The first in-depth q&a style interview with the band you’ll see taking the stage at the St. Paddy Day Half K events in Boise, ID and Ellensburg, WA.
Iron Horse Brewery is tickled to present Guess When. No, don’t guess when. It’s the band, Guess When. This dynamic quartet will rock your socks off in kilts to boot.
The first thing we would like to talk about is why the name Guess When?
According to our founder Jake, the name came on a night of drinking and debating. Guess When was thrown out (a nod to the Guess Who) and it was the only name that everyone could agree on.
So it’s not because you want to keep us guessing when you’re playing. Because we know when – Saturday, March 10th in Boise and Saturday, March 17th in Ellensburg. You can’t fool us.
What’s your style of music for those who can’t “guess”?
We blend traditional Celtic folk tunes (mostly Scottish and Irish) with a variety of other genres, including folk rock, rock, funk, and reggae. For simplicity’s sake we usually call ourselves Celtic Rock.
Sounds like you took a lot of styles, put them in a blender and made a smoothie of awesomeness for our earholes.
Moving on. Because we have a lot of ground to cover. ⅓ of a mile actually during the half k. But we digress, how did Guess When become a band?
Jake is a musician of many talents. He plays a variety of instruments, however his focus had typically been the bass guitar. He also loves to play guitar, mandolin/Irish bouzouki, banjo, and of course Great Highland bagpipes. So he formed a band that would allow him to play those instruments instead of always being on the bass.
What we’re hearing is that you all have time to drink some Irish Death then while Jake carries the show for a couple of songs.
You recently recorded a new album. Tell us about that (because we’re starting to run out of steam on these questions and we want you to do all the talking). But also because we want to know if you’re playing some of the new stuff at our event. Ok now we’re probably going on longer than you will. The floor, er, paragraph space is yours.
We are actually still in process of recording the new album. Our working title is “Holy Ship”. At the moment we have 10 songs we are actively recording and another 10 or so that we have in the works. We’ll make sure to let you know when it is released!
Well that album title fits with your skull and crossbones logo. We also have a skull and crossbones logo… hmm sounds like a partnership that was meant to be. But we could just be three sheets to the wind.
Alright, so spill. How does the band like to Paddy On? Paddy On means celebrate St. Patrick’s Day for those who aren’t in the IHB know.
Getting up on stage and performing for others is our favorite place to be! Seeing folks enjoy our music and get up and dance is a main motivation for us being a band to begin with. Of course good beer is always welcome!
And good beer there shall be. Our favorite Paddy On beers are Irish Death and Double Rainbow. Double Rainbow is like having two pots of gold in your mouth at the same time. Doesn’t that sound fun?
Onto more serious questions our readers are dying to know about. Which marshmallow in the Lucky Charms cereal is the best and why?
Our band’s modus operandi regarding Lucky Charms is to manually remove all of the marshmallows and eat bowls full of only the marshmallows. Each member of the band has his own favorite, but at the end of the day all we care about is that they are marshmallows.
You eat them dry though right, no milk added? We might be having a Lucky Charms DRY eating contest. But it wouldn’t be a bowl of marshmallows. We’d include the crunchy stuff that will make you give up faster.
We’ve noticed your signature stage outfit includes kilts – which are rad- what’s the story there?
The kilts date back to the early days of the band when we were much more traditional. Our founder Jake played in a pipe band and grew to love the kilts because of that. It became a natural step to carry them over to his new project.
Seems like they are optimal for lots of movement on stage.
Alright, final question here. What made you want to pack up everything and drive 6 whole hours in a car or van piled to the ceiling with instruments and snacks to perform at the Ellensburg Half K? Isn’t the Boise one enough?
The experience! It’s a good excuse for a road trip and it also gives us the opportunity to visit our favorite brewery (Irish Death ftw!) for the first time!
Good answer. Beer for you.
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