God Street Wednesdays: Tomo Interview

HT: So with 65+ songs chosen, I’m assuming we can expect repeats from night to night?

TO: There will be a couple but all four shows will be quite different. We are mindful of the fact that we’ll be entertaining some repeat customers.

HT: Will you be performing on the same kit you used for Lisa Hannigan shows or will the kit change for these upcoming GSW shows?

TO: This is where I get to wank on a bit about drums? Excellent. All non-drummers can skip right on to the next question!

Ludwig has been kindly supplying me with drums for the last 8 years or so and in that time I’ve used a lot of different sizes and configurations. The kit I used on my last US tour with Lisa was a 1966 Ludwig Club date kit. It’s a small jazz style kit that suited Lisa’s music very well. The cymbals as well were chosen to compliment her style.

For the GSW shows I need more of a rock sound so I’m going with a 20″ kick, 10″ and 12″ racks and 16″ and 18″ floors. My main snare over many years has been a Black Beauty so that will remain the same. It’s an unbelievably versatile drum. Additionally, the cymbals I’m using will be bigger and brighter. My old GSW mainstay ride, a 22″ Flat Top, will be there too.

[Photo by Eric Budke]

HT: What led to you leaving the band originally?

TO: I see, set me up with a couple of gentle questions, lull me into thinking you’re interested in drums and then bang, go for the gold! You’re a curious fellow, Mr. Bernstein. I’ve never discussed this publicly and there is the potential to rub some people the wrong way which I don’t want to do because there is a happy ending to the story after all.

HT: Busted!

TO: Very simply, I had become unhappy in the band. There were many contributing factors including what I saw as the commercial decline of the band as a result of bad record deals and bad advice. Additionally, I was tired. It had been a hard slog a lot of the time. Ten years is a long time for any band or relationship to stay together and what a band has is really a marriage…to four other people at that! Very tough to maintain even when things are going well – sometimes harder actually but that’s another story.

Bottom line is I was no longer having fun playing the music. I held it together for about a year and a half but inside I knew I was done. Music for me has always been about enjoyment. There’s a tremendous pleasure that comes with hitting a drum and making sound but that had stopped. The band, in fairness to them, tried to rally me but I was having none of it. In the end they decided to continue without me. I think they were hoping to call my bluff but I was finished.

HT: We’re you still on good terms with the other guys after you left?

TO: I wouldn’t say we’d been on “good” terms for sometime before it ended. I’d been cordial but in many ways in my mind I’d already moved on. In the very end there were all those awkward silences in the dressing room; barely an attempt to make small talk. I was traveling to gigs separately and leaving as soon as they were done. Jon and I spent a lot of time together but that was it. He and I were pretty much on the same page.

After I left there was no contact with the other guys for a few years if memory serves. It was really odd; I would watch the band’s activities from afar, kind of like keeping tabs on an ex-lover. It was impossible to just turn off all my GSW thoughts, memories and emotions. It was more than a year until I noticed that I wasn’t dwelling on thoughts of the band and what could have been. Luckily a change of countries and some different drumming opportunities began a new chapter in my life and also helped with the healing process I needed after leaving God Street.

It’s tough to put into words exactly what the bond between musicians in a band is like. It’s incredibly insular. You’re running around the world in your own little bubble; your little group against the world. These guys have your back not only onstage but everywhere. When a band goes through difficult times and breaks up you’re really left alone in a lot of ways and it can take a long time until you want to be around those people again to start to repair the wounds even though you’ve been through so much together. Really, it was a tough finish to what had been some pretty amazing times but as I said, there really is a happy ending now and I think the five of us are pretty okay with each other these days.

HT: Let’s move on to a less controversial topic. What are two or three of your favorite GSW songs?

TO: Epilog has almost always been number one. The lovely gentle shuffle, the reggae lilt, the words. I think it’s Lo’s most perfect song.

Strange As It Seems is up there as well. A much lesser know and early era GSW tune, it also incorporates a reggae feel and has a really sweet sentiment. What can I say? I’m a sucker for a good love song.

She Comes Up Softly is another. While I love playing the big rock tunes I’ve always dug the slow tunes from a listening perspective.

HT: Are there any GSW songs you just don’t like playing?

TO: Sure there are, most of the music in the world I wouldn’t like to play but I’m a pretty big music snob. Suffice to say that I’ll be enjoying the tunes we play at these shows. If I’m not smiling give me a kick.

HT: I’m holding you to that. Since the group broke up, have you ever found yourself listening to old GSW shows or albums?

TO: It wasn’t until we decided to regroup for those shows back in 2001 that I would have gone back and listened properly to any GSW. Before that it was only if someone asked to hear something from that band I used to play in and it was weird. To this day I’d rather play the tunes than listen to us playing them.

[Tomo Circa 1988]

HT: One more question about the upcoming four shows – any chance we’ll hear any new GSW originals or new covers?

TO: Nope, just the hits baby! Trying to re-learn 75-some tunes is enough work for these old dogs.

HT: Fair enough. What gigs from GSW’s history stand out as your favorites? Let’s ignore the New Year’s, finales and shows like that and just give us two or three random shows where it all came together for you guys.

TO: Our very first gig at the House of Love in Byram, CT was probably not our finest playing but it was a great party and we played late and without abandon. There weren’t too many rules at that point and we really didn’t know too much about gigging out yet. Great fun in our infancy.

There are pockets of gigs I recall being great fun; our trips upstate New York to The Rum Runner, The Muse on Nantucket and Burlington, VT were always special.

HT: When I asked about Jam Cruise a few months before the lineup was announced, you made it seem as if the members of the band weren’t exactly “sea worthy.” What made you change your minds about participating in that event?

TO: The money. Seriously? The money.

HT: Are there any other GSW shows on the horizon after these July shows besides Jam Cruise?

TO: Nope, nothing. Though depending on how these shows go in New York I’d be inclined to look at a yearly get together of some sort.

[GSW Circa 1994 – Courtesy of Michael Weiss]

HT: Have you played an GSW songs for your children? Do they have any favorite songs?

TO: I haven’t intentionally. They’ve wandered out to the barn in the midst of my drumming sessions for these shows so they’ve been exposed to a little. However, I do get requests from my kids to put on Wilco, the Grateful Dead or Bob Dylan so I’m not too worried.

Thanks to Tom for taking the time to chat with us. God Street Wine’s reunion shows take place at the Gramercy Theatre on Friday and Saturday and at Irving Plaza on July 16 and 17. Proceeds go towards the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Tickets for all four shows are currently available through livenation.com.