Continuing in our series of Whartscape mini-terviews, next up is Arbouretum. We snuck in our set of Whartscape questions when we met Arbouretum’s somewhat reclusive front-man Dave Heumann at, get this, Cylburn Arboretum.

Get it?

Full interview from that meeting, consisting of things not related to Wham and Whart, coming in the next few days. Keep an eye out for their limited edition split LP Kale with friends Pontiak, featuring some John Cale covers, a couple Arbouretum originals and Pontiak’s entire album Sun on Sun. Album drops July 22…

But for now, on to the Wham City reflection and some fancy, Arbouretum-approved music!

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MP3: John Cale – Gideon’s Bible from Vintage Violence

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MP3: Arbouretum – Buffalo Ballet (John Cale cover) from Kale split LP (to be released 7/22)

1. Describe your feelings on Wham City and what it means to you?

At first I didn’t know what to make of it. There were all these people that I didn’t know that had these bands, and they were all much younger than me. It was cool that they were getting a lot of people out to the shows, and everyone seemed to be having a really good time, but I was just really unfamiliar with all the people involved.

I’ve gotten to know some of them a little better. It seems like there are some really good people involved. They have got some really good ideas. I’m also really impressed with their organizational abilities.

2. Describe your feelings on Whartscape and what it means to you?

I know very little about it. That’s the thing that the Wham City people organize that runs parallel to Artscape, right? It runs on the same days, but it’s like ” We’re going to take our scene, and do it over here.” Maybe they feel like the large organization is too big, and that they need to do something different that runs concurrently.

That’s cool.

I didn’t go to Whartscape last year. I don’t really know much about it. I’m really unfamiliar with it, but I’m happy they invited us to play.

3. Describe your feelings on Baltimore and what it means to you?

Oh, umm…it’s a nice town. It’s a nice place….not too expensive, not very pretentious. The not very expensive aspect helps

4. Come up with a snappy tagline/mantra/motto for one or more of the following: Baltimore, Wham City and Whartscape.

Ok. Umm…”Baltimore: a pretty good place to live”. How about that? That’s what they should say on the park benches.

And it’s not the greatest city in America. You could have New York or San Francisco competing for that. Great also implies bigness, and we don’t really have bigness here…not that big. People try to talk about Louisville—I saw a Louisville t-shirt that said, “Louisville: The Greatest City in America.”

It’s also a pretty good place to live, but it’s not the greatest city in America.

5. If all Whartscape performers were required to don some sort of costumage, in the spirit of Baltimore, Whartscape and Wham City, what would yours be and why?

A costume? What kind of costume would I have? I would dress as Klaus Kinski in Aguirre: The Wrath of God. I don’t know why. I just think he looks bad-ass, and really intense in that Klaus Kinski way. And you get to have a sword.

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