MOKB 2007 Holiday Interview Series : David Metcalf of Bodies of Water

MOKB : Looking back, how was 2007 for you musically/personally?

David Metcalf : Pretty alright. Two steps forward and one step back, that's what they say. I was real busy, and then I wasn't busy at all, and then I was real busy again and right now I am SLAMMED.

MOKB : Any musical plans for the 2007 holiday season?

David Metcalf : All I can think of is that when i go to my parents' house, I play christmas songs on their piano. My sister tells me 'stop pounding on the piano' and my mom tells me to 'play something softly.' (I must emphasize the fact that I play at a very reasonable volume!) That's about it. Every Christmas, my dad wears out that mannheim steamroller christmas record. Whether I like it or not (I don't), it is profoundly embedded in my holiday psyche.

MOKB : What have been your most and least favorite things about the last two years?

David Metcalf : My favorite thing is that we (BoW) have gotten to spend a lot of time playing music; recording, traveling around, etc. My least favorite thing is that two years ago there were torrential rainstorms in south california and our house kept flooding. I couldn't keep the water out. I tried everything! I built a wall, I dug out drainage ditches, I put in gutters. Eventually I put on a new roof, and that did the trick. It turns out that a lot of the water was leaking in through the old roof down the walls. What made it even worse is that, at the time, our friend Tim lived in this back bedroom that kept flooding, and he was constantly having to dry out his belongings. He was very understanding, which made it ever the more heartbreaking.

MOKB : Where is the best place you've toured over that time? Why?

David Metcalf : Either NYC or San Francisco. Both had real enthusiastic people. SF may have the edge. Only because the last time we played there was with the go team and so it was a big show and the club gave us every single thing on our rider (the first time this has happened; hummus, whiskey, reese's peanut butter cups, assorted fruit, beer, towels, a puppy, a football helmet filled with cottage cheese, etc, etc, etc. It was a bonanza.

MOKB : Where is the best and worst place to eat while touring?

David Metcalf : Any Indian food is the best for me. I love it. It is almost always all vegetarian, it isn't greezy, it is spicy and flavorful. It is consistent, too. One almost never encounters lackluster indian food! BUT how often are you in a small or medium sized town with indian restaurants? Not as often as you'd think.

The worst is Captain D's! We ate there in Huntsville, AL and it MADE ME WANT TO RETCH. It's supposed to be fried fish, but all we got was a bunch of fried fried, with some sort of cream sauce. It was the kind of stuff that congeals into a hard ball halfway down your esophagus and makes your chest tighten up until you think you will surely die. The customer service was really good, though.

MOKB : What's the worst rock n roll injury you've sustained over that time?

David Metcalf : I don't know...Jessie pinched off the pad of her little finger off on one of her stands two days ago. I haven't had anything like that happen to me. The pad got pinched right off of her finger!

MOKB : Give me your top three hometown hotspots.

David Metcalf : - Burrito truck on the corner of Ave 53 and York. It is in the self-serve car wash parking lot. this is my favorite vegetarian burrito in LA.

- Museum of Jurassic Technology. I don't know how hot this spot is, but it is always entertaining. I think that it's heating up...

- T's Bowl. It is around the corner from our house. Lately they have been trying to implement all of this west-side bullshit ($20 minimum tab to use your credit card at the bar?) and it is making me furious BUT it is redeemed by the fact that they have the best sound guy (Arlo) and at the end of the night you can bargain with the bartender over the price of a beer. Kyle and I talked him down from $5 to $2 last time we were there. I've probably already said too much.

MOKB : What's the best piece of free you received over the last two years?

David Metcalf : HA! nothing. It is a little ironic that I've received no free stuff, because I will wear or use pretty much anything I get for free, and remain loyal to whoever gave me the free stuff until I die. Heads up, everyone...send me some things.

MOKB : What weather event most terrifies you?

David Metcalf : The only natural disaster that threatens the part of L.A. that we live in are earthquakes, but I really have no anxiety about them. Perhaps it is because I was shaken about by them as a child that they seem commonplace to me. My mom's family live in Mobile, AL, and it seems like they are perpetually being battered by hurricanes. If I lived in that part of the world, I would definitely have some anxiety about hurricanes. Hurricanes. I'm going with hurricanes.

MOKB : What do you want for (Christmas/Hanukkah/Insert Your Holiday) this year?

David Metcalf : The Roomba robot vacuum cleaner. We got one at Big Lots and then Meredith returned it. I feel like this was a mistake. We have three dogs and our house has hair all over it. We have to clean up the hair every other day. It's filthy.

MOKB : What's your best holiday memory?

David Metcalf : When I was about 11, we went to Newport News, VA to have christmas with my dad's family and it snowed there! My family all stayed in my aunt's apartment and I stayed in my grandparent's, which was about a block away. The morning of christmas eve I woke up and was laying in bed looking around at the room that I was staying in; it had a lot of old junk in it (three-ring binders covered in seran wrap and old 'limbaugh letters' and soup ladles and that sort of thing) and their apartment smelled funny and the more I lay in bed thinking about where I was, the more freaked out I got until I decided that I had to leave right away. I looked all over for my shoes and my jacket but I couldn't find them amidst the junk. I didn't look very long because I could hardly stand being there. I snuck downstairs and out of the apartment and then I walked barefoot through the ice and snow over to my aunt's apartment. I was a very intense kid (in some ways). I think I probably underestimated how uncomfortable it would be to walk on an icy sidewalk with no shoes. If I knew how it would feel, I think I would have dug around more for those shoes. My grandma made me a birthday cake that night. It had on it a little baseball bat made of frosting that looked like exactly like a turd. I was so repulsed by this that I couldn't bring myself to eat any of the cake. I don't know why this happened on Christmas Eve (my birthday is in august)...I need to ask my parents about that.

MOKB : Give me your best holiday get-away?

David Metcalf : Ventura? The floriday keys would be fun. Having Jimmy Buffet-style Christmas with lights on the palm trees and that sort of thing.

MOKB : You're snowed-in, who do you want to be stuck with you?

David Metcalf : My wife and dogs...and CARMEN ELECTRA!!!!!!!!!! yeah...alright!

MOKB : What's the best gift to buy for that special someone this holiday season?

David Metcalf : I don't know...the time that goes into buying appropriate gifts for people seems more and more like busywork. In the past, I've made things for everyone, and I think that's the way of the future. I say "Make them a gift." If all you know how to make is money, then give them some money! Be careful with gift cards, though. I heard on the radio yesterday that 30% of gift cards go unused! They're corporate welfare.

MOKB : If you were to buy that special someone one CD this holiday season, what would it be and why?

David Metcalf : I've been listening to Steve Reich's 'drumming' a lot recently. I'll go with that. I'm actually giving that record to the guy that my sister is getting married to this Christmas. He is a special someone, although I doubt that his special-ness (to me) is of the sort that you've suggested. Anyhow, this guy is a drummer and is from Germany. They are eventually moving back to Hamburg. Can you believe it? My sister's kids will be GERMANS. Wow. If anyone reads this prior to Christmas, don't tell the guy what I am getting him. I want it to stay a surprise (for him).

Bodies Of Water - I Guess I'll Forget The Sound, I Guess, I Guess
Bodies Of Water - Doves Circle The Sky

Previous MOKB 2007 Holiday Interviews: Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear, Jules De Martino of The Ting Tings, BJ Warshaw of Parts & Labor, Jona Bechtolt of YACHT, John Roderick of The Long Winters, Patton Oswalt (comedian), Tapes 'N Tapes, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, Richard Edwards of Margot & The Nuclear So & Sos, Aesop Rock, Marissa Nadler, Josh Lambert of The Octopus Project, Miguel Castillo of Catfish Haven, Peter Sax of Mobius Band, David Vandervelde, Sune Rose Wagner of The Raveonettes, Tim Fite.

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