Cas Edmunds is the Lars Ulrich of Weekend Excursion, i.e. resident drummer, spokesman and all around nice guy. For those who are 18 and up, his band will play Sat., March 30 in Charlottesville at the Outback Lodge. The Cavalier Daily talked to Edmunds about the band and his experiences in the music scene:
Cavalier Daily: I've been listening to your album. I don't know if this is fair of me, but I'm hearing a Bon Jovi influence. Have you ever heard that comment before?
Cas Edmunds: We have heard before some type of 80s influence.
CD: Definitely 80s.
CE: That comes from the fact that we were real young. I'm only 23 now. I mean, the 80s, maybe we were influenced a little more than we thought.
CD: If you guys could work with anybody, whom would you like to work with?
CE: Man, golly. People we idealize. I think a lot of us in the band are hot right now on U2. As far as rock music goes, they're about as good as it gets. I've always respected U2. They're here for good. They're the real deal.
CD: How did you get your fan base?
CE: By playing a lot of shows and keeping our fans happy. Definitely put this in the article - the biggest thing for us for drawing fans is our live show and our energy. We've always put everything into that. And I think people respect that. That's what keeps our fans coming back.
CD: I wanted to talk about how you got eight songs on MTV's "The Real World."
CE: The thing with TV started a couple years ago. One of the guys in the band had mentioned, "Oh, we should get on 'Dawson's Creek.'" A lot of the high school kids are watching that show and even college kids. So we sent them something. Their music director got a hold of it, liked something and decided to put it in. That was our break as far as the TV world goes. I guess we felt confident about it and sent stuff to the music director at MTV, and they found something they liked and those songs went onto the episodes. It was really cool actually, because when you watch TV, music is always the mood-setter. Whether it's scary or happy or sad, the music always evokes these emotions.
CD: What would you say is the big cliched negative comment that you hear from critics?
CE: You know, I would say the whole pop rock "no heart behind it."
CD: Really?
CE: Well, not that. I think the biggest thing is "doing what everybody else is doing" type thing. That's the biggest one that we get. Sometimes I'm like, "Man, that's just not original enough." I want to critique the critics. I'm like, "Give me a little more." If you don't like what we got going on, that's cool, but let's hear some valid stuff. Maybe if they knew the catalogue of the songs we had and the diversity that we do bring as far as our styles from our first CD to our most recent [they would think differently]. Our diversity is so great.
CD: What do you think is the best song on the recent CD?
CE: "Push Me Away." We've been playing it for eight months, but it didn't come together in that form until the studio. It's got much more of a groove to it on the album. It's real rhythmic and repetitive and locks you into a real groove.
CD: In a change of topic, what type of music do you dislike?
CE: Dislike? I'm just not into the Creed type. That's one thing that [makes] our band pretty cool - that all of us come from different backgrounds, even totally different genres. Some of us like rock a lot. Our singer's got much more of a soul, R&B type background. We bring a lot of influences to the table when we create. When it comes to music we don't like, it has to be something we don't think is good. I don't know the word I'm looking for, but we try to appreciate every type of music.
CD: As a finisher, I'm going to throw out some artists and I want you to say whether you love, like, dislike or hate them.
CE: OK.
CD: All right. Ben Folds?
CE: Like. I like him. He's definitely got ties to the area. His voice is unique. It's cool.
CD: OK. How about Kid Rock?
CE: I'm not a huge fan. Our manager really likes him. He's from Detroit, so he just screams that all the time. He likes the fact that he's from Detroit. Man, I'm not all that into it.
CD: How about Miles Davis?
CE: You can't beat classic jazz. And he's the epitome of it.
CD: REO Speedwagon?
CE: We've played with them. They're actually really nice guys. I was definitely not a fan, but they put on a damn good show.
CD: Lastly, has anybody ever told you that you look like Jack Black of Tenacious D?
CE: Man, I just got that in New York a couple weeks ago. These two girls said it and I was like, "That's terrible!" They're like, "No, he's so cute." I was like, "All right. Whatever." So actually you're the second person that has said that.
(Weekend Excursion show details: Doors open at 9 p.m. and the group takes the stage at 10:30 p.m. Sundrive Possum follows, taking the stage at 11:45 p.m. The price is $5. For more information, call 434-979-7211.)
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