Xpress MySpace Alert: Getting down with STRUT

Last week, the Mountain Xpress held an informal reader vote on our MySpace page to determine who should be our “favorite” band for the week. The winning band would have their profile listed in our “Top Friends” section, and would have one of their songs featured as our background music. It was a simple, down-and-dirty contest of online popularity, and it was also great fun.

Although dozens of local bands were nominated for the honor, at the end of the day, local funk and jam group STRUT won out over the rest with a grand total of eight votes. And, what better way of giving STRUT their due than by e-mailing them a few questions to tell our readers who they are?

We e-mailed bassist/vocalist Elijah Cramer, who was more than happy to give us the lowdown on the group.

Mountain Xpress: Your MySpace profile says that the band is “Ska/Trance/Funk,” but I think your music is a little broader in scope than that. How do you describe it?

Elijah Cramer: MySpace gives you three options, so we tried our best to describe it. As far as our sound, we strive to be original in every new song we write, and we touch on lots of different styles: ska, funk, rock, trance, hip-hop, world beat. But, we don’t necessarily [stick to a] certain style. We just make music we like. If it sounds good to us, then we play it for you.

Xpress: STRUT has a reputation for being kind of a hippie-ish funk band with a college-age fanbase. Is that accurate? Do you have any unlikely fans?

Cramer: I guess that’s pretty accurate. We want to be known as a fun, party band for sure. I think we get the hippie tag because we were raised on a hippie community, so we’ll take it. But, if you wanna see some real hippies, you should talk to our parents! I don’t know of any lawyers, doctors or politicians that rock out at our shows, but you never know. My favorite types of shows are the daytime, all-ages events, [because] we get to play for kids. Unbridled enthusiasm … that’s the best!

Xpress: How has being based in Asheville impacted your group, if at all? Would STRUT be the same band and have the same following if you were based in, Columbia, S.C., for instance?

Cramer: I think because Asheville’s music scene is so good and constantly getting better, that it’s pushed us to keep evolving and always stay fresh. In turn, it’s made us better songwriters and musicians. The average music lover’s taste here in Asheville is so broad that I think it’s helped us in our goal to not be boxed in by a genre.

Xpress: How did the band form? I’ve heard that you all knew each other from childhood.

Cramer: We all grew up on a community called The Farm in Tennessee, so we’ve know each other literally since we were babies. Casey (Cramer, guitar and vocals) and I are brothers, and we were in a band together in high school. Patrick (Thomas, drummer)and Ishi (just Ishi, vocals) were in another high school band. Casey, Pat and I formed STRUT as a little “side-project” just to jam. We really liked the sound we were creating, decided to move to Asheville and go for it. Ishi had been living in Atlanta for about a year, and he moved up here not long after.

Xpress: If I went to a show of yours, what kind of experience would you hope I’d have?

Cramer: A damn good time! Getting everybody moving is obviously a big goal at our shows, but we like people to listen to our lyrical content too. We’re trying to bring people together with this music and work on getting our world back in order. We hope that when leaving our shows you’re smiling, but also thinking and inspired.

Xpress: Do the band members have other jobs, or is STRUT their full-time occupation?

Cramer: Patrick and Ishi own their own painting company, West Side Painting. We’re hoping that soon STRUT will be paying all the bills though.

Xpress: What makes a song good? How do you know if you’ve created a good song?

Cramer: I love when songs seem to write themselves, and just kind of come together pretty effortlessly. Those are my favorite ones.

Xpress: What’s the worst experience you’ve ever had performing live? Be as specific or as vague as you’d like, but tell me a little something about it.

Cramer: I’m sure there’s a worst, but a few years back we were in Bozeman, Montana, on tour and the promoter and the club had the nights mixed up when we were supposed to play. So we were there on the “wrong night,” and were set up and played a short show for a bunch of old, angry looking cowboys that felt our music was interrupting their poker game. Gotta admit it was a little scary.

Xpress: What’s on the horizon for the band? New albums? New tours?

Cramer: We’ve just recently signed with local management group Macro-Management, we’re very excited about that. Our spring/summer calendar is filling fast, beginning with our return to the Virgin Islands. We’re playing 10 shows on two islands! The festival season is coming up, so we will be announcing those additions soon. There’s no plans for a new album, but we’re always writing new stuff.

Xpress: Are there any Asheville based groups that you’re a fan of? If you hadn’t won the Xpress MySpace weekly favorite band contest, who would you have been pulling for?

Cramer: Wow, tough question. In my opinion, we have one of the hottest local scenes in the country, especially for being such a small city. Where do I start? The Afromotive, Toubab Krewe, Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band, GFE and Menage come to mind immediately. But, there’s some new stuff I’ve recently heard that I love like Telepath, Barrel House Mamas, Laura Reed’s Deep Pocket … I could go on and on! We are huge fans of the local scene, and we push Asheville music everywhere we go.

Xpress: What’s the best part of being in STRUT?

Cramer: Obviously, the travel is great. We get to go all over, spread our sound and message, plus make great friends everywhere. But, touching people with our music and creating with fans has gotta be the best part.

— Steve Shanafelt, A&E reporter