E-Block

 

(L-R: Luke Pascarella, James Soren, Joshua Reedy (interviewer))

Amidst a nationwide pandemic, it can be hard for musicians and artists to stay positive. Local scenes have made resounding statements to attest for the survival of struggling artists, whether it be through digital concerts, home recordings or Zoom band meetings. Two members of The E-Block, a local band that brings an exciting mix of Soul, Jazz and R&B, sat down over a Zoom chat to speak about their band, and how they are remaining focused and positive in spite of the pandemic. The E-Block is composed of Anthony Campoli (guitar), Luke Pascarella (guitar, vocals, multi-instrumentalist), Dom Toma (Drums) and James Soren. 

RRX: First of all, how are you guys doing? Are you hanging in there?

LP: We are hanging in there. 

JS: I’m doing pretty solid. I was watching a lot of TV but I stopped doing that because I felt like a bum-ass, so now I play a lot of Minecraft which makes me feel way more productive than I am. 

RRX: Do you guys have an E-Block Minecraft server?

JS: We don’t but we should.

RRX: So we’ll get the obvious question out there first: How has this virus affected your band and the music scene as you see it? 

LP: I actually kind of see it as positive and negative for us. Positive because it’s unlimited time to work on music, but it also sucks because we are more of a live band mostly - we’re so used to playing with each other. This is probably our longest stretch in over three years without playing in front of people; that’s definitely the biggest change but it’s also awesome because we can just take a ton of time to work on our recordings. We’ve been working for a long time to get our second EP out and this is kind of the perfect stretch of time to work that out.

JS: I agree. I think a lot of the time we’ll use live performances to organize our practices, and so the fact that we can’t just practice in real time is kinda tough. But we have a lot of these ideas sort of already cooked, or at least half baked. The reality is we have all the time in the world to sort of cook them through. 

RRX: I also want to talk about what it’s like having a larger variety of instruments (sax, among others) and people, and how you manage input from different places. 

LP: It sort of feels like we don’t (have a lot of people) because we’re constantly switching out bass players. Everytime we have a gig where we need a full band, it’s like, we just go down the list of all the bass players we know and try to find which one can come and which one can practice. We usually don’t get to practice, which can be more fun as it adds an element of surprise if we don’t know who we’re playing with. It was awesome to add Brian, on keys recently; he comes from a totally different background, he comes from a classical background. It’s been super fun hearing his (Brian’s) input to everything with his background.

JS: Yeah, I think it’s all very organic. We didn’t start out thinking we’d have the pieces that we have, I mean, the band didn’t even start out with me (laughs) so I’ve sort of seen how it is to enter the conversation and start to influence things where I can. Personally for me, it’s gotten to the point where - you know, the first time I got to play on our first EP, I was walking into songs where I didn’t really have a part in making and now it’s super cool to be on the other side where I’m even writing lyrics now. I’ve gotten to the core of the songwriting process. And I think for all the other people that we add, their influence comes in all these different stages but it all feels very natural. Like, Brian on keys - we’ve always wanted keys, some of us can play keys, Luke can play keys though he’s pretty modest about it. But when we add people it feels pretty natural so it’s not weird when they do. 

LP: We’re trying to get some flute too, trying to get James on the flute. 

JS: I am working on it! I have Mom’s old flute.

LP: But yeah, it’s fun to have a big group, it’s fun to have a team. Right now our core group is me, James, Dom: our drummer; those are the main people who if we have a gig we know will be there. But a lot of the time over the last year, just working and gigging, playing acoustic shows with Dom has been our main source of gigs - it just works better for live shows and bar stuff. Or even private parties, people don’t always want a full band - we definitely prefer a full band, but it’s still fun working things out for acoustic. And it’s cool because our set is pretty similar, it doesn’t change much from the acoustic stuff to our full band electric stuff, so it’s fun hearing different versions of the same songs. 

JS: And it’s just fun - and a good way to meet people. 

RRX: Is it fair to say that you guys use a lot of improv when playing live as opposed to what might happen in a practice? 

LP: Absolutely. Yeah, I don’t know if we ever play the song the same way twice live. We practice at our gigs pretty much. That’s where we work stuff out, because a lot of the time nobody’s really there to watch at like, bars, so we see that as a really good time to practice. It’s fun to practice our improv jams at shows too, because then everything is on the fly. 

JS: I feel like the best shit sort of comes just when you’re - I mean, we have these base ideas of what we’re playing. As the sax player I don’t carry a ton weight, I mean, I’m playing lead and I’m playing bass parts, and I’m playing rhythm parts and I’m trying to lock in with the drums or trying to do harmonies - all just depending on what part we’re at in the song, or who we’re playing with, or what kind of people we’re playing for. There are a lot of variables that have allowed me, through improv, to find new ways to add stuff. I think when we record stuff and we listen back, or when we get to practice we always try to think of lines we want to keep for our more structured performances or for recordings. That (improv) helps so much. 

RRX: Definitely. And it’s definitely different talking to you guys because most of the other bands I’ve interviewed have been alternative rock, would you guys consider it fair to say you’re a blend of Jazz and R&B, or how would you best classify your own sound?

JS: We argue about that all the time (laughs).

LP: I like to say Soul, I don’t know. 

RRX: I can definitely hear elements of Soul in your stuff. 

JS: Soul is good, but definitely all those other genres you mentioned as well. 

RXX: So James, I know you are at least a part of the Jazz band at UAlbany, is that part of how you all met, or what’s the story behind that? 

JS: Yeah, I met Dom, our drummer, through the Jazz Band. So, I was a Freshman in the Jazz Band at UAlbany in 2017 in the fall and he was a senior, it was his last semester; so we just kind of met in that window of opportunity in Jazz. He (Dom) invited me to meet Luke and the rest of the guys and that was the start of that. But they’ve been playing together for a long time on their own.  

RRX: So what’s the start of the band?

LP: Oh yeah, I’ve known Dom since I was in kindergarden, he was good friends with my older brothers. Dom and I also lived within a mile of each other our whole lives. So yeah, Dom comes to me and says ‘There’s this nasty Sax player in Jazz Band, let’s invite him to play with us.’ Dom and I had been playing together acoustic for a while and we just wanted another piece. And when we brought James on, I think we met with him once so we could go through some of our set, and we just threw James into one of those gigs at Blue 82. We had a weekly residence there at Blue 82 that would just go from 10p.m. to 1a.m. so it was kind of a weird gig. So we just had James come to one of those, and we were just calling songs and he had to just jump right in and he killed it. We knew it was the missing piece. 

RRX: So is E-Block an actual street? How’d that name come to be?

LP: Yeah, so the street that me, Dom and our other guitarist Anthony - Anthony lives in Boston, so we don’t get to play with him as much as we’d like to but we all grew up in that neighborhood and it was called El Dorado Acres and everybody calls it the E-Block. We’ve been trying to change the name (laughs). 

JS: It just sticks around, man. Nothing else ever comes out that can get us away for too long. 

LP: There was a time where we were booking gigs at Katie O’Byrne’s and they had a rule where they didn’t book the same band twice in one month so we did an acoustic set and a full band - we had to be “The Stuff” one time and The E-Block the other time. The Stuff was just our alter ego for a little while. 

RRX: So you guys have one EP of original material, and I understand you’re working on a second EP right now too?

JS: Yeah, we’ve got a single we’re gonna put out within the next week, and at least one EP coming out in the Summer. 

RRX: Will you guys eventually have tour plans? Are you setting stuff up or are you waiting to see what happens with the virus first?

LP: It’s kind of all up in the air right now. We’re just dying to get back to playing together. Just to get us all back into a room to jam: that’s what we really do it for. We’re at a point now where it feels like we’ve played every place in the Capital Region: so many private parties, so many weird events. We were playing at this golf place called The Bunker, we’ve played at bowling alleys, we’ve played church things and weddings. We’ve played almost everything, so this is a good time to start thinking about some big thing that we could maybe sell tickets for. We want to eventually do a big show with an Albany crowd. I feel like there’s an Albany scene - like, a new kind of music scene brewing so we really wanna be a part of that and meet a ton of musicians and maybe do some shows at a great place like The Hollow. 

RRX: You guys definitely have a very versatile sound, and you could easily fit into many shows. What was the weirdest show you’ve ever played in Albany?

JS: I think the amount of times that we’ve had to stop playing because somebody got knocked out - like, the fact that that has happened more than one time…

RRX: (Laughs) Now, knocked out from drinking, fighting or what?

JS: All.

LP: We saw one person just get lifted up, and just get slammed down on the ground. We’ve seen this one lady grab another woman by her hair and just pull her down some stairs. 

JS: And we’re not gonna name any of these places either. But yeah, it’s about being your own bouncer. When you do these gigs, it’s not just about setting up your own stuff, playing your own music you are also completely your own security. I don’t know why people want the microphone so badly when they’re drunk, and I’ve picked up so many warning signs now. I know now that when somebody is trying to show you a picture of their kid - huge warning sign that they are about to run for the mic, I don’t know why! 

LP: We have to be very mean to some people who come up to us, we have to be so mean sometimes. 

JS: Like, this is not karaoke! I always say you have to bring your own mic, that’s my policy. That’s not all the time though, sometimes people come up and it’s great, and it’s fun or they’ll make a request.

RRX: Yeah, I’ve noticed that you guys pull out really fun covers that the crowds always enjoy, so I was wondering how you choose what to cover. And James, I’ve spoken with you about keeping covers fresh or even doing a cover of a cover before. 

JS: Yeah, I think a part of it is that some of my favorite artists are sort of updating great music from the past or putting their own twist on it that catches my attention; and that is just such a great vehicle for all of this history that I otherwise may not have known about. So sometimes we are doing a cover of a cover of a cover (laughs). Like, D’Angelo is a huge inspiration. 

RRX: Ah, I was going to mention him because I thought I heard you play a D’Angelo cover the last time I saw you. 

LP: Yeah, we just love to trace it all back. We love D’Angelo because we love Prince and Stevie Wonder and we love Parliament and Funkadelic and James Brown. So all of that music stands through all of those newer artists, and we even do some of the next step; we’ll do some Drake covers that have been influenced by the 90’s neo-soul and R&B. It’s fun to show our roots and our influences.  

RRX: And with all the people you guys work with, does anyone ever propose a cover that you’re just like: ‘nah we’re not doing that’?

LP: Definitely, that happens all the time. And our tastes change all the time. We used to do a lot more rock-oriented stuff, but getting into the 90’s neo-soul stuff really opened up my perspective on things.

JS: Same. You guys showed me a lot of that. I was sort of meandering there, but you guys just showed me the raw shit that I did not have until I started playing with you guys. 

RRX: So how do you guys approach songwriting on your own?

LP: Yeah, we don’t really have a set process but a lot of our ideas come out of our live performances. If we don’t really have a set idea at a show we’ll just start playing something and a lot of the time that will turn into a song we’ll start writing. Then I’ll take it and make a full demo of the song, I’ll usually play all instruments and get it to a point where I feel we can all play it live. And that’s usually how we go about recording, we just play it live. We don’t usually use a click track, Dom and I. I’ll just plug in DI guitar and Dom will record the drums to get a good take and then we’ll just stack, stack, stack on top of that. Sometimes I’ll just write something alone and then I’m super eager to take it to Dom and James and have them add to it cause we all have our own sound that we bring to it, and that’s really our E-Block sound. 

JS: I want to talk about Syracuse - I think this is a pretty good example of the process. Last Summer we got the chance to record at Syracuse’s studios, we slipped in and all the doors were locked except one because we had this one connection with an engineer who is just the man. I brought my buddy up, Joey, who plays bass - I’ve known him since I was a kid…

LP: Insane player.

JS: Yeah, he’s (Joey) kickin’ it at Berkeley right now. But we all went up last Summer just trying to get a bunch of stuff recorded and Luke had this one idea on the spot and we recorded it super quick, did some improv over it, had some scratch vocals. Of all the stuff we recorded that was sort of the most up in the air but it was cool and over the past year we’ve been chewing on that idea, adding stuff, taking away stuff, changing the form. During the school year I’d meet up with Luke and we would just go over the song for, I don’t know, so long. And this is the first one that I’ve kind of co-written some of the lyrics and stuff and now it’s starting to become somewhat recognizable - a lot of the elements of the original ideas are still there but now it’s gone through this process of everyone adding their stuff. I think it’s all a long process but a very collaborative process. 

LP: And we do everything in-house; mixing, mastering and recording - everything is done between us three (Luke, Dom, James).

RRX: Yeah, I was gonna ask if it’s challenging getting levels right with all different instruments like Sax and so on.

JS: Yup, we’re going through that right now. 

RRX: And another thing I wanted to talk about given that you guys do a lot of improv, is the theory side of things. Are you guys all based in music theory, did you grow up playing a lot?

JS: I (pauses) No (laughs).  

LP: I don’t know, I don’t come from a musical family. None of us really - did you ever take lessons James?

JS: Kind of, I have very strong opinions on this. So yes and no. My family was not musical in the way that they play instruments, but my Dad had some very interesting music tastes that I carry with me in some respects. I took piano lessons but I quit sort of quick and I had sax lessons that I didn’t really take on, they didn’t really click with me. I think theory has never been the way to digest music for me as the first wave. I think you have to feel something, and have something and then go back to learn the theory stuff. I hate that Albany, the school, has prioritized classical music and theory as being the main way that we play, and that there are no real resources into simply playing with other people and developing a vocabulary on your own. It took - sorry this is super winding, but the director of the New York Jazz Academy, this guy named Javiar Arau is a killer sax player. And I remember I did a Summer with them once, it was a bunch of old people in a hot church in the Upper East Side and me and I was way in over my head and I didn’t practice as much as I should have and I didn’t know what was going on. I was scared a lot and it was terrifying and weird and awful, kind of, but also really cool because Javiar told me, and I’ll always remember this, when soloing for example: playing is a story. And I was so worried about the theory, and what I was playing, and how I’m playing this scale and how I’m doing this which I didn’t understand anyway because my brain wasn’t having it and it was hot and it was boring. But anyway he said it’s like you’re telling a story, so tell the story. Think about the parts of the story, what you want to say, and say it; and that has always, always been true. We play stuff that, if you want to put a label on it, you could, but it’s not necessary. 

RRX: Do you guys feel that theory limits creativity in any ways?

LP: I would never say that it limits; it’s always good to have more colors to choose from. You just can’t always play with your head. 

JS: I think just using theory to write songs is like using a dictionary to write poems. You’ll find some cool stuff but if you don’t know what you're doing or you don’t feel it and it’s not coming from a deeper place, then it’s not going to be as interesting.

 LP: It’s all about listening for us, especially Dom. I guess, as a drummer Dom doesn’t really think about music theory but he has just an incredible ear, I can make the smallest accent with a guitar strum and he’ll just pick it up.  

JS: That’s so weird, you guys are like, psychic. 

RRX: Also, do you guys have any other bands or people you want to shout out?

JS: Oh, well we talked to A Bit of Space a while back, what feels like forever ago.

LP: Yeah at a battle of the bands. We talked about possibly doing a show with them because we have kind of a similar sound and similar influences for sure.

JS: I guess shoutout to Joey Farber, the fucking man. 

LP: He’s the reason our single sounds the way it does, his bass playing.

JS: Yeah and his bass will be on more of our stuff for sure. 

LP: Yeah shoutout to anyone who has ever played in The E-Block the list is huge. Probably like, 50 different people have been in this band. 

RRX: Any info you want to give for your upcoming EP?

LP: I’d say definitely expect a different sound. We’re also really proud of our first EP too, but we’re definitely trying to compete with that. 

JS: For me, I’ve just kind of been a sponge taking in so many new things over the last year. I think this EP is gonna be indicative of all the new things we’ve learned over the last year. I think it’s a really good representation of our growth. 

RRX: Well, it’s great to hear that you guys are keeping your heads up and releasing stuff through this, I’m hoping it will help motivate other bands to hang in there. Is there anything else you guys want to say? 

LP: I just hope that Albany musicians come together and work together more, and it’s definitely happening but I just hope it happens more. 

JS: There are a lot of people and a lot of talent to be organized here so shoutout to all the UAlbany and Saint Rose kids that I don’t know yet who are grinding away. I think we can build a scene that’s super cool and inclusive. 

The E-Block will be releasing a new single near the end of April and have plans to release their new EP in the Summer. You can check them out on social media here: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/theeblck/about/?ref=page_internal

Instagram: @eblockmusic

They can also be found on Spotify and Apple Music.