An interview with Greg Pope, singer, songwriter, guitar player. Who is Greg Pope? Greg Pope was a member of the extremely underrated band Eager - who released a great album of pop tunes in 1997. I found said album this year, which was about, oh seven years too late to support the band. This took me on a web search to find out more about Greg, or Mister Pope as he likes to be called. Lo and behold Greg - 'er Mister Pope is alive and well and still producing great ear candy with the band Edmund's Crown. I ordered Collected from the band's webstore, and when it arrived the depth of talent and the quality of production immediately impressed me. I'm a sucker for a good hook, and the band delivers more than enough punch to silence the criticism that they're just another faceless generic pop act. They're a pop act, but they're a really good one. There isn't a crappy song among the bunch.

Official Site | banophernalia.com review

This interview is from April 2004

Thank you, Jevon.

Oh just wait, if I start gushing you're going to ask me to stop before you have to look for a barf bag. Anything off limits?

I'll let you know as we go.

Well, I'll try and push the limit. I'm known for hard hitting Mary Hart styled questions. First off, I'm pretty new to your music, but I'm making amends. Collected has been in heavy rotation over the last week, and it's much better than I expected.

I'm thrilled to hear that you're enjoying it.

Hey, the world needs more great pop songs. So who are you guys?

We are: Greg Pope, guitar and vocals; David Sprouse drums, and John Putnam bass, background vocals.

So essentially you're the classic power trio?

None other than.

Where did you guys come from?

I'm from Raleigh, North Carolina. David is from South Carolina. We met about a year after the demise of Eager. He invited me out to hear this group he was playing drums with here in Nashville. I liked his drumming and stole him from said group the same night. John Putnam, our bass player is from Memphis Tennessee, and plays with some other better known acts here in Nashville (Delbert McClinton for instance). He claims we are his favorite though. Our original bass player was the lovely and talented young Jeremy Richards, who's playing is on the CD you've got there. He moved back to the heartland (Iowa).

So how big a blow was the demise of Eager? I mean, from what little I was able to pick up you up and moved to be with the band, and then after one full on musical chubby of an album things just end? Or am I so far off base I'm not in the right ballpark?

Well, it's kind of a long and complicated story. The simplest way to put it is that the company that owned our record company decided that the music business was not turning a profit fast enough (our label had been around for 3 years or so at that point). So one night when we were home for few days, the Vice President took us all out to dinner and told us that in two weeks, he would not have a job, and the label would no longer exist. This was about 8 weeks after our record was released. I think we had sold around 20,000 at that point, which is not too bad but not good enough for the suits in charge I guess. Anyway, we carried on for another 6 months, trying to get a new deal, touring, etc. I was the first to call it quits and I think the band split up a couple of months later.

Brutal. Rather than dwell on what was, let's stick with what is. So what's with the name? I had visions of Edmund from the Narnia books, but then I figured you were like really really clever and were making some artistic statement. So I sat back and put on my thinking toque. Hmm, maybe there was a Pope named Gregorious, which is long for Greg, who knew a King Edmund and took his crown. A little searching (really, very little, I'm essentially a very lazy person) brought up some 8th century king who got pin cushioned with arrows. Which was part of the story, I only had to confirm the Pope connection. Greg (short for Gregorious) the Pope wasn't around for another couple hundred years. So much for that theory. So what's your story?

You know, there is a fine line between clever and stupid, and I'm sorry to say we're not that artistically clever. It's from The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe. He's the rotten, selfish, little troublemaker but at the end of that story he is crowned Edmund the Just. We liked the fact that he was the bad kid and we liked the picture of redemption.

Great series of books. Edmund's one of my favourite characters, right up there with Puddleglum. You've got young kids, have you read them aloud yet as bedtime stories? If not you should. I'm part way through the Last Battle, and I'm not sure who's enjoying the stories more.

We've gone through The Magician's Nephew and my oldest son is hooked.

Good for him. Moving right along, and keeping this on track. Gear and toys: I'm a sucker for guitars and gear. I'm always curious to hear what people are playing. I see in the liner notes that you're playing Epiphones. You got an endorsement deal, or are you mentioning them in hopes of getting free stuff?

I had an endorsement with Epiphone when I was with Eager. I use their SG's, a Les Paul Special, and a Riviera- which is like an ES335. For the songs on Collected, I think I pretty much stuck with the SG's for the rhythm guitars. I have a tele with custom pick-ups and I'm sure I used that for a few things. The solo on Only One comes to mind. My main and only amp in use these days is a Vox AC30.

Very cool. Funny how the SG's never really took off, even with Angus
rockin' the free world. However, School of Rock may finally change that.
Life is strange.

Yeah. They have a distinctive tone. And they're a bit lighter than the Les Paul- easier on the back. Loved School of Rock by the way. I'm a Jack Black fan, and that was a Jack Black fest.

But the ES335, that's a screamin' multipurpose mother trucker (to borrow a line from Aunt Bettys).

My dad always played one when I was growing up. Some of my other favorite players use them too. Steve Howe for instance.

You obviously have a cool dad. I love how Larry Carlton can make his sing. Excuse me if I sound somewhat jealous. I take it said deal is no longer on the table. So, if you'd wanted could you have like asked for one of everything?

I guess I could have asked. I never really had to. One day I went down there looking for an "idea" of what kind of acoustic I might want. I just wanted to play a few different models. I left with two guitars. They were very generous about it.

How cool is that? Sigh. Back to sounds - I notice a consistency of tone, throughout Collected. Was that on purpose?

If it's a consistently good tone, definitely. If it's consistently poor, well, you're not listening to it right.

Oh it's good. Well, except for those odd cluttered bits on Made to Soar.

There are many layers of guitar on that song. Perhaps too many.

Musical influences time.

Well I grew up playing drums. My first album was Yes:Fragile, given to me by my aunt when I was 4.

You're how old? That was old when I was a kid, and I'm older than you.

I'm a thirty something. I grew up in the 70's and 80's. My heroes were John Bonham, Stewart Copeland, Keith Moon, and Billy Cobham. When I started playing guitar, I was (and remain) a huge fan of The Police. Later it was on to Big Star, Bob Mould/Sugar, The Replacements and Westerberg's solo stuff, Klark Kent, The Who, Peter Gabriel, Hendricks, Angus Young, Jimmy Page, Alex Lifeson, Chris Squire, I could go on. MORE RECENTLY: Supergrass.

Cool. I love a list where I have to look people up. Hey, thanks for throwing in Alex. He's Canadian you know?

I love his playing. The guitar playing on 2112 changed my life.

Moving right along (how's that for professional pacing?) Every musician has a worst experience memory. What's yours?

So many to choose from. Getting stuck in one of the worst ice storms in a decade just outside Chicago while on tour with a near empty tank of gas. No power anywhere for miles (this means no gas pumps working). We pulled off at this exit where a thousand other cars and trucks were on the side of the road and slept in the truck/camper/thing we had rented from another band. My wife and son (who was 8 weeks old at the time) were with us. "So honey, how do you like being on the road?" It was dire.

Post Script: Exactly a week after we returned the truck/camper/thing, it burned to the ground with all the other band's gear in it. That vehicle was cursed.

No kidding? That's funny, I can imagine your wife's facial expressions and body language. Hey, I'm a whipped, er - married man so I've been there, just not in a camper in the middle of an ice storm.

If you could put together the ultimate jam band who would you pick?

Pass.

You mean Joe Pass? Or pass as in "I'm too politically sensitive to my peers in the industry to single anyone out at the risk of offending anyone who may at some future date want to employ me."

Well, I don't have many "peers in the industry" to offend. I guess I'm not much of a "jammer". I can barely play my own songs.

Oh lame. Lame. But I can relate, perhaps the word jam was the wrong word. Oh well, I've lost it now. You've had music on some pretty widely seen television shows. How big a deal was it for you to have your music licensed and heard by millions?

Actually, it was very cool. A little surreal too. Different than hearing your song on the radio. The first thought I had when I heard it on my television was, "wow, I recorded that guitar track in the hall bathroom." I think we were one of the only unsigned acts on those episodes. I mean they had bands like The Eels, they didn't need us. It was a huge compliment to our music.

Mental note: Who are the Eels? And if they're any good my wife will kill me for buying even more music we don't have room to shelve.

They had that record, Beautiful Freak in the mid-90's? They've been around for a while. I think they're on Dreamworks.

Dang, I guess I'll have to check them out. Greg, see how I've steered away from asking you about Carman?

(sigh) I keep telling him it's over.

It's not over 'til it's over. You may just have to make a love offering to the guy. I read on his site once (I went there on a dare!) that if you "donate" like 500 bucks you get an autographed record or something that's been blessed by Carman and has special restorative powers for things like warts and carbuncles as his way of saying thank you. Either that or one of the towels used to mop his forehead during the filming of The Champion.

Really? Throw in some sunless tanning cream and I'm sold.

Notice how I haven't tried to sneak in any fart references - yet.

Thank you, Lord.

You say that, but your kids would find it hilarious. But then your wife would be horrified. Do it for the kids! It seems to work well for Jerry. You know, we've been chatting mostly about your old stuff, which is a couple of years old now. You've been busy, and I heard the new e.p. and if it's a taste of things to come it should be a really good album. So go on, release all that pent up stuff and talk about the new stuff. So, how about the new album?

I would love to chat about that. We've got about 17 songs that are contenders. I think we will end up with 10 when it's said and done.

Hey, if they're all good songs you don't have to stop at ten. Unless you plan on doing a Steve Miller and releasing your own version of Book of Dreams next year using the left over bits. Speaking of the preview disc, are all the songs on the EP on the album?

Yes.

Good answer. My favourite track so far is I Got A Life, that's brilliant, not to mention a fun song. How far in the cheek was the tongue on that one?

Thanks. That one came to me after hearing the line "rock and roll is all I got" in a song by another band. I just thought, "Wow. Now, I can't really say that and mean it can I?" I wasn't sure about it after we cut it, but people seem to really like it.

I've noticed a slightly rougher edge in the production and the songs have more of a bite.

Well one criticism (mostly our own) of Collected is that it was a bit too glossy sounding, a bit too 'made in Nashville' for lack of a better term. We wanted to take a really basic approach to recording this one. You know, sort of walk the line between lo-fi and suck. We're pretty noisy live. Not all that polished. Our little modus operandi this time was, "if someone sat on that couch over there during our rehearsal, what would it sound like?" I'm not saying something less superior sonically is any more honest, but where we were kind of all decked out on Collected, this time we're in our
underwear.

You said underwear. Did you know that's one of the funniest words in the world to a six year old?

Yeah it's right up there with booger.

(laughing, you said "Booger.") Sorry, where was I? Hey, since you brought up Collected and the polished sound, I've got to say I'm On She's Off is wicked.

Thanks. I had some help on the guitars from George Cochini on that one. He's quite a wizard, not to mention a great guy.

Speaking of guitar wizards, I read somewhere you were a fan of Mike Roe. Is this true? He's an amazing player, very understated, and is probably one of my favourite players.

Yeah, I like his playing and his writing. He consistently does something different in a way that's compelling and understated. I saw him at a festival in Europe once, and all he had was an acoustic guitar. There were all these rock bands on before him. The crowd was really a bit sparse. But when he started his set, people just crowded in from everywhere. He's very captivating.

Very cool story. Well Greg, I've just about run out of questions. Of course the moment we're done I'll think of more. Is there anything you'd like to say, or plug before we wind this up? Oh, before you answer, if you went up to your kids and asked them to pull your finger, would they, a) duck and cover b) pull until something happened c) yell for mom and tell on you for being rude.

b. Then, c.

My kids are pretty well trained; they pull, duck, and then yell for mom.

Plug time. If you haven't heard of Edmund's Crown you should check out their website at www.edmundscrown.com listen to some samples, and then buy Collected. Then when the new album comes out by that too.

My guest this time around has been Greg Pope, a pretty cool guy who plays a mean guitar (I've heard Epiphones can be nasty), has a killer voice (he does), and has a life thank you very much.

Well, that's about it. Thanks for reading, come back soon. You never know, I just may get that hard-hitting interview with Carman one day. Either that or I may just be hit hard by Carman.

Jevon the Tall
banopernalia.com
April 2004