “ours” as opposed to “his”. Brock also had Six Shooter almost all the way there, just needed a nudge to became Six Shooter 2.

4. How would you describe the bands sound?

B: Our sound was very hard to define and I know that is very cliche to say but it was. We could go from alternative, rock, blues, metal, stoner, electronic, whatever and I sounded like us. We only used a couple of tunings on the Guitars and Tyson’s drums were very small like a club kit. But I think that’s where his precision came from.

T: I would not know how to describe it other than saying “Rock” or “Rock music”, “Rock ‘n’ Roll”.

5. Describe your role in the band

B: I played Bass and Guitar in the band. I really enjoyed playing both instruments and coming up with new ways on stage to switch. I have my own little setup that’s not too complicated but takes a little concentration. Adding to that I had to bring at least one spare guitar or bass for every tuning too. So sometimes I would have like 6 instruments with me to cover any eventuality or problem. I also did all the artwork for the band, all the social media, all the demo recording and mixing, pretty much everything. It’s just who I am. I already had played over 200 shows with other bands so since I had that experience I was kinda put in the role of getting shows too. I didn’t get all of our shows Tyson and Palmer did arrange a lot of shows too.

T: I played the drums and threw my 2 cents in when I thought it would make a difference. I’m not so sure we had “defined” roles as we all worked together. I guess at first we had practice at my house.

 6. Favorite show(s) you played? 

B: There were so many great shows that we played, the ones with Hipbone, Menagerie, Smellblind, they were all fun, only one comes to mind that sucked. And I won’t get into that one.

T: Well I was always super nervous about playing music in front of people, but never as much as the first time we played at the Black Sheep which also happened to be the first time we, as a band, had played live in front of people together AND the first time I myself had ever played music live. So my favorite show has to be the set we played at The Black Sheep in 2017.

7. Tell us about your new releases!

B: So the first couple of things we released were our full length album “It’s Morning In America and We Are Violence” was a re-release on Anonymous Collective. We envisioned the album, at least in my eyes as a picture of America and everything that goes on behind the scenes that most people want to overlook because they are happy in their own little world. At first the record was going to be lined up with different songs all about the downfall of society and the songs told about society crumbling and leaving behind a world reclaimed by the earth itself. It’s still in there that way but there are different songs that took away from that narrative. Not too different but different from the original idea. It took on a new life after we got to recording it. I will say when we started looking at some order of the songs, the way it naturally came out it took on a life of its own. So with everything going on two years later the message was still strong. It’s a common theme throughout Americas history that is right there on the surface of your not to afraid to look. We released the singles “More Than I Can Stomach” and “Mismanaged Delta Blues” during this whole pandemic and black lives matter and the messages still ring true so we needed to put it back out there. Then we had three recorded songs we didn’t release from that recording session. By the way, Jessie from Rewind was so awesome and patient, accommodating that it wasn’t hard to get our music recorded. He gave us awesome suggestions and really shined us up. We recorded everything over a weeks period and it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. The three songs we had left were a very heavy and different overall tone for us. At least the first two, High Priestess and Prince and The Fallen were all down tuned and were in a direction musically that we were just beginning to explore. Short Round was a song I loved, it was instrumental and had a driving force behind it that never let up. Tyson always hated playing that one but when we recorded it we did it in maybe 3 takes and that’s the limit we put on it and it came out great. Then when the opportunity to put those out on Anonymous Collective I jumped at the chance to put those out there. The last release was our very first show that we lucked into at The Black Sheep. The sound man recorded it and sold us a copy for 50 bucks and we always held onto it for later release.

T: The Fallen EP has 3 tracks we recorded with Jesse but never put out. There is a video of us playing High Preistess live at The Zodiac and an old recording of Short Round used to make a music video. Those as well as a “heavier” track, The Prince & The Fallen are available now/soon. Some other unreleased recordings may also be making their way online too.

8. Any future plans for the band? 

B: The future is always the future and if I had more time I would be able to put a little into more and it would be great. Now it’s just doing what I did before we got together and just write and record and hopefully the time will come.

T: Perhaps some past music and video footage can be unearthed in the future? Who knows.

9. Favorite venue in town? 

B: The Gold Room. Period. One of the coolest places around. The stage is really cool, the venue is awesome looking, and Mark is awesome! I just wish more people would come out because it’s so intimate and bitchin’!

T: I don’t feel super qualified to answer this because we only played a handful of shows but, The Buzz, The Zodiac, and The Ancient Mariner were all very cool to us and way cool to hang out and jam at. The Gold Room was a venue I would have LOVED to have packed full of people.

10. What are some local bands you like?

B: Hipbone is one of the coolest bands I’ve ever watched but to me what makes them so cool to me is that they are all super cool guys and it’s awesome to be friends with them. To be friends with one of your favorite bands is so cool! Your band Menagerie always kicked ass too! Colin, Andrew, and you Glen have always been super cool guys and always fun to play with. But your music was always bad ass and worth every second of watching you guys play. We played with Smellblind once and those guys blew me away and they are just tremendous musicians too!

T: Always really dug Hipbone and Menagerie.

11. What are members doing now? 

B: I’m still doing all kinds of things as always. The Dropped Culture Podcast keeps me pretty busy. Running the website, almost all of the social media, marketing, artwork, producing, merchandise, I’m always super busy. I still make posters for people and during this pandemic stuff it’s slowed down on the poster front. I love making the record covers and my own posters but I’m about to start a new semester in school. I still want to get back to painting because I love the serenity of it and want to fall back into it hard. Plus the Sunshine band, working with Colin, you on your solos and now the collaboration record it seems like every minute is taken. I love it!

T: I am not totally sure where Palmer is at in his journey. Brock does the Dropped Culture Podcast as well as school and work and family duties. I am trying my best to be a good family man these days. I also read a lot of comic books. My name is Tyson and I like movies and The Dark Tower but not the Dark Tower movie.

12. Any other thoughts? 

B: I just can’t wait for the new Fanzine “Rocket USA” getting back into writing is something I’m going to love too! There are just not enough hours in the day!

T: I want to say the whole experience was one I am extremely grateful for. Making music with other people is an indescribable feeling that I have yet to replicate on this level before or since. I am very proud of the music we made and the album we were able to record and have down on record saying "We did this, I helped make this.". I find a lot of what we were talking about then in 2017, the album as a whole; the themes, lyrics, music, art, attitude, etc., extremely relevant NOW in 2020 and this makes me feel lucky as I feel that is one thing an artist/s strives for.

You can listen/purchase Dangerous Days music at dangerousdays3.bandcamp.com

NEXT ISSUE : JORRELL FROM LOCAL FLIGHT (AUGUST)