The Bozone Entertainment & Events Publication in Bozeman published this article for the March 15th 2013 issue. Here’s the entire article…
[March 14, 2013] Forming a Pink Floyd Tribute Band without a suitable Waters and Gilmour voice is like kissing your sister; you can, but why? Even if the constituent Pink Floyd elements exist (lights, sonic textures, samples…), the vocal performances still hold the power to make or break it. Lucky for Pinky and the Floyd fans, the talent that exists in spades for this band extends to include lead singers Luke Flansburg and Dustin Tucker.
Luke & Dustin sat down one evening with Bozeman’s Music Godfather, Eric Funk (pianist, composer, teacher, conductor, and host of the Emmy-winning PBS series, 11th & Grant with Eric Funk) to discuss, among other things, the upcoming Pinky and the Floyd performance at The Willson Auditorium on March 29th.
ERIC FUNK:
I was pretty blown away by your theater performance. The whole show is really effective. In this “retrospective tour” are you taking it all the way back to the Syd Barrett days?DUSTIN TUCKER:
The whole 1st hour of the show is 60’s material, we’ve learned 9 new tunes for this tour and it’s all early stuff. Up until now we’ve been known for playing the mainstream hits so it’s fun to get back into some of the older stuff.ERIC FUNK:
How far do you get into the Syd character? He’s a pretty far out dude.DUSTIN:
Pinky has always had our own identity, our own approach to playing the music and we’ve been ok with it not necessarily being note-for-note or sounding exactly like Pink Floyd, so there’s no real need to dig into Syd’s psyche. Furthermore, I think maintaining our own identity within someone else’s music partly accounts for the longevity that we’ve enjoyed.ERIC FUNK:
Some of the [guitar] playing is actually synched with the visuals, cuts from live Pink Floyd concert footage. Are you guys literally playing the Waters or Gilmore roles?DUSTIN:
I sing Gilmour vocals and play rhythm guitar w/ a few leads here and there.LUKE FLANSBURG:
…and I’m playing Gilmour guitar solos and Waters’ vocals.ERIC FUNK:
That makes sense, are you using the old black ‘57 Stratocaster?LUKE:
It’s a copy of the ’57 Strat which is still the guitar Gilmour uses today, but really I’m just trying to mimic his sound.ERIC FUNK:
Are you copying his whole equipment list? Because you’ve really dialed in that sound.LUKE:
No way, I can’t afford that! I’m just taking what I can get that’s within my budget and working with that.ERIC FUNK:
I don’t think people realize that every singing voice is different. Two musicians can play the same instrument yet sound so different from one another. Especially in a tribute band, that’s really critical; you have your own sound, but trying to emulate someone else’s sound is really a fine art.LUKE:
It’s a head-trip. I realize I’m not Gilmour, nor will I ever be, but I try to do the best “Luke Who Is Emulating Gilmour” that I can, and somehow stay true to who I am. Some solos are note-for-note, others are kind of like, “ok… well…I kind of blew that one, guess I’ll do my own thing…”ERIC FUNK:
So how did Pinky and the Floyd start?LUKE:
In 2007 The Doors Legacy Band [Chris Cundy, Drew Fleming, John Foster, John Sanders] had started to gain some traction in and around Bozeman and they needed an opening act for a show at the Zebra. So Sean [Lehmann] was like “Hey, let’s try some Pink Floyd, maybe we could get Dustin Tucker to sing, maybe Joe Kirchner to play keys?” 6 years and 5 band members later, here we are.ERIC FUNK:
I first heard Pinky at the Bite of Bozeman (2010) and then again at the Emerson shows (2011/12) with the big cavalcade. I loved that in your early days you guys carried that renegade energy of the underground Pink Floyd; it was wild and out there on a dangerous edge. I’m usually not nuts about cover bands but Pinky captures the energy [of PF] which tells me that you’re more than capable of continuing an important legacy.LUKE:
Pinky and the Floyd isn’t a cover band, we’re a tribute band.ERIC FUNK:
That’s a great delineation, and with anything that’s “classic,” the more you revisit it, the more it informs.DUSTIN:
The thing that saves it for us, like you said, is the energy that we bring. We’re obviously playing Pink Floyd’s music but it’s our take on it. One thing we’ve got going for us is a youthful energy; we’re all in our 30’s whereas a lot of Pink Floyd tribute bands, simply because of the timeline, are in their 40’s or 50’s, and many of them want to, and in some cases actually sound a lot like Pink Floyd. Our goal was never to sound like Pink Floyd, but to feel like Pink Floyd.LUKE:
[re: the BHS Choir] …we hope that later in their lives they can look back on this experience and say “…back in High School I got to sing with Pinky and the Floyd and it was such an awesome experience…” …again with wanting this to feel like Pink Floyd, for the kids too.DUSTIN:
There’s so much PF material that it never gets boring. It’s diverse and intense, it has super intimate moments and big, in-your-face, full-choir moments, and that’s this tour; it’s gonna be intimate AND huge. But beyond that, Pink Floyd has an enormously wide appeal; it’s inter-generational, it reaches all socio-economic levels, etc… So much so that it was hard to take credit in the beginning. Someone would pay me a compliment and I’d be like “…uh, thank y…, thank Pink Floyd.” But now I think I get it, they’re just happy to share the Pink Floyd experience with us.ERIC FUNK:
Absolutely, and as long as someone still wants to play the music, it will remain in the air. I loved your performance at The Bite (2010) because it was just about out of control, everybody was really vulnerable. I wanted to get on a loud speaker and say, “Do you people realize how cool this really is?” …Complicated arrangements, abstract poetics, performing a concept album, and somehow holding all of that energy together… Everybody was “playing to win” instead of “playing not to lose,” which is a big difference.DUSTIN:
I love that comment that it was almost out of control, it was! Looking back, and compared to how we play now, it felt like everybody was going for it at all times. We’ve matured a bit in how we approach arrangements, sometimes we don’t need all 10 of us playing at the same time, we’ve found a balance there, which is cool.ERIC FUNK:
That approach mirrors Pink Floyd, going back to when they were a 4-person band…LUKE:
It gives us the opportunity to “throw the ball around” a bit, change it up. For example, on this tour we’re giving the women [Jeni Fleming and Krista Barnett] more solos, some of them in unexpected places. It takes a little of the pressure off of Dustin and I, which is cool, but it also showcases their talents as vocalists in their own right.ERIC FUNK:
You’re right, Pinky has a lot of strong musicians, a lot of leaders, which can really help a band flourish, but it can also make things go south, and fast. Even if some of the usual band tensions exist in THIS incarnation of THAT band everybody seems to be able to park their egos at the door, musically and otherwise.DUSTIN:
The tension tends to come out in the logistics and details because there’s so much that goes into a tour like this; social media, radio promo, sound/tech/lights, creative, hospitality, production, set lists, graphics/marketing, rehearsals, travel arrangements… and each member of the band happens to be good at one of these things, so we divide and conquer.LUKE:
We have a private Facebook page where we discuss and plan, and sometimes the commentary can run for miles. Everybody has an opinion about everything, but at the end of the day, we can agree on what’s best for the band.DUSTIN:
I really wanted to do this theater tour and I personally love to see all of these elements come together for 1 purpose, it’s just part of my personality [graphic design/marketing by trade]. But musically we just got lucky with our personnel in that everyone is able to put the credit where it’s due; we know this isn’t our music, we’ve just been charged to help this music “remain in the air,” as you said. If you can’t park your ego at the door for that job, then you just wouldn’t have lasted very long in this band.ERIC FUNK:
You’ve got such talent and depth in this band, but you’re not a documentary which gives you a little room to stretch out in solo moments while at the same time you have the manpower to really conquer the full throttle moments…LUKE:
One of my favorite pieces that we did on last year’s tour was a duet between Chris Cundy [pianist] and Jeni Fleming [background vocals] (“Nobody Home”). I still get goose bumps when I think about it.DUSTIN:
There are moments in the show when I definitely want to be out in the crowd, for instance I always try to get out front for “Great Gig In the Sky” when the girls are doing their thing, but then “Money” kicks in and I gotta get back on the stage.ERIC FUNK:
Dang! Well, Money always kicks in, right? [in a cheesy game show announcer voice] …And there you have it, Ladies and Gentlemen; the Business and the Art.
What do you think the future is for this thing?LUKE:
I’ll admit, there’s a fear in the back of my mind that one day someone in the band is going to say “…I’ve got this other band that’s going on an extended tour…” But my personal goal is to just keep pushing; WA, ID, CO, WY, CA or let’s say some casino in Las Vegas wanted us for a 2-week run…I certainly wouldn’t say ‘no.’ Funny thing about tribute bands, they tend to be like little yappy dogs, peeing on their territory.ERIC FUNK:
There are some German Shepherds in there too! And for all the talk about being on stage, and the crowds that support an enterprise like Pinky, people don’t often realize that most musicians are introverts, and often sensitive, easily-wounded people which helps one understand Syd Barrett’s anesthetizing, his trying to create a buffer zone. And here I want to be sensitive and respectful in saying that I really regret not getting your Dad on 11th and Grant, what a lost opportunity! He was truly a musician’s musician. You just cannot play the blues like he did unless you have those kinds of wounds. I remember the 1st time I saw him and thought, “I don’t know if I can survive another song,” it was that good. It must be an interesting piece for you, Dustin, but it makes sense to me that it informs what you’re doing as a musician and otherwise, how can it not?
Tex. Jesus! What a monster.DUSTIN:
I feel it every time I play; I could take it to that level if I wanted to play all the time, I could be that good if I chose to not have a family, not work, have music be the only thing that I do. But I’ve chosen a different path; I have a son and a wife and a full time job and I’m still able to do the music. So for me, it’s harnessing what I’ve been given, but also finding a balance between family, friends, and sobriety.ERIC FUNK:
Dustin, you are going to be that good, I don’t think you have a choice. The point is that you’re making different choices, but in terms of the talent gene, the voice is there. In fact, the creative talent across the board is there, Pinky is an intense group of people and for you all to be involved in this cooperative enterprise, where nobody’s trying to “win,” is a really beautiful thing to watch.DUSTIN:
Luke said it best, he said, “When we get to play together it’s like Christmas; it doesn’t happen very often but when it does, it’s a big deal to all of us.”LUKE:
Yep, we got really lucky.ERIC FUNK:
You take the audience into the music and not into the musician, as long as it stays that way the likelihood that Pinky will continue to “go” is pretty good.I know a lot of musicians who wait all week for the gig, for the moment when you count off the 1st tune and breathe a sigh of relief because now you’re among friends, whom you’ve said things to that can’t be put into words. They know you better than you know yourself, you don’t have to duck-and-cover, and if you do they don’t care because they know you, and you’re safe for the duration of the gig. I’ve seen you guys do this; you’ll take a 15-minute intermission, but 2 minutes into it you’re all looking at each other saying, “Let’s just go back out there and hit it. I mean, we’re here, we may as well play.”
Pinky and the Floyd, “A Pink Floyd Retrospective” will be at The Willson Auditorium on Friday, March 29, with special guests Dave Walker and The Bozeman High School Choir. Tickets are available now at Cactus Records (406-587-0245) or at the door the day of. This show has sold out the past 2 years, advance purchase is highly recommended. Doors open at 7pm, concert at 8pm. The “Pinky Pre-Party” will start at 6pm across the street at The Bamboo Garden. For more information visit: www.pinkyandthefloyd.com