Thanks so much to Terry Banks for yet another interview! Some years ago I got in touch and we talked about the fan-favourite Tree Fort Angst and later about his current band Dot Dash (which by the way have just released a terrific album). Today we talk about his late 90s and early 2000s Washington DC band The Saturday People who released an album, a mini-album and a string of singles. A band that you could also say was an all-star lineup!
++ Hi Terry! It’s been some time since last time we spoke but you have continued making music all these years with Dot Dash. I think it was in 2011 when we did the interview for the blog! I suppose a lot has happened since those days?
Yeah, that was around the time our first album, spark>flame>ember>ash, had come out. Since then we’ve just kept playing lots of gigs and had five more albums come out, all released by The Beautiful Music: Winter Garden Light in 2012, Half-Remembered Dream in 2013, Earthquakes & Tidal Waves in 2015, Searchlights in 2016 and, last month, Proto Retro.
++ “Proto Retro” sounds terrific! I’m really enjoying it. How do you think the band has evolved since the first album? What can people expect from this new record? Where can one get it?
Thanks! The new album is available as a digipak CD direct from The Beautiful Music and as a download from Bandcamp and iTunes. I’m not sure how we’ve evolved – all the records kind of have their own character but Proto Retro is my favorite and certainly the poppiest thing we’ve done. One evolution within the band is that about a year and half ago (at the beginning of 2017), we slimmed down to a guitar-bass-drums trio. It’s been really good.
++ And are you touring perhaps? What are the future plans for the band?
We usually play about 12 to 15 gigs a year but we’ve never toured. The closest we’ve got so far was a little three-show run we did with Tommy Keene a couple years back. But we get out of town every now and then. We’ve played in NYC five or six times, we’ve played in New Jersey a couple times, played in Baltimore a few times, but everything else has been in or around D.C. Who knows, maybe someone cool will tap us to hit the road with them. That’d be good.
++ Today we are going to talk about one of your many bands, one that is surely missed, The Saturday People! I want to start by asking what similarities, if any, are there between the Saturday People and Dot Dash?
To be honest, I don’t think there are many similarities between the two bands. I like both, but they feel pretty different.
++ I’m trying to picture a timeline. So after Tree Fort Angst stopped making music, was The Saturday People your next project? Or was there something in between?
Yeah, The Saturday People followed Tree Fort Angst, but between those two things, I spent a couple of years living and working in Australia. The Saturday People got going after that, in the latter part of 1998.
++ I think I didn’t ask you about this in the past, so what are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen at home while growing up?
I didn’t play an instrument as a child. That came later. I picked up guitar around the age of 20, in college. A friend showed me some chords and I just started trying to write songs. As a little kid, the music remember hearing most was by an organist named Walter Wanderley, who, in retrospect, I came to realize sounded sort of like Felt or maybe an el Records band.
++ I kind of know which other bands you’ve been thanks to previous interviews, but what about the rest of The Saturday People, what other bands were they involved with?
Greg Pavlovcak had been in The Ropers. Dan Searing had been in glo-worm with me and Pam Berry (we had an album released by the K label.) Ara Hacopian had been in a high school band named Cold Coffee Chaser. Later, when Archie Moore joined the band, he had been in Velocity Girl and Black Tambourine. I’m probably forgetting some other bands they were in, but those are the main ones, I think.
++ Were you all originally from the D.C. area? Or how did you end up there?
I grew up about 10 miles north of Baltimore. Greg is from Allentown, Pennsylvania. Dan, Archie and Ara are all from the D.C area.
++ When and how did the band start? How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?
Well, the band had three line-ups, albeit all comprising the same set of people. For the first year, roughly late 1998 to late 1999, the line-up was me: guitar/vocals; Greg: guitar/vocals; Ara: bass, and Dan: drums. Then, about a year into the band or a little under that, Ara left to go travelling overseas. Archie then joined as our new bassist. Then, at some point down the road, Ara returned and rejoined (this time as keyboardist), so we became a five-piece at that point.
The way The Saturday People started is that Dan, Greg and Ara had been in a band called The Castaway Stones, which had Pam Berry as singer. When Pam left D.C. to move to London, those guys asked me if I wanted to start a new band with them. We all just sort of knew each other from around town. I met Dan and Archie right after I moved to D.C. in the early 90s.
++ Why the name the The Saturday People?
Dan, Greg, Ara and I convened in the Pharmacy Bar on 18th Street (which later became a sort of informal Saturday People HQ) to concoct a band name. I wanted to call the band The Saturday Forever, which had a sort of trippy vibe and made me think of The Three O’Clock for some reason, but Dan didn’t like the “forever” part, so I came up with The Saturday People, which everyone seemed to like. The name doesn’t mean anything. It just sounded good.
++ How was the creative process for the band? Where did you usually practice?
I wrote the songs that I sang and Greg wrote the songs he sang and everyone just made up their own parts. We practiced in Dan’s basement in a hallowed house in Columbia Heights known as The Pines.
++ There was a good indiepop scene during those years, and we’ve talked about that in the past. But wondering if by the time of The Saturday People the scene was as healthy as in the mid 90s?
I would say it was pretty much the same as it had been. Not too many changes.
++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?
Hmmm… around the time of The Saturday People, I was really inspired by early Beatles, and probably the Velvet Underground, and I guess Postcard label stuff. Greg was quite into Love and I think Felt. Ara was big on The Television Personalities. Dan was very interested in the soft-rock thing, like Free Design and those kinds of groups. Archie joined later and I remember he was into groups like The Millennium and Sagittarius.
++ Your first release was a 7″ on Brittle Stars Records. Who were they? How did you get to release with them? What can you tell me about the songs on the record?
Brittle Stars was Will Eastman’s label. He had seen us play and offered to put a record out. The two songs were ‘Twilight Story’ and ‘The Castle.’ Greg and I just each picked what we thought was our best song and we recorded them with Trevor/hollAnd.
++ After this release you’d join Slumberland Records with whom you’d release most of your recorded output. The first was a 7″ with “Slipping Through Your Fingertips”. One thing about this record that caught my attention is the photograph on the sleeve? Who is that?
It’s a photo of Candice Bergen, taken at the Monterey Pop Festival.
++ And how did you end up signing with Slumberland?
There was no signing of anything, per se. Mike Schulman just offered to put the records out and we said yes.
++ Then your self-titled album came out. I feel this might be your most well-known release. Am I right? What do you remember about the recording sessions? Did it take long? I wonder as there are 15 songs total in it, quite a lot for an indiepop album!
Yeah, the Slumberland album was the best thing we did. Archie, who recorded us and mixed the record, worked in a big pro studio called Omega and we were able to record there during down time, so we were able to make the record basically for free. We recorded mostly in the big room, which seemed like it was the size of a gymnasium, but maybe my memory is exaggerated. As far as the 15 songs, we liked all the stuff and thought including it would make for a broader, more varied record.
++ I always thought “Upside-Down Girl” should have been a single. Such a great song. Was wondering if you could tell me what’s the story behind that song?
Thank you, I liked that song, too. The title came from my daughter, who was a toddler then, and used to do a sort of aborted somersault and stop halfway through and look at you, upside down. The song starts off with the “mystery chord” lifted from the opening of ‘A Hard Day’s Night.’ Archie added a vibraphone part in the studio and it sounded great.
++ On the first 7″ and also on the album, I can see your name written in a typography that nods of the 60s, to mods. I was wondering if that was your intention? And if you felt more of a 60s influenced band than a classic indiepop band then?
I got that typography by photocopying the letters off a Beatles LP sleeve and messing around with scissors, a black marker, and whiteout. That typeface also reminded me of The Undertones’ sleeve for ‘Wednesday Week,’ so that was good. But you’re right, I was very into a 60s thing at that time. The Saturday People’s music was very much indiepop, I just liked 60s iconography.
++ In 2001 you got to share a split 7″ with The Clientele. Did you get to meet them? Perhaps play a gig with them? Were you fans of the band at the time by the way?
They were incredible. We played three, maybe four gigs with them around 1999-2000, at least two in NYC (including a great one in a big space at NYU) and one or two in D.C. They were cool guys and a singularly great band.
++ Then 3 years after you put out a mini-album on Foxyboy. It was also self-titled. Was it hard to come with album names? 🙂 But seriously, why the wait of three years?
I think we had just sort of wound down by then. The Saturday People really only existed as a gigging band for the years 1999 and 2000, maybe a little bit into 2001. The first two 7”s were out while we were still gigging, but everything else – i.e., the Slumberland album, and the third 7”, and the mini-album — were all sort of “posthumous.” That said, after the Slumberland album came out, in late 2001, we got back together in early 2002 for two shows, one in NYC at Brownies and one in D.C. So we sort of came back for a little bit and the stuff on the mini-album might’ve been recorded after that, later in 2002. I can’t quite remember!
++ And how did the record come out with Foxyboy and not with Slumberland? How did you know the label?
Well, that label was Ara’s thing. He put out a lot of stuff in a short period of time. I think there were like 10 releases in about a year and a half. There was The Saturday People mini-album, a 30-track Tree Fort Angst comp called Last Page in The Book of Love, a Boyracer record, a couple of EPs by The Sounds of Kaleidoscope, a bunch of stuff. He was quite prolific.
++ This mini-album has a bunch of songs that are not listed on the regular tracklist. What was that about?!
Those were weird mixes and little sonic experiments that Archie did. I think that record actually has 14 tracks, although only about half of them are listed on the sleeve.
++ Also for this CD the aesthetic of the band was very different on the artwork. Now there was a photo of yourselves, something that you didn’t see in any previous releases. I’m quite curious where was the front cover photo taken? And was it cold that day?
The photos were taken in Malcolm X Park adjacent to D.C.’s Columbia Heights neighborhood. Yes, it was pretty cold that day. The psychobabble quote on the back of the sleeve was lifted from an Electric Prunes album.
++ I believe you also appeared on a Stills, Crosby and Nash CD but there is not much information about this CD, I just know that a live version of you covering “Cinnamon Girl” was in it. What was this one about?
I didn’t know such a CD was released. That was a one-off gig we did – it was me and Greg (from The Saturday People) and Doug and Alex from The Ropers (although maybe they were called The Still by then.) It was a multi-band bill, we only played two songs: “Cinnamon Girl” by Neil Young and “Why” by The Byrds. I think Doug sang both, although Greg may’ve sung The Byrds song. I had forgot about that show.
++ For the OMD tribute album that Shelflife put out you changed your name to The Saturday People Front. Why? And why did you choose to cover “She’s Leaving”?
That was Greg and Archie. It was for a benefit CD for a food bank.
++ Are there any other songs recorded by the band that remain unreleased?
I don’t think so. Dan made a few live recordings of shows, but I don’t think there were any studio outtakes or leftovers, at least that I recall.
++ And of all your repertoire, what would you say is your favorite Saturday People song and why?
Of my songs, I think I like ‘Slipping Through Your Fingertips’ and ‘Twilight Story’ best – they’re both really light, but rocking, which is kind of a hard balance to strike. My favorite of Greg’s songs was the version of “Grace” on the third 7” (the split single with The Clientele) where, right before the rave-up outro, he intones “Alright Saturday People, one more time for The Clientele!” I also really liked “The Man Without Qualities, Part II” from the album, which he also wrote. That was great.
++ What about gigs? Did you play many? What was the farthest you played from DC?
We played about 25 shows total, almost all of them in 1999 and 2000. We played in NYC a few times, and Philadelphia once, and all the rest were all in D.C.
++ And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?
In addition to The Clientele, some of the other bands we played with were The Ladybug Transistor, The Posies, Cinerama, Sportique, The Hang Ups, Lilys, The Lucksmiths, Marine Research, Barcelona, Tahiti 80, and a bunch of others. We were supposed to play with Beachwood Sparks once, but they showed up late (we had already played, stretching our set as long as we could — for us, playing for 45 or 50 minutes, instead of 25 or 30, was like doing a three-hour Led Zeppelin tour de force.) When they finally showed up, the club told them to take a hike. They sat in their van looking dejected.
++ When and why did The Saturday People stop making music?
I’m pretty sure we winded down in early 2001 but then got back together in 2002 for a short time. That’s how I remember it, anyway. Greg had moved to Philadelphia. Maybe that was the reason we stopped.
++ What did the rest of the band do afterwards?
I didn’t do any music for five or six years after The Saturday People, but played in Julie Ocean for about a year, circa 2007-08 (we had one album, called Long Gone and Nearly There, come out.) These days, I play in Dot Dash. Greg was in a band called The Last Wave and is still doing music in Philadelphia. Ara lives in Berlin and recently did gigs with Boyracer in the UK. Dan and Archie are in D.C., keeping it real.
++ Has there ever been a reunion? Or talks of playing again together?
Yes, we did a reunion show in 2014 at The Bell House in Brooklyn. The Clientele headlined.
++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?
The City Paper, in D.C., did a two-page feature on us once, which, for us, was kind of big time. And we got some college radio airplay and various reviews, here and there. Nothing too grand.
++ What about from fanzines?
I remember we did an interview with Chickfactor.
++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?
It was a band with a lot of humor, in-jokes, pseudonyms, and ongoing laughter – that was the best thing about it, rather than a specific gig or record.
++ Been a couple of times in D.C., but I think it is better if a local recommends and gives some suggestions? Like what are the sights one shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?
There’s lots of groovy bistros and hostelries around town. Every time I turn around, another one is opening up on this street corner or that. Too many to pick!
++ Anything else you’d like to add?
Nothing other than thanks for the interest. And, for anyone who cares, there appears to be a free MP3 of ‘Slipping Through Your Fingertips’ here:
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Listen
The Saturday People – Slipping Thru Your Fingertips
