Band Bios
John Roderick
My name is John Roderick and I am the songwriter and guitarist in the Long Winters. I grew up in Anchorage, AK, which is a drowsy little city, perched on the very lip of the civilized world. Like most small American towns, Anchorage is a conservative and insular little shithole, but because it’s surrounded on all sides by Alaska it has the good fortune to be a jumping-off point for every kind of maniac and outlaw, and it was from these salty characters that I learned all the truly important life-lessons: keep your powder dry, know a good Audi mechanic, and never feed your dogs first. As an American teenager I was only dimly aware of how stupid I was until I got out into the world and saw it for myself.
I love making records and playing music—it’s a pretty good life for a person like me—and I’m lucky to have played with some great musicians. I’m a little bit of a dictator, maybe, and I have a sharp tongue, but to balance it out I’m also paranoid and greedy. Still, there are so many people in the world, (6.4 billion) that even an unlikable and grouchy little Napoleon like me is able to find plenty of talented musicians to be in his band.
Eric Corson
Bass and harmony vocals: ‘01-present
Eric Corson grew up in Kent, WA and joined the Long Winters in 2001, after the recording of The Worst You Can Do is Harm, and has been with the band through all our subsequent adventures. He showed up to his first audition fresh off an Alaskan fishing boat, having learned all our songs on a five-string acoustic guitar. He was really young looking and super-quiet, so we immediately began subjecting him to the constant harassment and intimidation that is our trademark, calculated to either break his spirit or forge him into an iron-willed bass-warrior. Over the last few years he’s been hardened by touring and by the constant verbal firestorm, becoming a sarcastic and wiry bastard who can sleep standing up in a corner and who could play bass under sustained machine-gun fire. Even better, Eric’s become a great harmony vocalist, surprising everyone with his excellent singing and dramatic seizing of the moment. Basically, Eric is the heart and soul of the band and, although he was a little under-done when he was 25, he’s now a complete badass.
Mike Squires
Guitar/keys: ’05
Mike Squires grew up in the rural backwater of Granite Falls, WA and is a longtime Seattle musician who has played guitar and bass in a variety of bands including the Nevada Bachelors, hippy-jazzoids Romadrosis, and Duff McKeagan’s Loaded. Recently returned from a two-year stint delivering coffee in Portland, OR, Mike brings to the Long Winters his Vegas-style showmanship and his crack Marine Corps typing-pool discipline. Mike’s association with the Long Winters goes back to the very start, when he recorded both the guitar and bass parts on the song “Scent of Lime”, but because of the extremely strict conditions of his parole he was unable to tour with the band before now. A born collector, Mike “wows” them at parties with his lengthy discourses about Iron Maiden and Pedro the Lion vinyl, and he will also ramble incoherently about the merits of various vintage chorus effects pedals until even the most die-hard guitar wanker loses the feeling in his hands.
Nabil Ayers
Drums: ’05
www.sonicboomrecords.com
Nabil Ayers, from Salt Lake City, UT is the newest member of the Long Winters but has played in many Seattle bands over the years including the Lemons, Micro Mini, and Alien Crime Syndicate. Nabil is also co-owner of Sonic Boom Records, a hipster music chain that hires a lot of cool kids who silently judge you while you shop, and he puts out records himself on his Control Group record label. He’s a great drummer and promises to be a calming and stabilizing presence in the band, mostly because he’s so busy sending emails on his Blackberry that he completely misses most of the conversation and ends up agreeing with everyone. Nabil has been called the “nicest man in Seattle rock”, which should tell you what a kiss-ass, suck-up he is, but in a band that has featured as many disagreeable sons-a-bitches as the Long Winters, it’s nice to finally have a smoothie.
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Members Emeritus
Sean Nelson
Keyboards and harmony vocals: ’00-’04
www.seannelson.net
Sean was a founding member of the Long Winters, was instrumental in the recording of the first record and acted as consigliore and Minister without Portfolio throughout much of the first two years of the band. Better known as the singer of late-nineties alt-rock heroes Harvey Danger, he is also an accomplished journalist, actor, and radio personality (on Seattle’s KEXP), and now is functioning as a corporate sell-out in some indefinable job at the Microsoft Corp. Sean began threatening to leave the Long Winters immediately upon joining the band and could often be seen scowling at the rest of us and scribbling furious notes in his ever present journal, giving the distinct impression of recording for posterity each and every mean thing that was ever said to or about him. Sean’s sense of humor, both on stage and off, infused every porous surface in the band and has proved very difficult to remove, despite the use of scouring pads and the purchase of Christmas tree air-fresheners now numbering in the dozens.
Michael Shilling
Drums: ’01-’04
michaelshilling.com
Michael was the original Long Winters drummer, the Enforcer, fact-checker, anxious back-seat driver, and alternating foil for everyone else. A fiction writer, Michael was employed for many years in the time-honored fashion of fiction writers—writing advertising copy—but has now gone straight and is in the graduate writing program at Ann Arbor. He was a real stabilizing influence in the early years of the band because he was equally irritated at everyone and hence inspired a real feeling of community among the rest of us. His erudition and mannered deportment infused us with a literary and cultured air, in contrast to his aggressive drumming which greatly “rockified” our show and began the tradition of our live performances being “interpretations” of our CD’s. The rigors of touring, particularly in Europe, the low pay, and the intolerable snoring of certain other members of the band ultimately convinced Michael that his literary ambitions were worthy of more constant attention, and he left the band in early 2004. He has been published in numerous literary magazines, including the Sun, and is at work on a novel.
Chris Canigula
Keyboards: ’01-’03
www.thepit-nyc.com/classes.html
Chris was the first member of the Long Winters touring band, signing on as keyboardist, (an instrument he was just beginning to play), after the completion of the first record, moving from New York to Seattle in the process. A constant source of trouble and ‘angry white guy’ hilarity, Chris was widely credited, within the band, with having held the whole unit together during the tumultuous first few tours. Wickedly funny, anti-authoritarian, and unapologetically racist and sexist, (rooted in his fear of the “other”, and in his latent homosexuality), Chris made the hours between thankless gigs in bomb shelters and cesspools seem like extended comedy jams, and many all-night drives turned into five-hour improvisations. As boring and irritating as that may sound, it was really quite great. The protected atmosphere of the van unleashed a comedy dynamo that none of us, not even Chris, knew existed, and soon we were all encouraging him to pursue stand-up comedy as his true calling, not the least of which was because his keyboard playing never really improved. He took us at our word and in the summer of 2003 departed again for New York with a renewed sense of purpose. Now teaching “Intro to Improv” at the People’s Improv Theater, Chris can be found performing improv and stand-up, as well as waiting tables, in the Big Apple.
Chris Walla
Producer and multi-instrumentalist: ’01-’03
www.hallofjusticerecording.com
Mr. Walla had already made a name for himself by early 2000 as a recording engineer and producer for his work on the first two Death Cab for Cutie records and he was eagerly recording other bands and experimenting with new projects. He seized on the as-yet-unnamed Long Winters project, quickly becoming a de-facto member of the group as well as the producer and Svengali, and imparted to the recording his now distinctive style of intricate production as well as his many talents as guitarist/pianist/arranger. Unfortunately, his commitments to Death Cab, as well as his insistence on eating only Veggie Lunchables and birdseed, prohibited his becoming a touring member of our band- as much as we all talked about it and tried to make it work- but he was again behind the board for the recording of “When I Pretend To Fall”. His contributions to that record are at the core of its unique sound and, although he handed off the production to Ken Stringfellow halfway due to previous commitments, his work on it is instantly recognizable and characteristic of his creativity and boldness. He is currently becoming a household name.
Ken Stringfellow
Producer and multi-instrumentalist: ’03
www.theposies.net
Ken ‘joined’ the Long Winters when we backed him up on tour to support his album ‘Touched’. He took over the harmony vocal duties when Sean was unable to join us on the first leg of the tour, and for two nights he actually sang lead vocals for the Long Winters, reading the lyrics from the album liner notes. In addition to impressing us every night with his seasoned and worldly professionalism, Ken also taught us how to drink the blood of teenage girls, and gave us a firsthand look at the kind of depravity a lifetime in “rock music” can produce. At the end of the Touched tour we started work in the studio with Chris Walla and Ken was a familiar presence there, butting in, rolling his eyes, and offering unsolicited advice. Ultimately Ken took over the producer’s chair and was a champion of the lush sound that characterizes that album. He also played and sang on several songs, cementing his status as Long Winter emeritus. Today, Ken can be found living in Paris with his wife, Dominique and newborn daughter, when he’s not on tour with the Posies, REM, Big Star, Three Dog Night, or to support his own solo records.
Michael Schorr
Drums: spring ’04
We met Michael Schorr when he was the drummer of Death Cab for Cutie and were impressed by the fact that he was both a very good drummer and a very difficult and dangerous-seeming person. We followed his exploits carefully after he left DCFC and noted with some satisfaction that he was an enormous fan of prog-rock, a tournament player of first-person video games, and an exponent of Windows-based computer solutions. In his short tenure with the band he brought a new and awesome commitment to rhythmic propulsion, (“I have no knowledge of melodic instruments…”—Michael Schorr), as well as nearly doubling the number of competent drivers in the band. He was the only eighteenth-level magic user with a +21 charisma to have been in the Long Winters and also represents a thousand-fold increase in the number of band members who have ever lived in Chico, Ca. The only downside to Michael’s time in the band is that his and Eric’s conversations about 3-D Graphics programming acted as one of the most powerful sedatives known to man.
Darius Minwalla
Drums: summer ’04
www.theposies.net
Darius joined the Long Winters for the Capitol Hill Street Fair in July ’04 and played several shows with the band including a surprise show at the Comet Tavern and an outdoor show in Lacey, Washington. Darius is perhaps best known as the drummer of the Posies, but he also plays in the Preston School of Industry, and is generally considered one of the nicest, cutest, and most retarded people in the whole Seattle music community. Although he only played with the Long Winters for a half a dozen shows, those shows will be remembered as truly memorable in the memory, if for no other reason than that it means a majority (5 out of 9) of present and former Posies have appeared or recorded with the Long Winters. Yikes!
Darren Loucas
Guitar: spring ’04
www.darrenloucas.com
Darren is an excellent guitarist and multi-instrumentalist who joined us for the Nada Surf tour in the early spring of 2004. He has his own band, Juke, and performs with the Jelly Rollers and as a solo singer/guitarist. Darren once won the coveted “Best Blues Guitarist” award, or something like that, from the Northwest Blues Society, or whatever. He also plays guitar in various side-projects with Sean Nelson and Sweet Hereafter bassist Bill Herzog, including “’Tommy’ all the way through”, their recent performance of the entire Who record front to back, which was amazing. Darren has recently returned from his first trip to Israel, which by all accounts changed his life, and he is now shopping for a complete second set of dishes and cutlery.
