Ezra Furman and the Harpoons

By: Jess Baggia

Photo By: Kate Iverson

It’s funny, I don’t feel that different,” Ezra Furman comments, leaning back in his chair.

It was one year ago when Tufts University student Ezra Furman first decided to highjack the nearest band. Tufts musicians Jahn Sood, Job Mukkada and Adam Abrutyn were part of a sprawling, disorganized sort of collective when Furman approached them to fill out the instrumental backbone of his songs. Much to their surprise, what began in bedroom practice sessions morphed into what could optimistically be seen as a legitimate career opportunity. The four emerged as Ezra Furman and the Harpoons. Today, these college seniors are among the roster of established Minty Fresh recording artists like The Cardigans and Liz Phair, a major coup for any small, local band, let alone a college project. How did this happen, and why do Ezra Furman and the Harpoons remain decidedly unfazed?

The serendipitous relationship between the band and Minty Fresh began during a rudimentary tour put together last year by the band’s manager, Mitch Marlow. “Seventeen shows in 28 days,” Sood recalls — quite the undertaking for a group of guys who had previously played only five shows as a band for their college peers.

“The important show of that tour was in my home town, Evanston [Illinois],” Furman explains. That was where Marlow parlayed his numerous connections into an accepted invite by none other than Minty Fresh’s VP of A&R, Anthony Musiala. “We were really nervous that he didn’t like the show though,” Furman says.

“I think I saw his foot tap maybe once,” adds Sood.

Apparently that single tap translated into music entertainment gold, as the very next day the band got the call all bands dream about. “We felt like outlaws with a self-indulgent rock ‘n’ roll dream, until suddenly we realized it could be our lives,” Sood says. According to the band, even though their label expects them to tour regularly for promotional purposes, Minty Fresh respects their wishes to remain enrolled in school and only books show dates on weekends and vacations. As a result, bigger venues and national tour opportunities must be turned down due to lack of time.

“This is our job,” says Furman. “It’s ridiculous. But it has sunk in. I think that’s how rock works: Kids get together in a garage to make music and then they realize, ‘we could actually do this!’”

Perhaps this is simply a case of musicians who only really care about the music. Furman has already turned down several national tours with big acts (an opening slot on Regina Spektor’s tour, for starters) that Minty Fresh had in the works for him, citing college obligations. Luckily for the band, the execs of Minty Fresh don’t mind having weekend warriors on their hands and and giving them room to decide what happens next for themselves. “The label is great,” says lead guitarist Sood. “They aren’t a big, scary corporate company that tries to push us around, and they actually come to our shows.”

“We try not to discuss the ‘big’ question, as in, what happens after graduation,” says bassist Mukkada.

“There’s all this mythical stuff around us,” Sood says, “when the reality is that we’re four guys in a rock band.” Maybe so, but the poetry of their past whirlwind year is unmistakable.

“It is poetic,” agrees Furman, “but I don’t want to make it into some business discussion. I feel like everyone wants to pin us down and say, ‘You are a major band!’”

Ezra Furman and the Harpoons are what they are, apparently, although they haven’t quite figured out what that actually means. In any case, their organic incarnation built around soulful songwriting is refreshing at least. Let this be a lesson to all those kids with rock-star ambitions to not get too ahead of themselves and just stay in school; perhaps great talent doesn’t have a limited window of opportunity. In this case, only time will tell.

www.myspace.com/ezrafurman