On the morning of the 21st of September, I admitted Rob Wehrle (pronounced whirly) into a Zoom meeting. In the 90s and the 00s, Rob had been in a band from Morgantown, WV called The Emergency. I was particularly excited for this interview because there really isn’t much information on the internet today about The Emergency (given their time period and name). The following is a transcription of our chat:
TIAGO: I’m Tiago Woodyard, I play in Sievert 703 and teaming in chess and I guess I’m the interviewer.
ROB: My name’s Rob Wehrle and I am, or was, the guitar player and singer-songwriter for The Emergency, a band out of Morgantown, West Virginia and I guess I am the interviewee.
TIAGO: Previously you mentioned that you live in Charleston (WV), but The Emergency is from Morgantown.
ROB: I went to college at WVU, started in ‘93, and started off playing with a band called Sandra Black with friends of mine from George Washington High School here. They were in a group called Matt Won’t Come Back in high school and they put out a cassette. So they went up to WVU, I went up there as well. I didn’t do much music early on, I was just trying to go to classes. But I started doing open-mics, just playing acoustic guitar, trying out my songs. I joined Sandra Black for a bit just playing “lead guitar” . I’m a terrible lead guitar player but I conned them into letting me do it. Then I started, well I had been making demos on a 4-track TASCAM cassette recorder. I was just making them for myself, making whole albums no one would ever hear. I did the artwork and I still have all of them. I started working at the U 92, the college radio station, and then eventually I got the nerve to burn a CD of my cassette demos. This is like 1996-ish somewhere in there. I was a music director, and so I just put it in the CD racks in the radio station to be played, not telling anybody who it was because I wanted to find out, is this any good? And people actually were like, hmm, some of this is all right. And I was like, well, it’s actually me.
Surprise, sorry.
Then a friend of a friend, Aaron Caruthers, heard this CD. and he liked what he heard, and he’s a very proactive get things done kind of guy, and he just kept bugging me to get together. He found us a drummer, Kevin Post and then we just started rehearsing and started playing shows at Pleasant Street and people started showing up and clapping. So we must have been doing something right.
TIAGO: You mentioned Kevin and Aaron, have they been in the lineup for the band’s whole lifespan?
ROB: Yeah, Kevin is not in the group anymore. We’ve recruited Clint Sutton, who is William Matheny’s drummer among many other artists. [Clint is] a great songwriter on his own, and he put out a record as well, which is excellent. I have tons of songs. I want to record again. We’ve played a few live shows. It’s not like a full-time thing anymore, it’s sort of like when we have the time. But we’ll see.
TIAGO: Where did you record How Can You Move? (The band’s first album) and what was that process like?
ROB: We recorded at Zone 8 Studios, which is in Granville, which is right outside of Morgantown, but I literally could throw a rock at it from campus. And that’s Mark Poole’s studio that’s still there. It’s just his house. He just had a bed and the whole house was a recording studio. And lots of folks had recorded there before, almost everybody. That’s where they went back in those days. We just started recording the album there, it was very fun. Mark Poole was an amazing guy. Couldn’t ask for anybody better to work with. Also, he’s in several bands, he’s in The Phantom Six which used to be called Moon. He’s an insanely good guitar player, just all around knowledgeable and songwriter. So it’s like the perfect guy you want recording your album. You just sat on his bed with all the equipment there, and then you’d go into the kitchen and plug your guitar in and the drums would be in the dining room. Some people would record vocals, I think, in the bathroom because it has a cool echo effect to it, just natural bathroom sound. We recorded 14 songs there in- What year was that? 2002, 2003, I think, and the album came out in 2003. We printed it up on CD, and it’s out there in the streaming world, Apple, and Spotify and all that. And there are no CDs left. They’re all gone. We sold them all. I have one. I’d like to reprint it someday. Maybe on vinyl would be cool. So yeah, that’s the beginning of it.
TIAGO: Yeah, that’s definitely an achievement. I’ve printed 10 CDs and sold only one.
ROB: Yeah, it’s amazing that it just took off, you know, on a small regional level. And we toured, too. You know, we got shows wherever we could. We were trading shows with friends in Ohio and, um, some places in Virginia and DC. We just kept playing and trying to go out of town: Cleveland and Columbus and Cincinnati. We made it all the way to Iowa City one time, I think. And, you know, you just take your CDs with you. People are there, and if they want to give you money for them, great. If they don’t, you’re just like, here, you seem nice. Just take it. You know, just because you want your music out there more than anything. I think more than anything, you know, bands, artists, singers, songwriters, just want people to hear it. Then maybe one day you can actually make a living at it. It’s, you know, a real privilege.
TIAGO: You mentioned, you’re running this building, landlording, I guess.
ROB: Yeah, and I’m a dad now, I have a 10 year old kid. Yeah, I want to make time for music. I mean, I’ve got Folklore Music Exchange, the instrument shop in my building, and they have great shows there. They have open mics, and Justin, the proprietor, just keeps saying, “just come on down, and do an open mic”. And I’m like, I got to practice. That’s the thing. It’s finding time for practice. I will, it’ll happen soon. There’ll be more musical activities, hopefully very soon.
TIAGO: Yeah, I love that place. Backpedaling, you mentioned Matt Won’t Come Back, the band, but that’s also a song on How Can You Move? Right?
ROB: Yes. I wrote that as a sort of nostalgic tribute to high school days and the lyrics deal with meeting those guys. Kindred spirits musically, you know, like this would have been the early 90s, so it’s interesting. It was just nice to go to high school and meet people who had heard of Dinosaur Jr. and the Pixies and the Violent Femmes, Sonic Youth. All that stuff was very underground at that time. This is when I was in high school before right when Nirvana and Nevermind came out; Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, etc. So to meet people who were already in tune to that was very cool. But, you know, you’re 18 years old and you’re sharing your musical loves that most people at that point hadn’t heard of until the 90s got going and that scene, the whole grunge and underground punk scene became more mainstream. Soundgarden and then Radiohead and that stuff came along. So it’s sort of a nostalgic trip of like a tribute to that band and to and to the main songwriter, Billy Sweener, who was the main songwriter and Matt Won’t Come Back and Sandra Black. So it’s sort of an homage to that.
TIAGO: Did you ever get to meet the titular Matt?
ROB: You know, I don’t think I remember. Maybe he was the drummer, I think, in that band, and then he left and then they changed the name of the band. I think. I may have known him. Maybe he’s just an urban legend at this point. I don’t know. I do remember that Don Hoyer, the bass player, painted his car with the Velvet Underground banana and the name of the band in high school. So you’d see this silver car drive around with the Velvet Underground Andy Warhol banana on it, and then ‘Matt Won’t Come Back’ on it. And I was just like, man, that kid’s got nerve, I need to meet that guy, you know, who doesn’t want to know that guy?
TIAGO: You mentioned back in high school, knowing all of these underground bands like Pixies and Sonic Youth. Out of that sort of outcropping of bands, which would you say, influence the sound of your music the most?
ROB: The one I didn’t mention, uh definitely Hüsker Dü, Bob Mould. It’s my only tattoo, the Hüsker Dü logo. That would be the big one. Dinosaur Jr, another big one for me. Sonic Youth. REM is in there as well, you know? And then. As far as 80s and late 70s, you know, hardcore punk, underground, indie rock, what we used to call alternative. And then when Guided by Voices hit the scene in the early 90s, that’s what really got me inspired to write songs and record because they recorded on probably the same piece of equipment that I used: a TASCAM cassette 4-track. And so I heard their songs and they’re great and they’re recorded at home. And I’m like, well, I could do this. So it kind of gave you the push to be like, I can do this, too. I’m going to try this. They’re over there in Ohio doing it. Why can’t I? So that’s how that kind of began and then just liking their songwriting and their style.
TIAGO: Yeah, I love home recording. I guess we can go on over to the next album, which was Doo-lang Doo-lang, right?
ROB: Yes, correct.
TIAGO: It’s a pretty silly name.
ROB: It is. I took some convincing to call it that. I still think that’s a great album title. That is from a couple of sources. Well, there’s the old Chiffons song. He’s So Fine. doolang, doolang. That’s what they say. is like, the gibberish, you know, scatting, I guess, in that song. And I just thought doo-lang, doo-lang is just, it’s just gibberish. And sounds like a great album title. There’s also a movie called The Fisher King, with Jeff Bridges and Robin Williams. I’m not sure if you’ve seen it. Great movie. And there’s a scene in it where he’s a radio DJ and he’s kind of losing it. And he’s going on this rant, and at the end, he just goes, doo-lang, doo-lang! And I thought, that’s that’s great. There it is again. There’s that weird gibberish expression that doesn’t really mean anything. I kind of like for people to get their own meaning out of art. That’s how I’ve like to approach art. I don’t want you to overexplain it to me too much. And, you know, for at least when you first encounter, you’re like, what is this? Why is it called this? Why is this song titled this? What do they mean? And later on you can dig into it and find out certain things. But I just, I just kind of like that nonsensical thing.
TIAGO: Yeah, definitely. And especially with calling back to movies. I mean, other than the name, did Fisher King influence any of the music in terms of lyrics. or was it just the album title?
ROB: Just the album title. I mean, there’s some lyrics in that album that reference Back to the Future. So there’s a musical connection, movie-music connection there. But not specifically that movie (Fisher King), I don’t think. I’d have to go and look at the lyrics again. It’s been so long. But yeah, you know, other music influences you, but I grew up in a movie loving family. My dad’s a big movie buff. So there’s a lot of movie records references or things that just float around in here that might pop in there.
TIAGO: This might just be an extension of the home recording thing, but All Over Town from the first album, there’s a really cool radio outro.
ROB: Yes. Total accident. Well, no, not an accident. Sort of a planned accident. So I wanted the song to fade out. I’m tuning through the, I think, AM radio. And I just want some weird background noise as the song fades out. And so I’m just switching from radio station to the next with the white noise or whatever you want to call it in the background, then just happen to land upon that End of the World song. by Kitty Wells. Is that who that is? No.
TIAGO: I know the song you’re talking about.
ROB: And it just worked so well. And then I actually had to get the rights to use it. I had to find it because it’s over nine seconds or it’s a certain amount of time for fair use sampling, but that was too long. So I had to pay to use that tiny sample of that song. Skeeter Davis, that’s her name. I had to pay Skeeter Davis like $900 to use that to print the CD a thousand times. Because I’m sampling and I got to pay for my samples. But it had to stay because it was just a neat effect. And also, I didn’t realize at the time, but at the end of I am the Walrus, the same thing is happening in that song. Someone is going through the TV or the radio at the end of I am the Walrus and you hear snippets of radio plays and interviews. I didn’t mean to do the same thing, but there’s a lot of subconscious stealing from the Beatles in my brain because that’s one of my top groups as well. Either on purpose or accidentally, there are a lot of times where I’m like, oh, I just robbed from the Beatles again. Oh, well.
TIAGO: Well, you steal from the best, I guess. By the way, I forgot to ask about the string sections in the aforementioned Matt Won’t Come Back. The song?
ROB: So, yeah, the Beatles are a big, big part of it. Musical influence. That’s what I grew up with. Beatles, Monkees, Gosh, the 60s groups and Styx. Because when I was seven years old, they were huge with Mr. Roboto and that whole thing. So it’s funny how my Sesame Street was Styx and the Beatles. Yeah, I still have a soft spot in my heart for Styx.
TIAGO (flexing musical knowledge) I actually haven’t heard them.
ROB: I’m sure you’ve heard Mr. Roboto, that song. “Domo Aririgato, Mr. Roboto” That was their 80s thing and they were more close to Kansas or what they called AOR; album oriented rock, like Journey and Kansas. I don’t know if any of this is ringing a bell for you, but that whole 70s scene of like kind of progressive rock, but not really. Rush, like, stuff like that. Also another, I have a huge soft spot for Rush as well. I like all kinds of stuff.
TIAGO: Yes is another one,
ROB: Yes. Yes. yes. yes. Yes.
TIAGO: Do you think you’ll ever use samples in your music again?
ROB: Hmm. I don’t know. That’s an interesting question. If the opportunity or if the song or the project called for it or it popped in here, like, wouldn’t it be neat to do that? then yeah. You just kind of have to wait for the moment. The moment where the song would have to call for it or like say, hey, you should, you know, and then I’m all for it. I’m all for throwing anything into the mix.
TIAGO: We forgot about the strings, did you pay anybody from the university to record strings on, Matt Won’t Come Back?
ROB: Those are just keyboards, synthesizers. I wish they were real strings. I wish I could have pulled that off. There’s real horns on doo-lang doo-lang, trumpet player friend of ours. But no, that’s and I don’t remember what keyboard that was. It was a nice one, but it’s just the string setting. on a Yamaha or a Casio or some fairly decent keyboard of its time synthesizer. And it worked, it turned out all right.
TIAGO: On a different note, do you have any funny tour stories?
ROB: Oh, gosh. Let’s see… funny tour stories. Gosh, it’s such a long time ago. I used to keep a diary of all this stuff, and I can’t find it anywhere. Well, we did tour, I used that word loosely. You know, I was never like cross country, you know, 200 dates a year. We’re talking like two weeks at best. We took a van, of course, two bands, us and the Braille Drivers, another band from Morgantown. J. Marinelli was in that band. Now, he’s a solo artist. And the van, of course, always breaks down. And let’s see, what did we call it? So two of the tires went bad on it. And we love a good Lord of the Rings reference. And so we called the tour the Fellowship of the Rock, because it was friends of ours. And then when the two tires went, it wasn’t The Two Towers, It was the Two Tires. And then when we got home, or we played one last show in Cleveland, we called that the Return of the Rock because we’re dorks and we love a good Lord of the Rings reference. But it’s just so funny, we started out calling the tour: the Fellowship of the Rock without knowing that the two tires would go bad and we’d be like, hey, it’s the Two Tires. It’s still the Two Towers. So there’s a lot of nerdiness in the Emergency. good times.
TIAGO: Are you going to write any lyrics about a D20? Like, a la Weezer?
ROB: Oh, yeah. I don’t know. My lyrics are, it’s weird. I don’t write the words. I’m assuming someone like Taylor Swift writes the words first before writing the song. I’m thinking she’s more like a poetry person. I’m a melody person. I want the song to have a good hook and a melody and a good structure musically. And then it’s sort of stream of consciousness lyrically. I’ll say something. I’ll just start, you just sort of jam and then whatever comes out in my mouth is like subconsciously. It’s a weird thing. It’s subconscious. And then you’re like, well, why am I singing this sentence? And I’m like, okay, let’s take this sentence further. And then I just start pulling from things. Maybe you pull from pop culture if you’re struggling with something, you know, or maybe you’re just like, this sounds like a song about this. Hopefully that comes across as genuine. Like, if you’re not forcing it too hard, um, the words will come. Most of the time.
TIAGO: How many cases and how many cases are the lyrics about something personal or just mainly a pop culture reference, I guess?
ROB: Most of them, I’d say, are personal or stories about people I knew. We got a little bit political on the second album. This was the Bush era. Everybody was doing it. Yeah, and politically, things were heating it up in this country, at least where I started to notice it more. But yeah, most of it’s like interpersonal relationships or, you know, the second album is kind of a concept album about anxiety. My own struggles with it. And, uh, it’s sort of a lot of addressing how I deal with it and or the things that cause me stress or anxiety. So if you look at it that way, it’s like, these are all the things that I’ve worried about and some of the coping skills. And it’s also, and a hope that like people who might be paying attention to the lyrics of something like that might see themselves in it and be like, oh, someone else feels like this. Someone else has gone through these stressful mental health problems. I’m not alone. And, this is how they’re dealing with it through art or, or even in the lyrics of like, I like, here’s how I get out of this situation. mental health-wise. So, but yeah, it’s a lot of looking inward for me and hopefully trying to find universal themes that everyone can make, can latch onto and see themselves in it or have their own story attached to it. That’s the goal, you hope, is that people can take your music and relate to it and have their own relationship with it.
TIAGO: Two final questions that are only tangentially music related. In Morgantown or in Charleston, or in both, what’s your favorite restaurant or which restaurant would you recommend? And what are two or three records that you would recommend listeners or readers?
ROB: Oh, man. Restaurants and records. Okay. Two very good topics. Restaurants in Morgantown, West Virginia. Well, I haven’t been there for a while. And I haven’t even visited for a minute, but it’s not really a restaurant. It’s more like a neighborhood bar. There’s two of them: Jeans in South Park, great hot dogs, great atmosphere. It’s a post-World War II neighborhood institution. And it’s fantastic. And then there’s the Fish Bowl, which has good, good, bar food, really excellent bar food, excellent atmosphere. I can’t really recommend a fancy restaurant because I haven’t been there and I really couldn’t afford to eat at the fancier ones when I was there. But I know there are quite a few really good ones. And some of them are gone since my time, unfortunately. Here in Charleston, West Virginia, well, the place I eat at most is North Indian cuisine, Sitar of India. It’s right downtown. It’s like literally five seconds from my office. And I love those guys, and the food is just, I’m addicted to it. There’s many good places to eat in Charleston, West Virginia. Let’s see. Pies and Pints, which is kind of a chain pizza place. and Black Sheep Burrito, excellent place, all downtown. Lots of good food downtown. So you asked about records, music. Well, you mean like new stuff, stuff I’m listening to?
TIAGO: I guess one record that I guess shaped your music and one record that could shape your music in the future.
ROB: Mm- Okay. Let me see. Definitely the record that shaped my music most, and people probably hear that. Bee Thousand by Guided by Voices. The thing that really triggered my “I can do this” musical journey. Recently, I have heard stuff I’m really envious of, you know, and when you’re a songwriter in a band, you hear stuff you really love, but you’re also kind of jealous and envious because you’re like, dang, why didn’t I think of that song? Why didn’t I think of that melody? You know, you love it, but you’re all, it also spurs on competition. So there’s a guy, Kai Slater. I don’t know if that name rings a bell. He’s in a group called Lifeguard. They’re on Matador Records, but he also does a project called Sharp Pins. And Radio DDR is the album. I think it came out last year and it finally came out on vinyl this year. But this guy, I mean, I think he’s 19 or 20 and just superb songwriting. Excellent. It has a home recording feel to it. It may actually be home recorded or I don’t know what he’s doing. I don’t know what the sauce is, but I like it. Just excellent songs. I like Lifeguard, It’s more angular post-punk stuff. but I’m really into Sharp Pins, which is more power pop. I hear a lot of Kinks, the Replacements, REM, that kind of influence. And it’s also encouraging to hear someone that young, at least from my perspective. When you get older, you’re like, is anyone going to be into this stuff that I’m into? You know, it’s amazing. Some things last, Some things stick around, some things are forgotten. And when you’re my age and you see younger kids into something that you were into from 30 years ago. You’re like, oh, great, cool. So it’s encouraging, or it just makes me happy that there are people making music. You know, these days I hear a lot. I work at a radio station now, WTSQ, that’s also in my building. And you hear this a lot from people older than me: “There’s no good [new] music” Where’s all the good music? All the good music was made in the 60s and 70s or even my generation. It’s like the mid 90s, you know, but it’s just harder to find.
I tell people that there’s someone making music that you like right now. You just have to go and find it. Because I go and dig around, I’m a huge music nerd, music fan, first and foremost. So, yeah, it’s just nice finding something like that, Sharp Pins, and you’re like, wow, this is like Goldilock Zone stuff for me. So, yeah. Sorry, it was kind of a long-winded answer.
TIAGO: No, yeah, no, that was perfect.
If you’re interested in hearing Rob’s music, you can find the Emergency’s albums uploaded on Bandcamp and streaming services. He also works at a completely independent radio station in Charleston, West Virginia called WTSQ (88.1 FM if you’re wondering). If you have any questions for me (Tiago) or any future suggestions for interviewees, drop a comment below.