Certain television shows become national phenomena, fueling water cooler conversation and bridging the gap between strangers that can only be otherwise traversed by the benign and universal topics of weather and sports.
Then there is the next level: programs that become cult obsessions, spawning conventions and cottage industries in their wake. ABC's Lost has joined the ranks of Star Trek and Twin Peaks, and its reverberations are being felt right here in the Valley.
Easthampton's The Others takes its name and premise from the "bad guys" on this hit television series, now in its fourth season. The group records a song for and about each episode, and usually has it on the band website for public consumption within days of that show's airdate.
The songs detail the trials and travails of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 after it crash-landed on an island rife with mysterious powers. Rabid Lost fans around the globe are connecting with the music, and some have been inspired to produce accompanying videos.
We spoke with one of these shadowy Others via satellite phone.
The Valley Advocate: Describe the concept behind the band. Why Lost?
Shannon Purcell: The concept of The Others is to write and record a song about Lost for every new episode and have it online by the time the next episode airs. That's pretty much it. We just kind of started casually in the middle of season two when Gabe and I were hanging out writing songs for our band The Thungs, and we realized we were both kind of hooked on Lost, so we wrote some songs about it. It sounds weird, but The Thungs have always written a lot about pop culture, and the songs just came really easy and it was fun to write songs from the different characters' points of view. The overall weirdness and mystery of the show just work really well for our songwriting. After that, people were making fan videos for our songs on YouTube (the first one was by a kid in the U.K.), and we were getting a lot of hits on our Myspace page, so when Season three started, I thought it would be cool to have a companion song for every episode as the season progressed.
Who is in The Others? Is this essentially a Thungs side project?
The Others is Gabe Sullivan on vocals, Eric Lee on violin, Blake Girndt on drums, Tommy Foster on bass, and I write the songs, play guitar and sing. It is basically a Thungs side-project, but during the Lost season, it kind of becomes the main project because it's a song a week.
Are you taking copious notes when you watch the show?
I do take notes when I watch the episodes, but they're not exhaustive. I really try to not make the songs a play-by-play of what happened—I mean, people saw the episode. I like to jot down a hook or cool phrase that someone said that might make a good lyric. Or any Easter eggs that I think fans might have caught and find cool in a song. Also, one of my rules is that I write each song about whomever that episode's "centric" character is. So if it's a Hurley flashback (or forward), then the song's about Hurley. So when he's not on screen, I can sit back and relax. Of course, the way the show has been lately, all these things become a little blurred.
Any live shows planned?
Yeah. We've been playing four or five Others songs live, so Thungs shows are kind of half Others shows. We played at the Sierra Grille on Valentine's Day, and since most Others songs are love songs, we played a bunch of them. We are also talking with Mark Sheehan about an Others show at the Sierra Grille in conjunction with the season finale, where we would show the episode and then play live. It will be a lot of fun. We're also playing at The Iron Horse on March 6.
Who's your favorite Lost character?
I have my personal faves that I like to write about. Desmond, Hurley and Charlie (R.I.P.) make for good songs. Any character with a complex emotional arc works really well. I like to focus on the emotions of the show, and not too much of the mythology of it. I know Gabe has a huge crush on Claire, and our crazy bald drummer Blake loves crazy bald hatch-killer John Locke.
Are you guys bummed or relieved that there are only eight episodes this season?
We're bummed. We are really big fans of the show, and even though a long season is pretty grueling, it's so much fun. A long season allows us to work in so many different styles and moods of songwriting. I mean, last season we wrote a lullaby for the Juliet episode. We try to make every song really different. We definitely hope the writer's strike ends soon.
Check out Others songs at myspace.com/theotherslostband.
