1/do you consider Monkey Boy music to be modern, or is it old, half-buried music?

Often we bury deep the things we were raised on.  We get so caught up in trying to get somewhere or trying to find something that we forget who we are and where we came from.
Perhaps My songs and art work are the results of me trying to rediscover my past.
When I stop to ask myself why do I enjoy putting two pieces of junk together to make something new,  I come to an image of my grandpa and how he would solve everyday house hold problems in strange and creative ways.  Seeing him attach a Falls City beer can to a jaw harp with wire to overcome his lack of the teeth needed to play the instrument, changed my life forever.  I realize that there are many memories and objects that have come together to make me who I am.
My art work and music sorta bridges a gap between my Grandpa and me.  I am a mixture of old ways and somewhat new things.
I am climbing my family tree and eating the fruit.  I am sowing the seeds through junk art and songs.  When others hear my story songs or see my art objects, they witness the tricks and skills my kinfolk passed on to me.  They see my family tree.

2/do the instruments used make themselves known to you during the writing and recording process, perhaps in dreams?
   
In the mornings, after hittin' the snooze many times, I lay in bed reflecting.  Sometimes I do get a little flash of insight here and there.  Possibilities for noise makers, a new attack/approach to a project I am workin' on.  What if I do this...
I might hop on out of bed and get to the work place , then I am in a trance.
It amazes me, blows me away how two pieces of junk made on opposite ends of the world can fit together perfectly.  I just stand there and watch the pieces float and merge together. Like a snap together model of a tiger tank I once had.  I am just the middle man and these pieces of trash have been waiting all this time to become  something else.
I never know what the sound they produce is gonna be.  It is dumb luck. sometimes a complete flop. most of the instruments are works in progress, they morph continuously.  sometimes the players of the contraptions give me insight. I watch them playing a heap of junk and I make mental notes to raise this or flatten that. when musicians come back to practice, they are pleased that their knuckles no longer have to bleed or get large blisters or splinters. new styles of playing are invented.

3/does it take a long time to finish recording a typical song, say "Oil Pressure," because of all the little things going on all over the place?
   
"Oil Pressure" was the first song recorded for this CD.  I just got this little 8 track digital Recorder with some grant money that I got from the KY Arts Council after I showed them some pictures of my instruments.  I thought I'd try out the different bells and whistles on the machine.  The song pretty much wrote it self some how.  When I record I think of textures and juxtapositions.  I get a kick outta times like in "heavenly body" (Louisville is for Lovers 2002) when the Kazoo is playing side by side with a Grunge guitar.  I sometimes approach song recording like editing a movie different scenes/ close ups, fade outs, cameos.  What sound will help this next cut be smoother? I like the idea of someone sitting alone in a room with head phones on listening to all the details, drawing your ears in, then giving them something else, like when a soup can rolls across the studio floor in "futon love song".
Which by the way happened when I was working on another song and my girlfriend needed my help with house hold chores and I was recording.
These songs are all stories from childhood, from the people around me from memories or feelings like "sittin' on the front porch with grandpa's fluffy dog".  It does take a long time recording some songs, others just unfold naturally.  The actual recording is not the hardest part, it is in the mixing that drives me insane. after days of listening to the same canjoe or jaw harp solo my ears get fried.

4/ how do you translate  these songs into a live performance?

Ah there's the rub...
Three of these songs Frog Giggin', Shag Carpet, Polar Bear are examples of what happens when Monkey Boy songs get played live.
These three songs first existed from other recordings that I made, "Pap-Paw" and "Monkey Bumpkin Fever".  I recruited some people that can play just about anything and are highly flexible in their musical understanding. I play them a few of the songs on tapes that might be possible things that we could work up into something.  We play with the song.  I make suggestions and give the musician the appropriate instrument to make the right sounds.
The Instrument keeps the songs on the right path with the hand of a talented player behind the wheel.  I stand back with a watchful eye and let the songs grow.  We have many songs that we have worked up like this.  enough for at least two more CDs.  I can not write music or draw a road map.  The people that play with me read my mind. 
 

5/ would you trace your interest in music for me, both as listener and practitioner?

The only person in my family that I ever saw play music was my Grand Pa Buck.  He would play his jaw harp and harmonica on the front porch and I loved the sounds that came out.  I also was told that he could play the piano like nobody's business, but I never witnessed this.  I had an old Johnny Cash and an Elvis record that my brother got from a record club and didn't want them.  I also had a Return of Red Baron record by the Peter Pan Pop Band that I sure liked alot. My mom had these pink forty fives of Glenn Miller that I liked to listen to.  I have a good memory of sittin' out back the house with my dad and his fishin' buddy while they drank beer and listened to Hank Williams on a portable 8 track.  They sat quietly and stared at the ground when Hank sang his heart out.  Then probably the biggest impact was growing up in the seventies and sharing a bed room with my Big Brother Greg. He would get ready to go out on the town with the sears Stereo blaring music as he combed his hair and put on his Jersey shirt.  He had a great Rock collection, T Rex, BTO, David Bowie, CCR, 3 Dog Night, Steppin Wolf, Kiss...It was the later that spoke to me the loudest.  When "Love Gun" came out it was featured as the midnight album of the week on WLRS.  We stayed up late and we laid in our beds and passed the huge headphones back  and forth like we were taking bong hits listening to "Kristen 16" in a dark room lit only by the green light of the radio.  I worshipped Kiss for many years, in fact the VW mentioned in "Oil Pressure" had it's last road trip coming back from the first KISS reunion tour in Lexington.
In grade School I found out that the Library had Van Halen records to check out.  My good friend Greg Newman and I would ride the Tarc down Shelbyville road and stop at all the strip malls to buy records.  Kansas, Queen and The Who "Quadrophenia" were big to me which lead me to Mod rockers. The Kinks, the Jam and Punk music began to rule my make shift stereo that I got at a yard sale with two car speakers that I wired up and hung on a couple of nails in the wall.  I found out that I could get Ramones Albums for just a couple of bucks at Pyramid  records.  The Police, Wall of Voodoo and the Dead Milkmen were introduce through the golden age of MTV.  The Cramps, Gang of Four and the violent Femmes were brought to me by WRFL college radio in Lexington...
As far as playing music...
When I was about 8 I got a old drum set for Christmas.  It was a really cheap one with cardboard heads but it did have one cymbal with rivets that buzzed which I wish I still had.  The heads didn't last long so I replaced them with balloons, paper bags any thing that I could find.  I beat on those things for many years. I also found and old stella guitar that my sister had during her singing nun catholic school period.  When My Grand Paw died I inherited his jaw harp and harmonicas.  I began to write songs and record them on multiple tape recorders, layers of hiss.  this was in late Grade school.  Once in Grade School The music teacher, Mr Vititoe was late to class.  We raided the tone bars and tambourines and we had a jam session.  It was the first time that I had ever experienced the thrill of music being shared with others.  It was chaos and rebellion.  It was rock on a tiny little scale, for a brief moment until the teacher walked in...Once in high school, I had to do a presentation in English class on teaching the class how to do something.  I chose "how to tune a guitar".  I was walking through the hall ways carrying this stella guitar and some guy tells me he's got a guitar that he wants to sell me.  I bought the Silvertone guitar that I still use for 30 bucks in 1983.  I bought a crate amp and learned all about feed back.  I continued my recording sessions and discovered that some of my friends in High School were closet musicians.
A friend of mine was house sitting one weekend so a bunch of us gathered up as much drums amps guitars and stuff that we could find and made a great big bunch of noise.  I was hooked.  I knew I wanted to Rock.  Others were hooked too. a hand full of us continued to play together in such bands as Empty Youth, Those Bastards of Youth, The Hey Seeds, and then My Friend David Patton and I formed the Group GEEEK! We played out once at an open mic night at Uncle Pleasant's and got a thrill playing in front of people.  We enlisted a fellow worker he had at Hawley-Cooke,  Alan Canon.  We played many shows in Louisville and Lexington with the likes of Oblong Box and Love Jones.
I was hired as a music teacher at a Grade school.  In hopes of learning how to read Sheet music,  I took guitar lessons from Craig Wagner of the Java Men at a local music shop.  Despite my instructor's patience and talents, all I learned was that I needed glasses.
 

6/ give me a short history of Monkey Boy

I was in a band called Ether Snakes in college.  We rented some recording equipment in hopes of making a demo or something.  The band mates were often late or no shows so I started recording songs myself.  I  played drums, guitar, Bass etc. everything on the tapes.  I heard my Grand mother often say that if she were a monkey she could use her feet and tail to can more tomatoes.  So I came up with the name Monkey Boy  for myself.  For years Monkey Boy was just a continuation of the tapes that I had started when I was younger.  I would send the tapes into The radio station and they would get played.   I was teaching art workshops to kids and one of the classes was instrument making. I had started to do a bit in the music class that I taught.  My art work took me in the direction of experimenting with instruments. Resonators, strings amplification.  So it was natural to combine my two passions Music and Junk art.
After GEEEK! disbanded,  Alan and I stayed in touch and played together at open mic nights and such.
He encouraged me to start playing Monkey Boy songs out.
Alan and I played at Hemispheres under the name Monkey Boy, which was a big noisy mess but gave me the kick in the ass to get out there.
Since then I have done solo shows and duets with different people.  The current Line up has been a group for about three years.  We have gone on a couple of mini regional tours.  One of our favorite things to do is play in Howard Finster's Paradise garden in Georgia.    
 

7/ what kind of folk do you envision as Monkey Boy fans?

This is a tough question...
Nice people? 
   

8/ who will be in the band Friday night and what is the cover charge?

Scott Scarboro, Karen Welch, Alan Canon, Butch Celani, John King, Tony Woolard
$5 to get in
$10 dollars gets you in and a CD

9/ will the space age magno glass come in handy at the show?

WARNING: using Space Age Magno glass at show may cause HEAD ACHE AND SEVERE VOMITING!
PUT THAT THING AWAY

But I plan to have a Electronic Pong game tournament.  The game will be projected over us and the Lucky winners will receive a Monkey Boy merchandise

Whew that sure was a lot of writing.
I hope this ain't too much for your eyes to sift through
Thanks
-scott