Ska on the Road, But Not for Long

It takes more to make wishes come true than one little star.

In first-year John Natchez's case, it took the whole moon. Moon Records, that is. This February, the record company released "Fat Footin,"" the first album of Skavoovie and the Epitones, a ska group in which Natchez plays saxophone.

And since that album came out, there has been more noise than usual surrounding the boisterous 10-man group--"really good buzz" as Noah Wildman, office manager at Moon describes it.

So good, in fact, that Natchez is now looking forward to a wish-come-true. Next autumn, he and his band will join another ska group to make an international tour of Europe and the United States.

Reacting with typical wry modesty, Natchez simply says that he hopes the trip will be "a wonderful learning experience."

"That's what these years are for, if I can wax cheesy for a second," he says. "After four or five years I'm going to have to settle into something." Before doing that, though, he says he wants to enjoy the tour because "this is the last chance for full time personal development."

The tour's time frame, which was arranged by Moon, will force Natchez to take a leave of absence next term, which would have been the beginning of his sophomore year.

However the interruption doesn't trouble the planned English concentrator.

Instead, Natchez will spend fall and early winter crossing the United States, Germany, Poland and other European countries with his band and other ska groups, including the more widely-known group The Toasers. Official dates have not yet been set, and Moon is currently in the process of booking engagements.

Touring is not an entirely new experience for the Newton-based group. Two summers ago they traveled halfway across the country. Last summer they crossed the entire U.S. in a van, staying in small local accomodations and playing a schedule of gigs they set up for themselves.

"It's wonderful," Natchez says of the experience. "You feel like crap all the time, you smell awful."

The group plans to repeat the experience this summer. "Our tour this summer is still going to be very old school, very earthy," says Natchez, "Meaning we will smell."

The group's leader Ans Purin, 20, even describes another side of the appeal.

"Being able to play for so many people and just getting into a different state every day and the fact that you don't answer to anyone on tour," Purin says. "It's a free world you're living in. The only thing you need to worry about are your two shoes and socks."

The autumn tour promises to be somewhat more comfortable--even lucrative--which is a welcome addition for a group which in the past just broke even and played more for its own amusement than any financial gains.

The possibility of such a tour came as a surprise to most of the group. Purin, 20 did a backflip when he found out.

Such excitement is tempered with caution though, because as Purin explains, "I don't have any idea what to expect or what the scene is like [in Europe]."

"I'm sure it's going to be a very pleasant experience," says Wildman, adding that the group is "young and excited and they don't have big egos."

Natchez proves the point in his own observations about the groups' progress. The album is "selling pretty well for a small release off a small label by a snotty-nosed group of kids from Newton."

The tour is homonymously called "Skavoovee," a reference to the title of an older album, released by another ska group after Natchez's group had been assembled.

Promoters have high expectations for the trip. As Wildman hyperbolically puts it, "It's gonna rock 'n' roll all night and party every day."

Natchez has some expectations as well.

"You can ask my roommates [about previous tours] and view their chewed-off ears," Natchez says. "You compile a lot of very interesting stories."

"I just want to do something more abstract and creative," he says. "I don't want to have fun in a drunken sort of way. [Playing with Skavoovie] is the way I can see myself having fun."

For Skavoovie, much of the fun comes from experiences on the road.

"People always assume that if you're in a band, you're going to think of yourself as this higher creature," Purin says. "We've learned hard ways and good ways how to respect people and each other from being in a band."

"You're presenting what you do to other people," Purin says. "When you're up on stage there's a lot at stake that way."

Right now, the group's attention is on this summer's concerns:

"Basically just surviving," says Purin, "Being able to make a good impression, actually come from the tour with money instead of owing money."

"Keeping the van alive, making sure it doesn't die, cuz if the van dies, then we're pretty screwed," Purin says.

The groups will be performing some new material while on tour, which they plan to record on a second album after their return. The group plans to live together while they finish out the time they will have taken off from school.

"We're going to be subletting a house," says Purin. "Everything's going to be just fine, I think."

Purin has just a little to say when it comes to promoting the group.

"Could you just mention thanks to all the people who, you know, like us and come to see us?"