Here’s the next installment of My First Time, the interview series that gives a little peek into the musical firsts of some bands I’ve been crushing on as of late. Next up is the Rosebuds; interviewed for MFT is Ivan Howard.

MP3: The Rosebuds - Get Up Get Out

My First Time …with the Rosebuds

First record you bought
Cassette= Neil Young - Freedom was the first record I bought with my own money earned from working in tobacco. I got it from Roses’ department store. There was one song that I really loved called “El Dorado.”

First record that changed your life
The Ventures - Golden Greats. My mom always listened to the Ventures when we rode around in the car. I loved the song “The Lonely Bull.” I listened to this record repeatedly in middle school and bought any Ventures album I could find. Still think they are one of the best bands of all time.

First concert you attended
But there used to be a Hell’s Angels leader who lived on my dirt road when I was growing up and he would throw about three parties a year and bands like Molly Hatchet and Nantucket would play. So I could hear the music from my bedroom window when I was kid and see the lights though the pine trees. The Hell’s Angles used to drag race down my road starting just past my driveway and then down to a big curve. They used to give me and my sister rides back to our house from the store up the road which was fucking cool.

First concert that blew you away
Sonic Youth at the Ritz in Raleigh NC. For the Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star record. It was amazing! When Kim Gordon started the show with my favorite song at that time, Bull and Heather, it was just perfect.

First time playing live
A really sh*tty party in my hometown and it is really nothing to talk about. Except that my friend Trent played a song called Raccoon Man that was pretty funny.

First tour
The Rosebuds booked a tour up to Boston for the Somerville Arts Festival in Davis Square in Boston, MA. It was right before our first record came out on Merge Records and we did not have a booking agent or anything so I just booked us a few shows at free open mic night places basically to get us up there in the middle of the summer in a van with no AC. The festival show was really fun though and we did meet a few friends that still come to our shows today when we come to those towns. But we never fixed that AC in the van.

First instrument you learned and/or first piece of equipment you loved
I learned the acoustic guitar, a Goya that I “borrowed” from my mom. Then my friend Robbie put his hand through it at a party we had in Kinston, NC when I played Basketball. That killed it so I bought a Danelectro Guitar that I still play at shows today.

First band you were a part of
A band called “The Sons of Bobby D.” named after my Grandfather with a few of my friends from my hometown. Man we should get back together! We had one song that was actually really good. I still listen to it on tape cassette every now and again. Then I played in a band called Reverse in Wilmington NC.

First time getting press and/or being interviewed
Magnet Magazine just before our first record came out. We drove all the way to Philly from NC to do the interview. Our van broke down so we had to stay in a hotel for three days while the guys at Pep Boys assed around. We ended up shooting the photo in a bathroom of a hotel where they rented rooms by the hour because we thought we had to follow the photographer’s interpretation of “The Rosebuds Make Out.” But the article turned out pretty good and it was a pretty picture for where it was taken.

First song you wrote and/or recorded
It was a song called “Complex Conversation” for my old band Reverse. It had a really cool delay guitar part, but that was before Interpol so everyone just thought we sounded 80’s and not enough like Built To Spill so no one cared in our town.

First awesome thing that happened solely because you were in a band
We played a movie premiere in Moscow Russia with Ian Brown from the Stone Roses, Brett Anderson of Suede, Andy Rourke of the Smiths and Bez from the Happy Mondays. It was really fun, freezing cold, and we had a Russian supermodel showing us around and acting as our translator. We think she had a big crush on our guitar player Justin (Bon Iver).

First reactions from your family when you played them your music
Aw man that is pretty. Which means, “I like you voice okay but the music sucks.”

First musical obsession (band, song, singer, genre or otherwise)
Pet Shop Boys. I used to dress like the cover of the Pet Shop Boys album Discography while attending high school. No one knew who the hell the Pet Shop Boys were, but I did not know anyone would care anyway.