Interview with Mike and The Ravens

Some time ago, I interviewed a band of misfits called Mike and The Ravens. Now, the group, come from a time that me and you couldn't imagine. A world when rock 'n' roll was brand new... a world where some mop-top scousers hadn't decided to take over the world... yup, The Ravens were there at the first shoot of rock 'n' roll... and they wanted to make it louder and faster. Mike Brassard & Co were proto-garage... and boy, do I love 'em!

A couple of years ago, a couple of records sneaked out starring the Ravens. First up was the Heart So Cold (Vol1) which featured killer skate tunes from the “North Country 60’s Scene”, then the no-filler of ‘Nevermore’ comp of Mike & The Ravens cuts. With the Raven’s classic line-up of Mike Brassard (vocals), Steve Blodgett (rhythm guitar), Bo Blodgett (lead guitar), Brian Lyford (bass), Peter Young (drums) readying a brand new album, I thought I'd dig up the old interview to share with you.

Interview originally appeared on the now defunct PopJunkie back in 2006

Obviously, it’s been some time since you were all making girls scream in Plattsburgh, what are you all up to now that you’re in your vintage?

Mike Brassard - I am… the last time I took inventory…a 63 year old man. I am a father, a husband, a brother, neighbour, retired business man, I am a reborn Rock singer. I still have rock n roll dreams in full Technicolor.

Stephen Blodgett – These days? I’m a lawyer in Burlington, Vermont.

Peter Young - My name is Peter Young. I am a 62 year old Vermont country lawyer practicing in the town where I grew up (Northfield, Vermont). I also "drum" from time to time

Brian Lyford- I’m Brian. A 62 year old Vermont resident and Grandfather- Bass and back up vocals. Like Peter and Steve (together we comprise the Raven troublemakers/cutups) I'm a lawyer.

Bo Blodgett - I'm John (a.k.a. "Bo") Blodgett. I played guitar during my late teens and early twenties in some college bands and also in Mike & the Ravens. Currently I'm a technician for the State of Vermont Agency of Transportation, free to retire whenever I decide I want to.

Now, you recently had a compilation (or two) out. How thrilling was it to hear all your old songs now? Do you still have any favourites on listening back?

PY - It was like poking around a musty attic and finding things that you forgot you had. Especially the "Throbs" (pre-Ravens group) stuff. I had forgotten many of those songs such as "Riptide" and "Two Ton Jenny".

MB - I hadn't listened to our music for years. In fact I didn't have any of the Ravens stuff over the years it had been pilfered by family and friends. I was a reluctant participant at first, so I guess when I heard the old songs for the first time I felt happy and sad. I realised how much I missed the guys and those amazing days with the band. I have always considered the Ravens my friends…they were and are like brothers to me in a way…and Steve’s music holds a huge space in my heart.

PY – Listening… it brings up so many memories of what was and what might have been.

What were the band’s main influences back then?

SB - Personally, the Everly Brothers.  But Mike inhaled R&B as a teenager, and the band was pretty turned on by the songs he brought in ("I Need Your Lovin' Every day", "What'd I Say" etc.) and what he could do with them.

MB - It's funny but my biggest influences were all R&B and black blues singers. I cut my teeth on ‘Smoke Stack Lightnin’… and listened to chess albums all the time...I loved Little Richard and Jackie Wilson. I think Jackie Wilson was the most dynamic singer I ever saw live… I saw him at the Brooklyn Fox theatre in NY. Early on it would have been Presley's Sun Recordings...gave me goose bumps…and still do.

BB - When I took up guitar, I still thought that drumming was the whole point of music. Even now I think that "swing" (a term that is unfortunately antiquated) is most of what I like about music. As for my early influences, I started learning music from the records "Raunchy" and "College Man" by Bill Justis and "Bertha Lou" by someone else, which I painstakingly learned to play. Most of my other learning was strictly from top ten radio shows.

Is it fair to dub Mike & The Ravens as a ‘garage band’?

MB - Well I sure spent a load of time wailin’ away at my guitar in my daddy's garage! We rehearsed in Pete’s basement, so we were one of the first underground garage-bands in Vermont I guess. Sure we always were a garage band… we played a load of college frat parties all over New England and they liked us because we were loud and wild… chaotic. My biggest thrill with The Ravens was when I was called out on stage to sing with The Drifters at Yale university… while the band backed them up… man, what a night...

SB - When we recorded we were so full of adrenaline that we played the songs twice as fast as we intended to. When we heard them back later we were embarrassed at the frantic pace.  Maybe the speed we played at was like the garage stuff… and even punk… that came later.

Your sound started off like blue eyed rock & roll, then morphed into a more aggressive rock & roll, and then, latterly, was quite psychedelic and country influenced. How did this all happen?

SB - We were raised on AM radio.  Although we really liked to play and sing, we were trying to make hits.  You want psychedelic?  Fine, we can do that.   Well, it didn't work, no hits.  But getting back together for this project I think we can see now how much pure fun we had.

MB – When we began, none of us were masters of our domain. What we lacked in finesse we made up in energy and swagger! I’ll never will forget one of our first gig's at a Catholic Church CYO parish hall dance. I think we knew 3 or 4 songs all the way through. We just turned it up and turned them on with this wall of sound approach… the longer we played the louder we got ..and those junior Catholic daughters were dancin’ their bubs off…until Father Buckley the Pastor of the church happened on the scene… when I remember the look on that poor priests face... sort of a HOLYYY SHITTT… what have I done allowing this to infect my new Parish hall... yes it was a disaster and we were never invited back.. The Raven years all started because we were lucky enough to bag Steve’s brother, John ’Bo’ Blodgett. It was just the boost we needed... man could he honk… we were all so excited to play with him; it just opened everything up...

Tell me about the incident at the church…

PY - Ah, the church, the church, the church. A public place where people seek peace and repose. Some, however, seek unbridled notoriety…

SB - …The Stowe Congregational Church installed fake "chimes" with a highly amplified system that played 33 rpm records of chimes. The concept of playing loud recordings of chimes out of the church steeple seemed cheesy.  Don't know if that made it right to right to expose the pretense... y'know... pretending to have chimes in the steeple... by playing a rock and roll record early in the morning…

PY - Around midnight we decided to break into the church, figure out the timing mechanism and play a rock’n’roll LP on the carillon system. We left the building at around 1:55am and ran a short distance to nearby High School and listened. At 2:00 a.m. we heard "a needle scratching a record" sound. It caused chills to run up our spines. We knew what was going to happen. All of a sudden, the loudest stereo I've ever heard in the history of the world, came on and started playing. The whole album played. Lights started turning on all through the Village of Stowe. Apparently somebody got to the church, tried to turn it off, bumped into the gizmo and the needle went "wurp" and the system starting playing again!!! The rest is history. Jail, probation, end of our band tenure. Interestingly enough, the three of us became lawyers because we didn't understand how such an innocent prank could cause us to end up in the hoosegow eating pea soup and liver…

BL - Rock and Roll was heard as far away as Morrisville, 9 miles away... Christ I would hope so… otherwise what's the point?!

Just how much has the world of music changed from when you started playing?

BL - We were there at the start… at the birth. [It meant] Fun and energy, freedom and possibility. I remember Mike returning from New York City and introducing the Bop to our town. What a jolt R&R was to our parents…

BB - In the old days I could sit in with any band, even a band that I didn't know, and know most or all of the songs that they would play. Bands were uncommon enough that any band could fill a bar. Perhaps rock and roll was disreputable enough that fewer people wanted to play it. Musicians that I liked were generally disparaged in the press, and if an article spoke well of a band or musician it would probably involve music that I found uninteresting. It came as a tremendous surprise to learn that the Julliard School of Music had started including rock and roll in its curriculum. And it seemed strange when rock and rollers started referring to themselves as ‘artists’.

PY - The world of music has changed drastically just like it always has and like it always will. Who could have imagine "gangster rap"? Who could imagine computerized instruments?

BB - We had our own music, which older people didn't like. We had our social causes, which often seemed as anti-adult as pro-reform ("Don't trust anyone over thirty"). I have often felt that one of the functions of pop music is to segregate the generations. The idealism and energy of young people during the sixties as now looked back on with nostalgia, although it now occurs to me that this same idealistic generation later got us into Iraq.

Did you realise just how important rock & roll music was? What was it like being at the birth of pop music?

SB - Glad you say "rock & roll" instead of "rock". "Rock" has zero importance. Rock and roll loosened up the hip joints, and it was new, at least for America. Didn't have a clue at that age that it was important, because had nothing to compare it to (being ignorant youth).  It was just a lot of fun, and it contained the promise of deep and naughty adult pleasures.

BB - I wasn't particularly aware of being at the beginning of anything. I supposed each generation had its own music, and that music generally evolved.

MB - I remember sneaking out in my garage late at night when I was maybe 13 or 14..I would listen to my fathers radio… draining the battery trying to pull in some music from some far away radio station! I knew that the music was opening up these strange feelings in the pit of my stomach like no other. I had a visceral response to those early songs… I knew something very special was going on.

Any plans for a tour? Or maybe some new recordings?

MB - Well… when I recover from this… and if I am lucky enough to sing again… my dream would be to play a few festivals and clubs with the Ravens. We have been invited. We’ve got 20 new songs and we are all excited about this new CD which should be released later this year. We would be thrilled to sing and play the older tunes again. It would be an honour. What is so cool is to have young fans want to hear us! I have to pinch myself… this can't be happening!!!

PY - There are no plans for a worldwide tour. We are all old geezers. Part of playing live anywhere depends upon our health. We hope to do that this summer. We will have to see.

BL - Young has been an old geezer since he was 18!!! That explains in part why he picked an instrument you can play sitting down…

MB - Will Shade (main man at Baccus Archives) has asked me to write and record a CD of my stuff and I look forward to that in the future. Just last night Steve and i were talking about doing more Raven things. It's just a matter of stamina now…the dreams just keep on comin’.

[Mof Gimmers]