Checking In: The Well’s Ian Graham Skateboards Through the Storm

Well bassist Lisa Alley once laughed at being called “doom-pop” given the Austinites’ male/female dynamic of ultra catchy, three-minute power trio grenades. At the Austin Music Awards last month, the Best Metal winners rocked the almost 40-year-old event singularly, their Sabbath worship riffing kinetic, exhilarating. Frontman Ian Graham emailed.

Austin Chronicle: Where are you sheltering and under what circumstances? Who else is there and how’s that going?

Ian Graham: Right now, I am at my house with my roommate, who is also my brother. It’s going fine. The only time we leave is to visit the store, and we wear a mask and gloves to do that. We skateboard daily in the street out front, work on little projects, read and listen to music. No serious complaints yet.

AC: At what point did C-19 shut down operations for you, and what went down with the ship, so to speak, both personally & professionally?

IG: The Austin Music Awards was our last performance. That was great on so many levels and there could have definitely been a much worse lead up to this break. All of our SXSW shows were, of course, canceled days after that.

Then the Psycho Smokeout festival in L.A., the Stoned & Dusted festival also in California, and the entire festival season in Europe is shot along with the club tours surrounding those runs. A lot of money and fun were just kinda swept away.

Our drummer, Jason [Sullivan], was going to be married this month and that had to be indefinitely postponed as well.

AC: As a global culture, people employ music for every purpose imaginable, obviously spanning religion to entertainment and everything in between. What happens to communities like ours when people can no longer access it in person – at a show, at Central Market, at SXSW?

IG: The culture here in Austin is a “good time” celebratory scene. The live music has always been something those good times have centered around. I feel like people are at a loss right now socially and scrambling individually to fill that empty space.

It’s going take a while to acclimate for all of us. But, we will acclimate. I feel when we are able to come out of our respective holes it’ll be better than it has been in years.

AC: Everyone is having to shift or drastically alter their work situation. What does that look like for you?

IG: Well, all of our day jobs are on indefinite hold at this point. I think we’ve all filed for unemployment. It’s a very interesting and unsettling position when things like food, rent, and utilities have been placed into the hands of rather wonky government agencies.

AC: What’s your soundtrack for the apocalypse and what role does music play for you as a fan and scholar of it in times of hardship?

IG: I’m trying to stay on the atmospheric instrumental tip as far as my selections around the house go. I’m reading a lot, so I’m into minimal vocals – a lot of Seventies dub and Sixties jazz stuff. They’re both more hypnotic in an upbeat way than the more traditionally structured stuff I’m into.

That helps to let my mind wander around and the interim helps me with focus and general creativity, which I desperately need now more than ever.