Ahren Buchheister is a busy, busy man. He plays in five, possibly six, bands of his own. Plays gigs with others. Records on any number of instruments, guitar, bass, mandolin, dobro, pedal steel, violin, more?
The Annapolis High School grad is now 31 and is doing what he does, all day every day.
His band Pompeii Graffiti, plays Saturday at Eastport A Rockin’.
Spotlight: What do you do in your spare time?
Buchheister: “I like to work, that’s all I like to do. When I am driving somewhere I am thinking about how I want to go home and record something or write a new song. Or it’s, ‘Oh,man I forgot to send someone this file.’
I do a lot of recording here at home as a session player. People send me a file and I record stuff into it and email it back. I am playing something different almost every day. Every day I fiddle with a lot of different things. The other night I was working sound at Dirty Dave’s Tiki Bar.
I am running sound, teaching lessons, recording albums. Just finished something with Diving Horses. I just worked on a single by Alex Peters, that has got some play on WTMD and we are doing another one.
And my band Doc Pine, that’s like outlaw rockabilly – but with sci fi and aliens and stuff. (But of course.) And there are the obligatory songs about drinking and women and stuff. We are working on something new.
And Black Rhinoceros, my duo with cellist Erin Snedecor – who is also in Pompeii Graffiti and the quartet DoubleSpeak – will have a new EP shortly. We’re playing Harvest Wood Grill and Tap (in Annapolis) on June 20th.
And Double Speak, the modern chamber music ensemble. It’s contemporary — almost classical — more accessible.We have a video coming out June 26. It’s an eight or nine-minute piece with a dance ensemble that we worked on for a year.
And Pompeii Graffiti has a new EP coming out as soon as I finish it. We are playing Eastport A Rockin’ next week.
When I look at all the projects I have worked on in the past year. It is all so different. It is all very exciting.
It’s like people give me a blank canvas. And the music is all over the map.
Spotlight: All those bands and there’s more?
Buchheister: Well, yeah. We work hard. We hold ourselves to high standard. A lot of bands show up play a gig and say ‘Seeya next time.’ We play the gig. Then it’s, ‘Alright what do we need to work on for next time?’
What can we tighten up to make it just a little better? Not because we think we are great but we want to be better.
I guess writing music is the thing I am most proud of. I think of all the music I wanted to make and never thought I could. But it’s happening.
And I teach a lot, privately. I did work at School of Rock, for about five years, it was fun.
One of my students, Jesse Kirchner, I guess I started teaching him when he was 16 or 17. He did all the band programs there. Now he’s in my band.
It’s like I was. I played bass in my teacher’s band. That was Ruben Dobbs, my first guitar teacher, his band was Velvet Thud.
And now tonight I have a gig covering for him. I have to learn 10 songs for tonight.
The music scene is a bit incestuous, but in a good way.Everyone is playing with everyone else. Some people are in five or six bands.So this bass player is in four bands and his doctor told him to take time off because he has tendonitis. Well, that left four bands, literally, scrambling to find someone to cover their gigs.
If one person gets hurt it can really affect the whole musical ecosystem
Spotlight: When did you get started?
Buchheister: I started playing violin in 5th grade. I was never very good, but I still fool some people.
I was born in Philadelphia. Me dad was a Navy aviator and we moved a lot. When I was in the 6th grade they settled here. It was good. I was lucky to have some stability after years of ‘Dude, you’re my best friend but I am never going to see you again.’
I was serious about music and I had a hard time finding peers to play with. They were all smoking dope, going to the mall and talking about playing music. Well, I didn’t want to smoke dope, I didn’t want to go to the mall and I wanted to play music, not talk about it.
I started Pompeii Graffiti in like 2005, I am the only original member. But the drummer and keyboard player are in a new band with me called Ambien Blackout. I hope we don’t get too big we might get sued.
Spotlight: So it’s not all about being famous?
Buchheister: I do it for the sake of doing it. It’s fun. It’s crazy, but I love it.
I don’t want to be famous and I don’t think its going to happen. And I am not banking on it.
We played in Alexandria last week . There were only like 20 people there. But many of them came up and said,’Dude, who are you guys? How are you not famous?.’ I was like ‘What?’
Then we play a show to a full house and no one cares at all, but it looks cool. And on social media there’s like two people who care.
There are seven billion people on this planet, and if one half of one percent of them like your band, that’s a lot of people.
