By Nick Eneboe
Garfän (gar- fahn, notice the umlaut) is the brainchild of guitarist/vocalist Dale Hayes. His musical stylings are classic - like a magical combination of Jimi Hendrix and Carlos Santana. Yes, he can really rip like that. Garfän’s catalogue is a vichyssoise of classic rock, funk and a dash of punk.
I sat down with this Lincoln band last week and the members Dale Hayes, Eric Lee, Kaitie Preston, Greg Davis and Ben Witfoth are just as diverse as their music – from the bassist, who’s been playing for about a year now, to some of the members who have been playing for decades.
So your name is Gar…?
Eric: Garfän. We put the little umlaut over the last “a” and tell people it’s Welsh.
Is it just gibberish?
Dale: No. Well, it sort of is gibberish, I guess.
Eric: It’s Dale’s middle name.
Does it mean something in another language?
Dale: It didn’t originally. But evidently, it’s a city over in Qatar or the United Arab Emirates or somewhere like that. But I’m sure my sister did not know that when she named me.
How did you settle on that as your name?
Eric: Dale said that’s what it was and that was that. He’s not that authoritarian - it’s just that he already had the project going.
Kaitie: It’s his project and we’re all just respectful of that.
So the members you have now just kind of trickled in?
Eric: Yeah, Dale and I did our first show together in 2003.
Ben: I’m the newest member. I joined about three months ago.
But you guys had a bass player before that, right?
Eric: Oh yeah. Greg actually started as of a year ago playing bass. I mean, we’ve seen bass players come and go. I think it’s been three people so far we’ve had on bass. Or well, wait a minute - one, two, three… no, we’re on our fifth bass player now, I guess. (Smiles) They get in clashes with the drummer all the time and leave.
Ben: Yeah, I hate the drummer.
Eric and Dale were the original members then? How did you two know each other?
Eric: Dale and I had played in some cover band stuff a while ago and he was working on material for the first CD, “Borrowed Time.” Then he gave me a call to see if I wanted to work on original music and I said, “Yeah, I’d like to do that.” That’s how Garfän really got started. Then Dale knew some people through other bands.
Greg: I met Dale through a drummer. He was the drummer for the cover band I was in at the time.
Eric: And Kaitie, you’ve been with us for…
Kaitie: Two years? A little over two I think. After I graduated, I just posted on slamomaha.com and Dale called me a couple days later.
Dale, did you write the songs for a female vocalist?
Dale: Actually, no.
Kaitie: We’ve had a couple of arrangement problems, actually.
Dale: Yeah, because most of the songs are written from my point of view and so they weren’t written with a female vocalist in mind. But I try to write the songs somewhat gender non-specific in terms of terminology so that it works that way.
Eric: And I think some of this newer stuff has a little gender tinge for a female.
So “Borrowed Time” was the first album, and then…
Eric: Then we have one more CD out, “Family Affair,” and we’re in the studio recording our third album right now.
Kaitie: We were recording right before this actually – today and yesterday.
How’s that going?
Kaitie: Fantabulous.
Ben: It’s pretty bad a**, yeah.
Eric: Everybody’s pretty happy with it. We have all the mix-downs to do and that kind of stuff but…
Kaitie: It’s a work in progress, but it’s fun.
How many songs are we looking at for this record?
Eric: Well, hopefully 10. We have eight laid down so far, but we think anything less than 10 is…
Kaitie: Sub-par.
Eric: Right. ‘Cause a lot of bands will put out discs that have three to five songs on it.
Ben: People don’t want to spend 10 or 15 bucks on a CD with five songs, ya know?
Eric: And Dale has enough material written and he’s a prolific enough writer that it’s like nothing for us to get 10 songs on a CD. It’s just a matter of getting them all worked out.
Kaitie: Yeah, he’s kind of just got a never-ending supply.
So Dale, you handled most of the writing then?
Dale: Yeah, all of it.
Eric: He writes the lyrics and the music and then we get together and kind of put it together for the arrangement.
Wow, that’s surprising. I figured there were a couple writers, because the stuff on your MySpace is really eclectic. Is that what the new record is going to be like or are you going for something more focused?
Greg: We’ve only got one new one that’s really different from the rest – a ballad.
Kaitie: I think the new record is a little more modern, I would say. The other records kind of dip back into older sounding stuff and this is more modern rock.
Eric: Newer rock.
Those clips on your MySpace – is that new stuff or are those clips of old songs?
Kaitie: We don’t have any new stuff up there yet.
Dale: Well, it’s a combination of things. If you go to our website, garfan.com, you can hear all our songs in one form or another.
Eric: We’ve played these eight new songs live, but we just tracked those in the studio yesterday and today. So there’s nothing studio quality out of it yet, but there’s some live stuff.
When is this record going to come out?
Dale: Hmm, now that’s a good question.
Tentatively, we’ll say.
Kaitie: I think we were maybe shooting for next fall. I remember Dale and I had talked about it.
Dale: Yeah, I hope we have it out and ready in time for the State Fair.
Eric: Well, we only need to track two more songs and then the mix-down and it’s only May. The State Fair is, what, late August, early September?
Are you going to send this record out and see if you can get it picked up by any record labels?
Dale: Oh yeah, definitely.
Any specific ones in mind?
Dale: In fact, our current CD, “Family Affair,” is carried by a small independent label called Neighborhood Records out in Los Angeles.
Ben: They have a thing in Brooklyn too, right?
Dale: Yeah, I think so.
Eric: The Internet has been pretty good to us too. We’ve got sales in Mexico, Japan, Austria, Germany – you can go on and find us at CD Baby, iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster - a whole bunch of ‘em.
Dale: Currently, what I’m doing is I’m looking for some sort of management so I can turn (over) some of these management chores (in terms of the bookings and talking to the bar owners and promoters) so I can stay focused on the music. I’d say management is one of our next steps. Then our goal for next year will be to do a Midwest tour – Kansas City, Des Moines, Minneapolis, that sort of thing. You know, just to expand our market area and our fan base. But for this summer, we will playing shows in Lincoln and Omaha.
Eric: Yeah, we’ve kind of set ourselves up so that we can open for some bigger acts that come to the Quest Center or to one of the casinos. There aren’t a lot of local bands that can open for anyone from Earth, Wind and Fire to Evanescence. We fit right in that niche.
Eric: Garfän. We put the little umlaut over the last “a” and tell people it’s Welsh.
Is it just gibberish?
Dale: No. Well, it sort of is gibberish, I guess.
Eric: It’s Dale’s middle name.
Does it mean something in another language?
Dale: It didn’t originally. But evidently, it’s a city over in Qatar or the United Arab Emirates or somewhere like that. But I’m sure my sister did not know that when she named me.
How did you settle on that as your name?
Eric: Dale said that’s what it was and that was that. He’s not that authoritarian - it’s just that he already had the project going.
Kaitie: It’s his project and we’re all just respectful of that.
So the members you have now just kind of trickled in?
Eric: Yeah, Dale and I did our first show together in 2003.
Ben: I’m the newest member. I joined about three months ago.
But you guys had a bass player before that, right?
Eric: Oh yeah. Greg actually started as of a year ago playing bass. I mean, we’ve seen bass players come and go. I think it’s been three people so far we’ve had on bass. Or well, wait a minute - one, two, three… no, we’re on our fifth bass player now, I guess. (Smiles) They get in clashes with the drummer all the time and leave.
Ben: Yeah, I hate the drummer.
Eric and Dale were the original members then? How did you two know each other?
Eric: Dale and I had played in some cover band stuff a while ago and he was working on material for the first CD, “Borrowed Time.” Then he gave me a call to see if I wanted to work on original music and I said, “Yeah, I’d like to do that.” That’s how Garfän really got started. Then Dale knew some people through other bands.
Greg: I met Dale through a drummer. He was the drummer for the cover band I was in at the time.
Eric: And Kaitie, you’ve been with us for…
Kaitie: Two years? A little over two I think. After I graduated, I just posted on slamomaha.com and Dale called me a couple days later.
Dale, did you write the songs for a female vocalist?
Dale: Actually, no.
Kaitie: We’ve had a couple of arrangement problems, actually.
Dale: Yeah, because most of the songs are written from my point of view and so they weren’t written with a female vocalist in mind. But I try to write the songs somewhat gender non-specific in terms of terminology so that it works that way.
Eric: And I think some of this newer stuff has a little gender tinge for a female.
So “Borrowed Time” was the first album, and then…
Eric: Then we have one more CD out, “Family Affair,” and we’re in the studio recording our third album right now.
Kaitie: We were recording right before this actually – today and yesterday.
How’s that going?
Kaitie: Fantabulous.
Ben: It’s pretty bad a**, yeah.
Eric: Everybody’s pretty happy with it. We have all the mix-downs to do and that kind of stuff but…
Kaitie: It’s a work in progress, but it’s fun.
How many songs are we looking at for this record?
Eric: Well, hopefully 10. We have eight laid down so far, but we think anything less than 10 is…
Kaitie: Sub-par.
Eric: Right. ‘Cause a lot of bands will put out discs that have three to five songs on it.
Ben: People don’t want to spend 10 or 15 bucks on a CD with five songs, ya know?
Eric: And Dale has enough material written and he’s a prolific enough writer that it’s like nothing for us to get 10 songs on a CD. It’s just a matter of getting them all worked out.
Kaitie: Yeah, he’s kind of just got a never-ending supply.
So Dale, you handled most of the writing then?
Dale: Yeah, all of it.
Eric: He writes the lyrics and the music and then we get together and kind of put it together for the arrangement.
Wow, that’s surprising. I figured there were a couple writers, because the stuff on your MySpace is really eclectic. Is that what the new record is going to be like or are you going for something more focused?
Greg: We’ve only got one new one that’s really different from the rest – a ballad.
Kaitie: I think the new record is a little more modern, I would say. The other records kind of dip back into older sounding stuff and this is more modern rock.
Eric: Newer rock.
Those clips on your MySpace – is that new stuff or are those clips of old songs?
Kaitie: We don’t have any new stuff up there yet.
Dale: Well, it’s a combination of things. If you go to our website, garfan.com, you can hear all our songs in one form or another.
Eric: We’ve played these eight new songs live, but we just tracked those in the studio yesterday and today. So there’s nothing studio quality out of it yet, but there’s some live stuff.
When is this record going to come out?
Dale: Hmm, now that’s a good question.
Tentatively, we’ll say.
Kaitie: I think we were maybe shooting for next fall. I remember Dale and I had talked about it.
Dale: Yeah, I hope we have it out and ready in time for the State Fair.
Eric: Well, we only need to track two more songs and then the mix-down and it’s only May. The State Fair is, what, late August, early September?
Are you going to send this record out and see if you can get it picked up by any record labels?
Dale: Oh yeah, definitely.
Any specific ones in mind?
Dale: In fact, our current CD, “Family Affair,” is carried by a small independent label called Neighborhood Records out in Los Angeles.
Ben: They have a thing in Brooklyn too, right?
Dale: Yeah, I think so.
Eric: The Internet has been pretty good to us too. We’ve got sales in Mexico, Japan, Austria, Germany – you can go on and find us at CD Baby, iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster - a whole bunch of ‘em.
Dale: Currently, what I’m doing is I’m looking for some sort of management so I can turn (over) some of these management chores (in terms of the bookings and talking to the bar owners and promoters) so I can stay focused on the music. I’d say management is one of our next steps. Then our goal for next year will be to do a Midwest tour – Kansas City, Des Moines, Minneapolis, that sort of thing. You know, just to expand our market area and our fan base. But for this summer, we will playing shows in Lincoln and Omaha.
Eric: Yeah, we’ve kind of set ourselves up so that we can open for some bigger acts that come to the Quest Center or to one of the casinos. There aren’t a lot of local bands that can open for anyone from Earth, Wind and Fire to Evanescence. We fit right in that niche.
The Star City Blog exclusive featured song is “Deborah,” a song dedicated to Dale’s wife. It’s off of their latest CD, “Family Affair.”
You can check out Garfän at their official website (www.garfan.com) or on MySpace (www.myspace.com/garfanband) and can expect a new CD late this summer or early next fall.
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