Kate Gearity

Folklore

No longer just lies told by old people, Folklore is now also a band, and a very fine one, indeed.  And it's not just a band, but also a project, and a collaborative one, at that.  Yes, many talented individuals contribute to the musical wonder that is Folklore, the latest local indie-rock supergroup, including such peerless personages as C'est Mortel's David Specht, Wee Turtles ringleader Jon Croxton, and Ian Rickert of Fairmount Fair and Bugs Eat Books (and who also works at Flagpole).  Only one man, though, calls the shots, and that man is Jimmy Hughes, the friendly gadabout and jack-of-all-trades responsible for such notable musical endeavors as Boys' Star Library, Fairmount Fair, and some of those guitar parts you hear on newer Elf Power songs.  When Hughes tells former Master of the Hemisphere Bren Mead what notes to sing, Mead asks how high.

Folklore isn't just a band name, though; it's a raison d'être.  Much like famed wordsmith Washington Irving, Hughes, a native of Syracuse, NY, aims to craft new folk tales out of various upstate New York occurrences and idiosyncrasies.  Irving became the first American author to be taken seriously in Europe, in part by focusing on folk legends from this region. Hopefully, Hughes will also find such fame, even though the future and the Internet have made folklore as antiquated and useless as letter-writing and journalism.  Still, Jimmy Hughes hopes to resuscitate those days when primitive man made up stories to justify his fear of shadows, thunder and uppity cattle.

Folklore's first album The Ghost of H. W. Beaverman is a self-released collection of mellow psych-pop gems that utilizes various narrators and points of view to craft an ever-shifting picture of the title character.  It's both a work of fiction, a project of personal folklore and a great, ramshackle pop record that resembles the softer side of Roky Erickson.  It's also the rare concept record that doesn't let the story overwhelm the songwriting.  In anticipation of this week's CD release show - a four-band bill on which Folklore plays second - Flagpole had the opportunity to chat with Hughes.

Flagpole

Is the record based on actual folktales from upstate New York?

Jimmy Hughes

The story's based on a lot of things. Some actual folk legends, and some fictionalized ones.  I put a lot of thought into the backstory; you wouldn't necessarily pick this up from one listen, but at least in my brain it's all very thought out and planned.  It's basically fictionalized, but I almost sort of prefer it to be thought of as an actual folk legend, although there is a present tense to it.

Flagpole

So what's the concept behind the story?

Jimmy Hughes

It's about this character, H. W. Beaverman.  At the beginning, he's dead, and I, as the narrator, go around and interview people who knew him, and the songs are what they say about him.  Each song is sung from the first-person perspective of a different character, and from each person we learn a bit more and move down the rumor tree from Beaverman being dead to him being alive and talking to me. Basically, I interview back through time to reconstruct this person.  It's also set up as being like my own actual research into this folk story.

Flagpole

Who is H. W. Beaverman?

Jimmy Hughes

It's a real name I've seen someplace and that stuck in my head, and [that] I imagined a figure around.  I was in Binghamton, NY, and there was this large bridge that goes over the Susquehanna River; underneath that bridge was this weird sketchy area with these decrepit old cabins from like the '50s, and one of them had the name "H. W. Beaverman" on it.  It was quite legible from the bridge.

It was a really weird house, full with shredded papers, as full as if it had no roof and the house got full with snow.  There was this weird abandoned car out front, kind of a nice car, but it had flat tires and had obviously been abandoned there for a while, but the registration was brand-new, it was current.

Flagpole

And then you built a character around that name?

Jimmy Hughes

The character formed in my head after the name.  So this old guy Beaverman goes to these different places, like a cabin and a bait shack, and doesn't really talk to people, but everybody knows who he is and talks about him and thinks they know him.  A lot of its based on my grandfather, these antics and practical jokes that he would pull, and then little doses of rural legends added in to make it more elaborate.

Flagpole

How did you incorporate these legends into the songs?

Jimmy Hughes

 A portion of the story is based on stories from Lake Bonaparte that my cousin or aunt told me, then I expanded on, but with some factual stuff in there.

Like there's a mention in the record of a place called Beer Island; it was a private island with a liquor license and a bar, and people would take their boats there and drive home drunk.  It's not there anymore.  An army base, Fort Drum, is nearby and those cadets would come in and go to Beer Island, back in the '50s or '60s, they'd go drinking but wouldn't have a boat, so my cousin would take them out there and charge them.  And that's sort of dealt with in the song "The Drowning At Lake Bonaparte."

Flagpole

A lot of different people played on this record, both musicians and singers.  How did you decide who to work with, and who to ask to voice the various characters?

Jimmy Hughes

 I'd been writing the songs for a while; it took us about two years to record, but a lot of the songs date back far before that.  I didn't obsess over the recording too much; it's more fun that way.  Pete Erchick [of Olivia Tremor Control, Circulatory System, etc.] was a huge help; he doesn't play with us live, but there were a few nights where I was thinking songs were missing something, and Pete would come over and listen to the recordings and just jam out.  He came up with some great stuff, as did John Fernandes [also of OTC, Circulatory System, Elf Power, New Sound of Numbers, etc.].  The song structures were there, we'd work out the basics, but as far as lead parts, a lot of them were jammed out. We did that with almost everything.  [Croxton] hadn't even heard the songs that much before coming up with the drum parts, but he and I play pretty well together.

With the singing, based on the way the songs were written, and the way I was singing them, I had the idea to remove my voice from some of the leads, and have it be a bit more character developed.  In each case, I knew who I wanted to be involved, and I tried to pick songs that I thought they'd be good at.  The way The Father was written, I thought that would be better with Andrew [Rieger, of Elf Power]'s voice, compared to The Vet, which works better with Bren [Mead]'s voice.  I wanted female voices for the two girl characters, and bugged Amy [Dykes, of I Am The World Trade Center] and Heather [McIntosh, of the Instruments] about it.

And with Scott [Spillane, of the Gerbils], his sense of humor reminded me of my grandfather, and since the title character was based somewhat on him, it made sense.

Flagpole

Will there be more Folklore in the future, or is this a one-off project?

Jimmy Hughes

I've got another record halfway written, and I definitely want to do some more.  We're planning to do a few experiments where we hang out and jam while the tape's running, try to get some ideas from that, just play music and see what happens.  I'm writing more structured songs, too, but I want to work on a completely collaborative record where we have a storyline to work with but things come together collaboratively.  The band is pretty solid right now.

On the next one, though, if there are people that played on Beaverman that want to join in again, then I'd be more than glad to have them come jam with us, but I'd like to make a record that's more honest to the live performance, get the core band involved.  We get together and hang out in practice and it's never stressful, [and] always pretty awesome.

Garrett Martin

WHO: Circulatory System (Phase 2), New Sound of Numbers, Folklore, Summer Hymns
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Wednesday, February 7
HOW MUCH; $5