The Heavy Pets officially emerged after making the move to Fort Lauderdale, Florida with plans to start an internet marketing company. The current lineup is composed of guitarists Jeff Lloyd and Mike Garulli, keyboardist Jim Wuest, bassist Justin Carney, and drummer Jamie Newitt. After the breakthrough success of Langerado and many high profile festivals to follow, the band has gained a cult following, and is now popularly considered to be one the defining crossover artists to hit the experimental rock scene in a long while.
My first introduction to The Heavy Pets began at Langerado back in 2007. I would like to say that I caught their live set and was blown away by their music but regrettably it didn't turn out like that. Instead someone handed me their CD "Whale" and asked me to check it out. I honestly can't commit to memory who gave me the CD, perhaps it was from their manager or it could have been from some dedicated fan that just wanted to help spread the love. It was almost a month after my return from the festival, back at the HGMN office when I began sorting through all these random CDs scattered loosely in the bottom of a merch crate. A double CD packaged with artwork of a giant whale bursting through the waves immediately caught my attention. As soon as I heard the opening track "Iceberg Blues" I quickly realized this was indeed a gem that I had overlooked at Langerado. And it would be nearly three long years later before I finally managed to see them perform live for the very first time. I will say that The Heavy Pets are now one of my top 10 favorite bands to see, bringing their own unique style of experimental rock ranging from melodious to epic, utilizing the techniques of shifting between quiet verses and loud jams, melding melodic elements with the heavy stuff. You just gotta see these guys live!
An Interview with Jeff Lloyd of The Heavy Pets By Chris Robie
Photos courtesy of The Heavy Pets
Swim Out Past the Sun CD Review
HGMN: Are you originally from south Florida?
Jeff: Actually, we are all transplants from the north east. Michael and I, the lead guitar player and myself grew up in Goshen, NY, a little town outside the city. And the other three members of the band all come from the Philadelphia area.
HGMN: How did you end up in south Florida?
Jeff: Well the original bass player of the band, a cat named Joe Dupell who went to high school with Mike and me in Goshen, he moved down there and started an internet marketing company. That was kind of the catalyst that formed the whole band. We each moved down there individually to work for the company with the intent of starting a band and doing it in what we saw as the right way, doing it with a little bit of capitol and a little more intention than any of the bands we've been in previously.
HGMN: Did everything go as planned?
Jeff: Well, it didn't work out necessarily as we planed in the sense of the lineup changes and things like that. Joe is no longer with the band but everything certainly worked out in every other aspect in the way that we envisioned it. Things took off and we're certainly moving with the intent that we originally planned. The band got up and moving and touring and we were kind of using our job there at the internet marketing company to catapult us around the country. Once we got up and moving we were able to take the training wheels off and do this full time. That was always the goal.
HGMN: In your opinion what was the turning point when you felt that the band was really starting to gain momentum?
Jeff: Well, a large part of it was early festival bookings. Langerado, which was a south Florida based festival, it's kind of now defunked, was around for years and it was certainly the first time that we blipped on the national radar. We won a couple of contests, fan votes and things like that. We were able to play that festival a few years running. It was because of our success with Langerado that we were able to start booking festivals like High Sierra and Gathering of the Vibes, 10,000 Lakes, Wakarusa and stuff like that. So a lot of it was the festival bookings that were very encouraging to us early on and got us on the up & up in Florida and around the country.
HGMN: "Swim Out Past the Sun" seemed to be a step in another direction for you guys. Was this something planned or did it just sort of happen?
Jeff: It was a little bit of both. The previous record "The Heavy Pets" ended with a track called "Ichabod's Train", which is a little acoustic number and somewhat down tempo. It just really had a nice feel to it and we were really happy with the way that turned out. So it just made a lot of sense for us to record more tracks like that. All of a sudden recording a few more tracks like that became recording a whole album like that. So it was a little bit of both. It was unintentional and the rest of it was a little bit of luck.
HGMN: What was it like working with David Grisman?
Jeff: It was absolutely incredible. Growing up a guitar player, a music fan, a Grateful Dead fan, I was very familiar with the Garcia/Grisman records. When we were able to finally get in there and record with him it was just everything we dreamed it would be. He's an amazing player. He just absolutely crushed the tunes that we had presented him with. He was also a lot of fun to be around. He's just a very wise man. He shared a lot of stories with us and a lot of wisdom. He made it very comfortable for us. I was certainly wondering to myself weather I was going to be star struck and he made himself very easy to be around and very easy to talk to.
HGMN: Did he do anything in particular that may have changed the direction to any of the songs you presented him with?
Jeff: He really didn't only because we had decided to do the record and decided to do all of those particular tunes before we knew that he was a lock for doing a record with us. So it really didn't change the direction at all. All he really did was completely augment everything we were trying to do with those songs.
HGMN: So he really just elevated those tracks more than change anything.
Jeff: Yeah, exactly. He crushed those songs. A lot of what you're hearing on those tracks is first and second take stuff. Once we knew that he was going to be involved it was obvious and there was no debate on which songs he was going to play on. It all worked out exactly according to plan.
HGMN: Is it true that you guys now have your own studio down in Florida?
Jeff: Yes we do, along with 102 Degrees which is our record label and our management. We've had this wonderful facility in Del Ray beach Florida that we've been using as a rehearsal spot for years. Well, for at least the first year and a half that we were with them. Then it just kind of became obvious that we have the infrastructure, let's just buy some gear and make it real. It's kind of a dream come true because now we're fully capable of recording and producing. As much fun as it was to work with Scott Matthews and Tom Lueken, who are an amazing producer & engineer combination, we're kind of able to use all the knowledge that we gained from working with them, bring that home and now we're kind of working at our own pace and on our own schedule from our own studio. There's really nothing better than that.
HGMN: Do you have anything exciting planned now that you have your own studio to work with?
Jeff: Yeah, we do. We are In the midst of producing our own record, which will be our first self produced album since "Whale". We went in and recorded drum & bass for twenty songs and then we went in and recorded with the rest of the band on ten of them. We're getting closer to the mixing and editing process of producing our self produced record.
HGMN: Is there a release date set for the new album?
Jeff: I wish there was. It's kind of one of those things...it used to be that we couldn't wait to get on the road, always. We still certainly focus on playing live. It's certainly what we like to do more than anything but in a way it's a little hard to leave south Florida now because we'll really be crushing it in the studio and then we have to leave (laughs). Our touring schedule is so full that we are rarely at home more than a few days. So because of that we're working on it the best we can, doing some of the mixing and editing on the road. I would say, tentatively, we certainly hope to release some of these tracks...rather than being a full on album that we release all at once there's been a lot of talk about maybe releasing these in a rolling fashion where we release a couple songs here and there. Maybe a couple songs for every single tour we go on and tour behind the new material. The first self produced track that you hear from us will definitely be coming out before this summer tour.
HGMN: Will this be something similar to "Swim Out Past the Sun" or "The Heavy Pets" or perhaps a little bit of both?
Jeff: It's definitely more like our first record "Whale" where we're kind of coming in and doing live style tracks and a little improvisation. It's a lot of the material that we've been playing live. It's the kind of material that no sane producer would want to touch (laughs). It's more progressive. It's a lot more akin to what we do live than any of the last two records. It's one of the benefits of working from our own studio and our own schedule. Self producing, we're going to do it entirely our own way.
HGMN: Do you have plans producing other artists now that you have your own studio?
Jeff: Well, no concrete plans. We've all done a little bit of recording on our own. I'm working on a little project for a friend's website and things like that. When it comes to bringing other artists in, we've certainly thought about that but being that the last couple of records were featuring special guests, we're really kind of viewing this as an opportunity to get back to The Heavy Pets and release an album that is just us, our vision from top to bottom.
HGMN: Out of your entire catalog which song are you most proud of and why?
Jeff: That's a really good question. Well, I'm really happy with a song on the last album called "On the Waves". That song features two special guests. It features David Grisman and Shana Morrison, Van Morrison's daughter. It was my first time working with a female voice. We've done that track before but never so well. So I was really happy with the way that song came out. I'm really happy with the song as it is written. It's a song that means a lot to me on a lot of different levels. I'm just so very proud of that song. I guess that would have to be the one if I had to pick one. It's so tough (laughs), like which one is your favorite child?
HGMN: Are there any current bands that inspire you musically?
Jeff: Oh there's so very, very many. My tastes are constantly evolving and changing. Right now I'm really into a lot of bands and music that are vocally driven. Bands like Grizzly Bear and Dr. Dog I think are pushing music on a lot of different levels and most importantly their vocals are just so incredible, the way that they use them and the way that they use them as a band. It's very inspiring. The Fleet Foxes would be another good example.
HGMN: How was Jam Cruise?
Jeff: Oh, it was terrible (laughs). It was such an amazing thing to be a part of. It was incredibly inspiring on so many different levels. In one way because of the connection that you make with all these other musicians that you play with and you get to see all these other musicians perform...I've never seen so much music before. They make it impossible not to. It's just so easy to see every band on the boat. That is incredibly inspiring and it's also inspiring that you get to meet so many fans and you make so many new friends. It's just so...comfortable. It's just such an amazing vibe once you get out there, everybody together literally and figuratively.
HGMN: What would you say was your best musical experience on Jam Cruise?
Jeff: Well, obviously the two Heavy Pets sets were highlights for me just because it's my favorite thing to do in the world, to play with this band and to do so under such conditions. It was just amazing. We were just so happy to be there and so inspired by the whole thing. But as far as the other sets that we got to see was watching The New Deal play their last few sets. It was a little bittersweet. I've been a fan of that band for a long time. The entire festival just served as an assurance, "you are doing the right thing. Keep going and keep doing what you're doing."
HGMN: Do you have any plans to someday release a recording of any particular live shows?
Jeff: We don't have anything currently in the works. We've released a lot of our music through livedownloads.com and digitalsoundboard.net, which are two resources that we've been using to release entire shows live for sometime now, thanks to Charlie Miller, our former soundman but also works on Heavy Pets recordings and engineers and masters a lot of our stuff. We did a sampler through Charlie called "Charlie Miller's Live Picks" which features songs from like seven different shows. We've always considered it a live sampler, we never called it an album per se just because of the nature of it but in a way it is a live album. We did just record our GA Theatre performance in Athens from the first week of this tour, I guess two weeks ago now. We recorded that on a four camera HD shoot. We're planning on releasing that as a DVD. So yeah, yes and no.
http://www.theheavypets.org/tunes/3AM.mp3
Upcoming Tour Dates
03/09/12 - 03/10/12 - St. Cloud, FL - AURA Music Festival
03/21/12 - Boulder, CO - The Fox Theatre w/John Brown's Body
03/22/12 .- Breckenridge, CO - 320 South
03/23/12 - Fort Collins, CO - Hodi's Half Note
03/24/12 - Denver, CO - Cervantes Other Side w/ Strange Arrangement
03/29/12 - Tallahassee, FL - The Back Room @ Lit
03/30/12 - Tampa, FL - Crowbar
03/31/12 - Jacksonville, FL
04/01/12 - Gainesville, FL - Double Down Live
04/04/12 - New Paltz, NY - Oasis Lounge
04/05/12 - Oneonta, NY - Oneonta Theatre
04/06/12 - Plains, PA - River Street Jazz Cafe
04/07/12 - Manchester, CT - The Main Pub
04/11/12 - Ithaca, NY - Castaway's
04/12/12 - Syracuse, NY - Wescott Theater
04/13/12 - Philadelphia, PA - The Blockley - United States
04/14/12 - Baltimore, MD - Baltimore Sound Stage
04/18/12 - Boston, MA - The Wonderbar
04/19/12 - Albany, NY - Jillian's
04/20/12 - Northampton, MA - Pearl Street
04/21/12 - Providence, RI - The Spot Underground
04/22/12 - Stowe, VT - The Matterhorn
04/25/12 - Burlington, VT - Nectar's
04/26/12 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Bowl
04/27/12 - Reading, PA - Brass Lantern
04/28/12 - Newark, DE - Mojo on Main
05/06/12 - New Orleans, LA - The Maple Leaf
05/11/12 - 05/13/12 - Live Oak, FL - Purple Hatter's Ball
05/18/12 - 05/20/12 - Key West, FL - Green Parrot
05/25/12 - 05/28/12 - LaFayette, GA - Amberland
05/31/12 - 06/03/12 - Ozark, AR - Wakarusa
Discography
Slow Motion Conduction EP (2008)
