20 Min in a Shower with Rusted Root's Michael Glabicki

Last Saturday afternoon I began my job as arts editor by taking on an entirely new task: interviewing the lead singer of Rusted Root, Michael Glabicki, prior to the show he was to give that night in Ferris Athletic Center. Any nerves I had instantly vanished upon meeting Glabicki, whose demenor was friendly and relaxed. He chose the locale of the interview - the men's locker room - the uniqueness of which seemed fitting for such an eccentric musician. Rusted Root performed following opening performances by Zox and special guest Mike Dougherty as part of this year's "Volkswagen Music Education Tour." Rusted Root was founded in Pittsburgh, PA and consists of six members. Rusted Root has experience on the road as the opening act for such bands as The Grateful Dead, Santana and The Dave Matthews Band. Their blends influences from many cultures and defies the boundaries of traditional genre.

Tripod: Thank you for doing this.

Michael: Sure

T: I guess the first question is how did you guys get your name?

M: Well we were just sitting in our room. Trying to hurry and come up with a name for a gig that we had booked and um, then it just sort of like came out, you know somebody said rust somebody said root then somebody said Rusted Root.

T: Who are your musical inspirations?

M: Well, growing up you know the Beatles, the Stones, Cat Stevens and then I started listening to a lot of hard rock, some heavy metals stuff, you know Black Sabbath. Then I started to write music, and I listened to a lot of Peter Gabriel and U2. But when I first started to write music, I always tried to write music that didn't sound like anyone else. As soon as I said "that sounds pretty cool, that sounds like so and so, I would throw away the song."

T: How would you describe your music, do you put it in a particular genre?

M: I don't really know how to describe my music, sort of, I let other people do that, you know?

T: It is unique.

M: Yeah.

T: Specifically, what's the story behind Blue Diamonds?

M: Well, when I was two and a half years old, I was run over by a car and I was living in Florida and I was knocked unconscious. It was sort of in my unconsciousness that (I met this) celestial being; this angel, she comforted me and told me if I go back she'll stick around for the rest of my life and you know I came back.

For periods of my life I forgot about her, and then I remembered her, and I drew pictured of her and whatever. But recently I injured my arm doing construction on my house and immediately had like a real intimate experience with her and went oh yeah and so at that point I went well okay I'll write a love song about her

T: Which album are you most proud of?

M: I like them all. It's hard for me to pick one 'cause they're all like growing stages for me. And like tonight, [I can tell you this because it's a surprise but we're going to be playing a lot of songs off Remember] we haven't played those songs in like five or six years so just playing the sound check brings out a lot of emotions for me. So tonight Remember is my favorite record but I know that they're all equal.

T: You're going to a lot of Colleges on this tour, what is different about College concerts than other venues?

M: It's a little difficult, some of the aggressive behavior at colleges. But at the same time I really do enjoy a lot more enthusiasm; as a performer you enjoy when the audience seems a lot more enthused, but at times it turns aggressive - you know people falling off of bleachers and getting hurt or doing body surfing and stuff like that. Which they do because they don't know who we are yet and they're just being introduced to us and so they're acting, like you know they might have gone and seen Pearl Jam the week before and they're acting like that. I love, I mean overall it's one of the more exciting venues and crowds to play to. I think when you do hit a college audience and it goes really well it's one of the best experiences.

T: Do you feel a big connection to your fans (on stage)?

M: Oh yeah, and you know after the shows we normally go out to the table, the merch table, and sign autographs and talk to people. There's some of the same people every night; they come and follow us. It's nice,

Rusted Root started out as sort of a ritualistic band where we would rent warehouses out in Pittsburg and all our friends would come plus other people. We would eat dinner on the dance floor and we would build our own stage, (eat our food), and then everybody would put away the food and we would get up and play.

And, so we've always had that connection, that's sort of what makes Rusted Root, Rusted Root

T: How did you spend your year off?

M: I feverishly wrote music (Laughter)

T: Do you join in on the chat rooms on your website?

M: I do but I haven't been on there for probably three months.

T: On your website you have links to Amnesty International and The Audobon Society. Do you feel strongly about human rights violations?

I'm not that involved right now, I've been kind of just focusing on myself and my own injustices within myself.

But in the past I've traveled to Nicaragua during the Contra War and I was a kind of like a third party. And that was like pretty heavy for me, just the human rights violations that were going on there that were caused by the United States, I mean basically we were backing terrorists - we started a terrorist group in Nicaragua, (they were the contras) but in our media they were like military heroes. So you know I hear, even Bush up there talking about evildoers, it's like we're all guilty. It's like "Shut Up." (Laughter)