WL 371 - Sunday, July 15 - 10pm
Purveyor of: Chuck Jones and Pink Floyd-inspired music that couldn’t look or sound less like either.

Having wet his feet by touring and recording with such acts as the Fembots, Hylozoists, Cuff the Duke, and his brother Paul, Rich Aucoin has decided it’s time to try something of his own. The result is a lush, warm EP that intentionally syncs up directly with Chuck Jones’ animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Aucoin’s tour behind the project has become even more anachronistic with his decision to bike from date to date spread out across the country. Doug Nayler cruelly forced Aucoin to ignore the muscle spasms in his legs long enough to answer some questions out on the road.

How have your experiences touring/recording with acts like Cuff the Duke, the Fembots, and the Hylozoists prepared you to record and tour behind your own material?

It was great playing with The Hylozoists and the FemBots and hanging out with the Cuff the Duke guys on that tour last year. I got to see Canada (though it was blurry because it went by so quickly). I was "shown the ropes" so to speak too and see what it's like to play constantly and to different crowds and all that. I'm really glad to have had that experience before this one. That being said, this tour is a whole different kettle of fish with its different challenges and such (namely all that biking!).

Did you draw much on your brother Paul for this album?

Paul is and will always be a huge influence on me and my music. I'm not sure how much of his influence is directly drawn in my compositions, but you can definitely hear our mutual love for melody, percussion and that wonderful vibraphone instrument.

Where did the idea of using Chuck Jones' How the Grinch Stole Christmas come about?

From experiencing Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon with The Wizard of Oz, I decided to make a sync myself, and How The Grinch Stole Christmas became the perfect choice because of its length and its message. I was planning on making a "short-list" of syncs but it was the first one I looked into and it seemed perfect instantly so there was no need.

How exactly did you proceed with scoring the EP to the cartoon? Were the songs written first and then massaged to fit, or was it explicitly written to the cartoon?

I had some "songs" or ideas (chords and lyrics and some melodies) that were more advanced than others, but for the most part I just watched the film a bunch of times and then started to use the ideas I had and arranged it to fit the film and as things progressed, lyrics were written and arrangements were all made to fit the film perfectly so that there are just over 150 syncs in the 26min film/EP mash-up.

What do you hope to achieve by touring via bicycle?

I was hoping to tour in a different way since I'm just a one-man band and I didn't think the bike thing had been done in the way I'm doing it before. Plus I wanted to "see" Canada more than the fast-paced blur of the last touring experience. I've always been a fan of doing shows for charity as I've always enjoyed the experience as a patron to attend a charity show and both be entertained and feel like I've helped some situation. So, by raising money for cancer research I'm hoping to spread the word about the wonderful organization that is The Childhood Cancer Foundation and raise as much money as I can for them at the same time.

What's been most difficult/most rewarding in doing a bicycle tour?

The long hours on the bike are quite difficult and so is biking through the "elements," but despite all the things I've biked through thunder and lightning storms, 8hr downpours, hail storms, endless wind days, loitering bee days, bike break downs, bike break downs, bike break downs. I've found that the difficulties just make the good parts that much sweeter; so your "/" says it all right there.

How has using the tour to raise funds for the Childhood Cancer Foundation worked out?

Good; I've been happy with how much has been raised so far. I've learned that it's tough work soliciting donations though and that, sometimes, the biking is the easy part. It's not really a "build it and they will come" situation as, after doing all the biking each day, I still gotta send emails out and try to get the word out there constantly for more people to donate.

Has anyone ever confused you with Massachusetts Libertarian politician Rich Aucoin? Would it upset you if someone did?

Funny thing about that; Grant Lawrence said, "check out RichAucoin.com for more details" during a podcast that I was a part of on CBCRadio3 and so a bunch of people emailed in and said that they found that guy; who's definitely not me!

I emailed him a while ago too asking if I could purchase the domain name off him but he refused unfortunately. I constantly ask myself, "He's government, why can't he take .org?!"

By Doug Nayler