Big City Rock Meets Big City Funk

By: Jennifer Wagner

Thursday March 30, 2006

Big City Rock's Nate Bott on the Purple One, Prince: "You know, we waited outside in the freezing cold until like three in the morning once for him to open the doors to Paisley Park, we finally got in there and he just sort of walked in the room, looked around, and walked away."
Photos By Patrick Sinco


It's gonna be okay. You'll feel muuuuuch better soon. Big City Rock says so, and if you can stand an agreeably high-pressure hosing off you'll find yourself drenched through the skin with a positive outlook and an advanced humanitarian perspective. Shut up please, rock out please, and be kind to others.

I caught up with frontman and impressively evolved charlatan Nate Bott at a recent gig at the House of Blues. I'd been looking primarily to get access to and tamper with the soundboard to fulfill my destiny of ruining former American Idol contestant Constantine's set (for his own good, people - it's just a matter of time before the poor bastard is found out by his own fans for the hoaky dolt he is, at which point he will be gagged, bound, and sold into German gay porn circles), so I conjured a completely debilitating gas attack to distract security. "Distract" in this context means rendering several beefy characters unconscious with flesh-melting flatulence borne of a slightly over-the-hill meatball hoagie. It was good. The yellow polo-clad army fell; nose ring after nose ring clattered, singed and smoking, to the floor. In the writhing aftermath I attempted to make my stealthy way to the soundboard. I ended up on stage with an opening band, however, and did sort of a curtsy and spin at the same time to make it look like it was all on purpose. It backfired when a kid in the front row holding his nose with one hand and pointing at me with the other shouted, incredulously, "That's the bitch what busted ass!!" So I scurried off stage before a rain of chewable Kaopectate tabs launched in my direction hit pay dirt. Blindly opening doors in the labyrinth that is HOB behind the scenes, I found a kitchen, a guy sneaking a cigarette in the hallway, a bunch of shoes in a box, and Nate Bott on a couch. He was nice enough to hide me for a minute as long as I promised to light a courtesy match.

Jennifer Wagner - Tell me how Big City Rock got started.

Nate Bott - The bassist, (Timothy Reudek), me, and Frank (Staniszewski-keys) grew up together.

JW - Was that in L.A.?

NB - No, that was Madison, Wisconsin. We moved out to LA and around 2000 or so, somewhere around there, and around 2004 we needed a new drummer, our old drummer (Jeff Conrad) joined Phantom Planet and we got this guy and this guy (pointing to a picture of drummer Kaumyar and then Andy Barr, guitar). They'd been playing in a band together in LA, we got Kaumyar first, then Andy, who's also a songwriter, and just a huge creative force in the band. So you've got those two guys, then (us) three guys who sort of grew up together so you have these forces that work together and so far it's been a good set of checks and balances on the road.

JW - What motivated the move to LA?

NB - The dream to make it, we came out to sign with a major label in LA and make rock videos and write rock songs.

Digging a little further back in their history, Bott clarified that 8th grade, Madison, WI begot Stinkfish morphed and migrated into Minneapolis-based ska revival/punk unit Siren Six! Band mates Frank Staniszewski (keyboards) and Timothy Reudek (bass) uprooted in turn to Los Angeles but not before attempting to the get the attention of a certain mystique-shrouded shortie called Prince:

NB - We were part of the third wave ska movement, then we went out to Minneapolis for a couple of years and got very familiar with punk rock and history and the scene that exists...and Prince is right there in Minneapolis, you've got Paisley Park, and he does parties and stuff...

JW - Oh yeah - Prince is right there. Ever hang out?

NB - You know, we waited outside in the freezing cold until like three in the morning once for him to open the doors to Paisley Park, we finally got in there and he just sort of walked in the room, looked around, and walked away.

JW - Too bad you didn't end up shackled to the walls or something...

NB - Exactly, he didn't put me in one of his cages or anything.

JW - Well, it can still happen maybe.

NB - You know, I was hurt, I was hurt but...one day.

JW - Are you recording right now?

NB - No, that was last summer.

JW - How do you feel about it?

NB - Great! It's an amazing-sounding record, we're all like really happy about it...there are a lot of people involved in the process; we want to do it right, we want to put the right foot forward and we also want time to build an audience which is why we're doing a lot of touring. That's important to us, and even after the record comes out we're going to remain semi under the radar and just go to tour and not have a big radio push right away because we believe in our live show more than anything. So we want to get that wave of things happening, then radio can come next.

JW - So you're gonna be doing a lot of stuff tonight off the new record?

NB - Oh yeah; we're gonna play six songs off the record...this is our second show at the Chicago House of Blues actually...this is probably our third shot out, real hardcore, for multiple weeks at a time.

JW - You did a pretty big tour not too long ago with Maroon 5, right? Which, for lack of a better way to phrase it, really helped put you guys on the map.

NB - Yeah, a good part of the time it was a sold-out audience and we just got to feel the energy of a band at a point of success we're going for; we got to experience what it was like for them, and just watch the way they handled themselves. It was good to see them, and now what we're doing is kind of developing our own way...I think it's impossible not to be influenced by anyone. I think that everyone has an effect on you and I think that's a positive thing. From there, there's no way we're ever going to be the same as Maroon 5 or anyone, I mean we're always going to have our own identity and that's important.

JW - Has there ever been a horrible, embarrassing onstage sort of fall down, crap yourself, say the wrong city, blah, blah, blah?

NB - Yeah, you know the most horrible thing was losing my voice, that happened to me once, and that was kind of devastating. It was mid-set and just all of a sudden I started making this barking noise in my throat and it was just...the notes aren't there, it's not happening.

JW - You could have passed it off...

NB - Yeah, you know I think I made sort of a routine out of it (laughter), and still pulled it off so it was fine. And you know, I think it's really early for us as far as complete breakdowns and debauchery and stuff; you've got to slough it out one day at a time. I'm not generally an all or nothing guy, but I am extremely ambitious so I avoid self-destruction - try it and go find other routes.

JW - Right, right. It seems like in rock, that (debaucherous) mentality is a little blasé anymore.

NB - It's true! Right! Yeah, I mean, you gotta figure it out.

JW - Tell me where you'd like to see Big City Rock go?

NB - I want to see Big City Rock survive for years and years, and take it one step at a time. I mean for now I'd like to start by finding the best tour we can get on opening for bands, you know? I want to reach out to other bands and just watch the tours grow. I mean if we can get to a point where we're headlining and selling out a place like the Chicago House of Blues, that would be and extremely satisfying goal to reach, that would be another step forward.

JW - Would you say you're more industry-popularity motivated or financially, number-one-on-the-charts motivated?

NB - (The answer to that is) part of a very personal side to my life and I like it that way...I have a very private and special life that I want to develop and I decided to put my energy into this part of it and trust that the sacred part of my life will continue to grow as well.

JW - That "sacred part" involves sparklers and roller blades, isn't that right?

NB(laughs) - Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, and model car building and I'm really into trains. Trains and origami.

Just then the door burst open and a skinny guy in Chucks and stretch jeans declared it was time for Bott to take the stage. Then he asked about the smell. Bott and I shrugged in unison, and I knew I'd found a trustworthy compatriot. I followed my own lingering odor along the path I'd taken to get to Nate, from the couch to the bunch of shoes in a box to the guy sneaking a cigarette in the hallway to the kitchen. I also found the stage again but passed on doing an encore and slipped out to the floor instead. Big City Rock took the place over and the cool guy I'd just talked to seemed thirty times bigger somehow. They powered out keyboard driven rock to an audience not expecting it, and the change showed. Simple, homemade, provocative signs for headlining asshat Constantine fell forgotten to the floor and gin-drunk soccer moms from Joliet turned sun hungry cheeks upward and dawned puckered, heavy breasts for the boys with the word about giving a shit. Be cool to each other and rock. Why not? I was so moved myself that I stifled my one last satisfying blast of intestine perfume I'd saved for my Pray for the Soul of Betty objective. Mission aborted, I'm all right with the world. Even with asshat.