“After putting out music and having your band fall apart, there’s something to be said for going somewhere different and starting over,” begins Dave Fera, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for Big Blue Marble. “I always figured why go to New York or LA to get noticed, which is probably the smart thing to do. For me, it’s more about getting to a smaller city and meeting people without the whole record industry around. New Orleans is like its own little snow globe. It’s probably not the smartest decision I could have made, but I love it here.” Wisdom and business savvy notwithstanding, the move has been fortuitous for Fera, whose previous credits include Virginia alt.rockers the Seymores and Mahayla. After a series of lineup changes in their early days, Big Blue Marble’s current lineup (Ike Aguilar on lead guitar, Michael Blum on lap steel and synthesizer, Adam Campagna on keys and electric piano, Sara Essex on bass and Shaun Washburn on drums) is garnering some local and national attention and has just recorded their first album, Stars In Suburbia.

“The idea for the band was just as a side project from Mahayla, just for one show. It was just supposed to be Blair Gimma and I; I wanted a 50/50 boy/girl songwriting duo just for fun. I liked her songs, and I could see the direction she was going in. I knew it would be a really good balance between the two of us,” says Fera. “But that original lineup fell apart. We did the music for this play, Lonely Sister Praying for an Astronaut, every night for three weeks straight. I enjoyed it, and it brought some of us together, but in another way we just wanted to kill each other.

“I wanted to make it slightly country, by bringing in the lap steel and some fun instrumentation. We still play the same songs, but it’s evolved into something a little more rock oriented.” The result is that Big Blue Marble’s music, which mixes elements of alt.country twang with rich arrangements and lush, wall-of-sound production quality, is difficult to pigeonhole. It’s smart, pretty pop music that still smacks you right in the face with its solid foundation of good songwriting, thanks to Fera (and the occasional contribution of Campagna).

“I don’t really understand the whole concept of jamming,” explains Fera, speaking of his songwriting. “We played an hour-and-a-half set [at our CD release party on April 2], which was really long for us, and that’s like Galactic or something, isn’t it? We don’t really have the attention span for a 20-minute guitar solo. We have to worry about equipment failure. My distortion pedal is broken, and I never know what’s going to come out of it when I hit it. That’s the only thing that can extend our set.

“We put a lot of thought into our arrangements. And our live sets don’t necessarily go with our record. We’ll mix things up a bit; we’ll dissect a song to see what it’s made of. For example, we’ll all switch instruments. Adam [Campagna] will move to accordion, Ike [Aguilar] will move to mandolin. We’ll use a drum machine or some interesting percussion. You get bored hearing just four piece rock ‘n’ roll, unless it’s exceptional. So much of what you hear, there’s nothing there when you strip it down. It all comes down to the song.”

Big Blue Marble caught the attention of producer Larry Crane, who happened to catch the band at last year’s TapeOp Con—a recording technology convention held in New Orleans. Crane, whose credits include Elliot Smith, Sleater-Kinney and the last Decemberists in addition to editing TapeOp Magazine flew down to record Big Blue Marble. “We recorded in a little rinky-dink home studio, which is now actually quite nice, on the West Bank. It wasn’t what he was used to working in, like Piety Street or something. He came and mixed it too.” Better Than Ezra’s Tim Drummond also took time to work on Suburbia. “He was really patient and had a good ear for performance; they helped us out a lot.”

Despite the recent success—including winning the coveted Best Of The Beat award for Best Emerging Rock Band, joining the ranks of such music luminaries as the Morning 40 Federation and Hazard County Girls—Big Blue Marble was denied a coveted Jazz Fest appearance. “I was disappointed; I thought we had a chance. But we’re doing a showcase at Carrollton Station on April 23 with Peter Holsapple’s band, and we got in at the Tower sRecords in-store performances. We’re right in between Amanda Shaw and Papa Grows Funk, which is an odd juxtaposition—the Soul Rebels and Big Blue Marble. We’re also going to play this year’s TapeOp conference… Shellac and Low are confirmed, and the rest of the bands will be national acts, which
will be really good for us.”

OFFBEAT.COM REDUX
By the time this issue reaches your sweaty little hands, the new and improved OffBeat.com will be alive and kicking. We completely revamped our web site from the ground up, streamlining design, navigation, searchability and adding several special features. By the end of the summer, subscribers to OffBeat.com Premium will have access to bonus articles and interviews, live concert footage, music downloads and a slew of other perks. The message boards, of course, will still be intact.

TO BOOTH OR NOT TO BOOTH
To the casual reader, the OffBeat staff may seem like nothing more than a shadowy, hive-minded collective of introverted music geeks and shut-ins, laboring in darkness under sweatshop-like conditions to churn out volumes of incisive music criticism. “Not so!” I say. For the first time ever (not counting the Best Of The Beat Awards and various other events and concerts around town), you will have the opportunity to put faces to our names and point out everything we’ve written that you disagreed with or didn’t like. Drop by our booth at the Jazz Fest (near the brand-spanking new Jazz and Heritage stage). We’ll be showing off our fancy new web site, filling subscription orders, giving away special premiums and enjoying our first taste of freedom in months.