Tag Archives: Dave Girard

The Price of Progress

Modern day pitfalls can’t stop the release of A Single Second’s new album

Dead bodies, delivering babies, opening for punk rock legends G.B.H.–the guys of A Single Second have not only racked up the street cred, they seem to have seen and done it all during their nine-year career as one of Sacramento’s longtime post-punk bands. Call them music junkies or workaholics, they’ll accept either label, but these four musicians have surely logged the man-hours to earn either pseudo-title. Their musical resume boasts over 1,000 shows to date, including the Maloof Money Cup in Orange County two years running, our own California State Fair just recently, and not to mention a few dozen local shows sprinkled throughout their already busy schedule.

Despite witnessing their fair share of lineup changes, the guys of A Single Second–Shawn Peter (vocals, guitar, trumpet), Aaron Holt (lead guitar, vocals), Jason “Mogley” Tilsey (bass) and Dave Girard (drums, vocals)–are as eager as ever to tour California and travel the Northwest to promote their newest album since the release of 2005’ a Smiling Politely. After many bouts with computer and hard drive issues, ultimately delaying their second self-titled full-length album’s release, they’re itching to take the show on the road.

Why has it taken A Single Second so long to release another album?
Jason Tilsey: It was supposed to be out two years ago, but we’ve lost it a bunch of times. Computer problems, hard drive problems, but we’ve finally got it together. I think it was more of a blessing that those computer problems happened because the songs sound a whole lot better now than they did two years ago. They’ve been ironed out and just keep evolving to the point where we’re comfortable where they’re at now.

Tell me about collaborating with Lydia Gavin from Aroarah on this album.
Shawn Peter: We’ve been friends with Aroarah for a long time. I’ve watched them since high school evolve into not only beautiful people, but excellent musicians. I like to collaborate with as many people as possible. Lydia was just ecstatic just to do it; she was really stoked. The song “Wednesday” is a new song we have. We haven’t even played it live yet, and she just made the difference in bringing that song together vocally.

What song(s) do you feel most connected to?
SP: “The Guide.” I’m a Downtown Guide and I see everything. I’m a bumblebee on K Street. I’ve been doing this job for 11 years. I’ve been beat up, I’ve helped people, I’ve almost delivered a baby once. Dead bodies. I write about love, like in the song “You” is about finding the perfect mate and being afraid of losing it. “Dark Room,” that song’s about getting caught doing stupid shit and people calling you out on it, and you’re either going to lie or tell the truth.

How’s the band’s chemistry now?
SP: Playing with Dave, Mogley and Aaron over the last three years, it’s been the best the band has ever been. Not to say I didn’t like the moments before, but, we’re not afraid to try anything. We write for ourselves and we write music for ourselves. And, hopefully, our audience is going to like our material. It’s really nice to write something new and try it out and see how the audience is going to react to it.

Do you feel you challenge each other?
SP: Most definitely. Aaron writes the most intricate guitar stuff where I’m like, “Whoa.” My classic phrase is, when I write a song, Aaron smartens up my songs, and when Aaron writes a song, I kind of dumb him down a bit [laughs]. I’m not going to toot his own horn, but he’s probably the best guitarist I’ve ever played with.
Aaron Holt: We’re not scared to shit on everyone else’s ideas, too. Let it be known. It might be me, a lot. I got the big mouth.

What inspires you as a songwriter?
SP: Life. I write about my personal experiences. Personally, I went through some real tiring times in the last two years and if it wasn’t for my band mates, I don’t know where I would be, honestly. I had a lot of dark moments going on in my life and music helped me pull through and the lyrics revolve around those experiences. I’m just trying to take a positive step toward everything.

Tell me about opening for G.B.H.
SP: I’m an old school punk rock fan, and it was an old school punk rock show. You had your classic, mohawk-leather-jacket-with-the-patches kids in there. Classic punk rockers. We actually had two guys literally sitting on the stage while we were playing facing the audience and they were expecting hardcore punk that night, but we got a really good reception where they clapped after our songs, kind of like, “You guys are rad, not really what we wanted to hear tonight, but you guys don’t suck. Right on.”

What does the Sacramento music scene need?
AH: More people need to go out to shows. I think in the last year or two it seems better. There are more venues opening up. We’re sitting across the street from Luigi’s right now, and there are people out on a Tuesday night. I don’t think [the scene is] as good as the days of the Cattle Club, but it’s better than it has been. There’s a lot more people that are going out, but more people could always come out for sure.

When will the band call it quits?
AH: We’ll call A Single Second quits when it’s not fun anymore. Who knows a year from now, two years from now, if someone’s not having fun? A Single Second or not, I guarantee in 20 years, I will still be playing my guitar whether I’m out playing at a club or something. I’ll have my acoustic out, trying to pick up on younger women at the coffee shop [laughs]. I don’t know. I just love to play music. It’s like therapy–well, not therapy, it’s an outlet.

Does a community of musicians exist within Sacramento?
SP: You go to any show and you really know who’s in what band. We all play with each other and collaborate with each other. Half the audience is always going to be other bands and the friends of those bands. I could rattle off for a half hour all the bands I like playing with: Kill the Precedent, First Class Citizen, Bastards of Young, the Secretions…bands who’ve been around since the ‘90s, like Will Haven’s still doing it. There’s a lot of bands and we’re all listening to and supporting each other.

Why do you continue to play music?
SP: We just want to keep doing things that challenge us. We’re not doing it for anyone but ourselves, and if people happen to like it, then that’s awesome. I play music on stage and it allows me not to be an animal in every aspect of my life. That’s my outlet to let it go. My frustration, my excitement, my everything. I give it all when I give a performance. I’m a music junkie. If there’s any drug in my life, it’s music. And I’ll never give it up.

On Friday, Aug. 12, 2011 A Single Second will play the first of two official CD release shows at Concerts in the Park in Cesar Chavez Park. Get a beer garden wristband and get into the guys’ show at the Distillery later that night for free. You’ll have another chance to catch the band Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. at Ace of Spades. Tickets to this all-ages show are $15. D.R.I., Kill the Precedent and Hoods will also perform.

Don’t Blink

A Single Second Celebrate Their New EP

In their almost six-year history, Sacramento’s A Single Second has retained only one of its original members, vocalist/guitarist (he plays trumpet, too) Shawn Peter. While for some bands, this sort of turnover may have been the result of tempestuous relationships, but this doesn’t seem to be the case with A Single Second—at least not according to Peter. It’s just a fact of life: People move on.

“You play with a couple of different people over a couple years,” he explains. “We tour a lot. We play an average of 100 shows a year. Life happens. People want to go off and do other things, and sometimes it’s a good break, sometimes it’s a bad one. But everyone who’s ever been in the band, we’re all still friends. I see them around, and they’re doing other projects. Clay [Wolery, drums], who was in the band the longest with me, left back in November, and we still live together. He’s one of my closest friends.”

Wolery’s last recording with A Single Second, the band’s fourth EP Moments (they also have one full-length) which was available for free at the CD’s release party at the Fire Escape in Citrus Heights on June 21.

“I enjoy going to a show and people are giving stuff out for free, and you’re guaranteed to take one when it’s free, says lead guitarist Aaron Holt of the band’s decision to make the recording available at no charge.

Moments features Mikey Atilano of Ghost in the Flesh and Lesdystics on bass, who has now been replaced by Mogley. Dave Girard, formerly of Drowning Adam, now fills the seat behind the drums vacated by Wolery. Mogley mentions that his transition into A Single Second was pretty seamless.

“I knew who they were, I was familiar with their sound and a lot of the songs they were playing,” he says. “At least I knew they were going somewhere, that they had goals and weren’t trying to start from scratch.”

Recently, the A Single Second extended family also welcomed a new member. Mogley’s wife Rene gave birth to his second child, a baby girl, this past April.

“There has been some stuff that we weren’t able to do because of the pregnancy and stuff like that,” he says of balancing the disparaging worlds of fatherhood and rock ‘n’ roll. “But since I’d had a child already, I knew what I was able to do and what I wasn’t able to do, so it’s balancing out. My wife deals with it pretty good. She knew what she was getting into when she married me.”

The songs on the EP cover a wide range of topics in just a few songs. On the title track, “Moments,” Peter writes about the death of his grandfather through the eyes of his grandmother, while “Black & White” is a subtle jab at trend-hopping scenesters. Moments’ lone instrumental, “Buddha Fish,” which Peter describes as “a groovy stoner rock song” is actually one of the older songs in A Single Second’s catalog.

“We did record it on our second EP like five years ago,” Peter says. “It was never really that good of a recording. It was always such a cool song. Clay really wanted to record that one, and I think he knew that was going to be his last record, so I think he just wanted something of that song recorded really well before he left.”

With Moments ready to go and a new lineup in place, A Single Second is also readying their second full length that Holt says the band hopes to start recording in August. When Submerge spoke with the group, they were at Girard’s recording studio in Rio Linda “recording some new material so we can get it down better,” according to Peter.

Peter reports that the band has three songs completely finished and ready to go, while three more are done musically, but in need of vocals. He goes on to mention that the songwriting with the new members is going well and is a truly egalitarian process.

“I think Aaron and I are 50/50 as far as writing the music, but we all have our input on it,” Peter says. “It’s not so much my idea or his idea; Dave and Mogley have just as much input. It’s basically whoever has the best idea for a song is what goes, whether it’s instrumentally, vocally, rhythmically. When everyone has input in the song, it just makes it better.”

Peter takes his band member’s input into account even on his lyrics.

“I usually write the words after the music is written,” Peter says. “And then I bring the lyrics to the guys. If they don’t like them, then I change them; if they do, they stay.”

So much for the band Nazi/frontman stereotype. Perhaps that’s why Peter’s been able to remain friends with his band’s past members. This easygoing attitude is also reflected in the way A Single Second handles their business. Though they have a strong following locally and have followed a rigorous west coast touring regimen over the past five-plus years, A Single Second doesn’t seem to be in any rush to get signed to a label—a refreshing outlook, perhaps, in a time when instant gratification is so prevalent. Peter seems to be happy with taking his time.

“We’re not looking at anything big,” he says of A Single Second’s plans for their forthcoming LP. “If an indie label comes up and releases our record and help us distribute and give us some tour support, that would be great. That’s all we’re looking for. You’ve got to take baby steps.”