A Working Model – “III” CD Release Party Interview
“A Working Model“, the ever-evolving and transforming rock band from Ann Arbor, MI, has released their third album entitled “III“. We caught up with Kenny Mis (guitar), Rob Logan (drums) and Tim Lawrence (bass) at the Blind Pig a couple hours before they took the stage at their CD release party. Over a couple pitchers of cheap draught, we kick back in the Green Room before the show and talk about the new album, the way the band has evolved over the years, the struggles of doing it all yourselves, and much more. Kenny tells it like it is, Rob fills in the details and even the reserved Tim periodically throws his two cents in. Grab your own cheap brew and join us for the Street Team Interview with A Working Model.
STI: I’m here with three-quarters of A Working Model. I’m here with Kenny Mis, Rob Logan and Tim Lawrence. Where’s Chris [Lawrence, singer/guitarist]?
Kenny Mis: Taking a nap.
Rob Logan: Yeah, he’s taking a nap right now.
KM: That pre-show nap.
RL: He gets into this — a lot of times, Chris has to go into his own zone, you know, so we just let that happen.
KM: We just tell everybody that he’s a huge alcoholic.
RL: Don’t… don’t put that in the interview. [everyone laughs]
STI: Who’s responsible for forming A Working Model?
KM: We kind of came out of two bands.
RL: Yeah. Basically, what happened was, me and Kenny had been playing together since we were 15. Obviously, Tim and Chris are brothers and they were in a band with some High School friends. We were in a few bands that weren’t really working out. I don’t know where the idea started to kind of start a band but it was originally just going to be sort of a side project thing where we were all just able to write some music and it sort of went from there. That was a few years ago, a number of years ago.
Tim Lawrence: [To Kenny] Didn’t it kind of start out with you and Chris talking?
KM: Yeah, it actually started out with me and Chris just kind of shooting the shit. You know, it was a couple years after High School that you don’t really hang out with all the same people then you actually do start hanging out some of those people. So I started hanging out with Chris again and he had his band, Hybrid, and me and Rob were kicking around — we just ended one band and we were kicking around the idea for another band. Never had a name, never had a singer. But we were really excited about it and we just kind of kicked around this idea. “Yeah, we should get together and put our two bands together” and we did. We started out as a side project and eventually, me and Rob’s other project just kind of fizzled out. We didn’t know what to do with it and A Working Model became a full-time gig.
STI: How long ago was that?
RL: 2002, I think.
KM: That was when we went full time.
RL: When we started really writing music I think was October. Well, when we first started to get together was, like, October of 2001 but we weren’t really like a band until 2002, early 2002. And then, our first recording came out a year after that. The EP, which nobody — maybe like 50 people — have, maybe, and that’s the last 50 people on Earth who will ever have it. It will never be online.
STI: What was that called?
RL: It was just called “EP”. A Working Model: EP. For what it is, it was recorded on an 8 track Alesis ADAT tape and in Chris and Tim’s basement and, you know, we were learning how to record. Chris does all the recording for the band. He still does. We’re learning a little bit more. Each member is, but, you know, it was songs we had written — some stuff was with what Kenny had come up with on guitar and me and him had worked out in a garage — like, an unheated garage — a year previous which was probably our lowest point.
KM: Dark, dark days. [laughs]
RL: We were paying these very nice people… man, what were their names? Uh, Bruce and uh, Cherie or something. They were very nice people but, they were letting us play in there for, like, $25 a month or something like that. There was no heat and the cops would come all the time but we got some cool riffs out of it. A couple songs on the EP are from that and then just some stuff that we wrote. And then, put that out ourselves completely D.I.Y. Didn’t get that mastered and then handed them out for free. We didn’t charge for those.
KM: I’m kind of glad that that EP kind of died because, I mean, granted, those songs are our first songs, but it was what me and Rob were doing and what Chris and Tim were doing and it was basically meeting in the middle ground. And it took a little while to actually do that. Took us a while to get, like, five songs and they were pretty, like… you know, sounded a certain way. We’ve deviated from that sound so much and I don’t want to go back to that sound ever again.
RL: I think that’s kind of the way we all feel about it and also, it was one of those things where we would write beyond our means. That’s something that sort of haunted us on the next record, if you want to transition to that.
STI: When did the sound actually come together. When did you slap that label on and go, “Ok, now we’re really a band because we’re all cohesive enough to make that one sound we want?”
KM: Well, I mean, that was there from the EP. This band has never… never had a set sound. The EP sounds it’s own way and then “An End” came out years after the EP and that sounds it’s own way. And then this release is coming out and it sound totally different. There’s a few tracks on this release that you can, you know, tie around the previous record, but it doesn’t sound anything like that. That’s kind of what this band does.
RL: Yeah, we evolved. I mean, the whole idea was, like, even in the name, A Working Model, which love it or leave it, we’re kind of stuck with at this point, but it’s the whole “its just what it is at the time.” We evolve our sound. We all love music and we get influenced by different things. That kind of shows up in what we do and we’re always kind of adapting and changing and that’s– You know, sometimes its hard to get a substantial following that way, but you get bored of playing the same type of stuff all the time. It’s mostly because, if we didn’t like music so much it wouldn’t be such — maybe it wouldn’t be a problem, you know?
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Jeremy Wheeler – The Bang!, comics, movies and life in the Midwest.
I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Jeremy Wheeler over a few cold ones and talk about his life in Ann Arbor, MI and all the things he’s currently involved in. Jeremy has the kind of easy nature and laid back disposition that instantly puts you at ease. The first thing you notice is his trademark goggle-style glasses, then the “ah, fuck it” hair style followed by the sighting of a collectible or two on his person (is that a Batman belt buckle?) Then you notice that the man almost never stops smiling, except when he’s looking off at the ceiling searching for the precise way to answer the latest question.
We traced some of his current projects back to his days in high school and followed their progression (and his) on to his days at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, the lack of a decent scene in Grand Rapids, his fortuitous move to Ann Arbor and everything that’s happened there since. He isn’t shy about the downs as well as the ups, and never fails to give credit where credit is due, acknowledging (and often heaping praise upon) those around him who have not only made an impact, but continue to help make him who and what he is today; an artist, a DJ, a movie critic, an entrepreneur, a visionary and a risk-taker. He’s neither short on opinions nor breath, so grab a cold one and settle in for a round with Jeremy Wheeler.
STI: This is Derek Batting with Street Team Interviews and I’m here with Jeremy Wheeler.
JW: Hello!
STI: We’re talking about The Bang! and I’m sure a lot of these people have no idea what The Bang! is. What is The Bang!?
JW: The Bang! is an audio visual dance explosion. We strive to make the best time possible. It is a place where all are welcome. Many people dress up according to the different themes we pick and stuff like that and we do it — it’s a monthly event. We do it mostly at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor and we have been doing it there since 2002 but we actually create The Bang! in 2001 in the basement of a dorm at a place called The Halfass, or the Halfway Inn.
STI: The Halfass.
JW: [laughs] The Halfass, but –
STI: As it’s commonly known around here.
JW: Yes, exactly, as it’s known here in A2. Yeah, so…
STI: So it’s what, seven years old now?
JW: We just celebrated our 7 year anniversary in November.
STI: Excellent. I’ve heard it described as everything from simply, “sexy” to “Deadly dance party madness” to, my personal favorite, “A dance dance superfest that will never rest!” What say you?
JW: [laughs] Uh… just [pauses] outrageous. If you wanna have one word, I would explain The Bang! as outrageous. It’s a dance night like no other. I don’t know if anyone out there is doing a dance night like this. It’s not your typical DJ environment. We decorate, we build sets, we have a rabid fan base who are fantastic and every time, they surprise us with what they come up with, the outfits that they do — that they put together and wear or just their fine, foxy selves. I’m consistently entertained and impressed by the people that come out.
STI: Over the past seven years, how has The Bang! evolved?
JW: Well… One thing how it hasn’t evolved is we’ve always used mix tapes. It’s always been a mix tape driven dance party. In the beginning — and we’ve always tried to decorate a little bit, but in the beginning there were mostly blown up posters of designs I had made or something and one great thing that we’ve always had is we’ve always had the logo which stems from one of the most overused typefaces around, Impact, but for whatever reason, it stayed with us and has been great, so whether it was at the Halfass or whether it’s at, you know, the Blind Pig to this day, the logo was always in your face and it was always there. As we’ve added a light show, we’ve added –
STI: Huge backdrops!
JW: Huge backdrops. Thirteen foot backdrops, large sets whether it be a shark’s mouth or a pirate ship or many various spinning things.
STI: I believe I was there once for a Back To School Bang! with a huge yellow school bus.
JW: Yeah, yellow school bus with either spinning wheels or non-spinning wheels depending on if our motors are working the night of. So yeah, we’ve added plenty of light shows and more and more decorations. I’m more and more impressed with the things that our crew comes up with and the crew has evolved. It was my partner in crime, Jason Gibner, and I, we started it. We both come up with the music, we both come up with the visuals for the video that plays everywhere and we still use VHS.
STI: The notorious videos.
JW: Yeah, the notorious videos. We still use VHS. I record half of it and he compiles the other half. But then we’ve added various, like, crew members over the years and they’re usually, you know, friends of ours. At the beginning, we definitely had friends helping us and stuff like that, but now we’re really kind of, like, bona fide and we do have these people that come with us every time and their just as invested as we are.
STI: Speaking of everyone who makes The Bang! happen every month, do you want to give a shout- out to, say, Gibner and the whole crew that makes it work?
JW: Absolutely. Jason Gibner and I would not be where we were, where we are, without the people who help us. We have a crew of carpenters, we have a crew of lighting technicians, we have an engineer on our team, and we have decorators. We’ve had people come in and out of our Bang! crew that are connected to many different scenes whether it be the electronic scene with Lauren Hill or other fellow DJs like Ayron Michael Nelson or our resident rock & roll guitarist Chris “Box” Taylor. It is kind of like a family thing. We’re very happy to have them on board and not only that, but we’re happy to help give them a means to survive. I mean, this has become a business, and because of that, we’re really happy that the people who are working with us, we love them and we care for them and they bring only their best to every time. So, I’m happy to give them props.
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