When and where were you born? Are you originally from NYC? What was growing up like for you? When did you first become interested in music? Do you have any siblings? Was your household associated with music in any way, or was this something you found entirely on your own?

JOHN – I was born in Middle Village Queens in 1968 but my parents moved to CT when I was 5 years old. I wanted to learn to play guitar because I heard an older girl who lived on our block strumming an acoustic guitar. After that I begged my parents for lessons which they let me start taking when I turned 5 years old. No one else played music in my house at that time.

EDEN – I was born in Flushing Queens and was kinda an outcast there. It was a very right wing close minded place and once I discovered my older sisters vinyl collection I got heavily into 60’s music and wore tie dye dresses and just really stood out there and was bullied a lot. We had a piano but I bought a guitar and a Beatles song book and tried to teach myself how to play. My older sister really paved the way for me music-wise she was into a lot of eclectic stuff. She also played in a few garage bands around NYC. I did sing in some school plays when I was around 9 and 10 year old and enjoyed that. I got to play Annie haha. Every little girls dream.

Where would you go to see bands perform and who were among some of the first groups you saw live that left a heavy impression on you early on? When did you realize that music was something you wanted to pursue? Did you participate in any groups prior to ERSB? How did you meet your other bandmates and what initially led to ERSB forming? What's the inspiration behind the name of the band?

JOHN - I was obsessed with music as a kid and was always an avid record collector. I grew up in the 70’s & 80’s so I was into Hendrix & Zeppelin as well as Miles Davis, Butthole Surfers, Devo, etc. Around the age of 13 or so I got heavily into Chicago Blues starting with Wolf, Muddy and John Lee Hooker. The first time I ever heard any rural old-time music was when I was roughly 16/17 and found a copy of the Yazoo LP comp “Charley Patton” in a used LP bin at my local record shop. This is where my love for old-time music began. I played in all kinds of bands as a kid. Rock, jazz, and everything. I had a band in my early 20’s called Oatmeal Banana. This my last attempt at modern music. We were kind of Captain Beefheart Trout Mask meets Primus meets The Minute Men on Speed. At the time it was satisfying but after it fizzled out I started collecting old 78s and the flood gates opened and I was consumed by old time music ever since.

EDEN - I saw hippie bands. I went to see Arlo Guthrie and Pink Floyd. Then I got into the Grateful Dead and went on tour for about a year with them, following them. I got into punk after this and John then got me turned on to old time music. I always wanted to be in a band but had major stage fright and insecurities. Booze helped me get over that on stage! ERSB is my first band. John said I sounded really good singing and really encouraged me to sing so he could mainly play guitar. I did back-up vocals and realized okay maybe I CAN do this we don’t sound half bad! We live in the east village and the east river is right there so the name just felt natural. A little nod to NYC in there.

What is the band’s process and approach for writing music? Did you guys start out playing old time covers, or did you immediately begin writing original material?

JOHN – We kinda approach music the way many bands did from the 1920’s and prior in that we usually start with an old tune and sometimes change it a bit or write different lyrics or whatever. In other words we render it our way but don’t necessarily write our tunes. On our new record “Good-Bye Cruel World” we do a version of a song written by the great Hezekiah Jenkins. In 1930 he wrote “The Panic Is On” which described the state of the world following the Stock Market crash of October 1929. Crumb and I wrote our own lyrics about the state of the world today called “The Pandemic Is On”. The music is our version of Hezekiah’s tune with our lyrics. That was what a lot of groups did back then. If fact most folks more or less played similar if not the same tunes but kinda made them their own. Before the music business took over and eventually destroyed music, in my opinion, being a song writer wasn’t important, it was all about just playing music well. Today all the emphasis is on the person who wrote the song cause that’s where the money is.

EDEN - We don’t really do originals we do mainly covers of old tunes. But the arrangements are ours. I will hear John play a 78rpm record and say oh I like this one. And he is like let’s do it! Robert and John have the exact same taste in music and I like everything they pick out so it is pretty laid back picking songs. One of us just says hey we should do this one and the others are usually oh great song yeah let’s do it! I can’t recall every disagreeing about a song choice unless it is too high for me to sing. Then I can be the one that is like are you both nuts? My voice can’t do that!!! There are a few originals on our albums here and there, but not many.

I have to ask, what is it like to play and hang out with the legendary Robert Crumb? How did you guys initially meet him and what led to forming the group? Did you guys find it intimidating when you first started out playing, or did everything flow naturally?

John – Crumb & I became close friends almost 20 years ago now so the only thing I can say about what it’s like to play with him is, it’s like playing with your close friend if your close friend was an extraordinary musician. I mean he’s great. Cause we hung out so much, we just started playing together naturally so it was easy. Our core band today is Eden, Crumb, Ernesto Gomez and me. Both Ernesto & Crumb are fantastic musicians and good friends so it couldn’t be easier playing together. We met cause Eden knew Crumb’s daughter Sophie and when she came over our apartment she said it looked like a smaller version of her parent’s house so she introduced us. It was never really intimidating hanging with him in the beginning because we have so much in common. The first time we met, his wife Aline and him came over and we listened to old records. Our relationship hasn’t really changed much. Sometimes I go, “Oh yeah he draws better than anyone else on the planet”, but I mean who cares, we still gotta figure out what we’re gonna do for dinner right?...

EDEN - No, there is nothing intimidating about Crumb. He and John are like twins it just feels like hanging out with John’s best friend and we joke around a lot and have a lot in common. I met Sophie first and played music with her first so once John and Robert met and got along so well it just seemed normal to have him play with us. He also sits in with Sophie’s musical endeavors as she is also a very good musician who plays a lot of old timey stuff too. We do double gigs and switch around and it is all just really fun. I forget how famous Robert is most of the time and then someone will recognize him on the street in NYC and freak out and I remember oh yeah! People worship him he is an American icon really. Crumb is pretty humble and just says well right place right time when it comes to his fame. And I will make a joke like eh, your doodles are okay I guess. He laughs.

Where would you guys play around town and what were those experiences like for you? Any memories stand out in your mind from that early period in the band’s history? Tell me about the band’s rehearsal space, and/or where you the band practice.

JOHN – This one’s easy, we don’t practice! (haha). We’ve always had an open door policy of certain friends who join us whenever it works out for everyone and every single musician we’ve played with has been a great experience. Of course in the early days we played a lot with Dom Flemons. We still play with Eli Smith and his bandmates The Down Hill Strugglers and our pal Geoff Wiley from the Whiskey Spitters. They’re all such top musicians what can I say? I feel blessed to have shared some music with these folks. Our local joint is Jalopy Theatre in Brooklyn and we’ve played festivals in Europe and played a few in the US but mostly in the summers now we play in France with Crumb. We play gigs and record and come home and play occasionally at Jalopy and that’s about that. We don’t pursue gigs much these days but if they ask us, sometimes, we come.

EDEN - We really love playing at Jalopy Theatre in Brooklyn. It is a bar and club dedicated to old music. Crumb is really into the place and many who work there play on our albums. We have recorded there too and that was fun. Jalopy has a record label, Jalopy Records, and John has a comp coming out on that next year hopefully. Really nice people who all share a strong love and respect for these old songs that can so easily be forgotten. As for practicing I need some major improvement in that area! We also record much of our stuff just at home.

What were those experiences of writing as well as recording the group’s most recent release “Good-bye Cruel World''? Is this a self-released project? When and where did that take place and would you mind giving me a little background on each of the songs that are featured on the record? How long did it take to record that single from start to finish?

JOHN – I think our new record is our best record to date. It was mostly recorded in France in 2020 & 2021 but one track was left over from our Coney Island Baby session. I think folks should just give it a listen as opposed to me telling them why they should like it, I mean if they listen to it and like it great, if not, well you can’t please everybody! But Crumb sings on three tracks including The Pandemic Is on & Come Be My Rainbow which I love and Eden’s main singing tracks Don’t Speak To Me, Farewell Daddy and Nobody Knows You When You’re Down Out, to me are some of her best singing ever! I don’t know what else to say about it. Eden & I do a guitar instrumental, The Singularity Blues which I really enjoyed playing. This kinda seems like bragging so I’ll stop here, I mean check it out and see if you like it. It ain’t some Folk Music it’s just music for some folks!

EDEN - I really like our latest it was done in France for the most part and Robert sings more than he ever has before on it. I like his singing he sounds great. John and him have a song about the pandemic which is really funny and I tried my best on my vocal songs and even have some guitar in there too. I have been enjoying learning guitar lately and improving on that so John and I can do more guitar duets together and Crumb can play his baritone Uke and mandolin. It is also my favorite cover art haha. We have our label East River Records so yes it is self-released. Not sure how long it took to record but not too long. We had a lot of Covid downtime to think about songs and work on them.

How did you guys managed to stay positive and active as much as possible during the pandemic? What have you been up to recently? Are you playing any shows, or working on any new material for the foreseeable future? Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?

JOHN – Speaking to “the kids” out there today I’d say don’t believe everything you read, question authority and use your brain to make some art & music for a while every day. It will make this world a better place. Oh and if you can stop the older generations from destroying this planet and one another maybe that’s a good idea too. And please don’t ALL of you get those chips in your brains… I’ve seen every episode of The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror and for some reason I think that may end badly. And remember kids, “Music self-played is happiness self-made!”.

EDEN - We should have some shows at Jalopy soon who are back open and going strong now. And we will play in France at the Crumb Galerie when we go there this summer. We are always looking for songs for the next album just last week we were listening to some of John’s vast record collection and were saying oh we forgot about this one! We will just keep on playing and putting out albums as long as we can I guess! What is more fun than playing great music with your best friends?

https://www.ebay.com/sch/edenandjohn/m.html?ssPageName=STRK%3Anull%3AMESOI&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2654

https://www.youtube.com/user/suprovalco

https://eastriverstringband.com/

Dakota Brown

John Heneghan & Eden Brower - East River String Band

Darius Davenport - Autosalvage

Bruce Svoboda - Grapple