Airport Beers with Craig Graziano, a Through Line in Fredericksburg
Airport Beers is an interview series. The following is an interview between Bryan Harvey and Craig Graziano, a musician, actor, and sometimes librarian:
Bryan Harvey: You’ve lived in Fredericksburg a long time. What’s your favorite way to enter downtown, or how do you know after leaving downtown that you’re home again?
Craig Graziano: It all depends on where I’m coming from, but typically I’ll take the Falmouth bridge to Princess Anne in when driving south to Fredericksburg.
A couple years ago I worked with the city and other residents and business owners to help revitalize that corridor. The area is now called Canal Quarter and has been re-zoned for mixed-use businesses, with a focus on art and artisanal trades. It was very gratifying to be a part of that initiative. Princess Anne St has so much wonderful early twentieth century architecture and business signage that is sometimes forgotten in comparison to the 18th and 19th century landmarks. There are a lot of new businesses there which is so gratifying to see.
Driving north, I most likely take William St. into town, passing by the UMW campus and the neighborhood my family lives. I grew up in Spotsylvania, but as soon as we moved to that house it immediately felt like home to me.
BH: Is there music that upon hearing has immediately felt like home to you?
CG: I grew up attending a lot of local concerts in Fredericksburg, first as a teenage fan and later as a performer and a collaborator with Fredericksburg All Ages. There are so many bands and artists from that period that remind me of Fredericksburg. My absolute favorite from when I was a teenager was Poseur Bill, which was a high energy mix of hardcore punk and bubblegum pop.
Also, “Rumble” by Link Wray is probably the recording that comes to mind the most if I had to think of a definitive Fredericksburg track. Wray played it impromptu at an early 1960’s sock-hop in Fredericksburg after the crowd requested a single by his backing band that he did not know. The instrumental track is the first rock song to use a power chord, which is the basis of all hard rock, including punk and metal.
BH: So how do you get from there to Trash Rocket?
CG: Oh that is a long story. I will say that Trash Rocket is an incredibly special collaboration for all of us. It’s the second band that I have been in with Monster Bonecrusher (guitar/vox). Our first band together was The Crypts which ended about seven years ago. It feels comforting and very cathartic to be playing music with her again.
It is also the second band that Monster has been in with her songwriting partner, Hodge Critzer (bass/vox). She and Hodge started working together on some of her solo work, then the band Puff Yeah, which eventually became Trash Rocket when their keyboardist and drummer both left at the end of 2021. I soon joined on keys and vocals, Mikey Golas joined us on drums, followed by Lucky on tambourine.
Trash Rocket is a project where we’re all stepping outside our comfort zones in some way. I have never played an instrument before last year and am really enjoying that challenge. Hodge is learning how to mix our recordings and is singing for the first time for a project. All of Monster’s songs are very personal to her and some are very intense. I’m so proud of her and incredibly honored that I even get to play with her and these talented folk.
BH: Who drew or designed the band’s logo?
CG: Monster designed our logo. In addition to playing music, she is a talented visual artist and doll-maker. Here’s her Etsy page.
BH: Why record the album in Richmond?
CG: That decision was entirely so that Matt Luger could record us. Matt and I were in a band called Humungo Ginormous in college. He also recorded every album for The Crypts, as well as Monster’s solo album and Puff Yeah’s EP. He’s so knowledgeable and just delightful to work with. We recorded the album at our friends Jenna and Jay Kole’s. All three of them are amazing friends and artistic collaborators that I’ve known for a long time. They’re all in a new RVA band called Apologizer.
BH: How does playing in a band compare or differ from acting in a play? After all, you were just in Little Shop of Horrors.
CG: There are more similarities than differences. Both involve channeling yourself into a performative collaboration with others. Memorization is an incredibly important aspect of each, as is the importance of being present or “in the moment” just in case something goes wrong. That’s always an exciting part of either.
Personally, I enjoy performing music more. It’s such a transformative experience to actually build a song with other people, playing off each other’s ideas. I’ve also typically written the words I’m singing, which is gratifying. I’m also still very much learning keys, a challenge that is incredibly rewarding to work through. All of those aspects make the experience much closer to me.
BH: Is the transformative aspect due to the interplay between band and audience or does it have more to do with the medium itself — like how emotions and thoughts become rhythms and notes or what have you and with a play that isn’t a musical everything is still very much through language? Does that question even make sense?
CG: It does. For me, it’s a transformative aspect in the sense of building something from nothing, so I guess closer to the medium itself. Collaborating with other musicians and combining notes, rhythms, and lyrics to build a song, it’s an incredibly rewarding experience.
I’m sure that writing and producing a play can offer the same experience or feeling, but the immediacy of writing a song together in a short period of time, just thirty minutes or an hour, is powerful.
BH: On the album’s first single, Monster sings a line about Fredericksburg pub crawls. What is the ideal Fredericksburg pub crawl? Does it include live music? Does it end or start at the library?
CG: Oh, I certainly hope it doesn’t end at the library. “I Wanna Be (Loved by You)” is Monster’s song about falling in love again and it’s such a feel-good bop. Technically it’s the third song on our album.
If you were looking for a place with live music on your crawl, I would recommend the Colonial Tavern, Sunken Well Tavern, and Curitiba Art Cafe. All three of those spaces have terrific performers. Between them you could pop into J. Brians and Rebellion. The most appropriate place to end would be Spirits.
BH: Spirits might be one of the most perfectly named bars there is. I’m trying to think what bests a name that goes a level beyond being a double entendre.
CG: It really is.
BH: What role, if any, do libraries play in a local arts and music scene? (And what is a downtown if not these things?)
CG: You bet! A public library should always reflect the identity and the needs of its surrounding community. Fredericksburg has such a wonderful arts scene, so it is crucial to collaborate with and support local artists and musicians. The branches of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library regularly display monthly art shows for either groups or individuals.
One of my favorite events that the Fredericksburg Branch hosts every March is the Johnny P. Johnson Teen Art Show. Johnny Johnson was such an important presence in Fredericksburg from the time that he became a middle school art teacher at the old Walker Grant School up until his passing in November of last year. He started the library’s Teen Art Show in 1995 and judged it until 2018. We named the event in his honor the following year. It is always amazing to see the talented work that high school students submit for this show. To be able to feature teens’ work in a public setting and have it judged by local artists (Gabriel Pons and Joelle Cathleen joined Johnny as judges in 2018 and have generously donated their time and experience ever since) is such a terrific opportunity for them. On the music front, the Fredericksburg Branch will be hosting its 38th annual Music on the Steps summer concert series this year. It’s free to attend and always a good time.
BH: If Fredericksburg had an airline, would it be Trash Rocket? My six-year-old described the first track on the album as an arcade in space.
CG: Ha! Fredericksburg would never have an airline because no one would want it to be so close to their house. But you did remind me of another great logo that Monster made:
BH: That’s awesome.
Follow the link to hear Trash Rocket’s album Rock and Roll Repeat. Or check out past sessions of Airport Beers:
-with Mike Nagel (April)
