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| Third Cortez playing the streets of Bushwick |
The music of Third Cortez is a smooth symbiosis of assaulting drumwork, ambling guitar and thoughtfully harmonized vocals. Alex Lawry-White’s funky bass and Joe Power’s precision percussion team together fluidly, leading in the noise that’s just enough not to overpower their singer’s words. Front man Jack Buckett’s voice pours through speakers much the same way an expensive cognac might pour into a glass, the aroma and sight most aptly indulged by the experienced and wealthy alcoholic.
Any music lover who appreciates Bowie’s tone, Billy Joel’s melodic variations, or simply being able to discern the words of a song while enjoying its instrumentation should enjoy their sound. On the track “This Is Our Time!” off last year’s release, Buckett serves lyrics that are the stuff of poets journals, as he opens “If you asked yourself what do you want would you know, would you care? Some people play dead, some never look ahead, some are scared.”
With riffs and breaks reminiscent of the solid rock of the early to mid 90s, the boys present something of an anthem, or manifesto for dreamers of the modern age. The track struck this writer as a call to arms – not for any one generation or subculture of society, but to every living person – to live honestly, arm themselves with thought, and to take chances on the present.
Any music lover who appreciates Bowie’s tone, Billy Joel’s melodic variations, or simply being able to discern the words of a song while enjoying its instrumentation should enjoy their sound. On the track “This Is Our Time!” off last year’s release, Buckett serves lyrics that are the stuff of poets journals, as he opens “If you asked yourself what do you want would you know, would you care? Some people play dead, some never look ahead, some are scared.”
With riffs and breaks reminiscent of the solid rock of the early to mid 90s, the boys present something of an anthem, or manifesto for dreamers of the modern age. The track struck this writer as a call to arms – not for any one generation or subculture of society, but to every living person – to live honestly, arm themselves with thought, and to take chances on the present.
I met the lads at the beginning of last summer; around the time I’d just begun to familiarize myself with Potion and my more creatively inclined neighbors. I’d run into Jack late one Friday night as I was returning home just slightly inebriated, coming from God only knows where. He was on his way to meet my then-neighbor Anthony Moore when I unlocked and held open the second floor door for him.
Jack was cordial enough to invite me along with them to the Bright House for a smoke and a chat, and the impromptu acoustic jam session that often ensues in a room full of instruments and nearly a dozen musicians. I met the rest of the band hanging out at the Cloud and saw them often at Potion open mics.
When scheduling and placement for Potion got hairy in July, Third Cortez opened their home, The Shire, to whoever wanted to come by and jam. It was a sweatbox, but it was a sweet motion non-the-less. When they lived at McKibbin the band was always welcoming of visitors, readily sharing beers and cigarettes. You know, the way neighbors should be. Their jolly chatter and honest zaniness was a refreshing alternative to the often pretentious and overly guarded personalities some local artists and scene kids can project.
Jack was cordial enough to invite me along with them to the Bright House for a smoke and a chat, and the impromptu acoustic jam session that often ensues in a room full of instruments and nearly a dozen musicians. I met the rest of the band hanging out at the Cloud and saw them often at Potion open mics.
When scheduling and placement for Potion got hairy in July, Third Cortez opened their home, The Shire, to whoever wanted to come by and jam. It was a sweatbox, but it was a sweet motion non-the-less. When they lived at McKibbin the band was always welcoming of visitors, readily sharing beers and cigarettes. You know, the way neighbors should be. Their jolly chatter and honest zaniness was a refreshing alternative to the often pretentious and overly guarded personalities some local artists and scene kids can project.
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| Joe Power on drums, Jack Buckett, and Alex Lawry-White |
Once the boys overcame their previous differences, according to Jack they began “hatching plans to take over the world.” They formed a group with an unnamed drummer, whose identity now seems adequately irrelevant as he ditched the band, and had never really shared Alex and Jack’s thirst for American adventure.
Fortunately Jack met Joe at the dinner of a mutual friend’s. Power, who'd been drumming for ten years and had been in his share of bands, expressed his desire for adventure as well. Having recently been laid off and harboring something of a love affair (read: obsession) with New York he was ready to make a move.
Jack says it was a no-brainer. Of his history with other bands Joe says, “I’ve never felt that any of it was worth expending my limited energy on before I met these guys.” He also recalls that Buckett and Lawry-White had already decided they were going to New York, and he wasn’t going to say no.
Slacker scheduling, bad timing, and the licking of romantic wounds kept me from actually having a sit down interview with the band while they were in the states. However, last winter I managed to get some correspondence in with Jack and Joe (Unfortunately, Alex never responded; the wanker!) and find out about their history, their time in Brooklyn, and their future musical plans.
Ruth Nineke How/when did you know you wanted to do music?
Jack Buckett When playing the guitar became an excuse to give up sport. But also if you can play something or write something and it feels good then how could you not want "to do music".
Joe Power Ok, I knew I wanted to make music my life after I came back from Bushwick. I had been working as a journalist, amongst other things, but after spending a while in the job market and generally being disgusted by it I thought, hey, why not try doing what you love and think about all day everyday? The “how” follows from this. You've just got to try. You do. Why the fuck not? If you fail, then at least you've had a blast, and, more importantly, when I am back in the working world proper (currently unemployed), at least I'll have something to look forward to instead of....well, the generally drudgery of working life as I know it.
RN When was the first time you held/played an instrument?
Jack B I honestly can't think of any before I picked up a guitar and that was roughly when I was 13. My friend at the time had just learnt the exorcist theme tune and for some reason I was desperate to know how to play it. It just escalated from that I guess.
JP Can't remember the first time I played drums. This is an unfortunate by-product of serial cannabis consumption. They say it affects short term memory, but I struggle to remember large swathes of the mundane that qualifies as human existence. Which overall I think is a good thing.
My other theory on this is that my mind is brilliant (in its own way) and knows how to filter out unimportant crap. For example, I remember scoring from a corner during a football match for school when I was twelve and having my entire team jump on top of me screaming, but my graduation? pfff, Fuck that. Silly hats. You've got to focus on the beauty in life.
My other theory on this is that my mind is brilliant (in its own way) and knows how to filter out unimportant crap. For example, I remember scoring from a corner during a football match for school when I was twelve and having my entire team jump on top of me screaming, but my graduation? pfff, Fuck that. Silly hats. You've got to focus on the beauty in life.
RN Did you ever take lessons?
Jack B No and I really do believe that people progress so much faster at their instrument without lessons as you never lose your enthusiasm for said instrument. If you can try and learn the songs you want with a little guidance from friends/internet etc then your ear develops incredibly quickly and you don't get bogged down being forced to learn scales and songs you never even liked. That will immediately kill your passion. Teaching yourself an instrument also gives you the best possible introduction for writing music as it comes out in a much more original, natural format.
JP No lessons, no, nope, none. Wish I had though. £20 an hour? I wish.
RN What are some of your musical influences?
Jack B The songwriters who I admire the most are Neil Young, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, James Taylor and most recently Kahan James. The guitarists who I take the greatest inspiration from are Neil young, Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton [Cream and Santana]. So really the roots of my musical love comes from classic rock and a passion for the guitar but in terms of songcraft it is by far the more subtle pieces of the great singer/songwriters. Cortez the Killer being my favourite song of all time probably.
Jack B The songwriters who I admire the most are Neil Young, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, James Taylor and most recently Kahan James. The guitarists who I take the greatest inspiration from are Neil young, Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton [Cream and Santana]. So really the roots of my musical love comes from classic rock and a passion for the guitar but in terms of songcraft it is by far the more subtle pieces of the great singer/songwriters. Cortez the Killer being my favourite song of all time probably.
JP My greatest musical influences are drummers, of course. Mitch Mitchell, Tre Cool, Carter Beauford, Dave Grohl (as a drummer), Phil Collins, PSYCHE. Fuck that, Phil Collins is the anti-Christ as far as I'm concerned. You may well be able to sing and play drums at the same time, but you don't have to be such a smug dickhead at the same time. Anyway, yeah, you get it.
RN What did you study in school?
Jack B Lots of things really but the one I'm most proud of was being top of my class in Latin when I was young. Having said that, it is completely pointless and boring so I quickly gave up on that dream, if you can call it that. Or maybe I didn't give up on it at all as I ended up studying Ancient history at University.
JP In school I took American studies. I love your country, always have. I have attracted much consternation and ire over the years, ESPECIALLY the Bush years in defending you lot, but there is a lot to be said for what you have created. Your model of liberal capitalism has some huge flaws, but then, going to the Moon? Rock and Roll? 40’s? Chilli Cheese Fries? I am frequently amazed.
RN What was your first band?
Jack B "The Revelation" with a few chums from school. We were initially called "The Revolution", enough said. Not a great stage of my life.
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| Good-bye show @The Shire |
Jack B Complete fluke! Alex and I sublet a room on Varet. We had no idea where we wanted to live but knew we couldn't stay in Manhattan or Williamsburg as it was too pricey. If I had have known about Bushwick before then I would have had more direction but we simply just ended up there in order to save money. As you can tell, I knew very little about New York before I came. After our first week in a sublet apartment whereby we had to share the world's smallest single bed (shouldn't really be telling you that) we just walked around and eventually stumbled across Mckibbin. Knocked on the door, asked around if anyone knew of places being let and then came up trumps with apartment M. The Shire was born.
JP Bushwick, Potion, all that wonderful, hipster Bohemia happened out of luck. They tailgated in behind someone in McKibbin and went round knocking on doors until they found the super, who, after intimidating those poor, polite English gentlemen, gave them the number for the landlords. Thank fuck for their uncharacteristic pushiness or I would not have had the most beautiful period in my life thus far, and, probably, the best. We'll see.
RN How'd you get involved with Potion?
Jack B On our 3rd night there we heard all this ruckus coming from down the corridor (The G) so we went to check it out. Nick Morgan was the first person we met and was the perfect welcome to that community. What a fucking amazing kid! We hung out a lot over our stay there and he is someone I now hold very close to my heart. Anyways he introduced us to a bunch of people, we signed up to play and the rest is history as they say.
JP We found potion quite easily. We moved in while it was still at the G, which was just down the hall from us. Far too easy. Our first night there, I remember being incredibly intimidated, thinking "wow, so this shit actually exists, people live this life, it can be lead, why did I doubt it?" Words cannot express how I feel about my experiences there. Well, words can express it. I just don't have a good enough command of the language to truly get my point across.
RN When and where did you record the EP?
Jack B We recorded our first 3 tracks with Bill after speaking to him at one of the open mics at the G. It was done mostly between his studio on Meserole and Audio Piranha on Manhattan. I think it was in May. Then did 2 more tracks at the very end with Tyler at good Friend Electric, one of which was with Chris Carr and thatw as a treat.
JP We recorded the ep with Billy Big Beard Bartholomew and his Big 'ol Brown Boots. That was fun but it cost a lot. Damn you, Bill.
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| Flyer for the release party July 23 |
RN How and where'd you get the packaging and promo materials? (Third Cortez’s last release came in plastic envelope, and they had stickers to spare)
Jack B Well that only really consists of CDs with prints on and that was a surprise from my rents when they came over to visit for a weekend. How sweet, I know.
JP Jack's mum came over bearing gifts. Awesome. Saved me about 200 quid.
RN What are your musical plans for the future? personally and with the band?
Jack B My time on Mckibbin made me completely acknowledge that I need to be doing music for the rest of my life. I knew that before but I never really believed it or felt it as strongly as I do now. I was and still am so upset to have had to leave (only in physical presence) not only the greatest girl I have or ever will meet there, but so is the most incredibly talented musical community. However, this has been channeled, by all three of us, into a fiery enthusiasm, drive and ambition for our approach in London.
JP My musical plans for the future are - not to be too cliched or Jack Black - but to rawk the fuck out at every possible opportunity. There is a condition among the English, a debilitating condition. It is a condition which prevents us from expressing ourselves in a manner that reflects our ambitions or personalities. Everyone is afraid of looking like a cunt, so they do what everyone else does. This exists in your country as well, but we, as a small country, are constantly looking over our shoulders for approval. In short, my musical plans for the future are to soar on sonic plains of extraordinary beauty with Jack and Alex. And, hopefully, we'll be given money, really good drugs and an endless supply of comely wenches by our duly appointed A&R man. As I said, hopefully. (Just to clarify, these our my plans for the future, but I'll wager they are Jack and Alex's too).
RN When will you guys come back to BK?
Jack B We have a lot to work out in London first and have a Chinese tour on the horizon but I will definitely be back. I cannot wait to see you all. I'll be back in no time, mark my words.
JP back to BK? To borrow a crude but effective American colloquialism, fuck yeah. See you soon.
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Thoughts on this Spotlight? Email ruthnineke@gmail.com
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