Guster Looks Down 'Barrel Of A Gun'

09/20/1999 7:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

Now that Guster has completed its first new record for Hybrid/ Sire and will be releasing it Sept. 28 (last year's Goldfly was a reissue of the Boston act's independent release), the three guys in the band can finally move out of the same house.

"We have lived together for so long. I was tired of telling Brian [Rosenworcel, percussion] to clean his pubic hairs off the toilet. I love working with the guy, but the peaks and valleys were getting higher and lower," says guitarist/ vocalist Ryan Miller. "We can finally afford to move to our own places. I think it will help us to have 'time-outs' from each other, which you need after being in the studio or on the road for months, and it will inevitably help us be more creative."

And the alt-hippie rock trio is already marching to the beat of a different drum on Gone And Lost Forever, as Miller explains. "No doubt our songs are better, and the lyrics. There are subtle nuances and we escaped the live sound. This is our only good record," he says.

Miller believes that producer Steve Lillywhite had a lot to do with the quality of the record. "Working with Steve was such an honor. I mean the guy has worked with some of our favorite acts, like U2, Morrissey, and Talking Heads. It empowered us to have a guy like him behind us. He didn't get involved with us because we were million-sellers. He saw a diamond in the rough. He took us on as boys and made us men."

"Barrel Of A Gun" will be the first single to showcase this evolution, and the band hopes it does better at radio than its debut single, "Airport Song," which reached No. 35 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks. The band will also make its first music video and is joined on the record by Phish keyboardist Page McConnell (on theremin), bassist Tony Levin, and horn player Karl Densen from the Greyboy Allstars.

But Miller, along with Rosenworcel and guitarist/ vocalist Adam Gardner, admits that Guster didn't get here overnight. In fact, these 1996 Boston Music Award winners for best live act have been together since they formed in 1992 at Tufts University. Miller says, "We took baby steps. And we are still growing. Each day and year brings new levels of recognition. We played our first show before signing an autograph. Then we made a record and a little money. Then we did TV and then a big stadium show for thousands and thousands of people."

The show he is talking about is, of course, Woodstock '99. "We were literally the smallest fish in a big pond, but all I wanted to do was get my artist badge so I could walk by Alanis Morissette and say, 'Yo Alanis, what's up?' And it will definitely help spread the word about Guster," he says.

Miller adds that his band intends to tour all fall. Two performances are planned in New York at the Bowery Ballroom Sept. 24 and 25 and there will be big holiday shows over Thanksgiving weekend in Boston and New York as well. "We are living a dream. At the end of the day, I play music for a living and that's f--king awesome."

To read a Guster feature, click here. Features on Alanis Morissette and Phish are also available.

-- Carrie Bell

Got news tips, comments, or questions? Send them to newstips@launch.com.