Interview: El Olio Wolof

Interviewed by Mitchell Peters


So here’s what happened. Earlier this week, a friend told me that El Olio Wolof (Merced) was playing a show this Saturday (10/22) at downtown Fresno’s Gardenside Studios. Apparently, the whole thing was supposed to be hush hush. Whatever. A couple days rolled by, and I saw a Myspace posting about it somewhere. So I figured since the cat was out of the bag, I’d take it upon myself to interview a member of El Olio (since I know nobody else is gonna do it.)

Hopefully, this interview will draw more people to the show. That is my intention in doing this. In all honesty, I haven’t listened to El Olio’s music. However, I’ve heard they rock (from credible sources). I’ll take their word for it.

If you want a bio on the band and all that good stuff, visit their official Web site: El Olio Wolof. Until there, here’s a few questions I whipped up in about 10 minutes. I talked to the band's RADIOACTIVE CAULIFLOWER, who sings and plays guitar. Go to their show at Gardenside this Saturday, damn you! It’s ALL AGES.

Gardenside Studios (746 Broadway Fresno, CA)
El Olio Wolof The Harpeth Trace Birdmonster No Cello
All Ages, 9 p.m., $5

Damn, I should be getting paid for this... Hey, now there's an idea!

Mitch on Speed: I won't ask what your music sounds like because people can go to your Myspace profile and listen to samples. But if you wanna tell us anyway, feel free.
Radioactive Cauliflower: Our Music is loud and fast and then gets really slow or the bottom will fall out all together. Since we write the music to the story it tends to grow well, I feel anyhow. Lots of different parts. We like to focus on the story and not worry about going back and forth from verse to chorus so much.

Everyone I've talked to in the Fresno "indie" scene tells me El Olio Wolof is badass live. The closest I've come to seeing your band was during a show at Tokyo Garden (in Fresno) where Radioactive Cauliflower (RC) was playing solo acoustic. He was pretty good. His songs reminded me of tall tales. What's your response to that?
The solo stuff is usually a lot shorter and straight to the point of the tale. It's like Radioactive Cauliflower solo songs are a synopsis on the back of an El Olio Wolof book.

By the way, where the hell did you come up with the name Radioactive Cauliflower? Your parents didn't fancy names like Robert, Jim, Andy, Harold, etc.???
Actually I was born Ronald Regan Calhoon. When I was 2 months old my name was changed to RC so that I could one day become the poster child for the cola, as my father always wanted. God rest his soul.

Compare and contrast what you know of the Fresno music scene with the Merced music scene.
One great town, and one great city. I feel that Fresno needs to become the the Central Ca hub. Merced will always have that tight knit community at the shows, but like all city's it is such a task just keeping a place open and be able to offer a decent cover and stay all ages. Both towns have enormous potential, but I know both "scenes" need to step it up. Fresno just seems like is is more on the ball right now.

Wasn't El Olio Wolof nominated for some Merced music award? Fill us in on the details and results.
We were actually nominated for a Modesto Area Music Award. We wont win though. It is an honor to be nominated, but I feel that people cheat in the voting and the awards are based on popularity. All the voting is done online by the fans. So if your listeners are lazy and not on the computer all the time. You don't stand a chance.

In doing my "research" for this interview, I Googled "El Olio Wolof." The search engine returned with 814 results. Your Myspace profile has 2,512 views and 351 friends. Don't really know where I'm going with this question... Um, never mind.
And 2,000 of those Myspace hits were done by the fans of El Olio Woloof, a John Tesh polka band from New York.

How long has it taken you to grow your beard? I like it. (This is a serious question, by the way.)
I shaved clean the day my son Osiah was born that was almost 2 years ago. The next time I cut it off will be the day I teach him to shave.

Ah, here's a question. Tell us your affiliation with Fresno's Greytank Records. What's the backstory on all that/current situation?
Greytank Records are going to release our next full length in February. Those guys and the whole Greytank family are very supportive. I met Greyson from Bel & The Dragon at a Calvin Johnson show in Merced. He told me to get ahold of Brad. I sent him a CD that I accidentally lost $20 in. We had a show a couple of months later.

Any upcoming tours we should know about? That, or exciting news/plans your band has?
We are playing alot right now. In December we are doing a 7 day in the north west, in Spring with are doing a 9 day south west and in June we are doing a five week US thing. Our goal right now is to play our songs for as many people as possible while simultaneously exploring the world of vegan cuisine

I see in your bio that you've played on the same bill with SF's Deerhoof (who are frickin' awesome!) How did that show go?
The show went really well. It was a great trip at the end of the night the venue went to pay Deerhoof their larger cut, then Greg (Deerhoof’s drummer) gave them back the money and had them split it even ways, there was no rock star attitude. I just talked to Greg the other day and I am trying to set up a show with them in Fresno. Funny you asked about that.

In El Olio Wolof's opinion, what goes into putting on a good local show – be it Merced, Fresno, etc.? What's your strategy in promoting and getting kids to come out?
Fliers, phone calls, emails. If a band wants to be heard they need to promote all of their shows and play to their fullest. And it doesn't hurt to have naked humans on your flier...sex sells you know, I mean look at Britney, she is someone we should all strive to be like. I got fake tits yesterday.

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