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The Slackers, from left, Marcus Geard, Ara Babajian, Jay Nugent, Vic Ruggiero, Victor Rice and Dave Hillyard, bring their blend of Jamaican ska, American blues and jazz, and rock to Hawaiian Brian’s this weekend. (Courtesy photo)
BY JAMIE WINPENNY / Special to the Star-Advertiser
From somewhere in Brooklyn, N.Y., the Slackers saxophonist Dave Hillyard handles a transcontinental phone interview with the kind of casual, conversational grace one might expect of someone who has seen it all.
THE SLACKERSWith local openers Go Jimmy Go, the Blue Ribbons, Black Square and Pimpbot» Where: Crossroads at Hawaiian Brian’s, 1680 Kapiolani Blvd. |
“I’m curious to see what it’s all about,” Hillyard says of the Slackers’ shows this weekend at Hawaiian Brian’s, their first in Hawaii. “Five of us have never even been there. It’s a whole new scene for us.”
This comes as a surprise, considering that the roots-ska outfit has been to 43 of the 50 states and to dozens of countries in Europe, Asia and South America.
Together for well over 20 years, the Slackers formed at a time in the early ’90s that saw a profusion of hungry ska bands burst onto the national scene. Most of those bands fizzled or came apart under the pressure of constant touring. The Slackers persisted.
“We’re not hugely popular anywhere,” Hillyard says. “We have our cities.”
This statement is almost absurdly humble, considering the throngs of fans at home and abroad that have come to embrace, possessively, the Slackers’ signature rock-steady sound, a blend of traditional Jamaican ska, American blues and jazz, and flat-out rock ‘n’ roll. (The band’s promotional material speaks of their “gospel of Jamaican rock and roll,” and of the difficulties of trying to explain it to the “style police” and “genre slaves.”)
The Slackers’ remarkable longevity is attributable, at least in part, to their understanding of what it takes to simply survive the rigors and routines of being on the road.
“We figured it out years ago. Once you get into a tour, a lot of the same things happen,” Hillyard says. “Long drives, sound checks, things like that. You try to not spend all of your energy at once.”
The band has weathered meteorological cataclysms, blackouts, shifty promoters and just about everything else a tour can throw at a band, thanks to a camaraderie that is possibly their most important asset. Hillyard speaks admirably of his mates.
“Anybody in this band can be a bandleader,” he says. “These are the guys I want to be around in a crisis.”
The Slackers play more than 100 domestic and international dates per year. When the travel time and downtime of a tour are factored into the equation, it is clear that they spend a lot of time on the road. Hillyard says that it’s important to find a balance between gigging and home life.
“We know that things will come to us, that things will sort themselves out,” he says. “It’s nice because we can put time into being home.”
That time at home isn’t spent idly, either. The Slackers is a group of wildly talented songwriters and musicians, and they continue to generate new material.
“It’s collaborative,” says Hillyard simply. “It’s cross pollination in a basement in Brooklyn. It’s quite something. We’ve never had to force anything.”
The collaboration is ongoing. Hillyard says: “We’re working on some new tunes, with these Hawaii dates especially in mind.”
The Honolulu shows, which came about because Hawaiian Brian’s “made us an offer we couldn’t refuse,” kick off a multinational tour with rapid-fire dates on the West Coast, in Japan, Canada, the East Coast and several European countries. They’ll be on the road for most of the rest of 2013.
“It’s nice, because we can go to Middle America, Germany, Japan, or wherever, and know that people are going to turn up for the show,” Hillyard reflects.
Honolulu’s reigning kings of rock steady, Go Jimmy Go, perform with the Slackers on Friday night, surprisingly for the first time ever. As both bands have made the same circuit over the years, it seems unlikely that the two bands have never shared a bill.
“I don’t think we have,” says Go Jimmy Go drummer Shon Gregory, incredulously. “Either way, they’re an amazing band and we’re really looking forward to it.”
Saturday’s show will include Honolulu ska music stalwarts Black Square and Pimpbot.
The Slackers’ Hawaiian Brian’s shows offer an increasingly rare opportunity to see an internationally successful indie band. A polished and soulful group of like-minded virtuosos performing original music, the Slackers have sustained themselves over two decades without shameless compromise or indulgent self-reverence.
How does a group of artistic savants with their own self-interests, proclivities and needs manage to keep it together for so long?
“We’re secure enough,” Hillyard says.