The Blast Interview: Ben Graupner from 100 Monkeys

BLAST: Do you know the release date for the “Live & Kickin’” DVD? The “Live & Kickin’” DVD will feature clips from 100 Monkeys’ last tour of the U.S.

BG: We know it’s going to be released before Christmas. We’ve just finished shooting all of the footage for the DVD, and the director has been compiling it all. He’s actually coming over tonight (Wednesday Sept. 29) to show us some of the footage that he’s been doing. But we don’t have an exact release date yet. When we do, we’ll obviously announce it on the website.

BLAST: So, tell me a little bit about Awesome Sauce.

BG: Yeah, definitely. We’re putting together a project called Awesome Sauce, for which we’re going to be starting up an internet radio station for all sorts of other small indie bands like 100 Monkeys that are breaking through with new fresh music. We’re going to be compiling them all and putting it on a page you can access through the 100 Monkeys page. It’s going to launch Oct. 19. We want it to kind of be the meeting place for all the music of this new genre that’s coming out. So if you want to hear some bands we’d be honored to play with, check it out – awesomesauce.com in October.

BLAST: Please tell me, we’re going to see you guys back on tour soon.

BG: Yes. We’re going to be announcing more tour dates early November, and we’re going to be playing a bunch or shows down in the Baton Rouge area. We have one more show in Los Angeles, and then we’re going to pack up our stuff and move down to the South for a few months. We’re going to keep on working on some projects down there. There will be some small shows and some big shows.

BLAST: Is a soundtrack for the “Girlfriend” movie going to be available? (The 2010 film stars Rathbone and Anderson, features music by the 100 Monkeys, and is produced by Anderson and co-produced by Rathbone. It tells the story of a young man with Down’s Syndrome who romantically pursues a small town single mom mixed up with her volatile ex-boyfriend.)

BG: The soundtrack for the Girlfriend movie has been heavily discussed. Jared’s in the process of finishing all the pieces that go into ending a movie and turning it over to the distributers, and we’re getting to the point of finding out whether they’ll okay us to put a soundtrack together. But we’ve got a lot of great music we’re ready to put on it. Bands like Bigfoot, Spencer Bell, a couple tracks by 100 Monkeys of course – we have all sorts of great stuff for it.

BLAST: Will we see a second part of “Live and Kickin’” (the live album 100 Monkeys released in July 2010)?

BG: We’re planning on releasing a “Live and Kickin’” two and maybe a three and a four. It’s a project we want to continue on for years and years, so we can keep cataloging the tours that we’re doing, and putting down CDs so that if you weren’t able to make it down on that specific tour then you can still grab “Live and Kickin’” and see what it was all about.

BLAST: Do you think that you’ll personally do anything else with acting?

BG: Yeah, of course. In the near future, I hope.

BLAST: What are your aspirations for 100 Monkeys?

BG: We just want to share our music with as many people as possible. One of the biggest rewards for us as a band is when we see people circulating creativity and circulating music, and emailing us artwork. If we’re inspiring something else creative from someone, that’s the highest honor for us.

BLAST: Did you always want to be a musician?

BG: I’ve always been an entertainer; everyone in the band has been an entertainer since birth. I know Ben Johnson did plays and things when he was a kid, began playing in bands when he was first starting out at college. We met in high school.

The same thing goes for Jackson. Lawrence has been playing the percussion since he was literally four years old. His mom was a stage entertainer. She was a singer and a dancer, and he was always in that environment in Chicago. So ever since he could literally walk, he’s been on stage performing and entertaining people. That’s just what we do, whether it’s a rock show or a movie or a book or a poem. Anything we do we’re doing to inspire other people and make them happy.

I got into music when I was like 20, 19. I had to play some guitar for a show I was doing, I very quickly became attached to it and from there I just started playing a bunch of different instruments. I’ve been singing my entire life.

BLAST: What in your career has meant the most to you?

BG: It’s different every day. The Spencer Bell Legacy Projects have been a tremendously rewarding part of what we do. Spencer Bell was a friend and artist that we lost a few years ago to a rare form of cancer, and he was only 19 years-old. Since then we’ve been doing benefit shows to benefit cancer research at the University of Michigan. We also bring together all the bands and artists who worked with him while he was alive, and we throw this awesome rocking concert. It happens about every six months. It’s turning into a mini music festival. We come out and share music with people over the internet, all over the world (the show is webcast live) and benefits a great cause – it’s a really wonderful thing.

BLAST: How would you describe your band mates?

BG: (Laughs) I don’t know how you could put a button kind of phrase description on any member of the group. All the people who work with 100 Monkeys, we’re so blessed to have each other and be who we are. Because we’re a bunch of artists and entertainers and it’s a rough career being out there and it’s not something you would want to do a lone, and we don’t have to. We’re so lucky to have each other.

We all met in different places. Ben Johnson, Jackson and I went to the same high school in Michigan; and then Jackson met Jared after he moved out to Los Angeles; and Jackson and I met Uncle Larry on the set of an independent film we were doing called “Molding Clay.”

BLAST: What was your weirdest encounter with a fan?

BG: (Laughing) Oh, they’re different all the time. We’ve had our faces licked. We’ve received boxes of eggnog that the eggnog containers broke in the mail so it was just this big box of milky soup with packing peanuts. There’s just so much.

BLAST: Do you ever get tired of being on the road?

BG: No (Laughs), actually I’m the opposite. I get tired of not being on the road.

BLAST: Okay, let’s get a little silly. What super power would you pick if you could have one?

BG: Being able to fly. That sounds pretty cool.

BLAST: Anything else for the fans?

BG: Awesome Sauce radio. We’re really excited about it. If anyone has music that they want to submit whether it’s a friend of theirs or a band they like that’s an independent, send an email to [email protected] with it attached and we’ll get back to them. Then there’s the new album coming out and in the future we’ll be releasing some limited available singles with just like 200 copies of them.

We always want to make sure people check out Spencer Bell Memorial and check on Spencer’s music.

100 Monkeys is working on their sophomore album with tracks never played in public and some that we’ve heard since the band began playing. The album’s release date will be announced in November. The “Live & Kickin’” DVD, featuring clips from their last tour, will be released before Christmas. The band will continue releasing live albums from their tours, and Awesome Sauce will launch Octover 19.