Breakin’ It Down with Bella’s Bartok

If you’ve never listened to Bella’s Bartok, stop what you’re doing right now. Put down the paper. Run to the nearest computer and listen to their uproarious, joyful, eclectic sound. The band plays a mesmerizing mix of Eastern European, Americana, punk, and pop music. Their live shows are theatrical, “a mix of The Nightmare Before Christmas and the Rocky Horror Picture Show” says frontman Asher Putnam, who Carousel recently got the chance to interview.

The theatrical aspect began with the boys busking on the street. They couldn’t afford amps, so they reached into their crust-punk sensibilities to attract attention. “Thankfully we grew out of that,” says Putnam, who speaks in a soft voice with a slightly clipped pattern of speech (he is the grandson of Eastern European immigrants). “We all met [Chris Kerrigan, guitar and clarinet; Dan Niederhauser, bass; and Crisco, drums] at UMass originally. Except for Amory [Drennan], the trombone player; we went to high school together. We’re from Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Our most recent addition, even though it’s been over a year now, is our trumpet player [Gershon Rosen], who we met on the scene, thankfully.”

Asher took classes in ethnomusicology at UMass, and about half the band shares his Eastern European roots. Their name and combination of Eastern European folk and Americana did not come by accident, nor is their name just a fun music pun. “Bela Bartok is the Alan Lomax of Eastern Europe,” says Asher. “He was hunting Roma music, Jewish music, and Hungarian mountain folk music before World War I, which started getting popular with gypsy jazz or hot jazz - whatever you want to call it - in the interwar period. He kept that stuff alive. Kind of like how Alan Lomax did with blues musicians of the South and Appalachia. We bring a lot of klezmer and Roma music in as well, and Americana music too, since we are American kids. Just with funny-accented grandparents. We try to bring them together, meld the Americana and Eastern European music, with a pop sensibility.”

TRIPLE CITIES CAROUSEL: Do you find that the two types of music have similarities? Was it easy to put those two types of music together?

ASHER PUTNAM: It’s the people’s music. The lyrics are based in and around the stories told, kind of tongue-in-cheek political music. A lot of Americana music is talking about class and race relations. It’s the stuff we wish to bring to the fore. I think that’s how those two inspirations complement each other. Very punk, for lack of a better word.

TCC: Especially in modern folk music, it seems like that aspect is lacking. If you go back and listen to early Bob Dylan, and even earlier folk music, a lot of the time the lyrics are focused on the issues of the day. It seems like a lot of bands that call themselves folk now that just sing about love and loss, and miss that aspect of social critique.

AP: Yeah, totally. And don’t get me wrong, I do love a good love song but it’s like: working people’s rights, indigenous people’s rights - Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger’s stuff is moving to me.

TCC: It seems to me that Bella’s Bartok wants to preserve that, to keep that tradition going.

AP: Yeah, totally. If you listen to the Carolina Chocolate Drops they definitely bring that aspect in their lyrics and musicality. We’ve played a couple of festivals with them, and they’re definitely pushing back.

TCC: What’s interesting to you about preserving this style of music, and what role has theatre played in its evolution?

AP: The theatre and music are blended together. The commercialization of our theatre and music in general, for lack of a better word, whitewashes everything. It all begins to sound the same. It’s not just us; there’s a bunch of groups out there combining those lost aspects, ignored by mainstream music and art and performance and theatre. But I think it's there, and I think it’s important to preserve it. We get reactions from crowds of all types. Festival types - once the crew catches onto what we’re doing- the jam band scene, the punk scene, older folks, and kids. As this one older guy said, ‘You have this primitive bounce that everyone can get behind,’ and I thought to myself, ‘Yeah, I can get down with folk bounce.’

TCC: I’m interested in how you view the music scene.

AP: There are growing bands that are bringing theatricality to performance that we’re growing with, bands like This Way to the Egress and Hayley Jane and the Primates. But in Massachusetts, New England, it’s folk and dream-pop, alternative, and a new wave of grunge. Those crews have a good solid scene with many different bands that are a part of it in many different levels. We’re kind of on our own on in that, so we’re trying to build community with other types of artists. We’ve been trying to skew more towards dance bands, and that seems to work.

We’re really trying to build community, to ensure our far-left-than-center politics and protocols are followed in the pit. We try to ensure that women are comfortable, and people of color aren’t being crushed by dude-bros. We’re not a mosh-pit band; we’re a dance band. I think that pit etiquette has fallen off in the last couple of years. We want a safe place, a place where people can forget about the day and work whatever they need to work out with us.

TCC: I saw on your website that you’ve broken multiple dance floors. Can you tell me a story about one of those experiences?

AP: Yeah, we just broke one three weeks ago, but one comes to mind. There was this place called The Hinge in Northampton. We were playing our second show there. There were over 120 people, and the max cap was 118, and for good reason. It was kind of like an old mill building kind of thing. We were playing, and we saw the floor was moving like an ocean wave. The dance floor was on the second floor of the club. If we had gone on two more songs the floor would have failed, and a lot of people would have been hurt. But thankfully those old beams held.

TCC: It seems to me that you think that politics does have a place in music, especially traditionally. What do you think of today’s political scene, and how music can affect that?

AP: It’s a pedestal, that we as musicians and artists are put on. It’s a privilege to do what I do. It’s hard work, but without the people who come to our shows, we’re nothing, really, at all. But with the pedestal, we have to be accountable for our actions, and the people who associate with us, and the people in the scene. It’s important that when you see instances of injustice - when you have a mic, when you have a pedestal, when you have a certain following on Facebook or at festivals - I think it's important for us to express that. To let people know that we are anti-racist and pro-queer. A lot of our loved ones would be harmed if policies head in the way they have for the last 15 years. We’re not a fan of federal government. But local government? That’s all us. Community? That’s all us.

Bella’s Bartok takes the stage with at Ransom Steele Tavern on Friday, November 3, with local gems Big Mean Sound Machine. The show starts at 8pm, and doors open at 7. You’re going to want to get your tickets early, as this show is going to be kick-ass. Get ready to dance your booty off. More information about the show at ransomsteeletavern.com, and more information about the band at bellasbartok.com.