The Vinyl Skyway: Long Distance Pop
By Martin Sattell
Photo by Lara Woolfson

They say long distance relationships are the most difficult incarnation of an emotional partnership. The distance complicates and stresses both parties involved, arguments become disproportionately large, and a lack of companionship forges a heart wrenching ennui. But as is the case with all assumptions of social “realities,” there’s usually an exception. The Vinyl Skyway is one such anomaly.

The Skyway’s members include singer/songwriter Michael Hayes, guitarist/songwriter Andy Santospago, drummer Booth Hardy, bassist Rob Pevitts, and keyboardist Dave Lieb. Hayes, Hardy and Pevitts originally played together in late nineties and early second-millennial alt-country outfit Lemonpeeler until Hardy and Pevitts departed the band in 2002 and moved to Santa Cruz and San Francisco, respectively. Santospago joined Lemonpeeler the same year and began recording with Hayes as The Vinyl Skyway. Their eponymous debut dropped in 2004.

After Hardy and Pevitts invited Hayes and Santospago to play with them at International Pop Overthrow 2005 in San Francisco, the four decided to remain a band even though the former two would not move back to the Boston area. Leib is the newcomer, having joined in early 2006 shortly after The Vinyl Skyway began recording their sophomore effort, 2007’s From Telegraph Hill.

Despite the obvious challenges of long distance relationships, the space between them hasn’t stopped The Vinyl Skyway from garnering worldwide support, receiving critical acclaim and crafting an impressive sophomore album.

“It was a huge challenge for us,” says Hayes. “Financially, it was very difficult and stressful.” Some of the financial difficulties included high phone bills and expenses from plane flights - precious monies for the unsigned, unmarketed and underfunded band that “could have been spent on studio time,” according to Pevitts.

Other than financial strain, the band is generally happy with their members’ sixty-forty split between living on the country’s eastern and western extremes. In fact, they wouldn’t have it any other way. “[Hayes and Santospago] could have just as easily had some guys from Boston play with them,” says Hardy, “but there’s something that feels right about all of us playing together.”

There are, of course, some obvious coordination problems. Unlike many bands that meet habitually after work to practice, The Vinyl Skyway can only afford to rehearse a few times before a show or tour. Hayes admits that the band would benefit from some extra practice, but the fact that they’ve “all been playing together for 10 years” enables them some leeway in that respect, he says.

In general The Vinyl Skyway find their arrangement preferable for the crisp melodic pop that they create. “There’s something about being in two separate cities - when you get together, you know you have to work,” remarks Pevitts. He agrees with Hayes, acknowledging that the band’s playing might not be as streamlined as it should be, but contends that it is precisely because they’re “not in a rehearsal space five times a week, practicing regimentally, that [their] songs don’t get stale” - a would-be artistic death for a band whose upbeat indie-pop has been the catalyst to a success marked by critical attention, radio airplay, and even a contingent of fans in Japan.

While these successes are more than flattering for the band, they haven’t yet resulted in a record deal. “I’m a little bummed that we can’t do this full time because we have more new songs and we definitely can’t afford to record them,” says Hayes.

This disappointment is a perfect segue to The Vinyl Skyway’s unique insight into the current state of the music industry. Having been a part of the music scene before the rise of dot-coms and the popularity of contemporary internet music outlets such as MySpace, The Vinyl Skyway is in a unique position to comment on the increasing difficulty of making a living by playing music.

“Everything seems to take twice as long now,” says Santospago. “It’s gone from three months to six months before you get press and get noticed.”

Hayes believes that this slowdown is due to the prevalent use of MySpace for self-promotion. He thinks that such outlets are essentially good, since it allows many people who never would have sought a career in music to do so, but that it also allows dilettantes to muddle the purity of the industry. “You get people that are hobbyists who are great and you hear music that you normally wouldn’t have heard in the past, but you also get a lot of hobbyists who are just clutter,” he says. “That’s a nice way of saying, ‘Oh now we have to work that much harder to get our music heard because there’s so much clutter.’”

Record labels, too, have changed. While erstwhile performers would be “artistically nurtured and brought along,” says Hayes, it is much more profit-motivated. Pevitts believes that many artists are signed as tax write-offs and marketing cycles.

According to Pevitts, there’s not only been a change on the part of the industry during his time as a musician, but also on the part of the audience. Internet media-sharing sites such as MySpace and YouTube, as well as the music video revolution, are reasons for this change, according to both him and Hayes. “People are so used to being on sensory overload and getting so much thrown at them all the time that you can’t just make a record anymore,” Pevitts says. “You’ve got to keep them interested to keep them occupied and you’ve got to evolve.”

In line with Pevitts’ observation, The Vinyl Skyway has attempted such evolution by filming a music video for the song “Deadly,” off From Telegraph Hill. “We put it up on our MySpace page and we got a lot of great comments, but there’s definitely a better vehicle,” says Hayes. “We just don’t have it.”

The Vinyl Skyway will be searching for that vehicle in the coming months as they hope to tour the East and Midwest. “And then hopefully someone will come along and say, ‘Here’s a bucket of money so you can do your next album,’” says Hayes.

Pevitts, however, seems unconcerned with securing the funds for a third Vinyl Skyway release. “In the end, for me, Telegraph Hill is the thing that I’m most proud of that I’ve ever done musically,” he says. “It was everything that I wanted it to be and it surpassed all my expectations. Making it with these guys has been an amazing experience.”
While at times the band may seem preoccupied with the difficulty of attaining success in the current climate of the industry, considering Pevitts’ attachment to The Vinyl Skyway’s music, one gets the idea that they focus on the prospect of being signed not for the money and not for the pride, but rather to support the product of their collective creative spirit that is already hampered down by a long distance relationship.

www.vinylskyway.com