If you’ve been part of the New Jersey indie scene for the last decade, two bands you may have heard of are Roadside Graves and Lowlight. Roadside Graves made their mark on indie labels like Don Giovanni records among others while Lowlight were one of Asbury Park’s most well-respected bands as they toured with The Pretenders and played Sea Hear Now fest. Over the course of the last year with the departure of their front woman, Renee Maskin to pursue her solo career, Lowlight experimented on their upcoming EP trying out singer & songwriter Joe Galuppo, Derril and Dana who both are in Lowlight and singer John Gleason from Roadside Graves. The culmination of their effort drops on 2/25 and is called “They Know”. Going forward the band has asked John Gleason to become their full-time frontman. So we sat down with John to ask him how this coalesced:
So how did this happen? What led you to be in Lowlight?
Colin Ryan (Lowlight & Roadside Graves drummer) and I recently started working together at the same elementary school and on Mondays they assigned us both bus duty. There was one particular day where I was venting a bit about simply not having enough music in my life (creatively) while I should have been probably telling kids to stop running. I mentioned I was ready to start a new band. I assumed I would soon have to start combing the parking lots behind high schools to find some degenerates whom I could recruit. Fortunately, Colin took this as an opportunity to speak with Lowlight (as they had recently become a band member short) and they decided to ask me to join. I was honored to be asked, but I did have some reservations. I wanted to map out realistically what I think I could commit to and to begin to see where we could take the band next. They agreed and so far it has been just what I hoped for. I’ve been a fan for years, loved seeing their progress, and hope I don’t fail them miserably.
Roadside Graves are currently working on new songs at the same time as Lowlight. As a writer, do you have to compartmentalize? Do you get into a different mindset to write lyrics for each band or does it happen organically?
Typically, both bands are sending me music to write to lately so that makes it easy. The problem I can foresee is that when I get a spark and write lyrics first (which luckily still happens) which band should the song be attached to? I’d like to believe I will know instinctively. Roadside Graves are currently writing a thematic record based on S.E. Hinton’s Rumblefish and for now I’m steering away from themes for Lowlight, although there already is a “when I was young” current traveling through some of our new Lowlight songs that I am excited about.
If you could set up a dream, 4-act bill for Lowlight to play, who would it include and where would the show be? All artists, dead or alive, are fair game.
We wouldn’t be worthy of the bill! Or we would be kicked off at the last minute. But for shits here goes:
Leonard Cohen
The Clash
Nina Simone
The Shangri-la’s
It would be in Reno
Why do you do this?
Ha. Oh man, how do you even answer this without getting Hallmark? I appreciate & love books, movies, art, comics, anything someone can create that resonates, but music has always risen above. It struck me early on that I could not be satisfied by being a fan. I had to be immersed in it. Regardless of success or failure I had a need to contribute. The personal satisfaction in creating a piece of music with a group of friends is an overwhelming pleasure and has since become a slight necessity (one small piece of attempting a life fulfilled). I’m a tad pale and more miserable than usual when there are long breaks without music. I was just showering last night and I had this wild vision of us actually playing a show again in front of people and I almost cried. It’s hard to explain without sounding ridiculous but trust me it's genuine.
You're a father and an elementary school teacher, how do those things affect your writing and singing?
It makes my time away (whether in my basement writing or driving to band practice) more precise and focused. I have improved the splits in my life. I can better recognize when I am not present as a teacher, father, husband, etc. than I have in the past. That’s been a hurdle for a long time.
In the song, 'Lowlight', you wrote the verse lyrics but Dana and Derril came up with the melody and sang it. What's that process like? Might you write lyrics differently if you know someone else is going to sing them?
I doubt I would write the lyrics differently, but I am eager to lay some words out and let others use them in their own way. I’m not possessive of lyrics, phrases, ideas. They found melodies in the song and the words that I would never have heard. The spirit of collaboration and working with new friends/musicians is inspiring. I’ve written more in the past 6 months than I have in years.
If you could be in a band with any fictional character, who would it be, what would they play, and why?
Jeff Spicoli (Fast Times at Ridgemont High). I’d ask him to sing. We would probably only make one record and then break up, but it would be glorious and there would be a lot of apologies afterwards.
What's next for Lowlight?
Meaning something to someone.