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entertaining u newspaper: your weekly guide to entertainment
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by jon bosworth
jaxvillain@yahoo.com
WHO: Solid Pony with The Tubers
WHEN: Friday, November 17th
WHERE: Moon Colony Razorblade
Everyone has that one friend that is just so nice, has great Zen, is truly laid back, and you just want to be like them. How can they be so together and easy-going? In 2002 every band wanted to be like 12 Hour Turn. Jacksonville didn’t have many hardcore bands back then, much less any screamo bands. That was going on in happening towns, but not in Jacksonville.
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Jacksonville just had gentle indie rock bands and crappy metal bands. So how much stranger that the only one we had in town was signed to No Idea Records and got to tour all over the US and Europe. There are still bars in Germany with their 12 Hour Turn posters hanging on the wall. Even if you hated screamo, the guys in the band were all nice, they rocked hard without compromise, and they were all vegan! Well not all of them, but most of them.
Unfortunately it didn’t last. Jon Magnifico moved to Portland, Oregon to join the growing legion of Jacksonvillians relocating to that city and Rich Diem, the other half of the songwriting force behind 12 Hour Turn reemerged in a much quieter project called Solid Pony. Well technically, he’s also been playing some hard music with The Tubers, but I was at an art show in Inertia Records in Five Points and saw an album that featured artwork by the same artist that used to do 12 hour Turn album covers. I bought Solid Pony’s Life’s Gonna Eat Us and was surprised at the easy-going indie rock music coming from members of The South and 12 Hour Turn, two of North Florida’s hardest core bands. Solid Pony is currently in the studio preparing to release a new album on Bakery Outlet Records, their own record label. I caught up with Rich in the middle of that process and emailed him some questions.
EU: How did you 12 Hour Turn into Solid Pony?
RD: Once 12 Hour Turn was finished I moved around a bit and landed in St. Augustine, where I started playing along to Lenny’s songs and it evolved into a band with Jeff and Jacob. So Solid Pony was, and still is mostly, Lenny’s songs and we all write our parts around his. I write a few here and there. Jeff, Jacob, and I also play under the name Tubers. I write the songs for this band. The songs would’ve been given to 12 Hour Turn if we were still playing.
EU: Is the rock of Solid Pony more about the spread of ideas or musical inspiration? By that I mean, is it the ideals you hold, regarding the environment and conscientious living, that inspires and adheres Solid Pony to creating and performing music, or is it the music itself that inspires you and the lyrics and ideals are incidental?
RD: I think it’s all connected. Our music is a big part of how we live. We aren’t concerned with a specific message or being extremely outspoken about what we’re doing, but we do think about how we do things in the band and in our personal lives—touring on vegetable oil, printing with recycled/salvaged materials for albums, eating and growing vegetarian food. Those things aren’t reflected all that often in the lyrics though. We like subtlety.
EU: I don’t know how large the hardcore or screamo scene is in Saint Augustine, but has there been a backlash from the fans of The South and 12 Hour Turn?
RD: No. Jeff, Jacob, and I still play in more abrasive bands too. I’m pretty stoked that some kids like us. Solid Pony doesn’t try to blow you away, I am happy it is unassuming or doesn’t have anything to prove. I also think kids these days seem more accepting of all kinds of things. I don’t feel that was the case where I was living when I was younger. EU: What made you decide to take on a project so different from any your prior musical projects?
RD: I wrote songs on the acoustic guitar a lot of the time 12 Hour Turn was playing, it only happened that I felt like doing something with it when we were finished. Hopefully things always keep moving and I will want to do different things.
EU: How influential is Chad Matheny on Solid Pony when you are in the studio?
RD: We are in the studio with him right now recording a second album. He is wonderful. Really fun and easy to work with, critical when we need it, and he makes things sound good. Also he’s a great friend and writes some incredible music.
EU: Do you ever throw out a mean and screamy piece in a live show? A throwback to the heavy balls of The South?
RD: No. We rock you gently. See our other bands, Tubers, In Danger of Dead, Alligator, or Environmental Youth Crunch for that noise.
Learn more about Solid Pony at www.bakeryoutletrecords.com.
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