Splitsville

Tony Waddy

In this small, small town that we call Baltimore, why didn't it happen sooner?

My last band, guava stain, played shows with Splitsville a handful of times over four years. We shared a common studio-mate in Andy Bopp and heard each other's progress as our albums were being recorded. On top of that, the boys and I have more mutual friends than we ever realized.

Even though our paths crossed numerous times, it took one fateful Friday night at a humid, harborside bar for things to finally come to a head. I was playing guitar with a blues/country/Motown group when Paul happened to stop by for some Happy Hour cheer. During a break, we asked about each other's respective projects when he mentioned that Splitsville was looking for an energetic black guitar player who was as comfortable with Old97s & Johnny Cash as he was with Prince & Miles Davis. Go figure, I was available.

As with every kid in the mid-seventies, KISS was a comic book with a soundtrack that I couldn't live without. Not being able to decide my favorite member, at seven years old I taught myself guitar and bass, tried to sing and move like Paul Stanley and asked for a drum set for Christmas. All the while, the radio was always on in my house, so listening to Marvin Gaye, James Brown, P-funk, Pink Floyd, Paul Simon, and everything Motown gave me an early love for diversity in music. Prince was one of my biggest influences (and still is) because he has no musical boundaries -- he switches from dance to R&B to rock seamlessly.

I've sat in with blues and country combos, spent four years collaborating and performing in an acoustic duo with Gavin Elder (our electric band was called The Devil's Dozen), four years in guava stain (power pop!), two year playing bass with Bazooka Joe (punk jazz), five years in Soul Pit (funk/metal), and even a short stint with some old fusion jazz players. Also, in the last four years, I've done about 200 solo gigs playing styles ranging from one end of the spectrum to the other and back. Splitsville would inevitably be my next step.

Things have been really exciting since I joined. I can happily say that this is the most comfortably diverse mix of styles that I could ever wish to work with.

Even though we've been working diligently on songs, I've managed to offer whatever I can by way of fourth-part harmonies, falsettos, guitar solos, etc. And considering the phenomenal (ed. note: we didn't force him to write that) songwriting abilities of Matt, Brandt and Paul, the next album is sure to make everyone a little angry that I didn't hook up with these guys at birth.