Interview with Tom Haslow

A short interview with Tom Haslow, of the Action Painters.

Me: So- if you don’t mind my asking, what’s your background?

Tom: Well i went to NYU film school. I learned guitar in high school to get girls because I wasn’t having any luck through my charisma and I was a bad dresser. My brother and i each chipped in $25 to get a cheap used acoustic guitar. He never played it, so I did.

Me: Cool man. So, when did you decide that you were good enough to get up on stage and perform?

Tom: Well, I had a really bad band in high school. I don’t think we ever asked ourselves the question “are we good enough?”. But in NYC, where there is so much talent, you start to ask yourself that question. So when we started this band two years ago, we rehearsed for like four months before we played a show. We sounded absolutely awful till about a week before the show, [and] then something clicked

Me: What do you think made it click?

Tom: Probably the fact that we had a common vision for what we wanted to do, and finally we figured out how to make what was in our heads come out of our instruments. Plus, Allison had never played in a band before and was mainly a piano player. So, she had to learn how to play synth as opposed to piano. Once she wrapped her head around it, the magic started.

Me: So, who are your inspirations in music? Or in life for that matter?

Tom: My hero is David Byrne. I like the way he’s done great music that is artistic yet has great pop melodies.

You can think about it or dance to it. Plus, he’s directed a film, done some amazing photo/illustration books, art installations. He’s a real artist.

Me: Ah, a renaissance man in the postmodern world, eh?

Tom: Exactly. Yet each medium he works in has his unique sensibilities: a David Byrne song is the same as a David Byrne photo. Plus, he has great hair these days. me: ah, a renaissance man in the postmodern world, eh?

We don’t sound like T Heads really, but they influenced my musical sensiblities a lot. Also early U2 and Television.

Me: All good music.

Tom: Yep. Bono is a giant cheeseball but I love him. My brother bought Joshua Tree in the 80’s and I woud listen to it on headphones, memorizing everything. [This was] before I knew how to play.

Me: Cool man. Do you feel like your background in film school has made making music any easier for you? If so, how has it?

Tom: In some ways. I think there’s an overlap in, say, writing and directing a short film, and the process of songwriting. Structure, completing a task, having faith in your vision. Also, film school teaches you how to be resourceful, how to make something cool with no money. Also, in the studio I find Pro Tools to be a lot like editing a film.

Me: Do you think you’re a better studio band or stage band? Or is that not an issue?

Tom: I think we are different in both cases. In the studio we like to reverse engineer our songs, try to do something with them that we couldnt’ do live. [We] try effects, crazy harmonies, whatever. It’s an opportunity to explore the studio for what it is: another instrument.

But live, we try to bring high energy and passion to what we do.

So I think they are two sides to the same coin. Different in some respects, but overlapping.

Me: Let’s say you had to choose: between a life recording in the studio or one on the stage. Which would you choose?

Tom: Oh man. It’s so hard because playing live is what gives the songs their shape. You discover their heart when they are out in the world. But in the studio you have the chance to perfect them sonically…

In the end I think music is about connecting with people and the high of playing a show is like nothing else.

It would be a cruel, cruel world if we could only do one or the other

Me: Luckily, it’s not.

Tom: Sometimes, I wonder: If someone offered me a hundred million dollars, but to get the money I would have to wear oven mitts for the rest of my life. Everywhere I went, whatever I did, I had to wear oven mitts. Would it be worth it?

Me: Well, you’d never have a problem baking.

Tom: True, ha. But I would be rich beyond my wildest dreams

Me: Well, to get this out of the way now… I’d like to call dibs on the first shoot& interview if you’re ever made that offer. Deal?

Tom: You mean for your blog?

Me: Or for an album cover…

Tom: Wasn’t this [an] interview?

Me: Ok, back to questions then… How was opening for the XYZ affair? What do you think of their music?

Tom: I dig it. They are great guys and very talented. Their music is different from ours, but I think works well together. Their cover of Don’t Stop Believing made me cry. It was so beautiful. I mean that takes balls

and to do it well…Damn. But yeah, I like their band a lot.

Me: You went to school with them- were you guys ever in classes together? See each other around campus?

Tom: No, I actually didn’t know them.

Me: Do you think life imitates art, or does art imitate life?

Tom: I think they are the same. I see no divison between the two