Middle Distance Runner : Q&A

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/middledistancerunnerintervi.jpg" alt=" " />On the tail end of Middle Distance Runner’s recent tour, all five band members sat down with QRO for a heart-to-heart at the Middle East...

Beneath a blaring speaker of hip-hop favorites and ill-advised jazz remakes, MDR discussed the disowned juvenilia of their past, the guilty pleasures of their present, and the hot rod dreams of their future.  

QRO: So, what was your genre starting out?

Allan Chappelear:  It was a really depressing take on Radiohead, Sigur Ros- really ambient and way too slow and dark.

Ian Glinka:  I thought it was great.  I had been hearing this stuff for years.  I thought a lot of the old stuff that they disowned was fucking brilliant.

Allan:  And there’s more you haven’t heard that we won’t play for you.

Erik Dean:  Because of that…

Allen:  Because we don’t want to hear about it anymore.

Ian:  I try to be positive, you know – this is the kind of shit I have to put up with.

QRO:  You could bring [the brilliantly depressing Sigur Ros covers] back for encores…

Allen:  We’ll just make Ian a mixtape.

QRO:  So do you guys feel like you have a genre right now?

Steve Kilroy:  Pop.  On guilty music pleasures.

QRO:  What’s your idiosyncratic “worship” band?

Ian:  I’m not answering because you all know the answer.

Allen:  But we don’t hate Oasis.

Ian:  Well, there you go.

Allen:  We hate Genesis.

Ian:  Actually, yeah.  Genesis would kind of be my guilty pleasure.  They’re great…

Erik: For moms and aunts alike.

Ian:  There’s a lot of young people at their shows.  Though not as many as old people…

Erik:  Yes, they were the children of the old people.

Allen:  Were they weird prog-rock nerds?

Ian:  Yeah, that’s the thing about Genesis…they have their [hit] songs and then the early stuff is really technical, progressive.  They go on these fourteen-minute long solos; rarely do I leave a concert to go on a smokebreak, but… just play "Invisible Touch" – please – that’s why we’re all here.

QRO:  Anyone else?

Erik:  Graham Coxon from Blur.  He had a couple solo albums that were a big songwriting influence for me.

Allen:  Van Halen.

Ian:  Van Halen sucks.

Allen:  Ian hates Van Halen with a deep passion.  Someday he’s going to grow up.

QRO:  From his deathbed, “Play me Van Halen!”

Allen:  We’ll play "Jump" and he’ll wake up…

Steve:  Bob Dylan.

QRO:  Not such a guilty pleasure, but…

Erik:  Were we doing guilty pleasures?

Jay Smith:  So then [Erik’s guilty pleasure] is world music.  Peter Gabriel solo shit.

Ian:  If there’s a bongo, a saxophone, a mutanga; anything with a beat like this [taps out crappy world music beat on the table]…

Jay: 

I don’t have any guilty pleasures because all the music I listen to is really cool.

  The thing that might appall them right now is my 80’s new wave pop.  But in a couple of years that will be really cool.

Allen:  I like that “No Diggity” is playing in the background.  That’s all our guilty pleasure.

QRO:  Do you guys have any plans, any stuff on tap for a new album?

Allen:  Yeah, we have a big catalogue of demos and stuff. We’ve kind of just started kicking around ideas about what we want to do next.  So its up in the air, depending on what happens after this tour.

QRO:  So when does this tour finish up?

Allen:  We’ll be done on December 15th. [Listening to speaker above head] Is this a jazz version of "Since I’ve Been Loving You"?

Note: MDR takes a shot at the art of interviewing themselves

Jay:  What do you guys like about sharks?

Ian:  They live in the water.  I think it's really cool.  Breathing underwater is really cool. I can’t do that because I’m a human being. I really respect [breathing underwater].

Erik:  I like shark’s eyes.

Allen:  I like shark-tooth necklaces.

Steve:  They’re okay.

Jay: 

What I like about sharks is that they have electric sensors in their nose that can sense the pain in other animals.

  What do you guys like about hot rods?

Ian:  Their hot wheels.

Erik:  Smoke.

Allen:  Peeling out.  Red.  Playing-card paintjobs.

Steve:  I like the people who drive them.  They’re really nice.

Jay:  What’s cooler?  Lava or B-2 bombers?

Ian:  Lava.

Erik:  Lava can burn up a B-2 bomber.

Steve:  How’s lava going to catch a B-2 bomber?

Allen:  It’ll explode from the earth.

Steve:  A B-2 bomber can blow up a volcano.  You can control where it goes, it’s made by human beings…

Ian:  Volcanoes are so awesome that YOU CAN”T CONTROL THEM!

Erik:  We’re undecided.

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