TUNED UP: You guys have been together for two years. How did the band start?

Cousin Boneless: Well, I guess we have to go way back to 3000 years ago to when Christ created the Earth. In the year of our Lord 2013 AD, Joey was running a house venue in Pittsburgh. Chris came to a show that the Rail Yard Ghosts were playing and never decided to never go back home, and live in the basement without ever actually asking anyone. In their time together, the Ghosts passed on to Joey and Chris a broken cigarette, which was re-forged with the ancient pages of a Lovecraft novel. The dark powers of Cthulu were literally inhaled into the bodies and minds of all around. Average Joey and Crisp Lake embarked on a tour as two separate solo projects, uniting at the end of each show to play under a different moniker every night. For some reason, Cousin Boneless, the stupidest one we thought of, stuck. Since then, a collective of travelers, miscreants, and people from Lancaster have been assimilated to the Boneless Way. It’s NOT a cult.

TUNED UP: You mentioned you busk alot, and work alot with The Hills and the Rivers. How did you meet those guys and how do the battle sets work?

Cousin Boneless: Chris and Joey met The Hills and the Rivers at an equinox hippy party in the woods. They were just forming as a band as well, collecting musicians and artists from the streets of Pittsburgh to play with them. We all played “Aeroplane over the Sea” together. It was the only song we both knew at the time. They invited us over for a potluck dinner and kissing games the next week, and we came because we love free food and kisses. There was definitely a chemistry right away, but it was solidified at a show at the Pitt Bull Palace in December of 2013. From there, Chris and Joey went traveling to accrue more band members and acquire street cred. The Hills and the Rivers became an established band in the city, and when Cousin Boneless returned to Pittsburgh, our collective strength was strong.

Cousin Boneless: Now, with 3 tours together, constantly sharing members, forming a 14+ piece busking band, and creating an entire music collective, The Hills and the Rivers and Cousin Boneless have the power to ruin everything. And overthrow capitalism. 

Cousin Boneless: I think what works about both bands joining forces is that we’re driving at the same philosophy, ideals, and lifestyles from different angles. We’ve been described as the Hills and Rivers’ evil twin. That Light side / Dark side mixture is intriguing to see. 

Cousin Boneless: Also, the busking aspect is important. We now, as a whole group, can play in the streets for 3 hours streets and not repeat a song. That’s what funds our tours. When you have 15 mouths to feed for 2 weeks, playing on the street is what keeps people going, helps promote shows, and it’s really fun. We got to do a “flash mob” set at a metal show in NJ, because some punks saw us busking and asked us to play in between sets.

Cousin Boneless: The collective we were talking about, the 4th River Music Collective, is more than just The Hills and the Rivers and Cousin Boneless. We kind of realized that almost all our members had solo projects, lots of our friends played amazing music that we constantly play with, and we are all striving for the same general “thing”. So, we created a collective, and even threw a festival “4th River Music Fest”, in the very same woods that we first met Hills and Rivers. The festival featured all the members of the collective, more awesome locals, and amazing touring acts. It will become a yearly event, so keep your ear the ground for it next Spring / Summer. 

Cousin Boneless: I strongly recommend you check out the 4th River Music Collective on facebook. That’s all we have for resources right now, but we will continue in the future to promote each others music. It’s not really a label or anything, it’s just a family of friends who all play fucking awesome music. Seriously. Go to the Facebook and look up the music on there, it’s some of my favorite music that exists. 

Cousin Boneless: Also, Cousin Boneless wins every battle set

TUNED UP: You guys are based in Pittsburgh. We hear all sorts of rad stories about the Pittsburgh scene, whats your take on the state of things there?

Cousin Boneless: Douglas Fur AND Ricky Steece live here. So, it’s the best city to live in if you like music. We’re being lazy about this answer, but Pittsburgh is our homebase and we like it a lot. The people here are good friends.

TUNED UP: You’re in the middle of a national tour. Does the entire band travel in one vehicle?

Cousin Boneless: DIRTY GERTY is the name of our van. Well, it’s Joe Miller’s van. At one point we bought an RV off of Craigslist for $800, and put a bunch more money and efforts into that vehicle, which turned out to be a really stupid idea. So, we were out a vehicle with a tour already planned coming up. Our bassist Storm said “my friend Joe has a van, AND he plays trombone.” We said, “Hey Joe, wanna be in our band and take us on tour in your van?” Joe said, “Yea, sure.” And we’ve been living together in Gerty for the last year. We’ve taken 10 people and a dog on entire tours, on purpose. We’ve gone from Houston to NOLA with 14 people, like 100 banjos, and 2 dogs on tour with the Rail Yard Ghosts. One time in Gainesville we stuffed 15 people and 2 bikes to ride across town. 

Cousin Boneless: We’ve had our share of mishaps. On the way to Asheville once, our tire fell off. We were towed to an Auto Zone, and the kind people of Daniels, West Virginia banded together to fix the tire and buy us fried chicken. In Montana on the way to the West Coast in a snow storm, we flew off the side of the road into a barbed wire fence on Thanksgiving Eve and had to wait in the van for 6 hours for a tow truck to come. We usually don’t have insurance. But all in all, Gerty’s been pretty good to us. And she’s Joe’s house. 

TUNED UP: You guys just released a new disc. What’s it called and where can we listen to it?

Cousin Boneless: Our new album is called Trash Masquerade. One of our favorite artists, musicians, and all around awesome people Noel’le Longhaul did the cover art, which is completely amazing. And Ricky Steece, our personal hero, did the tracklist art. We played the instruments. 

Cousin Boneless: You can listen to it on our bandcamp, and even download if for free, or even download it for money if you want to help us out. I think it’s pretty good. 
https://cousinboneless.bandcamp.com/album/trash-masquerade

TUNED UP: You mentioned it kinda came down to the wire. How was the recording process?

Cousin Boneless: The process was sweaty and we ate a lot of pizza during it. Our dear friend Kasey Fusco engineered and recorded the album very last minute. We essentially asked if he could record and mix an entire album with us in a month, working around his busy schedule and our whacky antics. He did it and did a great job! Kasey is the main homie for helping us with this album and it’s sound.

Cousin Boneless: We recorded a song naked. Joe had to stand in another room than the rest of us because he’s different. Also, Jonny played full drums on the album, on the spot, without practicing, which goes to show that whether he’s recording with Cousin Boneless or the Grammy Award winning Larry Campbell, Jonny One Take keeps his percussion hand strong. 

Cousin Boneless: On this album we definitely wanted to get weirder than before, adding full drums, maniacal laughter, bowed banjo, electric banjo, and songs about Tom Hanks. Chris and Joey even switched instruments for a song. All the songs are about the Devil and Jesus fighting with swords. 

TUNED UP: You guys just played Columbus. When’s the next time we can expect to see you guys play?

Cousin Boneless: You can see us playing in your dreams every night. But, seriously, Columbus isn’t far from Pittsburgh and we always have a super rowdy (sometimes nude) time, so I’m sure we’ll be back soon.

 

Relevant Links:

https://www.facebook.com/cuzinboneless

https://cousinboneless.bandcamp.com

 

Written by Sandeep Sehbi