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The Oct8pus began in early 2003, when Andrew McCarron and Mike Billa reunited after a long hiatus. Having spent various years pursuing musical endeavors, fatherhood, God and education, the two old friends met at the café in Grand Central station to discuss their musical pasts, presents and futures.
THE PAST
Bard College, 1998. Pettycoat Junction is formed as a brainchild of Darren Commons, a.k.a. Goggleman, to pay tribute to 60’s surf and rockabilly couture.
The band consisted of Goggleman on guitar and vocals, Adam Davison, a.k.a. Dale Gallagher (www.AbandCalledCompany.com) on guitar and vocals, Caitlyn Lord (www.myspace.com/caitkaposhilin) on Keyboards and Vocals, Andrew McCarron a.k.a. Malt Disney, on Bass and finally Mike Billa a.k.a. Billy Vanilli on drums. After a successful two and a half year run, as with most college bands, the members went their own ways, circa 1999 to pursue other bands and other interests.ANDREW’S BIO: Andrew was born, raised, and educated in the Hudson River Valley, a landscape from which he continues to draw inspiration. From 1994 to 1997 he played bass in the psychedelic hardcore band, Arcadia Blue, with the painters Browning Kay and Marc Tacaks, and the drumming virtuoso Bill Evertt. The band parted ways while Andrew was in his sophomore year at Bard College. Soon after, he began playing bass in Petty Coat Junction. It was also around this time that he took John Ashbery’s poetry workshop and began writing abstract landscape poetry inspired by the salty spray of the Hudson River, otherwise known as the river that flows two ways.
Andrew moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts in September 2000 to pursue graduate studies in Religion at Harvard Divinity School. In 2002, he moved to New York City to join the Religion and English faculties at Trinity School, where he continues to teach on a part time basis. Currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Psychology at the City University of New York, Andrew is hoping to fuse his theological, poetic, ethical, and musical visions through his ongoing collaboration with Mike in the Oct8pus.MIKE’S BIO: Mike was born in Rome, Italy, where he lived until the tender age of seventeen, to pursue his educational calling in Bard College, upstate New York. In 1999, after graduating, Mike moved back to Rome, Italy, where he met Ninfa (www.myspace.com/djninfa), Febbo and Ormone (Borgo Antico - www.myspace.com/borgoantico), who convinced him to join their band, Teleboys, which was subsequently renamed Semismart. The formula was once again, right up Mike’s alley: a band with an ear trained on the sounds of 60’s and 70’s power pop (The Cigarettes, Trash Monkeys etc.) with a hearty dose of 90’s Brit rock (Stone Roses, Suede). Having started out as a pop-punk quartet with lyrics in Italian, it degenerated quickly into bubblegum pop (think “Friends†soundtrack) the minute they got a record producer behind them. Despite the cheesiness, Semismart was named by MTV Italy as one of the top 6 new bands in Italy. An internet vote determined that they were not the 1 band, and thus were not granted a free recording contract. After Mike’s departure back to the USA, Semismart went on for the better half of a year, but eventually disbanded.Back in the USA, Mike got married to his long time girl, Nicole, and they had a son together named Julian Star. After a brief year back in Rome, Mike played drums with Febbo again, in a new lineup, which spawned the glam influenced Champagne Monroe, but once again, he bid his friends adieu and skipped back across the giant Atlantic puddle. Once reestablished in the New World, Mike met up with Andrew to reminisce on the Pettycoat Junction days. This spawned new musical ideas, and the two began practicing new tunes at Andrew’s place on the Upper West side.THE PRESENT
By now, not only had the formation changed (Mike was now singer/guitarist), but the musical dynamic had evolved into a self-referential mixture of surf, country, punk, pop and jazz. In other words, everything was fair game. After a long and unfruitful attempt to recruit a drummer in NYC, the duo decided to go straight into the studio to record some material with Mike on drums. As luck would have it, Mike found Snug Studios on Craig’s List and immediately booked a slot.
Located in scenic Snug Harbor in the heart of Staten Island, Snug Studios was the perfect place to record. Reminiscent of the rural/colonial landscape of the Hudson Valley, the duo found the setting ideal. In late 2004, the first three songs were promptly recorded with the help of visionary recording engineer Chris Cadawas, and the first EP - Tripod - was born. Tripod included the songs: Central Park, Penny Song and Spider Plant. Soon after, the two old friends recorded ten other songs, to complete their first album, and named it “Where’s Neptune?†as a tribute to Snug Harbor’s very own statue of the Roman sea god, which had magically disappeared from its display case one afternoon.
Influenced by artists such as The Pixies, The Sea and Cake, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Dick Dale, The Clash, Blur, Johnny Cash and Tortoise, “Where’s Neptune?†offered the listener a little taste of everything.
After the birth of “Where’s Neptune?†in late 2005, Mike and Andrew enjoyed some well earned rest and found some time for other pursuits, such as Mike’s and Nicole’s new son Kai, and Andrew’s Ph.D. at CUNY. Since then, they’ve made guest appearances as the rhythm section in Paul Sigismondi’s band (www.myspace.com/trackandfieldrecording), with Nick Sarciccia (www.myspace.com/anvilrabbitt) on guitars.THE FUTURE
Currently, the duo is working on their second album, which will be akin to a painting with rough strokes; it will be a journey marked at first by innocence that expands into full springtide flourish only to be visited by the shock of death, rage, and bitterness, then giving way to haunting loneliness and nostalgia that is redeemed by love’s miracle, concluding in a state of hopeful complexity. In other words, it will be a bit like a Thanksgiving dinner with too much dessert at the end.
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