Blue Mind

2021 | Rock

— track 5: “B Side”

Pat Baker: So I’m a Pierre native, actually went to high school with Tom [Valentine], so we were co-conspirators in music. Met because we were in the same neighborhood and went to the same grade school, but we both were interested in music. We ended up together in choir then eventually started playing in local rock bands from junior high age on. Then, I went to Minneapolis, the University of Minnesota, because I was just such an absolute, ridiculous fan of The Replacements and Prince, both. I just thought, “That’s the place I ought to go to start a band.” So I was in a couple bands there for a couple years. Then decided I probably ought to get semi-serious about school, transferred to SDSU, immediately joined a band in Brookings with Tom, and the rest is kind of history as you know from your last issue about the heyday of Brookings.

Tom Valentine: I was more of a wingman. I would kind of fill in for different groups. I’m an old person at this point, so it’s not going to be cool to say, but Kiss albums were really different. You didn’t have YouTube and you didn’t have cable TV at that age. So it was just kind of a magical thing, that got me interested in music. Then lo and behold, ran into Pat over there. To have someone with similar interests at such a young age, looking back I feel pretty lucky about it. Not only who was interested, but was a good musician too. What’s the luck? In a small town in the middle of nowhere South Dakota. So that’s where I started, and then played in Brookings, moved to Minneapolis, played with different people there, then moved back to South Dakota.

Jen Baker: I was really into music as a kid. Michael Jackson was probably my first big-time-oh-my-god-I-love-this. And then Culture Club, and Annie Lennox, and then I was really into Blondie and post-punk. I’d practice Bonnie Tyler in the mirror with my flashlight. Then I went to college and I was going to teach elementary music, but life had different plans. I met Pat in Brookings hanging out at their apartment, sang some Concrete Blonde, got to know him then. Fell out of touch, then Pat and I both were in Pierre and ran into each other, both working at the Capital Journal. He’s a writer, I’m a graphic designer, and so he’s like, “Hey, I think I know you.” We started playing together, did a lot of acoustic stuff, we went by Copathetic for a while, that was our little duo. Opened for a dog show, that was the highlight. Anyway, so then we ended up in the Twin Cities, Houdek started up, and this is really the only band I’ve ever been in.

Molly Valentine: Oh gosh, music. My dad, he's in the South Dakota Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he was in a band called The Talismen back in the day. So my parents were really big into the music and they instilled that in me at an early age. We listened to oldies but goodies, Harry Chapin, Guy Clark, Melissa Manchester; they went all across the board. Over time, they stuck me in bands because I could sing. My first band was called The OK Corral. And then there was Molly and the Fat Boys — they called it that, I did not name it that. It was with a bunch of older men and I was, like, 13. It was so hilarious. They had me sing a song, it went something like, "Sweet love flowin' almost every night. You know forever we'll be doin' it. Doin' it. Doin' it." And I was young and not knowing what I was singing, but everyone thought it was hilarious at my school. Then when I was in college, The Talismen had reunions so I got to sing back-up with them, and that was really fun. I met Tom in college. We listened to "The Wall" [by Pink Floyd] the first night that we hung out.

Tom Valentine: I figured if she’d do that, there might be a chance. If she could get through that first night and listen to The Wall —

Molly Valentine: I’m still here!

Jen Baker: I think we were married several years before we listened to The Wall together.

Pat Baker: We took it a little slower. [laughs]

Molly Valentine: The first iteration of Houdek actually had my dad as the drummer, and then we brought in the second Patrick here as a drummer.

Patrick Valentine: So as a kid, it’s kind of funny, having the parents that I have, I wasn’t super into music until I was seven or eight, my dad would play The Beatles in the car, then I started listening to them regularly. But when I really got into music was when I watched the Pink Floyd Classic Albums [documentary] on the making of The Dark Side of the Moon. I was blown away. I hadn’t heard something that was so dark, and so cohesive. So I started listening to that, and that’s when I really got into it. I knew that I’d always have to be listening to music, playing music, doing something. Started drumming at 13, then I learned guitar three or four years after that. The first song that I remember playing with [Houdek] was “Sorrow” by David Bowie. Then I became a regular because my mom’s dad got a little old for doing some of that stuff a lot. Naturally they just kind of chose the closest person for drums since I live with them.

Molly Valentine: And you’re pretty good. That’s why we had a kid. Just kidding, that was a joke.

Jack Baker: I feel like my story’s not as interesting as everybody else’s, but I started playing piano as a kindergartener, taking piano lessons. I enjoy playing piano, but I didn’t like doing the book stuff as much, so I stopped taking lessons in 8th grade. Now I just play the piano for fun and make up stuff as I go. It’s just relaxing at times, and it lets me get my emotions out. I also was in band from 6th to 8th grade. That was a good experience, I don’t take it any more, but I’m glad I did. I joined choir in 8th grade. I don’t remember exactly why. I think it’s just there weren’t a lot of guys in choir. Probably Patrick asked me about it

Patrick Valentine: I’m like, “PLEASE.”

Jack Baker: So now I’m in choir. It’s been fun. But, how I got into music, one of our friends, Xavier, he got me into the Gorillaz. That really started my listening to actual music. And that evolved into, just listening to whatever my parents put in front of me. So I listened to the Pixies, Beck, Modest Mouse, all those kind of bands.

Pat Baker: The first iteration of the band goes all the way back to 2008, so this has been 13 years, and the musical relationships in the band go way longer than that.

Tom Valentine: I will say, I thought the boys brought a new through line. Their styles changed [Houdek], they kind of gave it a retro-new style in a sense, kind of synthy.

Jen Baker: They freshened us up.

//\\//\\//

Jen Baker: “Undercover” was one of the first songs we worked on as a group. Pat had a riff, I came up with the melody, then eventually we took it to the band and Tom added another whole section. That’s when I felt like our group gelled, and we knew it was going to be a good thing.

Pat Baker: We were unsure, I mean, the boys were what, 14 at the time? That was the first song where everybody contributed on a songwriting level. It was just like, “Oh my god, we thought this song could derail the band, but instead it brought us all together.”

Jen Baker: I love writing lyrics together, it’s one of my favorite things.

Tom Valentine: Yeah, some people go to the movies. We get together and go, “Hey, want to write some lyrics tonight?” Definitely a group thing.

Pat Baker: [Recording] this album was really interesting. So the Valentines have, in their house, a fantastic basement that’s set up perfectly for a band. There’s even a bar. So that’s headquarters for Houdek. We were able to cut a lot of the drum tracks with the band, live. So [the rest of us] were doing ghost tracks to an extent. And then the layers started to come on in different ways, in different rooms, in different homes, between our two houses. We had to pass everything back and forth. The real bummer about this [album] was we weren’t able to mix it in the same way. In the first album [Return to Houdek] we were able to mix the whole thing together in the same room, and constantly be adjusting based on collaboration.

Jen Baker: We all learned how to use ProTools, too. I ended up pushing buttons and recording. Sometimes, Pat would get tired of me doing retakes and he’d say, “Here, push this and do it as many times as you want.”

Molly Valentine: Less pressure, too, that way.

Tom Valentine: We always wanted it to be a vinyl album, but because of pandemic stuff, and the way it slowed down some of the industry, we did release it streaming in 2020, but really we think of the vinyl release as the true release, which was 2021. [When the vinyl came out] we were on public radio that afternoon, then played the Levitt [in Sioux Falls] that evening, then we had an album release show at Last Stop CD Shop.

Pat Baker: [We also did a hometown album release show.] Katie Dwyer had an EP out [Indiscreet], we had a record out, and we love being with her.

Tom Valentine: We thought, “Who better to do a double bill with?”

Molly Valentine: She sticks to her guns with playing originals. A lot of people cave, but she has from the beginning played original music. I think that’s cool. That’s hard to do here.

Pat Baker: Katie Dwyer has been one of the linchpins of creating this local music scene. Honest to god, if you would have said, “Pierre music scene” in 1988 I would have tipped over backwards laughing. There was so far from a music scene, unless you count country music live at The Longbranch on the weekend. And I’m not discrediting that, it’s just we had no access to that as kids. So you build it, right? You’re interested in music so you start a band. So to move back to Pierre as adults, raising our sons in an environment where you can actually say there’s a Pierre/Fort Pierre music scene, Katie has been instrumental in that. Also a guy named Randy Hilding who organized, for almost a decade, Lilly Fest. That’s a singer/songwriter event that was held every summer in Fort Pierre.

//\\//\\//

Pat Baker: [My day job is at] the South Dakota Arts Council, which is South Dakota’s state arts agency. Our mission is to support arts events, and opportunities, and arts education across the entire state of South Dakota. The way we do that is through grant-making. Roughly about 75%-80% of my entire budget goes back out the door to support artists, arts organizations, and also units of government, so cities, counties, state offices, tribal governments. So that’s what we do: support all the awesome art that happens in South Dakota by trying to fund really great ideas and then getting out of the way and letting the people who are really passionate about it do it. We actually have something called an Artist Project Grant that an individual can apply for, it could support a project like recording an album. For instance, the JAS Quintet’s Bird Ritual Interrupted, you’ll see the Arts Council logo on it, so that was partially supported through an Artist Project Grant from one of the band members. Also an artist could apply for an Artist Career Development Grant, we have a lot of musicians apply in that category if they’re looking for something to get them to that next level in their career. Whether that’s recording in a quality studio, buying equipment that they might need to get to that next level, and so on.

But I’m really excited about the next chapter for the boys. We understand, we’re not crazy, they’re 16, they’re already doing their own music. Patrick is very prolific. Jack is an improv piano player, Patrick does everything.

Patrick Valentine: We’ve recorded some stuff under the band name Captain Jerrycan, it’s kind of satire music. It’s on YouTube under the name Amalgamation Records. It’s very weird, weird. I’m just glad that I was born into a very music-positive family. And a basement that has ten guitars, a drum set, a piano, and a whole recording set up so I can just record whatever I want, whenever I want. It’s great.

Jack Baker: We’re starting to do stuff a lot more. Like the other night I went over there and we recorded almost a whole song. It was just fun, it was mostly just us messing around, but honestly I really do like the stuff that we recorded. You guys have a great place to record.

Patrick Valentine: The thing I love about Jack’s piano playing is he just goes down to the piano and his fingers just do whatever. We had a song, we had some lyrics, and we’re like, “Jack, can you just play?” and we pressed record, and he just started playing stuff, and it was great.

Jen Baker: Now we’ll just have to see if they’ll play with us anymore.