On their way; Getaway People bringing fame to the Hudson

Cover design by Jennifer Merrick. Photograph by Katrin Thomas, courtesy of Sony Music.

On the cover, The Getaway People are (from left) Leroy, Race, Honda, Boots and Stone (leaning).

If you’ve never heard of The Getaway People, don’t worry, you will. In fact, you might have bumped into one of the band members at one of their favorite Hoboken fast-food joints, like Burritoville, or feeding their caffeine addiction at Starbucks. But if you want to hear their music, just turn your dial to Channel 11 at 9 p.m. on Wednesdays. No, they’re not quite on mainstream radio yet, but you can hear their latest single “Six-Pacs” on the intro to WB’s newest teen drama, Young Americans.
If you’ve never heard of The Getaway People, don’t worry, you will. In fact, you might have bumped into one of the band members at one of their favorite Hoboken fast-food joints, like Burritoville, or feeding their caffeine addiction at Starbucks. But if you want to hear their music, just turn your dial to Channel 11 at 9 p.m. on Wednesdays. No, they’re not quite on mainstream radio yet, but you can hear their latest single “Six-Pacs” on the intro to WB’s newest teen drama, Young Americans. Although “Six-Pacs” is the theme song to a show rated TV-14, the single, on their new album entitled Turnpike Diaries, is based on their experiences drinking beer and coffee, smoking cigarettes and eating Big Macs on the road and on one of their favorite highways, the New Jersey Turnpike. Originally from Norway, the five boys packed their bags and moved to the Hudson to be closer to their New York label, and found a home on the Jersey City waterfront. Boots, the lead singer, called his local entertainment paper, the Current, last week while touring in Canada, to talk about The Getaway People’s life in New Jersey, their arrest in Alabama and to share a few “naked” tales about his fellow band members Honda, the keyboard player; Stone, the lead guitarist; Race, on bass; and Leroy, the drummer, before they play a home show at Maxwell’s on Wednesday, July 26. Louise Thach: How did five guys from Norway wind up in Jersey City? Boots: Well, we made a demo in ’97 and started knocking on record company doors in New York with it, and after many unsuccessful attempts, we got a deal with Columbia. So we wanted to be close to the label so that we could do our touring over here and go to our meetings, but we thought Manhattan was going to be a wee bit too much for us country boys. So Race got on the Internet and put in ‘living quarters outside Manhattan,’ and Jersey City came up. It was Avalon Cove on Washington Boulevard, with a view of Manhattan and all the trimmings. We were very happy with it. LT: And you now live in Hoboken. Why Hoboken? B: Well, for one, it’s just across the river. Secondly, it’s got a real vibe to it. There’s not many places just outside New York that have such a vibrant main street like Washington, and, you know, all the cool bars, and second-hand stores. So you know, after going down there, it was an easy choice. And I still don’t really want to be in Manhattan, so Hoboken is just perfect. LT: Most people in New Jersey find the Turnpike pretty boring. How do you guys manage to find it so exciting? B: Well, whenever we’re on tour, we need to get on the Jersey Turnpike, so it became this, sort of, portal to the rest of America for us. We were always on it, so it kind of became synonymous with the songs on the album, because they’re all written in the back lounge of the bus and have some kind of connection of being on the road. So the Jersey Turnpike is where we start out, and that’s why we have such glorious pictures of it on our album cover. LT: That’s hysterical. B: Well, if you live there, you’ve got to show some pride in Jersey, you know. You can’t let all these Queens, and Brooklynites and Manhattan people knock it without trying it. I actually know people who are from New York who claim to have never been to New Jersey, and they still mock at it as some disease or something. I will always stand up for New Jersey. LT: Enough about New Jersey. So what’s it like to hear your single on television all the time, as opposed to the radio? B: Well that’s a good question. I wish that I could answer it, because we actually haven’t heard it yet, because we either spend our time in a van or at a venue, and by the time we get to the hotel, it’s normally like one or two in the morning. We were actually driving through Chicago, and I was telling Leroy, ‘Wow, wouldn’t it be cool if we heard “Six-Pacs” right now,’ and of course, the trailer for Young Americans came on the radio with “Six Pacs” blaring out of the speakers. We got a kick out of that, so that’s one little indication that at least something is happening. LT: So how often do you guys really find yourselves drinking six-packs with fans? B: For some of the band members, every night. It becomes part of a good, healthy, stable diet for any band that’s on the road the whole time. At the kind of clubs that we play, it’s more fun to hang out in front than in the dressing room, because the dressing rooms are just one bad excuse to write graffiti, you know, and that’s about it. So, we’ve met a lot of awful and very nice people too. You get everything in your face out there, because people feel like they have this God-given right to talk to you if you’ve been on stage, and sometimes it’s really, really cool, and sometimes it’s very, very uncomfortable. LT: Why, have scary stalker fans approached you? B: No, not scary. I would just say like when you’re tired and it’s been a long night, and someone tries to tell you about the time they went to a Jethro Tull concert in the mid ’80s and how it’s changed their life, maybe then is the time that you have to go to the restroom or something like that. LT: Yeah, but you guys are pretty good looking, so I’m sure you also get your share of scary women. B: Oh yeah, that happens a lot, but then it’s a case of, what do you call it, the polite brush-off? I think the worse thing that’s ever happened to us in that regard was when we played a festival in Norway. We were playing a tiny little club and it was absolutely jam-packed, and this girl was rubbing her private parts in front of Race, and he wasn’t appreciating it too much. By the time this girl got up on stage and turned her back to him to do some form of a striptease, he planted his big, large boot quite firmly in her back and sent her flying off stage. So, I suppose, that’s one encounter that required the polite brush-off. LT: No kidding. What about you; have you had one? B: No, not really. I think I’m lucky, because our keyboard player, Honda, is the hunky one, so they always come up to me and tell me how hot he is. LT: So I heard you guys got naked with the Bare Naked Ladies. B: Well, don’t say you guys, because I’ll tell you who got naked. We were playing at a huge amphitheater in Arizona. It was our last gig with them, and it’s traditional between bands to do something funny on the last night. So during our set, the Bare Naked Ladies came on in backpacks, rabbit ears and underpants and walked across stage. So, later that night, in the middle of the Bare Naked Ladies set, Honda and Leroy stripped naked and walked hand-in-hand across the stage in front of 7,000 people. Then, the Bare Naked Ladies, being very good sports, stopped the song that they were doing and went into “Norwegian Wood,” which was fairly creative. LT: I also read that you had a run-in with the law? B: Well, you know, you gotta do your bit to be a rock star. I suppose it was me and Race’s turn, and this was after a gig in Birmingham, Alabama. And I find it amazing that you can even go to Birmingham without getting arrested, because it’s so easy to get arrested there. So we were quietly enjoying a beverage in the parking lot of the club, after a gig. There wasn’t a soul in sight, and I barely had a swig of my beer, when Officer Proctor walked up to us and asked us if it was a beer that we were holding, and indeed it was. So they put us in jail overnight. LT: So you did you get handcuffed and fingerprinted for drinking in public? B: Oh yeah, handcuffs for way, way, way too long. We were taken away in a prison car and put with the hard criminals, like ourselves, and waited for our huge conviction. And once we got to the jail, the officer who stamped us in was quarreling with the arresting officer asking, ‘Why did you bring these guys in? They just had a drink; you can tell they’re not drunk.’ His retort was, ‘There’s no heat on the street.’ So he needed something to do, someone to arrest to fill up some quota of some sorts. We went in front of a judge the next morning, and the judge was embarrassed that we were even in front of him, because this idiot of a policeman should never have arrested us. But we got a whole page in the Norwegian newspapers with our mug shots, and we got a lot of press from it. So at least it looked good on rock ‘n’ roll paper. LT: Why did you guys choose obscure one and two-syllable names? I know your name can’t be Boots. B: Oh, it is. Yeah, it is. LT: Really? B: No. It became a lot easier for us, because our Norwegian names are difficult to say at the very least, so that’s how that came about. Many of us have had these nicknames for years and years. I’ve had Boots since I was 3 years old. My mother’s English, and I used to visit England twice a year since I was born. And in Norway, we dress our kids up a lot during Easter, because it’s cold, whereas in England, they’re already in shorts and sneakers. So when I visited England, I was in these big boots and trousers, and it was my uncle Chris who christened me Boots and it’s kind of stuck ever since. LT: So where do Race and Honda come from? B: Well, Race loves sailing and racing. He’s a mad Kawasaki fan and anything to do with racing, so he gave that to himself. And Honda’s last name sounds like Honda, so his buddies have been calling him that for years. Stone’s name in Norwegian means stone. And Leroy, he doesn’t even have an excuse. He just always wanted to be Leroy. LT: As five good-looking guys with names like Stone and Boots and who seem very well-groomed, are you ever afraid of being categorized as a boy band? B: Oh yeah, we’re really afraid of that. I think we sound just like a boy band. No, not at all. We have a stylist just for photo shoots; then the rest of the year we go around looking like scruffs. Columbia doesn’t give us loads of money to buy new clothes with, so the road wardrobe is fairly limited and stinky. As soon as you go play live, people get it. And that’s the all and end all. LT: But you have to admit that you do have the gift of writing a catchy tune. B: Thank you very much. Hopefully, it will help us. Well, maybe we are a boy band after all, if they’re so catchy. But we don’t mind catchy; that helps us in the long run. On the cover, The Getaway People are (from left) Leroy, Race, Honda, Boots and Stone (leaning).