Eitan Gallant talks about staying funky with HalfDozenDown
Adam A. Donaldson: What does the name “HalfDozenDown” mean?
Eitan “Tunny” Gallant: It’s open to interpretation. It was originally suggested by a friend in passing and we all took our own thing from it and we thought it was catchy. Now when people ask us, everybody’s got a different reason.
What’s your reason?
We try to say that we’re influenced by hip-hop, funk-rock, and folk-reggae jam, so six genres. But my thing is when a positive conscious revolution started happening, it didn’t start with a lot of people, it started with a handful of people; so just the arbitrary number six, a half dozen. I called up my friends and I said, ‘Hey everybody, I want to save the world,’ and only six people responded the first time but now it’s grown in numbers.
How did you start out as a musician?
I’ve always listened to music and I played guitar growing up. I wrote my first rap on September 13th, 2001. I can remember that because I was in chemistry class and it was based on September 11th. It was called ‘Protest’. Then in March 2005, I saw an ad hanging out in Vinyl and Van Gogh’s and it said ‘Battle of the Bands, Auditions welcome.’ So I went home and got my guitar and went back to the Vinyl and played for the judges with acoustic guitar and harmonica around my neck. They loved it and said, ‘You’re in the battle, now all you need is a band.’ I knew Dave, Luke and Paul, we jammed once before that and I went back to them and said, ‘Hey, there’s a Battle of the Bands in two weeks, do you want to put together a show?’ So we taught each other some songs and grabbed a few covers.
I see your band’s name everywhere now. Would you say that you guys are a word of mouth band?
It’s definitely becoming that; a lot of the people coming out to our shows are friends of friends of friends. The circle’s just been broadening as we go along. It’s all a tight knit little circle. When we started I was just like, ‘Let’s do this right now’. It definitely went way better and we’ve been way more accepting than I thought.
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HalfDozenDown also plays a lot of charity benefits.
Yeah, when we started we played a few shows and I guess people picked up on the message we were trying to deliver. Generally, I will always say yes to a fundraiser unless there’s some kind of scheduling conflict, but that’s why we’re doing it, it’s for that reason, to spread the love. And people are recognizing our name more, they say, ‘Hey I know people know your name so would you mind coming out to this fundraiser so that we can attract more people?’ and that’s totally flattering and I’m not going to say no to that kind of thing.
Who are the influences on your music?
I’d say that amongst the seven of us a few common musicians would have been Bob Marley, Phish, the Roots for sure. For me personally, Conscious MCs, Lauryn Hill was pretty big, and as I said before Bob Marley, everything Bob Marley’s ever done. I just recently got into Radiohead big time – also Mos Def. The really popularized music too also influences us to take our music in other directions.
Is there a theme to your writing and your music? I ask because HalfDozenDown is a socially conscious band. Not at all, the majority of the musicians that I play with are totally talented and I feel very honoured to play with them and be a part of it, they’re unbelievable. We’ve added two new members lately that have added so much in terms of jamming and improvisation. I think that everyone is proud to support a message, but if I wasn’t saying what I’m saying then it would be as conscious a thing I guess. The words are a coincidence that fit well with the music. Every time I put my pen to paper or put the mic to my lips because I’m trying broaden my freestyle horizons, it’s just kind of like whatever’s happening; I get influenced by every facet of life.
Sometimes it can pose a problem for practicing, but in terms of shows I bring it to the guys and we try to make the show work. Sometimes it’s easier than other times, but it varies between individual band members in terms of level of priority. Some of us are pretty gung ho and into it. |
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You guys have submitted yourselves for consideration into Hillside Festival this year, what do you think your chances are?
I’m trying to be as hopeful as possible. I think that we will be well received because Hillside has some very positive and ethical values and I feel that people will definitely dig what we do and we’ll have a lot of fun. Realistically, I don’t know what our chances are, because thousands of submissions are given and only 40 are chosen to play. So I’m keeping a very positive hope until I find out yes or no. But at the same time, I know a lot of amazing bands that will never play Hillside because of the competition for it.
Where do you want to go with your music?
I personally want to take it as far as possible, whether it’s with HalfDozenDown or another group of musicians or however it turns out, I’m never going to stop and I know that other members of the band feel the same way. Whether it’s a hobby or it’s a profession, I can’t predict the future and we’re still pretty young but I’m hopeful for as much as possible. I just want to broaden our audience and play for new people and get the opportunity for feedback for many, many more people.
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