Home  |  Out & About  |  Dining  |  Events  |  Singles  |  Classifieds  |  Archive  |  Advertising

EMPTY POCKETS:

Full of Originality and Musical Richness

By Scott Baker

  For the past three years, Empty Pockets have been making some serious jingle.
Part singer/songwriter and '70s rock tossed with a dash of the '80s and a hint of the alternative '90s, the band has mixed up an original flare for familiar covers and seriously unique originals.
Throwing away the rulebook, the rock band has recently added a percussionist to their repertoire, expanding their sound to a classic quintet.

Having being booked as regular Tuesday night guests at Castaway's in Kawkawlin, Empty Pockets is ready to expand their playing field, having just released their sophomore CD, a live album titled simply LIVE.

"We played Castaway's for 23 Tuesdays in a row,"  boasted guitarist/vocalist Scott McMath, during a phone interview last week. "We established a pretty good following and just kind of wanted to capture that energy. Just that feeling. It's our second CD and it was a blast to record. We had our release party at the end of October of this past year."

Along with lead guitarist Rick Manges, drummer Jim McClendon, and his twin brother, bassist/vocalist Mike McMath, the quartet has spent time in a few regions throughout the state.
"We played the Northern Lanes in Midland once a month and we played 101 Bistro, Midland Holiday Inn (Winston's Pub), and White's Bar,"  said Scott.  "We played down in Detroit a few times, but nothing much further than that. We played up in Traverse City a couple of times and the Gladwin area."

The twin brothers own their own company, painting murals around the state, while Manges is a real estate appraiser and McClendon works out at Dow Corning.
"We played Castaway's  last night and I'm a regular working stiff, so I'm up working by 7:30-8 o'clock," laughed Scott.

Just after the release of the recent LIVE album, the quartet added percussionist Earl 'The Squirrel' Tiffin as a full time member. Tiffin, an area percussionist for five years and Instrumentalist of the Year winner in past Review Awards hails from projects such as The Plastic Haiku Band and Dave Kellan (acoustic and electric) as well as the bands Muddy Gumbo and The Bryan Rombalski Band.

"He's a great guy,"  stated Scott. "He started playing with us a couple of months (ago). I think last week or maybe two weeks ago we actually found out what his last name was. It was always Earl 'The Squirrel'."  He added laughing, "I told him, 'Dude,  you're a part of this now. You're screwed."
With the acoustic and electric sides of Empty Pockets, Tiffin is able to open up another groove blending the sound between the two extremes.

"Our drummer has kind of simplified a little bit and it's kind of a blast for Earl, because he gets to do whatever he wants," said Scott.  "Whatever he feels like and whatever feels good to him, he just goes nuts. Certain times we'll slip into an 'Earl' solo type of thing. We keep doing what we're doing and he just adds another flavor to it."

With the 38 year old brothers having played together since their freshman year, Empty Pockets released their debut, Last Call, a year ago last August and are writing towards their second studio effort.

"Mike and I, we've been playing together since 9th grade,"  said Scott. "We played our first wedding. But the whole band, we've been together for almost three years."

"We've got a handful of originals we're working on, but we're quite a bit away from doing our second studio CD. The live thing was a blast. You can really get a sense of whom you are when you listen to yourself live."

Having Manges add the rock to the mix has only brightened the group's horizons over the past year and a half according to Scott.

"The first couple years we played together were strictly acoustic with the drums. Everything from Zeppelin to whatever acoustic. And with our lead guitar player, it's just too much fun to listen to him play electric guitar, so we  brought  that into the mix and it had kind of a cool sound so we stuck with it.

"It's kind of a Led Zeppelin meets the Barenaked Ladies meets Elvis Costello. We're constantly writing stuff and so we want to constantly incorporate our original stuff in with the covers."
Empty Pockets have been able to pull out a batch of originals each night, mixing it up with cover songs much to the delight of the crowd.

"I just don't  think you can pull off playing three-and-a-half full hours of originals and get a lot of people out to the shows," stated Scott. "Especially if you want to play the Northern's or a lot of the bigger places. We try to do three or four a set. You get a good feeling when you flip an original between two covers and they don't stop dancing or don't stop tapping their feet or whatever.

That's kind of what we shoot for. (And) We never do the same set list. We just kind of play off the crowd and look at each other and go, 'Hey, let's play this one.' We constantly try to learn new songs or write new songs."

The plan for this year is to eclipse the lucky breaks and consistent gigs they've pulled off over the past year.

"As far as gigs, we're just trying to play 6-8 times a month and then hopefully get something back in the summer,  where like this past summer, we played on the Mitch Albom Show and opened up for Alice Cooper. It would be kind of fun to keep doing stuff like that too."

"We got the Squirrel with us and we're just hoping to gain more fans and keep gaining momentum with the originals."

Check out the band on the web  for more info, show dates, and LIVE album purchasing info at: http://www.emptypockets.info

The group will also be featured at this year's 19th Review Music Awards Celebration.

home  |  out/about  |  events  |   personal  |  store  |  classified  |  real estate  |   forums  |  archives  |  contact
© 2009 Review Magazine.  All rights reserved.