Essential 8: Cousin Arby

Courtesy of the Artist

Hailing from Vancouver, Cousin Arby, the self-described "hottest faux-family country band," recently released their new project, You And Me And Rodrigo. Here, Scott Postulo AKA Redge Arby answers his Essential 8 where he talks about the album, weighs in on drinking at gigs, writing an opera, and much more.

Is there a story behind your album’s title?
My partner and I had just recently seen the Shakespeare play Othello, and for a while after that we started calling our dog "Iago" for fun.  Anyways, we were driving around one night and were talking about how it seemed like almost everybody that we knew was kind of fucked up or shady at that time, and we were the only sane ones around.  Then we corrected ourselves and joked that our dog is pretty cool too.  The idea kicked around in my head for a while, so I wrote the title song about that, except that "Iago" didn’t have the right syllables, so I chose another character name from Othello, and it became “You And Me And Rodrigo”.  I felt that it worked as a title for the EP as well, for no particular reason.

Where do you draw inspiration from when writing?
I used write a lot more from personal experience when my life was more of a mess than it is now, so these days I tend to make up characters or situations and try to develop that.  From song to song, I might try to emulate a certain songwriter to some degree as well.  Tom T. Hall, Paul Simon and Lee Hazelwood are a few examples where I’ve tried to tap into their style in the past.  Sometimes I smoke weed too.

What’s your favorite/”go-to” food on the road?
Chicken Bacon Swiss combo from Arby’s with curly fries and a Dr Pepper.  In Canada, Dr Pepper is owned by PepsiCo, and Arby’s just recently switched from Pepsi to Coca-Cola, so I’ve had to switch over to a Cherry Coke instead now.  Sometimes life isn’t fair, but all we can really try to do is move forward.

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What do you love most about being on the road?
I like driving through all the little towns that you normally wouldn’t really see.  They’re a good source of inspiration as well (for me anyway, not being from a small town), if you just kind of fantasize about what it might be like living in each town, or what weird stories they might have.  I’m usually not the one driving, so I often have the luxury of being able to do this.

Is drinking at gigs a positive or a negative?
For our band, I like to think it is a positive.  I talk a lot more onstage after a few drinks, and sometimes it can be kind of funny.  Sometimes it's pretty embarrassing too, but it makes the show more interesting for me.  We’ve had some members in the band before who don’t drink though, so it isn’t like a mandatory thing that we have to be liquored up to play.

Favorite (or first) concert you have ever attended?
I’ve seen a couple good shows over the years, but I think that when I saw Bruce Springsteen in 2012, that was probably the most memorable show that I’ve been to.  It was his first E-Street band tour since Clarence Clemons had passed, so that was a bit of a bummer, but he had Little Steven and Nils Lofgren both in the band.  I’m a big Little Steven fan, so it was real cool to see him there.  Other than that, just the way that Bruce interacts with the crowd and takes song suggestions from fan-made posters made for a real neat performance, and I don’t think I’ve seen anything as good as that show since.

Is there a recent release you cannot stop listening to?
This is kind of a guilty pleasure, but I really liked Kacey Musgraves’ latest album Golden Hour.  Pretty fluffy pop stuff with a lot of corny lyrics, but the songs just feel really honest and they’re all super catchy. Other than that, I liked Sarah Shook's album Years and I'm pretty excited for Colter Wall's new one.  Usually I listen to more than just country, but I can't really think of any other new releases that I've paid attention to.

Is there a professional “bucket list” item you would love to check off?
I’ve recently decided that I would like to write an opera some day.  I have no idea what it would be about.  I’m also not that great with music theory, so I’d have to work on that.  I imagine it will be a long time coming.  Maybe writing a play would be a little more feasible though.  I’ll write something anyway.

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