I started up a conversation with an interesting guy at Teddy’s Bar and
Grill in Williamsburg. It was a sauna outside.
AskaNewYorker: What’s your name?
Graham: Graham Roberts.
AskaNewYorker: Sounds like a rock star’s name.
Graham: I would agree with that. That’s probably why I’m on the
path I’m on.
AskaNewYorker: What path is that?
Graham: Inevitable rockstardom.
AskaNewYorker: Tell me more.
Graham: I think the inevitable rockstardom thing is just sort of…I’ve
been playing with this band for awhile. We started in school playing in Philly.
We were all going to the University of Pennsylvania. We would just have fun,
playing shows on campus. Play downtown, play uptown. Our drummer was Korean.
He was adopted at birth by Unitarians in New Hampshire. Even though he was Korean
his last name was Kaplan. We think he might have originally been Jewish or something
and converted. Part tangent here. We graduated before him, and he decided to
go to Korea to find his birth parents. So, we were out of a drummer. I think
that’s how most bands lose their drummer, in a quest for their birth parents.
This is what happened between Philly and New York.
AskaNewYorker: So who is drumming for your band now?
Graham: Now we’re in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and there’s another
guy from Pennsylvania who had been to some of our shows in Philly and decided
he wanted to join the band. So now we’re playing with that guy. He lives
around here.
AskaNewYorker: What’s the name of the band?
Graham: The Classified. We’re in the process right now of doing a five
track. We’re still unsigned. See www.classifiedsmusic.com
AskaNewYorker: Is there a producer involved?
Graham: The interesting thing about it, is we have William Whitman, who is
Cindy Lauper’s producer. He plays bass in her band. He’s produced
Joan Osbourne singles. He produced The Fix, he’s worked with Action, Action.
AskaNewYorker: So, you’re in good company?
Graham: Luckily we were able to get him because he’s kind of an old family
friend. He’s doing us a favor.
AskaNewYorker: Well, family friend or not, he wouldn’t be working with
you if he didn’t think you were any good. Where were you born and raised?
Graham: I first grew up in Staten Island until I was eight years old, off of
Alexander Ave. But, at the same time, my parents always had some place in the
city, because of their work, which is graphic design, freelance. Since I was
four they had an apartment in Chelsea on 18th and 6th, a loft space, which they
sold in 2004.
AskaNewYorker: Back to the Classifieds. What’s your sound?
Graham: I would say it’s a very high energy, very danceable kind of sound.
Fun stuff.
AskaNewYorker: What’s your part in the band?
Graham: I’m the front man. I sing and play guitar. I write together mainly
with the other guitar player because we’ve been writing together for a
long time, almost three years now.
AskaNewYorker: What subject matters do you sing about?
Graham: It really varies. We have songs about the absurdity of terror warnings,
to wanting to sleep with someone.
AskaNewYorker: Has anyone ever thrown their bra on stage?
Graham: Never really had that. I think that’s not really what we’re
doing. It would seem really bizarre and everyone would seem confused. The music
would stop and there would just be this bra there. It would be very uncomfortable
for everyone.
AskaNewYorker: Do you have a day job?
Graham: Lately I’ve been working at Newsweek magazine in the graphics
department. The way I got there was this girl I’ve been dating for nine
months or so lives down in Chinatown with two other people from Princeton, one
of whom interned at Newsweek last year. His name is Andrew Romano. He’s
a writer there. He writes the graphics. But he just mentioned there was this
internship program. Basically he told me I should quit all the freelancing and
come to Newsweek. He was definitely right because it’s an amazing environment.
There’s always something new going on, and it’s an interesting experience.
AskaNewYorker: Has any of your work appeared in the magazine?
Graham: Last week I did a graphic of the Discovery shuttle, because they were
doing a whole two page spread on the changes that they made to the launch. I
basically modeled the shuttle to blueprints and fuel tanks, the rocket booster
and all that. I was just amazed that they would give me a whole two page spread!
It was awesome. It went both domestic and overseas, which means opposed to the
six people who had seen my work previously, now there’s going to be around
22 million people sort of examining my work.
AskaNewYorker: That’s great! Congratulations! One more question, really
simple. What did you do last night?
Graham: Last night was actually my parent’s 35th wedding anniversary,
so we drove up to City Island. I had never been there before. It was very interesting.
It’s this little narrow island off of the Bronx. I couldn’t believe
I was still in New York. It looks like an old New England fisherman’s
town. We went to this little seafood restaurant called Fran’s Lobster
Shack. I brought my girlfriend, and we walked all around the area. It was very
surreal.
AskaNewYorker: Thanks for talking with us, Graham. I’ll have to check
out City Island one day soon. Good luck with the Classifieds.
