This month, Icarian Bird's Mark Bestul is stepping in to guest interview The Master 8000

SCS: How and when did The Master 8000 form as a band?

Nick: Mel, Dan, and I used to play together in another project that went nowhere when we could not find a drummer. Mel then left town, but came back for practices and such until we all decided it wasn't worth trying and it wasn't worth Mel's gas and time. It was for the best. Then Mel came back and we decided to start playing around again with no set ideas in mind, except that we wanted to completely start over. This was around last summer. We had several pactices of loosely playing stuff, often not cohesively, and just coming up with little bits and pieces of things and not doing much with them. After several sessions like this, we finally started playing full songs. By October or November we decided we were enough of a band to have a name. We became "The Master 8000" one night while we were drinking at Duffy's.

Dan: Nick, Mel, and I started this band after our previous project, The Consumers, fizzled out and died a slow, ugly death without ever really having gone anywhere. When Mel moved back to Lincoln from Columbus, we started playing together again regularly, but with different material.

SCS: How long after the band formed did Tery Daly join? How has he worked out as a drummer?

Nick: Tery is an extremely great asset to the band as a whole - not just as a drummer, but as an ideas man, a technical advisor, a promoter / scene connection, moral support for me, and just as an overall general advisor and fun guy.

Tery: I joined in December, I don't know for sure how long they were together before that. Personally, I don't think it's working out at all.

Dan: We were playing for 5 or 6 months before Tery offered to join when I was complaining loudly over tacos one day about our lack of a drummer. I like to complain about things because sometimes it gets me what I want.

SCS: I've seen you play a few times and think you have unique sound, how would you describe your sound to the readers?

Nick: Noisy quirky rock?

Tery: Kick Ass! No really, There's this period of indie rock from what I'll call Indie Rock's classic period, which would be like 91-96, that I really love. Bands like Pavement, Guided by Voices, Sebadoh, Built To Spill, Silver Jews, Sonic Youth, Chavez and others of that ilk were turning out their best work and it was all kind of along the same lines. For the most part bands aren't making music like that anymore, but that doesn't mean I like it any less than I did when they were. Nick writes music very much along those lines. I really like his songs, and his new stuff that we're just starting to work on is even better.

Dan: For several months, it seemed that every time I was in Nick's car, he would either be listening to Pavement, The Silver Jews, or whatever the fuck Malkmus was calling his other side projects. I think he was going insane or something. Anyway, we don't really sound all that much like Pavement as it turns out, but then again, if you really hate Pavement, I don't think you would like us very much.

SCS: Describe a Master 8000 show, what can folks expect when they come see you.

Tery: M & M's...Millions of them!!!

Nick: We kind of have a loose feel. We fluctuate from sounding laid back to rocking loud and hard. Every time you see us play a song, it will be a little different from the last time we played it.

Dan: We're still just starting out, so you can expect me to look nervous unless I've been drinking scotch, which is probably pretty likely. Seriously though, our songs are generally a good mix of ones where it's laid back and slackerish and ones where Nick is playing his guitar all over the floor like that scene at that 50s dance on Back to the Future where the audience is like what? But really it's the guitar solo FROM THE FUTURE. Mel's on the damn phone telling his other musician buddies about that new sound they should check out and Tery's done too many lines of cocaine to realize he's fading out of existence. I think that's what people can expect usually, Mark.

Mel: They might see me get electrocuted.

SCS:What types of music and which musicians/groups influenced the band members?

Nick: Pavement, Sonic Youth, Silver Jews, The Fall, Pixies, bands like that. I like a lot of other types of stuff too, but the lo-fi and quirky post-punk stands out to me the most.

Dan: I am influenced most by alt-country stuff like Whiskeytown, Old 97s, Slobberbone, The Sadies and stuff like that. That genre's been pretty dead lately though so I guess it's been more like The Pixies/Frank Black, Pavement, Jay Farrar, Guided By Voices, David Bowie, Wilco... I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot.

Tery: We don't call him "Country Boy" for nothin!

Mel: Frank Black is my god.

SCS: How have you grown, musically and creatively, since the band first started?

Nick: I think we're constantly getting a better feel for things as we go. As a songwriter, I've started to get a clearer idea of The Master 8000's overall sound and what distinguishes it, now that we have some stuff built up, so I'm able to use that to try different things while staying in that vein.

Mel: Playing with this band has definately made my playing style less mechanical and a lot more organic

SCS: Who writes the lyrics and/or the songs? .

Nick: Mostly me, but every member definitely contributes to the sound. Additionally, each member comes up with intros, transitions, improvements, etc. for different songs.

Dan: So far, Nick has written all of the lyrics and songs by recording demos on his four track and then making copies for the rest of us. Then usually we all sort of make up our own parts so the final arrangement ends up being more of a group effort.

Tery: Yeah, that's about the size of it. With the new stuff we're working on, I'm hoping that we'll stick as closely to Nick's demos as we can because they're REALLY good, and the guitar and bass parts all fit the song so perfectly that I think changing them too much will end up detracting from the songs. Nick just did the drums parts on a drum machine, but even those are pretty perfect for the song so I'm going to stick to the main beats he laid down pretty closely.

SCS: Do you have a favorite song of yours to play live?

Nick: I don't think so.

Tery: I really love everything, but I think I like the poppier stuff best, Astronomical Abortion, Dogs In The Grass, Melt Like Wax, stuff like that, but Nick's newest stuff, which we're just start to work on, might be his best stuff yet!

Dan: Our new one, Dogs In The Grass, that we opened with at the Zoo last time.

Mel: I always get a high playing Abort, Retry, Fail.

SCS: When and where was your first local show, and how did it go?

Nick: Duffy's, 1-19-05, I think. It so fun. Somehow, the place was pretty full on a Wednesday night, and the crowd was great. After our set, we heard a lot of very encouraging things. For the next couple of days I probably walked around with this big dorky smile on my face. I'll never forget it.

Tery: I think it went really well, considering I'd never been a drummer prior to joining this band, I told them I'd like 3 months before I got "passable" as a drummer. One time I called up Dan to ask him what time we're practicing that weekend. During that call he asked me what I was doing on Jan 19th. I assumed he was having one of his frequent parties and said "nothing". He said "Cool we have a show that night". That was about 3-4 weeks after I joined the band, so we started practicing twice a week after that just so I could learn how to play in time for the show. I was a little peeved at the time, but it was probably for the best.

Dan: It was with Sad Old Lady. Ben Clark and I over-hyped the crap out of that show - we're both pretty good at blowing things way the hell out of proportion, which must have gotten a lot of people in the door. I think there were 75 people there. It was pretty awesome.

Mel: The crowd was huge and they really seemed to be into what we were doing, which made us rock even harder. I was riding that buzz for the next day or two.

SCS: What was the best show you've attended as a fan?

Nick: Um.... I don't know.... Wilco in Omaha a couple years ago (after YHF was released) was really great. A few years ago I was a big Old 97's fan, and my first 97's concert was at The Bottleneck at Lawrence. It was pretty killer.

Tery: Locally, It was probably at a show by The Black Dahlias, Crush The Clown, Drive-by Honky, Ideal Cleaners or Tangelo, although that last Ideal Cleaners/Holy Ghost show at Duffy's was pretty damn awesome, as was the recent Mercy Rule/Frontier Trust show in Omaha. Otherwise, when I lived in NY, seeing The Ramones a few times in the late 70's early 80's, Blondie, Richard Hell & The Voidiods. There were a few Guided by Voices show that were pretty transcendent.

Mel: It's a toss up between The Pixies at Pershing and the first time I saw Split Lip Rayfield.

SCS: Some of you are in or have been in other bands, what other bands have you each been in before or are currently playing with? What instrument do you/did you play in the other band(s). Do those other experiences have any impact on M8K?

Nick: I play a xylophone that one holds like a guitar for the Squirty Dirts.

Tery: Counting only bands (and not one-off side project type dealys) I've been in since living in Lincoln, Creatures of Habit (everything), Starboy (everything), The Atomic Pigs (bass), The Honey Hush (guitar), Suzy Dreamer & Her Nightmares (guitar), The Static Octopus (guitar). I think just experience in general is what I bring to the band, having done this for years. Being a guitarist or bassist doesn't necessarily bring anything, but being a drummer now is really expanding me as a musician, because "thinking like a drummer" wasn't previously part of my musical process, but it is now.

Dan: The only other band I've played with (besides the aforementioned Consumers) is Sad Old Lady, in which I also play guitar. That band is so musically different from M8K that I'd have to say no, it's not having much impact. Other than that I play a lot more and am a better guitarist for it.

Mel: I played trombone from fifth grade until I graduated high school. The way I approach the bass has been affected greatly by that.

Tery: Holy Crap! That explains a LOT!

SCS: Who are some local bands or musicians that you admire or feel should be recognized?

Nick: The (excellent but gravely under-appreciated) Bad Sects, Crush the Clown, Papers...I'm going to stop there. I could name a bunch more bands, but the longer I make my list the worse I will feel when I realize which bands I forgot to mention.

Tery: Ideal Cleaners, Tangelo, Rent Money Big, anything Nick Westra related.

Mel: I never tire of seeing Rent Money Big. And if you've never watched Jared Bader's fingers dance across a fretboard, you might as well just shoot yourself in the head right now.

SCS: What other local bands have you played shows with?

Nick: Sad Old Lady, Near South Davenport, Eli from Eagle.Seagull, A Farewell Show for Megan

SCS: Do you think living in Lincoln influences your music in anyway?

Nick: I don't know.

Tery: Well I steal all my drumsticks from Music-Go-Round, so that must tie in some way.

SCS: Are there any plans to record and release a CD?

Nick: Well, we will have a demo soon for, you know, demo purposes. I would love to release a CD, but we haven't really talked about that yet.

SCS: Who was the first person or band you saw that made you want to play music?

Nick: I don't know.

Dan: I wish I had some great story about how I heard this one song and just had to start playing, but the truth is that I was really, really bored one summer while I was home from college, and I started playing guitar because I had nothing else to do. Watching local shows made me want to be a local musician when I got back to Lincoln though.

Mel: I almost got kicked out of a bar when I was about a week old. My father and two of my uncles were playing a gig there. They played in a couple classic country cover bands while I was growing up. That definitely made me want to play music

Tery: Yeah, it was Mel's dad for me too!

SCS: What was the first album/CD you bought?

Nick: That I bought... probably Motley Crue's Dr. Feelgood on tape.

Dan: Nirvana: Nevermind. I was in 6th or 7th grade I think

Mel: I wish I could remember, it was probably something I picked up at a garage sale

Tery: Ben Franklin sings "Lets Go Fly A Kite" on an Edison wax cylinder that I picked up at a garage sale.

SCS: Whose music are you listening to right now?

Nick: In my car CD player: Ideal Cleaner's new album. In my computer: Built to Spill's There's Nothing Wrong with Love

Tery: In my car: Cotton Mather - KonTiki. On my home stereo: Ideal Cleaners - The H is O. In my head: a new song I’m writing, as yet untitled.

Mel: A little Flaming Lips, some Camper van Beethoven, some freaks that call themselves Clinic...

SCS: List off your top five albums of all time.

Nick: I hate these questions. I'm ridiculously indecisive. These are not necessarily my favorties, but some of my favorites: