Crooks on Tape to play at the Bishop Friday

John Schmersal, Rick Lee and Joey Galvan, members of Los Angeles trio Crooks on Tape, couldn’t predict their band’s future when they first started playing music together in 2010.
 
“We just started playing and recording,” Schmersal said. “The process was pretty natural.”

Crooks on Tape will perform at 9 p.m. Sunday at the Bishop Bar. Admission to the show is free but restricted to those who are 21 and over.

The best part of rehearsals were improvised, Schmersal said. Crooks on Tape began to log hundreds of hours of recordings because of this.

Schmersal said he and Lee would bring in instruments like guitars, basses, synthesizers and mixers. Galvan worked to stage the improvised sessions together with drums and other forms of percussion.

“We all have our roles,” Schmersal said. “I tend to be the organizer.”

Sometimes the group had an obvious rhythm to draw from within the session, and other times it did not, he said.

Schmersal said the improvised sound can be looped and sampled. Outside of that, anything can happen.

When the band got together to record, they would enter a room filled with equipment that was set up.

The room constantly changed as new machines and instruments were moved in and out during recording sessions.

Schmersal said that Lee would go get seltzer water and they would make cocktails and just start playing.

“Whatever happens, happens,” Schmersal said. “We started getting pretty good at what we’re doing.”

Schmersal said that in the beginning, they weren’t really expecting to create anything cohesive. As they got better, they found that there were longer sections of recordings that they liked.

“It’s more a spontaneous journey,” Schmersal said. “There isn’t really a code for what you’re doing.”

Sometimes things turn out great, and if not, they can be edited later on, Schmersal said.

“We didn’t really make any limitations for ourselves,” he said.   

After about two years of recording, Lee moved to New York, temporarily ending the regular sessions.

Although no new work was being created, their album “Fingerprint” was gaining popularity.

Between the three members, Crooks on Tape listens to music from the 1960s to the 1980s and beyond.

“We’re really big lovers of music, and I feel like that really comes through,” Schmersal said.

Though the band takes music very seriously, he said the band has a lot of fun.

“We enjoy what we do,” he said. “To us, it’s just
music.”

Dave Obenour, the tour publicist for Crooks on Tape, said it’s interesting to see how the audience is responding to the band’s
first tour.

Obenour said what excites him about getting to see them perform is that they take
some of the elements of a jam band and combine them with an indie rock sound.
Schmersal said that though they are influenced by the sounds of their recordings, they try to stay spontaneous in their live performances. That is where a lot of the excitement comes from for them.

He described a feeling of camaraderie that comes from the first time a person is in a band with his high school buddies playing in a garage. After a person has been playing for a while, that feeling is hard to find again.

With Crooks on Tape though, Schmersal seems to have rekindled that joy.

“It’s more than just the music,” he said. “It felt like that all over again ... It didn’t matter if anyone heard it.”

Obenour said people have been very receptive.

Schmersal said the band wants that kind of a wide audience though, and that he loves to see his friends posting on Facebook that their kids love his music.

Music has to cover all people of all ages, he said.

“I’ll tell you for sure, we’re not thinking about a demographic when we’re making music,” Schmersal said.

Crooks on Tape tries to stay spontaneous in their live performances to keep things interesting, Schmersal said.

Both Schmersal and Obenour anticipate an exciting show to debut what Crooks on Tape call their first pop record.

Schmersal said the audience will be assaulted, insulted, laughing and crying. It’s like a wedding invitation with a funeral announcement on the back, musically speaking, he said.

“So far it’s been a lot of fun,” Schmersal said.

Crooks on Tape will head to Europe at the end of the month.

Schmersal said the band doesn’t look at reviews or previews of their performances so they don’t get too wrapped up in what is said about them.

“We’re gonna put on the show we put on regardless of any of that stuff,” he said.

Follow reporter
Amanda Marino on Twitter @amandanmarino.