Interview with Jim and Metal Bob

By Leah Weinberg. Source.


“Since day one, PULLEY has been a seasonal band,” admits guitarist Jim Blowers. In fact, PULLEY formed in 1994 as a means for frontman Scott Randinsky to maintain his punk rock creative outlet during the off season; the off season being the four months out of the year that he wasn’t playing professional baseball. “There’s only one time,” continues Blowers, “when Scott retired from baseball as a player before he got into coaching, we were able to tour. That was like a two-year deal. And for two years we were able to take tours; we were able to tour during the summer time. And it was great because we were getting some great tours. But once it drops off, and people stop seeing your face—you’ve got your core audience, you’ve got your core fans and we know who they are—but the new people that you want to pull in, they lose interest and they forget about you. That’s just the way it is unfortunately.”

Today Randinsky is in his second season as a bullpen coach for the Cleveland Indians (having been a relief pitcher for various teams from 1990 – 2001, and a coach within the Indians’ organization since 2004). As a result, PULLEY—comprising Randinsky, Blowers, guitarist Mike Harder, bassist Tyler Rebbe and drummer Metal Bob—thrives on the occasional show and the sporadic EP. The last time PULLEY released a proper full-length was 2004’s Matters, just before Randinsky went back to baseball as a coach. Since then, the California quintet dropped an EP in 2009 titled Time-Insensitive Material, but other than that, the guys have been generally quiet….until this summer. In late June, PULLEY put out a new EP, The Long and the Short of It, on When’s Lunch Records. The band recorded the three-song EP in December 2010/January 2011 with producer Matt Hyde, the timing driven by both Randinsky’s schedule and the fact that the band already had the material on hand. “It had been a while since our last release, and we wanted to put something out there for the fans so that they had something to munch on while we are working on the record this winter,” adds Metal Bob.

Yes, he did say “record” (i.e., full-length) and yes, he did say “this winter.” Though plans are not definite, the guys are aiming to write and record a new album this winter once Randinsky finishes the current baseball season. They have been working on songs individually but plan to start putting them together as a group and getting them album-ready, the tentative goal being to have an album in the can by the end of February 2012. It is too soon to tell in what direction PULLEY’s new music will go, since it has been seven years since the band last put out a complete collection of songs, but if The Long and the Short of It is any indication, fans will not be disappointed.

When the new full-length does come out, fans should not get their hopes up for PULLEY to do a proper tour. As a result of PULLEY’s “seasonal” status, all of the guys have regular day jobs that prevent them from taking off months at a time to go tour. Tours over a long weekend are more likely. Not to mention the fact that going out for just a month or two at a time is not going to earn the band enough money to pay the bills. With the music industry in its current state, the only way to survive as a band is to be on the road ALL the time. And the members of PULLEY seem totally content with being a part-time band. Blowers acknowledges that had PULLEY never stopped touring full time back in the early 2000’s they could likely survive as a full time band, but at the same time, the guys would never be home. As Blowers points out, it is all about compromise.

So while PULLEY may never be active twelve months a year, the few months they are writing and playing music are meaningful to both the fans and the members themselves. “We do this for fun,” says Metal Bob. “We do this because we love to play music and we love to play for the fans. We hope the fans like what we do. Everything is from our hearts what we put in our music.”