( Renee Bailey ) To play music in Richmond you really have to love playing the music and love what you do.  People aren't coming out like they used to see bands and to hear music.   They are coming out to go to the bar or club and like Jay said you come out one weekend and nobody is there, you come another weekend and everybody is there.  They may be there to see you or they may not be and just happen to be there.   Really the only way is to get exposure, advertise,  and market your self, play at free places to little to nothing to get the advertising so people hear your name or are used to seeing your name and hearing your name and hearing people in the band.

( Rick Montgomery ) The one thing I have been struggling with that I have been struck by is the..

( Group pokes at Rick ) The fact that you are Rick (whistles, laughs)

( Renee Bailey ) A real kill joy (laughs).

( Paul Burnett ) There is allot of talent here in Richmond, you run into it most everywhere you go.  I am surprised at how broad of a collection of styles of music you can hear here.

( Jim Burnett ) Being that I'm a drummer I have to get together with the guitar player to write.  I usually will come up with a melody and then try to put something to it.  Thats how it works for me.  Jay is allot more productive than I am as far as song writing.  I usual do the short pop songs and Jay does the more elaborate songs.

( Jay Dickinson ) Its kind of an interesting split, Jim's stuff is very accessible and catchy, and instantly likable.   Jim usually works with another guitar player, Mike Hutcheson who is an excellent guitar player. Jim has been working allot with Mike recently.  Primarily he does not work with me because Jim and I are both essentially lyricists and does not pair up really well because we both write words.   Most of the stuff that i actually write by myself on an acoustic guitar and I usually will bring in a demo that almost sound like folk music when i bring it in it is an acoustic guitar and me singing.  I do it on four track cassette player at home.  For you young people, a cassette is a tape ( big laugh from group) which is getting harder and harder to find.  I bring in the songs and I have a melody line and a rhythmic pattern and a chord progression, and basically I throw it to the band and the rest gets filled in from there.

( The Richmond Buzz ) This one is for you Renee, what is it like being the only female in the band?

( Paul Burnett ) ( in an English accent) I personally love comfortably numb, but we don't play it.

( The Richmond Buzz ) Tell me  about the progress of your latest CD?

( Renee Bailey ) Jay will be going into the studio in the coming weeks.

( Jay Dickinson ) You know there is always that part of me that still wants to be a rock star, but the simple matter of fact is that at my current age i can simply reverse those numbers and admit that its never going to happen.  I would like to be known locally and have the type of   reputation that if somebody said that Phatback is playing someone else would say, yea I have heard of theme they are supposed to be pretty good.  If someone buys the CD and if we could sign it to Tower records or Plan 9  or something I would hope they would buy the album(s) and have people say we are a good band who writes good songs.  Maybe when day have my grandchildren come visit me and when I am old and don't remember my name or where i left my teeth, and one of them will pull it out say Damn grandpa was in a band and they were good.

( Rick Montgomery ) I want our work to be recognized as a good band...groupies would be good and don't tell my wife i said that (laughs).

Want more Phatback? go to www.myspace.com/phatbackmusic

( The Richmond Buzz ) Where do you hope to see the band five years from now?

( Jay Dickinson ) We are not in a position to drop everything and go live in a van together while we tour the east coast (big laughs).

( Paul Burnett ) I don't think we could all fit in a van.

( The Richmond Buzz ) What is a favorite song that you have written?

( The Richmond Buzz ) Tell me a little bit about your creative process when it  comes to writing original music, who does what?

( The Richmond Buzz ) Whats it like to be in a band in the Richmond area, is there allot of support from the community?

( The Richmond Buzz ) Paul, what do you think keeps you pushing forward and motivated as a band?

( The Richmond Buzz ) Renee, What could someone expect when they come to see a Phatback show?

( The Richmond Buzz ) So who came up with the name Phatback?

( The Richmond Buzz ) Tell me how the band formed?

( Renee Bailey ) I think at this point and I am not trying to speak for everybody, but i don't think we are trying to make it huge like your going to see us on MTV tomorrow or something.  What I want is to be known around Richmond, when you say our band name you know who that is and will want to come see us.  Just to know us and have a nice following come see us play.

( Jay Dickinson ) We currently have five songs that I will hopefully be finishing up this weekend and have the five song EP available at gigs.  We will try and have a complete album before the end of the year.

( Jay Dickinson ) It's hard for me to pick favorites, certainly its always awkward to say I love one of my songs.  There is one of Jim's that we do that I have always loved because first of all it's completely different from anything I would i ever write, called Changes and I think its this little lost gem 60's vintage pop song.

( Jay Dickinson ) thanks for rubbing that in!

( Renee Bailey ) And its also interesting that because I am not the only one that is the lead singer, there is other members of the band who have leads that they do sing and they do back ups as well, and i will back them up when they are doing leads.  I am also a percussionist.. and I'm the youngest one here (laughs).

( Jay Dickinson ) I think there is a general assumption that when people see the band, they think Rene actually writes the songs.  Its kind of strange that when we are doing the originals and we've got a woman doing these songs actually written by two guys.  That adds a interesting dynamic to it and I think it gives a certain testosterone fueled aggression that kind of creates an interesting tension with the female vocals

( Renee Bailey ) I am a black woman and people are sometimes wowed because they were not expecting me to sing like the type of songs that we are playing.  We don't do county or Dolly Parton, but they are rocks songs, alternative modern rock songs and I think it is a little bit of a surprise.  The sound is a little more soulful.

( Jay Dickinson ) I gotta call my optometrist, I think I'm color blind.

( Renee Bailey ) I like it because I think it adds an interesting edge to the band.  And yes I am going to say it, I think it is interesting that I am a black woman singing (shock and laughter).

( Renee Bailey ) I love it!  If they hire another female I'm gonna quit!

( Jay Dickinson ) Thats the one plus side, to kind of counter act how negative I sounded before.sounded before.

( Rick Montgomery ) I'm driving separately!

( Renee Bailey ) Uh oh, here we go..

( Jay Dickinson ) Wow, thats a tough one because you don't want be all bitter and its going to be really bitter.  It can be really frustrating at times, I lived in Richmond for 18 years and in the time I have been here I have seen a completely active seen just disappear,  which was the old grace street corridor down by VCU.   when I first moved up here I was 24 years old and you could go down and see 3 or 4 bands all within walking distance of  each other.   allot of the clubs expect the bands to bring an audience with them. The bars want bands to bring customers in to buy drinks.  There are still some places you can still play where the focus is on the music, but very few people are willing to pay a band and to provide entertainment for their regulars any more.  So really in allot of ways if you are looking to make a living playing music you are going to go hungry.  We do it because we like to play music.  It seems like some of the best gigs for getting exposure now are one's that you do for free.  You can have some fantastic gigs some nights.  We have played at some clubs where one week there will be 6 broken down drunks at the bar that aren't paying any attention,  and then we would be back there a month later and the place would be wall to wall with people just rocking out having a great time.  Obviously the latter occasions make it worth while, the former of the ones really test how much you are really truly and mentally obsessed with playing music ( group laughs).

( Rick Montgomery ) I have two favorites, Earth, which Jim wrote and Cash or Food that Jay penned about a guy who is desperate to find some work, and I like that one allot.

( Renee Bailey ) I wasn't born yet (laughs).

( Jay Dickinson ) That was the year I was born (laughs).

( Rick Montgomery ) What was I going to say? (group cracks up)  I've been really impressed I have been with the group a short time, I just joined a few months ago, and what has struck me is the number of other musicians who have come out and support us.  Its a completely different thing then I am used to growing up in Louisville where the music scene was very competitive and bands did not go and support each other, they would go out and steal each other's songs, band members and gigs.  We have been to places here where there been hardly anyone there, but there would other musicians form bands there to come out and support us and wish us well,  and I have been impressed by that.

( Paul Burnett ) Stop it!

( Renee Bailey ) I loved Dolly Parton.  I played piano and started writing my own music back then in elementary school and then eventually went to Virginia State and majored in music.  Then I kind of dropped music after because of life situations, but got back into it when i decided i wanted to be in a band with theses guys.

( Jay Dickinson ) When I was a kid my grandfather had an old Wurlitzer organ that he'd bought in the 50's and I would make a racket on that every chance that I got from the time I was 3 or 4 years old.  After my folks split, we moved back to her parents house, real southern thing 4 generations living in one house, frightening thought.  I had discovered my Uncles albums that he had left when he moved to college.  I was like 7 or 8 years old listening to the Ventures and Bo Didley, to put this in perspective this was in 1972 (laughs).  Neither of these were particularly hip things, but from then on it was an obsession, I wanted to play music in some way shape or form.  I played piano when I was around 10,  picked up the guitar when I was 14.   Started playing in a band when I was in college.   The reason I waited so long to start a band was because I think my parents recognize the problems it was gonna cause (group laughs) and weren't terribly supportive.  So I basically had to save up money and when i had a decent amp and a guitar that sort of stayed in tune, I was in bands in college and basically have continued in some way shape or form.  I have been playing with Jim 14 years now.  Got married when I was obsessed with music, got rid of the wife and I'm still obsessed with music (group laughs).

( Jim Burnett ) I like them all.

( Jay Dickinson ) We were talking about cooking beans, and somehow the subject of throwing on a big old hunk of fat back came in.  Jim is kind of a fat back style drummer, so there you go.

( Rick Montgomery ) I was in diapers.

( Guys ) you already are- So thats where that twang came from- Thats actually new to me-

( Renee Bailey ) A Phatback concert is a unique experience because I would say we are a rock sound, but theres a soulful edge to it and theres not many other bands around Richmond that sound quite like that.  Its got a phat sound to it, its exciting.

( Jay Dickinson ) We basically got together in August, all of us with the exception of Rick had played together at different points at various lengths of times.  Renee had been out of town and we had another band another band and the lead vocalist with that did not work out.  Renee came back and Phatback became.

( Rick Montgomery ) I can't remember a first musical moment, as long as I have been alive I have been making in one way or another.  I got my first guitar when I was six, but I had toys before that like xylophones, toy pianos, bells and stuff that what ever it was if it made music I played it.  I was in my first band in high school, although I toyed around with bands in 7th grade, but we did not have enough experience to really do anything.  I did solo bar gigs for ten years or so in Louisville where I'm from.  I sing in a men a cappella group, music is where I 'm from, I can't get away from it.

( Jim Burnett ) I guess for me, it was when I saw my brother Paul play.

( Paul Burnett ) Mental illness ( group laughs).  I  believe thats what drives us forward.   I actually believe we have such a love for music that we don't know how to quit, so we keep it pushing.  Then Rick came along, and it was like, oh man now we have to learn the songs all over again.  We just love to play and its one of those things were that kind of over rules everything.

( The Richmond Buzz ) Describe that first musical moment that you knew you wanted to be in a band?

Featured Song: Walking To The Water