Interviews
So it turns out that creating a bunch of new music for train stations is a pretty time consuming process! Over the next couple of days, we’re going to to catalogue some of the wonderful parts of this process that have lead up to where we are now, just a week and a half before the show.
On June 29th, just two weeks before our residency in Vermont began, we came up from Brooklyn to participate in Rail Day, a gathering of train enthusiasts from all over who come to Bellows Falls to ride the Green Mountain Railroad and learn about the history of the trains in this area. We also played a small show at Bocelli’s across the street.On several of our visits, we revved up Robert MacBride’s Airstream (or rather asked our friend Dave to haul it around) and set up a mobile “sound studio” (laptop and good microphone) to interview people about their memories of trains.
Here’s our rig:
At first, we weren’t sure what we wanted to accomplish with these interviews. Even though we thought we might end up using them in the music, it seemed like it would just be really fun! It was, but after talking to many people, patterns and themes emerged that were enthralling to hear about. When casually mentioning trains to somebody, the first response might be apathy: trains are a fact of daily life for many, often a mundane part of commuting back and forth. But inevitably, as people start to talk more, they realize that some precious memory took place on a train. Even if it was just the memory of a steam locomotive in the distance near the house where they grew up, trains carry romance and a heavy sense of nostalgia.
If we never used a single sample from these interviews (and it’s too late, we already have), they would have still served a greater purpose. It’s impossible to know an area just by breezing through, and we’re very self-conscious about how true that is. Living and working here for one month only goes so far, but simply sitting and listening has helped us understand better how industry and trains have connected Vermonters for years. Here’s a short excerpt from my conversation with Gino, a longtime resident of Bellows Falls who worked at the rail-yard for decades:
-adam
