The Senate, Seattle’s Rock and Roll String Band

By Hilary Field

Three voices, two acoustic guitars, one upright bass. It seems like an unlikely formula for a hard-driving rock band, unless that band happens to be Seattle’s rock ‘n roll string band, The Senate. Propelling music from the stage with intricate grooves, catchy melodies and an aggressive rhythmic punch, The Senate builds a wall of sound with acoustic strings, the human voice and nary a drum stick in sight.

Band members Nick Drummond and Oliver Franklin, on guitar and vocals, along with Andrew Pulkrabeck, on basses, vocals, and beatboxing, each bring their own distinct and eclectic musical background to the mix. This fusion of jazz, heavy metal, classical, and Afro pop music fills the air like a rock show. It gets folks up on their feet and dancing, without using electric instruments or drums.

The rhythmic intensity and high energy of the songs drive the music, played with the heart and soul of musicians who approach their instruments without boundaries. “You don’t find much ‘boom-chucka-boom-chucka’ stuff in what we do. It’s a lot more syncopated, and draws from a wide variety of influences,” says Nick, the main songwriter for the band. Nick and Oliver, who met as students in Garfield High School, both grew up playing percussion, and both approach their guitars like drummers.

“The acoustic guitar is a very percussive instrument,” says Nick. “I love that. I spent seven years playing African drums as I was growing up. The transition from that to the acoustic guitar was great. There is a lot that you can do if you approach the guitar that way.” “Bandit,” the opening cut on their debut CD Live at Solstice exploits that rhythmic diversity, with tight syncopated grooves that create a bed of sound for Nick’s soaring vocals. The resultant sound is instantly engaging.

The two guitars, Nick’s Larrivee LV-09 and Oliver’s Gibson Chet Atkins solid body acoustic, communicate sometimes in unison, sometimes in harmony, an sometimes in rich, complex and infectious polyrhythms. Oliver’s guitar solos, colored with wah and reverb pedals, add sustain and ambiance, along with the drive and edginess of an electric guitar. His playing reflects his encompassing experience and skills with guitar styles, from classical to heavy metal.

“Oliver is kind of a musical chameleon,” exclaimed Nick. “I view him as a musical genius, and it is really always a pleasure to share the stage with him because he can take a song any number of different directions on a different night. It’s just always a joy to hear where it will go. I love what he does. He can make an acoustic guitar weep, and he can just shred on electric guitar.” Oliver and Nick performed together before they hooked up with bassist Andrew Pulkrabeck, a childhood friend of Oliver’s. Andrew brought his own eclectic musical tastes and talents to the group, from jazz to theater, vaudeville, heavy metal, and Motown. His big tone, dynamic rhythmic sensibilities and beat boxing completed the package for this unique group of musicians who were barely twenty-one years old.

All of the band members are now twenty-five, and recently released their first full length CD and DVD, Live at Solstice. This live CD showcases their musical talent and infectious energy. It offers a unique voice to the world of acoustic music. These well-crafted songs defy anyone to sit still, with insistent beats, catchy hooks and instrumental interest that just develop with repeated listening. While many of the tracks are indeed feel-good songs, the lyrics in “Skeleton Line” visit a very sad truth in Iraq. “Those who robbed my cradle dig my grave, from a human to a human to a slave, I gave my only child to the skeleton line, he was blown away, into the awaiting night.”

I recently had the pleasure of talking with Nick Drummond of The Senate. Here are some excerpts from that interview.

HF: When did you form the band The Senate?
ND: Four years ago. We just played our fourth anniversary concert in February. Oliver and I went to high school together at Garfield. We started writing songs in high school, but it wasn’t until we were out of high school that we had time to actually work on music. Oliver came to one of my shows, and he was generous enough to say he liked what he heard. We decided to get together. At that time he was playing in an aggressive metal band, and I was playing sweet high school acoustic love songs. We started jamming and those two styles came together in a way that was actually really unexpected and surprising. Oliver and I have developed a style of communication musically since 2002, and it’s been really satisfying. He and I started playing shows together. Andrew, our bass player, was a friend of Oliver’s. He came along and listened to us, and thought there was something there that he wanted to be a part of. He joined up, he brought his own sensibilities and his own aesthetic to it, and that just gave it a whole new dimension.

HF: Why did you choose acoustic instruments instead of electric to play rock music, or conversely, why did you choose to play rock instead of more traditional/roots acoustic music, given your chosen instruments?
ND: I’ve always felt at home on acoustic guitar. I’ve always really liked the sound of the instrument and its percussive quality. I played electric guitar for a while. It was cool but I couldn’t quite get it to sound the way I wanted. At the same time, Andrew and Oliver were playing together in a heavy metal band. I think that if the three of us just randomly walked into a room together and decided to start a band, there would have been a whole lot more of that vibe off the bat. Instead, we’ve come at it the long way, starting with the sparser, folksy, acoustic sound. Then we took that sound and said, “How do we make this sound as big and raucous as we can?”

HF: If you could put that into words, how do you do that?
ND: If only I knew. I think to a large extent it is based off of the rhythm. We spend a lot of time with song structure, and making the songs actually take the listener on a journey of sorts. We try to develop tension and release within a song, and that really helps compensate for our lack of a guy with sticks in the back. I don’t really know how to describe how we do that, except that it is a very conscious endeavor. We also like to play music that feels good to play. That is where we start.

HF: Is there one main songwriter in the band, or do you collaborate together?
ND: I do most of the songwriting. I spend a lot of time at that on my own. The arrangement process is very much collaborative. I am always impressed that it goes somewhere unexpected. I think I know what I have when I come in, and it always becomes something beyond what I could envision.

HF: Please talk about your monthly all ages show at Cafe Solstice
ND: We have been doing this for a while. We operate outside of the Seattle music scene, because we don’t have drums, we’re not a good bar band, and there aren’t many all ages venues that could really accommodate what we do very well. The small coffee shop shows are fun, but they are usually too small. We rent out Cafe Solstice for the night. We close it down, have an army of helpers, move all the furniture out, put up a lighting rig, put in the PA, do a sound check, and two and a half hours later we open the doors up. We get up to about two hundred people through the door, and it turns into a party rock show. It’s a completely and utterly unique phenomenon in this city. I haven’t seen a show or a scene around a band like that anywhere. I am certainly very proud that we have been able to create this, because it fills a void. There is a segment of the population that is almost completely neglected in the music scene in Seattle. There are a lot of college kids who come out that aren’t drinking age. There isn’t really anywhere for them to go. Where do you go at that age to see live music? The Vera project does what the Vera project does, and it’s excellent for that, but it’s not for a band that’s trying to create something. It’s hard for us to do this through the Vera project because they are very structured in how they put on shows. You can’t just come in and do your own thing in their place. Which is fine, but it makes it very difficult for us. We took it upon ourselves to make our own venue and make our own scene, once a month.

HF: Who is in your typical audience?
ND: It is largely the younger folks, high school, college, 18-21, although there are people who are certainly older that that too. Another thing that I am very proud of in this band is that we appeal to an incredibly wide range of folks. Our music isn’t offensive to the ears, so we play what we in the band call the NPR crowd, a lot. There is a public radio program that we play up in Bellingham periodically, a variety show, like Prairie Home Companion, and we get a great, great response from those folks. We play high schools and colleges, and people love it. It works across the board. That is something that I think is really cool. We have grandparents and little kids come to these shows. It’s wide open.

HF: Why did you choose to release a live, rather than a studio, debut CD?
ND: We are exclusively a live band. That’s not something we set out to become, it’s just that all we really ever had the chance to work on is putting on a show and playing live. That’s what we do. We love it. It’s so much fun. It’s also what we were most comfortable with at the time. We brought in a film crew and filmed it, took that into the studio and got to mix the DVD in stereo as well as surround sound. For those who have surround sound, you really feel like you are in the middle of the room.

HF: What music influenced you growing up?
ND: I listened to a lot of Afro pop growing up. My brother and I were both grew up around Afro drums, and around a lot of world music. I also went through a big phase as a Beatles fan. In terms of song craft, there is no one you can beat. If you want to just listen to a perfect three minutes, that’s where you go. Dave Matthews was very influential for me, because at the time that I was really getting into guitar no one was playing acoustic guitar in pop music. He made it OK through the grunge scene for me to play acoustic guitar. He made it OK for a lot of people to play acoustic guitar. He showed that it could actually be a cool, funky rock ‘n roll instrument. You could do stuff with it that wasn’t strummy, strummy strummy. You could actually really make some driving fun music with it. That influence has shaped a lot of my playing.

HF: Do you have any advice to young musicians who want to break into the music world?
ND: Play shows. Play with people. Find people to jam with. There’s no way to get better at what you do than to play live and see what works and what people respond to. Find your voice, somewhere, somehow.

HF: Do you feel like you are finding your voice in The Senate?
ND: Maybe. I think I’ve gotten to a place where I know a little bit better where to look. I think the most important thing is just to play with people. It might sound simple but I don’t think there is anything that is more joyous and carefree than the act of creating music. For me personally, it takes me back to the feeling, when you are a kid just playing with blocks or Tonka trucks. There is a carefree quality to creating music that I really like. That quality is only expanded upon when it’s done collectively.
The best way to experience this band is to see them live. The Senate will be playing live shows, including many outdoor festivals, all summer.

Note: Nick Drummond attended several Victory Music Open Mics at the Honey Bear Bakery. I saw The Senate at the Juan De Fuca Festial of the Arts, and I was blown away! I am using the first two tracks of their CD in my Latin Dance class. I totally hear the Afro-Latin grove in their music. Go see these guys!!!!! Anita