Interview: Burn Cruising With LEAFBLOWER
Photo by Jeanne C. Langan
Written by Lindsey V. Britt
Omaha, Nebraska’s Post-Rock band LEAFBLOWER have released their latest album Burn Cruise. We spoke with two of The band members Craig Fort and Danny Maxwel about the new album, and the band’s iconic mascot Tim.
What have the fans said about your new album Burn Cruise?
Craig: it's been pretty good we got the numbers and statistics I’ve been watching them. We’ve gotten to play places I would never have expected, we've had a couple of like radio station podcasts reach out and say they wanted to play some songs from the record like Radio Brooklyn, and we'd really appreciate that. It's been really positive so far.
What is your favorite song off the album?
Craig: My least favorite song was “Burn Cruise,” the title track, and then it turned into my favorite song, or one of my favorite songs. I don't know that I have one that I can nail down. “Ghosts” and “Burn Cruise” are two big ones for me.
How did LEAFBLOWER start?
Danny: We were part of another band. One of the guys got busy and we decided to start their own band.
How did you come up with the name LEAFBLOWER?
Craig: it was a play on words, I thought about getting lyrics from leaf blower manuals and I’m glad I didn't.
What is your favorite era of music?
Danny: I'd say 80s for time period or era, and like post-punk type for me, I had older brothers listening just cool stuff, and I was hearing it, so I'd say that's probably my personal favorite.
Craig: I think for me, t's really hard. I would say the era of the '60s and '70s because there's, I'm just so down the rabbit hole on classic rock bands, but also at the same time, old country artists and outlaw country and everything like that. I think that was a really prime era for music.
Is there a band or artist you’d love to collaborate with?
Craig: Boy, there's a lot of dream collaborations out there, there's so many good people making music. I've said it before, some people that I really respect right now, and have for a really long time because they they've been putting it in for a long time is the guys from the Melvins and Big Business, I think both of those bands. Them combined is a strong force, I've seen them a bunch and they're hardworking bands and they've been that way since the 80s, that would be fun to collaborate with those guys.
Do you prefer seeing gigs in small rooms or in arenas and stadiums?
Craig: We both grew up in the underground DLI scene, and we played our fair share of house shows, bar shows, and dives. Sometimes I think it just kind of depends. I think those bar shows and those real intimate shows are fun, but when you're playing on the volume level that we're playing with, it makes it really hard to be intimate. So, it's sometimes the club atmosphere works better, sound wise, but it's still fun to play in those smaller shows.
Danny: I'd say so too. And, you know, I think the energy goes back and forth between, you know, what's happening on stage and people watching. So, it's a collaborative effort, I think. Nice. Yeah.
So, how’s Tim doing?
Craig: I wish I still had him here; he’s doing just fine.
Danny: He’s always well.
Craig: He’s my man about town, always up to something.
Have any shows coming up?
Craig: We're going to play a show tomorrow at The Sydney with Thyroids, Nestling Doll, and Titus Groaners. Then we have another show coming up with Earth.
Any plans for your next release yet?
Craig: We took a long time to get this album out, but I think that it came out at the right time. And now that we have it out, I think that we're we've got the formula down for recording and the formula down for writing and I think that we're going to start pumping out albums left and right.
Favorite thing to do in Omaha?
Danny: Finding a Ruben sandwich somewhere. Checking out what shows are happening. Finding some good food, we have a lot of cool music stores and record stores to check out.
Craig: There are always some good shows going on. Ground Floor Guitar is definitely a destination place; they always got a lot of cool guitars for sale. We have a great zoo; it’s kind of back and forth who’s number one with the San Diego Zoo. We also have a cool aquarium.
Lastly, do you have a recommendation?
Craig: Listen to Neil Young and really listen to him.
Danny: That’s good, I can’t beat that.
Burn Cruise Is available on your favorite music streaming site.
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