BOAT
By Andres Jauregui
Photo by T. Brandt

BOAT’s D. Crane has a secret. Mild-mannered husband and school teacher by day, at night (and on select weekends), guitar in hand, he descends to the cluttered depths of his Seattle basement, accompanied by brave companions, drummer J. Goodman and bassist M. McKenzie. Aided by a spumoni-like hodgepodge of quirky instruments and forgotten bric-a-brac, their collective talents coalesce into BOAT.
“We’re a homemade rock band playing arena rock songs, but doing it in the basement or in the garage,” says Crane from his sister’s home in Seattle. “Initially, it was just a hobby. We used one microphone and just played stuff live. So it was a little lo-fi initially, but it has definitely evolved.”

After returning to Seattle from a difficult year spent teaching seventh grade at an inner-city public school on Chicago’s South Side, Crane self-released the album Life is a Shipwreck and the EP After All before catching the ear of Tullycraft bassist/vocalist Sean Tollefson. BOAT soon signed to Portland’s Magic Marker Records and released Songs You Might Not Like, a collection of new material and re-recorded versions of previously released songs, in 2006.

BOAT’s lo-fi aesthetic has won them comparisons to various Elephant 6 bands. Indeed, BOAT are “big fans” of E6 outfit The Minders, and even shared the stage with them last year. But, while Crane says he admires E6 bands for their music, he feels most connected to them on a philosophical level, admiring their DIY approach to recording.

“They’re in it to make good albums, and they make a lot of them, and it’s real homemade. They don’t hire stuff out ... They do it all themselves,” Crane says approvingly.

BOAT’s upcoming album, Let’s Drag Our Feet!, out early next month, preserves the basement-produced, homespun flair and whimsical pop catchiness of SYMNL while managing to sound cleaner due to a 16-track digital recording upgrade. Many songs on the new album exhibit a feel-good playfulness evocative of British Invasion groups like The Kinks and The Small Faces, while others cleverly break that mold.
Throughout LDOF!, BOAT augments its sound with well-placed noises that draw out the musicality of seemingly mundane objects — the clang of a bell, the humming of a kazoo, and the whirr of a coach’s whistle are just a few.

“I really like using stuff that people might normally make fun of, but not being ashamed because it’s musical,” Crane says. “I think usually the idea is, ‘How much of this stuff can we actually use so that we don’t have to throw it out, or our wives won’t make us go bring it to the Goodwill?’ We try to pile as much of that stuff on as we can.”
BOAT’s air of jocularity is helped in no small part by Crane’s careening vocals, which are generally double-tracked so that they have what he calls “a super-human thickness.” One minute a tenor, the next a falsetto, with comical phrasing throughout, Crane’s voice is loveably rough.

“Sometimes when I really go for it, my voice cracks or makes weird sounds,” says Crane. “I like that it’s not really produced. It’s not trying to sound perfect; it just is what it is.”

But as light-hearted and fun as BOAT may be, it hasn’t been all fun and games for Crane and company. The recent accomplishments of releasing their new album and playing at SXSW have been overshadowed in part by the tragic death of friend and former BOAT bandmate, Philip Mayben, in February 2007.

“He was a really good friend — especially to Josh [J. Goodman] — so it was hard figuring out what to do next,” says Crane. “It was really strange ... I think we all felt a little awkward because [BOAT] has always been this silly band where we’ve been just kind of spur-of-the-moment, putting stuff together and getting really excited about it, and then this super-serious thing happens.”

BOAT continues as a three-piece, occasionally enlisting help from friend Ian Bone while on tour. Despite the hard times, the band’s sense of humor and family-like unity keeps them together.

“Josh is my brother-in-law, so we spend a lot of time together. It’s almost like Oasis with the two brothers battling a little bit,” Crane jokes. “We’re married to sisters and he has a five year old son ... It feels like a family band.”

A patchwork musical troupe brimming with willful nonchalance, BOAT is the kind of band that beckons from the basement: as comfortable as shag carpeting in the rec room, as oddball and endearing as a book full of old family photos.

www.ohnodisaster.com/BOAT