Courtesy of GusterGet to know Joe: Guster’s newest member
Name: Joe Pisapia
Home State: Tennessee
College: Elizabethtown in Pennsylvania
Favorite Bands in College: R.E.M., The Smiths, The Replacements, The Cure
Craziest On-Tour College Moment: Joe and the rest of the band attended a party at Duke University, where they watched students take part in a hallowed tradition: streaking around the quad.
Multi-instrumentalist Joe Pisapia joined Guster in 2003, transforming the pop-rock trio into a quartet. The band released “Ganging Up on the Sun” this past June, the first album with Pisapia on board. He took a few minutes away from his tour-schedule life to talk to Student Life about life on the road, the joys of real estate and how (or if) the boys of Guster will be able to show up the antics of previous W.I.L.D headliners Lil’ Jon and Ben Folds.
Student Life: So you’re the new guy in Guster.
Joe Pisapia: Correct.
SL: How is it being the new guy, and how’d you get involved?
JP: It’s good. I met these guys probably about six years ago now. My brother and I have a band called Joe, Marc’s Brother. We were touring with Guster because they heard about us and liked us or whatever so we played with them and then we just became friends. About three years ago, after the release of “Keep It Together,” they were loaded up with so many instruments that they kind of needed a little bit of a helping hand. I was just going to come on and help them do a tour or two. Once you do that, you just start messing with other kind of stuff: “What about if we do this with that song or do this?” And the next thing you know it kind of changes things a little bit and so they kept asking me to stay longer and longer and longer and then we ended up doing this record together [“Ganging Up on the Sun”]. That’s kind of how it evolved.
SL: Are you planning to stick around for a long time or is this a short-term thing for you?
JP: At first we were all thinking it was going to be short term but now we’re kind of like.Guster Mach 2 or whatever. I don’t know about that but.I’m kind of in it now.
SL: What kind of differences are there between your old band, Joe, Marc’s Brother, and Guster, both musically and otherwise?
JP: I would have to say that JMB [Joe, Marc’s Brother] was a lot more..I think we were a little more “out there,” if you know what I mean. It was a little more.what’s the word.we were a lot more eclectic. Guster has a lot more focus than we did. We’d have so many different varieties of music going on in one thing that it was hard to say what kind of band we were.
One of the other differences, ironically enough, was that JMB was a three piece as was Guster before me. I think that’s originally why we hit it off so well. Unless you’re the White Stripes, it doesn’t really get much smaller than three members. It’s kind of a challenge for everybody musically to really hold their own. It also limits your palette as far as what songs you can write and what motifs you can explore by having just three people. It opens it up a little bit with four. That’s a big difference and similarity. A similarity moving into a difference.
SL: What’s the song writing process like for you guys? Is it a collaborative thing?
JP: It’s really on a song-by-song basis. Certain songs are like, one guy will bring in an idea for a verse and have a melody for it or certain songs, we’ll all sit around and jam until we come up with something cool. Certain songs, one guy almost writes the whole thing. But it’s hugely pretty collaborative. Guster is like one of the more socialist enterprises there are – when people don’t agree on something, it doesn’t go through. It’s sort of like everyone has veto power. If one person doesn’t like it, it doesn’t happen.
SL: In your owns words – and I know it’s a big question – what type of music does Guster make?
JP: I was explaining that to someone last night. I would consider us pop in the classic sense of the word pop. Almost like the pop in the classic sense of the word pop, as in popular music. I think that the aim of the band is to create a melodic and lyrical hook that you can take with you, that hits you in a certain way that you can’t get it out of your head.
It’s rock too – if I’m talking to someone who’s older, I’ll tell them it’s a rock band. If I’m talking to somebody younger, I’ll say pop.
SL: W.I.L.D. is notoriously an outdoor drinking festival. How do you guys think your music will compliment that?
JP: Are you saying it’s Bacchanalian weekend? A big madness weekend? Is that what you’re saying?
SL: Basically, yes.
JP: I think it’s going to fit just fine then. I have a good feeling about that. That’s going to be fun for us too, cause everyone will be in good spirits.
SL: You guys are following in the footsteps of Lil’ Jon and the Eastside Boyz, who played fall W.I.L.D. last year; Lil’ Jon requested that all the females in the audience remove their shirts. This past spring, Ben Folds got on top of his piano and made the students into a giant orchestra. What kind of tricks does Guster have up its sleeve?
JP: Well I don’t know, I’m going to have to leave that up to surprise.
SL: Do you guys think you can show up Lil’ Jon and Ben Folds?
JP: You never know. We’ll have to see what kind of antics we have up our sleeve for that one.
SL: You guys have been going on a Campus Conciousness Tour to promote awareness of environmental causes?
JP: We have been doing it for the past year.
SL: How’d you guys get interested in environmental sustainability and why are college students a good venue for that message?
JP: We realized with just being on the road and stuff, at home it’s so much easier to recycle and make wiser choices about energy. When you’re on the road it’s like your bus is kind of like an earth eater. All the fuel you use and all the waste and all the energy it takes to do these shows. We just started thinking, “How can we do this? How can we take certain steps?” Adam from Guster and his wife Lauren actually have started an organization called Reverb, which is basically an environmental initiative to have information on how people can do the same thing in their own lives. Campuses are a great place to start. Let’s face it: the youth are more idealistic than older people. They’re going to spend more years on the planet and they’re going to bring their own families to the planet so they kind of want to preserve. I would think that a lot of people have that inner sense when they’re younger.
It’s been awesome because we’ve met with different campus groups, like the Campus Climate Challenge and have roundtable discussions and share ideas and it’s pretty awesome.
SL: Is it something that the band is going to pursue in any other venues? Any other environmentally friendly things that you guys are doing?
JP: We’re always thinking of stuff we can do. For instance, we use a lot of batteries for our shows, with the wireless packs that we use for our monitors and stuff. We’ re going to try rechargeable batteries and see if they get us through a whole show, just little things like that. Everybody is always thinking of something that we can do to help lessen our impact.
SL: Do you have any favorite college campuses you’ve played on? Any crazy stories from playing on campuses?
JP: One time at Duke University we went to a party and there’s this tradition for students to streak around the quad and they did that and it was pretty hilarious. That was one of the more zany college moments I’ve witnessed.
SL: What are the best and worst parts of being on the road with Guster?
JP: One of the best things is like a couple of days ago, when we had two days off in New Mexico. I found these natural hot springs with some of the guys and we went in and did a little bit of hiking and saw some beautiful views that, unless you were traveling, you wouldn’t see.
The worst part of it is the logistics of being on the road. Like today, I need to do laundry and there’s no way I can get it done.
SL: What would you be doing right now if you weren’t making music?
JP: That’s a tough one. But I think it would be fun to be a real estate agent.
SL: Why real estate.?
JP: I was thinking about it, and you’d say things like “What do you think of this? This is your dream house, right? What do you think?” And then people would be like “Oh my gosh I love it honey, I love it.” There’s excitement, you’re helping people get their dream house – I think that’d be pretty fun. I don’t think it’d be that hard either. It would be a lot of time, but it wouldn’t be that hard. Somebody says I want a three bedroom house, two baths, you look around for it.
SL: If Guster’s band members got into a huge brawl, who would win?
JP: Physically or mentally?
SL: Let’s say physically. Who would be the winner?
JP: I think if Adam Gardner just lost his shit.yeah, Adam would probably take everybody down.
SL: Why is that?
JP: He’s always really mellow and stuff, but if he ever lost his sh*t.well, it would probably be a bad day.
Guster takes the stage at W.I.L.D. this Saturday, Oct. 7 at 7:45 p.m. For a full schedule of W.I.L.D. events, check out www.team31.wustl.edu.
Guster 101: songs to prepare for the show
Not a “Gusterrhoid,” as the hardcore Guster fans affectionally call themselves? The sudden W.I.L.D. switch from rap to rock caught you off guard? Cadenza has you covered. Jump on Ruckus, download these songs, and by Saturday you’ll be a tried-and-true fake Guster fan. And if all else fails, a few drinks never hurt anyone’s ability to loudly sing along.
Song: Rocketship
Album: Goldfly (1996)
This song, the first heard by the author, started her Guster fandom – perhaps it will work for you too. A good place to start as this mellower track is from one of Guster’s earlier albums.
Song: Fa Fa
Album: Lost and Gone Forever (1999)
This song is catchy as hell and, with a basic chorus that consists of the syllable “fa,” it’s an easy one to sing along to-even after whatever W.I.L.D. preparations you take part in.
Song: Homecoming King
Album: Keep it Together (2003)
While celebrations such as W.I.L.D. may be the exact antithesis of high school, this throwback to those days of homecoming kings and queens is an upbeat and catchy one.
Song: I Hope Tomorrow’s Like Today
Album: Keep it Together (2003)
A window into the softer side of Guster, this song may even be familiar to non-Guster fans – it’s featured near the end of “Wedding Crashers.”
Song: Amsterdam
Album: Keep it Together (2003)
The Guster song that hit it big on mainstream radio and pretty good sample of the standard Guster: an upbeat, catchy, pop-rock tune.
Song: Happier
Album: Guster on Ice, Live from Portland, Maine (2004)
This song is a good one live-so grab it from their live album, rather than listening to the original appearance on “Lost and Gone Forever.” Practice rocking out to a live track in the comfort of your dorm room.
Song: One-Man Wrecking Machine
Album: Ganging Up on the Sun (2006)
Last but not least, a track from the latest Guster album to keep you up-to-date with things.