POST SOCIAL:
Brendan Manley, Sam Galligan, Shannon Connor and Mitch Deitz
Near the end of 2014, and with most special thanks to Steve Manley, owner of Madison's very own B-Side Records, my local record store of choice, I became officially acquainted and quickly enamored with the music of the local band Post Social, an outfit that features Manley's son Brendan on drums, along with Mitch Deitz (guitars/vocals), Shannon Connor (guitars/keyboards/vocals), Sam Galligan (bass guitar) and briefly, the additional backing vocals of Siv Earley, all recent high school graduates.
After falling in love with the album, I had been itching to see the band perform live, which I did happen to briefly experience on this year's Record Store Day, where the band performed a short set just a stone's throw from B-Side Records. This was the day that I officially met all of the members of the band in person and had the opportunity to express to them face-to-face how much I sincerely loved their album. In those few moments during which we spoke, I found all of the members to be very warm, open and gracious individuals and soon afterwards, it struck me that perhaps a more extensive conversation could possibly be had with all of them. And so, an idea was born.
Between the months of June and September, I began an undertaking that I have not ever attempted before. I wanted to try to interview the band for Synesthesia but I really wanted to do it "Cameron Crowe style" and I mean--like the film "Almost Famous" (2000), something honest and open and fully representative of these individuals as artists as well as friends. All going well, I hoped that the finished piece would do its part in giving the band any bit of a push in the public's perception, for I believe that they are fully deserving of any positive attention that they are able to receive. Furthermore, I wished to give each of the band members what could be seen as a document of this specific time of their lives together, something that they can have, hold and return to at will.
Due to our conflicting schedules, especially as they are all high school graduates all preparing for college and living their lives and I am well into adulthood with my own responsibilities, all of the interviews were conducted through Facebook! Some sections occurred in real time, with questions and answers being sent back and forth as quickly as we each could type. Most of the questions were sent by me for the band members to individually ponder and respond to at their leisure. What surprised me from the very first set of answers I received was how specific and through they all are concerning the topic of their music, their friendships, their wishes and hopes. As far as I know, none of them have seen each other's answers but truth be told, the members of Post Social have a crisply clear set of memories that all stick quite closely to each other. Therefore, I have been filled with tremendous fascination reading all of their responses and I strongly feel that you will be just as captivated.
What you are about to read is an extensive interview/oral history of the band Post Social thus far as told to me by Shannon Connor, Mitch Deitz, Brendan Manley, and briefly by Siv Earley, who was not able to participate as extensively as she was about to head out to state for college. Sam Galligan, while absent from any of the questions and answers, does indeed make his strong presence known as well. I hope from this interview, any sense of novelty of Post Social being working musicians at such a young age fades in favor of the fact that these are serious, thoughtful musicians who are also clearly having a blast.
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