Full Name: Richard Wayne B., II
Age: 25
Location: Pittsburgh, PA (Squirrel Hill section)
Occupation: Misery (read: working as, essentially, a secretary to a bunch of engineering professors). Sometimes the band gigs pay a little… does that count? Hobbies: Reading, attempts at writing songs, listening to music, watching movies. Tried to get a postcard collection going, but no one that I know can really afford to travel much. So, I just started buying postcards I liked and sticking them in a book. That seemed to defeat the purpose of collecting postcards, though. Several years ago, I made a habit of collecting anything with the words “David Bowie” written on it. I’m way over that, though.
Pets: Sadly, I have none unless you want to count my pillow sheathed in a Morrissey pillowcase or my Mr. Spock doll.

1: the heavy part
Where are you from originally? What was it like there?
I’m originally from a small town called Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Technically, it’s population of 30-some-thousand makes it officially a “city.” This meaningless classification, the fact that we had a huge high school (we even had different ethnicities and races, by golly!), and that every summer people from all over the world trekked to our town for the Little League Baseball World Series, always gave me the impression that Williamsport was larger and much more important than it really is. It didn’t help matters that anyone from anywhere else in Lycoming County considered Williamsport “the big city” and people were afraid to go to downtown Williamsport at night because “black people live down there.” Basically, it’s very small town with expansive city limits, I guess you could say.

Not surprisingly, baseball was a very popular sport there (oh, and soccer was for pretty-boy rich kids) and my dad managed to get me to play for a number of years.

People from outside of Williamsport tend to comment on how pretty the area is. And I guess I can see that – the town does lie in a valley along the Susquehanna River and is surrounded by woods, and that has afforded “Billtowners” many forms of recreation from hunting and fishing to boating to hiking and so on. Also, back in the late 1800’s, Williamsport was the lumber capital of world. That’s no longer true, of course, but what remains from the financial boom of that era are many beautiful Victorian homes.

Once you got to be a teenager in Williamsport, however, there was absolutely nothing to do. There were a few attempts made at under 18 “night clubs,” but those vanished quickly. What you were left with were your Denny’s and your Perkins and we’d go there, sit all night, drink coffee and smoke cigarettes (this is how I got started!). Alternately, we’d sit in friends’ houses and watch “arty” movies.

Update us on your situation in life.
I’m a 25 year old college graduate with a degree in creative writing and I presently work for the same institution from which I graduated. My most recent band (Curses!) broke up about a week ago do to personality conflicts between a couple members. I’ve got a girlfriend, Allison, who will be moving out of Pittsburgh and back to Connecticut at the end of the summer. I live alone in an attic apartment, and I relish the amount of privacy and alone-time this living situation provides. For the past week, I’ve been scheming up ideas for my next musical project that will hopefully include my Curses! bandmate (and dear friend) Cindy as well.

Ideally, what will your life look like on New Year's Day 2005?
Ideally? Ha! Ideally, on New Year’s Day, I’ll be living somewhere in the forests of Washington State; married to a wonderful, attractive woman who would also be my best friend; and making a comfortable living from a music career. Ideally and more realistically, I’ll be working at a job that I don’t hate waking up for in the morning; playing shows with whatever musical project I’ve got going; and making enough money to live comfortably. Even more realistically, I’ll still be at the same job and dissatisfied with my life.

Have your early to mid 20s been like you imagined? Why or why not?
Definitely not. Growing up in a small town in the middle of nowhere, you kind of get the impression that life is relatively predictable and simple as long as you’ve got a steady job and a good head on your shoulders. As a teenager, I sort of rebelled against this notion, wanting something bigger and much more glamorous than a 9-5 job and a mortgage to pay. I went to college in a larger city in hopes of discovering new and wonderful people and things. And – it pains me to say this today because it just goes to show how horribly naïve I was at the time – I was convinced as a teenager that I’d go to the big city, become famous somehow, lead the good, easy life and live happily ever after. This obviously didn’t happen, as I’m sure most of you reading this are like “Richard who?” Though, somehow if that didn’t happen, then I thought I was still safe – I was going to college, after all, and my small-town-bred naivety told me that “all you need to do is graduate college and you’ll automatically find a good job and still live out the fairy tale ending. You’ll be young and you’ll be having fun and it will be the best time of your life!”

In a nutshell, given my absurdly high expectations, my early- to mid-20’s have been something of a disappointment. But if something good can always be taken away from something bad, that good would come in the form of my maturation. I feel much more grounded now than I ever have, despite still not knowing exactly what to do with my life. I’m an adult and living like one, making my own living, paying my own bill and rent and making my very own decisions. I’ve also come to terms with the fact that things that you want to happen don’t just happen, usually – that usually you have to go out and find them and work for them. I also feel confident that I know what matters and what doesn’t matter in people, in relationships, and in life in general. Just a few years ago, I’m not so sure that I had that same sense. Most importantly, I’ve come to like myself better and enjoy being alone with myself.

Which was the best year, for you, of the aforementioned early to mid 20s? Why?
It would have to be my junior year of college. I turned 21 that year. When I look back at pictures from my birthday night I feel that I was at the peak of my physical appearance then. Earlier that year, I had formed my first band. I was head-over-heels in love with my then-girlfriend and she helped me discover so much new music. And the future looked bright.

As long as I've known you, you've been in a band or thereabouts. What about music that draws you in?
It’s embarrassing to say now, but initially, my reasons for wanting to be in a band were completely superficial and megalomaniacal. Don’t get me wrong, I was in love with music, but first and foremost I was in love with the fantasy of becoming a rock star. Essentially, I just wanted to be as cool as possible and have people recognize me wherever I went, hang posters of me on their wall, scream my name at concerts, that sort of thing. I didn’t even write much music then, just glam-inspired lyrics set to my guitar player’s riffs. After that first band broke up, I then realized I had caught the music bug, something that afflicted me like a chronic disease. It no longer was an issue of wanting to make music, but instead, of needing to make music. Music, then, became less of a stage for me to act out my rock star messiah fantasies (do we get a sense of too much David Bowie in my musical diet at that stage in my life?) and more of a means of expression. So, I bought a guitar, taught myself how to play and started writing songs.

What draw me to music is that it is the most effective and efficient way to express feeling and emotion. There’s just something so powerful about sound that’s difficult to express in words. It’s like your heart strings are connected to set to certain frequencies and certain tones and sounds and pitches can set them off, sending little electrical impulses throughout your body...It’s like this: a song can make you cry in three minutes, whereas a novel or a film or painting may take hours to achieve the same effect.

How does the experience listening to music differ from that of making it?
If we’re talking here about the process by which a song is made, then, honestly, listening to music is a much more pleasurable experience. Making music is a labor of love. It can be a pain in the ass. It can be difficult to find exactly what note you want or what lyric you want to use at a certain point and putting it all together cohesively. But once you have gone through the trouble of piecing together a song, you’re left with a rewarding final product that is well worth all of the blood sweat and tears you put into it.

2: the not-heavy part
Describe a good night out…
An Indian dinner followed by an early show where bands that I actually enjoy are playing. When the show is over, go to a dark, cozy bar with a few close friends, sit in a booth and talk and drink. Go home at 2:00 when the bar closes and go to bed.

And a good night in the apartment...
With someone: Get some take out food with my girlfriend so that I don’t have to wash dishes, rent a good movie and curl up together.

Alone: Put on some music, make myself something to eat. Casually watch something on the TV as I eat. Turn off the TV, play my guitar, or read or attempt to write something. A little later, turn on a movie or some classic Star Trek and relax. Go to bed and read until I’m too tired to read anymore.

Current favorite ethnic food and, if possible, dish?
Indian food. Palak Paneer. Spicy enough to feel, but not so spicy that you can’t taste it.

What have you been listening to?
My staple is always Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I listen to Get Hustle on repeat sometimes. And then I’ve been listening to a lot of folk-ish/Americana type stuff and music influenced by it like Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Bringing It All Back Home Again album, Sparklehorse, Black Heart Procession, Neko Case.

Was hast you been reading?
I just finished reading Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy. Before that, I read Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I’ve also been doing some research on traditional folk songs, murder ballads, and sea shanties.

What have you been watching on TV?
I’ve been kinda into King of the Hill lately.

Seen any movies lately? What did you think?
Hm. I rented a couple videos of the Fishing with John series. The guest celebrities in the episodes I watched were, respectively, Matt Dillon, Willem Dafoe, Jim Jarmusch, and finally Tom Waits. They’re more comical than I had expected. I always had the impression that they were serious documentaries, but you soon realize from the quirky editing and commentary and zany theme songs that it’s not intended to be serious at all.

You're hung over on a Sunday morning -- what do you put on the stereo?
Nothing. I don’t want to associate the horrible experience of being hung over with any music I enjoy. I’d probably just flip on the TV quietly. I make it a point not to be hung over, though.

3: the cocktail party
So you’re having a cocktail party: list five A-list guests, other than Jesus, me and your friends...
I’m going to limit myself to the currently living...

Willem Dafoe: just watch the Fishing with John episode he’s in. He’s a warm guy and manages to stay positive in shitty situations. Seems like he would be the one to deal with the ubiquitous staggering, violently drunk person.

Thomas Wydler (drummer of the Bad Seeds): I joke that I wish this guy were my uncle. Seems like a gentleman and very unpretentious. Quiet, but the guy who can deliver the perfect one-liner at the necessary moment.

Christopher Walken: every gathering needs a dry-witted, sarcastic individual, right? I think he would deliver.

David Lynch: the stories he’d be able to tell! Also, I’d like to judge for myself if he’s really as normal as people claim he is.

To keep this from being a sausage party, I’ll add...

PJ Harvey: just because I admire her, and she seems sweet.

What drinks will you serve?
Straight whiskey, and assortment of red wines, dirty vodka martinis, and a German beer of Thomas Wydler’s choosing.

What will be on the stereo?
A mixture of lounge, doo-wop, and old country tunes.

Conversation topics will include…
Anything but politics...and...hell, I don’t know. Conversations are more exciting when they drift tangentially from present topics.

How will the evening end?
With everyone cleaning up my place before they leave around 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning.