• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Glacier Hiking: The interview

Written by Freda Gordon
Thursday, 22 January 2009 00:00

Glacier Hiking are the US super band made up of former members of The Eels, Ross Golan and Molehead, and the Abandoned Pools. Freda Gordon talks to the alternative rock outfit about their music career and decision to finally release an EP after touring together for almost three years

When Jack White invited Greenhornes' Patrick Keeler and Jack Lawrence to join The Raconteurs, he must have reassured himself by thinking that: Well, we do have different hair styles, but at least we all play blues-rock. To play in a band together, people usually share some sort of similarities. But this does not seem to apply to Glacier Hiking.

The unlikely match consists of Ross Golan, who fronted the politically charged rap-rock group Ross Golan and Molehead, and Tommy Walter, the founding member of The Eels and the mastermind of Abandoned Pools (as well as touring members Joey Clement and Daniel James). And for your information, Tommy has brown hair and Ross' is black; Tommy likes Kings of Leon's Only By the Night; Ross prefers silence and talk radio.

 

So how did the idea of Glacier Hiking come about? Ross gave us an easy explanation: “Mole of Molehead was Billy Mohler and Head of Molehead was Bryan Head; both were from Abandoned Pools. But Billy was comically unreliable and unethical, to say the least, so Tommy ended up playing shows with me.”

The daddies gave birth to quite a special baby – their first EP, The Color By Number. It does not sound like any of their previous projects. The only genetic resemblances? Ross' unique vocals and reflective lyrics weaving in and out of Tommy’s chord progressions. By giving Ross a track with everything but vocals, Tommy has more freedom to focus on programming, production and mixing – something he really has a knack for achieving. Having collaborated with so many artists, Glacier Hiking seems to represent the best of them. As Ross wrote in their MySpace blog: “Tommy has the incredible gift of creating inspirational and truly genius landscapes... [That] allows me to create philosophical and emotional lyrics."

With Ross Golan and Molehead, Ross wrote a lot of politically-driven lyrics as he felt that it is his obligation to speak about bigger subjects such as politics, history and philosophy. “Glacier Hiking is an opportunity to be vulnerable in a different way,” he said.

And is that why the lyrics in this EP contain more personal emotions (All the girls I’ve been with before you don’t matter/Why can’t I understand it works the other way/Don't go using your heart for anybody else/Save it for me from “Save Some”; I fucking cried for you/You ripped the heart out of my chest and held it high like a golden medal from “Cried for You”). “Sure, many of the songs describe the tribulations of my social life. Most of the songs are about the same girl, and I warned her.”

The alternative rock outfit had been playing around the US for almost three years before releasing an EP, but why did they wait so long? “We’re producers and writers, so it’s hard to record on the road. We love playing and have a lot of fun when on stage.”

Ross has a point, but Tommy thinks quite differently: “I'm not a huge fan of touring, but if there's catering then I'm probably happy.”

With the global financial crisis, even catering might be hard to arrange. Touring, marketing and promotion are all expensive, but Ross sees a better side of that: “It is the best the industry has been since I've been involved. The quality is amazing because only the best have stuck around.”

Tommy added: “There were probably a lot of people in the industry making too much money and not doing much of anything to justify it.”

The two had their own unpleasant encounters with several record labels: Ross Golan and Molehead's delayed debut with Insider Trading Corporation; the dissolution of Extasy Records after Abandoned Pools' first release; and Universal Records who stopped promoting AP's second album. I asked Tommy what Lionsgate has done to impress them. He said: “I feel like they are fans of what we are doing. It's more of a partnership than a big brother situation.”

To the band, there's a lot less mythology involved, which is what used to power the industry. Tommy continued: “The most difficult thing in my music career was realising the reality versus the mythology. When people know you have a love of something, some of them use that as leverage against you. Having said that, I've still met some amazing people and made some great friends.”

Does that include The Eels? “That was a lot of fun, but ultimately not the place for me. I knew my input was going to become more and more limited and I wasn't particularly happy about that. I'm better off where I am now – either working on my own projects or in partnerships. I can't imagine having stayed in that band.”

I wonder if “workaholic” is the right word for them: they are always writing and producing music with different people. Exactly how many projects are they working on now is a difficult mathematics equation.

To Ross: “Glacier Hiking is always a main focus. But my main co-writer for things outside of this band is the guitarist for Saturday Night Live, Jared Scharff. I’ve written and produced over 40 songs since October; I can barely see straight.”

Tommy added: “We have a lot of momentum. I finished an album with my song-writing partner Rie Sinclair under the name Oliver the Penguin and I have about two-thirds of an Abandoned Pools album written. Rie and I are also writing music for TV shows and commercials along with various mix and production projects. It's been very, very busy.”

 

I have no idea how many projects that equates to. From where they stand now, they are in no rush of releasing an album until all the pieces fall together. By the fact that Ross has admitted his love for releasing EPs though, we can perhaps expect a few this year.

Glacier Hiking's The Color By Number is available for download now at iTunes, Amazon and their official website:

 

www.glacierhiking.com >>

Glacier Hiking on Myspace >>