“So, what’s in the notebook?”

The three of us were sitting in the back of Shay’s in Harvard Square facing three members of the band formerly known as Baker, and a bright blue spiral notebook was on the counter next to Steve’s sweating glass.  After cracking jokes about how the stack of paper revealed the answers they had prepared for our impending interview, the reality was that Conan, Steve and Andy were gathering that night to come up with a new name for their band, and a list of potential names took up a few of the notebook’s pages.  Baker, a band whose sound is familiar to the ears of Bostonians with an indie kick, is no longer the five-piece band that nailed 2007’s Bike Ride, which wound up in the good graces of several rock/pop critics in town.  Today, Conan Skyrme, Steve Lord and Andy Casey continue to make music together but of a more-rock-less-pop persuasion.  And for that reason, this new band comprised of members of a group formerly known as Baker needs a new name.

We shouldered up the back bar with pints in hand, and amidst the blare of classic and mid-90s radio standards over the speakers of Shays, we got down to business and started talking shop. Why did Baker break up?  What’s so different about the band’s sound now as opposed to before, and what are their fans going to think?  Does the band identify as a Boston band through and through, and what kind of a connection do they have with this city that’s a hotbed for musical creativity and talent?  Before we dispersed on that dreary Tuesday evening, we realized that we were incredibly lucky to catch up this talented band transitioning from one exciting stage in their careers to the next, and that their future endeavors are definitely reason enough to keep tabs on them in the coming months.  Read on to see what Steve, Conan and Andy are up to now, what they’ve been working on, and what’s on deck for the shifting shape of one of Boston’s most beloved local talents.

-Hilary Hughes

OPENING ACT: THE TEAPARTY 10

What’s your favorite breakfast cereal?

C: Fruit Brute.  I’ve never had it but I want it.  It’s in a bunch of Tarantino movies.

A: NUTRIGRAIN BARS.

S: Cookie Crisp.

A: What’s your favorite cereal?

Hil:  Um… cheerios with orange juice.

S: I wish I came up with a better answer.

Gab: I like Cornflakes.

Jessie:  Um… since the only store within walking distance to me is Whole Foods, I’m big on Puffins and Kashi…  Especially if you mix them together.

G:  Yeah that’s fiber heaven. [Gab looks at Hil suggestively to imply that she’s thinking about pooping.]

Who would you rather punch in the face-

S: CONAN SKRYME!

C: What?!  Not cool, dude.

S: Sorry.  I didn’t wait for the whole question.

… It’s okay.  Who would you rather punch in the face: Long Duk Dong from “Sixteen Candles” or Mouth from “The Goonies”?

C: Long Duk Dong because I’m racist.  That’s of course a joke, but I would punch him because he’s irritating.  I’d punch myself in the face and save Long Duk Dong and Mouth simultaneously.

A: We’d all punch Conan in the place, too.

S: I completely agree.  I would save the other two instead.

If you were a kitchen appliance, what would you be?

S: Egg timer. For sure. Because they come in all shapes and sizes.

A: Oven!

S: Because I would time him.

C: An automatic cake-icer, and I’d give it to Steve for his birthday.

You go to bed, wake up the next morning, go to brush your teeth… and you realize that you’ve morphed into one of Jim Henson’s Muppets overnight.  Which Muppet are you?

S: DUH. ANIMAL.

A: Kermit.

S: And Conan’s Miss Piggy.  Next question.

C: I gained a few pounds this year, Steve!  Relax! Actually, Rolf is a great pianist.  He’s a massive pianist.

[Jessie giggles.]

After a raucous night out, you wake up at some point the next day and you realize that in your fit of crazy you got inked.  What tattoo did you wake up with?

S: I need more time [to answer this question]!

C: What, has this actually happened?  Have you actually been tattooed in your sleep?

S: No.

C: I would get one of the KISS faces, but permanently.  I’d be Gene Simmons, but –

S: Permanently?! That’s a GREAT answer.  I would get the Union Jack tattooed on my face for absolutely no reason.

C: I had a friend who got his eyebrows shaved off in his face once… so I would get a tattoo of my friend right here [Conan pounds on his left pec.]

S: And then he’d get my face tattooed on the other side.

C: No, I’d get Steve and Andy in bed together Bert and Ernie style tattooed on the other side.

S: I’m going to answer for Andy.  He’d get a tattoo of his cat, Champ.

Would you rather be a rodeo clown or a sumo wrestler?

S: Sumo wrestler.

A: Sumo wrestler.

C: Rodeo clown.  You can’t really have a life outside of sumo wrestling.

S: No, your life IS a clown when you’re a clown.

C: What? No, you don’t have to wear the makeup all the time and you have to be a big fat dude wearing a nappy if you’re a sumo wrestler.

S: The clown makeup is tattooed on your face.

C: No it’s not!

A: Yes it is!

S: Dude.

C: … I’d be a Gene Simmons rodeo clown.

If you had to be a kind of cheese, which cheese would you be?

C: Winsleydale with cranberries.

S: Cheez Wiz, for sure.

A: I’d be yellow Kraft cheese, the kind that’s in the packet.  Definitely yellow.  That stuff’s nasty.

If you were a style of facial hair, what style facial hair would you be?

S: What if you CAN’T grow facial hair?

C: What if we grew one big beard between the three of us that’s all connected?

S: It’d be a Beard Collective.  BAND NAME!

What’s your quintessential “I’M GONNA DANCE AROUND MY APARTMENT IN MY UNDERWEAR AND LOVE LIFE!” song?

S: “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”

A: … Is that off the record?

S: No, that’s ON the record. That’s a great tune.

C: I really like that song, “Girl You Want” by Devo.

A: That’s not a guilty pleasure!

C: I have terrible in taste in music.  The fact that I like the Eagles was on our website for ages.

What’s your favorite word?

C: Commitment.

A: Teamwork!

S: Teen Wolf.

THE MAIN EVENT: THE FROSTY PINES TPB INTERVIEW

Normally the three of us can never get together for an interview, so this is really cool for us.

Steve: Oh, okay!

Can we get the back-story on Baker?  How did you guys meet and come to make music together?

Conan: Actually, as a side note: Baker was a five-piece:  We had Nicole Boudreau and she played keyboards, and then we had James who played bass.  Steve plays drums, I play bass now and Andy plays guitar, but I used to play guitar.

S: We’ve lost two members.

C: I had been in another band when I first arrived called Baker, and we had played a few shows, and we played with the band that Steve and James were in before.  We ended up playing shows together, the two bands, and it was just good because there was a little music scene going on which was nice and a bunch of bands from Andover – it was like the Apollo Sunshine crew.

S: The Animal Closet was another one.  That’s what brought us together.  [Steve puts his hand on Conan’s shoulder.]

Awww.  You found love in the Animal Closet.

C: That sounds weird.

Where did this all happen?  Did this all happen in Boston?

C: I moved here about five years ago.  My wife’s from here; I wasn’t married at the time, we got married, she’s from Winchester.  So I moved here, and I had a bag of songs when I came here, put a band together with a drummer from Berklee and a guy I studied with in Italy, but he’s left.  All these people have left town, and then through playing with that band I met Steve’s band.  Then we formed Baker, and then Steve moved to France for three months, and then we broke up, and when he got back we started playing a few shows under “Baker” but we felt weird about it-

S: Every show, people thought we were Baker but we weren’t; every show we had a different name.  The first show we played when we came back was especially weird. Baker fans came and then they saw that it was just the three of us onstage, and it was just-

Are we talking about Bike Ride-era Baker? So this has all been a really recent happening, huh?

C: Yeah.  We’re like a power trio now, except we’re evolving.  I’ve been writing a lot, especially since Steve went away, so we’ve got a lot of songs, and for the future the band is going to have this slightly harder less poppy-rock feel than Baker.  We’ve got a whole lot of horn players coming in, so it’ll have a retro feel. I’ve always wanted that idea of a power trio with jazzy horns, but it’s still rock pop music.

I’m interested in the evolution of Baker, where you stood, what people know… I want to get into where you guys are now and why you’ve decided to keep the name or why you’re not entirely comfortable with keeping it.

C: We’ve played under three different names for our last few shows.

A: Hey.  What’s our band name?  (Laughs)

C: Yeah, we were thinking of the Bipolar Express.  This is just getting ridiculous.

Where did the name Baker come from?

C: I didn’t live on THE Baker Street, but I lived on A Baker Street in my town in the UK and I started the band with my brother.  The band’s been through three incarnations and the last one was the longest.

I feel like you go through transformations with bands and yourself – I feel like my friends always want to change the name for their next projects because musically they’ve evolved.

C: It was different, actually; some of the songs carried over, but they changed completely, especially having five people.  In the UK it was a four-piece, and it was different; it was kind of quicker… it had more of an edge to it I think.  The second incarnation had more of an edge but it was only a three-piece set so it was a sparse sound.  And then with five-piece Baker, everyone was playing all the time so we had to carefully arrange all the songs.  I found it difficult that it ended up sort of poppy, and when we got to The [WBCN] Rumble and stuff we had a few more people listen to our stuff.  We played with Doctor Dog a few times-

Gabby LOVES them.

C: They’re AWESOME.  Great guys.  We’ve played some really good shows with them.  After that, they toured with Apollo Sunshine, who are really good guys.

So, back to this notebook… is this seriously a list of band names right now?

S: No.  It’s a script for the interview.  No, really, it is a list of band names.

C: The reason why I kept the name Baker is because there was a Baker website, a Baker email, a Baker mailing list, so keeping it was an easy thing to do.  It was a logistical thing and before with the previous two bands half the songs stayed the same so it was easy, but now, this stuff’s so different it’s hard to justify keeping the band name. We’re literally fishing around for names right now.  We’re really excited about this new band.

S: Let’s do the name RIGHT NOW.  (Laughs)

C: By the end of tonight we’ll have a name for you.

So what have the Frosty Pines been working on currently in terms of writing and recording and getting things down?  When do you plan on releasing something from this new project?

C: End of the summer.

S: Yeah, end of the summer for sure.

C: An EP, probably: We have enough material for a full album, but I think we’re going to go with an EP.

S: Yeah, an EP is a better tease.

C: We made an EP with Baker, which we never released, and I feel like it was the best that Baker’s ever been and we never released it!

S: Yeah.

C: We’ll play a couple of tunes from that EP, but that’s the only legacy from the old Baker. We’ll be playing a song called Dynamite.

It’s interesting: when we’re talking about EPs I feel like there are expectations where the audience is absolutely expecting a “this is what we’re working on” kind of piece that isn’t necessarily cohesive but that keeps them in the know of what you’re working on.

S: Yeah, just to give an update on what’s going on.

Well, you’re last big album, Bike Ride, came out a couple of years ago, right?

C, S: Yeah.

Then that’s great.

C: That was like a double release: We released it and then we got signed with a label.

There are a lot of acts that are from here but who prefer to record in Brooklyn or New York.  It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.  Are you recording it here in Boston?

C: We might record in Western Massachusetts with Justin Pizzaforato.  He’s engineered pretty much everything that Baker ever did and he did all the new Dinosaur Jr. stuff.  Awesome dude.  Young guy, he’s like 27.  He’s good at having that- Dinosaur Jr. is perfect for him because it’s got that early nineties indie rock sensibility about it.

Let’s talk creative process, in terms of writing, in the studio… Does one of you guys do the majority of the writing or is it a collaborative effort to write the album?

S: With this project it’s more Conan with the lyrics, because in Baker before we had everyone kind of doing harmonies and background vocals and this is just mainly one mic and Conan.

A: Conan and two fellas.

S: Conan and two guys in the back!

What are the changes you’re welcoming with the writing process for the Frosty Pines compared to the writing process for Baker?

S: With Baker it was always tastes colliding.  We always liked different things, so everyone had their two cents about things that didn’t really work.

A: There were too many cooks in the kitchen.  This band’s a little more intuitive musically, because Conan can take stuff that we’ve been jamming with and go home and fine tune it a little bit and come back and it seems a little easier that way, whereas before everybody was talking at the same time.

C: Before, we were just feeling good and hanging out and there’s nothing wrong with that, it was a great experience, but you realize where it gets you and it gets you to like, doing okay and getting by.  If you want to take it a bit more seriously, it’s kind of like having a director on a film, I think.  It’s nice to just have one person giving administrative advice as well as being practical and correcting things.  If you’ve got one guy with an idea, something might happen.  I mean, we’ll jam everything out: I’ll bring something to these guys and we’ll play it out together.  It’s not just me going “This is the way it’s going to be!”

S: Yeah, we jam a lot.

A: I think it’s easier that way, and it sounds less gimmicky because of that.  The songs seem more…

C: Cohesive?  Yeah.  It’s paying off.  We’ve had three shows that’ve been awesome and one of them was TERRIBLE.

S: It was the worst show that ever happened.

What happened?!

S: Everything that could’ve gone wrong happened.

A: I like, forgot all the songs, and then my amp didn’t work-

C: -Yeah, it went to hell-

S: It was at the Plough and Stars, which isn’t really meant for rock shows.

A: It was really weird afterwards, too.  We couldn’t even look each other in the eye.

S: We didn’t even shake hands.  We just departed.

C: We pulled up at the same traffic light at one point – I was giving Andy a ride home and Steve and I just looked across and we just kind of made eye contact and then turned away.

A: “I was like, ‘I wonder if I’ll ever see Steve again.’”

C: It was seriously depressing because it’s an awesome venue and the sound’s amazing.

S: We’ll get ‘em next time.

What’s your favorite venue to play in Boston?

C: Middle East, Downstairs.

S: Yeah, Middle East Downstairs.

Any particular reason?

S: Because there’s a backstage!

C: Yeah, it’s nice that there’s a backstage, and usually with beer.

A: I like Upstairs, too.

S: Yeah, except it doesn’t have a backstage.  I like to feel like a rock star!

C: We had one of our shows as THIS band Upstairs.

It’s interesting:  People talk about the differences between the bands playing Upstairs and Downstairs and the vibes they’re going for.

A: The good thing about Upstairs too is that if you want to get the hell out of there you can just go and get a beer.

C: Yeah, you can have a beer there and see some people onstage doing some crazy shit on the TVs at the bar, and then you get curious and pay for a ticket and go check out the band.

What about TT’s?

C: I like it a lot.  That’s where I played my first show when I was new to the States, with the three-piece I played with when I first got here.

How do Boston venues differ compared to venues in other cities and what you’ve experienced on the corporate side of things? How does the business side of the music business change between cities, in your experience as a band?

S: New York is really, really tough-

C: In terms of payment, and stuff.

S: New York, especially at the door for guests, they ask who you’re there to see – that doesn’t happen in Boston so much, I think there may be a few venues that do it here – but they say they’re there to see your band, you get a share of what the door costs.  Here, it’s all split up amongst the bands pretty evenly, but there it’s all determinant on who comes there to see you, for the most part.

C: They usually give you an ultimatum, yeah.  Sometimes we’d drive all the way down there to make, like, eight bucks.  Sometimes less.

And you’re saying that you don’t find that to be the case in Boston or that you haven’t dealt with that as much?

S: No, not at all.

C: Most of that is because when you’re in the town you’re from and you’re playing, it’s gonna be easier because you’re always gonna have your friends around to come and see you.  In terms of the way clubs treat you it’s fairly simple.  You have a massive range of clubs in New York, and you have a pretty healthy range in Boston.  I think Boston’s a tough town to do well in long-term in some ways because in New York there’s more labels than there are in Boston, so people from Boston will wind up going down to New York every other weekend, which is what we did with Baker for awhile.

How would you describe the demographic of your fans and where it falls?  Would you say you have older fans, or that younger kids are listening to your music now?  Do you think it’ll change between the fans you had when Baker was as it was and what you’re doing now?

C: A little bit.

S: I feel like “old Baker” was way more listener-friendly, I guess.

C: It was popular, so we had a pretty tame-ish crowd.  When we had our first show, it was a different kind of person that was coming up and raving about our music than fans of old Baker.  It was more… mid to late twenties full of hipster dudes rather than family-friendly audiences.

Boston’s not really a friendly city for 18+ shows.  How has that impacted you?

C: It’s a shame that they don’t have more all-ages places in Boston, but the downside is that when those places exist the earlier shows open.  All-ages shows are fun to play because it’s not the same atmosphere.

S: At ALL.

C: Some of these places manage to conjure up a similar feel even though you can’t drink.  Did you guys used to go to all-ages shows around here?

The Worcester Palladium, mostly; I was a big ska/punk fiend in high school.

S: Yeah!

C: Nice.

So, what’s your view on the Boston music community?  Are there cliques?  Is it all-inclusive?

S: I don’t feel that it’s all-inclusive.  I definitely think there are cliques.  I mean, lots of different bands who play the same kind of music become friends.  Like, us with the Self Righteous Brothers: We play shows with them almost every show in Boston.

Would you say that it’s for geographic reasons or because of genre?  Obviously, there are Andover bands, and Cambridge bands –

C: I think it’s a big geographic thing.  If you’re playing around the country with other bands, I think it’s a Massachusetts thing where bands from Boston love to stick together.

I think it’s really interesting hearing what bands have to say in Boston as opposed to that in other cities like Nashville where the community is so thick.  I feel like coming here, it’s –

S: More cliquey?  I’ve never been to Nashville, but I feel the same.  It’s not unfriendly here, but there’s so many bands who play with so many bands and I think some of the bands come off where they have this tough guy shtick and they don’t really care.

What about patronage? I don’t know, sometimes I feel like there should be an effort on the part of the people who come out to the shows on a regular basis.

S: It depends, that kind of goes back to the ages.  If venues were all-ages, it’d be a different story.  I guess that you have a big working class crowd in Boston where if it’s a show on a Wednesday night, I mean, even myself, Wednesday I have to be at work early the next day, it may be a great band but I don’t know if I can make it.

C: There are few venues where it’s easy to mingle, physically.  I like the Middle East because there are three venues and bar areas and it’s easy for bands playing different shows at that spot in particular, on that corner in Central Square. I think that corner with TT’s is great because usually these venues are spaced enough where you just finish a show and go home.  I’ve run into people there and sometimes – bands kind of stick together.  They like certain types of music and their friends are friends with certain bands, so I don’t know.

Do you have anything to add about the discussion on the Boston community and how bands affiliating with other bands affect the scene?

A: I don’t really think about stuff like that.  I don’t think it really effects what WE do; we just kind of go and do a room some where and figure out what sounds good, not like, “Gee, do you think the guys in MidAtlantic are gonna like this?”

C: When I used to write songs I used to sort of wonder how it would be received by the guys you always end up playing with because you know their taste a bit better.  When it’s some random band you’re playing with, they either like your stuff or don’t, it doesn’t mean as much.

A: Most of the bands we end up doing shows with are bands that we don’t have too much in common with but who we’re friendly with.  A few personalities mix well.  I don’t know if it’s “cliquey”; It’s more social, I guess.

C: I mean, people move to New York and LA to get signed, to make a career of it.  And Nashville, as well, it’s where all the guys at the labels are based.

The competition is so much harder when you move to those places.  Your music should be heard.  I know that it’s timing and place and everything else, but sometimes if you’re like in a place like Boston and you’re an amazing band things should work out, you know?  That’s how I think of it.  It’s idealistic, but –

C: There’s a lot of guys who go to Berklee and you know, people who come here who are quite driven, and they all end up in New York.  Boston’s got that thing where there’s a core of people who are invested in the music scene because they’re either here for jobs or family or whatever it is that’s keeping them here.  But then there’s dudes that are flying through – I’ve played with a ton of people who’ve gone to Berklee, and often they’ll pass through and end up in New York.  [Boston] is a tough city because it’s so close to New York; if you were in Columbus, Ohio, there’d be less of an issue of people leaving all the time.  I also think the good thing is, because of the big student population, you have a big audience.  If you have a good band and you’re able to market it somehow and do it the indie way, you can become known and some bands have done that quite successfully.  It’s harder because the university venues, which host quite a lot of talent, use their booking agents, so it’s almost an illusion most of the time.  When I came here we tried to play on university radio stations and at university venues and to play a big – to play to most people at the university you already have to be on the radio.

You have to pay your dues, absolutely.

S: Yeah.

C: You’d be closer going to New York and working for a label than you would be at the university gates being like, “I’m right here! And no one is coming to see me!”  It’s difficult, but no one in bands here is driven commercially, so there are a lot of bands that happen upon sounds that are unique because they’re not trying to market themselves.  There’s more humor in Boston bands that are a lot more realistic and not posing all the time onstage, you know, doing their hair immaculately before they go on.  We’ve played with some New York bands who were cool and some who have been the most ridiculous people we’ve met in our lives and who we wouldn’t want to play with.  It’s difficult when we play on a bill with some of these bands, it’s a huge city, so, they’re quite driven.  There’s no “scene”.

That’s really puzzling to us when we’re talking about why Boston is different and what makes it so.

C: That’s what I really like, is that there isn’t really a scene and in a way it’s good, like people are just doing whatever they do and they just happen to live here.  It’s kind of cool because you have a mix of bands that are – so there’s no real competition, because it’s like, “Oh, you’re trying to do music? So am I!”  It’s not like, “You’re not trying to do that style? You ripped off my way of playing eighth notes!”  That’s the way the industry works: I mean, bands like Passion Pit are always gonna do well because their machinery is already there, they’re just waiting for a band who they think they’ll tour with and their electronic sound is very now.

A: Bands like that are always gonna get picked up and thrown out into the mainstream because like you said, there’s always kids who will go to shows because they’re the only people who will go out and buy a t-shirt.  People from around here, when they go to shows they’re not gonna buy three t-shirts, a pin, a pair o’ fuckin’ socks…

Wait.   You guys could make SOCKS?

A: Steve probably could.

S: I WILL make socks.  Actually, socks would be brilliant.

Hey, everyone needs socks.

A: That would be so much cooler than t-shirts.

C: They go so well when you’re sweating at our show.

How do you guys feel about the crowd in Boston?

C: It’s cool.  In terms of the scale there’s a lot of other stuff going on: You’re close to New York, there’s enough other entertainment that people probably – I mean, kids mostly go to show that they know about, like the Jonas Brothers will breeze through town or whatever-

S: I’ll go!

Do you have anything that it’s your catalogue specifically, be it songs you play currently as the former Baker or the band’s latest reincarnation that you feel particularly connected to?

C: There are a couple we play a lot, “Here come the lads”, which is one of the first ones I brought to THIS band, and there’s this new song “Radar” that’s fun to play live.

S: Yeah, those are my two faves, and “Dynamite” is the one we’ve kept around since Baker.

A: The song we open our set with, I like to play that one.

S: Which one is that?

C: “Tornado.”  Like, we played that song, that guy Dave Barr was like, “Oh! They’re like the Strokes” when he was talking about our straight tempo and rock riffs on that song.

A: My girlfriend likes the Supergrass song, too, the one that sounds like Supergrass.

C: “Turning Sinister.”

A: It’s song #5 on the set list.

What are you guys listening to right now?  What’s on your iPod or playing in your car at the moment?

S: I’m listening to Tallest Man on Earth.  I just saw him a few weeks ago at the Middle East with John Vanderslice.  I was so sold on Tallest Man on Earth; he’s like, top of the charts for me, and the Avett Brothers.  Those two guys have been in my CD player forever.

“The Ballad of Love and Hate” is just… ahhhh! [Editor’s note: Hil has a borderline unhealthy obsession with the Avett Brothers.  She’s a total fangirl about them.]

A: I don’t have an iPod.  I got this record, this band, the Chameleons; I have a bunch of their b-sides and stuff.  This band called Video, and Thop, an electronic band, I think they’re from London, actually.  I got that Bob Dylan bootleg series, that’s pretty good.

C: I’ve been listening to the Rockford Files theme song on repeat for so long.  I think it’s a great theme tune.  In terms of … I was obsessed with TV themes when I was younger, and I used to have a band that was just theme tunes every time we opened.  All the bands from the Sixties I love.  I’ve been listening to a lot more classical music in the last three years.  I used to hate listening to classical music, but I’ve found a lot of more modern stuff, Zorsky and Bartok, those guys are amazing.  They just give you a lot more than a pop song.  I love pop but in terms of inspiration you can’t quite get it because you’re hearing the same chords again and again, so classical music inadvertently helps you when you write.  I like Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear, they’ve got good shit, but I haven’t bought any of their albums recently, I just listen on YouTube.