With “Drawbridge” out now, we took some time to hear from Outside Pedestrian. Read below to learn more about Outside Pedestrian, the story behind “Drawbridge,” and what’s to come.
Hi! Let’s start with how did the group’s name come about?
In the late ’90s, Anthony Fesmire was teaching music in California state prisons. He put together a recording studio at one of these facilities, and when we went to record there, we had to get buzzed through two gates – the inside pedestrian gate and the outside pedestrian gate. We thought that Outside Pedestrian would be a good name for the band because we try to be “outside” the “pedestrian” (predictable, mundane, etc.).
What city are you all from, and where are you all based now?
I still consider us to be a California band, even though we now live all over. Anthony is from the Santa Cruz, CA area and now lives in Redlands, CA. I (David Lockeretz, bass) grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, and lived in California from 1999 to 2019 before moving back for family reasons, and I now live right outside of Worcester, an hour or so from Boston. We have been working with two drummers: David Oromaner, originally from Long Island and now in Chicago (via Orange County, CA) and Steve Tashjian, originally from California, but now living in Ohio. There will be a test later. I also want to shout out David Kontesz, a really good drummer who played on our second record but ended up going in a different direction.
How and when did this trio form?
Anthony Fesmrie and I met at Berklee College of Music in the early ’90s. We reconnected in California in the late ’90s and re-reconnected around 2010. At Berklee, we’d played in larger ensembles together, but we liked the idea of doing something smaller, just us two and a drummer.
How would you all describe your group’s sound?
The short answer: jazz. Rock-influenced jazz to be sure, but still jazz. But, I’d say our sound incorporates a little of everything. There’s a passage in our tune, “Rogues Gallery” (from our last album, Time Zones), that is influenced by J.S. Bach’s counterpoint, but in that same piece, we use a tuning inspired by Rage Against the Machine. We also have songs that have elements of metal, blues, reggae, funk and more. If anything I’d say we’re “jazz-influenced rock,” but I think the current “zeitgeist” of musical tastes is that any instrumental music with any element of improvisation is jazz.
Who are some of your group’s main musical influences?
We’ve always been influenced by the music (both the playing and compositions) of jazz/fusion guitarists like Pat Metheny, Mike Stern and John Scofield, as well as rock guitar greats like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Eddie Van Halen. As a bass player, I’ve been influenced by the sounds of pioneering virtuosos like Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke, and also by the work of studio bassists such as Chuck Rainey, Anthony Jackson and Marcus Miller, who played on many records by artists like Steely Dan, Paul Simon, Quincy Jones and others who have had an influence on me. We’re also compositionally influenced by classical music, and we did an original arrangement of “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” by J.S. Bach, which starts out faithful to the original work but then heads in a different direction.
What’s one of the proudest moments of your group’s music career so far?
I’d say being able to reinvent ourselves as a studio project. I have to give Anthony credit for that; it was his idea to start recording remotely and doing “virtual” performances during the pandemic. Since we were already socially distanced before the pandemic – almost 3,000 miles – it was a logical choice.
What would you all say are the greatest lessons that you’ve all learned so far?
We’ve learned a lot from pivoting from a band that primarily performed and recorded live to a band that primarily records remotely. Recording remotely has been fairly new for me, and it’s definitely different from being in a studio. On the one hand, it’s nice to not have to find a day that works for everyone to be at the studio, and it’s nice not have to worry about a ticking clock. But it’s also challenging to record a part to a digital track, without having the feedback and interaction that comes from being in the same room. Also, being able to re-record and edit whenever you want can also be tricky – it’s tempting to tweak and tweak beyond the point of actually improving the track.
Now onto “Drawbridge.” What inspired this song?
Anthony came up with the original riff, which reminded me a little of Zeppelin’s “Kashmir;” it also had a bit of Al DiMeola to it. The part that I came up with was a little mellower, to contrast the harder-rocking sections. When we fleshed out the arrangement, the idea was to give each instrument a solo in a different context from how they might normally be featured. For example, the drum solo happens over a quieter, more ambient background, rather than being in-your-face, the way drum solos are often done. As for the name of the tune, it was inspired by the Crooks Point Bascule Bridge in Providence, RI, which has been in the “up” position since 1976.
What was the inspiration behind the cover artwork for “Drawbridge?”
Once we decided on the name, I looked for images of drawbridges. I sent several to Anthony, and we went with the one that he liked the best.
What was the creative process like when making “Drawbridge?”
We emailed each other back and forth with different ideas – “After that first riff, let’s have it do this.” “What if we put the bass solo here instead of there?” Once we finalized the arrangement, we recorded our parts individually and then Anthony mixed and mastered the final track. This is pretty typical of how we have been doing remote recordings for the last few years.
How long did it take to complete “Drawbridge?”
About six months, although all of us were working on other things while this was going on.
What do you all hope fans take away from “Drawbridge” and your trio’s music in general?
Our goal is to create music that keeps people guessing, while still feeling coherent and communicative. I think a good composition or song in any genre should be like a successful mystery story. In a good mystery, the solution has to make sense without being predictable. That’s what we try to do – give some unexpected twists and turns that still feel genuine musically. Compared to some of our other tunes, “Drawbridge” seems pretty straightforward at first, but I think there are some interesting details that might not be obvious the first time you hear it, so I hope listeners find that it rewards repeated hearings.
What’s next for you all? Are you all working on any upcoming projects, or do you all have any upcoming shows that we should be on the lookout for?
We have several new tunes in various stages of composition and production, including a remake of our first collaborative effort, “Scorned Woman,” which appeared on our first album, Pedestrian Crossing, way back in (*coughs*)-ty nine. Once we have enough for a complete album, our goal is start performing them live and promote them online to a wider audience.
Where can we follow you all on social media?
Website: www.outsidepedestrian.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/outsidepedestrian
Thank you all for the great interview; wish you all much continued success!
