Trampled by Turtles Interview: SXSW 2010

Trampled by Turtles are not your father's bluegrass band. The Duluth quintet, led by guitarist/vocalist Dave Simonett, are blazing unchartered acoustic territory with a repertoire of rapid-fire fiddle, banjo and mandolin. This is pleasant, hard-charging, barn-burning music. The lyrics are introspective, and the songs are infectiously raucous. Spinner had a chance to talk with them on the cusp of their first trip to SXSW.

How did the band form?

I started playing some acoustic gigs with our mandolin player, Erik, and we eventually met the banjo player, Dave. Then we picked up our bass player, Tim. It was kind of a side project. We were just jamming together, playing on the side for kicks.

Where did you come up with your name?

Our mandolin player thought of it while we were trying to think of a name that didn't sound like a bluegrass band. We kept coming up with terrible things. He threw that one out there as kind of a joke. We really needed a name because we already had a couple of shows booked, and we just said, "Fine. We don't hate it."

Who are some of your influences?

I always have a hard time answering that question because my musical influences, I don't know if they influenced this band or not. There's probably no way to avoid influencing the band if it's influencing me, but if I had to list a couple, I'd say Townes Van Zandt, Neil Young and Wilco.

Can you describe the Trampled by Turtles sound?

No, I can't. I guess the one that seems to make the most sense is alt-bluegrass, maybe. Its definitely not traditional bluegrass music but I wouldn't call it rock 'n' roll. Original acoustic music -- maybe that, too.

What would be in your music festival survival kit?

A lot of water, some ear plugs and maybe a bottle of Jameson.

Do you have any musical guilty pleasures?

I've been asked this question before and kind of don't like it because it seems a little bit snotty. Like, "This band isn't so good but I listen to it when its funny." I'd say no. I'm pretty confident in the stuff I like, even stuff that other people might consider cheesy.

What is the craziest thing you've seen or done out on the road?

{Laughs]. No comment.

What do you bring to your show or your sound to rouse people into discovering bluegrass for possibly the first time?

I hope that they would see an energy on stage that they wouldn't expect from a banjo and a mandolin. I think with all of us coming from a rock 'n' roll background, in a certain sense we take ourselves less seriously than a lot of people I see who play bluegrass music.

There's a spirited pace to some of your songs. A lot of notes are flying by. Would you guys consider yourselves bluegrass shredders? Are there any metal freaks at your shows?

Oh, yeah. Our crowd is an interesting little phenomenon. It really varies [with] where we are. The demographic of our crowd is much different in Buffalo than it is in Fort Collins. In some places there's a pretty big side of punk rockers, and [in] some places it's pretty different than that. There's definitely a little pocket of people who like us that are metal heads/punk rockers, for sure.

Since your sound is culled from bluegrass but is truly your own, have you been embraced or attacked by the bluegrass purists? The disciples of Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs and Ralph Stanley?

We've had a little bit of both. We've definitely had experiences where we've been put on bills at traditional bluegrass festivals and we were literally the only band that didn't stand around one mic dressed in suits. The reactions are always mixed. But people are often much more open-minded than I give them credit for. On the other hand, there's definitely a crew of good old boys in the bluegrass mindset that this music is not something that's growing. It's just something that "is." And if you're doing something else with it, then fine, just don't call it bluegrass. With that attitude, I don't have time for that crap. Anybody who puts any rules or boundaries on any kind of music is really annoying to me. It's never really a problem with musicians, it's mostly a problem with their fans.

You guys are from Duluth. What's the scene like there?

Duluth is a pretty interesting little music town with about 90,000 people. But in my opinion it has a cool, interesting and very open music and art community. It's small enough so that there's really not room for two bands that sound the same. So everybody's kind of got their own thing. It's also small enough where everybody goes to everybody's shows. Its really not clique-y. We used to do shows with the punk band in town or the folk act. And all of those people loved the other people's bands. When I got out of there and into places where your genre is really important, it was a surprise to me. I'd never been in that. It's a great place to start a band because you have a head start with people.


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