Since having formed a punk quartet (Chicago’s Verbӧten, featuring Dave Grohl’s cousin Tracey Bradford on vocals) as a precocious 10-year-old, multi-instrumentalist Jason Narducy has kept busy with other bands (most notably Verbow) and as an in-demand sideman with the likes of Bob Mould, Superchunk and Robert Pollard. He’s also releasing his first solo record under the Split Single moniker, Fragmented World (Inside Outside). Narducy will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.
Narducy: I got dropped from Epic Records following the second Verbow record and needed to find a way to make money. I started a house-painting company and named it Inside Outside Painting Co. The name was inspired by the chorus of the Who’s “5:15,” and it answered the question painting companies are often asked: “Do you paint interiors or exteriors?” I still own it, and we do pretty well for a little painting company.
Over the years, many musicians have worked for me. In 2003, a painter named Keith, who sported a healthy pompadour, once admitted to me that he slept on Morrissey’s lawn in hopes of seeing the elusive crooner. I knew at that moment I could not tell Keith I toured with Moz as his support act. Keith’s head might explode. We painted at some schools in Evanston, Ill., and I noticed that Keith would write the name of his band in small letters on the classroom chalkboards. Seemed like a hopeless way to promote his band to me. Was he hoping to garner interest from the seven-to-12-year-old demographic? Would these kids even know what that word on the chalkboard meant? Wouldn’t the custodial crew erase the band name before the students even walked into the room??
Months after Keith had left my company to work elsewhere, he called me looking for advice. He’d been contacted by a band from the U.K. using the same band name, and they wanted exclusive use of it to release their first album in the U.S. I told him they should write him a big check, and I put him in touch with a music lawyer who could help broker a deal. Keane wrote Keith a check for $25,000. At the time, I thought that was a pretty hefty number for Keane to shell out. But I just watched Todd Barry’s Crowd Work tour-video download in which he interacts with a San Diego musician who sold his band name, Sleeper, for $125,000. Now I feel like Keane got a good deal.
Anyone want the name Split Single?