Curveball, an Xperience Interview
Written by Staff on October 15, 2024
Curveball, an Xperience Interview – by Sketchy Hubris.
“Never lose the groove in order to find a note.”
― Victor L. Wooten
Curveball, the band, is comprised of James Hart on guitar, William Reinke on drums, and Liam Murtagh on bass.
RRX: How did the band come about?
JH: Originally, we were a four-piece band, with Jay Thorsey of Otobo also on guitar.
WR: I met Jay first and we had a band called Mr. Sunshine that lasted a bit. Jay had seen me posting on Instagram a bunch of funk drum riffs and said “Hey, we need to start a funk band.”
LM: That may have happened, but for me, I remember getting my bass set up by Jay at Guitar Center and asking him if he knew of any bands I could play with. I was practicing but hadn’t played with a band before. So Jay just took me along to practice with Will, and we meshed. Otobo started evolving from a sound experiment into a band. James Hart had joined the band and Jay left to concentrate on Otobo.
RRX: Why the name Curveball?
WR: Well, my roommate and band cheerleader at the time, Connor, would be around for rehearsals while we went off on tangent jams, with no plan, whatever vibe came to us. So one time he drew open the door and said, “You guys should be called Curveball because I never know what direction you will take next.”
JH: The name is not Phish-related, though Phish had a festival named Curveball. Not related.
WR: The only one in the band that listens to Phish is James.
RRX: So not Phish related. What do you find yourselves listening to?
WR: A whole mishmash: classic rock, techno, Latin salsa, jazz, punk, sometimes even classical. I guess everything except for jam band and country. I will make an exception for Hank Williams Sr.
LM: My foundation in music is rooted in what my dad played in the house: all the classic rock. Most of the time super heavy.
As I branched out from that, I got into rap and hip hop, particularly Madlib and MF Doom. I think that is why we sound like we do – we pull from a rich musical DNA. We all kind of search for the weird stuff.
RRX: James played a more recent piece for me the other day; what was that called? I do like your titles for songs. Where do they come from?
JH: “Double O Funk.” I first wanted to call it “Funk 01,” but that sounded like Funko, and Will said, “Let’s put it on the other side, like 007.”
I try not to be too precious about song names.
WR: I have a habit of spewing hot garbage out of my mouth. Sometimes it works, and it made me think of James Bond. It sounded like a song you could seduce someone too.
RRX: I know going forward you are planning more songs with lyrics?
JH: That’s been the big project the last couple months.
WR: Yes, we have taken great strides and have two complete originals with lyrics and four covers of songs with vocals.
RRX: The issue this appears in will be the October issue, but they tend to be out early, so the show at the Avalon Lounge on September 26 with New Monarchy and Otobo might have passed. Will you be doing vocals for this show?
WR: Yes, it’s been our only criticism. After shows, people come up to compliment the band and ask where our singer is.
James is bearing that torch.
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