Search

Brooklyn band brings together chamber music and indie soul in a compelling, emotional performance.

Great Caesar, a six-piece, Brooklyn-based band plays what frontman/guitarist John-Michael Parker calls music from “rock band with a guy and a gal singer and a horn section.” But Parker and his bandmates—bassist Adam Glaser, trumpeter Tom Sikes, guitarist Mike Farrell, drummer Thomas Stephens and vocalist Niki Morrissette—meld chamber rock and indie that comes from a deeper, more soulful place. It’s evident in this live performance of the song "Hey Mama" (above) from their upcoming EP Jackson's Big Sky (out March 25). The song, inspired by a visit to the Marion Correctional Institution in Ohio, is in line with their other songs with themes of social justice. (The first track that generated buzz about Great Caesar, "Don’t Ask Me Why," drew parallels between the civil rights movement of the 1960s and today’s struggle for gender equality; its video went viral and earned the band an invitation to perform and speak at TEDxHollywood, Summit Series, and The Feast.)

After locking themselves in a house in Southampton, NY for the winter to record their latest EP, Parker says the band is gearing up for a spring release and a US tour. He talks to Myspace about their high school ska beginnings, the wonky spelling of their name, studying at Yale and performing at Le Poisson Rouge.

Hometown: Madison, CT

Homebase: Brooklyn, NY

What’s Great Caesar’s history? How did you all meet?

Adam (our bass player) and I met on the first day of third grade in Mrs. Magee's class. After playing different instruments in the school marching and jazz bands, we started Great Caesar as freshmen in high school, hoping to make music our friends would want to listen to. A little while later, we were lucky enough to meet our most recent additions to the band -- Tom Stephens and Niki -- through musical friends in NYC.

Why are you called Great Caesar? Do people misspell your name a lot?

Remember when I said we started in high school? Well, it was part of a nerdy joke from English class (inspired by the Shakespeare play) that I promise was hilarious at the time. And yes, people misspell it ALL THE TIME. We don't have a good solution for that problem yet.

Does being from Connecticut have any influence on you creatively?

Absolutely. Beyond the particular experience of growing up in a small affluent town on the Connecticut shoreline, we definitely worked our way through the Connecticut ska scene as high schoolers. Our horn parts may have changed a bit since those early days when we used to listen to the Mad Caddies and open for Sublime cover bands, but there's still a lot of that energy and harmony in our music.

You went to Yale, and others in your band went to similarly good schools like NYU, Williams and the University of Connecticut. Do you think that experience informs your music at all?

Well, we were all lucky enough to go to amazing schools -- Ivy League and otherwise -- where we learned and were challenged and began to see ourselves and our world in new ways. Speaking for myself, it was my closest friends, my family, the people I fell in love with, and the people who broke my heart that had the biggest influence on my music and my voice. We definitely cut our teeth as a band playing basement shows and spring flings at each other's schools over the years. And I'm very lucky to say that all of my ups and downs over the past 12 years have been filtered through the experience and music of Great Caesar. So, yes, college was of course a huge part of my growing up -- one that I'm grateful for every day -- just as informative as my years at Daniel Hand High School and the first few years in New York City.

Why is your album called Jackson’s Big Sky?

Jackson's Big Sky is the name of the house we lived in during January and February 2015 while we wrote many of the songs that ended up on the EP or that pushed us in a new direction. As always, we were thinking about family, and love, and loss -- though at a time when we were starting to reckon with those as adults who had passed that mid-twenties mark, when it feels like the stakes are always getting a little bit higher.

I read that “Hey Mama” was inspired by a visit to the Marion Correctional Institution in Ohio. How did you end up performing at Marion?

I had the chance to attend TEDxMarion in 2014 and was so inspired by the folks I met and the stories I heard. Later that year when the band was working our way out west on tour, we had an open day and thought it would be cool to share our music with some new folks -- in the beginning it was pretty much as simple as that. By then end of the day, however, we were all moved in profound ways by the show and people we met, and that day and those stories stayed with us as we started to write new songs in 2015.

Can you talk about the experience of performing "Hey Mama" live at Le Poisson Rouge?

LPR is a venue that we've all seen amazing shows at over the years, and a stage that we've long aspired to. We felt so lucky to be asked to join the On The Rise series, and playing that night at such a beautiful venue to so many important people was really special. Big thanks to Carlos and Drew for helping us make the video happen!

Who are your biggest musical influences?

Well, The Beatles, for sure. Working my way through the piano charts in the Beatles 1 songbook is what taught me my first lessons in songwriting (and falling in -- and out of -- love, I suppose). There was a lot of Paul Simon and Elton John, too, when I started thinking about music in a new way. As the band has formed (and reformed) its identity, I've been very influenced by groups like Arcade Fire, Dave Matthews Band, and Mumford & Sons -- artists who bring so much vitality, emotion, and raw sound to their music.

Any dream collaborations floating around in your head?

Wow, what an amazing chance to put a dream into the world! Okay, I'd love to make an album with Sufjan Stevens. I'd love to make a musical with Lin-Manual Miranda. And I'd love to create a festival with Arcade Fire and Bon Iver.

What's the best thing a fan has ever done for you?

We're blessed to already have some extraordinary fans who go wayyy back -- from our parents and siblings to our friends Mike Caserta and Jason Melker whose show count is nearing the triple digits. But the fans I want to shout out most here are a young woman named Maddie and her boyfriend, who drove 8 hours from Marion, Ohio to Chattanooga, Tennessee to watch us play in front of about 15 folks on a weeknight.

What are your big goals for 2016?

To make a full-length record! And to join a big tour and share our music with a bunch of new fans across the country.

35 72 19
Close

Press esc to close.
Close
Press esc to close.
Close

Connecting to your webcam.

You may be prompted by your browser for permission.