The Second Academy are:
Eric Balaban (guitar/drums/bass/vocals)
Brett Powell (bass)
Rob Wheeler (drums) Troy Lund (drums)

Album: Bohemian Grove
Label: Tsurumi Records - Seattle, WA

The Second Academy recently played in Los Angeles where we caught up with band leader Eric Balaban for conversation about the band and their new sophomore recording "Bohemian Grove" which came out today (Tuesday November 30th). To celebrate, the band has issued a limited time (2 for 1) digital download bundle that includes their first LP "The Grave from out of which we briefly wander" - this exclusive offer is available now at the ThinkIndie digital download store.

Eric Balaban: A note on the band lineup: Troy is not "in" the second academy. He appears on the LP on a few tracks, and on one track on the first LP, but is not a regular member. When 2ndA started, it was just a recording project of my own. I played almost all of the tracks on the first LP myself. I asked Brent and Troy play a track or two each for fun, and originally wanted to have a rotating line-up to keep things fresh and new. It hasn't worked well, however, because most of the people I know are either over-committed or just don't have the motivation to absorb a bunch of new material quickly. Each time it felt like starting over completely, and that was a drag. I've played a long time with Rob, and quite a bit with Brent too, and they both seem to be the most into what I'm trying to do, so I think we all want to stick together now. We seem to work well together. We have also played with Jon Goff (from Self Adhesive Records in Seattle, and the band Memphis Radio Kings) in the past and I'd REALLY like to continue that. He's a very busy guy, though.

Rachel Irimescu: I was looking at your Facebook page facebook.com/the secondacademy) and it say's "The Second Academy is the second phase of the Academy of Leech Farmers". Can you tell us a bit about the Academy of Leech Farmers and how you came to be involved?

EB: The Academy of Leech Farmers is actually the name of a CD I made with some friends long ago. I have always recorded stuff. In fact, it's how I learned to play music - by writing and recording songs, or sounds, or whatever. I have HOURS of stuff in many stages of completion, and in many "styles," lying around, and I keep making more. I think that's why I'm still in a band. I used to live in Athens, Ohio and was in a band called the Spiveys, started by my friend Scott Winland (of Blackout Booking and the band Dropdead Sons). It was an awesome time, and there was a lot of good music going on then, and a lot of recording. It went on everywhere; basements, bedrooms, garages... One friend even had a makeshift studio built out of cardboard boxes in his living room. He had guitars set up, a drum kit, a drum kit made of plastic buckets, cheap keyboards, tambourines, maracas... It took up the whole main living area. When you wanted to hang out or watch TV you had to sit in a spare bedroom. That image is the perfect way of explaining how things felt, to me, at that time. It was really what everyone I knew seemed to want to do, above everything else. "Normal" life took a backseat. It was an amazingly creative time. I had a studio set up in my basement then, too, with an 8-track cassette recorder, a drum kit and a bunch of shit. We recorded the first Spiveys LP there, By Cesearean. We also recorded LOTS of other stuff, by myself and with lots of other people. We would just give the stuff out, then forget about it and record more. Once, at a Spiveys show, we hung an old tampon dispenser that we had found on a column in front of the stage. It was filled with cassettes that we had made. While we played, people could buy a cassette for a dime. It was always about the making of new stuff. The Academy of Leech Farmers is the name of one of those "collections" of stuff. I referenced the name in the Second Academy because I really wanted, and needed, to return to the same sort of place. Not out of nostalgia -- something more like a vitamin deficiency.

RI: Let's talk about The Spiveys, Beautiful Mother's and how they came to be The Second Academy? How did the transition from the Midwest to Seattle come about?

EB: The Spiveys moved from Athens, Ohio, to Chicago, with half of the original lineup. We had sent the first LP in to AmRep right when they stopped taking on bands. However, one of the employees who heard it and who was starting his own label, called Doubleplusgood Records, decided to put out a CD of our new stuff. That's when I first met Wheels. We put an ad in the Reader and, when we met, we felt a vibe and clicked, and I've played with him ever since. The Spiveys hit college radio, toured, then broke up. I took it pretty hard because I was right where I wanted to be, pointed right where I wanted to go. Right before we broke up, Rob moved to LA to do comedy, because I think he could sense what was coming. I didn't though, and I was left sort of spinning. I didn't know what else to do, because I was not only totally into what we were doing, but I was also totally into the people I was doing it with. I had no other plan. It was a bad time for me, and really crappy, so I just left. Out of anger, and maybe being hurt, I went as far away as I could go. I went to Seattle, and started the Beautiful Mothers before I even left. I wasn't ready to stop when the Spiveys broke up, so I sent tapes of stuff I had been working on to friends I had there, and they started practicing so that when I got there, we pretty much jumped right into playing out. I needed it, and it was good. We changed the line up a little bit -- Rob even ended up joining again, moving from LA to Tacoma. We toured Japan a few times and recorded with Jack Endino. It has been some of the best times of my life and, though we don't work on the band actively, we still play out. In fact, we're playing in Portland at the Ash Street Saloon on 12/18. Eventually, I began to feel like we had hit a wall as the Mothers, though. It's hard to explain, and I'll probably lose people with this, but I needed to go back to school, in a way. What I mean is that we used to joke, in Athens, how it was like rock boot camp because music was all everyone did. We were in school, but the music was all anyone cared about, and where the real learning was happening, in a sense. The Mothers were like working in the real world, and we were doing it, but I wanted to go back to the Academy. Again, not out of nostalgia, and not to learn how to play an instrument or write a better song, but as a conscious return to what's important to me. Not the Academy, but the Second Academy.

RI: How would you compare the two music scenes? Midwest vs. Northwest?

EB: They are totally different. If you force me to say it, I'll tell you that the midwest is much better then the northwest. It's much more passionate, fun loving, and dangerous. People go out, stay out, and love their music in the midwest. I really hope I don't offend any of our northwest fans or clubs, but it is the truth.

RI: What's the creative process like for Second Academy? Band effort? Eric come in with a direction in place?

EB: So far I (Eric) have written the songs and most, if not all, of the parts. It's not that way because I want to be the only songwriter or because I want total control. It has just been that way so far. The band was started originally as a way for me to play the songs I write and record normally, without some preselection process to generate a "sound." I love writing parts of songs even more than I like writing basic chord progressions and structures. My friends don't seem to believe me when I say it, but I think I would be happier as a second guitar player, instead of a frontman/songwriter.

RI: Bohemian Grove was recorded right over the hill from Digital Music Marketing at Bell Sound Studios in Hollywood. What was it like to work with Aaron Mason in the recording of Bohemian Grove?

EB: Aaron is a longtime friend, and we like a lot of the same music. He also knows many of the people from Athens, Ohio, since he grew up there. Since the time he started working at Bell Sound, we have both talked about recording together. He has as big a passion for music as anyone I have ever met. His passion for music is bigger than almost everyone I know, in fact, including the people I know who play it. Recording with him was an eventuality -- one I am glad I got to do. It was great to use the big studio. Bell Sound has had some greats through there -- from Barry White to William Shatner -- and it was a hoot to be there too. John and his gang allow us to feel at home in their studio. It was awesome.

RI: What does the new record mean for the band and was there a certain image or parallel message that your sending? What's the significance of the title "Bohemian Grove"?

EB: The Bohemian Grove is very significant. It is a metaphor, to me, of the the drive to find an escape from the mundane world. See, life is incredible, in a way, but it is also pretty disappointing, in a way. When I first came across the Bohemian Grove, I was into secret societies, like the Masons and the Golden Dawn, but I was into them in an academic sort of way. They were fascinating, but esoteric. When I learned about the Bohemian Grove and how it was started by journalists and artists, and how it was sort of co-opted by presidents and leaders of major corporations, the metaphor became enthralling to me. It symbolizes the perfect intersection of the beautiful and the mundane on many levels. There's the symbolism of magic and it's promise of mystery and escape, and the symbolism of the powerful and rich taking over. And yet, it is not black and white. The rich are human too, and may want to escape 'dull care for a time, as much as any blue-collar worker. In fact, the rich may be the only ones capable of appreciating the nuances and depth an artist tries to bring to their work, due to their education and exposure. And yet, they exploit and abandon them in the "real world", paying them nothing for their frivolous entertainment. Every waking moment of our adult lives is in pursuit of money, and yet, once "living" is paid for, the only thing anyone wants to spend money on is entertainment of one form or another. It's a deep metaphor, and I could go on for hours about it. Life is great, and life totally fucking sucks.

RI: Tell us about the vinyl + cd offer for Bohemian Grove, where can we get it?

EB: The first run in is a limited edition on "translucent pearl" vinyl and includes a full CD of the LP (not a CD-R), a sheet with lyrics and liner notes, and a poster. The whole package really came together nicely. You can ask your local record store to order it for you from their distribution sources or CPI. For digital tracks, thanks to DMM, it's available at all the main places like i-tunes, emusic, and Rhapsody. To kick off the release on 30 November, we are running a two-week, double-digital-album / 2-for-1 special on ThinkIndie.com, where we've package the tracks from our debut, The Grave from Out of Which We Briefly Wander, along with all the Bohemian Grove songs. And, of course, you can always order everything online directly from Tsurumi Records (www.tsurumirecords.com).

RI: You are just getting started with promotion of "Bohemian Grove" So what can we look forward to for Second Academy in 2011?

EB: More shows and more releases. Now that the official record is done we will be releasing songs and music throughout the months in different forms -- CDs, digital. Whatever makes sense at the time. I'll be putting things out more closely to how and when they are made. Whatever makes sense. We'll also be playing out regionally a lot more often. We're excited to be in the clubs again. We also have a song on the soundtrack for a feature length zombie movie called the Revenant that is poised to do a national release in theaters. It's won awards at festivals in NY, London, Toronto and lots of other cities, and so there's no reason why it shouldn't. The Beautiful Mothers have a song in it too, so we are crossing our fingers.

RI: Do you have any thoughts on the whole disruptive transition that is going on the music business right now? Is it good or bad for musicians? Fans?

EB: Truthfully, I think it's a bump in the road, and one that's great for fans, and good for musicians. I know it's hard to see it that way for anyone involved with music, but it is. Technology is changing, and we have yet to find what the interface will be like in the end, but music won't stop, and people won't stop wanting it and getting it. Period. How it is recorded, and how fans get it will change, and that's it. The only ones "suffering" are the people who put themselves between musicians and fans, sucking up money. In my opinion, there are only two reasons that the change in the music industry is even a story. First, it's a change, and everyone involved in making it is just used to doing it the old way, right or wrong. Lots of people don"t know what to do without an example. Second, there are lots of people who are not in bands, who used to make money off of music, going, "holy shit! How do I make money now?" Unfortunately, the answer may be, "you don't, now." When I think about this discussion, I often come back to a feeling of disquiet because, really, the only thing that has changed is that the large scale corporate model -- the one that dictates what artists will do, and when -- is dead. That's it. What exists now is for the little guy to do what he or she has always done, which is to find a way to keep doing what he or she does, and find an audience. The little guy doesn't need a corporation to have access to killer sounds in recording anymore. The little guy doesn't need them for access to large music consuming masses anymore. So, who gives a shit? The new model will include far fewer people, and see far less financial gain, if it is to be sustainable through future technological changes. The musicians, as well as the music lovers involved, don't really need that much to be able to keep doing what they do. The corporations and their investors were motivated to make us believe that we need them, because they made a lot of money off of musicians and fans. People say rock is dead, but it isn't true. Corporate rock is dead. Rock and roll will never die. People will ALWAYS make music, and people will always rock. Every major label you can think of is, and has always been, irrelevant. The proof is in the fact that none of them existed before the music. The music made them. More accurately, they made themselves off of music.

RI: How has Social media added value to your efforts in getting the word out to existing fans and future fans?

EB: It has been another outlet. It is nice to be able to reach your core group in one email letter, and to have that core group grow with little to no added effort on the band side. If one fan becomes 100, it's the same effort to email them. It helps take some of the work off a band, or manager. I think the best value is in a more frequent and more personal connection with fans. The pictures, videos, and instant updates make it real for those who want to be involved.

RI: Which social network is your favorite communication tool?

EB: My favorite is either Facebook or email, because of the size of the text. Twitter is fun for one-offs, but it is great to be able to post videos and longer messages on Facebook. You can post the short, quick updates, but you can do more when you want to. Facebook is also good in that fans can read other fan responses, see their pictures and videos, and read their replies. It makes for a richer experience for a fan, even more so than email, because you can see other input as well. It's like hanging out in public. Email is even more personal, in a way, because it comes directly into your world. Facebook you seek out, when you have spare time. Email comes to you directly, so our email list is more personal for me

You can click and listen to "Bohemian Grove" right here at ThinkIndie. The Second Academy will be performing in Portland at the Ash Street Saloon on 12/18 and are currently booking West Coast dates for Spring 2011.