Biography
Where did the name come from (I assume it may be as obvious as it sounds, but you never know)?
For once, it is what it seems: I was born and raised in Ohio. I chose the name for its pleasing phonetics mostly. As literal as it is, it’s also stylistically ambiguous to me: i don’t see it and think “rock” or “folk” or anything specific, although I think its a good rule of thumb to have any potential band name be able to be used for a metal band. But, i do like the literal aspect of it. Its not affiliated with moniker fads like “wolf” or “crystal” or an aesthetic, it just means “a person from Ohio”, but i suppose the no-nonsense aspect of it is definitely in line with my personal tastes. I didn’t want to use my name because i didn’t want the project to be associated with a specfic identity or have any kind of realistic obligation. Expectations are completely different when it is a human’s name. I like that it can be a band, or one person, or an event, or whatever. There is a great beauty in the word, in its sound and how it looks. And I couldn’t resist the mash-up of a Hopewell-era indigenous word (Ohio, meaning “good river”) and an English suffix (-an); it’s essentially accepted nonsense, slang. All of these implications just sat well with me.
Who is in the band and where/how did you get together? How long have Ohioan been around?
“Ohioan” sort of coalesced during a walk I took from Chicago to Portland. Had a lot of time to think. I’d say that was about 5 years ago. But the actual state of being as a full-bore musical project didn’t start until 2006.
I was tired of waiting to start a band, or waiting for the sounds that i desired to hear to exist in the exterior world.
And bands break up, and it’s just akward or insulting or tense to continue on with a certain band name after original members have left. At the time, didn’t want to put my energy into something that could disappear.
It was liberating to give birth to it and say “this will exist, forever if it needs to, or at least as long as i do”.
I envisioned it like one of those pirate’s identities that gets passed from person to person, becomes myth, exists until no one uses it anymore.
There has always been a rotating cast, ranging from one person to 30+. There’ve been incarnations with a 6-piece horn section and 4 drummers, there was the original line-up of a clarinet/cornet/tenor sax/accordion quartet.
Ohioan currently encompasses about 13 individuals, give or take a few.
It’s malleable and able to be whatever it needs to be at any given time.
I try to have the band be as democratic as possible, while acknowledging that it is, essentially, “my thing”.
Sometimes it seems that the other people are kind of doing this favor for me, helping me see through a certain vision at the time. Other times though, it feels very different, and there is a palpable investment from everyone, and the music definitely takes shape as the sum of its parts.
How would you describe your music?
“High Country” is a term that’s being used by myself and a few other artists I know that share a common feel.
Genre’s are admittedly kind of dumb, but it puts a lot more fear and resentment in me to think about what some writer would call it. Just like everything else, we prefer to do it ourselves. I know that many artists claim that their music is “not genre-specific”, but that never seems to work. All music derives from some sort of idiom, if not many. Some critic or blogger always comes up with a semi-insulting term like “freak-folk” or “cool jazz” and then you’re stuck with it. It’s empowering to take that on for oneself. I was thinking a lot about Ornette Coleman and “free jazz”, and just creating a new style by simply naming it. Although I realize that wasn’t his intent when he named his album, I was just really into the idea. “High country” meaning kind of the same thing as “free jazz”, genre differences aside. The “high” aspect being the freedom, the literal association with altitude and air and soaring.
I think of music as very dependent and indicative of a place. Jazz (at this point at least) is so inherently urban, it seems almost ridiculous to think of it outside of cities and bars and sidewalks. I don’t use the word “country” in specific association with the modern style called “country”, although I do use fiddle and pedal steel, and have a great affinity for the genre, as well as having some deep roots in it. Country is used more literally, in reference to the land and, specifically, vast spaces. It is also a kind of multi-faceted term, at least to me: it could refer to “outer space”, or “heaven”, and i think that sense of reaching for something beyond exists in the music of myself and the other artists that I mention.
A close analogy would be the relationship of gospel music to the church.
They are intertwined and enrich each other..
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