June Star will perform at 10 p.m. Friday at the Bullfrog Brewery, 229 W. Fourth St.
Andrew Grimm - the "engine" of June Star, a revolving cast of players and iterations - indulged the Sun-Gazette in a phone interview. Grimm is a high school English teacher by day and a Grunge-Americana front man by night.
APRIL LINE: So, there are eight guys in the sonicbids.com photo. Why only five names on the roster?
Article Photos
PHOTO PROVIDED
June Star will perform at 10 p.m. Friday at the Bullfrog Brewery, 229 W. Fourth St.
ANDREW GRIMM: (chuckles) Because it's a year-old photo and actually, those guys kind of rotate in and out of the group. We've had a revolving door policy for about the last 7 years. The only person who always shows up is me.
AL: Do you get any cred with your students for being in a band?
AG: (More chuckling) We don't really play anything that they'd be into but they seem to be supportive nonetheless. They are pretty curious about music when I talk about it in class. They're like, "You're on iTunes?" I say, "Well, guys, anybody can be on iTunes if you try hard enough."
AL: You've done an album a year since 1998? Where do you find time?
AG: Oh. Yeah. I really don't. I steal bits and moments. Every February, I do National Album Writing Month where you write 14 songs in 28 days. So, a lot of my material over the years is back-logged from those projects.
AL: So, are you recovered from February or still a little hung over?
AG: I'm pretty well recovered. I didn't do all 14 this year. In the beginning, I felt the need to do all 14 songs. In the beginning I felt the need to do all fourteen songs. Over the years, I've relaxed. There's nothing worse than a song that's forced.
AL: A song every two days seems like a tall order to me.
AG: Lyrically, it is. I take my music seriously, but the lyrics are where I spend my time.
AL: Do you think that spending every day with books and writing helps when writing lyrics?
AG: I think so. I spend a lot of time talking with students. And re-reading texts always unlocks some sense of how we talk to each other. Whether it's straightforward story-telling songs or you're trying to be esoteric and I see having conversations with people as practice lyric-writing. Our band name actually comes from a Flannery O'Connor story.
AL: How is it being a musician in Baltimore?
AG: It's pretty friendly. There are all sorts of different musical factions. We have a couple of bar gigs that we play. We really don't tell people we're playing those.
They're four-hour shows, so we're playing 40 or 50 songs. The Bullfrog Brewery is kind of like that, but Bullfrog is different in that they're putting music up front. It's like, "Yes, we're a restaurant. But we also have bands." We're looking forward to it.
AL: Any backlash from administrators or other teachers for your other life as a front man?
AG: That's a great question. I love my administration. Once a year, they have a speaker day and seven or eight years ago, I was teaching at another school and a friend who taught where I'm teaching now called and asked if I'd give a presentation on songwriting. Next week, I'm giving a presentation on how to tour.
So, I don't have to disguise anything. Part of that is because playing music at night, in bars, I'm over 21: I'm not cranked up on methamphetamines. I'm not living any kind of rock and roll lifestyle. Just a lot of coffee mainly.
AL: Any long-term plans for the band? Any pie in the sky?
AG: I don't see us stopping anytime soon. I've spent a lot of time and money and burned enough relationships, I might as well just hold on to this. We've got a good band name, the writing evolves. I'm more interested in making a really good record than I am in making lots of money. If there's one pie-in-the-sky dream, it would be for it to be self-sustaining.
Find June Star online at www.Junestar.com or email info@junestar.com.
