JT & Chris Bates

GIG: Brothers JT (left) and Chris Bates play together (drums and bass, respectively) in several bands and separately in many more.

GREW UP:  Hopkins.

LIVE: St. Louis Park (Chris) and Minneapolis’s Standish-Ericsson neighborhood (JT).

MUSICAL DESTINY: “Our dad is a trumpet player, my eldest brother plays saxophones and records music in Nashville, and Chris plays bass. Between my dad’s rehearsals and gigs, which seemed larger than life, and my brothers playing music at our house with people our own age, it seemed so attainable I don’t think I ever really thought about doing much else after I was ten years old.” (JT)

BANDS: Chris—Red Planet, How Birds Work, Tanner Taylor Trio, CT & the Coterie, Framework, Pat Moriarity/Ellen Lease Ensemble, Enormous, Volcano Insurance, Tampered Seals, I.E.D., Legendary Bluesmen, Sambo Makti. JT—Fat Kid Wednesdays, Alpha Consumer, Carbon Carousel, Dubsack, The Pines, Regional Jazz Trio.  Together—Low Blows, Slide Huxtable, Holly Long, Kelly Rossum groups, Chris Thomson Quartet.

ON PLAYING IN BANDS OF DIFFERENT GENRES: “I often try to hear who I’m going to play with in my head before I go to play with them. I also listen to and try to study lots of different kinds of music so I have a wider knowledge base to draw from.” (Chris)

ON THE TWIN CITIES MUSIC SCENE: “I know there have been times when a lot of things were bubbling up out of here, and it seems like that is happening now. Minneapolis-ers are popping up all around the globe and coming back home to share, but maybe it’s always been that way, and now I’m just a little more privy to it.” (JT) 

YOUR MOST MEMORABLE PERFORMANCE: “The first one that comes to mind was a Motion Poets gig at Maharishi University in Fairfield, Iowa. Everyone at the school does transcendental meditation for two hours every day, so they have a very open and collective vibe. We played this song to open our show and the audience was so tuned in that when we finished the melody of the song and played our little stop-time break into the first solo they all stood up and roared a collective ovation! We played three minutes of music, and they stood and cheered because of our own collective energy in the band. It was just amazing to be playing for a whole group of people who were tuned in and feeling every nuance of our performance right from the start.” (Chris)

RECORDINGS IN THE WORKS: Chris—The Red Planet CD is close to being done and may be out by late spring; CT & the Coterie’s is recorded, but no release is set; Moriarity/Lease Ensemble’s is recorded and may be out this fall; CDs for Low Blows, Slide Huxtable, and Volcano Insurance are being recorded and possibly will be released this year. JT—Carbon Carousel/Abzorbr’s split EP was released March 30; Alpha Consumer’s new EP was recorded March 4–6 and will be out very soon; The Pines’ EP will be released this spring; Dean Magraw’s Unseen Rain is already out on Candyrat records and the CD–release show at the Artists’ Quarter is April 13–14; Fat Kid Wednesdays’ latest, Singles, was released in November of  ‘06 and is now available in the United States for the first time. Together—Holly Long’s EP is out, and the full-length is being “shopped.”

ON PLAYING IN MULTIPLE BANDS: “It sorts itself out. As different groups are recording and doing little tours and things, other bands might be in a slightly more dormant space and it seems to ebb and flow like that, which I enjoy. Most musicians that I know are involved with all kinds of different groups, and I love seeing what they bring from group to group and what that does to the bands that I’m in as well.” (JT)

ON PLAYING TOGETHER: “We have played together for a long time. We started out playing duets together—I was sixteen, JT was twelve—silly blues-based improvisations, funk jams. JT had some different beats we would try to play to. The only bands we have really been in for an extended period are Motion Poets [1994–2000], Low Blows [1996–present), and Slide Huxtable [1998–present]. Those last two have played sporadically—maybe two or three times a year for Low Blows and ten gigs total with Slide. The Poets made three records and toured a lot. That’s where the bulk of our development as a rhythm section lies.” (Chris)

WHAT THEY’RE LISTENING TO NOW: Chris—“My entire iTunes library on random—Fela Kuti, Meters, Alpha Consumer, Rush, Level 42, My Morning Jacket, various live recordings of Low Blows, Red Planet, and Chris Thomson Quartet.” JT—“Thelonious Monk with Frankie Dunlop, Paul Motian Trio, Monolake, Beach Boys, The Band.” 

CATCH THEIR ACT: May 11–12, with the Kelly Rossum Group. Artists’ Quarter, 408 St. Peter St., St. Paul, 612-292-1359