Karma Truck barrels down scene
By Claudia Miller L'Attitudes Contributor
Posted-Thursday, April 26, 2007 9:20 AM EDT Email this story
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Micah Gardner, Nick Kimball, Luke Ptomey and Alex Caldwell are Karma Truck. Check out Gardner’s latest CD, ‘The Backside of Sunrise,’ at www.cdbaby.com.
New band has some familiar singing faces
If you've been keeping up with Micah Gardner (www.islandmicah.com) this season, you'll know that he's started a new band called Karma Truck with Nick Kimball, Luke Ptomey and Alex Caldwell. The band's been a fixture up at Rum Runner's (mile marker 84, 664-2321) every Thursday night from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. The crowd has been steadily growing over the months, and they now have avid fans (I count myself as one).
I recently interviewed Micah and Nick about the creation of Karma Truck and their plans for the band, including their upcoming tour of the north.
L'Attitudes: Why the name Karma Truck?
Micah: My brother Greg and I played as Karma Truck for about a decade. I've been driving the name around for a while but the passengers have been different. It goes back to the philosophy that you should do good things, be good people. If you don't, karma will run you over. I think that's a fitting name for the kind of music that we're playing, the crowd that we're going after and the vibe of the people we love to hang out with.
L'Attitudes: What kind of crowd are you going after?
Micah: People who want to have a good time but want to be aware of what's going on in the world - good people. You're not going to see too many mosh pits at our shows. Our audience gravitates to the hippie side of life. I like hippie. I like that kind of energy where you don't have to always worry about somebody getting into a fight.
Nick: We get a lot of environmentally friendly people and bluegrass people. We have a very wide variety of fans-young, old, lawyers, bikers, kids.
L'Attitudes: How would you describe the sound of Karma Truck?
Micah: We call it Islandgrass-a combination of island folk and mountain bluegrass.
L'Attitudes: What do you each bring to the group?
Nick: Micah's songs tell a story.
Micah: I'll create a different identity for myself to tell the story through because I'm not brave enough to put myself in the shoes of the person singing, but if there's hope or some sort of positive emotion in there, it's kind of cool.
Nick: My lyrics are a lot more personal and emotional, so with our powers combined...
Micah: Like Wonder Twins.
Nick: We can tell a story, have it be a fun song and also have a touch of personal identity as well.
Micah: Alex is easy to be in a band with. He's the lead singer of a band up in Miami called Flavella, and he plays Flute in an alternative rock band... very different from Karma Truck where he plays bass guitar to island bluegrass. Luke is one of the most talented drummers in the Upper Keys. He's heading to the Berkeley School of Music in Boston next fall. His drum solos kick ass.
L'Attitudes: What are your plans for creating new songs?
Nick: We're going to cuddle a lot.
Micah: I'm into feet.
Nick: Which is good because mine are kind of dry.
Micah: I have quite a few unfinished songs, and Nick has a bunch of songs that he's in the middle of too. Maybe at some point we'll overlap those and get ideas from each other to finish them.
Nick: I see our music coming together for the first time, and it's going to be a unique mix. I see it developing and our sound changing as we get older. I'm a little nervous to call it one thing. Actually, I think the name for our new album should be “Motion Lotion” [singing] motion lotion, I love that potion.
Micah: He doesn't stop. It's like this all the time. You've never heard him speak on the microphone? It's funny. I have to hold him back.
L'Attitudes: How do you keep the crowd engaged at your shows?
Micah: I'm one of those people who, I always want everybody to have a good time, because if they are, I am. So I'm constantly scanning the crowd and reading it. If somebody has a look on their face like they're just not digging it, then, I try to ask them, what do you want to hear? I think if you're getting paid to go to a bar and entertain and make the bar or club money, then you've got to be flexible enough to play to the crowd - make them happy.
L'Attitudes: You play any covers at your shows?
Micah: As little as possible, but definitely - you have to do covers. We do creative covers. People who don't listen to the radio are going to like our covers. If you listen to the radio, you probably aren't going to have even heard the song before. I like to do a reggae version of “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath.
L'Attitudes: What kind of music has influenced your work?
Micah: We're both huge Wilco fans. That music changed my life. It's the most honest music that I've heard in a while. Their approach is so poetic. Jeff Tweddy's voice for me, you think it's going to fall apart every song. But somehow he always makes it through. He's got the kind of voice like an old man telling a story.
Nick: That's why we want to start smoking a lot of cigarettes. And drinking whiskey.
Micah: We could gargle with sand. I have a whole back yard full. We both listen to a lot of different kinds of music and study it, as opposed to just whatever's on.
L'Attitudes: What are your plans for traveling this summer?
Nick: We're not playing on any of the actual stages or anything, but we'll be set up in the parking lot at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee.
Micah: I think we need to get some really cheap guitars and the last night have like, guitar wars and smash them. Actually, Nick and I are headed up to Maine for July through October.
Nick: I know a plethora of musicians in Maine, and we're hoping that between all of those people and the two of us, we'll have some sort of combination - maybe even an acoustic thing-percussionist, stand up bass, banjo - or we might find a bass player and a drummer and really rock out.
L'Attitudes: Where will you be playing?
Micah: Festivals, outdoor venues, cities, bars, clubs, coffee house, back yards.
Nick: Bar mitzvahs.
Micah: Weddings.
Nick: I want to play clubs - bars that I know in Maine that are hippie dives with a lot of folk musicians.
Micah: I'll play anywhere. I just like to play. It's music, and it's a good time. I think it's pretty rare that you meet another musician that has ideas and values life the same way and has morals and ethics, things that aren't always found these days. I'm stoked.
Nick: We've both done so many crazy jobs, and here we are getting together finally and playing tunes. It's kind of funny.
Micah: If this doesn't work out, I'm going to be one of those guys carving coconuts into manatees and selling them for $3 on the side of the road.
Nick: I'm going to become a stripper.
L'Attitudes: What do you want to bring back with you when you come home next season?
Nick: Our goal for the summer is to write and record a new album and hopefully have it ready for next season.
Micah: I know that for me, I'm going to start writing stuff that's a little more global minded. I'd like to start hitting on things that make people think about the bigger picture because I'm just in that stage of my writing. Plus, you can only sing about a palm tree so many times. You've got to sing about the pine tree.
Nick: He has a lot of songs about palm trees, and I have a lot of songs about pine trees. We're going to have to start making our own trees.
Micah: Crossbreeding trees.
Nick: We think Virginia's the best place to plant them.
Claudia Miller - The Reporter (May 1, 2007)